video

in response to air's comment, here's a video version (select the HD version if your screen is big enough!) of the penmachine barcode which hopefully is more fun and more self-explanatory:

If you can't play the above YouTube video e.g. perhaps because your platform doesn't support flash, try the original quicktime version of the penmachine dodging buses barcode video

What the video displays

Boring tech stuff:

1. In the middle, 4616 of derek's photos (75x75 pixel thumbnails of all photos >= 720 pixels high from flickr) are displayed
2. while at the bottom their 1 pixel wide by 720 pixel high "barcode slice" is displayed.
3. Finally at the top, a red dot shows where the latest 1 pixel slice is being displayed.

 All three lines wrap-around after 900 pixels.

Cool People in the video:

• miller family-o-sphere
• vancouver tech-o-sphere (if you are in Vancouver and you are in tech, you probably are in the video!)
• gnomedex-o-sphere (chris, ponzi, etc)
• northernvoice-o-sphere

Their is also a webapp version but due the network not being infinitely fast and zero latency it falls behind and out of sync

Here's the webapp version: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/361757/pm-bc-video/html5-barcode/drawbarcode.html

It's a pity zero latency and infinite bandwidth networks don't exist :-)

In order to create the video, I ran the webapp on my localhost to eliminate bandwith and latency problems!

Colophon:

photos by derek k miller:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/penmachine
music "dodging buses by derek k miller:
http://www.penmachine.com/podcast/2009/06/dodging-buses.html
4616 barcode images of derek's flickr photos generated by:
https://github.com/rtanglao/barcode
html5 web app code to generate the video :
https://github.com/rtanglao/html5-barcode/blob/master/drawbarcode.html

video made using: Snapz Pro X from ambrosia software

Known Bugs:

(tested on Mac OS X Safari,  Chrome 12 and Firefox Aurora and Firefox Mobile on Nexus S)

1. the white space on the right side of the video
2. The red dot should skip by 75pixels instead of 1pixel or perhaps we need a separate indicator pointing from the slice to the 75x75 thumbnail
3. The red dot should be erased when it wraps around

Lessons Learned

I need to work more with cool music from people like Derek. Music + code indeed music + anything is fantastic

Cisco Flip débacle lessons:

• Social Cameras must have wireless connectivity (I like Dave Winer's crazy good Social Camera idea but there's lots of room for innovation here that Cisco, Nokia and many others have missed and that companies like Color, Eye-fi et al are trying)  &
• Magic fairy dust won't turn Enterprise companies like Cisco (or the late lamented mismanaged Nortel) into consumer companies :-)

tl;dr:Hindsight is 2020 :-) Funding + bandwidth + curation + live streaming with anchors & field correspondents using mobile streaming = a true dynamic people's network which goes beyond merely static text, photo & video blogging that we had in 2004 and 2006

I loved the grassroots coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics from the folks at the True North Media House. But as always :-) I wanted more. If I had the time, energy, and budget (I am looking at you CBC, UBC, and the educational institutions and organizations with money and staff !) here's what I would have done:

1. Found the funds to provide massive bandwidth to True North Media House to truly make it a place for the rest of us to get our stories out on the Internet
2. We are the network; we don't need to kowtow or reference the official VANOC sanctioned networks.
3. With adequate massive bandwidth the people can provide their own network. By network, I don't mean some text blogs with some photos and videos posted hours or minutes later. I mean, wouldn't it have been excellent to have:
   1. Implemented a real live video network up 4-24 hours a day with rotating anchors from all the communities of the host cities (e.g. GBLTQ, Filipinos :-), East Van, South Van, every group in Metro Vancouver who has a voice!) merged (e.g. using CamTwist like software) with live mobile streaming video from mobile phones using Qik to get the local stories live as they happen on the ground) i.e. we don't need CNN, CBC etc.! With a studio with massive bandwidth and a few mobile phones with data plans and live streaming we can make a better grassroots, organic network !
   2. Implemented some modern aggregation technology like Managing News to aggregate social media and then getting local folks to curate and surface the local stories that others were missing or don't care about.

