A little over 5 years ago I wrote two posts titled “Winds of change” (I and II). The first post highlighted a video from Kodak titled “Winds of Change“. The video has since been removed by the user who posted it, so I’m republishing it below because it was terrific then and it still is terrific. And now at the same time tragic as well. Kodak declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. They exuded confidence 5 years ago that they were going to conquer this digital thing. Heck, they invented the first digital camera! But, obviously they didn’t conquer it – at least not in their current form. Kodak is one of the true icons of American culture. Kodachrome is lauded in song, and phrases like “Kodak picture” and “Kodak moment” are still used today. Even though when those phrases were coined it referred to film.

The second “Winds of Change” post was about Windows Vista, which I still argue was better than its predecessor Windows XP. But I wouldn’t ask my worst enemy to use it now. However, Microsoft is in a go-either-way position right now. Many are starting to write them off as has-beens. Others are saying just wait, it’s Microsoft’s year. Microsoft can keep trudging along for years before they are in Kodak’s position, but they do need to start innovating again.

The point of this post was originally to just get you to watch the Kodak video again. But it’s also a helpful reminder of many things. First, things change. Constantly. No revelation here. How we manage the change will determine our success. I’m managing some change in my life right now. Some days are better than others. I’m also embarking on some new ventures soon. Some that I hope to write about soon. It involves writing, blogging, and posting more content. About stuff that I enjoy. I hope that it spills over into writing more on this site (or at least cross-posting). That would be a change for the better. This first post of the new year is me managing change – better late than never.

So it took me a while to do this, but I finally took advantage of the Warner Bros. offer to “upgrade” (still love that term!) my HD-DVDs to Blu-ray discs. Just in case anyone forgets the story. When “High Definition” discs were introduced back in 2006, there were two competing platforms, the aforementioned HD-DVD and Blu-ray versions. Despite efforts to not turn it into a format war, the two camps promoted their respective discs as the better way to do hi-def video discs. There was no discernable difference.

The reason I went with HD-DVD in the first place was to get the HD version of “The Shining” (and other Stanley Kubrick films), and it was stunning. It was especially exciting to see a wider screen version of the film, particularly the opening sequence of Jack Torrance’s drive to the Overlook Hotel viewed by helicopter.

At the time of the format war I was basically unconcerned about whether HD-DVD “won” or not. The technology existed to “rip” the HD content to a hard drive. Practically speaking however, the convenience of the disc did become important, especially when considering the extra features included. It’s difficult to duplicate the access to those features with a ripped version, not to mention managing an approximately 16 to 20 GB file for just the movie. So when I saw Warner’s offer, I said some day I’ll do that. Last week I decided to take the plunge.

The offer was to trade in the cover art of the HD-DVDs plus $4.95 in exchange for the Blu-ray version. The only exception to this was Blade Runner which has multiple versions and several discs so I had to pony up $14.95 for that one. So the line-up of movies is The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, Batman Begins, Blazing Saddles, Goodfellas, and Blade Runner. So with postage I spent about $56 which is $7 a disc – not a bad deal. I still have some HD-DVDs that weren’t on the upgrade list, so I’ll need a strategy for those movies going forward. I did receive a bonus disc – Rumor Has It… a 2005 Rob Reiner film – no clue as to why.

I have built up quite a good collection of Blu-ray discs over the last few years. Maybe I’ll blog about those movies one day.

There was this one scene in particular that was magic (literally) for me. The simplicity of the “trick” was marvelous. It reminds me of what students are doing in DS106 and in other places. Creating interesting videos as experimentation. No one did this quite like Dali, and the whole video provides many great examples.

My memory of this scene has been altered over a 22 year period. I thought that the delivery of the “metallic paper” and the dancing assistant went on much longer. It is rather fleeting. However, that unique dance and hauntingly jaunty music, was strongly etched into my pre-frontal cortex. Thanks to digital archivists such as UbuWeb, I’ll have this memory forever.

I like my iPad (v2), and as of Monday I’ve been challenged to see how much I REALLY like it. You may know by now that I lost my beloved MacBook Pro to either a bad logic board, or some evil Jim Groom mischief. In all seriousness though, the MacBook Pro is the best computer I have ever owned. I originally got it to run Windows Vista. At the time (summer 2008) I was still scoffing at Macs, but I was more and more looking at software tools for educational uses that were available on both platforms. I was discovering more and more that the software written for the Mac generally ran better and certainly in most cases looked prettier.

So this laptop went everywhere with me. It was my work computer and my home computer. I opened and closed the lid I don’t know how many times and it was (usually) ready for action in seconds. But 10-10-11 is a day that will live in infamy for me. I tried to restart it for (what was) the last time and it never came back up.

So I had to make an appointment with the tech guys with the small phillips and torx screwdrivers (thanks Barry) to retrieve my hard drive so I could use it temporarily with another, identical MacBook Pro (left behind by my colleague Jerry Slezak). Thankfully I can say that I’m typing this using that spare MacBook Pro and I am once again productive.

But what about the iPad you might be saying? Well, the iPad isn’t a productivity machine. I know I’ve said before it was a consumption device. That is basically true. I can do some productive things on an iPad, but it’s the basics like checking and responding to email, and Tweeting. When I get home I can control my Apple TV with it and now with iOS 5 I can view ANYTHING on my big screen in the living room with Air Play Mirroring. I also am dabbling with some audio sequencing and sythesizing software. However, it is still best at reading, listening, and watching content.

So what is limiting the iPad’s use as a creativity/productivity machine? – it’s the software (and surely processing power limits what the software can do). As we know, processing power grows pretty fast, and the iPad 2 looks a lot like the top half of an MacBook Air. You might see where I am going with this. All of the issues with processing power, battery life, and adding peripherals to a device of this size, point to a direction of merging it all into one. Bring your iPad X with you when you need to check email or write a quick post, then “dock” it when you get back to the office. No new concept here.

But there are differences with the iPad and a Mac laptop that make it hard to visualize the convergence of the two. Touch is a wonderful way to interact with a computer, but our fingers will never be as precise as a mouse pointer, or as quick as a keyboard shortcut. But mice and keyboards are much more artificial than touch, so all it will take is a rethinking and gradual evolution of touch computing to accomplish productive tasks. Hell, we may not as a general rule need to touch our computers in the near future, we will speak to them. It’s why iPads and tablets ARE a big deal, because they are the next platform that we will build upon to be more creative. Just remember it’s the humans that are revolutionizing things and not the devices.

First Hitchcock macguffin?

A contribution to DS106

I can now happily report that UMW is going to be using Instructure Canvas for our Course Management System. Here is a little video that typical students might have if they bumped into each other on the streets of Fredericksburg.