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4/30-5/2 Posts
Lo Fi Fnk at SUPER!ALRIGHT! SXSW2007
- created
- 4/28 10:48 PM
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tags:
austin
tx
sxsw
sxsw2007
sxswm
sxswmusic
sxswm2007
sxswmusic2007
upcoming:event=95527
lofifnk
superalright
iheartcomix
video
vlog
vlogpost
In the evening after seeing The Pipettes at La Zona Rosa, a few of us cabbed it East of downtown to SUPER!ALRIGHT! for the "I Heart Comix" party where we saw Lo Fi Fnk who put on a decent electronica show. Here is approximately 30 seconds that captures some of the range of their performance:
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license. As thanks to Lo Fi Fnk, this video is additionally licensed to Lo Fi Fnk under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-03-14
- Location: SUPER!ALRIGHT!, Austin, Texas
- Comment on this video
There was a long line to get in but no matter. While Veronica, Mark, April, and I staked a spot in line, Cameron went up ahead to check out the scene at the door. Moments later I got a text message from Cam which said something like: "I'm in. Just walked in like I owned the place." So the rest of us did the same and for some reason were completely ignored by the bouncer/security etc. Weird. But fun. Afterwards enjoying ourselves for a bit, Veronica hailed us a cab back to downtown. Up next: Pete Townshend.
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The Importance of Being POSH
- created
- 4/20 8:23 AM
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tags:
POSH as coined by IRC.Freenode.net user kwijibo on 6 April 2007 on the microformats channel is a shorthand abbreviation for "plain old semantic HTML". In practice POSH also encapsulates "plain old semantic XHTML" as well, though since the "X" aspect is not the most important, it is dropped (also, POSX doesn't make as good an acronym and could easily be confused with something else).
The importance of using semantic HTML (and/or semantic XHTML) has been promoted by numerous modern web designers and many others for quite some time. I myself have been promoting the concept of authoring with semantically richer (X)HTML for over four years now though I think my first use of the term "semantic (X)HTML" was in the same presentation that introduced microformats in 2004.
The appreciation of the importance of semantic HTML has been growing slowly yet steadily and reaching beyond just web designers. Even just a few days ago a job posting for a Perl/mod_perl Web Developer listed
* Web interfaces with semantic HTML and CSS
as a desired skill.However, some of the senior members of the microformats community have realized that it appears that microformats have themselves gotten much more recognition and "buzz" than the key technology that they are based on. In addition, many new entrants to the microformats community jump right into wanting to invent a new microformat without first knowing much about semantic HTML, nevermind actually updating their own sites to use semantic HTML (or often even microformats for that matter, and thus often reinvent existing microformats).
We realized at the microformats dinner this past Wednesday that we needed a short, easy to remember mnemonic to both promote the broader use and awareness of semantic HTML, and to help educate newcomers to the microformats community on the importance thereof. The offhanded (perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek) mention of "POSH" in the microformats irc channel clearly stuck in our minds, as we reraised the same idea at dinner, and decided to define and promote it. This is not unlike what introducing the term "microformats" itself did for marking up small bits of data embedded in HTML for interoperable data exchange and reuse, or what coining the abbreviation "AJAX" did to help promote the use of XML HTTP Request and the concept of more interactive (lower latency) web interfaces.
Thus we've created a web page for POSH on the microformats wiki. There is a LOT of great work that has been done to research and define good semantic (X)HTML authoring practices. It's about time we organized it, documented it, and gave it a name to promote it. Publish POSH, share and spread the idea of POSH, and help us improve POSH by documenting the ground-breaking work on semantic HTML that modern web designers have been exploring, defining, teaching, and practicing for years.
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The Pipettes at La Zona Rosa SXSW 2007
- created
- 4/15 9:58 AM
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tags:
- austin
- tx
- sxsw
- sxsw2007
- sxswm
- sxswmusic
- sxswm2007
- sxswmusic2007
- upcoming:event=95527
pipettes
thepipettes
lazonarosa
wearethepipettes- video
- vlog
- vlogpost
needaudiohelp
The Pipettes were my favorite band of SXSW Music 2007. To quote Veronica:
we all fell in love with them a little
. I've already finished uploading all my photos of them, but this is the first of the videos: The Pipettes playing their closing number at La Zona Rosa: "We Are The Pipettes" (I think I only missed the first measure).
