Interesting Take On Email

How to deal with email as just another input... from the great Merlin Mann at 43 Folders and David Allen

Let me wax poetic

It's important that you know your whole job - the whys behind it, and how it gets done. This is especially important in this digital age, where although there are a plethora of tools available, not so many folks know how to use them. Think about it - you can go to Home Depot and buy everything to build a house. Yet, few of us have the ability to take those tools and actually make a house.

We had a tape come through that was drop-out city. For the non-tech-savvy, it's much like you recorded a TV show but the whole thing looks messed up with peoples' heads where they shouldn't be, or funny colors or noise in certain parts of the picture.

Many pros I know couldn't fix that tape and would of left it for dead - but we did fix it. How?

It's because I was taught by my mentor that you need to know the technical background to create really great productions as opposed to "walling off" yourself to the "other side." And with digital tools nowadays, that wall is a low fence that is easily hopped.

Because he taught me those things for years, drilling it in my head that yes, checking your scopes matters, what the difference is between fields, and how still video is going to look when it is between fields (crucial pre-render), what blanking is, etc., we have been (although tediously) able to repair this critical tape using what would be to many people confusing controls (a simple online search shows that others find the controls difficult to use) that are completely understandable if you have a basic technical background. That, and those controls are extremely powerful and can accomplish this task BECAUSE they rely on knowing what you're doing.

Moral of the story, and what he taught me - whatever you do, do it well. Love it enough to want to know it intimately. And if you don't love it, leave it and find something you love. That's when you'll truly excel at what you do - and when you'll cease going to work another day in your life.

Bosses Hand Out iPods

Wonder if other folks are using iPods for their corporations or companies?

Wonder no longer. This article on the Wall Street Journal site illustrates what using an iPod can do for you quite easily.

What not to do on a web site....

WPTS has done it again. Made me laugh myself silly.



This is exactly what not to do.

Foreign Automakers Lead Auto Search Terms

It's something I never thought about until I was doing some research for an upcoming project, but it's an interesting fact.

According to Hitwise (link to the stats box here), "toyota" (2.69%), "honda" (2.68%), and "nissan" (2.12%) are the top three automotive search terms, with the first American automaker being Ford at 1.83%. Now, you can slice and dice stats a bunch of ways, but, interesting because it seems to me this says that people are looking more and more for information on foreign (esp. Japanese) vehicles.

Moral of the story: Watch your statistics. Very, very useful information.

Weird Al Has Captured Me

"White and Nerdy."

Here's the deal - I'm not the whole song, but it totally describes in part our team... although over half of that song is appropos for me (big public admission).

But - I do own a company that specializes in internet media. Go figure.

Wakin' up with ideas

I was all asleep, and then "BAM!" it all hits me. All the malaise I had today with ideas, gone.

Gootube.... interesting deal. Obviously, online video has a ton of revenue potential, or Google wouldn't of forked over 1.65 Billion in stock for YouTube. And Google is right - online video is a great way to show off ads. A great for instance is the sponsors for the events we webcast. Since usually, our events are around an hour long, so you're looking at 10 minutes of exposure time in a six-unit rotation because it's always there.

Great news in that we've finally found the mac software package to beat the Channelstorm and Tricaster - and at a great value for our clients to keep our prices at our legendary reasonable status. We're going to roll it out at some of our multi-cam jobs around the beginning of the year, saving hours in import time and many pounds in gear.

That's all for now - I leave you with a fun link. The Buddha Machine - have a little Electronic Buddhism with you wherever you may go. Headphone jacks and an internal speaker, it plays loops of what could be best called "Buddha-esque" sounds. I personally love the graphic (that's that funny electronic schematic graphic with a buddha in it).

More Long Tail

Interesting article in IHT about the Long Tail.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/04/business/ptend05.php

Word Verification, Moderation, and More

I'm taking a few minutes to put up some key points about the blog and how much I hate spam.

I have had more than a few people email me that they don't like having to verify and have the comments moderated, so they don't comment. Here's the deal; if I don't, this thing is going to become rife with spam. I have to moderate it otherwise we end up with miles and miles of ads for, shall we say, "health" products.

Be assured that if it's civil, even if you disagree with me, I'll put it up. Discourse is key to the internet, but is slowly being choked off by the proliferation of spambots and people who surf the net and get paid a couple cents per time to include spam.

And also, coming soon is our new marketing tips podcast. I'll announce it right here when it's ready.