Uploaded by anthodium on Jun 4, 2010

I was cleaning out my VHS tapes and stumbled upon this time capsule: a 1994 infomercial on “high-tech gifts for Father’s Day.” Most segments were hilarious: enormous cellular phone, $400 Sega CD game system, large monochrome laptop, etc. In this segment: “Hot New technology: The Internet/”

Me: Love the Wired plug with their cutting edge offices and all those tube CRTs. “Wired”… Me… I prefer Wire-less.

The segment featured a shorter version of the video and a little Q&A between Winfrey, Gabriel, Bergh and the students, and ended with Oprah announcing that Target Stores had been enlisted to help upgrade Ocoee’s library. Below is the original video and beneath that several stills of the 1,285 that I shot during the video shoot.

Hard to imagine that an idea shared last Fall in a downtown Orlando restaurant has resulted in an inspirational video that’ll be a life-long memory for the 1,700 students who participated and now has become part of the national conversation on the importance of reading.

image by joe bustillos

image by joe bustillos

image by joe bustillos

image by joe bustillos

image by joe bustillos

image by joe bustillos

sources:
all images by Joe Bustillos.

Boxee Beta from boxee on Vimeo.

One of the things that I’ve learned so far is that even though I’m using fast wireless “N” and or a fast “power” Ethernet connection between the first and second floors, ripped DVDs stored on hard drives in their original Mpeg2 format won’t play across the network without lots of buffering or dropped frames. Unacceptable. I was anticipating using my PS3 as the movie/media player downstairs (still working on that), so I had previous converted some movies to mp4 and those videos seemed to play nicely across the network. So, even though I’m a firm believer in having access to all of the “extra features” that I look for with my DVDs (and how convenient they are to access using the DVD menu system), I’ll need to rip and convert my media to a more network friendly format, like mp4 (which makes each extra feature into it’s own separate video file). Grrr.

image by Joe Bustillos

I have a huge DVD and music collection and get most of my more daily news and entertainment via video and audio podcasts, so I need some kind of box attached to my TVs so that I can get my Internet/network media. I was hoping to use my PS3 as the player in my living room, but it has a crappy web-browser and doesn’t do RSS, so it can’t natively do podcasts. More work needed here. At the moment my mac mini is doing living room media duties. I love the Front Row interface, but it seems a bit confused that my episodes of StarTrek (classic and Next Gen) are not movies and won’t let me organize things. So maybe the updated Boxee interface will do the job.

I’ve played with Boxee previously, but couldn’t break away from my iTunes addiction. With the software upgrade and set-top box, I’m thinking that this might be the solution to my Internet TV/podcast thing, either the software or the set-top box. Depending on my success using the PS3 as a media player, I still might need another set-top box for the bedroom TV. I’m also thinking that I need to plug into the NetFlix thing (streaming and disc) so that I don’t find myself buying every movie I want to see. So whatever box I get needs to do Netflix, access my music and DVDs across the network and either grab podcasts off the net or the ones stored on my other computers. Having invested in the PS3, I’m aware of the problems of getting a box that isn’t as expandable to handle all of the twists and turns that tends to happen in the media market.

Sources:
* Boxee Demo. http://www.boxee.tv/box retrieved on 1/23/2010
* FrontRow image by Joe Bustillos
* Tekzilla » Episode 124: “Should I buy a Boxee Box or a Roku or Stick With My xbox?” http://revision3.com/tekzilla/veronicapc/should-i-buy-a-boxee-box-or-a-roku-or-stick-with-my-xbox-360- retrieved on 1/23/2010
* Tekzilla » Episode 121: Boxee Box. http://revision3.com/tekzilla/2010newyear/boxee-box retrieved on 1/23/2010

Long Beach studio circa 1999 - image by joe bustillos

So I packed books and everything in the bedroom and started taking apart my home office, disconnecting all the monitors (three) and gadgets. I decide to set up a temporary office on the dining table in the front room with one external monitor, keyboard and mouse. When I went to bed that first night in the office-less bedroom I was really surprised at how dark that room was. I had to turn on a nightstand light to safely navigate the room. Next surprise was how soundly I seemed to sleep that night. Duh.

This isn’t rocket science, I’d been sleeping in rooms bathed in the continual glow of blue, red and green LEDs, and four monitors showing an earth in space screen saver for as long as I could remember. Of course once I took my glasses off it was all an undefinable glow, but I guess the glow was enough for my brain to not fully “shut off” when I slept. The difference in my sleep before and after removing the office was remarkable. It was remarkable enough that I decided that I was going to forego the bedroom TV or other technology when I move to the townhouse.

