Tag Archives: blogging

skreens HDMI Video Mixing Box at 2016 CES

February 21, 2016HDMI, Twitch, video, videocast, YouTubeblogging, Gaming, HDMI, mixer, skreens, streaming, Twitch, video, YouTubetomwiles

Scott Ertz interviews Marc Todd about the Skreens HDMI video mixing box.

The concept of the skreens video mixing box is that it takes multiple HDMI sources such as an X-Box, Roku, Apple TV, etc. and mixes it in user-configurable windows on a single large screen via HDMI. The individual video screen input sizes are controlled in real-time via iPad and Android tablet apps. The skreens box will be coming in two versions, a 2 HDMI port version, and a Pro version with 4 HDMI ports. Both versions have an integrated web browser.

The 4 HDMI port skreens Pro box is also capable of streaming the mixed 1080p video live to Twitch or YouTube.

Both models of the skreens boxes should be available in the second half of 2016. Final pricing has yet to be set.

You can sign up for product updates at the skreens.com website.

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GNC-2010-08-31 #606 Unique Content it Is!

August 31, 2010Podcastadvertising, blogging, business, chrome, Crime, digg, Green, ie6, Information, iPhone, isp, nasa, Podcast, Roku, Software, spaceTodd Cochrane

The number 1 request by all of you that filled out the survey was more unique content. I am going to do my best to deliver it along with the standard fare. New contest to win a Roku is on now winner next week listen to win. Big Thank You to all three sponsors of the show this month. If your a business owner check out the offering from Infusionsoft they have some very unique business offerings.

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The Long Tail

August 13, 2010blogging, internet, Netflix, Social Media, Streamingaudience, blogging, content, Cowboy Del Amor, long tail, matchmaker, Media, Mexico, movies, netflix, Social, streaming, Texas, TVtomwiles

In the world of blogging, podcasting and social networking, much has been said about the so-called “long tail.” The concept of the “long tail” revolves around the idea that available content living on the Internet gets a lot of extra audience over a long period of time, as opposed to traditional print and broadcast content which has a much more limited lifespan.

As services such as Netflix gain popularity, yet another form of content is experiencing the benefits of the long tail – movies and TV shows that are available for long-term streaming. An excellent example of how the “long tail” benefits movies in particular are obscure documentaries that in the old pre-streaming days would have a limited initial audience and then end up on a shelf somewhere or be sold in consumer video release one at a time.

Now more obscure movies and TV shows that had a limited lifespan and limited impact are able to take a new lease-on life that used to simply not exist.

I am particularly enjoying streaming documentaries on Netflix. There are some real gems out there. One documentary I really enjoyed in particular that I’d never heard of before I found it on Netflix is called “Cowboy Del Amor.” It’s about a Texas matchmaker who specializes in matching up American men with Mexican women. If you haven’t seen this gem, I highly recommend it. “Cowboy Del Amor” is but one example of movies that have a very limited promotion budgets and therefore are unable to make much of a publicity splash when they are released, yet they can be absolutely fantastic movies to not only watch yourself but to share later with friends and family.

I dropped my Dish Network account in July 2010 and have not looked back. Streaming videos via services such as Netflix forces me to take a much more active role in selecting something good to watch. Having literally tens of thousands of movies and videos available for instant streaming on demand is a far superior way to find and consume commercial content.

Does The Cloud Have A Dark Side?

July 25, 2010amazon, blogger, bloggers, blogging, blogs, content, internet, Microsoft, smartphone, sprint, verizon1984, amazon, Apple, bloggers, blogging, blogs, cloud, cloud storage, darkside, e-books, Kindle, Macbook, Microsoft, Mobile, network appliance, online, pro, smartphone, spreadsheets, sprint, verizon, Word, word processingtomwiles

Does The Cloud Have A Dark Side? For some time we’ve been hearing about the virtues of cloud-based computing.

Certain functions seem to lend themselves to the cloud. Online word processing, spreadsheets, etc. can seem to make sense in some situations, such as collaborating with others.

In everyday use scenarios, does the cloud really make sense in more traditional private computer-use situations? I contend that it does not.

Right now I’m typing this into Microsoft Word on my MacBook Pro. At the moment I have rather lousy Sprint and Verizon connectivity, even though 12 hours ago at this very same location I had really good connectivity from both. The only thing that changed is the time of day. If I was currently limited to using Google Docs chances are I would be unable to write this. Network demand constantly fluctuates depending on the time of day and location.

Is there enough bandwidth available? With the tsunami of smartphones that are on the immediate horizon, will the carriers be able to keep up with the average five-fold bandwidth demand increase that the average smartphone user pulls from the network? Can carriers keep up with a smartphone-saturated public all trying to pull down data at the same time?

However, for the sake of argument let’s say that mobile Internet connectivity isn’t an issue.

