Business Week Rocking it

So Business Week is having a little poll to vote for your favorite blog (here).  I suggest that everyone goes and votes for TechDirt.com.  Update: You have to write them in...don't vote for tech crunch by accident!  But...be forewarned...

Here is the error I got:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e14'
The log file for database 'poll_app' is full. Back up the transaction log for the database to free up some log space.
/polls/record.asp, line 188

Good laugh for the day!

How much does a cloud weigh?

Wow...talk about a surprise? Think about 100 elephants...that's insane!

How Much Does a Cloud Weigh?

Peggy LeMone, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, did the numbers. "The water in the little cloud weighs about 550 tons," she calculates. "Or if you want to convert it to something that might be a little more meaningful … think of elephants."

Time lapse for Burning Man

So the time lapse camera that Christoph and I made for Burning Man in 2003 has been reborn and will be even better. I did a test run of it over the past weekend and am glad I did. As you can see, it got knocked from its perch and lost a bit of focus...so it is not as good as it could be. Oh yeah, and Clark yanked the cables from it so it didn't last the entire trip. However...it will be great once for the playa...

<geek>For those of you following along on the geek side, here are the bits and bytes:

• Camera is an Axis 2100 webcam. Actually a bad ass little webcam with linux running. So, cron job sent to ftp an image. In the example above, it was once every 10 seconds, however, I am going to crank it up to once a second.
• Old, old Sony Vaio laptop from our company Three Deep running Windows 2000. Was going put linux on it, but don't have the time!
• War FTP running on the laptop. Simple, lightweight and fast as hell!
• Western Digital Passport drive. This is the most troublesome, as I don't completely trust portable usb drives. However, it was laying around and I need the space!
• Mencoder for the video and audio encoding.  Mencoder ROCKS...once you get the hang of it.  BTW...using mplayer is awesome as well.  Being able to build and test from the command line saves so much time.  As well, you can adjust fps from the command line to really QA the final build.  Here is the command line I have settled on right now:
• mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4v2:vbitrate=1600:mbd=2:keyint=100:vqblur=1.0:cmp=2:subcmp=2:dia=2:mv0:last_pred=3 -mf type=jpg:fps=10 -o batch2.avi mf://*.jpg -audiofile soundtrack.mp3 -oac copy
• I will be cranking up the fps when I crank up how many pictures are taken.  I will be testing it at 1 picture a second for ftp, 30 frames a second for playback.  Hoping that this gives a fairly fluid playback while holding onto the time lapse format.
• A scheduled job moves the jpg's over to the drive and kicks off the daily build.  Current.TV will be on the playa and has expressed interest in the video...so I will probably build it every day and have it for them on a USB thumb drive.  BTW...The output is much better than the flv that youtube has posted.

</geek>

Oh yeah, and here is what it looks like with some of the photobooth shots...get ready for a full version with music...

Loading the truck

Loading
Originally uploaded by delagroove.

So we spent this past saturday loading the truck for Burning Man. It is insane -- INSANE -- the amount of work that it takes to throw the Deep End Camp. We loaded it all up in Williams, CA where it is hot and dry...by the time we finished up it felt like we had just finished a day of building on the playa.

Mashup

Mashup
Originally uploaded by thepartycow.

This is one of the cooler mashups I have seen!
From the site:

"On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit."

Zombie Flash Mob

Looks like we have a zombie flash mob this Saturday in SF...
SF Zombie Mob

The details: Saturday, Aug 19th, zombies will be storming the corner of Market and Sansome at 2:30. We will then walk/limp/crawl to Powell Station by 3:00. There will be a big massacre on Powell between Market and O'Farrel. We'll Pick up stragglers at Union Square by 3:30. See the Map

How to participate: Plant yourself somewhere along our route. Show up in plain clothes minus anything of value. Wear a small piece of duct tape (or similar) clearly visible on your torso. Attract our attention somehow. (screaming "aaaiiieeee! zombies!" is good for this). We will attack you, cover you with blood, shred your clothes, and slip you a makeup kit so you can create new zombies. If you want to show up already in zombie gear, great. Just join the mob at any time. Rules - Don't attack people who haven't clearly indicated they want to be attacked. Don't get blood on on bystanders or their things.