I know for many this a “duh” thing, but for me this really is a change in thinking. For years I’ve maintained no difference between my working life writing on the computer while watching some TV and pushing up to and past the point of exhaustion and then just staggering to bed my head still very full of the things I’d been working on. Now I am going to have to be much more deliberate and intentional as I get up from my office chair and walk down the hall to go to sleep. Hell, maybe I’ll develop the habit of doing some reading or talking to late night friends before drifting off to slumberland. A technology-free zone was not something I would have guessed would have come out of this move. Wow.

Movies: Star Trek X: Nemesis

From the big screen to the small, the ad would have us believe that what was once shared (the big screen), was lost in the next two steps (TV & computers) but wonderfully recaptured in this latest iteration, specifically the N-Series Nokia devices. Um… bullshit.

The one constant across the fabled four screens is the shared nature of the experiences. Whereas the shared nature of the big screen is immediate, what worked for TV, the second screen, was talking about ones favorite TV series or episodes with fellow fans later. The success of the media itself was and is dependent on the number of eyeballs watching and the number of eyeballs watching is dependent, largely on the conversation surrounding the series. Whereas the shared experience is largely immediate with the big screen, it’s no less real for the small screen, just less immediate. The ad says that the experience is “Private.” Perhaps, but if the producers want to be successful it must, by nature, be communal on a massive scale.

So the third screen, the computer screen, bane of all that is good and human in the world; If all of your experiences of this screen is Excel spreadsheets and corporate email, God help you and we’re very sorry for you. But just like the TV experience, what is good and works is what connects us via this particular screen. IM (instant messaging), chat, social networking, webcams, email and gaming are all aspects that can connect us in a way that isn’t possible by any other means. With this third screen the connection is both in real time and “time-shifted.” And gaming, specifically listed in the ad, is successful because it is a shared experience, either in-real-time, or the same conversation had about favorite movies (1st screen) or TV shows (2nd screen). Contrary to popular belief and this ad, what works with gaming in particular and computers in general, is the common experience of the journey, struggle and triumph either as a clan or even as an observer. The storytelling and experience of the first screen, movies, is continued with this third screen in a powerful way that surpasses the passive experience of the first screen. Third screen, gaming and computers, FTW!

So, this fable fourth screen, the savior of all that is connected and good in the world, follows the same pattern: whatever works with the third screen applies to the fourth screen. The lie is that because it’s portable, where one can enjoy media in the presence of ones community then it must be more connected. Again, bullshit. It’s not the portability that makes it more connected, it’s the video conferencing, TM and IM, network gaming, apps that connect to all of the social networking. The portability makes it something that can be experienced away from the desktop or a set location, but it’s the activity, the shared experience, that makes it more connected, not the portability. The imagery that we’re all getting back together and reconnecting because of this fourth screen is largely fictional. We’ve always been connected but the potential and power is much much greater, and now, more portable.

The unspoken truth about gaming and technology is they can take connectedness to the next level, combining the shared experience with interactive participation and freedom from location or time limitations. Except for the fringe anti-social users, who would be anti-social regardless of the technology, the truth is that we are reaching an unprecedented level of meaningful human connection, not due to some portable device but because that is what humans do when the possibility of connectedness is realized. If your experience of technology is dehumanizing and disconnected perhaps you should examine your usage and not blame the technology but your own inability to look someone in the face and say, “Hi.” jbb

*Original source: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/07/25/will-the-4th-screen-bring-us-together/

So, with two new 30-second “I’m a PC/I’m a Mac” ads, Apple redirects the conversation back to Microsoft’s failed Vista OS and points out that throwing money at ads or choosing to banish the “V” word won’t change Microsoft’s uncoolness. Nothing flashy, no WTF factor, no “churros” or subplots, just a silly little observation that Microsoft continues to miss the point.

This has got to piss off someone at Microsoft. $700-million in advertising undercut by two simple 30-second spots. That’s gotta hurt. jbb

A few weeks ago my oldest sister forwarded a Republican slanted presidential candidate comparison chart to the whole family. I glanced at it and immediately recognized the fearmongering and misrepresentation of the facts geared toward fear. My brother Matt was motivated to write a response to the chart. Even without the original chart, his response was so powerful that I wanted to publish it in this blog (with his permission!). Without further ado… brother Matt gets political:

First of all, whoever wrote this up should learn how to spell the candidate names. It’s Barack, not Barak.

Next, offshore drilling will never solve our energy problems. The oil that would be produced is ten years down the road and there is no correlation between the recent price increases and increase on demand. Oil futures markets, lack of leadership at the administrative level, a middle east war and record profits have more to do with recent prices than supply.

