Review from Rockstars of the web

clog blog : LondonBloggers.net

It was the last presenter who made us all sit up and take notice at the end of this nine-hour blog-fest: Gabe Mac, self-proclaimed Bad Mother Vlogger, took the day’s Rockstar theme to the extreme as he pranced around the stage to a funky remix of a classic Scottish pipes tune. He wore streaks of blusher, serious eye make-up and twanged his Wii Air Guitar madly. He had our full attention. His siren of a sidekick sported bright red stilettos and figure-hugging leggings, dancing about him with a giant video camera, causing the feminists in the audience to tut tut and shake their heads. I think that was the point. Then Gabe Mac toked on a spliff rolled for him on stage by Stiletto Chick, crooning “good stuff, baby”, and any thoughts of audience fatigue left the room. Like him or hate him, we wouldn’t be bored by him.
Gabe Mac told us his vlogging evolution story which suitably began in Amsterdam but is now based in Madrid. We watched some of his own favourite posts and tolerated his thespian arrogance and shameless self-promotion. In summary, I think Gabe Mac was acting his pants off for us, but can’t really be sure, just that off-stage he seemed like a much quieter soul than he was projecting to us in his presentation. You probably need to decide for yourself whether or not he’s worth watching. Check the link at the end of this post to see what this Bad Mother Vlogger is all about.

Here is a small video

A vid 4 Rose

Kodak Zi6 HD and iLife 09 test from Gabemac on Vimeo.

This is for my friend Rose. She is helping me out so much right now. Helping me get all the pieces back to restart my life in Amsterdam again. Everything from helping me clean my apartment, moving, taking me out, and even folding my clothes. An Angel.

The music in the video is “Something Beautiful” by Coco O’Connor. http://cocooconnor.com

The other reason I made this video is I am testing the Kodak Zi6 that I received from Kodak last week. I am also testing the new iLife 09 and iMovie 09 filters and workflow. Following the standard workflow and exporting to HD video this is the result I get.

I liked the fact that the Kodak imports in iPhoto, and then is transferred to iMovie easily. I don’t have that with my Sony camera. The shots I took were in intense lighting conditions to push the envelope of the camera. I liked the shot it took, but I wanted to play more with iMovie for the final result. I used a number of filters with speed and color settings in iMovie to achieve this effect.

Pros: The Kodak camera is a simple lightweight HD camera that a vlogger likes to have around. It took the direct sunlight shots very well, and did decent compensation for the hotspot sunlight shots next to the ivy.

iMovie has finally put slow motion back in. The effects and filters are very welcome, and the workflow is nice once you get used to it.

Cons: The Kodak camera does not handle low light situations very well. It is also rather large, (larger than an iPod) to always have around with me. I think most of the space is the battery and the usb flip out connection (which although is really cool, I have to use a USB hub for my laptop to connect it and my mouse or external drive at the same time).

iMovie has a nice clip editor, but it no longer scrubs audio when you are trying to tweak an edit to music and it becomes very frustrating. It would also be nice to have a “standard” HD for web export from iMovie which it does not have natively. The closest you can get is the large sharing selection if you do not want to export via QuickTime and set the settings yourself, which is what I did.

Mobuzz runner up for Fiasco awards

Apparently Mobuzz.tv was one of 9 nominated companies to win the Fiasco award in Barcelona. No, this doesn't make me feel like a failure at all! Thank god Vista came out.

Microsoft’s Vista wins Fiasco Award - Apple 2.0

A quirky, slightly tongue-in-cheek project of the Catalan Association of Telecommunications Engineers, the Fiasco Awards are designed not to “criticize” or “engage in public derision,” according to their website, but to recognize that “technological advance is not a straight path” and that “success and fiasco are … head and tail of the same coin.”

“God rewards fools,” reads the award’s logo.

Using a balloting system weighted to ensure that “an opportunity was given to local projects,” a consolation prize went to SAGA, the Administration and Academic Management System of the Catalan Government.

The nine finalists were all over the lot, mixing the famous, the local and the obscure. The list included One Laptop Per Child’s $100 computer; Linden Lab’s Second Life; Google’s (GOOG) Lively; the DAB digital radio system used in Europe; the Madrid-based Mobuzz.tv project; Maresme Digital, a project for bringing digital television to Catalonia; and some Linux-based free software packs distributed by the local government administration.

Here is the video. Mobuzz is number 4. Well at least we are with some big names. :-)

Jon Stewart on Twitter

This is hilarious. Sorry Jon. With Bush out, you have to stretch and bust on twitter? Come on mate.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Old Media Crunch

Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine and Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian talk about the crisis and it's effect on old media at DLD, Munich 2009.

DLD Schwag

What is in the DLD goodies bags? We take a look.

Flickr Vouyeruism

There is a guilty pleasure that really comes out in Flickr. Anonymous voyeruism. I noticed that some complete strangers have been faving certain pictures of mine for some time now. I could not figure out whether it was a stalker, or just some sad lonely person as there is nothing in the profiles to understand who it is. Then after digging deeper I think I discovered it. It is like a game almost. In my search for why or what it is... I discovered the stories. Clicking randomly on commenters, seeing thier favorites and making huge leaps and jumps starting from my own anonymous voyeuers, I begin to make a story together. A weaving through the reaches of cyberspace, to create a story in my head, based on the click of the mouse and my own A.D.D. to guide me. Here is a small glimpse into the stories you can piece together.

MAke your own story, and let me see.... Add a link in the comments.

Flickr Fun

I'm having fun with some flickr tools today. Here is a quick sample.

Domain names gone wrong...

Need a laugh? have a look at some of these bad domain names. Think people think!!!

Bad Domain Names

# Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is
www.whorepresents.com/

# Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange Advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com/

# Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net/

# Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com/

# There's the Italian Power Generator company,
www.powergenitalia.com/

# And don't forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales,
www.molestationnursery.com/

# If you're looking for IP computer software, there?s always
www.ipanywhere.com/

# The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is
www.cummingfirst.com/

# And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site,
www.speedofart.com/

Teaching Video Blogging in Amsterdam

gabemac

If you are into Theater and Video, this is going to be very cool. The TF (Theater Festival) organization is looking for students and creatives to Video Blog the Theater Festival in Amsterdam this September. As training I will be giving a 2 day workshop to at the Machouse in Amsterdam on the 21 and 22 of August to those that want to participate.

We will be going through everything from camera work, sound, live moblogging, review of various video sharing sites and more. It will be 2 days of non-stop Video Blogging tips, tricks and techniques. So if you are interested got to this site for more info or email Carolien Labib [ carolien (AT) tf.nl ] to sign up. The course will be in English, because my Dutch is slipping away. Sign up quickly while there is still space.