Tag: YouTube

Honduras Plane Crash – How The Web Should Be Used

This airport is interesting to plane spotters, so there’s a bunch of video available on Youtube. Each is, unfortunately, scarier than the last.

A plane ran off the runway in Honduras this afternoon. Tegucigalpa is well known by pilots as a tough approach to an airport shoehorned inside a city that’s grown around it. In that way it’s not unlike San Diego’s airport, or the recently replaced Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong.

Officials have been struggling for years to replace aging Toncontin International Airport, whose short runway, primitive navigation equipment and neighbouring hills make it one of the world’s more dangerous landing strips.

The airport was built on the southern edge of hilly Tegucigalpa in 1948 with a runway less than 1,600 metres long.

The altitude of some 1,000 metres forces pilots to use more runway on landings and takeoffs than they would at sea level. And because of the hills, pilots have to make an unusually steep approach.

The difficulties are complicated during Central America’s frequent downpours, and during the springtime burning of farm fields, which produces smoke that often forces the airport to close for days at a time.

Drudge had the story and an interesting link: “VIDEO: WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LAND AT TEGUCIGALPA…”

This airport is interesting to plane spotters, so there’s a bunch of video available on Youtube. Each is, unfortunately, scarier than the last.

This is a great example of how to use what’s already on the Internet to extend conventional news coverage.

More Time Lapse Videos

I thought I’d post a few more time lapse sequences. These are hosted on Flickr, which seems to produce better quality video than Youtube. Hosting my own produces the best look, but it’s a small pain.

I’m still learning a lot about time lapse photography. It really is a whole lot more complex than just point and shoot (and shoot… and shoot).

My plan tonight is to go out with someone from work and get some highway footage from an overpass above I-95. If there’s time after that, a reservoir in Bethany, CT would be next.

The Love Hate Relationship With My Smartphone

I think this shows most of the smart phones are really ‘pocketware,’ too kludgey to use as advertised If people were really using their Blackberrys as Internet devices, what I’m doing wouldn’t stand out. In fact, that point is supported by real world experience.

Thumbnail image for blackjack_upgrade_screen.jpgI thoroughly enjoy my cellphone, a Samsung Blackjack hooked to AT&T’s network. It’s more than a phone. It’s really a little, cumbersome, computer with a too tiny screen.

I use the Internet connection nearly every day. There’s always something I want to look up when I’m away from a ‘real’ PC. That’s especially true at dinner, which I usually have with the rest of our anchor team.

Last night we were looking for the lyrics to a song (the iconic Route 66), but it’s also been used to find the cast of a movie or a direct quote from a story that was on the wires (a now quaint appellation). I even use the Internet connection to pass photos I’ve taken to Flickr, where they’re easily integrated into this blog.

Stef dates a musician. I show his Youtube video to friends on my phone.

You really have to want to use Internet functions on the Blackjack, because there is not one easy or dependable step along the way!

It’s common to press two of the small keys at once, or the wrong one. Sometimes the Internet will stop responding, though the phone says there is Internet availability.

Most web pages are formatted for PC monitors. The much more narrow Blackjack screen forces multi-column pages to become long single column streams, or just extend off the edge of the screen entirely. Navigation is a nightmare, made more difficult because a useful roller controller is on the wrong side for left handed users… like me

While ‘thumbing’ the keyboard, people will often come to me and ask if it’s a Blackberry? Score one for RIM in really working their brand name. These poor, innocent souls look at what I’m doing as if I’ve just dropped in from outer space.

Is there better evidence that this that most of the smart phones are really ‘pocketware,’ too kludgey to use as advertised? If people were really using their Blackberrys to surf the web, what I’m doing wouldn’t stand out.

In fact, that point is supported by quantified real world experience. This revelation is from AppleInsider.

Google on Wednesday said it has seen 50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset — a revelation so astonishing that the company originally suspected it had made an error culling its own data.

Google’s contention is every smartphone, other than the iPhone, is underused. I agree.