Red Bull for Burning Man

Red Bull for Burning Man
Originally uploaded by thepartycow.

This is what 250 cases looks like. I will post pictures after the event to show just how happy people are drinking it on the playa...

Thank You, Anil

Ok...I am a Windows power user -- the type that has multiple boxes, configures it to the point where I forget what a standard install is (much like Firefox!), and provide support to many people (though, Christoph will tell you that I throw more his way! ;). Anywho...Anil just posted a little tidbit about something I have been extremely lazy with FOREVER! I constantly hit the "Register Later" button on Winzip...though sometimes it is fun to watch it count the number of days it was installed. DUH! Thanks, Anil. My right click menu thanks you as well...

Anil Dash: The Windows Apps You Never Need To Install

Never Install: WinZip

This one makes me poke my eyes out. Guys who grew up using WinZip on Windows 3.1 are always foisting this on newbie users, who are then doomed to spend the rest of their days clicking on the "please stop making me feel bad" nag button. All they're trying to do is unzip a file -- it's built into Windows! This was something Windows actually got right before the Mac did, and there are still people suffering through the bloated, overbuilt WinZip experience.

If you must extract some of the more esoteric compression formats out there, go get 7-Zip. It's free, open source, supports every common format out there, and doesn't spew links all over the place when you install it.

Bill Gates and Napolean Dynamite

I just love seeing the World's richest man and his sense of  humor.  While it is not his sense of humor, rather his marketing team, it is refreshing to see a different type of corporate message.  It unfortunately delves back into a standard marketing piece with references to SharePoint, One Note, Document Workspaces...which is probably the lamest portion.  But to watch Napolean bitch slap Bill is pretty damn funny...

I have also heard that the reason these are never released on the MS site is because of licensing and royalties. The actors and music are only lincesed for playback at the conference or presentation and not for general distribution. I completely understand the need for compensation for the actor(s)/musician(s), but wish there was a way to get material like this out to a broader audience without the illegal use on YouTube.

Hearing Loss

I remember hearing about this on NPR one day but never really got a chance to check it. I was quite surprised when I went through the list of examples! I8Khz and below drives me batty...I immediately lose my mind! 19Khz - 21 Khz makes my eyes water just a bit. Maybe not water, but definitely a weird sensation. I feel uneasy. Above that, there is nothing!

ochen k.

Most humans are born with the ability to hear frequencies from about 20 Hz (low) up to 20,000 Hz (high) but that range shrinks as we get older. A guy in England figured that meant kids can hear things adults can't - specifically, very high frequencies. He created a device that pulses an annoying tone at about 15,000 Hz with the idea that when the device is used, it will repel kids while being unnoticed by adult. Perfect for solving that youth-loitering problem you've been having in front of your shop.

via a.wholelottanothing.org

MySpace and Google

I have always been a bit stunned that 10% of Google's traffic comes from MySpace. It just seems like an innordinate amount of traffic. However, upon logging in and checking it out, the default search selection is for the Web and not MySpace. So...how much of that is intended search traffic?

Yatta Dancers in 2005

Those kooky kids from the Deep End performing their 2005 Yatta dance. This time, it is from their perspective on stage...

Yatta Dancers

Of course, I have no idea who these nutters are...but pretty damn funny! ;)

I hear that this year's version is going to be insane and very involved...

Ethan Christoph Khouri

ethan christoph khouri
Originally uploaded by thepartycow.

On August 14th, Christoph and Anne were blessed with the birth of their first child, Ethan Christoph Khouri. He is damn, damn cute. If he is half as smart as either Stoph or Anne, the kid will be running the world. Hopefully he has Anne's looks! ;) (Love you Stoph...)

