Occasionally Interesting
It would be great to accompany this video with a screencast of the post-production, which is definitely at least 50% of the work for a photo like this. Unfortunately, that would be additional time for a project that took over 4 months to wrap up as-is. Yesterday, I finally edited and posted footage from November of Adam Nollmeyer of Acme Photography and myself taking photos from a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles.
The resulting photo:
Special thanks to Andrew Hyde, Brent Spore, Daniel Burka, Gary Vaynerchuk, Willo O’Brien, Jim Long, Justine Ezarik, Joshua Strebel, Ward Andrews, Marcus Nelson, Rob Sandie, Matt Mullenweg, and Thor Müller for not holding back!
You are cordially invited to watch and participate in a LIVE web demo of XID at http://ustream.tv/channel/brianshaler, starting at (about) 1:00pm MST/Arizona Saturday 2/2/2008.
Update: For time conversion and the current MST time, check out timeanddate.com
What is XID?
The XID project is intended to provide a free, open, and decentralized method of sharing your online presence with your friends.
The most important thing about social networks is being connected with your friends. By storing and filtering your friends’ XID information, you will easily be able to see which of your friends already have accounts on any given social network. No email address book importing. No searching for each of your friends’ names. You don’t need to rely on the web site’s friend-finding mechanisms if you have XID.
What will be Demo’d?
XID is a platform, and when the platform is launched, so will a set of complementary applications. The applications involved are not yet complete. I will be showing and explaining what has been completed so far. Currently, there is an optional web application that is intended to allow new users to quickly and easily set up an XID card without looking at any code. There is also a Firefox extension that allows users to import and manage their friends’ XID cards.
Web Application
The web application consists of these key features:
Those features have been at least partially implemented and they can be previewed right now. There will be more features in the near future.
Firefox Extension
The Firefox sidebar extension consists of these key features:
Again, those are features that are at least partially implemented and there will be more to come.
NOT Just a Tour
There is no scheduled end time for this Live web demo. After an initial tour is complete, I will discuss current and future features with anyone in the UStream chat room (UStream account NOT required to participate!). I will also work on writing code to implement features while discussing them. Live.
At the expense of a little productivity, I will attempt to multi-task.
As the dot-com bubble had just begun to burst, one could hear a faint whisper that the next bubble forming.
A booming industry experiencing rapid growth usually appears to be on the verge of a major collapse. With an industry that is constantly growing at a wild pace, bubble talk follows you where ever you go.
A few years later, Myspace sells for half a billion dollars. After that, YouTube sells for $1.65 billion. Each new astronomical valuation breathes life and vitality into the bubble talkers.
Talking about bubble talk can get pretty boring. Luckily, we now have bubble videos!
This reminds me of “The Internet Stars Are Viral”
via brand flakes‘ RSS feed
Earlier this year, in February, I took a fun photo at a Refocus Phoenix outing. Within the next 48 hours, that photo attracted more views (140,000+), received more comments (161) and favorites (608), and was talked about on the internet more than all of the rest of my photos combined.
Josh Gomez on the “Light Speed Escalator” — February 2007
With all the excitement around the photo, I wanted to share with everyone how simple and easy the effect is. I also wanted to show some non-believers that the effect was actually achieved without computer enhancements.
Tonight, I finally took the time to drive back to the Brickyard in Tempe and shoot a video tutorial. I took my cheap JVC camcorder ($300-$400), cheap Canon Digital Rebel XT with kit 18-55mm 3.5 lens (currently under $500), and two reeeally cheap tripods and made this cheap video!
The Result: Brian Shaler — November 2007
Let me know what you think in the comments here (general feedback), on Viddler (feedback on the video), or Flickr (feedback on the photo).