1) In my opinion, media is quickly heading toward a future where everything is streaming. Everything will be accessible on the internet - music, movies, tv, news feeds (both video and text). Some areas are already heading that way and I think the move to digital tv last year is hurrying things along. As I mentioned in the tv post, I watch all my tv streaming over the internet. I haven't found myself hindered by my decision to cancel cable, and I certainly haven't watched less tv because of it. If anything, I watch more tv now because I can watch episodes when I have time, not based on when episodes air. As more people get high speed internet, cell phones with internet access, or various other handheld devices and as more cities move to a citywide wifi, more content will be available streaming. A future with easy access to streaming media seems likely and I love it.
2) I am not an early adopter of new gagdets for several reasons:
(1) I am poor.
(2) The first generation of any gagdet is bound to have bugs and issues that will be worked out by the second generation.
(3) I am poor.
(4) Not every new gagdet is worth having. The Kindle, for example is very cool, but limited. New gagdets require extensive research before purchasing to determine if they really are as worthwhile and revolutionary as people initially thought.
I'm not opposed to technology, but I am cautious about spending money on new technology. Take, for example, the iPad. I think the iPad is beautiful. I want one. The day it was unveiled I read everything I could about it, gazed longingly at the pictures of it, and planned a pilgrimage to the Apple store the weekend after it goes on sale (in March) just so I could touch one. Despite all that, I would never buy the first generation iPad. Too many glitches. Too many things that could easily be corrected for the second generation model once Apple gets costumer feedback. (Plus, the second generation is almost always accompanied by a cost cut.)
The second part of this question involves outdated technology. What do I miss the most? I'm not honestly sure. I miss non-digital tv, I think. I miss the VCR. But I only miss those two things because I used them frequently to record tv shows. If I had TiVo or DVR (or didn't just watch online), I wouldn't miss those at all. I know it's odd to say, but I kind of miss CD's. I buy everything on iTunes now, which means no physical CD, no cover art, no song lyrics. I miss my grandparents' 8-track. Not because it was a useful advancement in music technology but because it was fun to play with on vacation. (All they had left to listen to was Elvis!)
(I miss my hair crimper, but I doubt that was what this post was aiming for.)
My favorite media gagdet is the iPod (or the mp3 player, in general). Before the iPod, a vacation would include carefully deciding which CD's to bring for my discman. Inevitably, I would want the CD's I left behind. Now, even with my second or third generation iPod (no video, small storage space, very heavy), I can take 20 gigs of music with me and take up far less space. It's brilliant! It certainly makes my life easier.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
the future of media #80: movies
1) In the previous post, I mentioned my intense love for Hulu. I generally use it to watch tv, but I have occasionally watched movies through Hulu. They have a nice mix of old and new films in many different genres. The one I just noticed and watched a bit of, was Ghostbusters. Memories of my childhood!
I really don't mind watching movies on my computer, mainly because I have a laptop so watching isn't restricted to an uncomfortable desk chair. I can watch on the couch or in bed, if I feel like it. I also spent several years with a hand-me-down tv with faulty connections, so could never watch DVD's without the tv going blank halfway through. I got so used to watching everything on my laptop that now that I have a (newer hand-me-down) tv that works, I rarely use it.
2) I regularly use Apple Trailers and IMDb to watch trailers for new movies coming out. I tried to watch a trailer for Toy Story 3 on Apple Trailers, but the staff computer I am on doesn't have Quicktime or sound, so it didn't quite work. Alas. Never fear, I have used both sites many, many times and will continue to do so.
3) For the last two years or so, I have been a faithful member of Netflix. I love it and wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone. Netflix makes it so easy to create a queue filled with movies and tv (some of which I will never get around to watching, but keep in there just in case), tailor the number of discs you want to receive at a time (with a pay adjustment, of course), browse by genre, and rate movies and write reviews for better recommendations. My favorite Netflix feature is definitely the streaming video. In fact, I just finished watching seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter through Netflix Instant. Now if only season 3 was streaming, too...
I really don't mind watching movies on my computer, mainly because I have a laptop so watching isn't restricted to an uncomfortable desk chair. I can watch on the couch or in bed, if I feel like it. I also spent several years with a hand-me-down tv with faulty connections, so could never watch DVD's without the tv going blank halfway through. I got so used to watching everything on my laptop that now that I have a (newer hand-me-down) tv that works, I rarely use it.
