Subscribed 009: Minecraft and More with Paul Soares, Jr.

When my son first got involved with the game Minecraft, and got me interested as well, he quickly recommended a video series to help me make it through my first night in Minecraft. Paul Soares, Jr’s series, “How to Survive and Thrive in Minecraft” is a fun, informative and light-hearted look at how to make Minecraft even more fun.

Soares also does many more Minecraft gaming series as well as play-throughs of other big names in the gaming world, including Skyrim. If you are the least bit interested in Minecraft, i highly recommend Paul’s channel for a great combination of learning and fun!

You can also visit Paul’s web site, Punchwood.com for even more info and discussion.

Visit the Paul Soares, Jr. YouTube Channel for more videos!

What are some of your favorite YouTube Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

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Video: #KitchenParty – How to publish a successful food blog w/ Nichelle Stephens from Cupcakes Take the Cake! – Recorded Version

While #KitchenParty is mainly about food and foodie things, in this week’s episode we also talk a lot about what makes a successful food blog and, more generically, any successful blog.  — Douglas

Watch the recorded video below!

Success blog

How to publish a successful food blog

Nichelle Stephens from Cupcakes Take the Cake! We’re talking Cupcake Recipes & how to #publish a successful food blog.

To watch the show, simply go here on Thursday at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT on our BakeSpace.com page or head on over to our site at: http://www.bakespace.com/news/how-to-publish-a-successful-food-blog/

And don’t forget… every show we publish a community cookbook based on the topic. This week we’re sharing #cupcake #recipes . To our your favorite recipe to our #community #cookbook upload your favorite recipe here: http://bit.ly/cupcakecookbook

Your Hosts Every Week: Babette Pepaj from BakeSpace.com , +eff Houck from the Tampa Tribune, Rene Lynch (LA Times) & Douglas Welch (pro blogger – a Gardner’s Notebook)

Subscribed 008: GardenforkTV with Eric Rochow

I have been watching Eric Rochow and GardenforkTV for a long time. He first caught my eye with some excellent videos on all sorts of gardening and food topics and more recently he has expanded to Gardenfork Radio — a long form talk and interview audio podcast that is perfect for listening in the car.

Gardenfork is a fairly eclectic channel and podcast, covering everything from Eric’s boisterous Labradors to who to make the perfect mashed potatoes to building raised beds to beekeeping. Eric has an infectious, unassuming manner which makes you feel like you would love to have him for a neighbor in the country. The show splits its time between his and his wife’s (the “camera operator”) apartment in Brooklyn and their farm in rural Connecticut.

You can subscribe to the GardenforkTV YouTube Channel for all the videos or subscribe to the video podcast using iTunes and/or ths Gardenfork Radio audio podcasts. I subscribe to both podcasts, as I love to see most everything Eric produces.

gardenfork

Visit the Gardenfork YouTube Channel for more videos!

What are some of your favorite YouTube Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

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Is that a production studio in your pocket? – Logitech’s New WiFI webcam works w/ iPad/iPhone/Mac

So, it looks like Logitech has been watching a lot of uStream and a lot of Google Hangouts lately. Their new webcam, the Logitech Broadcaster ($199 US) , is a WiFi connected webcam that allows for secondary angles during your web stream. It can also record that second angle to be used for a later edit in iMovie. The Logitech Broadcaster can be controlled from an iPad, iPhone or your Mac and you can use a combination of all the available cameras in your stream or recording.

 

 

Here is a video from Logitech showing off some of the features.

Can’t see video above? Watch “Logitech Boradcaster” on YouTube.

 

The case of the Logitech Broadcaster does double-duty as a magnetic base for the camera, allow you to position it where you need. It doesn’t look like it has a traditional tripod mount, but that is a little hard to see from the video and pictures provided.

If you are looking to take your web streams and video productions to another level, the Logitech Broadcaster could be an interesting piece of kit to add to your gig bag.

Subscribed 007: Cool Hunting

Who doesn’t like some “cool” in their lives? Cool Hunting provides a regular dose of cool through its video series highlighting cool stuff in design, art, engineering and more. Cool Hunting is available both as a YouTube channel and a podcast via their web site. The videos are high-quality and shot with an eye towards the artistic while giving you insight into the people involved in the projects.

I highly recommend Cool Hunting as a refreshing bit of entertainment for your mind. Hopefully it can spur you to some “cool” projects of your own.

cool-hunting

Visit the Cool Hunting YouTube Channel for more videos!

What are some of your favorite YouTube Subscriptions? Share them here i the comments!

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Video: Using Chirp to Enhance Your Podcasts

I came across this new iPhone app, Chirp,  last night in my usual Internet reading and it got me to thinking immediately — couldn’t this app be used to create enhanced podcasts that automatically directed listeners to web sites, photos, notes and more at specific points in the show. This is my short demo on how it might be done.