James Burland's (a video and still cameraphone expert since the N90 and N93 days))  stunning video of a bee pollinating flowers shows the high quality sound and video of the iPhone 4 camera.

Total killer app for parents and aspiring film makers !! Who needs a Canon 5D Mark II? You could easily do something like the Blair Witch Project with shaky non stabilized video on the iPhone 4.

Don't believe me? Register for vimeo, download James Burland's iphone 4 HD video, put on your headphones and check it out.

Because I have tried an N8 prototype, I know the Nokia N8's stills are better than the iPhone 4 stills but not sure the N8's videos are going to be better than iPhone 4. Bring on the competition!

Got my phone bill last month and it's my highest bandwidth usage ever. 875MB primarily because I streamed 640x480 video using Qik on the E75. Just goes to show you that as I have suspected, once you start streaming at 640x480 or higher e.g. HD, your mobile bandwidth is going to start rapidly rising and suddenly having a multi-gigabyte data plan makes sense!

In other words once Apple catches up :-)  with Nokia in terms of being able to stream 640x480 or higher resolution video over 3G, 3.5 G or 4G, it's going to bring the mobile network to its knees (at least the Canadian mobile networks and probably most other North American ones which are not designed for mass market video streaming)!

I can't tell which is better N97 video or N82 video! Caveats: I don't have a keen eye and I only did limited testing last night at Demo Camp Vancouver 07 before the N97 battery ran out.

Both of the following videos are from the Anahita Social Engine demo last night at DemoCamp Vanocouver

Check out the flash videos below but for the best test download and compare and contrast:

• the 400MB N97 MP4 original file
• the 300MB N82 MP4 original file 

N82 Video in flash format:

N97 Video in flash format:

Here's my Northern Voice 2009 presentation (PDF) about Mobile Video Streaming circa 2009:

It's hard to believe how time flies, but the 5th Northern Voice (for the 5th time I am one of the organizers) starts tomorrow with the Federico's dining and dancing opening party,(Scott Nelson with a bit of assistance from myself are providing the WiFi, thanks Scott!), Friday begins the conference proper with a fab social media 101 track organized by Rahel Anne Bailie and Anita Webster, a fantastic mobile track, the MooseCamp unconference and a Stewart Butterfield keynote and Saturday is the more traditional conference day.

So, I don't really have the time but since I love Mozilla, here's one of my Mossecamp ideas for Friday (if you like it, see you on Friday assuming it's accepted!):

In a nutshell:

1. 10 people will signup up to have Roland tape 1-12 second videos of them live (i.e. no editing) on "One way the internet has changed their life."
2. Roland will post them to flickr with a Creative Commons Attribution License to the Mozilla Net Effects Flickr Group
3. The people in the session will watch them and vote on the "best" one (majority rules, my "best" definition: bonus points for fun, other languages, cool things but of course your definition is up to you!)
4. Winner gets a prize. Prize will be a free 1:30 second video taped by Roland on his Nokia N82 on Friday at Moosecamp and edited on iMovie by Roland and submitted to flickr and possibly some Mozilla swag from Zak

More background from Zak:

1. flickr group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/mozillanetfx/
2. Mozilla Net Effects page - https://wiki.mozilla.org/Foundation/Program/Net_Effects
3. Zak's blog post: explaining why videos and the idea behind this! - http://zak.greant.com/what-does-the-net-mean-to-you

Disclaimers and other Blah Blah

1. Zak is an employee of the Mozilla Foundation
2. Roland is Zak's friend, doesn't work for Mozilla but loves Firefox

Convinced? Sign up today only 10 spots available

Flickr finally added video today.Yay! Only 90 seconds and 150MB per video (and requires a pro account to upload videos) but you can tag, geo-tag, add videos to sets and use the flickr privacy system (and there will be a video upload API, yes!). Other than taking videos at conferences and events like DemoCamp and Mobile Monday, I really use video for family stuff which is on my private family flickr account (for those of you who care about my public flickr account, don't worry, i will soon have many videos of me bicycling through Vancouver :-)  to join my 36000 and counting photos!). So having flickr support video will be a great way to share videos via flickr's guess pass to my non-flickr-using family. Now if only you had access to the original video, flickr video would be complete! Feature request to the ShoZu folks: support upload to flickr once the API comes out and support the full 150MB over 3G and WiFi!

