A fairy tale through Emoticons
This TED talk is truly a techy-feely sensation.
You are currently browsing the archives for October, 2008.
Music Television – ah, the videos are back
This is pretty exciting stuff. MTV has finally gotten back to videos. Okay..not on broadcast but via the web. Oh boy, Oh boy…the videos that I used to stay up all night to watch (my brother and I had to find out if MTV was truly on 24 hours a day as they claimed. They were!)
Searching very quickly, I see the site will be a big time suck and I am looking forward to that. But, the video I remember the most is the one below. We used to recreate it all the time – I liked the graduation gown and cap part of the costume. And, I am currently reading Sting’s autobiography so it also seemed appropriate.
Music for my birthday
So, I typically spend a little while listening to some music on my birthday. This year was no different. What I picked out this year:
Indigo Girls – Indigo Girls
The Chenille Sisters – True to Life
The Chenille Sisters – The Big Picture
Melissa Etheridge – Brave and Crazy
and
A Mix CD from my brother from back in February with a nice mix o’ stuff including Colin Hay, Jack Johnson and more.
Not sure what it says about me, my birthday, the status of my life or anything else. Just felt the need to report it.
Goodbye to my Voice
Oh man, I was sad to learn that Levi Stubbs died on Friday night. Of course, I loved me some Four Tops (well, all things Motown – pretty much). But, I had a special love for Levi because he also voiced my namesake in Little Shop of Horrors.
Good bye Levi – I am glad we have the gift of your voice forever.
Blog Action Day: OLPC
Today is Blog Action Day. Last year’s topic (Environment) seemed easier for me to find blogging ideas. This year, the topic is Poverty and it has been harder for me. But, then I remembered Nicholas Negroponte’s “Big Idea” from 2005 and thought I would remind my three readers about the One Laptop Per Child project.
The initial thought was to create a laptop for less than $100 that could be used around the world to put technology and access to information in the hands of children everywhere. This kind of access to information, education and communication certainly seems like a way to help developing countries’ populations learn and grow.
While the initial price of $100 was not met and Negroponte left the project, it did finally come into production. Last year and again this year (starting in November) you can also participate in the Buy One, Get One campaign. For about $400, you get one of the OLPC laptops and they will also send one to another country for a child to use. The laptops (now called the XO laptops) are pretty cool. Sturdy and colorful, easy graphic interface, internet capable.
David Pogue, of the New York Times, did a nice video review of them last year if you are interested in learning more about the technology of the device and he does a much better job than I ever could explaining what it can do (and he actually has one to show!):
Ready to Take Action?
If you are interested in participating in the OLPC this year, Amazon is doing the “sending”.
One Laptop per Child Foundation @ Amazon.com
And, if you are interested in working for change in driving out poverty locally, please consider donating to Community Shares, which is a federated fund for a variety of social justice, environmental, arts and other organizations working for a better world.
Or, if you want to have a more direct impact, you cannot beat Donors Choose (Teachers Ask, Donors Choose, Students Learn). There are several projects based in my state in high poverty schools.
Eyspot is closing its doors to new videos: A sign of the economy as seen through web 2.0?
Last night, my inbox got a note from Eyepot. They are shutting down. It made me think of all of the little Web 2.0 sites (maybe not little but they seem little compared to the Gigantors like Flickr, Delicious and all things Google – Gigoogletor?
I played with Eyespot to see how their video mashup/mixing worked. It was neat. I never went and used their various media offerings to make my own video from Pink or Rachel Sage or other musician, though. I tend to prefer to edit my video offline.
But, with the Dow Jones dropping, banks failing and now Web 2.0 sites closing, it seems a bit dreary out there.
Guess I had better go see if I had any videos in Eyespot and pull them out..just like I had to pull them out of Videoegg earlier. Maybe I had make sure all of my Vimeo media is backed up as well… off to check.
Photo: “Wall Street subway station” http://www.flickr.com/photos/epicharmus/2046126318/
POW: Picture of the Week 19
The way to camp without a stove is to get a spot designed for an RV. Then, there is a plug and it is easy to make coffee before everybody else is up and you don’t have to start a stove or mess with the fire before you are really ready to mess with a fire. Great day!
