Cheers swept through Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the touchdown signal from the Phoenix Mars Lander was detected after a nail-biting descent, as the mission faced a 50:50 chance of success.
"In my dreams it couldn't have gone as perfectly as it went," NASA project manager Barry Goldstein said.
Phoenix plunged into the Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph (19,200 kilometers per hour) after a 10-month, 422 million-mile (675 million-kilometer) voyage through space.
Among Phoenix's first tasks were to check its power supply and the health of its science instruments, and unfurl its solar panels after the dust settled.
Sunday's touchdown was the first successful soft landing on Mars since the twin Viking landers touched down in 1976.
With all the bad news we are treated with daily on this Earth, it's more than comforting to know we can manage feats like this in this chaos. Congratulations NASA - well done!
A growing number of digital video and ad providers are challenging TV's hold on visual quality with better technology and services. The quickened pace of High Definition TV deployment was expected to slow the exodus of viewers to online offerings.
This hasn't happened. Just the opposite seems to be the case. How come?
The reason this strategy doesn't appear to be working is that the online tv and video sites are also upgrading to HDTV quality web casting. And they have a built-in advantage: the cost is much less and the technology much more flexible, being mostly software based, than the (mostly) hardware based infrastructure necessary for the broadcast and cable companies.
Examples abound:
1. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF VIDEOS viewed was 10.1 billion during a record-breaking December 2007, according to the comScore Video Metrix service.
2. YouTube accounted for 3.3 billion videos viewed online in the U.S. in January.
3. Google sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property in January with nearly 3.4 billion videos viewed (34.3% share of videos), gaining 1.7 share points vs. the previous month.
4. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 584 million (6%).
5. Yahoo! sites served 315 million videos (3.2%).
6. Microsoft sites came in with 199 million (2%) videos watched in January.
7. Vimeo, a video-sharing site owned by Barry Diller's IAC, began distributing user-generated videos in HD late last year.
8. The peer-to-peer Web TV powerhouse Joost also offers high-resolution content.
9. Just a few week ago, the NBC/News Corp. co-venture Hulu launched to the public with limited HD content, as one of the first tests of the new Adobe Flash Player, which supports streaming HD.
10.Rumors are also flying that Yahoo intends to integrate video into Flickr very soon, perhaps in the next three weeks. Part of the delay may have been a long internal debate about how to make Flickr Video special and distinct from what YouTube already offers.
BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti actually believes the Web is better suited for delivering HD content than TV. "HDTV penetration is just 33% of U.S. households, while right now advertisers can use HD content to reach over 65% of all Internet consumers." Sacerdoti says. BrightRoll is an online video advertising firm founded just two years ago in 2006.
The way I see it, as an ad serving company they must have the ability and the need to track video viewing statistics and trends very closely -- although I wonder how anyone can define trends on less than two years' worth of data.
Today’s Subject: How and why use dollies and steadicams
If the only camera movement you know involves holding down the zoom button, it’s time you watched Metacafe's Production School video about “Dollying” which will expand your repertoire to include dolly and steadicam shots.
Just in case you didn’t know, a dolly is a special type of cart used to move a camera smoothly across a location, while a steadicam is a rig or harness that counterbalances a camera and allows for smooth handheld shots. Both devices can be used to merely get closer to your subject, but they truly shine when tracking your subject’s movements.
You can watch the "Dollying" video here:
VERY COOL - my thanks to all at the Production School! Dont't forget - I will keep posting follow-up "how-to" videos from the Video Production School.
All you need is a Veodia account, a computer and a camera. Does this sound real?
As Veodia says, it was designed with three fundamental principles in mind:
1. You shouldn't need to be expert in video compression or streaming 2. You shouldn't need to buy expensive equipment 3. You should retain full control and ownership of your content
That's why all you need to use Veodia is an account, a computer and camera. Simply plug your camera into your computer, log on to Veodia, and press Start to begin broadcasting live interactive TV broadcasts over the Internet to thousands of viewers on computers and mobile phones. When you press Stop at the end, the recording is instantly available for on-demand playback on computers, cell phones, iPods and Apple TV sets.
The publishing feature does allow you to privately manage your content, publish it onto your blog or site -- and track viewers with detailed streaming reports. Nifty!
Try it free - set up an account that provides 500 MB storage and webcasting up to 5 viewers. If you are satisfied with the show, they’ll be glad to quote you their one-time, subscription, and hosting plans.
If there's a skill or process you want to learn or know more about, chances are there's an online video for it.
This week, taking a cue from Katherine Boehret at the Wall Street Journal, we took a look at three web sites that make finding DIY videos easy:
• Howcast Media Inc.'s Howcast.com • WonderHowTo.com from WonderHowTo Inc. and • eHow Inc.'s eHow.com
Howcast.com, which launched in February, encourages users to make and share good-quality, entertaining videos by providing tools on its site, and has about 5,000 videos so far.