Let’s go back to my opening sentence: “I thoroughly enjoy my cellphone, a Samsung Blackjack hooked to AT&T’s network”. That’s no lie. If I had the purchase to do over again, I’d still make it and the Blackjack would still be my choice (even over its successor, the Blackjack II)

What I’m getting at is, the power of having all this information available everywhere is so powerful, it trumps a lackluster platform and all the hurdles one must jump.

The iPhone is certainly a step ahead (as born out by the usage data), but it’s still not the answer. It is throttled by its dependence on AT&T’s older, slower data network and it’s lack of a real keyboard with tactile feedback.

We are still at least one breakthrough away from the real breakout in portable computing. When that time comes, usage will be unleashed in a torrent.

Watching The Grammys

For me the highlight was Kanye West’s electronic suit. The still photo attached doesn’t do it justice. The little lights raced up his chest. His glasses glowed as if they were pulled from the surface of the Sun.

kanye_suit.jpgI sat with Helaine tonight as she watched the Grammys.

These phrases, uttered by me, put my night in context: “Who is she?” “I don’t know that song.” “Never heard of him.”

Helaine, answering one query, said, “They don’t play him on NPR.”

Touché mon petit!

Yes, Tina Turner was on… and dancing. Just as big a deal, maybe bigger, was Keely Smith, still hitting the notes and staying on key with Kid Rock on the classic “Old Black Magic” (sans Louis Prima and Sam Butera and the Witnesses)&#185.

Ringo Starr looks great. So does Cher. Andy Williams looked old and pasty. Stevie Wonder looks heavy.

How many hits did Ann Marie Calhoun’s website get tonight? More than last night… or last year?

For me the highlight was Kanye West’s electronic suit. The still photo attached doesn’t do it justice. The little lights raced up his chest. His glasses glowed as if they were pulled from the surface of the Sun.

He would not have been able to bring his outift had he flown commercially, passing through TSA screening!

&#185 – Of course, Youtube has a classic, 50 year old Louis Prima/Keely Smith video. It’s easy to forget how talented she was. God bless the Internet and poor copyright enforcement.

Upgrading My Samsung Blackjack To Windows Mobile 6

For months the rumor has been floating around that my phone, the Samsung SGH-I607 (more commonly known as the Blackjack), would be getting a new operating system. It began its life with Windows Mobile 5. It would be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.

blackjack_upgrade_screen.jpgFor months the rumor has been floating around that my phone, the Samsung SGH-I607 (more commonly known as the Blackjack), would be getting a new operating system. It began its life with Windows Mobile 5. It would be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.

I first heard this rumor about the time I got the phone, in the fall. There were dates announced and missed. Then Samsung came out with the Blackjack II.

Now there was a new rumor. With a new model, Samsung would stop any work on its older models.

Last night, while poking around, I found an article saying Samsung had actually released the update last week. I moved my focus to bulletin boards where the geekiest were already discussing their individual results (which like your mileage, can vary).

Two tidbits stood out. The Blackjack could still be used as a modem for connecting to the Internet (valuable if you’re sitting in an airline terminal or hotel with ‘pay only’ Internet access) and it now worked with Google’s GPS-less mapping system.

As much as I wanted to wait and let the smoke clear, I was drawn by a force more powerful than apprehension. The update had to go in and it had to go in now.

Putting a new operating system in your telephone is not a simple thing.

Samsung posted instructions on their website. There were lots of steps… steps that implied the phone really wasn’t designed for the untrained masses to perform this surgery. There was software to be loaded onto my PC (XP, not Vista – thank you), then pushed to the phone. Software switches would be thrown, then switched back.

For long periods of time, the cellphone sat with a barebones screen showing changing parameters in Comic Sans (to understand my feelings about Comic Sans, read this). I was beginning to worry I’d ‘bricked’ my phone.

The whole process took around 30 minutes. By the time I was done, the phone was actually working, infused with the geeky goodness of Windows Mobile 6.

I had backed up all my data, so my phone numbers would easily go back in. My ringtones, actually the ABC World News Tonight music, is now too large to be played. I’ll have to find a replacement. I also forgot to back up my customized home screen. I’ll have to rework that too.

There are a few unexpected improvements. Youtube now works on the phone! I can also now easily read Microsoft Windows documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoint files.