2) I regularly use Apple Trailers and IMDb to watch trailers for new movies coming out. I tried to watch a trailer for Toy Story 3 on Apple Trailers, but the staff computer I am on doesn't have Quicktime or sound, so it didn't quite work. Alas. Never fear, I have used both sites many, many times and will continue to do so.
3) For the last two years or so, I have been a faithful member of Netflix. I love it and wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone. Netflix makes it so easy to create a queue filled with movies and tv (some of which I will never get around to watching, but keep in there just in case), tailor the number of discs you want to receive at a time (with a pay adjustment, of course), browse by genre, and rate movies and write reviews for better recommendations. My favorite Netflix feature is definitely the streaming video. In fact, I just finished watching seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter through Netflix Instant. Now if only season 3 was streaming, too...
the future of media #79: television
To begin this post, let me get something off my chest.
I love tv.
There. Now that we've got that sorted, on to the post!
1) A couple of years ago, I decided that cable just wasn't worth the monthly bill, so I got rid of it. Shortly after, I discovered that not even rabbit ears could pick up a channel. (This was before the change to digital.) So I started watching all my tv online. I'm quite proficient at it, if I do say so myself. If I'm being honest, I think I watch more tv now than I did when I actually picked up channels! Odd, I know.
I use Hulu on a weekly basis to watch a good many of my tv shows. Castle, Burn Notice, White Collar, Sanctuary, Glee, Heroes... The list continues. It's easy to use and allows me to set up a subscription to each show I want. When something new is uploaded to that subscription, I get an email letting me know. Now I no longer need to worry about keeping track of when shows are airing new episodes because Hulu does it for me!
2) I do not watch tv on my cell phone because it is an impossibility. My cell phone, it is old. It is not internet or video compatible. If I had an iPhone? I would watch tv on it all the time.
3) I'm not much into watching people's personal streaming video, but I do watch videos uploaded to YouTube. I also have used YouTube to upload videos of my own. None actually have me in them, but they are videos are one's I have taken on vacations and at events (like Monster Jam).
Now I feel like watching tv...
I love tv.
There. Now that we've got that sorted, on to the post!
1) A couple of years ago, I decided that cable just wasn't worth the monthly bill, so I got rid of it. Shortly after, I discovered that not even rabbit ears could pick up a channel. (This was before the change to digital.) So I started watching all my tv online. I'm quite proficient at it, if I do say so myself. If I'm being honest, I think I watch more tv now than I did when I actually picked up channels! Odd, I know.
I use Hulu on a weekly basis to watch a good many of my tv shows. Castle, Burn Notice, White Collar, Sanctuary, Glee, Heroes... The list continues. It's easy to use and allows me to set up a subscription to each show I want. When something new is uploaded to that subscription, I get an email letting me know. Now I no longer need to worry about keeping track of when shows are airing new episodes because Hulu does it for me!
2) I do not watch tv on my cell phone because it is an impossibility. My cell phone, it is old. It is not internet or video compatible. If I had an iPhone? I would watch tv on it all the time.
3) I'm not much into watching people's personal streaming video, but I do watch videos uploaded to YouTube. I also have used YouTube to upload videos of my own. None actually have me in them, but they are videos are one's I have taken on vacations and at events (like Monster Jam).
Now I feel like watching tv...
searching #78: video
1) I am currently more than a little obsessed with Men's Figure Skating. I hold the Olympics fully responsible for this obsession. Since watching Evan Lysacek skate his heart out an win gold, I've been trying to find his free skate at the 2006 Olympics in Torino - with no sucess. I thought I'd put Truveo and Blinkx to the test and see if either site pulled up a link to that skate. No luck. Truveo and Blinkx both came up with tons of video links for the 2010 Olympics, but nothing further back. Since that search failed, I did a search for something I know for a fact is on the web - Johnny Weir's skate to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." (I really like that program. Can you tell?) A search on Truveo and on Blinkx both turned up results linking back to YouTube, the site I already knew had the video.
I can see how Blinkx and Truveo might sometimes be helpful, but I don't see myself using either all that often. The video I really want didn't show up and the one I already know about, well, I could just find searching YouTube. No point using a secondary search engine when most of what I find is on YouTube.