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license. As thanks to the Pipettes, this video is additionally licensed to The Pipettes, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-03-14
- Location: La Zona Rosa, Austin, Texas
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Unfortunately the sound quality is quite poor — the tiny microphone in my Canon SD400 was easily overwhelmed and distorted the rockin' voices and tunes of the Pipettes and the Cassettes (the four guys playing instruments) respectively.
Help! I call upon my video-blogging mentors!
What can I do? Have I reached a limitation of my equipment? How do you best videorecord when it's loud? As I find myself frequently in loud venues (earplugs always in pocket), what's the best solution? Is there a way to "shield" the microphone on the SD400? Are there any compact digital cameras that can auto-attenuate such loud sounds? Or do I need something that has an external mic input? Veronica, how did your recordings turn out?
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Casey McKinnon: spontaneous airguitaress
- created
- 4/10 10:21 AM
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tags:
- sxsw
sxsw07- sxsw2007
sxswi
sxswi07
sxswi2007
sxswinteractive
sxswinteractive07
sxswinteractive2007
caseymckinnon
airguitar
airguitaress
HiLo
Austin
Texas- vlog
- vlogpost
- video
One late night during the SXSW Interactive conference and festival, famed co-creator of Galacticast and Vlogdeathmatch contestant Casey McKinnon started air guitaring without provocation in the Hi-Lo lounge to the music of the spheres (which apparently she is tuned into). Here it is, 1 minute 55 seconds of pure spontaneous airguitaress magic.
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-03-11
- Location: Hi-Lo lounge, Austin, Texas
- Download .mov from Revver
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Leah Culver on food
- created
- 4/7 4:04 PM
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As my final vlogpost for VideoBloggingWeek2007, here is Leah Culver spouting forth on why we happen to like the food that we like, and offering some critical opinions about oysters and calamari.
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-02-02
- Location: Patxi's, San Francisco, California
- Download .mov from Revver
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And with that I return to irregularly scheduled blog posts, or perhaps until I process the clips I took at SXSW a few weeks ago.
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Micki & Yuri Show 2: What is swag?
- created
- 4/6 2:54 PM
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tags:
mickipedia
mickikrimmel
yuri
mickiyurishow
schwag
shwag
swag
microformats
microformatstshirt
oomasa
restaurant- vlog
- vlogpost
- video
videobloggingweek2007
Bonus VideoBloggingWeek2007 post! The shroud drops and Micki & Yuri make their visual premiere on the Micki & Yuri show. In episode two they answer the age-old question: what is swag?
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-01-28
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Download .mov from Revver
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Micki & Yuri Show 1: Of Mice and MySpace
- created
- 4/6 9:13 AM
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tags:
- mickipedia
- mickikrimmel
- yuri
- mickiyurishow
myspace
micespace
driving
top8- vlog
- vlogpost
- video
- videobloggingweek2007
Introducing the Micki & Yuri show. In this opening episode, the mysterious Micki & Yuri characters discuss the finer points of mice and myspace.
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-01-28
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Download .mov from Revver
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Jason and Sarah declare a grudge match
- created
- 4/5 8:35 AM
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At Matt's birthday party this past January, apparently Jason DeFillippo and Sarah Meyers got into an argument about something (maybe it was wrestling), and declared a grudge match. I decided to capture the moment. Sarah picked up quickly that I was taking a video. Jason however thought I was taking a photo.
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-01-13
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Download .mov from Revver
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Sarah Meyers on Technorati
- created
- 4/4 8:37 AM
- content
tags:
sarahmeyers
partycrasher
partycrashers
technorati
interview
taxi
taxiride- vlog
- vlogpost
- video
- videobloggingweek2007
Last December, thanks to seeing a bunch of friends check in on Dodgeball, I crashed Stirr's Winter Wonderland party (u,f) at the Exploratorium (Thanks Sanford Barr) and met Sarah Meyers (host of d7tv's Party Crashers) who posted interviews from the party (I'm in there briefly). Afterwards she was gracious enough to allow me to interview her, and knowing that she's a vlogger, I asked her what she thought of Technorati. Here's her answer.
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2006-12-14
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Download .mov from Revver
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New Technorati Widgets: Technorati Authority, Top Searches, Top Tags
- created
- 4/4 8:23 AM
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tags:
Technorati has just launched three new widgets which as you can see I've embedded in my blog's right sidebar: Technorati Authority, Top Searches, and Top Tags. Go check out my post on Technorati's weblog about the new widgets which has a summary of the code and instructions to follow to get them for your own blog.