After testing each of these sites, she found that her favorite videos had steps that were clearly labeled and numbered and the ability to fast forward to or play back specific parts in the video -- tools that Howcast included in almost all of its videos.
These three free sites are advertisement-supported. Howcast's ads run alongside videos. WonderHowTo.com runs ads at the top and side of its own site, on which it will play certain videos.
Overall, she prefers the look of Howcast's site and its well-organized videos. But its content pales in comparison to WonderHowTo's 110,000 videos and even eHow's 100,000 instructional articles.
Howcast.com's content is informative with an amusing edge, including a video titled "How to Tell If Your Boyfriend's A Psycho."(If he calls 50 times a day, for example.) Other videos on the site are more serious, like "How to Make Sushi" by an executive sushi chef in New York City.
The founders of Howcast Media formerly worked in Google's video department, including during the acquisition of YouTube. It shows - literally.
In order to make it easier for us, average users, to upload better-looking videos, Howcast also provides an Upload and Enhance tool to simply and quickly add professional-looking graphics and printable steps to go along with how-to videos.
Videos made in the Howcast Studios include accompanying music, good narratives and actors who add humor to an otherwise humdrum how-to.
Howcast tries to run ads alongside videos that relate to the content. WonderHowTo.com was developed by a former television executive with the intention of using the site to produce its own video, like Howcast.com.
The Browse button pulls down 35 categories from which users can sort content, including Spirituality, Dating & Relationships and Fitness. In the Fashion subcategory under Beauty & Style, I found 290 videos including one on "How to Tie a Windsor Knot" and another titled "How to Turn Old Underpants Into a Bra" -- neither of which is up my alley.
WonderHowTo's content comes from over 700 sites, according to the company.
June submitted her song video (certainly not a "how-to" piece) to this site by simply entering a URL, without logging in. I never found the video she submitted on the site; WonderHowTo explained that it screens all videos prior to posting them, so it must have found hers. Smart!
EHow.com uses its database of articles to encourage people to watch videos, when they're relevant. This site uses calm, pastel colors to give a relaxed feeling -- especially compared with WonderHowTo, where banner ads surround the page.
Videos can also be found on eHow within a marked tab at the top of the page. But unlike the articles on eHow, they videos weren't well organized or easily searchable.
But the eHow videos were professional-looking and included quite a few tips that she didn't know.
It isn't always easy to learn from the information you find online. How-to videos can be a big help - especially if they're well-made and easy to find. Using any of these sites could give you a head start.
Flektor is a new Flash-based content mashup tool. You can pull in images from several photo sharing sites like flickr, MySpace, and Photobucket to make slick-looking, embeddable slide shows and videos for your blog, web site, and social network pages. It's a lot like Mixercast, and other media mashup services like RockYou and SplashCast.
Flektor's "Web 2.0" interface is drag-and-drop, which makes for a very short learning curve. To add media to your show, just drag your image and video files down to a timeline at the bottom of the screen, where they can be rearranged or removed at any time. There are also "Flidgets" which can be inserted into your show to add live chat, a live broadcast from your webcam, or special effects like color bars or static. What's really neat is the ability to edit any picture with some easy-to-use sliders that let you do simple, on-the-fly alterations to your photographs--something you'd find on Picnik.
There are nearly 100 transitions, effects, and filters to add a little flair to your show. You can also edit each effect and change its appearance. Out of the many transitions I've seen on some of these Flash editors (Photobucket's Remix in particular), Flektor has some really snappy and good-looking effects.
The main hindrance in using Flektor is how long it takes to communicate with the some of the third-party services. Flickr in particular takes quite a while to sync up photos from various albums. On the upside, the MySpace integration is very simple; just give it a username and it will pull up photos members have uploaded in addition to any images that have been embedded in user comments. Cool! It is also very easy to embed your Flektor player on a number of services, with a handy export page that provides special embedding codes for a dozen services, including Google's Orkut. You can customize the embed code, like specifying the player size.
Here is a "Flek" from abby-normal called Plastic Perspective. Makes you think twice about throwing away your plastic bottles … that is if it loads for you. I let it stream down in the background for some 10 minutes with no success.
Neither could I get the embed code. All this great production capability lost in the shuffle ... NOT a good omen for Flektor!
In a San Francisco nightclub recently, a noisy crowd came for the weekly taping of Internet Superstar, an online-only TV show that chronicles off-the-beat Web celebrities.
This time, however, "Internet Superstar" found itself scooped on not one, but two of its biggest stories, by no other than ABC’s Good Morning America. Such are the perils for those whose job it is to have fun with what is quickly becoming mainstream entertainment.
