7 reasons I might buy the HMX10

A few reasons i'm probably going to buy the Samsung HMX10. I've traversed the black hole that is consumer camcorder info and this is the least documented camera, but it has many benefits. Now is probably not the best time to be buying a consumer camcorder w/ the a format wars-ish type situation (AVCHD, HDV, JVC's hd7 etc.), but these early years of my daughter's life need to be documented. Reasons:

1. The number one benefit of this camera is that it records in an hd format I can use, mpeg-4 with h.264. I'm on a PowerBook so AVCHD, which is a similar format, is out for me on Final Cut Express w/ a power pc processor. I thought about just getting a Sony and relying on voltaic, but who knows how long that project will be supported. Plus it just feels icky having to use a third party to get to my video.
2. The pricepoint is pretty reasonable.
3. You can edit down the video before dragging it onto your drive.
4. Swivel Grip
5. Clean web uploads. Many people has labeled this a "web" camcorder. This camera and the standard def one shoots in a nice neat 30fps, where a lot of other cameras use 29.97 or some such rate that is not cleanly divisible by 2. YouTube chops the frame rate in half and the picture ends up looking much better when its cleanly divisible by 2.
6. Can be setup as an actual webcam. Probably won't user this one, but it's nice to know it's there.
7. Media. This is a solid state media camcorder. No moving parts, no camera hum, it *should* startup quickly. There is an internal memory card and a spot for expanding the memory with an regular old SD card, Sony uses really expensive cards made by sony, I think you can use generic cards, but I've read about people having troubles with them.

XUL?

I recently had to force quit a process called "xulrunner.exe". After a little research I found that Songbird uses XUL, an HTML-like markup language for it's media player. A sigh of relief came over me as I thought I had picked up a virus. Apparently XUL apps have to run xulrunner.exe. Wouldn't it be great if they could port it to Adobe AIR and have their own exe? AIR seems to provide most of the functionality that the media player has. (Not sure about the OS level availability of USB inputs, etc.) It would be nice, and probably cooler, if they ported Songbird to AIR!

Back to Wordpress

I'm movin' back to WordPress!!!! Here's a brief recap of my blog history.

1. Started with blogger. Easy & static.
2. Got interested in WordPress decided to give it a go. Very cool app, I like the idea of the whole thing running on my server. One small hitch, I found out I had little to say. Ditched WP.
3. Blogger acquired by google. Sweet new features that integrate w/ google services, lured be back into making posts. Still didn't have a bunch to say.
4. (Now) Got inspired by the philosophy behind todaycreate, I intend for JacobMake to be a stage for experimental personal projects OR a discourse on the reasons I'm too lazy, scared, or untalented to produce and document quality personal interest projects / tutorials. See y'all there.

My Vow to Build Things

To often I leave a vision or idea unfinished. I get easily inspired, I have great ideas, but the realization never seems to take place. I recently ran across Mike Creighton's blog, TODAY CREATE. Mike is a very talented flash developer, but what I like most about the blog is his mantra of making... building... creating... executing.

I do have a stable of personal projects I consistently find reasons to not execute. Maybe it's fear of failure. Maybe I'm lazy. For a long time my blog has lacked focus (and content). It's easy to regurgitate other things found on the web, or keep a semi-personal journal. Here is my vow to keep a log of my personal projects here, possibly establish an audience that can keep me accountable for progress.

Here's to inspiration execution.

OSX Reformat

I just resurfaced from a complete reformat of my G4 Powerbook. Sweet Lord Almighty, I had no idea how bad it had gotten. Caches in the metric ton, conflicting fonts, tiny little apps i NEVER use cluttering up my system resources. It was an interesting process. It "felt" good. To ditch all the clutter and start a new was refreshing, kind of like an "unboxing" process. Now machine runs like a Kenyan. And I will be very careful not to install the same cluttter that gummed up the works over the past two years......at least for a couple months.

marcellis not marcellus

Marcellis F. Heberlie, 80, of Perryville died Saturday, May 26, 2007. He was my grandfather.

smashing gumballs

Missouri has a kind of tree I have come to know as a gumball tree. I can only assume it's named this because of the spiky gumball-sized orbs emitted by the tree. As I chugged along during this afternoon's run, I looked down as the slushy ground slowly passed underneath. I noticed that with every step I was crushing these once intimidating land mines. The soggy whether had rendered these spikey creatures mushy lumps. My tender pink feet were able to triumph over the gumballs thanks to the engineered wizardry of pvc, rubber, and space age nike-plastic strapped to my feet.

