Makes you think

Italian artist Filippo Minelli has a taste for large provocative installations around the world. Here's his take on the Web 2.0 thing

Hard Lesson

My son was working on a video project (gotta love the ease of using Mac's integrated programs). 2 1/2 hours of video, stills, soundtracks, stuff, added up to about 37 Gb, sitting in an external hard disc.

Job 3/4 done, looking nice, then the hard-disc is disconnected & the iMovie project file gets corrupted. Unuseable. Pretty sad son. 

An iMovie file is actually a kind of locked folder, called a package. We opened the package & found Timeline Movie, a "thumbnail" of the movie project so far (son is a regular saver luckily). That showed us enough to rebuild the lost stuff. And son went on to create a stunning little movie, with some original soundtrack (thanks Garageband), titles, transitions, etc, from iMovie & a natty DVD menu from iDVD.

But when you're editing movies, don't do anything else! You're just asking for trouble...

Motionboxbox offers a v generous movie storage online; I wonder if we'll see online editing? Not any time soon I think.

Eon is discovering the power of the new web

Some grassroots action in England, against a E-On, a German company proposing to build Britain's first new coal-fired power station.

They've been the targets of all kinds of action, including events on April 1st ('Fossil Fools Day').
Activists are encouraging:

"One easy, comfy action can happen from this computer you're looking at. The tactic is called 'google-bombing'.

The more links to a site, the higher it climbs in google rankings. So, if enough people make the word 'EON' link to the No New Coal site, pretty soon it'll top the list of anyone searching for EON.

Two weeks ago www.nonewcoal.org.uk wasn't in the top 50 sites when searching for Eon. As I write this it's already number 13. (In Australia, doesn't show up, but rates no. 6 when "eon coal" is searched.)

So a simple online action can help us get our electronic placards in their face without getting out on the cold winter streets.

If you have a website, blog, myspace, bebo, forum account, etc then please place a link to http://www.nonewcoal.org.uk."

Thanks to If Just Today for the link.

Another aspect of the new read/write web: civic participation! Apparently the blogosphere is not just a heap of intrverts who need to get a life...

Infomania

I've started a blog for work, & I'm training some colleagues too. I must be completely out of my mind.

I'm still a bit puzzled by the blog thing. I enjoy meeting people in person. In cyberspace, are people even real? And the relationships are very different; a bit detached? Intimate in a sort of anonymous way. It reminds me of backpacking in Europe. Friendly strangers, who shared such details, then moved on.  I like the connections - the people are real, by the way! And I like the way ideas float in & out of my head & end up on the screen for me to see later. And for you to see, I hope!

My array of blogs are meant to have individual themes run through them. This works to an extent, which might seem to contradict the words above. All a bit odd.

And as for information overload... I read on the Macquarie Dictionary site the word infomania is back, the meaning slightly altered. I think Arthur C Clark came up with that, in the 70s? He saw it as an obsession, a mania, & risky too.

It's got this strange pull, this blog thing. It's the modern pamphleteering, and oddly addictive. 

Use it carefully (ho ho), & you get a lot out of it.

Podcasts & Vodcasts

Just had an inspired professional development session. The topic was podcasts. Yes, they've been around for years, & I've even made one or two; but the difference here was Macintosh.

I'm biased I know, but the Mac is just effortless. The free software is so well integrated. It's just click, drag, drop, record (with the built-in gear), tidy up, share, done. 

These were the steps:

1... Photobooth to make a picture (one for the iPod, Wallace & Gromit might say). 2 clicks

2... Garageband to create a podcast episode. 3 clicks + file name.

3... Photo shows up within Garageband. 1 click, 2 drags to place in the podcast.

4... 1 click to start recording, 1 click to stop.

5... Give yourself 4 click-&-deletes to cut out the umms & ahhs. 

6... Drag voice track to make space for intro music.

7... Say, 6 clicks to find some music in Garageband (there are over 1,000 tracks, so you may need longer).

8... Export the podcast. 4 clicks + file name.

Finished. It's that easy. Go into Dick Smith's & try it. Take a small person & show them Photobooth. You'll crack up laughing.

(22 clicks, 2 file names typed, 1 photo, 1 recording.)

At the session, we used Photobooth's 'green screen' effect to put ourselves in Paris or on the Moon. We did a basic video podcast (a 'vodcast') using Photobooth, then edited a fancier one using iMovie. Far too many sound effects to play with!

Sidetrack: the instructor didn't like the new iMovie (V7) as much as the old iMovie HD (V6), I view I share with her. We agreed Apple is probably hoping we'll buy Final Cut Express if we get frustrated with iMovie. iMovie HD is now free to download (OSX 10.4 recommended). Final Cut Express is $A268.

I hear the old hands saying, that's all very well, oh yes, nice toys, silly frills, but is this effective, & I don't have time to play around I've got work to do etc. etc. etc.

Two quick replies. Of course, you have to have good content: logical arguments, facts checked, something worth saying. And of course, present it well. 

What would you choose, good spelling or poor? Clear or fuzzy? Colour or black & white? Animated or static? In fact, it's a no-brainer.

A good lead, & a dodgy one

I've found an excellent resource for starting a blog: The Edublogger. A good mix of tricky advanced stuff, & straightforward clear instructions for early steps. One of the best.

The first 5 tips for writing better posts were v useful for me, who's in about 3rd gear with blogging.

But then I followed a link from an example, & found Scribd. This site allows you to upload a multi-page file, which are converted to a kind of Flash movie (Flash Paper) that simulates the pages. Sounds great, except there didn't seem much content control. A quick stroll around the Scribd groups showed some odd groups, & some odd material in the groups. Eg, the Apple group had lots of ads for a Chinese mp3 player, plus '40 ways men fail in bed'. Can't recommend that yet. 

The awesome power of the internet is partly in the ease you can publish almost any stuff, but that means that almost any stuff is up there. You have to use your own judgement. Filters don't work properly, ask Mr Howard, former PM of Australia, who wasted $84 million on dud software. Use recommendations, & use your head!

Boolify

This one is MUCH simpler than isadora!

Searching the web has gone a bit crazy (I just searched for 'Apple' & scored 377,000,000 on Google). The answer is Boolean searches. You can see those odd AND, NOT, OR bits  in the address bar to show them working.

If you're not sure what they mean, or want to teach simple Boolean logic, Boolify does it beautifully. If you can put 2 Lego blocks together, Boolify is for you. Just drag n drop the blocks to set up a search, & the result shows underneath straight away.

This Wikipedia article elegantly explains the principles (scroll past the Set Theory), but Boolify lets you see it happen. Worth a try.