2) I knew HCPL had a YouTube channel, but I'd never been to it before. There is actually quite a bit of video on it, more than I would have expected. My favorite video series was uploaded by Freeman. It gives instructions on buying a print card, printing a document, and adding more money to a print card. Brilliant! The videos were clear and easy to understand, with explicit text instructions and arrows pointing to the relevant areas on pictures of the print card machine, etc. In my opinion, it would be fantastic if all HCPL desktops had a link to that video series (or one tailored to each specific branch, if there are differences). It might (maybe, hopefully, probably not but cross your fingers!) cut down on the number of printing questions.
Finally, because I think everyone should see this video at least once in their life (more than once is preferable), here's Johnny Weir skating to "Poker Face." He's fabulous!
I can see how Blinkx and Truveo might sometimes be helpful, but I don't see myself using either all that often. The video I really want didn't show up and the one I already know about, well, I could just find searching YouTube. No point using a secondary search engine when most of what I find is on YouTube.
2) I knew HCPL had a YouTube channel, but I'd never been to it before. There is actually quite a bit of video on it, more than I would have expected. My favorite video series was uploaded by Freeman. It gives instructions on buying a print card, printing a document, and adding more money to a print card. Brilliant! The videos were clear and easy to understand, with explicit text instructions and arrows pointing to the relevant areas on pictures of the print card machine, etc. In my opinion, it would be fantastic if all HCPL desktops had a link to that video series (or one tailored to each specific branch, if there are differences). It might (maybe, hopefully, probably not but cross your fingers!) cut down on the number of printing questions.
Finally, because I think everyone should see this video at least once in their life (more than once is preferable), here's Johnny Weir skating to "Poker Face." He's fabulous!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
searching #77: images
1) I am unimpressed with All Free Clip Art. The site is not intuitive and poorly set up. It also seems to be experiencing technical difficulties of some sort because every search I do leads only to blank clipart boxes with red x's. I have no idea whether the Santas look like trolls or not because I simply cannot see any of them.
2) Of the ten sites discussed, I already use one and had never used (or, in many cases heard of) the others.
Flickr - I adore Flickr. I'm not all that much of photographer, but I do enjoy taking photos of events I go to, parties, friends, family and vacations. I have found Flickr (especially when upgraded to a relatively inexpensive pro account) is a simple, intuitive website. I can create albums, group albums together, add tags, add notes, send albums to friends and family, even post slideshows on my blog! It's fantastic. Flickr also seems to attract a very mixed group of photographers, some on my level and some who actually have skill. I love browsing through Flickr and admiring the talent of many of the photographers.
MorgueFile - After exploring MorgueFile, I am highly impressed with the site. All the photos on the site are free to use and adapt without attribution. That makes finding the perfect picture so much easier because everything is free to use! I did notice that the quality is not always the same (some pictures clearly look like they were taken by amateurs), but there are enough lovely stock photos to make the site worth bookmarking.
3) I use schools.clipart all the time for program advertisement. I love the variety of photos and photo objects they have on that site. There is something for every program, and the high quality pictures really make a huge difference. I recently used this one for a sign regarding a teen book club:
2) Of the ten sites discussed, I already use one and had never used (or, in many cases heard of) the others.
Flickr - I adore Flickr. I'm not all that much of photographer, but I do enjoy taking photos of events I go to, parties, friends, family and vacations. I have found Flickr (especially when upgraded to a relatively inexpensive pro account) is a simple, intuitive website. I can create albums, group albums together, add tags, add notes, send albums to friends and family, even post slideshows on my blog! It's fantastic. Flickr also seems to attract a very mixed group of photographers, some on my level and some who actually have skill. I love browsing through Flickr and admiring the talent of many of the photographers.
MorgueFile - After exploring MorgueFile, I am highly impressed with the site. All the photos on the site are free to use and adapt without attribution. That makes finding the perfect picture so much easier because everything is free to use! I did notice that the quality is not always the same (some pictures clearly look like they were taken by amateurs), but there are enough lovely stock photos to make the site worth bookmarking.