This certainly wasn’t something that the creators Chirp.io were thinking about when creating the app, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t use it to our (i.e. podcasters) advantage.

Can’t see the video above? View “Using Chirp to Enhance Your Podcasts” on YouTube

iPhone: Chip.io send links via electronic birdsong

Chirpio

I came across this post on Boing Boing about this new iPhone app, Chirp.io. This app allows you to select a photos, note or link and send an audio “chirp” that other iPhones can receive, and then decode the link.

“We’re a spinout from University College London Computer Science and we’ve developed a new data transfer application for smartphones (and more) called Chirp.

This is our thing – a technology inspired by birdsong and the principles of biomimicry.

We think it’s pretty exciting since the app has great potential, although it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Our plans include teaching the machines to sing.”

While it may seem odd to speak of analog and acoustic in these days of digital and electronic, I immediately saw one way to put Chirp to use — as a data, and/or advertising trigger for audio or video podcasts. I am going to do some quick tests to see if you can embed the Chirp codes into a podcast file, both audio and video, and see if they can be received and retrieved by the app on my iPhone.

Enhanced podcasts have never really caught on as they require either iTunes or an iPod to view the enhanced content and require a bit more production to create. With Chirp. you could include data triggers directly as part of the MP3 file. I’ll report back after a few tests.

News: New Media Expo Announces Scholarship for Content Creators #NMXU #NMX

Nmxu logo

New Media Expo Announces Scholarship for Content Creators #NMXU #NMX

There’s no denying New Media Expo offers valuable learning opportunities. With almost 90 educational sessions presented by the leading experts in new media content creation, podcasters, bloggers and webTV and video producers always return home inspired and ready to put what they learned to good use. We love that our attendees take time to share with us that we’ve provided such a valuable educational opportunity, but we also hear from content creators who would love to attend our event but can’t get here for a variety of reasons.
We’re about to make it easier for one person.

Throughout the month of October, we’re accepting applications for the first ever (and hopefully not the last) New Media Expo University scholarship. Offered as part of our new New Media Expo University (#NMXU) educational project, this scholarship will provide a complete educational experience at NMX in Las Vegas from January 6th through 8th 2013 for one lucky recipient.

[…]

Read entire article

Watch the #KitchenParty! A food show recorded using latest New Media tool — Google Hangouts on Air

The recording of our Thursday, September 20, 2012 episode of KitchenParty is now online.

I am part of the crew for this new foodie show sponsored by Bakespace.com. We are using Google Hangouts to hold a conversation based around some food topic each Thursday night at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT.

Google Hangouts are one of the newest New Media kids on the block and lots of people are taking advantage of them for both personal and more professional shows. Hangouts integrate directly with YouTube. This means that once your Hangout On Air completes, it is automatically uploaded to your YouTube Channel without any further action from you. For large files, like this one hour show, this cuts out a lot of the traditional editing and rendering required for  a traditionally recorded show.

Hangouts give you a simple to use place to record conversations with up to 10 people at once, which is nearly perfect if you are doing a show like KitchenParty. One more tool for your New Media toolbox.

Please give us a “Like” on YouTube and tune in next Thursday at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT for our next show!

Tonight’s Topic: Kids back in school? Looking for good things to feed them? Fed up with junk food?

Join us as we discuss healthier food options for our kids this school year. Joining us will be J.M. Hirsch, the food editor of the Associated Press and Katie Workman, Co-Founder of Cookstr.com and author of Mom 101.

In addition, we’ll also publish our healthy lunch options cookbook. To add your recipe to our cookbook, submit it here: http://bit.ly/QdXNNr

My links from tonight’s show:

Food: Join the “Kitchen Party” Live tonight at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT

Kitchen party

I am part of this new LIVE show from Bakespace.com, Kitchen Party, hosted by Babette Pepaj of Bakespace.com, Jeff HouckFood Editor for the Tampa Tribune and Rene Lynch, Assistant Editor at the Los Angeles Times. I’ll be reporting on Food Trends and offering up some of my favorite recipes, tip and hints from my Internet travels.

We go live tonight at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT for our first show.

September 13, 2012 

SHOW 1: How to Sell a Cookbook

Thinking about writing a cookbook? Overwhelmed with the different choices in self-publishing?

Join us TONIGHT (9/13) at 5pm pacific/8pm eastern for an hour long discussion about what it takes to get a cookbook published in this day and age. From submitting a proposal, getting an agent to understanding the timeline for cookbook publishing, our pros will discuss the ins and outs of getting a book published. In addition, we’ll be putting the call out for our first crowdsourced cookbook on “Reinventing the Lunchbox” and looking for healthy recipes to make for your kids. If you’d like to add a healthy lunchbox recipe to our first cookbook (which will be published in next week’s chat) click on the “Schedule” tab for details on how where to submit your recipe.

