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Most large cities around the world have a well designed and popular public transport system, because we don’t need no steenkin’ automobiles…
Waking up on Sunday morning, expecting to head on over to Schlomo‘s for a brunch get together of the vlogtheory Yahoo! group. My brain doesn’t work that early, even if food is somehow involved, so it was just as well that nobody talked about vlog theory.
What’s videoblogging? The voices were somewhat less passionate in person than behind the safety of an email list. Personally I spent most of the time speaking to Randy about scrambled eggs and Andreas about bacon, and it was lot more interesting and productive than the usual brow beating that happens online.
Here’s a summary of most of the footage I shot at Vloggercon 2006. Dedicated to everyone who’s in it, most I know, a few I don’t. The song is Rocker by AC/DC, one of our greatest exports, from the album Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap.
And I finally figured out how to properly letterbox the iPod (m4v) version correctly, to preserve my widescreen aspect ratio. Amusingly, the 512×288 H.264 version is only slightly larger (17.6 MB) than the letterboxed 320×240 (MPEG4) version (14.6 MB). Remember to expand the window in FireAnt!
The intersection of the word fuck and the law is examined in four major areas: First Amendment, broadcast regulation, sexual harassment, and education.
Mike Walsh’s keynote speech to the graduating students of the Australian Film, Radio & Television School.
Seth “Shangri-La Diet” Roberts’ paper on self experimentation
Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Ten examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight
I’m working in town this month, and I overheard the following between two 20 something women in the office today, talking about one of the more popular morning radio shows.
W1: I was listening to the radio this morning. Jackie-O is going through detox this week and they were trying to get her to eat junk food, so they tied up their producer to an electric shock machine, and said they’d electrocute him if she didn’t eat, and they ended up shocking him like five times, and then she finally gave in and ate.
W2: God, I would have given in way before that.
W1: Yeah, I can’t believe she let them shock him that many times. Yeah… I wonder if they really did. They probably did, ’cause it sounded like it.
I assumed people listened to these stations knowing full well they were all fake and designed to make them sound like they’re the folks next door, stuck in the same office work kinda treadmill, all the while script writers and commercial advisers are pre-planning every little thing that happens. And to think that these gullible people are the ones working for large financial corporations, who we’re supposed to trust with our money and our morals.
So a few days ago I finally bit the bullet and bought an iPod 5G, the video one. I’ve been resisting for ages, because I was hanging out for the 6G, but there’s a lot of things happening in the next few weeks that I can’t really wait any longer. So if a new one comes out next week, you can have a good laugh at my expense. But knowing my luck, they’ll go on sale the week I’m in San Francisco for Vloggercon 2006, and they’ll be really cheap, being the U.S. and all.
When I’d finally made the decision, I called the AppleCentre in Chatswood to check the price, which was exactly the same as the Apple Store, and they don’t offer the free engraving like Apple do. So the conversation with the AppleCentre guy goes:
R: How much is the latest iPod, the 5G 60GB?
ACG: $598
R: If I came in, would you be open to negotiation on the price?
ACG: [laughing] Not unless you’re buying 30 of them.
R: [laughing] Yeah, sure! [hangs up]
Suffice to say, they didn’t get the business. So easy to shit on your customers isn’t it?
Anyway, I ended up ordering from the Apple Store (resisting the urge to get it engraved with “white guys are cunts“). Problem is, although I usually work from home, next week I’m working on site at a customer, and they can’t guarantee (yes I called Apple to check) the day on which it will be delivered, which means I’ll probably miss it and have to go collect it from somewhere nowhere near me. So I had a thought, that many online retailers pride themselves in delivering as fast as possible. Well, I don’t mind it coming a few days later, so long as I can pick the exact day. Online food retailers like Shopfast are the only stores I can think of that allow you to pick a day and time of delivery. What I’d like on the Apple store is a radio button for either a) fastest possible delivery, or b) delivery a little later but on the date/time of my choice. Can’t be that difficult can it? Especially for Apple, one of the masters in “just in time” manufacturing.
I’m sort of regretting naming this one the way I did on the Internet Archive, because it may not last there very long. Could you please email me if it suddenly won’t load anymore.
So I aint going to explain this video. In response to a thread on the videoblogging email list, Brittany posted a video response. You don’t really need to watch it, as most of it is in my video.
I sort of rushed it out the door, so it looks at first like I’m commenting on hypocrisy, but then for some reason turns to conservatism masquerading as feminism. Whatever. It’s a video, just watch it then delete it. Consume and move on.