Next judges, there is a philosophical difference with law as it supports the status quo and envisioned so that the law protects all citizens. Our founding fathers were gifted men, but they were far from perfect. If the constitution was not modified, we would still have slavery, minorities would not have property rights and women would have neither the right to own property or the right to vote. Imagine, giving the vote to all those silly frivolous women. Surely, this will be the end of America as we know it.

Have you noticed that the folks that are resistant to change are often those that live their lives in fear. They are afraid of those different than them. they are afraid of blacks, Mexicans, Jews, gays and even the the disabled. It is as though they that will lose their position as “top dog,” in the pile of haves vs. have nots.

Next, what about McCain and his service record. Have you ever pondered how a navel cadet who finished in the bottom 1% of his class got the prestigious opportunity to fly fighter jets? Could it be that John McCain’s father was a four star admiral? How do you think McCain got into Annapolis to begin with? It wasn’t Affirmative Action, it was that much older program called good ol’ boy network. Ironic, how those that benefit form this very old perk are the same that oppose measures such as Affirmative Action, which is a small attempt to level a playing field that is entrenched with old money, alumni, and the well connected.

Amount of time served is the next topic. If experience was the only factor of what makes someone good at a particular skill, then old people would be the best drivers. Let me remind you that Barack Obama has the same number of years in office as the Ronald Reagan.

Healthcare, Kathie with all the trouble you’ve had with your healthcare, I thought you would have enough common sense to know that the system does not work. Even if you have good insurance, medical care is regulated by insurance companies that have an overhead of 25%, while Medicare and members of Congress are administrated by “bloated bureaucracy” that manages to do the job with less than 6%. That means for every $100 you pay, an insurance company takes $25 right off the top. No wonder the insurance companies spent hundreds of millions to kill Universal healthcare during the 1980′s.

Barack Obama does not support late term abortion. John McCain supported a women’s right to choose in 2000, now in 2008, when he needs the fanatical religious right’s votes, he has flipped-flopped on this issue. If the Right Wing was truly concerned with being pro-life, they would adopt every infant in this country and not just the healthy white babies.

Obama supports a reasonable schedule on an Iraqi withdrawal. John McCain said that we might be there for a hundred years.

Obama would like to see reasonable restrictions on guns in some of our inner cities. You know, the places that you’re afraid to go to when the sun goes down.

Obama is against taking away citizen’s rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, even if those citizens happen to have the same naughty bits in their undies. Again, what are you so afraid of? If marriage is a “Sacred Institution” joined by the Almighty then any objective observer would have to give it an “F” grade since it fails 50% of the time. The religious right have a saying,”What would Jesus do?” If being gay were such a huge sin, then you would think that Jesus would bring up the subject time and again. But he didn’t. In fact Jesus gave no warning or rebukes to homosexuals. But what he did warn about was on the subject of money. He brings up the topic of money about a dozen times in the gospels.

English as an official language? Okay folks, are you too stupid to learn a second language? History lesson: what is the oldest city in the Unitied States? Answer: St. Augustine, FL, where the european settlers spoke spanish. We live in a global economy. One of the reasons that we got attacked is that we did not and still do not have enough Arabic translators. We have a scathingly bad record of being poor students of history, culture and languages. Remember how the Neoconservatives thought that our soldiers would be greeted in Bagdad like the French greeted the allied troops during WWII? Remember that the Bush Administration did not know the difference between the different Islamic sects? Remember that the oil revenue was supposed to pay for this war?Remember the American idiots that killed an Indian Sikh, because he was wearing a turban. Most Americans have the attitude of “give me my cheeseburger and my TV and leave me alone.” Its amazing that there are those thats resent the fact that Obama worked hard and got a great education. Maybe Americans are just too stupid to be effectively governed.

Lastly, taxes. Does anybody think that you can spend money like a drunken sailor and cut taxes without some serious financial consequences. Our current president has taken this economy down the toilet. We have suffered the perfect storm of record deficit spending, deregulation of the banking industry that has lead to the sub-prime crisis, an energy policy that was designed by oil industry insiders that has caused the greatest shift of currency to leave this country and go to countries that sent the 911 terrorist to the U.S. (please remember 15 of the 19 terrorist were from Saudi Arabia) and the crisis is spreading. We will see further financial problems due to our continuance of the slide of home property values, our lack of personal savings and the heavy reliance of easy to obtain credit cards. We need to seriously ask the same question that Ronald Reagan asked Americans in the 1980′s debate: Are you better off now compared to four (eight) years ago?

