Category Archives: Elsewhere

Subscribed 005: Tested.com

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Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame are joined by Will Smith and Norman Chan for coverage of “…anything that’s awesome!” Shows range from tips and hints to visits to Adam’s Man Cave and Jamie’s Warehouse for talk about movie props, welding and more. Additional shows cover uses for the MakerBot, a 3-D printer, product reviews and more.

Tested.com is another great hangout for geeks on the Internet. Check it out!

From the Tested.com Web Site…

SO, WHAT KIND OF STUFF CAN I READ ABOUT ON TESTED?

The short, pithy answer is: We’ll cover anything that’s awesome. The longer answer is that we have many interests, ranging from breakthroughs in science, amazing tales of exploration, and discoveries in nature to emerging technologies and new consumer products that promise to change our everyday lives. Tested is the place where we’ll explore those topics in depth, asking the hows and the whys about the things that excite us the most.

The number one rule of Tested is simple. We want to make Tested the site that we’d be most interested in reading. If you think there’s something we should be covering, but aren’t, please let us know!

 

Previously highlighted on Subscribed:

Article: How To Create A World: Skyrim’s Director On Building A Never-Ending Fantasy

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Interesting article. I am collecting articles like this to share with my son who has entered the Tech/Game program at his new high school. I had been wondering myself how you went about creating a game as complicated as Skyrim and this article is a good place to start. I am trying to give him a good understanding of all the work — and all the different types of work — that go into creating a large commercial game.

How To Create A World: Skyrim’s Director On Building A Never-Ending Fantasy
By: Kevin Ohannessian

Skyrim

The fantasy world of Skyrim is notable for its scale and level of realism. Game director Todd Howard explains how his team at Bethesda Game Studios approaches the creation of a world.

[…]

Read the entire article

News: Blue Microphones Mikey Digital takes iPhone and iPad recording up a notch

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From TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog…

Blue Microphones Mikey Digital takes iPhone and iPad recording up a notch

[…]

When it comes to microphones for the iPhone and iPad, I have to admit that I haven’t been too impressed with what’s been delivered over the past few years. For example, the original iRig Mic from IK Multimedia was quite noisy, although the iRig Mic Cast improved on that somewhat. The original Mikey from Blue Mics was also an improvement, but now the company is shipping the new Mikey Digital (US$99.99) that works with recent iPhones and all iPads to capture stereo sound with clarity.

[…]

Read the entire article

I am always looking for cool, new, new media tools and Blue seems to keep a fairly constant flow of new recording tech. I personally own a Blue Snowball microphone and have many fellow podcasters who use their Yeti product. It will be interesting to try out the Mikey and see what it can do.

My Favorite Things for New Media – August 2012

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My Favorite Things

Here are my favorite shared New Media items for August 2012.

Please let me know in the comments if you find any of the particularly useful. I’ll keep my eye open for similar items — Douglas

Musopen is a online warehouse of public domain classical music recordings and sheet music

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First seen on Slashdot…

Musopen logo

Musopen’s front page declares…

“Musopen (www.musopen.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.”

What does this mean for you, the new media producer? Well, much like the old cartoons many of us watched while growing up, this classical music can be used in out New Media projects without worrying about copyright issues. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of classical music pieces available for download as MP3 or m4a files. These can be sliced and diced, played as music beds for your shows and a host of other New Media uses. While you might not have thought about using classical music in your productions, I think revisiting these classics might provide some interesting content of your shows.

You can search through the catalog in a variety of ways, including composer, performer, instrument, period and more.

Of course, the other — non-new-media-related reasons for the creation of Musopen js to give wider exposure to classical music for anyone who might desire it. If you have people in your network who can benefit from these resources, be sure to pass it on. 

Link: Musopen

Subscribed: PBS Idea Channel

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I have been moving away from mainstream broadcast and cable programming for a while and switching over to watching a lot of stuff on YouTube. My son, Joseph, has switched almost entirely to YouTube Channels for his entertainment viewing.

I realized today that I should be highlighting some of the YouTube Channels I subscribe to for my daily entertainment (and educational viewing).

Today’s new subscription is the PBS Idea Channel. This is a great collection of education and entertaining video on a variety of topics. I found the channel when I came across a blog post linking to their show on Minecraft, Makerbot and the Post Scarcity Economy.

Below you will find a link to a playlist of all their videos. I highly recommend subscribing on YouTube so that you will be notified of each new video as it appears.