The current alpha (so fix it please ASAP :-) ) version of Qik hangs forever if the WiFi Access point you have configured is not available. Here's the steps to reproduce this:

1. Configure Qik to access a WiFi access point e.g. "Raincity Studios"
2. Walk out of range of the WiFi Access point
3. Start Qik
4. Voila! It hangs forever

Other than this bug, I am pretty happy with Qik. It's a great service.

The above photo shows my "bicyclecast" setup (Gorillapod + N95 + DT-22 Tripod Adapter + my bicycle). It worked for only 6 minutes of my 30 minute commute to work (bug? limited buffering capacity? EDGE too slow?). And was fun. The GorillaPod doesn't keep the camera too snug on the bike but it's low budget, cheap and cheerful. Someday I'll have the money to buy a proper bike tripod camera mount like the pros use for Tour de France videos!

Check it out: qik.com/video/13888 recorded live from my bicycle (the hardest part was fastening the tripod and the phone onto the bike, music courtesy of my N81 Musicphone)

Aaargh, it turnes out (thanks to Forum Nokia people for responding to my query!) that I can't record video from S60 Python on an N93 (see my earlier S60 video python post) without installing a MultimediaDD certificate which for some reason (bug?) is not present on an N93. Please Nokia update the N93 firmware to include he Multimedia DD certificate !

Questions:

1. Since it's extremely unlikely there will be further N93 firmware updates, how do I install a Multimedia DD certificate on my N93?
2. How do I get camera.start_record() to record 640x480 video on an N95? Is there some size parameter I need to specify in order to record at 640x480 resolution? There is nothing in the docs about a parameter that specifies the video resolution

I tried to record a video using the new video APIs in S60 Python 1.4.1 but I can't get it to work. My code (inspired by instaflickr code from the S60 Python Book Sample code) runs but the red light doesn't come on on my N93 and nothing is recorded. I am guessing (Forum Nokia post, SourceForge Bug Report) I have an error in camera.start_record() in the following code (which is also attached):

import appuifw

import e32, key_codes, os, os.path, camera, graphics

def cb(im):

  try:

    canvas.blit(im)

  except:

    appuifw.note(u'cb')

def cb2(im, blah):

  try:

    x = 1

  except:

    appuifw.note(u'cb2')

def start_viewfinder():

  camera.start_finder(cb)

  camera.start_record('E:\\Python\\whatever.mp4', cb2 )

  canvas = appuifw.Canvas()

  appuifw.app.body = canvas

  start_viewfinder()

  e32.ao_sleep(30) # record video for 30 seconds

  camera.stop_record()

  camera.stop_finder()

If anybody can help, please email roland AT rolandtanglao.com, call +1 604 729 7924, skype: rtanglao or Jabber: roland@bryght.com

Yay! Go my hello world program to work and finally got the OS X Bluetooth console to work. The trick is to:

ls -l /dev

and use the last tty for the screen command

e.g. if the last modified tty is tty.bt_console6

then you have to do screen /dev/tty.bt_console6

Now on to to create a program to create video in ego blogging mode (i.e. with screen facing you) using the high res camera.

I can't get the following code to work:

and I can't get the Nokia camera.py from Nokia's python sample code wiki page to work, help!

video.ca's flash video transcoding of my Drupal 5 logo screencast (see below!) seems pretty legible too. Again as per my previous brightcove versus blip.tv versus google video versus YouTube informal shootout, I can't use video.ca as my default video service because there's no Creative Commons licensing option. Yes, I am pretty dogmatic about that. I believe in creating a digital commons which is not of concern (alas :-) ! ) to most people.