Global Traffic Visualization

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a nut for data visualization. Packetgarden takes website traffic and builds a world with mountains and trees based off your global website traffic. The world looks similar to the worlds within Spore.

actionscript hero

I think I found another Actionscript hero. Check out this guy's portfolio. Be sure to drag the sliders, the whole experience is in 3D space. I really like that this guy has a LAB subdomain to his own website.

iFrickin' believable, Apple unveils the iPhone

Apple finally unveiled the iPhone today. My biggest complaint; No tactile response to the buttons. You will have to look at the screen to dial, and I don't think there is a volume rocker on the side so changing volume while on the phone will be difficult. Other than that it's one of the most amazing pieces of technology that has come out in the last decade.

social gaming experiments

This is me, as a deer-human in The Endless Forest. The Endless Forest is a non-violent social experience. It transcends the definition of gaming, I’d call it a social experiment. It should be known that I’m not a gamer. I’ve repeatedly and stubbornly refused World of Warcraft, and I think I’m slowly losing touch with my friends because of it. I’d like to offer something to my friends as an alternitive to WOW. Something not so 20-sided-die would be nice. Warcraft interests me, but what impresses me is the social element, not +45 magic, or Leroy Jenkins.

If the world has any suggestions for experimental multiplayer, I’m all ears. and and antlers.

kupper parker closed

Kupper Parker, a publicly traded advertising agency in St. Louis, seemingly closed it’s doors earlier this month. Word spread quickly through the small network of agencies in St. Louis. I gather it was an expected event from an insiders perspective. My three bits of evidence that Kupper was no more were as follows:

1. industry buzz
2. the fact that the company’s website was down
3. a morning star stock report show’s the company worth $0.01.

Low and behold, is that a phoenix rising from the dust? Kupper’s website is back up at the time of this posting. Probably not telling of the agencies return, but noteworthy. Why did the big agency fail?

turning down work

I’ve slowly climbed the ranks of freelancer. I used to take on every scrap of side-job meat thrown my way to padd my portfolio and get experience. Lord knows it wasn’t for the money at the rates I was charging.

And good experience it was. I would consider the things I’ve been through a freelancer’s rite of passage. Here’s a few notches in the belt that really have to come from real-world experience.

1. drastically underbidding a project just to get it. you pay the price ultimately.
2. letting the creative lead out of your hands and turning into your clients production artist. “move the logo over, change that to blue, etc.” a dangerous road to go down.
3. saying “I can do it” when you cant. Sometimes this can be a great way to learn, just make sure it’s something you want to learn. If learning how to write coldfusion doesn’t interest you or add to the skillset your trying to develop. skip it.
4. poor project radar. there are some projects that just smell a little funny. tight deadlines are sometimes the problem, other times it’s a client who wants something for nothing.

I’ve been turning down work left and right lately. It took me a while to get used to it, but once I did, it felt great.

It’s important to know when you’ve become better than the projects your working on. Don’t feel guilty, that small low-pay design gig will get done by some low-rate basement dweller. Believe me, I used to be that guy.

clayton vs. maplewood

This weekend I attended both St. Louis art fairs for the first time.

Friday night, I visited the Clayton art fair, which is the biggest art fair in St. Louis County. I saw some amazing work. I was even able to pickup a nice woodcut print by this artist. While strollers were being pushed by Polo clad suburbanites a more alternative rebellious fair ensued in Maplewood, just a few miles away.

On Saturday I spent a couple hours at my old stomping ground, the Schlafly Bottleworks in the eclectic yet up-and-coming neighborhood, Maplewood. The Shclafly Art Outside is a newbie, this being its third go-round. This fair concentrates on providing a completely local lineup of art & entertainment. Schlafly, brewer of the finest pale ale, had happily sponsored the Clayton fair for many years. About six years ago Shlafly’s privlages and booth location at the Clayton event began to diminish due to the request of the other St. Louis giant brewer, Anheuser Busch. After several years Schlafly was eventully “weeded out” of the Clayton fair and Art Outside was born. The highlights from this years Art Outside include local boutiques KungFu Chicken and Firecracker Press. Two new artists I really was impressed by were the paintings by Josh Crow and the screenprinted wearable art by Lull.

I have always supported the Outside mostly because I know a couple of the participating artists and have had my checks signed by Tom Schlafly in a previous life. I’ve always felt at home at Schafly, so I naturally found myself protesting the “snobs” in Clayton. After visiting the Clayton fair this year I found my Schlafly alliegance fading. What I found in Clayton was top-notch talent and an acceptable amount of yuppie.