YouTube and Flickr

Flickr truly pushed the syndication envelope by encouraging people to "Blog this."  Before that, it was always seen as a bit rude to use someone else's bandwidth for your own blog/website.  I remember when I used to copy every picture to my server and then provide a link back.

One area that Flickr backed up their promise to host images, was to make the image hosting static and keep them up even when Flickr was "getting a massage".  This was huge!  The site could be down for various reasons, but the syndicated images would still show up around the web.  Great product management!!!

YouTube has been down most of the day, and unfortunately that means all of their syndicated content as well.  So they encourage syndication, but have been down most of the day...really brings down the audience experience.  As most of their flv's are hosted on limelight, I am a bit confused as to why this has to happen.  From what we discovered by poking around they have  a couple of things going on:

• flv's are hosted on Limelight's edge servers.
• mod rewrite embeds an swf that is rewritten to a single file with the correct flv as a parameter.
• The player either recognizes the domain or a separate player is used, as the player on the youtube.com domain provides additional functionality to find new videos.

So...unfortunately, their architecture does not allow for the static serving of the flv's if the site is down for maintenance.  Regardless of the status of YouTube.com, with the flv's on the edge servers, those should always be available.  It wouldn't take much more to move the player itself to somewhere else to allow for static serving while the main site is being worked on.

Bravo, Flickr for building this in ahead of time...

The Deep End at Burning Man

So...for those of you interested in the Deep End on the playa, here are some details for you:

• Sound system is about double the size as last year.  Yep.  Double.  I guess that massive sound system just wasn't enough... ;)
• We are increasing the amount of alcohol and ice for drinks that will be served.  Special note:  we will not be providing cups on the playa.  We take WAAAAAY too much trash home.  So...bring our own cup!
• We will again be featuring our famous Red Bull cocktails for the best pick me up in the day time sun!  There really is nothing better than a Red Bull, is there?
• This year, we will also be featuring Margarita King Margaritas.  Get ready for the best margaritas on the playa.  I've had it over ice and it was really damn good...they are going to be spectacular.
• We will also be featuring Mountain Dew cocktails!  Our crack team of mixologists have been testing out new combinations and have found great elixirs for the day time...
• We stumbled across a new mixer called Sinvinio that is rocking as well.  While it is suggested as a non-alcoholic alternative, that doesn't completely fit our bill, does it?  ;)
• Burning Man has allotted us a full city block this year -- 2.8 acres.  You can find us @ 9:00 and Eager!  Update: just found out that because they moved us back a block, we actually don't fill the whole block.  However, we are 50% bigger than last year!
• We will be about 200 members strong.  In addition to our camping area at 9 & Eager, we will have a couple of satellite camps scattered about the vicinity.
• I will be setting up the time lapse camera again this year.  We purchased a trailer (yeah...the 18 wheeler type) and it will be sitting in one location all week which should provide a solid base for a great view.
• If you post images to Flickr, please tag them with "Deep End 2006".  That way we can all find them!

And the DJ schedule:

Tuesday:
3:00 - 4:00 Tamo
4:00 - 5:00 Shissla
5:00 - 6:00 Kepi & Kat
6:00 - 7:00 Sunwoo
7:00 - 8:00 DJ Dan

Wednesday:
12:00 - 1:00 Mike Giannini
1:00 - 2:00 AJ
2:00 - 3:00 Layne Loomis
3:00 - 4:00 Clark Hamon
4:00 - 5:00 Syd Gris
5:00 - 5:15 Yatta
5:15 - 6:45 Jared Cardian
6:45 - 8:15 Murphstar

Thursday:
11:30 - 12:30 Jeffrey Allen
12:30 - 1:30 Chuck & Roll
1:30 - 2:30 Kramer
2:30 - 3:30 Jared Cardian
3:30 - 5:00 Gordon Waze
5:00 - 6:30 Clark Hamon
6:30 - 6:45 Yatta
6:45 - 8:15 John Early