* Just a reminder…you can also subscribe to my own YouTube Channel for videos on gardening, careers, technology, new media and more!

See all the shows I am watching and subscribing to in my YouTube Channel Feed

 

Don’t see the video playlist above? Check out PBS Idea Channel on Youtube.

Elsewhere: Radio Killed The Podcasting Star

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I definitely agree with some of what this article has to say. Non-mainstream podcasts have the potential to change things dramatically, but without a unified method of discovering and monetizing podcasts most languish in obscurity. Apple’s podcast directory is woefully inadequate and dominated by mainstream radio and it contains no way to monetize podcasts through subscriptions or advertising. Secondly, there is no unified ad market where podcasters can turn for monetization. YouTube, with its connections to Google Adsense and easily monetization options is a far better environment for making money with your podcast — if you happen to produce video and not audio-only programs.

For greatest chance at success, it has to be as easy to watch or listen to podcasts (and discover them) as it is to turn on the television or radio. Until the time that there is some parity between entertainment doing from a variety of sources, podcasts will always be second class citizens of the media world.

Radio Killed The Podcasting Star

Podcasters are to radio what bloggers are to newspapers: independent voices taking attention away from mainstream media. At least that was the theory, when professional podcasts and blogs were getting started in the 2000s. But unlike blogs, podcasts by indie voices have not gone on to seriously challenge the mainstream media incumbents. Where is the Ariana Huffington of podcasting? Can you name a political podcaster who’s had the same impact as Josh Marshall and his Talking Points Memo blog? Sadly, there are no podcasting stars – and it’s all radio’s fault.

Read the entire article

YouTube Education uses New Media to spur lifetime learning

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Online education seems to be exploding of late and the biggest New Media powerhouse is helping to spread the message.

YouTube Education

Get more into learning

YouTube EDU brings learners and educators together in a global video classroom. On YouTube EDU, you have access to a broad set of educational videos that range from academic lectures to inspirational speeches and everything in between.

Come here for quick lessons from top teachers around the world, course lectures from top-tier universities, or inspiring videos to spark your imagination.

Youtube education

YouTube Education collect and organizes a wide variety of educational material for easy searching and watching. These include short lectures and demonstrations from teachers from all over the world and full college level seminars for this that really want to dive in.

Lifetime learning is a great use of New Media. It brings directly into your home, office and school information and education that was tied up in academic silos accessible only by a few. While you can’t get your degree online via YouTube Education, you can certainly improve your knowledge in whatever topic interest you most.

Link: YouTube Education

Subscribe To A Newsapaper, Get An E-reader Free

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It’s starting to happen. I was talking to someone just the other night about how such deals would greatly benefit mainstream media outlets. The price of the readers is falling very rapidly while their capabilities just keep growing.
Subscribe To A Newsapaper, Get An E-reader Free
Well, this was bound to happen. Barnes & Noble is offering big discounts on its Nook e-readers to people taking out subscriptions to digital editions of magazines and newspapers:

The Nook edition of People is $9.99 a month; with a one-year subscription, customers will receive a Nook Tablet, a color device with a 7-inch display, for $199, a discount from its regular price of $249. Customers who buy a one-year subscription for the Nook edition of The New York Times for $19.99 a month, which in…

Read the entire article

 

Elsewhere: New Media Challenge 2012-002 – Get close!

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nmi-logo-med.jpg

Are you ready for the next New Media Challenge? This time I want you to get close…really close!

This might take some doing depending on your camera, as they often don’t focus on very close objects, but I am sure you can work it out. Of course, getting close can mean something else entirely, too. Feel free to explore the theme in any way you wish.

Post  a link to your video, photos, writing or more here by Sunday, January 22, 2012.

Use the comments link (click the number next to the little text bubble above) to add a link to this post.

Note: If you simply paste a YouTube URL for your video, WordPress.com will embed the actual video in its place.

New Media Challenges are designed to give you an excuse to stretch your New Media muscles. You can use whatever media you like to complete the challenge including audio, video, photography, writing and more.

Elsewhere: YouTube’s got big plans for web TV: specialized channels with niche and original content

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I am so amazed it has taken this long for something like this to occur. I figured back in 2004 that podcasting would break open the media industry and provide a lot more alternatives to traditional, but media, programming. As they say, though, it can take a long time to turn a battleship. It is good to see some movement in this area, though.