Already, people on the bulletin boards are complaining the upgrade doesn’t include Microsoft’s voice command software with the ability to do most functions handsfree. I expect someone will figure a way before long.

This upgrade is not for the faint of heart. There are many confusing steps spread between the PC and cellphone. Wild horses couldn’t have kept me from doing it.

Reevaluating Video

Is the Internet ready for video? Maybe it’s a little late to ask this with YouTube so huge. Still, I’m starting to come to the conclusion that no one does video as well as TV does!

With TV, you turn it on – boom – the video is there. No fuss. Nothing more to do. And, most importantly, no waiting.

Schedules aren’t as hard and fast as they were a decade or two ago, but it’s reasonably easy to find your faves on TV.

Commercial TV stations have been broadcasting for around 60 years. They lucked into the right formula.

Even when cable tries to do video in different ways on my TV, they can’t do it effectively. My Comcast DVR, hooked to digital cable, connects me to hundreds of shows on demand. I hardly ever look!

The problem is, finding the shows and then getting them running is a hassle. Of course, that’s the Internet’s problem too. And now, on the Internet, add ‘roadblock’ ads as another viewer disincentive.

For years I’ve been telling anyone who’d listen that the future of newscasts, what I do for a living, is on the small computer screen, not some big TV. I now have second thoughts.

Until someone figures out how to index all the shows… until someone figures out how to make video appear instantly… until someone figures out how to make Internet video as profitable as over-the-air broadcasts, it’s just not going to happen.

Youtube might end up being the exception, not the rule.

In Search Of The Use

I just opened a free account with ComVu’s PocketCaster:

With your individual account, you get PocketCaster software for your phone, a Personal Webcast Page to host videos for your viewers, live video broadcasting capability, online video storage, and many options for automatically sharing your video.

In other words, I can broadcast video live (with a delay) directly from my cell phone to any Internet equipped computer worldwide.

I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise. I already upload every piece of video I shout with my cellphone directly to YouTube (in a private, not public, directory) using simple and free software from Shozu.

Where this is different is, if you’re looking at the right web page and I start ‘broadcasting’, you’re going to see it right then and there. It doesn’t make any difference where I am or what’s going on. At the ballgame, at a concert, overloooking the nuclear sub base- it makes no difference. You see it (reasonably close to) live.

The quality isn’t all that great. What I see, coming through at&t’s G3 data network, is pixelated and choppy. However, if it’s a situation where content trumps technical quality, this is perfect.

With this software up and running, I realize more than ever my Samsung Blackjack wasn’t designed to be a video camera! It’s a cellphone with a camera added on as an afterthought. Why else would the screen go blank (as all cell screens do after a while) while I’m shooting video?

For TV stations, this definitely unlocks the ability to have cheap and dirty live coverage for minimal cost. Luckily, the poor quality will keep this from being overused, except where the story itself is compelling.

Anyway, I’ll keep playing with it and let you know if I figure anything out… like how this company plans on making money.

Hooked On Phone-ics

During our vacation out west, Helaine threatened to kill me – using my new cellphone as the weapon! OK, maybe I’m a little obsessed.

If you didn’t follow my earlier travails, I have moved to a Samsung Blackjack “Smartphone.” It’s a Swiss Army Knife phone that takes snapshots and video, browses the Internet, retrieves email, chats on IM and SMS… oh, and it’s also a phone.

The first thing I did was buy a skin for it. A skin is a hard plastic, form fitting, case. When I drop the phone, and I will drop it, it now has some protection. The skin is a rich deep red, giving the phone a metrosexual look.

The problem/fun presented by a phone like this is how much of it is customizable. I’ve already downloaded some programs which automatically send my photos to Picasaweb and my videos to Youtube (both automatically flagged as ‘private’ ). There’s also an Instant Messenger client (which routes all my text messages through India).

The real customization is saved for the homescreen. With a little rudimentary programming, it’s possible to make the homescreen look almost any way you want and display all sorts of cool (read: nerdy) data.

I’m working on that now, putting Google through a major test as I try and find more and more sites that have inside tidbits. There are lots of fans for this type of phone and many do have websites.

I really like the phone, though it is by no means perfect. The keyboard is incredibly small. My fingers are not. I often hit two keys at once, or move off a page because I’ve pressed the wrong part of the round navigation control.