Friday:
11:30 - 12:30 Bali
12:30 - 1:30 Gordon Waze
1:30 - 2:30 Aaron Pope
2:30 - 4:00 AJ
4:00 - 5:30 Sh00ey
5:30 - 5:45 Yatta
5:45 - 7:15 Layne Loomis
7:15 - 8:15 Scumfrog

Saturday:
11:00 - 12:00 Yossi
12:00 - 1:00 Sh00ey
1:00 - 2:00 John Early
2:00 - 3:30 Chuck n Roll
3:30 - 5:00 Aaron Pope
5:00 - 5:15 Yatta
5:15 - 6:45 Kramer

Close early for the Burn...

Many times I am stunned by the amount of work and effort that goes into putting the Deep End on.  I think a lot of people would consider a job...but it is a passion!  Much credit should go to: Christian, Megan, Clark, Lee, Chris, Matt, Matt, Jacomo, Layne, Pope, Trip, de la, Ben, Katherine, John, and Robert.  I know there are more, but I am forgetting some now...

I have also been scanning through our member list and love the age range and diverse backgrounds of camp members.  Backgrounds range from CEO's, VC's, chefs, monsters of sales, inventors, DJs, artists, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, real estate moguls, PR, socialites, undergrounders, parents, psychologists, DR's, and nurses.  So...if you have a problem, I guess the Deep End can solve it for you on the playa!  ;)

The Deep End wouldn't happen without the financial support of our patrons, either.  Throughout the year we run fundraisers and this year we solicited donations.  A huge thank you to all that donated and those that came to the fundraising parties.  Without you, we would not be able to put this on.  You should stand back and look at the scene for a little while and smile to yourself: you are a big reason it happens.  Get that warm fuzzy feeling inside!

Photo credit: Ekai

RCN Portal

I have been an RCN customer for about 3 years now and overall have been happy with the service.  The speed can be lighting fast, with the speeds up to 10Mbps down and 3 Mbps.  However, there are extended stretches where my simple pings to Yahoo or Google can take over 1800 ms!  However...I am a fan of the convergence, with TV, Phone and Data all coming from one provider.  Works great...

RCN built out a fiber network in metropolitan cities to offer a triple play with incredible speeds.  The build out cost billions of dollars, however, after emerging from bankruptcy, they are in good shape and have a valuable network.

I just watched a commercial on TV from RCN advertising their portal.  I appreciate RCN trying to match other providers by offering their own portal, but they have missed the boat.  I don't need another portal -- one offered by a company that won't be able to match the effort by companies that are specifically aimed at improving that experience.  What I look to RCN, beyond just great service and support, would be services that only they could afford: databackup, storage and online sync.

RCN should install servers within their fiber network that I can directly connect to.  As they own the fiber, there is little to no bandwidth cost for the bandwidth between my computer and their server.  Why not spend the $ on building apps to backup my data to their servers?  They don't have to pay anything for that bandwidth.  My life would become tied to RCN because they would ensure that my data is backed up and accessible. 

Please don't try and fill out the checklist of what the Jones' have.  Innovate.  Be a little different.  Integrate into my life.

Posting from Windows Live Writer

I am testing out Windows Live Writer and like it at my first pass.  I am impressed that Microsoft rolled out a new product that is open enough to post to most engines as well as provides an SDK for building plugins.  I definitely want to toy with building a new plugin for Castfire to post directly from Live Writer.

That being said, I am still a VERY big fan of Performancing for Firefox.  I have become a huge fan of it's integration into my browsing and the ability to publish when the thought hits me.  As a stand alone app, I don't know if it will inhibit my publishing.

Could we see something like Live Writer integrated into IE much like Flock does?  Now that would stir the pot...

Blogger Beta

There is a new Blogger out in Beta.  It appears that they are moving off of the static html pages and onto dynamic serving.  In addition, they have added a drag and drop interface for the templates with modules for feeds, text, links, etc.  In addition, they have added tags (Labels in their vernacular) and trackbacks.  However, they do not seem to have an interface for enclosures yet...so no podcasting or videocasting yet.