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Vlogpost 3: Opensearch, IE7, Technorati, the Google Toolbar, and search defaults
- created
- 4/3 1:50 AM
- content
tags:
opensearch
ie7- technorati
google
googletoolbar
search
searchdefault
protection
defaultsearchprotection- vlog
- vlogpost
- video
- videobloggingweek2007
Last April (almost a year ago) while attending the Mix06 conference, I quickly added Opensearch 1.1 support to Technorati so that anyone could quickly add Technorati as an option to the IE7 (then beta) search box. About six months later, I read a blog post by Peter O'Kelly about how the Google Toolbar for IE7 both set and kept Google as the default search engine. And he wasn't the only one commenting on this. I had to try this for myself to see how it would interact with the Technorati Opensearch plugin.
With the help of David Sifry who figured out how to record a Windows screencast, I tried it out. David setup his still camera in video mode on a tripod to record me (with sound), the screencast on the PC simultaneously, and then edited the two together so you can see clips of both my interactions with the IE7 beta and hear/see me speak.
Though the bug that Peter O'Kelly mentioned had been fixed, the interaction, and language used in the dialogs remained a bit confusing at best, which I note in the video. At the time I decided to hope that the language used was an oversight (never ascribe to malice, etc. etc.) and would eventually be corrected. Instead of publishing the results I found (which you're about to see) I recorded a simple short clip with Aaron simply demonstrating how to install Technorati Search for IE7 powered by Opensearch 1.1.
However, two things. First, it's been almost six months and the confusing wording about "default search protection" is still in the Google Toolbar user interface. Second, it's VideoBloggingWeek2007 and I have lots of clips (including this one) to publish. So here it is for your consideration:
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Edited 2006-10-19
- Edited by David Sifry
- Location: Technorati, San Francisco, California
- Download .mov from Revver
- Comment on this video
I just reverified that the experience is almost identical today in the release version of IE7 and the latest Google Toolbar, as it was nearly six months ago when I tried it out and recorded that clip. I took some photographs of the Google Toolbar search default change blocking pop-up bubble (which didn't show in the screencast for some reason, but looks similar to this screen capture by Peter) and the "Attempted Settings Change" dialog which I will be uploading to Flickr.
Update: I've finally uploaded the photos I took of the Google Toolbar pop-up bubble:
and the "Attempted Settings Change" dialog:
Until thenI'll simply ask nicely:Dear Google,
Please consider changing either the language or the behavior in your Google Toolbar regarding other search providers. Not all of us have the marketshare dominance that you do, and yet certainly in the case of Technorati, we share your desire to support user choice. Thus, please either:
- Change the functionality of your Google Toolbar "default search protection" so that it applies to whichever search provider the user chooses, that is, it "protects" the user's choice no matter which provider they choose, not just if they choose Google.
- OR, admit that the protection is for Google's sake, and change the language to indicate as such in both the protection pop-up bubble, and the "Attempted Settings Change" dialog detection dialog.
Sincerely,
Tantek Çelik (my personal opinion and request, not an official Technorati opinion, where I obviously have an interest, as Technorati's Chief Technologist).
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Beck with harmonica and table settings at Yahoo Open Hack Day 2006
- created
- 4/2 5:48 AM
- content
tags:
yahoo
hack
hackday
hackday06
hackday2006
yahoohackday
yahoohackday06
yahoohackday2006
openhackday
hacker
hackers
beck
harmonica
tablesetting
music- videobloggingweek2007
- vlog
- vlogpost
- video
Last September I attended Yahoo Open Hack Day, and the surprise entertainment for Friday night turned out to be Beck, who, among other things, played a harmonica while the band played with dinner table settings. Here is a short 30 second clip I took for my second vlogpost (and day 2 video for VideoBloggingWeek2007). See my related photos on Flickr.
- Licenses: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license. As thanks to Beck and Yahoo, this video is additionally licensed to Beck, and to Yahoo, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license
- Taken on 2006-09-29 at Yahoo! Hack Day
- Location: Yahoo Campus, Sunnyvale, California
- Comment on this video
By the way, for all you Beck fans out there, you really should check out the Beck Puppetron Yahoo Hack Day video where the now infamous to 15 people line was uttered:
What's up you epic genius freaks? I'm about to hack a bitch. Come assist this.
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Vlogging the past vs the present
- created
- 4/2 5:06 AM
- content
tags:
Having filtered through the numerous digital video clips that I've recorded over the past four years or so, I have found about 30 clips that seem worthy of sharing (not counting the numerous clips I shot at the recent SXSW 2007 conference which I have yet to finish filtering through). Most of those 30+ clips however are many months or years in the past, and thus posting them would feel very much out of context.