I wil try to embed the video feed here, but you can watch directly from the Bakespace.com web site.

Watch Kitchen Party LIVE tonight at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT

You also be able to watch a recording of this show after each show is finished.

You can see some of my previous food-related videos in this YouTube playlist.

Can’t see the video playlist above? Watch it directly on YouTube!

New Media/Social Media Jobs Available – Search by Location an Keyword

Check out our list of New Media jobs (and others) available via SimplyHired.com.

Enter your location for jobs close to you. You can also search on other keywords.

Newmedia jobs

News: Google Releases New YouTube App for iPhone and iPad

Youtube app

As promised when Apple announced they would no longer include their YouTube app with all iOS devices, Google today released its new YouTube app. As I expected, it provides a much better YouTube experience than Apple’s (older) YouTube app. In fact, I stopped using that app months ago and switched over to using the mobile web version of YouTube as it allowed me access more features and provided a better overall experience.

After using the app for an hour or so today, I can say I like it! It is clean, functional, streams video well over 3G or Wifi and generally does what I want it to do. My list of subscribed videos is neatly present in a format very similar to that used on the Google+ App with large thumbnails and a bit of descriptive text.

Download the new YouTube app from the Apple App Store

Here are a few screen shots of the new YouTube app

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Subscribed 005: Tested.com

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!

tested

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!

 

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News: New Liveblog plugin for WordPress turns any post into auto-updating liveblog

This news just came through my RSS feeds. It seems that Automattic, the developer of the WordPress blogging site and software, want to make it a bit easier for bloggers to “liveblog” events. The new WordPress.com VIP Liveblog Add-On allows bloggers to write entries, including text and graphics, directly from their site to users pages. These pages are then automatically update for anyone who js monitoring the liveblog.

Wp liveblog

Liveblogs are often seen around breaking news stories and events like Apple product announcements. More an more, bloggers are covering these events live and want to get the word out as quickly as possible. This new plugin makes it simpler than ever before. 

Here are some bullet points about the new plug-in directly from the WordPress.org web site… 

Post updates right from the front-end of your site (no need to use the /wp-admindashboard)
Viewers of your Liveblog get new entries served to them instantly and automatically, without needing to refresh their browser.
Your authors can drag-and-drop photos right into the Liveblog area, without needing to navigate to separate browser tabs or windows.
There’s no need for a separate site dedicated to liveblogging: every post can be a liveblog, even existing ones.

You can download the Liveblog plugin directly from WordPress.org

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

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

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

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

Subscribed 003: Science @ NASA Channel

I have a LOT of interests and science has always been one of them. Of course, this means that I am always tuned in to what is happening at NASA and other scientific organizations. I even have a friend who works at JPL who helps to keep me informed.

You can keep in touch with the many scientific projects and discoveries at NASA, too,  by subscribing to their YouTube channel. Below is a link to their latest video, detailing some of the first research targets of the Curiosity Rover. Subscribe now to hear about new discoveries as they are made.

science-at-nasa

Subscribe to Science @ NASA on YouTube

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

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

New Media Tip: Pinterest: Pin individual item, not collections of items

Pinterest logo med

As you could probably guess from my recent New Media Tip video, I am a big user of Pinterest. It turns up all sorts of delightful links to Food, Gardening, DIY/Crafts and more. That said, there are two tips I would like to offer those who are starting to dive into Pinterest.

  • Pin individual item, not collections
    • When I look through my Pinterest stream I often see pins for 52 Frozen Foods to Make Yourself, or 12 ways to make chicken and other pins I call “collections”. I can tell you from personal experience that I usually don’t click on such pins. When I see a collection pin, I know I am going to have to sort through a web page filled mainly with items I don’t want, just to find a few — or one — I might want.
    • I prefer that Pinterest users pin links to one, particular item so that I know I will find it useful and those who might re-pin it will also find it useful. I would love to see some stats on how many people re-pin collections as opposed to individual items. If my preferences are any indicator, I would guess the repines on collections falls far below those of individual items.
  • Pin the detail page, not the front page of a blog
    • Too often I am seeing pins that link only to main page of a blog instead of directly to the item being pinned. Depending on how old the blog post is — and how frequently the blogger posts — the item being pinned may have rolled off the front page. Don’t make myself and others go hunting for the information. Visit the detail or individual page of the blog post and then pin that page. That will guarantee that your Pinterest followers will be taken directly to the information you want to share.

Do you have any Pinterest tips? Share in the comments below.

Follow Me on Pinterest