The Clayton event is able to attract a higher caliber of artist due to its history, size, and national scope. While I still enjoy the company of the folks at Schlafly, this year’s event felt like a re-run. They have a limited stable of talent, commiting to the purley local theme. In the future I’ll remember to have my expectations set when going to these two events. I’ll go to Clayton to see fresh concepts and great national talent, and I’ll visit Maplewood to go to visit my friends and see what the St. Louis talent has been up to.

benny smith dies

This weekend we lost yet another man that helped found the sound of the St. Louis Blues.

Benny Smith saw mild success throughout his career. He never reached the same fame as his river city counterpart Johnnie Johnson who also passed somewhat recently, but he definately left his mark on this city and the music that made it famous. I’m no blues expert but I am definately a fan. Benny Smith frequented such haunts as BB’s in downtown St. Louis.

I had the opportunity to see him a few times during his regular set on Sunday afternoons at Hammerstone’s in Soulard. It was always a treat to watch local blues musicians sit in with Benny. They would develop a riff and once it was established they would take turns deviating and playing with the riff. The audience enjoyed it thouroughly but you could tell the musicians were on a whole different level, conversion through this riff and making it their own.

I’m not sure what will happen to the St. Louis Blues as we keep losing these great guys. But one thing is certain, Benny Smith will be missed.

mlb gamecast

Whew! We just got through a tough one with the Padres, or as Cate likes to call them the St. Louis Browns. Luckily Sir Albert served up a crucial homerun in the 8th. And the little guy made an appearence, didn’t do much, but it was good to see him out there. All the while we were fighting for our lives, Pittsburgh and Houston battled it out in a marathon. I watched my redbirds on FSN and I had my eye on the Houston game on my lap through ESPN’s MLB gamecast to make sure they stayed at least a full game back.

This gamecast is one hell of a way to watch a game. Perfect for stats junkies or someone (like me) who like to follow games at work but don’t want to have full blown audio or video pipin’ through the computer.

The ESPN MLB game cast is a thing of beauty. Masterfully built though a delicious flash interface, this application delivers real-time stats in a perfect sized window. Not to be confused with what mlb.com has going on. They have a similar format, but this espn version is glossy, easy to follow, and even has animated plays. I’d be interested to see what’s under the hood. Possibly a Flash communication server? Slide-Show Pro claims to have some kind of stake in the process but where or how much is not quite clear. With any luck I will be making similar kick arse flash apps at my new gig.

Next time you need to catch a game at work, check out this page and click gamecast on any one of the active games. It’s a great way to experience a game. Does anyone know if they provide a similar service for pigskin? I’m guessing not enough audience b/c more people can get infront of a TV on sundays.

what is swift 3d for?

I have a 3d/web background. It seems I would be the perfect person to put Swift3d to good use. I was very excited when I heard the concept, “3-d delivered through .swf”. It sounds great. The only problem is that Swift3d has been hanging around for a couple years and I still haven’t found a super practical use for this seemingly useful app.

I have been inspired by some uses of the product, such as the tokyoplastic website. But other than a nice portfolio piece, I’ve found few useful applications for this product. E-rain hasn’t produced a case study worth a second look. Here is the best thing I could come up with. A simple rotating character. With the way flash video going these days the only benefit Swift has is the scalability, which I must admit is pretty cool. Vector lines in 3d that can scale to any size must have some practicle application, but the only thing I could come up with is a rotating character. Be sure to drag the window to see the vector animation scale.

Any practical ideas out there for this application?

The ghost of Busch Stadium.

Wouldn't it be nice to live in the world of google maps? Okay probably not, everything would be sort of flat with a really strange birdseye perspective, in some areas it would be spring, and others winter, but you would never get lost that's for sure! But these satellite photos don't get updated that often. So for those of you that miss the old Busch Stadium like me, for now you can still go visit the stadium because it still exists in the world of google maps. It's kind of like visiting a grave site, but there it is in all it's glory bright as ever on a sunny day.

At least they caught my good side.

Cindy Sheehan, who caught the spotlight during her protest outside the whitehouse, was arrested this week for demanding the return of Iraq troops. There was a second count of indecent exposure.

Guinea Pig

In Tawain scientists have figured out a way to genetically engineer pigs to glow fluorescent green. I have a glow in the dark shirt, now I can finally have the pig to go with it.