Youtube dew

It is important to remember that we do have alternatives to the typical programming provided by television, radio and movie producers. Where technological and monetary constraints kept the average person out of the media market, this simply isn’t the case today. Anyone can produce a show and, given enough experience and talent, can produce a show that is better, and has higher viewership than even the best cable-aired shows.

I have been advising people to use podcasting, YouTube and others to get their message out for the last 7 years and will continue to do so. We all have a unique message to offer the world and there will always be an audience, both large and small, that will find us, if we put our message out there.

YouTube’s got big plans for web TV: specialized channels with niche and original content

YouTube’s come quite a long way from its roots as a repository for random videos from the public. It’s gone from “Chocolate Rain” and the Tron guy to streaming Disney classics and now creating original, quality content.The New Yorker spoke extensively with YouTube’s Global Head of Content Robert Kyncl about the site’s future plans, and YouTube’s got its sights set on grabbing a big slice of TV’s $300 billion pie. Kyncl thinks the future of TV is in niche content, and YouTube’s original channels are just the vehicle to deliver it direct to your digital door. The site is commissioning people and companies to create the channels (as opposed to individual shows or pieces of content) which gives the creators freedom to program their channels as they see fit — all YouTube asks is that they provide a certain number of hours of programming per week. This production model is apparently pretty attractive to content producers, given the talent that’s on board and the amount of content that’ll be rolling out over the next six months.

Read the entire article

Voiceover class starts January 12, 2012 at UCLA Extension

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Our friend, Janet Wilcox, will be starting her UCLA Extension voiceover class again in just a week. If you are interested in getting started in the industry, this could be the class for you. I will be speaking to her class about New Media this session, as I have done in the past.

Voiceover class

Class Description:

Pursuing a Career in Voice Overs

Do people say you have a wonderful voice? Gain a comprehensive understanding of the tools needed to excel in TV and radio commercials, animation, narration for documentaries, and other areas of voice over work. Instruction includes breath and microphone technique, script analysis, finding characters spontaneously, and how to keep it fun, even when the pressure’s on. Participants also learn how to pursue a career in voice over.

Janet Wilcox’s Bio

Writer, producer, and actor with extensive experience on both sides of the microphone. Ms. Wilcox has written and produced promos for HBO, ABC, and The History Channel, among others. As a voice over talent, she has been heard on Lifetime, HBO, E!, Cinemax, and AMC. She is the author of Voiceovers: Techniques and Tactics for Success.

 

WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

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Just in time for WordPress Wednesday. Take some time to update your WordPress installs as well as your plugins.

WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

Posted January 3, 2012 by Ryan Boren. Filed under Releases,Security.

WordPress 3.3.1 is now available. This maintenance release fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affected version 3.3. Thanks to Joshua H., Hoang T., Stefan Zimmerman, Chris K. and the Go Daddy security team for responsibly disclosing the bug to our security team.

Download 3.3.1 or visit Dashboard → Updates in your site admin.

I Like This – October 6, 2011

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    A collection of New Media items I found interesting this week.
  • Why is Video Hard? Five Shots and Patterns – October 1, 2011 – Never heard of this method before, but it sounds liks something that could jumpstart a lot of beginning new media people. Give it a read!
  • Robots Are Attacking on Street View – September 29, 2011 – Great fun use of available data and a little creativity. Create your own movie today. Unfortunately, my address seems to point to my neighbors home. Oops, sorry about that! (LAUGH)

Elsewhere: Why is Video Hard? Five Shots and Patterns

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Never heard of this method before, but it sounds liks something that could jumpstart a lot of beginning new media people. Give it a read! — Douglas

Why is Video Hard? Five Shots and Patterns

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“One of the most famous, and useful of these, is Michael Rosenblum’s “five shot” method that he developed training journalists from the NY Times to the BBC. It’s actually something he’s preached since the late 1990s, and those who are fortunate enough to learn it get an insight into shooting better video, immediately.

I’ve successfully used this in the classroom to teach visual literacy, because it hones in immediately on what’s important. The five shot method always prescribes these, shot in this exact order (my handout here):

  1. A closeup on the hands of a subject – showing WHAT is happening
  2. A closeup on the face – WHO is doing it
  3. A wide shot – WHERE its happening
  4. An over the shoulder shot (OTS) – linking together the previous three concepts
  5. An unusual, or side/low shot – providing story-specific context”

Read the entire article