Monthly ArchiveMarch 2007
Internet &Technology &User Interface SpinMeister on 28 Mar 2007
Fat Pipe Dreams
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Last summer a Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, fumbled through his description of the Internet as a “series of tubes.” His simplification was a clumsy adaptation to what telecom folks colorfully refer as “pipes”, network bandwidth such as fiber optical cables providing faster transmission speeds and therefore a “fat pipe.” In 3 to 5 years IBM promises we will have much, much fatter pipes. (Link to full story.)
“We have worked out a way to ship almost inconceivable quantities of data at extremely low power,” said Bernie Meyerson, chief technologist for International Business Machines Corp.
Imagine 160 Gigabytes of data or an entire HD movie being downloaded to your computer or DVR box in one second! The implications of this new chip are staggering. Codecs, audio and video compression technologies, such as MPEG used in mp3, DivX and all the rest will no longer be necessary. Larger hard drives and bigger memory storage devices to collection your new tidal wave of data will be necessary. Online video web sites will contain larger, higher resolution clips which will certainly compete with traditional television broadcasting stations to a larger extent than they do now. Peer-to-peer networking schemes will be more important for sharing vast storage resources than bandwidth itself. Networked games will become higher resolution and more interactive. I can imagine two remotely located Nintendo Wii users playing a lifesized game of tennis through the network. My mind is on fire with ideas, get me a VC quick!
Humor &Movie TV DVD Review SpinMeister on 25 Mar 2007
Wisconsin’s Kentucky Fried Theater
The Wisconsin Alumni magazine On Wisconsin has published an outstandingly detailed article tracking the formative days of the comedy group who later went on to produce Airplane!, Naked Gun and many other movie hits. I arrived in Madison after the Kentucky Fried Theater had ended its run and moved to Hollywood, but I had seen Kentucky Fried Movie, which back in the mid 70’s was a counter culture hit along with The Groove Tube. These anti-establishment films were predecessors to Saturday Night Live and irreverent comedy trends more common today. If you are a fan of the work of the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams, or are an aspiring writer/fimmaker, you will enjoy this interesting read by Rich Markey.
Animation &Technology SpinMeister on 24 Mar 2007
Sheepumentary
Scott aka Spot Draves has been developing an open source network rendered screensaver, Electric Sheep for over 10 years. The project has grown in size and capability, and Spot is receiving recognition within the computer art world and the fine art gallery scene as well. Spot stopped by the Tubular TV studio and we videotaped an artist’s statement as well as an informal interview. See it over at my videoblog, Tubular TV.
Since posting this episode on our video web host, blip.tv, they have cited it on their home page as one of their “Hot Episodes.” Thank you blip.tv, we think you’re hot too.
Media SpinMeister on 17 Mar 2007
Tubular TV Show 8 St. Patrick’s Day
Katie returns to Tubular TV with a look at mashups. Digital media is practically a natural resource to be remodeled like clay. We look at TV advertisement mashups by Jonathan McIntosh, the ambitious stop frame animated FAST FILM by Virgil Widrich and the surrealistic work of ProjectkTV. Katie puts our green screen to the test by wearing a green T-shirt, and fortunately it did not become a see-through top.
Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)
This video was originally shared on blip.tv by MediaSpinner with a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Media SpinMeister on 16 Mar 2007
Tubular TV Show 7
Hank has Joel Eisenberg stop by to show and tell us about vintage Grateful Dead, The Who, The Clash and other concert photos he took in and around San Francisco. We show part of what is in Joel's Vault which Hank has been digitizing and putting on the Media Spin web site on the Rock Pix pages. The Money Maniac returns to kick off the show with advice about how to avoid stock market crashes.
Background musical audio track by the Grateful Dead found at archive.org. Link here.
To see Joel's Vault of Grateful Dead photos, Link here.
Background musical audio track by the Grateful Dead found at archive.org. Link here.
To see Joel's Vault of Grateful Dead photos, Link here.
Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)
This video was originally shared on blip.tv by MediaSpinner with a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Animation &Technology SpinMeister on 05 Mar 2007
Maya’s Mental Ray
It’s high time I started using Maya’s mental ray renderer. I’ve been stuck in the Dark Ages with Maya until recently working on a project demanding high end renderings. This animated calendar image on the right makes use of mental ray’s image based lighting option. Thanks go to team member Ruby Rieke for helping me to get up to speed on mental ray texturing.
Keeping up with Maya’s many complex features is a daunting task. Recently Autodesk announced Maya Nucleus, new dynamics features providing improved interaction between colliding objects. They’ve got a dozen QuickTime movie animation examples of the amazing physical dynamics Nucleus is capable of. How dynamic I am in learning to use the powerful tools is another problem.
Humor &Money SpinMeister on 05 Mar 2007
Money Maniac
Worried about the recent stock market meltdown? Don't be. Wise financial acumen from one who passionately wants to make you money.
