Today is the first day of SXSW in Austin, TX, one of the most anticipated conferences of the year and has thus far been one of my favorites.
When I travel, especially to conferences I love to barf content on Twitter. Don't be mistaken, barf is exactly what it is. It's partly how the name of my blog originated; the idea that the most of the content that I post here is simply a regurgitation or other stuff that I find interesting on the web. I rarely post something original and that's how I like it.
I am well aware that not everyone knows what SXSW is and that there are a few out there following my Tweets who think I have moved to Austin, TX and lost my mind this week. That said, I still enjoy participating in the conference while I am here. The best way to do that is through hashtags, aggrigators, tweets, and re-tweets. All of those things are only relevant to the people who are HERE IN TEXAS. Most of the people at home don't care or are otherwise envious of my experience here ;) and to them I say: "shaddap, if you dont like it you can unfollow me and we will both be better off."
In this post, Stephen details exactly the experience that I mentioned above; people at conferences who tweet all their session notes, quotes, commentary, witty comments, GPS check-ins, pictures of lunch, drunken confessions, and twitpics to their Twitter stream. But, by doing so, accidently end up barfing all over their other followers (guilty as charged). I never intended for this to happen. I always just blamed it on the "emerging media trends" and "twitter growing pains" or "stupid Evan Williams". But no, Stephen proposes a better way:
Stephen proposes to create an alternate Twitter account DEDICATED to the barf. Well, since I already have a blog dedicated to the barf, why not a Twitter account to kick around too? So, beginning tomorrow (which is actually today since I drank too much caffeine at dinner) I will use @bhansbarf as my way of excusing the rest of you from my SXSW experience. He (@bhansbarf) will still be seen and heard from the hashtag followers at the conference and nobody will care about him when he leaves. If you are genuinely interested you can follow @bhansbarf for all (and I mean ALL) of the barf that he will post. If you get sick of him, send him a nasty message, slap him, and unfollow him.
He won't mind. Remember? That's his job.
I borrowed (read:stole) this picture from Stephen who got it from Jill
I have always thought it was dumb that the iPhone 2G/3G didn't come with video recording. The last phone I had before the iPhone was a Samsung Blackjack II running Windows Mobile and even that phone had video.
I recently came across 2 apps from the app store that allow video recording on a 3G phone without jaibreaking. While neither of these apps would replace a good video camcorder, they are great to have on hand for times when you don't have (or need) the good camcorder with you. The next time you are walking down Sunset Boulevard and Zsa Zsa Gabor winds up to slap a cop, you'll be ready.
iVideoRecorder$0.99 on iTunes
I found this app after I downloaded iTimeLapse, it's made by the same guys. This app has simple interface and has the ability to upload to most of the big social networks (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, TwelveSeconds, and basic email). The app has its own library and you have the option to export to the native iPhone Camera Roll where you can save them to your PC just like pictures but you can't share them via MMS. I was impressed that after exporting to the Camera Roll I was able to trim the beginning or the end of the video directly from the player. I thought this was only available to the 3GS model. This app also has an option to save via FTP or via wireless connection while on the same network.
The good: Easy to use, simple interface, lots of sharing options. At 10fps this is not too bad for the 3G apps that I have seen. Most have between 3-7fps
The bad: High quality mode only allows a few seconds of recording at 320x426 (based upon available memory). Low quality mode allows unlimited recording but reduces the size to 160x213. Although the framerate on low quality setting is better than most (10fps), this is definately not a replacement for the 640x480 @ 30fps available on the 3GS.
Summary: A great app for recording video on a 3G iPhone with quick and easy sharing to the big social networks.
Qik Video Camera $0.99 on iTunes
This app is made by the same company who provides the Qik live video streaming service. You can use this app to record video to record unlimited video at 352x288 @ 7fps. The app has its own library where you can watch your videos or export them to the native iPhone Camera roll for editing.