What if the Internet is turned off due to a declared cyber attack and all of your documents are online? What good would the network appliance approach to computing be then?

Can e-books be revised after the fact? If government can simply decide to turn off the Internet, then it’s not that much of a leap to imagine laws and regulations being passed banning certain types of blogs or even books that have been deemed dangerous or seditious. There have already been books sold such as “1984” by Amazon that were deleted from Kindles after the fact by Amazon when it was determined that Amazon didn’t have the legal right to sell it in e-book form. What if instead of banning books, they were simply rewritten to remove the offending parts? What’s to stop instant revision of e-books that have been declared dangerous?

New Media v. Old Media

July 14, 2010blogging, New Media, Social Mediablogging, journalism, New Media, news, old media, Social MediaAndrew

How social media points the way forward for journalism. It’s a real example of how traditional media are becoming social media-aware and are using Facebook, Twitter and their ilk to get the news stories out faster and with more information.

However, what really registered with me is at the very end of the article.

There is a word of caution that goes with trusting what we read on this great “word of mouth” network. Recent rumour mill stories on Facebook on the private lives of footballers ended up in the press and were proven to be totally wrong. So while this new technology can speed up the newsgathering process, journalists will need to make sure they do what they have always done – double check the facts.

I have real concerns about the loss of the old news media. Obviously there’s no single cause but the rise of new media, the Internet “no cost” expectation and the “now” culture are all taking the toll. But what will be the cost to our society when we no longer have professional journalists?

What will happen to investigative journalism? What will happen when hysterical but unfounded rumours sweep across the social networks? How will politicians be held to account when there is no-one to report on their mistakes? How much more easy will it be to cover stuff up?

I can’t think of a single other instance where it’s become acceptable for amateurs to take over the role of professionals. Would you want an amateur doctor to treat you? An amateur engineer to design a bridge? An amateur firefighter to attend an emergency? No, I want these people to study for years to become competent at what they do. Why should journalism be any different? Just because you can string a sentence together, doesn’t make you a journalist.

Now, you may think that it’s a bit rich coming from a blogger for a major new media site but to tie this back to the original news story, I think it genuinely points the way ahead. We have to get away from old media v. new media, it has to be co-opetition not competition, symbiotic not parasitic, and we have to find a way to reward news organisations and professional journalists to keep doing what they’re doing.

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know is that it will be social disaster if we lose professional journalists because we were too cheap to buy a newspaper.

Blogger Censured By Press Complaints Commission

March 29, 2010blogging, Legalblogging, PressAndrew

The Press Complaints Comission (PCC) has censured a blogger for posting unsubstantiated comments on the website of a print publication, The Spectator. This is the first time that the PCC has censured a newspaper or magazine over a journalistic blog.

The PCC regulates the behaviour of the press in the UK and holds them to an Editors’ Code of Practice which includes accuracy, respect for privacy, non-payment of criminals, etc.

In this case, Rod Liddle made comments about the ethnic background of criminals in London, namely that the “overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London was carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community.” Although The Spectator tried to justify the comments partly through statistics and partly through the comment being an opinion, the PCC found that Code of Practice, Clause 1 (Accuracy) had been breached.

The director of the PCC, Stephen Abell, said: “This is a significant ruling because it shows that the PCC expects the same standards in newspaper and magazine blogs that it would expect in comment pieces that appear in print editions. There is plenty of room for robust opinions, views and commentary but statements of fact must still be substantiated if and when they are disputed. And if substantiation isn’t possible, there should be proper correction by the newspaper or magazine in question.”

Before all the UK’s bloggers get worried, first of all, there’s no danger of the PCC going round censuring bloggers. To start with, the PCC is only concerned with newspapers and magazines who subscribe to its funding body. Secondly, it can only censure, which is largely name-and-shame, and it cannot impose fines.

However, while Britain has always had libel laws, it would appear that it’s just become a bit harder to defend (inaccurate) commentary by saying that it was an opinion and not a fact. You have been warned.

Iblogger

September 6, 2009application, iPhonebloggingKL Tech Muse

Iblogger is an blogging application for the iPhone. It allows you to write with your Iphone, then publish directly to your blog. It works with a number of blogging platforms including WordPress, Typepad, Squarespace among others. It is a creation of illumineX , who also created ecto a desktop blogging platform for the Mac. You can add pictures directly from your album or camera. You can add geo tagging to the pictures directly from the application. It also allows the addition of tags, catagories

There are some negatives about the application. First it’s Iphone only, so if you have an Android or a Blackberry you can’t use it. It doesn’t work in landscape mood. Second for an Iphone application it is expensive almost $10.00. Third some people have had trouble with uploading photos and with the application crashing. I’ve just started to use it, so far it is working fine for me. If you do a lot of blogging , especially from the road, it might be worth a look.