I’m writing an article about the blogging phenomenon at the moment and, naturally, use the web as a research resource. It’s wonderful what there is out there if you go searching. For example, this excellent piece in New York Magazine, which looks at the operation of power law distributions in blogging. And then there’s Dave Sifry’s State of the Blogosphere survey and his more recent analysis of the growth of the blogosphere as media, in which he discusses some of the emerging trends in handling information overload. These are all thoughtful and helpful essays, and I can get them without leaving my study. Fifteen years ago, this would have been unthinkable. And I still can’t quite take it for granted.
Daily Archives: February 16, 2006
Soundslides
It’s funny how hard it can be to do some simple things using computers. For ages I’ve been looking for an easy way of creating illustrated lectures which can be published as Flash movies (a technology Larry Lessig has used to great effect, but with the aid of serious ad-hoc geekery). Since then, Larry has published a method of doing it using iMovie, which is clearly feasible (if a bit tedious), but has the downside that it produces huge MP4 files. I’ve just come on Soundslides which is still in Beta but does produce Flash files and might be just what I’m seeking.
Update: Just opened my mailbox this morning to find a message from Ian Yorston pointing me at Videocue, which is out of Beta and also works as a teleprompter. It only outputs Quicktime files, though — no Flash, as far as I can see. Still… for $39.95…
A new corporate motto for Google?
In view of the moral capitulation to Chinese demands, perhaps “Don’t be evil” should be modified to read “Do the lesser evil”?
Inside the iPod Nano
Fascinating exposition of what’s inside the Nano. Very neatly done. Needs Flash plug-in. Means one doesn’t have to invalidate the warranty just to satisfy one’s curiosity!