(If you’re viewing this on the day it was posted it’s not all that impressive since it’s only got 24-hours worth of stats. Over time it’ll get more interesting, promise.)
Archive for » November 5th, 2008«
Thing #10.5: statr for flickr
05
Nov 2008
Category: NELearns2.0, flickr
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Thing #10: Image Generators
05
Nov 2008
I love image generators. I have over 60 bookmarked in my Delicious account and subscribe to the Generator Blog. As I mentioned in my previous post, I tend to use them on this blog and in presentations. Here’s a fun one that I’ve not actually used in a presentation… yet.
Category: NELearns2.0, generator
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Thing #9: Compfight
05
Nov 2008
Compfight is an indispensable tool for me, one I use almost daily. I’m constantly looking for a photo to illustrate a point. Wether it’s for a blog post or a presentation, I love using photos to make a point. I’m also generally sure to use only Creative Commons (cc) licensed photos in my work. Not only does this ensure that I’m not going to be sued but it promotes CC and lets me turn my presentations into teaching moments about more than just the direct topic of the talk itself.
But why Compfight instead of the standard flickr search option? Check out these two screenshots showing search results for library:
Flickr 
Compfight 
Srs’ly? Can you no doubt the usefulness of Compfight. Same search, completely different screen full of results. I’m less concerned with the content of the results (though I think Compfight’s better at that too) but more with how those results are presented. Compfight gives you screens full of images that you can look and and choose from. Flickr, you get 25 at a time with a lot of scrolling involved. Clicking on any one of these images takes you to the photo’s page for further details and downloading.
Yea Compfight! My presentations are better because of you.
Category: NELearns2.0, creativecommons, flickr
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Thing #8: Billy’s new bike
05
Nov 2008
I love flickr! I’ve currently got more than 21,000 photos in my account. Granted, this one I didn’t take,it was sent to me by my dad. This is him with his new bike back in 1956.
I’ve always been into photography (as my dad has) but I never took the time to learn all the picky details as a kid since it was such an expensive hobby. Film, equipment, development costs, it just wasn’t gonna happen. Now, with digital and a $300 dollar camera I can take photos to my heart’s content.
I’m still working with (an advanced) point & shoot digital but it’s got an 18x optical zoom and lots of options so it works well for me. One day I’ll learn enough to move up to a digital SLR but then that whole “it’s expensive” problem (lenses anyone?) comes into play.
No matter what, here’s my advice: take as many photos as you can and be sure to share them.
Category: NELearns2.0, flickr
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Brand New Day
05
Nov 2008
Not all the lyrics are perfect but I can’t get this song out of my head this fine morning.
Category: music, video, youtube
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Help me Anderson, you’re my only hope
05
Nov 2008
If you were watching CNN last night you might caught a live television first, interview via "hologram". Well, sort of. Now don’t get me wrong, this was totally cool and I instantly thought of Princess Leia in Star Wars. (Then again, so did the first person they did this with.) In case you missed it, here’s what Wil.i.am looked like:
And here’s the reverse angle:
As described by CNN, the hologrammed person was standing inside a tent with about 35 high definition cameras surrounding them which were synchronized with the in-studio cameras in order to show the correct angle of the person on the broadcast. Please keep in mind that Anderson Cooper in these images is not actually seeing the person standing there. At best, he’s looking at an off-screen monitor. (One can only hope that monitor was in the shape of R2-D2.) The hologram isn’t truly a hologram in that sense. The remote person is being added into the broadcast signal so us at home can see them; he’s not an image free-floating in the studio. (OK, honestly, that’s how I think it worked. If I’m totally wrong, please correct me.)
Overall the effect was definitely cool. The thin blue outline around the beamed-in folks added a bit of sci-fi to the whole thing which I’m not sure was good or bad. On the one hand it was a smidge distracting. On the other, it made it clear that the person wasn’t really there and in the case of a news report I’d like to keep things as "real" as possible.
Update: io9 has the video of the Will.i.am appearance.
Category: CNN, star wars, technology
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