A bike ride to Guggenheim in bilbao

video by Amsterdamize

Last month when I went to moderate a session about online video in Bilbao for the nonick conference. the day after the conference, Marc from Amsterdamize and I rented a couple bikes from the hotel to go explore the city. This video Marc edited as a part1 of that wonderful day we had together. I know he is working on more, with some fun action shots through Bilbao, but this sets a nice tone for the day.

If you do goto Bilbao, I highly recommend checking out The Guggenheim Museum. Besides being an amazing building, I really loved the exhibitions they had there. Marc and I spent close to 4-5 hours in the museum hanging around and checking out the work. At the moment they have some amazing Video Art pieces that you can sit and literally loose yourself in for hours. If you were not stoned before going in, the effects of these films will transport you to that state. Then head up to the top floor to see Murakami. An awesome artist that has been highly influenced by popular culture in Japan such as Anime, Manga as well as traditional artists. If you are into Anime, contemporary art or Asian culture, this exhibition is for you!

Free Audiobooks for summer

Image via Wikipedia

Many of you may be planning a vacation, or maybe staying around town for vacation. One thing I love during vacations or long drives is audiobooks. It's nice to listen to podcasts, but sometimes a nice audiobook for a longer period is better. Although you can buy many audiobooks on Amazon and Audible.com, there are a lot of FREE audiobooks at LibriVox. Also great for you students who have to read some books over the summer! Have a look, and have a listen. It is opensource, so that means if you really like a book, you could create an audiobook from it as well (as long as it is public domain). Yes that is the catch. Only public Domain books, but there are quite a lot of classics amoungst them. Enjoy!

Ask Frasco Likes Grow Flash Games

I'm sitting here after dinner and @askfrasco is setting next to me on the couch. I asked her if she played flash games online. "Not really" she said. So I told her about one fun game, Grow. Have a look for yourself. Once you play it 2 or 3 times you will get it, and then you can spend hours on the different games. Enjoy free flash games!

Facebook Virus and Hacking Passwords in Firefox

Sometime this afternoon I started getting mails from people asking me about a link I had mailed through facebook. I thought it was one of the links I put through twitter. Then I noticed it was a message I hadn't sent at all. Plus, it had sent it to practically everyone in my friends list. Some application, website, something somewhere had hacked into my facebook account and sent emails saying "Look at this" with a link to something called silvertag.be. As soon as I noticed I started replying to people saying it was not from me. Then I quickly changed my facebook and some other passwords. Fortunately I don't use the same passwords for facebook and twitter type sites. This makes it easier for me to make sure that even though one attack might get through on one of these sites or apps, it will not hit anything that can really make my life miserable. Like my paypal or banking passwords. It is a good idea to create a series of passwords that you can remember easy for different levels of security you would like on different sites. Here are some tips to good passwords.

One nice thing about the MacOSX is that it has a secure keychain for many passwords. However, what many people do not know is that Mozilla browsers are easily hackable if you do not secure them. One way to do this is to go into your mozilla browser (such as Firefox or Flock) and set a Master Password.

Firefox-> Preferences -> Security. This makes sure that all those saved passwords on all the different websites will not auto fill in when someone else tries to use your browser. By setting a master password, Firefox or Flock will ask you for your password at startup. If you enter it, then it will auto fill and auto login to all those sites you use most often. If you do not set it, then no passwords or sites will be logged into. It's not the be all end all of securtiy measures, but it does help.

I am sorry I got tagged with this virus on FB, and am sorry to any friends that it inconvenienced. Sorry folks.

update: I just saw on Mashable Pete Cashmore talking about it. He said " Today my Facebook inbox shows there’s another attack underway that’s suckering even some of the most tech savvy users:". Now I don't feel as bad at being suckered in.

Trip to see Nuno and Nikki

While at Webcom, I added a few days to stay the weekend so I could see my good friends Nuno and Nikki. I love those 2! When I arrived Nuno and I promptly started geeking out and catching up on the latest apps and tricks about vlogging, internet, and also talking about life. He talked about selling his place, staying in Waterloo, how google is moving there, and things are starting to pick up again.

Within a few hours of arriving we hit the pub where we met up with some of thier friends, and then hit a club. Lots of drinks, lots of dance, lots of fun, which eventually ended in an afterparty at Jenn's place (a friend of Nikki's). It was absolutly hilarious fun time. At one point people huddled onto the couch and started listening to all the stories I was telling about Hollywood, New York and Europe. Real fun.

Next day we hit the Diner where Nuno and Nikki met. Nuno read his comics, then we started making drawings, chilling talking, then someone ordered 2 Godfather Burgers. OMG! These things were massive! As you can see very only 40 something people have actually finished this massive burger. It reminds me of the steak in the movie "The Great Outdoors". when I asked if they had to finish the fries as well, Jenn said, "We let that slide nowadays. But I will tell you that it seems to be asians that always finish it. LOL?"

That night we initiated Nikki to The Big Lebowski. Halfway through we got hungry so Nuno and Nikki took me to Harvey's and gave me this complete artery clogging meal. Delicious!

The next day I drove back to Montreal and caught my flight back to Amsterdam, but I relived every moment the 2 days before. So much fun, such good ideas, Thanks Nuno and Nikki! U 2 ROCK!!

Interview at Webcom

At Webcom I gave an interview after my talk about the virtual immortality project. It goes on for a while, but it was a fun interview to do.

webcom : Gabe McIntyre by amicalmant

For More interviews from Webcom check Christian Aubry's page.