Two of the phone’s most useful controls are built for right handed people. I’m a lefty.

There more I use the phone, the more I understand why people get hooked on them. Having this additional access to the Internet and messaging is an amazing thing.

When Steffie called me, looking for subway directions from Penn Station to Lincoln Center, I was able to figure it out, even though I was standing in the MGM Grand Poker Room in Las Vegas at the time.

I give it another week or two of obsessive behavior before I’m able to move this phone into the normal rhythm of life. Until then, I’ll try and use it when Helaine’s not watching.

Lala The Japanese Penguin

“Honey, you should put Lala on your blog.” That’s what Helaine yelled to me across the house a few seconds ago. Those words follow Helaine, Stef and me watching the story of a Japanese family’s domesticated penguin on Youtube.

She’s right (always). Here’s Lala.

Pen Spinning

Last night, looking for something on Youtube, I stumbled upon “Pen Spinning.”

Crazy!

Take a look and let me know what you think. This is the first I’ve heard of it.

Who Will Make The Video?

With this week’s tragic events at Virginia Tech, amateur video has again come to the fore. Virginia Tech graduate student Jamal Albarghouti shot the widely seen and heard cellphone video as shots rang out.

CNN, who solicits video from bystanders, referred on-the-air to Albarghouti as a reporter. I’ve got a problem with that characterization, but let’s save that concern for a later entry.

User provided content is being touted everywhere. Isn’t that what Youtube is all about… and look at Youtube’s success.

I spent some time a few days ago actually looking at Youtube’s user submitted content. By and large it’s terrible. Actually, unwatchable is a better characterization.

Go ahead. Try it yourself. Browse through Youtube limiting yourself to user provided content.

I’ve also tried, four separate times, to watch justin.tv. Justin, a twenty something from San Fransisco, has a camera on him broadcasting live on the Internet 24/7. Really – you can watch Justin sleep! I’ve never made it more than a few minutes before bailing from boredom… even when Justin was in a crowded bar.

User produced video sounds great to broadcasters and webcasters because the price sounds great. But, truth is, you’ve just shifted the expense. Unless you’re Youtube, running a mainly user submitted video website, someone’s going to have to view, categorize, approve and most importantly, cull these videos.

“Someone” is a euphemism for “free stuff will now cost.”

I can’t imagine doing that job, wading through the vlogs of 16 year old girls. Talk about a prisoner like existence.

What I’m getting at is, there will be exceptions based on circumstance, but by and large most of the video we watch will continue to be produced by professionals, aided by a very few talented amateurs (who will probably later succumb to the siren song of pay for work).

All the companies now thinking of free content as be their salvation will soon realize, there’s still no such thing as a free lunch.

Working For You – Not

I’m not in Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters convention. I wish I was.

It’s a hardware, not content, affair. I was there a few years ago, demonstrating products on behalf of a weather equipment vendor. This broadcasters convention attracts a lot more production companies than TV stations.

Announced at NAB and most interesting to me, without really knowing everything that’s there, are new software suites from Adobe and Microsoft. These are made for posting richly interactive multimedia content on the web. This software facilitates an experience more than a few steps beyond just watching a video on YouTube in a small window.

What concerns me is the deep insertion of DRM, or digital rights management into the output of these products. Producers want the ability to make sure you watch the commercials if you watch their content. Certainly they’re entitled to make money to pay for their troubles.

The problem is, so far DRM has been an invasive add-on. It adds another layer of complexity to the viewing experience. It is software designed for the customer, but not the end user… or at least it has been until now.

I worry because Microsoft’s Silverlight platform requires people watching the content to first download a new plug-in (as you do for Flash, Real, PDF files, etc.). When Microsoft asks me to install free software, I instinctively count my fingers and lock the silverware.

A perfect example of DRM gone wrong shows up in the Sony-BMG DRM debacle. Sony’s audio CDs installed secret software on computers to protect Sony. Unfortunately, the software wreaked havoc with some PCs.

There are rumors Sony’s at it again with DVDs that won’t play in some (even Sony’s own) DVD players.