"It is so much harder to come up with fresh material these days," complains Martin Sargent, the 32-year-old host of ‘Internet Superstar.’ A few years ago, I was the only one calling these guys, and they were only too happy to come on the show. But now, with someone like Chris Crocker -- who became a Web megastar for sobbing out an appeal on YouTube to leave Britney Spears alone -- I couldn't even get through to him. He was too busy going on Howard Stern."
On the surface, "Internet Superstar," a web-cast of Revision3. might seem like a funny, if ribald, bit of low-budget cultural satire. Still, the show might be a test of the fashionable theory that the Internet makes possible all sorts of profitable niche entertainment opportunities.
But with the pros like Viacom's Comedy Central now thundering onto the Web, not to mention the legion of amateurs already there, it's unclear if anything niche-size will be left over.
Revision3 says its shows get four million views a month.
All this competition, Sargent admits, makes it tougher than ever to book the guest or write the joke before someone else. "I'm spelunking the darkest caverns of the Internet." That the audience for "Internet Superstar" is mostly male should go without saying.
Cooliris, a startup that’s been developing dynamic and immersive new ways to browse the web, continues to roll out new features for its PicLens browser plug-in. Most promising of the new features is the search capability for video site YouTube.
When PicLens launched last June, I was impressed by its ability to browse photo sites like Flickr. Since then, it looks like the service has gotten a lot more sophisticated, creating an image browsing interface that The New York Times describes as “a three-dimensional space that feels like an unending hallway of images.” In essence, your browser disappears and you fly around in front of a wall of content. Sort of like the Apple’s Quick Look and Cover Flow.
This interface moves PicLens beyond other online slideshow companies like Slide and Rockyou, into a much more useful service. And its YouTube compatibility — which seems to be the first of a number of new multimedia search features in the works — PicLens is starting to live up to its promise.
PicLens’ 3D YouTube search can be accessed direct from the video site, as well as via the PicLens button in your browser toolbar. Here’s a video demo:
The plug-in’s latest release includes other new features like Firefox 3.0 support, an improved user interface that lets you zoom in much further than before and optimized media RSS support. Great job, Cooliris!
Courtesy of CmdrTaco at http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/05/1240226
Marco Trezzini writes:
"View exclusive interactive samples of the digital building blocks behind the Speed Racer movie in VR Magazine's in-depth interview with award-winning Matrix visual FX guru John Gaeta, Dennis Martin, Lubo Hristov, and Jake Morrison. Including Virtual Reality panoramas of the movie locations, turn tables of the Mach 5 and 6, and many making of videos unveiling the secrets of the visual effects. Link to Speed Racer uncovered and to John Gaeta's interview.
The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, my jaw hit the floor. Nobody makes live action "Cartoons" that look like this. I guess that makes me believe there is no way the movie can be good.”
Read the article (see link above) and thank Marco for this virtually satisfying speed trip!
Transferring home videos from video cassettes and other tape formats is a pain. iMemories helps you move your dusty 8 and 16 mm analog videos to digital on a DVD. It also has a web site for sharing videos online with your friends.
A fun and useful feature on the site is the iMemories Movie. With Hollywood style editing, visual and sound effects added to your movies by one of their professionals, you can make them into truly polished masterpieces. You can even order customized DVD cases.
However, none of this comes cheap. Membership is $99.99 a year; a short, 1 song video is $299.99; 2+ song videos are $249.99 a song; extended (i.e. "deluxe") videos are $99.99 a minute.
Must say all these xx.99-s insult my intelligence!
According to the Hollywood Reporter and news.com, Blockbuster will soon be announcing yet another reason not to go to a rental store...their own. The media-delivering set-top box, which is in the works for the company, leverages the store's existing competence in the industry to provide a viable alternative to iTunes, Xbox Live, and Amazon.
There is no mention of price or how this service will actually work. But let's think about this: to compete with Apple TV or Vudu, the device would have to cost around $200, and rentals of movies and TV shows should be around $3 to $4 each, which would be slightly cheaper than rentals of new releases from Blockbuster currently.
The device will join a growing roster of home video boxes which aim to bring broadband video to the living room. Blockbuster rival Netflix also has indicated that it will compete in this market with a similar device being created with LG Electronics. The device is believed to be a stand-alone product akin to Apple TV as opposed to embedding a Blockbuster-branded service in such existing devices as Microsoft's Xbox 360 or TiVo.
The big advantage Blockbuster would enjoy over Apple TV, Vudu,and TiVo seems to be selection, as the service would be an offshoot of Movielink, the online film service Blockbuster acquired last year that allows consumers to watch films licensed from the major studios on their computers. Movielink was created in 2002 by MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Blockbuster now has the online rights to about 6,000 movies, though there are restrictions on moving content beyond PCs and TV.
This is the most audacious attempt yet by Blockbuster to reinvent its brand as a digital delivery service, as it risks to undercut the viability of its retail operation. Their aim is to make their brand the major force online.
I still think they're kind of late to this party, though....
-2008-Warner-Bros.jpg)