Please don’t be fooled by this type of conservative claptrap you sent me. These people have tired, old ideas. And if you didn’t notice by their example, they don’t give a damn about the average American or the problems that the average American faces. I wrote this lengthy reply because I am concerned and a bit angry with the voters in this country. But I deeply love my sister.

Matt

Amen, bro. Onward and upward. jbb

What happened to the company that buried IBM and killed off Netscape? Apparently as they’ve aged they’ve lost that edge. As much as Apple often comes off smug and elitist, this Microsoft comes off whiny and pathetic. And while we’re at it, why the hell is Bill Gates in all the commercials? Didn’t he just retire from the company? jbb

I love political cartoons. I have a book of cartoons from from famed LA Times political cartoonist Paul Conrad. The Jib-Jab team takes it to a new level (I especially like the good-looking voter at the end of the video).

Following the Republican convention my brother sent me a COMMENTS vs. THE FACTS article by Associated Press writer, Jim Kuhnhenn. My brother gave the article the title: “Republicans Should Not Wear Flammable Pants.” Indeed, as the both parties head for November we’ll watch grown men speak out of both sides of their months with the fingers crossed behind their backs. For example…

PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.”

PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate.”

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population.

MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right _ change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington _ throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.”

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate

"Apple MacBook MB404LL/A 13.3-inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive) Black" (Apple Computer)

As impressive as the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremonies were on Friday and the amazing performances that I got a chance to catch over the weekend, for me the defining Olympic moment is still the 1992 400-meter race when Derek Redmond pulled a hamstring and choose to hobble the rest of the race, the last 100-meters with the assistance of his father. To witness the pain and anguish and determination to finish… I know that a credit card company is cashing in on the image, and maybe I’m overly sentimental about a “game,” but in that moment I identified with the power to rise above what others would call a lost cause. Equally the stadium rose to cheer on this broken athlete as he crossed the finish line. And what was writ large with this Olympic example I saw last year during an insignificant middle school race.

Derek Redmond – 1992 Olympic moment

Last April, while taking photos at a boys’ track meet for the school yearbook I saw how the gathered crowd reacted to the determination of a last place sixth grader who was completely out of his league running against much taller 7th and 8th graders in a two-lap 880 race. Long after all of the other runners had crossed the finish line, this sixth grader rounded the last turn before the long straight-away in front of the stands to the finish and he began to sprint. The crowd rose to their feet and the harder he ran the louder they cheered and the louder they cheered the harder he ran. By the time he reach the finish the noise was deafening and he had given everything he had. He wasn’t on my school’s team but I shot off pictures like he was an Olympic champion. It was the most perfect unmanufactured example of the human spirit I’d seen in years. In fact, it was probably 1992, the 400-meter race in Barcelona when I last saw the same unadulterated power of a crowd on its feet, screaming for the a last place runner. Funny how, when the greatness of the human spirit is reveal an unimportant middle school track meet can carry the same impact and meaning as the Olympics. jbb

Music/podcast: popSiren Bite – Save on Text-Messaging with Teleflip from the album “popSiren (Large Quicktime)” by Revision3

Technorati Tags: florida, hardware, moving, orlando, techtoys, tv

It probably didn’t help that someone, either AT&T or Apple, screwed the pooch with the activation process changing the cheering that was last year’s wonderful experience to jeering as is chronicled in the following video by Mahalo Daily’s Leah D’Emilio:

Music/Podcast: MacBreak Weekly 97: youtalking@me.com from the album “MacBreak Weekly” by Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Merlin Mann, and Randal Schwartz

Technorati Tags: apple, applehardware, california, iphone, media, journalism, techtoys, tv, youtube

Music/Video Podcast: Tekzilla – A Better Camera for YouTube. Win a Zune. Dual Boot XP and Vista. Baby Kills iPhone. Play DivX videos on your TV from the album “Tekzilla (Large Quicktime)” by Revision3

Technorati Tags: applehardware, florida, Internet, lust, media, movies, music, tv, youtube

Music: My Monkey from the album “Thing a Week” by Jonathan Coulton

Technorati Tags: beer, california, media, movies, tacobeach, twitter

Taco Beach Twitters:

• so, i didn’t anticipate spending my sunday in taco beach drinking beer & talkin’ shit w/ the locals. need to pack 4 florida [sly smile] #
• i can’t believe, i’ve gotten the taco beach crew 2 turn up the volume on the academy awards & we’re listening 2 the “enchanted” theme. ha! #

Powered by Twitter Tools.