The good: The larger video size is nice and the compression ratio is also good resulting in smaller file sizes.
The bad: While the video is larger, there are no built in options for sharing to social networks. I also think it's weird that the functionality of this app is not built into the Qik streaming app which is free on iTunes. The Qik streaming app has sharing options for your live video to all of the social networks from the iPhone app and their website. Qik says that this ability is coming soon but as of this time it doesn't.
Summary: A nice app for recording large size videos at small file size but no sharing options.
Read on if want to know how it happened and your attention span is longer than 140 characters.
A few weeks ago I jumped in my car to go to work and the car wouldn't start. It wouldn't even try to start, it just made a clicking sound. I remembered from the 2002 Honda Accord that I used to have that some newer cars won't even try to start unless the battery has a minimal charge. A light must have been left on or something so I hooked it up to my battery charger. As soon as I did that I saw that the needle was all the way to one side. This was alarming since I was sure it was the battery.
So now, if it wasnt the battery, it must be the starter. This was more than I was willing to do in my own driveway on a Monday morning. I found my warranty paperwork and called the dealer to see if it was covered. They said bring it in and if it was, in fact, the starter it would most likely be covered under warranty. I pushed the car down the driveway and had my wife drive my truck to tow me to the dealership. As she towed me it was hot in the car as the sun started to rise over the mountains. I tried to roll down the window and it was so slow and then the hazards stopped working.
This was a good thing and a bad thing. Good because now I think its the battery again and not the starter. Bad because I dragged my wife out of bed at the crack of dawn and she is now towing me down the road. I called her and told her to pull over at the auto parts store coming up on the right. I said: "I'm going to buy some jumper cables ...don't ask." She had asked before me if I was sure it wasn't the battery. "Of course I'm sure, why would I ask you to get up and tow the car if I wasn't sure?" Now I wasn't too sure.
I bought a good pair of jumper cables, hooked up the car to the truck and it started right up. Go figure.
I still had no idea why the battery died or why the charger read full. I later found out that what I had read as FULL was actually reading EMPTY or taking a charge on the battery charger. I was pissed off and late for work so I misread it being so flustered. We can all laugh about it now.
Which brings us to last Wednesday. We went to see the Salt Lake Bees baseball game downtown with my brother and his wife. Great game even fireworks afterward. We headed to the parking lot at about 11:00pm.
As I went to start the car and drive my wife and children home safely all I got was the dumb click again. Oh crap.
I quickly called my brother and asked him if would kindly turn around and give me a jump. He said "of course", no big deal we would be on the road in no time. He promptly came back and nosed his car to mine and we lifted the hood and I grabbed my brand spanking new jumper cables from the trunk. We popped the hoods and I hooked the cables to the PT cruiser and then we looked under the hood of his car. At this point I should tell you that my brother drives a Toyota Prius. As we opened the hood we both just looked at this sea of plastic and scratched our heads... How do you jump start a car with a Prius? We located the owners manual that stated that the 12V battery was actually in the trunk and then 2 or 3 pages of warnings of something about "Don't screw this up or you will have to buy your brother a new car" Okay, it doesnt really say that but that's what I was thinking as I read warning after warning.
My brother's business was 7 blocks away where he had his NORMAL INTERNAL COMBUSTION engine Toyota Corolla parked. He said he would go grab the Corolla and we could jump it with that. I'm sure as soon as we did that we would be on the road in no time.
Now it's about 11:30pm. The parking lot is slowing clearing out and I feel like I am surrounded by homeless zombies downtown. This is not good.
My brother came back about 15 minutes later and we hooked up the PT Cruiser to the Corolla and tried to jump it.
Nothing. Not even clicks now.
I thought maybe it just needed to take a bit of charge from the Corolla before it would start. We waited for a bit and tried again. Nothing. It must be that the Corolla and its cute, little, normal, internal combustion engine couldnt push enough magic juice to the PT Cruiser to start it. Mark said that some of his friends were still at the shop working on an all-nighter for a deadline and had a Ford Explorer that might do the trick. This was the next best idea since my Ford F150 had jumped it no problemo remember? right?