3) I use schools.clipart all the time for program advertisement. I love the variety of photos and photo objects they have on that site. There is something for every program, and the high quality pictures really make a huge difference. I recently used this one for a sign regarding a teen book club:
Image Credit: @jupiterimages
searchin #76: sound effects
1) I love animal sounds. I love the adorable and unique ways little kids mimic animals. (One of my younger brothers used to make the funniest horse noise that none of us can copy accurately.) I love how animal sounds make me think of long car trips to visit my grandparents in West Texas. We would all moo when we passed cows, and baa when we passed sheep, and sometimes we would convince Dad to make his brilliant elephant trumpet, complete with an arm as a trunk. Life seemed much simpler then, when all I had to worry about was how to best mimic a rooster.
I used FindSounds to search for the following animal sounds:
A lion's roar
An elephant's trumpet (This site actually has tons and tons of different elephant sounds.)
An orca's call (This entire page is in Italian. Fun?)
2) Simply the Best seems much easier to navigate, especially if finding something in the public domain is necessary. I used it to find the following sounds:
A train horn (It sounds like something from Thomas the Tank Engine.)
Submarine sonar (I have a strange obsession with submarine movies. I don't even know.)
Morse Code (It would be interesting to know what was said in this clip.)
I thought both of these sites including some great sound effects. It's helpful to have sound effects from various sites collected onto one searchable site.
I used FindSounds to search for the following animal sounds:
A lion's roar
An elephant's trumpet (This site actually has tons and tons of different elephant sounds.)
An orca's call (This entire page is in Italian. Fun?)
2) Simply the Best seems much easier to navigate, especially if finding something in the public domain is necessary. I used it to find the following sounds:
A train horn (It sounds like something from Thomas the Tank Engine.)
Submarine sonar (I have a strange obsession with submarine movies. I don't even know.)
Morse Code (It would be interesting to know what was said in this clip.)
I thought both of these sites including some great sound effects. It's helpful to have sound effects from various sites collected onto one searchable site.
searching #75: google and beyond
1) Blindsearch was pretty fun. I did three different searches and ended up picking Google twice and Yahoo once. My first search was for Johnny Weir and the vote went to Google because it included a link to the YouTube video of his skate to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." (Arbitrary, I know, but I can't help it! I love that song and I adore his feisty skate to it!) My second search was for Wales. I ended up picking Google's results because it brought up a site other than Wikipedia or Answers.com the earliest. My third search for Joe Flanigan turned up an almost identical set of results in each column, so I randomly selected Yahoo.
Oddly enough, I generally prefer Yahoo at home, use Bing at work (through the live search option), and only use Google as a fall back. Despite my Blindsearch results, I will most likely continue this way simply because I dislike Google as a whole.
2) Not surprisingly, Google was the top search engine this week with 70.95% of the hits. Considering that Yahoo trails it with a meager 14.72% of hits, it is clear that Google has taken over the Internet. (Also not surprising, Google tops the list of most visited websites as well.) Clearly, the usage stats do not match my personal choice since I generally use Yahoo.
3) Yahoo has recently introduced a Search Pad function on their results pages. Search Pad allows users to save search results in a list, organize the list anyway they want, write notes on each site bookmarked, and save the list for future use. The lists can be retrieved later so searches don't have to be redone, and can also be sent via email or weblink to anyone you want to share it with. I think this is fantastic. It lets users do a search, save info, and come back to the same sites later on without the hassle of saving tons of bookmarks, leaving tabs open and hoping nothing goes wrong, or scribbling things down.
Oddly enough, I generally prefer Yahoo at home, use Bing at work (through the live search option), and only use Google as a fall back. Despite my Blindsearch results, I will most likely continue this way simply because I dislike Google as a whole.
2) Not surprisingly, Google was the top search engine this week with 70.95% of the hits. Considering that Yahoo trails it with a meager 14.72% of hits, it is clear that Google has taken over the Internet. (Also not surprising, Google tops the list of most visited websites as well.) Clearly, the usage stats do not match my personal choice since I generally use Yahoo.
3) Yahoo has recently introduced a Search Pad function on their results pages. Search Pad allows users to save search results in a list, organize the list anyway they want, write notes on each site bookmarked, and save the list for future use. The lists can be retrieved later so searches don't have to be redone, and can also be sent via email or weblink to anyone you want to share it with. I think this is fantastic. It lets users do a search, save info, and come back to the same sites later on without the hassle of saving tons of bookmarks, leaving tabs open and hoping nothing goes wrong, or scribbling things down.
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