I'm trying to decide where to draw the line between what feels like "the past" and "the present", and as far as video clips are concerned, anything from about the past six months or so still feels very much like the "present" to me, so I think I will start by posting those first until I "catch up" to the most recent recordings, and then perhaps post "past" recordings if and when occasions arise that relate to them.
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Vlogging lesson 1 - from Canon SD400 AVI to vlogpost
- created
- 4/1 8:57 PM
- content
tags:
I've taken video with a number of different devices, most recently my Canon SD400 still camera which creates AVI files. Michael Verdi helped walk me through the steps from AVI file to vlogpost. Here are my rough notes:
- Open iMovie (iMovie HD in my case, which came preinstalled on my iBook G4)
- Create a new "project" of type "DV"
- Drag the AVI file into one of the white squares on the right side of the newly created project window
- Wait a few minutes for iMovie to convert the video
- Drag the converted clip from the white squares area to the timeline at the bottom of the window
- Choose "Export..." from the "File" menu
- Click "iPod" at the top of the Export window/dialog
- Click the "Share" button and wait for it to export
- Quit iMovie (save project changes if you want)
- Check your Movies folder, copy the .m4v file from there to where you really want it
- Change the extension to .mp4 - when the dialog comes up, click "Use .mp4"
- Drag it to a browser window
- Screenshot the movie player with the desired key frame
- Rename the screenshot to be same as the movie name .png
- Open it in Preview
- Choose Save As...
- Choose Format "JPEG"
- Set the Least...Best slider to the middle of the range
- Click "Save" and save it to the same folder as your movie
- Go to http://blip.tv/ and login
- Click Upload
- Pick a vlogpost title
- Choose the .mp4 file
- Choose the .jpg file
- Pick a License (e.g. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial)
- Add some Categories/tags
- Pick a Genre (e.g. Videoblogging)
- Leave Content Rating as "TV-UN: Unrated" to protest their lame taxonomy
- Click "Upload"
After Upload
- Click "Show Advanced Options"
- Preferred Format: "MPEG4 Video (.mp4)"
- Write your blog post in your blogging tool/site.
- Copy/paste tags from the form above, enter "vlog", "vlogpost" as additional tags.
- Add some info to the blog post about the video, like:
- "Voice credits" linking to the people who speak in the video
- "Location" with an ADR of the city and state at least.
- "Taken on" with the date (perhaps time) of when you recorded the video.
- "License" e.g. This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Copy and paste the code from blip.tv into your blog post (note, I had to change a bunch of the code to make it valid and minimize it, I'll take more thorough notes on that with the next vlogpost, for now, here are a few:)
- Add rel="enclosure" to the link to the .mp4
- Add an alt="video thumbnail" to the <img> tag
- Finish up the text portion of your blog post and publish. You're done.
I've published these notes as-is in the hopes that they might help perhaps a few others who have recorded videos with their simple Canon SD series camera and are looking to start vlogposting. As I post more vlogposts (according to VideoBloggingWeek2007, I should do so once a day for this entire week), I'll refine these notes with efficiency improvements and additional details. The latest version can be found on my wiki here: AviToVlogPost.
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Ok, are you happy Micki? :)
- created
- 4/1 12:59 AM
- content
tags:
- License: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 license.
- Taken on 2007-01-28
- Location: downtown Los Angeles, California
- Voice credits: Crystal Williams, Micki Krimmel
- Download .mov from Revver
- Comment on this video
Thanks to Michael Verdi and Ryanne Hodson for their help with walking me through all the vlogging kung-fu necessary for my first vlogpost at the first ever SuperHappyVlogHouse. Thanks also to Micki and Sarah for their continued encouragement, and all my wonderful new vlogging friends from SXSW (Veronica, Casey, Rudy, Zadi) who all inspired me to start vlogging, Eddie, Ryanne and Jay whose creations I've been fortunate to witness, and of course Irina Slutsky who invited me to photograph the first Vloggies, got me to commit on video, and encouraged me to use Freevlog.org.
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posh
semantic
semantics
semantichtml
html
semanticxhtml
xhtml
leahculver
food
jasondefillippo
grudgematch
widget
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tags
topsearches
toptags
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blogs
vlogging
learning
time
past
present
shvh
superhappyvloghouse
imovie
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