Social Network fatigue? Proxy Networking the answer

Last week at Webcom in Montreal I met a lot of great people, and saw some old friends. One of the friends I got to catch up with is Marc Canter. Now Marc has always been ahead of the curve. He was making the first synthesizers himself. He created Director to be able to create his multi-media musical extravaganza art pieces and performances. Director later became Flash and then Macromedia (now Adobe). Since then he's been doing a lot as well as building the first social networks that we know today.

Marc has been a Paul Revere when it comes to open information, and allowing the users to choose what information goes where rather than the networks we give the information to. When I traveled to MIPTV a couple years ago we shared a cab from Nice to Cannes. While in the cab I asked him why he was doing so much work for Open internet and information. He told me that because he made Flash proprietary, he was paying for his sins now by going the other way. I guess it is kinda like when a smoker stops smoking, they are worst non-smokers than the people who never smoked.

In any case, we got to have dinner in Montreal together with Patrick Chanezon from Google. Marc was talking about all kinds of stuff with me and Patrick. One of the stories that really got me excited was the idea that his wife did with the teacher and class using BroadBand Mechanics tools. Broadband Mechanics is the current company Marc has built which is a Social Network tool set and service. The service is being used by a number of big clients such as some government groups, education institutes, media corporations, and non-profit organizations, as well as ordinary people because it is free. Although if you want to custom stuff, that will cost money. Which is a sound business plan as long as there are not too many glitches in the source matrix.

In any case Marc explained this idea using his wife's story as an example in what I can only refer to as "Proxy Social Networking". I'll try to explain. Imagine I start a Social Network for some of my classes. I know that a number of my students understand the social networks, but maybe not all want to get on it right away. On this social network I could be placing assignments, links, photos, a knowledgebase in a way. Other students could be uploading the homework, interacting with each other on assignments, etc. etc. Now when I create the network, I add all my students in with a profile. After a while those students who didn't want to be on the network at the start, can evaluate the added value and then decide to join on. However when they do join on, they already have thier profile setup with credits in assignments, videos, etc. Half the work was already done for them.

Now this becomes even more interesting when you think of a talk that (I think Robbert Scobble but I could be wrong) did at Next Web last year. He explained that sites like twitter, facebook, and other social media sites are no fun if you have no friends. Kinda like in life I guess. Well except for freaky porn sites. You don't really want to have too many friends on theier when you first enter. Along the way fine, depending on your preference. But I digress... But there is a point that twitter, and the like only become fun once you have a few friends already.

Now to get rid of a lot of Social Network fatigue that people are getting nowadays, this could be the solution. I mean, to go and invest in porting sections of my firends to a new social network service is a big undertaking nowadays. I mean, do I really have too? That's what a lot of people think. At least in an older generation. It turns into Social Network Fatigue. However if I join and there are already friends there filled in as well as stuff I was in, such as in the example when my students decide to join, that fatigue goes down real fast.

So by allowing people to create Social Networks with the ability to Proxy members, this could be a way that prevents the fatigue that users experience when entering the network. Now if I could only find a way to do this with new girlfriends and meeting my family, that would be excellent! Or as as Marc van Woudenberg says, integrating illegitimate brothers and sisters.

Here is an interview with Marc Canter at Picnic

Our present become echos of our past online

After coming back from Webcom where I gave a presentation on Virtual Immortality, I opened up my monthly photojojo time capsule and am floored yet again. This month I see pics from when Nuno and Nikki came to visit last year. I just got back from visiting them in Canada this weekend.

Not only that but I see pics of the wedding of Hans and Neltje from last year, on a boat where this week other friends of mine will be getting married on that exact same boat.

I twittered earlier that "blogging allows me to appreciate the present, by allowing me to see through my eyes in the future, and appreciate the past which is now." Now I realize that everything becomes more cyclical in life than I had realized. As I said in my talk in Montreal, "THE APPLICATIONS AND DATA WE CREATE TODAY WILL BE OUR COMMUNICATION WITH FUTURE CULTURES AND BEINGS," and now I beleive ourselves as well.

ATTN Universal Music Group, Lady GAGA wants 2 be Open 2 Viral!

I really loved the new campaign that Universal Music Group has put out. It starts with a segment from Lady GaGa "Poker Face". When you see the video on youtube it explains very easily that you must try to play the game. What is the game?

Watch 20 sec. of Universal Music Videos of artists and answer a trivia question of what you saw.

There are some great roots in the Viral and I suspect that the agency saw some viral hits like this awareness test video.

Test Your Awareness: Do The Test

Did you enjoy that? UMG feels it can capitalize on that idea and sell records. Great, do it. However It would be a HELL of a lot easier to spread this if they allowed people to at least embed the first video (the entry level) onto thier blogs, facebooks, etc. I'll put it in old school marketing terms for ya UMG so you understand. The first video in this sequence of interactively linked Youtube videos which create a game needs to have a point of entry. Not just people search Lady GAGA on youtube. Allow the mebed and it turns into an old school banner! You will not endanger the copyright more, you will not be loosing out. You will gain by opening up. Of course I admit I am proud of you for taking these first steps. Very good, you have your training wheels on now. Time for dad to take them off and push you down the hill. What are you afraid you will get hurt UMG?

A Day in Toledo, Spain

This video is a compilation of a daytrip to Toledo, Spain in the late summer of 2008 with Catalina, her cousin Jules and GabeMac. It was a beautiful day, with a horrific storm at the end. A day to remember.