Friday, May 30, 2008

Burn After Reading Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming Coen Brothers movie, Burn After Reading. There is just a lot here that made me laugh. Enjoy!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Pork and Beans

I assume you've probably already seen the video for Weezer's new single, "Pork and Beans". If not, you surely know someone who enjoyed it over the holiday weekend--it racked up more than 3.5 million views on YouTube in three days. No doubt you'll be tired of the song pretty quickly, but check out all of the cameos from your favorite YouTube viral video superstars.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Hulu Scores Big

If you haven't checked out Hulu yet, it seems you're quickly becoming a member of another technological minority group. Due to its ability to secure partnerships with several major media outlets (chief among them Fox and NBC/Universal), they have fast become THE destination for watching television broadcasts online.

April marked Hulu's first month of full operation outside of their invitation-only Beta testing and Nielsen Online's April video streaming statistics show Hulu is already #1 in viewership among "TV sites". Users watched 63.2 million videos and spent an average of 129.3 minutes per month. That seems like a tremendously high average, but bear in mind, Hulu is a very different site than YouTube, whose average video is 2-minutes of user generated content. These are full episodes of professionally produced content streamed at fairly decent video quality. In fact, I have several friends who have cut their ties with cable and satellite providers altogether because they can find most all of the shows they'd want to watch online.

The quality and user experience are pretty great and the ads are somewhat minimal (they drop a 15-second spot in wherever the TV broadcast had a regular commercial break). Unfortunately (but not at all surprisingly) they have recently announced plans to insert more ads and will assuredly make their platform just as littered with commercial interruptions as traditional TV.

My only real complaint is the sporadic nature of their programming lineup. Though a tremendous variety of current and classic shows (and even some feature length films) are available, it's pretty random as far as which episodes from which seasons are available to view at any given time. Just a guess, but I'd assume that it all has to do with contracts and agreements and DVD sales and syndication. Over time, those gaps will be filled in and I'm sure they'll offer the ability to purchase commercial-free episodes via their site or a partnership with an online retailer.

Panorama of China Earthquake Aftermath


To have any hope of getting any decent world news coverage, it's best to turn to journalists outside of the States. Check out this amazing 360-degree pano from Beichuan courtesy of the good folks at The Guardian. Go check it out.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mac Experience As Music Video >> Now & Then


Using Mac OSX


Using and Apple II

Sometimes technology can be incredibly creative--no matter the tools you have to work with.