Check it out here.

Update:It appears that the trackback is happening through google. A nice feature is the expandable preview of the trackback. It will be interesting to see how spam is handled.

Steve Rubel on Media Interviews

Some very interesting thoughts on media interviews from Steve Rubel.  I love the idea of increased transparency between the interview and the final article.  It would be incredible to measure the differences over time.  One of his propositions (?) is a Technorati tag to track those items that are in response to an interview.  Very interesting, however, could be gamed quite quickly and easily.

Micro Persuasion: Reinventing the Media Interview

Exhibit A: Mark Cuban. Mark doesn't do media interviews by phone anymore (if he ever did). He only does them by email so he has a complete record of the conversation and can correct misgivings on his blog. In this situation, Mark (the source) publishes the full text of a specific media interview to give everyone a panoramic view of the reporter and source's perspectives.

Exhibit B: Dave Winer. Dave, who invented blogging and RSS, takes a more subtle approach. He describes today how he answers interview questions on his blog without saying who the reporter is and exactly what questions were asked. He "create(s) a public record, something that can be useful to anyone." Part of his rationale, like Cuban's, is to avoid being quoted selectively and out of context.

Farewell to the Founder of In-N-Out

Upon entry into San Francisco in 1999, I was introduced to In-N-Out burger. Now, In-N-Out was not easy to find back then. No, it was a journey. Getting the friends together, driving across the bridge, gorging ourselves, lumbering back happy and content. It has always been a stop on the way to Burning Man and on probably 80% of my trips to Tahoe. When the In-N-Out and Crispy Cream donut combo opened off the 280, we had another option. Then one in Fisherman's Wharf. I'm telling you, I have brand loyalty. I am salivating at the thought of a double double (animal style) and fries cooked extra crispie. Anyone want to take a lunch break today?

And with that, I must thank Esther Snyder for founding one of the best damn fast food restaurants in the world. I will eat there before the end of the weekend in memory of you. Thank you.

Fast Company Now

Esther Snyder, the founder of In-N-Out Burger, passed away Friday. She was 86. In-N-Out Burger, as many of you likely know, is the cult burger chain on the West coast that was born in the same cradle of post-WWII America's love affair with the road as many of our most familiar U.S. brands.

We are the web

Holy geekness! Damn hilarious and definitely makes fun of every stereotype. Execepts furries. And perhaps Numa Numa. And Yatta. But still...fabulous...

Brilliant Campaign

This is a brilliant campaign by Altoids to raise awareness of their new products...the current bid is $172.51!

eBay: Altoids Chocolate Dipped Mints - Exclusive Offer! (item 320014070538 end time Aug-14-06 09:25:43 PDT)

Futurama Casemod

Caution:  heavy geek quotient...

Vang1.net

After finishing my Bender project, I just had to do another futurama casemod I thought about what to do for months and had several good ideas, but finally I fell for Leela.

via stoph

State of the Blogosphere

Dave Sifry has another update from Technorati on the state of the blogosphere.

In summary:

• Technorati is now tracking over 50 Million Blogs.
• The Blogosphere is over 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago.
• Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size every 200 days, or about once every 6 and a half months.
• From January 2004 until July 2006, the number of blogs that Technorati tracks has continued to double every 5-7 months.
• About 175,000 new weblogs were created each day, which means that on average, there are more than 2 blogs created each second of each day.
• About 8% of new blogs get past Technorati's filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days.
• About 70% of the pings Technorati receives are from known spam sources, but we drop them before we have to send out a spider to go and index the splog.
• Total posting volume of the blogosphere continues to rise, showing about 1.6 Million postings per day, or about 18.6 posts per second.
• This is about double the volume of about a year ago.
• The most prevalent times for English-language posting is between the hours of 10AM and 2PM Pacific time, with an additional spike at around 5PM Pacific time

Sifry's Alerts: State of the Blogosphere, August 2006

Now, what I find even more insightful is his questioning of whether the blogosphere can continue to grow at doubling every 6 months. How do we define blogs, though? Anything that generates an RSS feed? Is a podcast? A videocast? I know that at Castfire, we routinely work with blogging engines for our podcast and videocast rollouts. At WordCamp, there were multiple discussions on using Wordpress as the engine for websites -- even those that don't appear as blogs. Are these counted in the growth?