Darin and John showed up minutes later in his Ford Explorer. They nosed up to the PT Cruiser but Darin didnt get out. He asked if John could come around and hold the brake since the parking brake didnt work. I am forever grateful to these guys for leaving their work to come help me. I just thought that the brake thing was funny since I have definately owned my share of clunkers in the past.
We hooked my car to Darin's Explorer and let it 'juice up' or whatever it does for a few minutes then tried to start it. Nothing. ARRGGHHH. Maybe we should let it charge for a while longer... so we did. Just then Darin reported that his Explorer was now overheating .......oh no
My brother and I agreed that it would be best to get my family home (40 minutes away) and we could come back with my truck (40 minutes back) and tow the car to his shop 7 blocks away. I told Darin and John thanks so much for trying and we were off.
Now its about 12:15am.
Mark gave my family a ride home and we jumped in my truck and headed back. Hooked it up and ...nothing. We towed it to his shop, secured it in his garage and hooked it up to my battery charger.
I got home at 2:30am. I left for work the next morning at 7 .........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
It sat on the charger all night and Mark tried it again the next morning. Nothing. I could hear him trying as he talked to me on the phone ...nothing. I could have thrown my phone across the room.
I hit the net and read page after page saying that batteries in PT Cruisers suck and their connections suck even worse. I would replace the battery myself and pray that it works.
This morning I rounded up my wife and kids and we headed to Mark's shop. We bought a battery on the way.
Long story short: I hate the PT Cruiser. It was never meant to be my daily driver. It was supposed to be my wife's cute car and I had my truck. Then I got a job with a 78 mile daily commute and the gas became rediculous. So here I sit in that dumb car. < /rant >
The battery in a Chrysler PT Cruiser is buried under the air cleaner. If you ever want to jump start one of these things, I suggest saving some time and bypassing the terminals that they give you and just pop off the air filter and jump directly from the battery.
I took the old battery out and noticed that the termials were very corroded. I had come this far, no reason not to proceed with replacing the battery anyhow. I also tested the old battery and it read 13.6V so the battery itself was probably fine. It was the crap connections being so corroded that was probably the problem (both times).
I cleaned the terminals properly and added some felt washers and anti-corrosive spray to the new battery. I sat down in the drivers seat crossed my fingers, crossed my toes, did a hail mary and turned the key ...and it started right up.
Anyway, that's what I've been doing since last Wednesday. What a pain.
Also, I bought a battery jump-pack today. There is no good time to buy one of these until it's too late and you need it. Even today as I forked out $48 for it, it still seemed like I might get by without it. Just wait until I make my next post about how it saved my life. That post will be a lot shorter and have a much happier ending.
And, of course what project wouldn't be complete without a boring time lapse of the whole thing.
You get a @reply message from someone you don't recognize
The message sent "xx min ago from API" (see below)
When you try to view the Tweet (not the link) it might be deleted
All of the tweets from this account say the same thing (see below)
All of the links go to the same place and they are all ads (or worse)
Whoever these people are I assume they are somehow creating random Twitter accounts and making them look just real enough to get by the Twitter police (profile pic, "real" name etc) and then trick you into clicking these links so that they get paid for the ads to follow.
The survey of 432 Twitter users was conducted by MarketingProfs on Twitter from 4/8 to 4/15, 2009. The data was collected and analyzed by Allen Weiss, MarketingProfs CEO, Professor at USC’s Marshall School.
I enjoyed reading the post although I thought it was strange that only 432 Twitter users were surveyed.
I must have missed the survey and since nobody asked me for my opinion I'll make it 433 Twitter users here:
"You should follow people who follow you" Mildly Disagree I say mildly because of course I look at people who follow me, and I might follow them back. If I do, it's not because they followed me. It's because I am interested in seeing what they have to say. And that doesn't mean that I won't unfollow them next week. I think I am going to make my own version of the napkin flow charts that I have seen others make about this.