Uploading a Logo to the Drupal 5 Garland Theme on Video.ca

YouTube Mobile Uploading doesn't work in Canada, *sigh*. Well at least it doesn't work with Fido (in my experiments anyway. I'd love to be proven wrong) since Fido MMS can only handle 300K and most videos are at least 1MB.

Supporting MMS is ridiculous, YouTube! Nobody uses MMS in North America (well at least no adults, youths and crazy Web 2.0 people that I know). Please support video upload using email like the fantastic blip.tv does!

FROM TechCrunch » YouTube Mobile Uploading:

QUOTE

YouTube announced a new feature today that allows uploading of videos from a mobile device that supports Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Users need to create a moblie profile before uploading videos. Sign up here.

I use my camera phone to upload pictures directly to Flickr all the time (yesterday’s banana-yellow ridiculous rental car, for example). If my phone had the ability to create video, I’d be using this for YouTube all the time, too.

END QUOTE

Actually, Ethan, "MySpace Killer" is not the new black it's the new "Flickr of..." :-) ! Remember the good 'ole days last year when everything was the flickr of something? e.g. the flickr of video (which still doesn't exist IMHO) !

From TechCrunch » AOL To Launch “Myspace Killer”.:

QUOTE

TechCrunch » AOL To Launch “Myspace Killer” being a myspace killer is the new black it seems.

END QUOTE

UPDATE: The rocketboom folks sent me an email. The folks looking for actors below are NOT associated with rocketboom. The more the merrier we say. Please make your ad more clear next time!

[Cross posted from rolandtanglao.com]

Go Rocketboom go! I nominate Debbie (check out my cheesy video with Debbie which shows her potential. I am sure it would be trivial to kick it up a notch and produce a killer demo reel) and Sarah (check out her awesome work at Geek Entertainment television) to co-anchor.

From Call For Actors.:

QUOTE

If you are looking for an excellent opportunity to gain on-camera experience along with high profile exposure, read on...

A new video podcasting site will commence reporting about events and activities in Vancouver!

If you are unfamiliar with the broadcast capability of podcasting, please visit:

www.rocketboom.com

Rocketboom is a New York based daily video podcasting show which features arts and technology stories.

UNQUOTE

QUOTE

The host, Amanada Congdon, has used the high visibility of her daily broadcast to over 100,000 people per day, to launch her acting career. She has since appeared on television shows such as CSI.

Our site will feature a daily 2 minute segment featuring the best of cultural and social events and activities in Vancouver.

The purpose of this site is to provide one place for Vancouverites and visitors to gain a window into the world of many of the great things happening in Vancouver through video.

If you are interested in experiencing the exposure and on-camera opportunities provided, please:

1. submit by E-mail a 30 second video clip of yourself presenting on a hypothetical or real event or activity in Vancouver. Simply use a digital camera in video mode to record your audition.

2. e-mail the 30 second clip to: vblog_auditions@hotmail.com

Please ensure:

1. the subject (your head) occupies the majority of the frame,

2. that the image is sufficiently lit (that you can be seen clearly), and

3. that the sound is clearly audible.

You may be have the greatest personality and present well, but if we can't
see or hear you well, your audition video cannot be considered.

Deadline for entries: April 8, 2006.

UNQUOTE

Watch my 30 second video with Dave Shea, Bill Tam, Jeff LaPorte, Bryan and Steph Rieger and posted in "real time" (takes about 10 minutes using glacially slow GPRS to transfer via Shozu) to show the use of Shozu.

I demoed Shozu (and recapped my journey from buying my grey market 7610 for my 40th birthday using my own money to using email to upload photos to Flickr, to using Hugin and Mugin (Java midlet to upload pictures to flickr developed by my friend and ace programmer, Simon Lewis) and being frustrated by the low res pictures from the 7610's crippled Java implementation of the camera APIs to uploading photos 4 at a time using Lifeblog to today's Shozu happiness!) tonight and we had a great Eqo demo and presentation from Jeff LaPorte.

I love my blip.tv. The most features. Grassroots and friendly support people. Now if only they added a flash widget, I'd use them instead of YouTube for all my videos.