Interactive 412

For your viewing pleasure Buster Keaton drops “Interactive 412″, enjoy.

Morning Bits: Kid tested, Mother approved

Good morning and sorry for the lame post title… speaking of things I am going to say that are lame, can I get a “what what” for SXSW starting THIS WEEK?

Say it out loud.

SXSW. Starts. This. Week.

I don’t even believe my own voice.
So, let’s all get those final RSVPs in, panel selections made, blogs started, new shoes broke in, fanny packs broke out, and Austin Convention Center emergency exits memorized, cause we only have two more days.

Now to news

• Seagate will be giving out free hard drives via a Twitter contest at SXSW. How’s that for hard(drive) news? Like a riddle wrapped in an enigma covered in secret sauce (thank you, Mr. James), Seagate is revealing little details about their plot to back up SWSXers information. Seagate are either incredibly dubious, or just really nice guys wanting to give out some free hard drives. We’ll see.

• Also, the time and location for the ever loved Barcamp has been announced. Next stop, geek-inebriation. The event will be held at 311 East 5th St (RIP Paradox) on Saturday for. 12. hours. Gratuitous? All in good fun? Necessary? Healthy? YES!

• Apple Netbook? Alright, Newton, take two! Perhaps even with Jobs being under the weather, Apple still has a few tricks up their sleeves. DigiTimes reports that “Taiwan-based Wintek will supply touch panels for Apple’s new netbook.” Interesting.

• And in other Apple news, did anyone else catchthe famous “1984″ commercial cameo in Watchmen?

• Finally, popular web video page YouTube will be blocking music videos from Britain viewers after negotiations between YouTube and the British music royalty-collecting body “broke down”. Those British royals… when will they learn?

And since we’re in America, lets enjoy a good British band on YouTube

Morning Bits

Good morning everyone! SXSWi is just around the corner! Here are some tech and SWSW related news items:

Yesterday, Apple announced a new round of updates. The company added a $2,400 24-inch iMac and a faster Macbook Pro. The processor has been bumped up from 2.53 GHz to 2.66 GHz. Other updates include: Airport Extreme, which adds a duel broadcasting mode on the 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz band and Time Capsule will run duel Wi-Fi streaming at 802.11n and  802.11 g speeds — Time Capsule will automatically pick the right speed allowing for more efficient backups. Apple also announced the new Macbook Mini, which they tout as being more energy efficient. It draws less than 13 watts of power when idle . Speaking of Apple, forget the iPod and get the icePod!

Twitter has gained in popularity since the earthquakes in China last summer. This weekend, Twitter (and Google Maps) was used to track down two missing skiers. Friends of the skiers used the microblogging site to obtain the skiers phone numbers. Then, they used the signals to track the skiers. One person was rescued using Google Maps and GPS. Tragically, the other skier, was not able to be saved. This article on TechCrunch shows a screenshot of the  tweets from the rescue mission.

Morning Bits: February 26

Good morning to those of you already cruising the blogosphere.  I’m going to serve you the latest SXSWi and tech news so get the syrup.

• PC World just released an article speculating on the future of Apple sans Jobs.  Of course its difficult for anyone to imagine a world without Jobs.
  

  In this recesssion we need Jobs

  Jobs has been a juggernaut of innovation and shrewd business since returning to the company in the late 90′s.  Many fear that if Jobs leaves Apple will suffer another “lost decade” of backwater innovation.  Who can blame them, Jobs is far more integral at Apple than Bill Gates ever was at Microsoft.  In this recession we all need Jobs.

• Its looking like Yahoo has decided to warm-up to Microsoft according to CFO Blake Jorgensen.  Yahoo has consistently rebuffed Microsoft’s overtures over the last year or so.  The ongoing saga reminds me of an arranged marriage of shotgun wedding, with Microsoft playing the role of the domineering older man and Yahoo the seductive, yet coy young woman.  CEO Carol Bartz said earlier this week that there would be a big shakeup at the ailing company.
• In response to this week’s Gfail, Google has decided to provide information on when its plethora of services go down.  The new dashboard will be made available to Google apps subscribers.

Morning Bits: February 24

Good morning to those of you up and active on the blogosphere.  Its been kinda quiet in the tech world lately.  I think the recent market losses have slowed things down even further.

• SXSWI fans should take note, their favorite interviewer Sarah Lacy blogging for TechCrunch just threw in her two cents on a Thomas Friedman piece in the New York Times.  Of course, if you attended SXSWi last year you’ll recall Lacy’s dubious Mark Zuckerberg interviews  Friedman made the argument that we should be investing in the next Google instead of bailout out “losers” like GM.  Lacy argued that the government shouldn’t meddle in the delicate ecosytem that is Silicon Valley.   Lacy/Zuckerberg interview at SXSWi ’08. 
• Lawrence Lessig, a keynote speaker at last year’s SXSWi has been fighting for changes in U.S. copyright law for a while now.  Apparently he has
  

  Lessig, a crusader for copyright

  given up on attempting to reason with Congress and started a new website called Change Congress.  Kudos to Lessig for the idea.

• Apple just released Safari 4 beta.  You can read about the new features at Crunch Gear.
• Yahoo’s new CEO, Carol Bartz is ready to shake things up at the beleagured company.  The announcement could come this week.

A haven for hipsters, politicos and nerds alike

There are three non-physical things I love that perhaps don’t always go hand-in-hand with my “nerd tendencies”: politics, media and fashion. However, I think that is changing considering some of the offerings at this year’s SXSWi.

Interactive has a quite a political touch this year with a few panels focusing on how campaigns have changed thanks to Web 2.0 tools like social media. The March 14 panel Politics, Technology, and Pop Culture has me tickled with excitement. It will feature Mark McKinnon of Public Strategies Inc, Obama Girl Amber Ettinger, Tom Serres of Piryx Inc., Dan Patterson of ABC News, Alex Wellen of CNN and the last minute add of Lawrence Lessig (thanks, Chris). It’s an interesting mix of speakers because you have the political campaigners, mass media and of course, who could forget Obama Girl.

OK, maybe we could forget.

Bringing about fame for a political candidate via the web is one thing, but what about yourself? It’s why I’m loving the Tuesday, March 17 panel UR Blog Sux and Print is Dead. The title itself tells it all: If your blog sucks, no one will read and you will keep trudging away at that lame job you have. Of course, it’s amazing what can hit it big. Who would have thought pictures of cats with captions would have been the next best thing since sliced bread? Apparently, Ben Huh knew all along and it’s just the reason to check this panel out.

Fortunately for me, Tuesday will wrap up just the way any day should with a little bit of talk on fashion and not just the runway type. Alison Lewis, the editor and producer of the Switch, will be one of the speakers featured in the panel The Convergence of High-End Design, Fashion and Technology. As many of us know, high-tech gadgets should have a level sexiness to make them appealing, but they also need to work well. Hands down, Apple is at the forefront with bringing great technology and design together, but it will be interesting to what other gadgets are out there doing the same.