Maybe, in these rapidly changing days, there’s a better way to include commercial content? Maybe the ‘roadblock commercial’ we’ve accepted for over 50 years needs to change?

In the meantime, my opinion is, Adobe and Microsoft are not working for you.

Hooked On Consumerist

When it comes to customer/retailer disputes, the customer isn’t always right. Unfortunately, often times he is, after the sale, when consumers have almost no leverage.

Maybe that’s why I’ve become hooked on reading consumerist.com. It’s a guilty pleasure, like reading about Paris Hilton or sneaking a candy bar from the bag left over from Halloween (you think this is a surprise to anyone in the Fox house?).

I am often amazed by the reported (not verified) outlandishly bad behavior of America’s big merchants. And believe me, some of this is pretty mean.

On the other hand, I also see consumer weasels trying to game the system and then getting upset when they don’t succeed. Reading their letters of complaint makes my blood boil. Consumerist often treats them as legitimate complainers, though I wouldn’t.

Business weasels seem to outnumber consumer weasels. Again, remember where the leverage is after the sale.

I am curious how big business looks at sites like this? All of a sudden, the Internet has made one person’s word-of-mouth louder and opened up publishing to nearly anyone. Bad customer experiences trying to cancel AOL’s service, get a cable TV problem fixed, or expose customer neglect by airlines have been well documented with pictures and sound.

Do big businesses weigh the cost of this bad publicity and if so, how much weight is given to sites like this? Is someone from Cingular or Home Depot or any one of the sites often mentioned reading Consumerist as part of their job?

I can tell you from experience, no official has ever responded when I’ve written about a product or service I was dissatisfied with – but this blog gets minimal traffic.

‘Buzz’ has created today’s celebrities. It’s also responsible for web hits like YouTube, Craigslist and MySpace, which seemingly grew without organized promotion (at best with minimal promotion). Can buzz injure established brick and mortar companies too?

Read at your own peril. The site is addictive.

If I Were A Car Guy

People see me tooling around in my little two seater and figure I must be a car guy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I know nothing about cars and have never lusted after them.

Maybe this has to do with growing up in New York City where public transportation was plentiful and parking spaces were not. I didn’t get my drivers license until I was 19!

So, you now have my bona fides. Yet I love “Top Gear,” the BBC2 car show that’s freely available on YouTube.

It’s obvious the three hosts have an affection toward automobiles. They also know enough not to take themselves, or their cars, too seriously. The show is vigorously irreverent.

With that in mind, let me make two recommendations. In this first clip, they do everything possible to kill a Toyota Hilux pickup truck. In the second, they send a car down an Olympic ski ramp. A third clip features Minis playing hockey.

If you’re a car nut, you’ll enjoy these. If you’re not, I’m curious to hear your impressions.

Why isn’t this on US TV?

How Comedians Were Made

I’ve been watching YouTube tonight. That’s probably a bad thing to say, since watching YouTube means I’m not watching television.

It’s interesting how, in many ways, YouTube (or one of its wannabe sister sites) has become the conduit for many of our shared mutual experiences. That used to be the province of TV. Now, if you missed it when it happened, you can catch up online.

Tonight on YouTube I was watching airchecks of a few comedians first appearances with Johnny Carson. I remembered seeing Rosanne Barr’s first set as it aired on The Tonight Show. Others I may have seen, but they didn’t leave an impression at the time.

When I was going to college and long into my working life, Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show was the only thing on nationally after the late news. There was no Letterman or Leno or Conan or Jon Stewart. Yeah – there was cable, but cable had few additional channels and fewer original productions.

A comedian making his/her debut appearance on the Tonight Show could expect their life to change forever instantly. I’ve heard more than one comic say that.

There were three responses you could get from Johnny. He could politely applaud. That was bad news. He could give you the ‘hi’ sign. That was approval.

If you were really good, Johnny would call you over to the couch for a minute or two. Ellen DeGeneres was called over on her first night. You could see in her eyes she totally understood what was happening.

That era, where one program could have such an impact, is gone. It will never come back. In a multichannel universe, no one show can dominate.

As much as the rights holders are probably upset, having these moments of television history available is yet another luxury of the Internet.