"People you follow should follow you back" Strongly Disagree Never. As I mentioned before if I am following you it's because I am interested in what you have to say, what you do for a living, who you are, or any number of other things. If I followed everyone who followed me, just because, my network would be a useless mess.
"People who have a large number of followers are smarter than those who don't" Strongly Disagree Umm no. Britney Spears has 1,113,126 followers, nuff said. You don't need a bunch of followers to have a great Twitter network. It's your network, do whatever you want with it. I don't believe that Ashton Kutcher enjoys Twitter any more than I do even though he has 1,344,5456 more followers than I do.
"People who have a large number of followers are more respected than those who don't" Strongly Disagree I don't use Twitter to get respect. I have a life outside of Twitter for that. Ashton Kutcher can commission a billboard and go on Oprah to get to 1 million followers and beyond and I still don't respect him anymore than I did three months ago. I shouldn't make it sound like I have anything against Ashton Kutcher. In fact, I respect him just for using Twitter in the first place. He doesn't tweet much about his newest movie, or TV show, or other self promotion. He and his wife tweet normalthings that normalpeople do in their funny, normallives. Every now and then they might drop a plug for a project or a good cause, and good for them. That makes them real, rather than just soul-less celebrities. And for that alone, they get my respect.
"I feel bad when I tweet something and nobody responds" Mildly Disagree I say mildly because it is always nice to see @replies come in and I can almost guarantee that if you have ever @replied to me you get extra points on the follow flow chart. That being said, @replies are not my main goal when tweeting. I am here for me. This is me. If you don't agree, if you don't like me, or if I have offended you, the unfollow button is a click away. I am well aware the there are plenty of people who follow me who don't agree with some of my views but most of them hang around just to lurk. And that's fine too. Afterall, that's how I started.
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StarCraft and StarCraft: BroodWar no longer require the CD while
playing the game. To play without the CD, please follow the following
instructions:
Windows Users: - Make sure you have "Hide extensions for known types" unchecked. To do this please use the following steps: - Click Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer
- Click on Tools -> Folder options (Windows Vista users may have to
press the Alt key to see the tools option at the top of the window)
- Click on the View Tab In the list, look for the "Hide extensions for
known file types" option, and make sure that it is unchecked. - Click OK to save the changes. - Now you will need to copy some files from the Game CDs
- If you own only StarCraft, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "StarCraft.mpq".
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If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft:
Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "BroodWar.mpq".
If you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy
and rename the install file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as
listed directly above.
Mac users: - If you own only StarCraft, copy "StarCraft Archive" from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder. -
If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "Brood War Archive" from the
StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder. If
you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy the
Starcraft Archive file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as
listed directly above.
I took Josh and Xander to Local Sound yesterday to help Mark put up the drywall on the outside wall of Studio #4 and put up the foam on the inside. When we go there the guys were laying down the floor inside so we did some maintenance on Studio #3.
<Jack Bauer voice says> The following takes place from 10am to 5pm
I spent yesterday helping my brother at Local Sound Studio in Salt Lake. We put up some insulation and then put up drywall on one of the main walls. Mark is also keeping a record of this project on his Posterous blog. I'm still trying to figure out what the best way is to edit all of this stuff together and post it on the web is. I really want to get it figured out before IA Summit next week since I hope to capture some cool media there as well.
This is first video was taken over the span of about 9 hours while we worked. I posted it to Viddler and then made some notes along the bottom. The beginning and end shots are panoramics that I stitched together before and after.
I created this with Windows Movie Maker which seems to be a very simple way to get video from one place to another with minor complication.
I created this with Picasa and posted it to YouTube using the upload function from within Picasa. This seemed to have less functionality than Windows Media Maker but it was much easier to use.