It reiterates my belief that the lines between blog and website are becoming blurred. If someone were to ask, I refer them to my website and not my blog. When I read the Chronicle, the differentiation between article and blog post is in style not engine used.

Wine Education

Wine

This is a friend's video that he uploaded to You Tube. His daughter is sooooo damn cute.

WordCamp

I am at WordCamp today! Pix can be found here.

Amanda Cogdon joins Podtech?

You heard it here first...

I believe that Amanda Cogdon is joining the team at Podtech.net.  Scoble is heading to Montana with quite the videoblogging team:

Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger » Utah brunch on Friday

Traveling will be Irina Slutsky and Eddie Codel of GeekEntertainment.tv, Ryanne Hodson (she wrote the book on videoblogging), Jay Dedman, me and Patrick.

Amanda announces that she is headed out of town for a retreat and celebration.  She has been actively looking for a job...what better to celebrate than getting a job?

Amanda UnBoomed: Headed Out of Town

I'll be on a mini-retreat until next week doing a little celebration... I will have NO internet access where I am staying (I'll have to go to the nearest Starbucks if I really need a wifi fix). I'm trying to embrace this fact rather than let it piss me off. Yes, Amanda, you must disconnect!

Scoble announces that he is also off the grid...

Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger » Don’t break the Web — I’m off the grid

Anyway, I’ll be offline until August 13th. Visit TechMeme, which is my favorite news site. Enjoy life.

You heard it here first....

Earthquake!

Woooo hoooo....we just had an earthquake here in SF!

Recent Earthquakes - Info for event nc40187964

Magnitude 4.5 - duration magnitude (Md)
Time Wednesday, August 2, 2006 at 8:08:12 PM (PDT)
Thursday, August 3, 2006 at 3:08:12 (UTC)

Not sure this was posted

Trip was looking for this article and I couldn't find it either!  I am not sure I ever posted this link.  It is from an article that was in the Chronicle and on SFGate.com last year from Burning Man:

BURNING MAN AT 20 / Notebook

What do you pack for Burning Man? If you're Brian Walsh and the gang from The Deep End theme camp, 800 bags of ice, 200 cases of Red Bull, 80 cases of liquor and a 75,000-watt sound system ought to do it.

Take that Google

So Yahoo does a little pr to I guess what would be future employees...

Let's just say that the Castfire employee benefits and campus are not as...ummmm...complete. ;)

New project

Shelf portrait
Originally uploaded by Mr. Flibble.

Ok...I have a new project! I really want to make this...but instead of just powerpointing it for an image, I want to print out on past on top of a frame. The sides would have to be grained just correctly to match the front (could do it with a black frame) and the lighting would have to be awesome to make it work. But...would be pretty damn cool!

Transparency

How about some agreement from publishers, from both MSM and people media, to disclose financial backing? We have laws and enforcement from the SEC for financial...why not for lobbying?

Techdirt: Mike McCurry: Will You Pay Google's Bandwidth Bills For The Rest Of This Year?

He's written up an editorial for the Baltimore Sun that doesn't bother to mention his lobbying duties, or who has funded them. McCurry tries to make it seem as though the whole net neutrality thing is simply a ploy by Google to get "free" bandwidth. He notes, derisively, that "a $117 billion company like Google wants legislation that would drive Internet prices higher." Of course, he doesn't happen to mention that his viewpoint is funded by AT&T, who at close of business on Monday appears to be worth (oh, look at that) $117 billion as well.