Mads Mikkelsen reinvented the Bond villain with his portrayal of Le Chiffre in 2006's Casino Royale, but this post is not about him, or his character. Rather, it's about how his hand is moving.
It's from a collection of what are called cinemagraphs, which are kind of like animated gifs, except that most of the image is static, and only a small part of the frame are in full motion. Have a look.
I'm sure I'm not the only parent to find this infographic interesting. As seen here.
From Firefox, that is. While Mozilla reasonably touts its own progress, it doesn't mention a key point: its share of the browser market has been consistently dropping.
Yahoo as Bizarro Superman? Gotta laugh. See this and much more on a post via the Tumblr feed of Midtown Comics.
Surf’s Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, July 29, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]
I started using the digital storage service Dropbox for a few reasons, but the key reason is simple enough: the utter fear that I might lose some things that simply cannot be replaced.
I back up my drive, I’ve burned CDs, and I’ve even emailed key things to my Gmail account, just so I have the peace of mind of knowing I can get this or that specific thing later.
But I signed up for Dropbox for that extra feeling of security, knowing that not only is are copies being archived somewhere, but (sweet!) Dropbox actually updates those copies, in real time, as I save the primary records.
DropboxFor work as a journalist, quite a lot of the files I generate or edit reside on off-site computers, and some never actually download to my desktop. Remarkable, when you think about what constituted normal workflow just a few years ago.
Dropbox and its cousins are convenient for a whole other reason. More and more, many of us need to move relatively massive files (videos come to mind) that are simply too big to send as an email attachment. A quick solution? Setting up a digital drop where someone can log in and securely download the file.A few weeks ago, Dropbox added a sharing feature for its users (look for the “Get shareable link” tab) that will make it easier to move things about.
Conveniently, the service is free … at least, that is, as long as your storage needs are within limits.
There are other options. SugarSync gets good reviews from users, and it will set you back for five bucks a month so long as you keep your storage pegged at 30 gigs of data. A free trial is free.
A competitor like Mozy wisely pitches its $5/month fee as a reasonable cost compared to the expense and effort of backing up photo CDs and the like.
Shop around: there are plenty of others. You don’t want to back yourself into a corner, but you’re definitely going to want to have a backup plan, too. Elsewhere this week
John Gushue is an online editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue.
I suppose if you simply must get a tattoo, you're going to do it. Why, though, would someone get a tattoo based on a fad? That's the question this slideshow from the HuffPost raises (and the photos, for me, answer it).
Meanwhile, while we're on the subject of tattoos, here's one of my favourite tweets from the last week, from Chris Abraham. My wife (we're on the same page about this) drew my attention to it:
[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]
The beachball is a spinning circle of multiple hues, and for me, it’s Apple’s way of getting around its famous claim that its computers don’t crash. Instead, the beachball just spins … and spins … and spins…
Turns out Apple boss Steve Jobs knows where to point the finger: right at one of the most popular things on the web, Adobe’s ubiquitous Flash.
“Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash,” the popular tech blog Daring Fireball reported on comments Jobs is said to have made to staff in February.
The blog is quite upfront in noting its information is second-hand, but it jibes with other accounts, which all have Jobs making one knock after another against Flash. One of the more generous comments? Jobs called Flash “buggy.”
The comments did not seem at all surprising, though, because anyone with an iPhone or a related product knows one thing for sure: it won’t support Flash.
Many of you might be wondering at this point, well, so what? Why should I care?
The thing is, Flash really is a remarkable thing. YouTube wouldn’t be able to work without it. A bazillion online games depend on its simple way of handling online animation. I doubt it’s possible to count the websites that have, in one way or another, incorporated Flash somehow in what you see.
The other thing is, Flash is really showing its teeth. It dates back the better part of 15 years, and even its ardent admirers would have to admit that Flash was not designed to do what is now being asked of it.
Yes, Flash has been an earnest, tough, hard-working soldier, but in the beginning, no one expected that a Flash product would (for instance) be used to handle full-motion, high-quality video.
Flash’s shortcomings are most noticeable right now in the mobile world, and not just because iPhones have built a moat around it. Simply put, Flash products don’t work on the fly.
That’s expected to change, though, and you have to give some credit to owner Adobe for not giving in without a fight. Later this year, some smartphones (notably Androids and Palm’s Pre) will have a Flash player called 10.1, which will allow users to enjoy Flash products as if they were at a PC. Adobe says 19 out of the top 20 smartphone manufacturers have stepped up to support the product. (If you spotted Apple as the holdout, you’re right.)
But a new version doesn’t guarantee Flash is good for the future. Many of the web cognoscenti are more enthusiastic about HTML5, which its creators hope will open the gates for all kinds of products, and free users from proprietary systems … like Adobe’s Flash (and, for that matter, Microsoft’s competing Silverlight).
Sure, Apple has given it its blessings, but for me the more interesting early adopter is none other than YouTube, which has been trying HTML5 out for some time … and probably for loads of reasons other than the fact competing video purveyors have already been flocking to the language, which is far from even being completed.
If you have a smartphone, you may be used to the little blocks or spaces that pop up when you ought to be seeing, say, an animation or a video. Soon, those hiccups will be history.
The question, as the world shifts toward a web that flows through mobile devices, is whether Flash will still be in the pan.
John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, and works with CBC News. John is on Twitter right here.
Late adopter, fast follows: Bill Gates joined Twitter on Tuesday, gaining a whopping 100,000 followers in his account's first hours. That means Gates was picking up more than 200 followers every minute. By this morning, Gates's follower count had tripled.
Dan Hill is as sick and tired of his 1970s monster single Sometimes When We Touch as any of his critics. In an illuminating piece in Maclean's, Hill revealed he wrote the words when he was 19, to impress a girlfriend who didn't care much for the song, nor for him. "I’ve long ago grown more than a little weary of my signature hit—its lyrics now about as relevant to me as a poem or diary entry a teenager might have scrawled out in high school—and its refusal to go gently into that good night," Hill wrote.
Some disability rates among Canada's public servants have been mounting, with depression cited as an area of special concern, says an article this month in the Ottawa Citizen. "In the public service, mental health claims doubled between 1991 and 2007 and now account for 45 per cent of all claims," the article reported.
The Italian government is poised to start regulating what its residents can watch online. The government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose private escapades have made for international headlines, plans in early February to start regulating what is on YouTube. It's worth noting that Berlusconi happens to own a broadcasting empire, and has a vested interest in where Italian eyeballs are directed.
American and British military officials learned this week that gunsights on some of the weapons their soldiers used in Iraq and Afghanistan are engraved with symbols such as JN8:12, which refers to the Biblical verse of John 8:12 ("When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.") Trijcon, the U.S. manufacturer, explained the engravings on its principle of operating by what it called "Biblical standards."
"Prior to the internet, the last technology that had any real effect on the way people sat down and talked was the table."
- Clay Shirky
CBC Radio 3 has updated its design. It's cleaner, although it's still a bit harder to navigate than it should. (Try clicking on a permalink.)
Here's a guide on how to get the most out of the service, which allows for customization, playlists and other fun stuff.
Yes, my laptop can do it in a jiffy, but isn't it cool to have a tool that at least looks like it was used centuries ago to do the trick? The tip on making your own divining rod, or dowsing rod, as they call it, comes from - where else - Make.
Time magazine profiles Ben Huh, who is making a mint from a bunch of sites and blogs, from the Fail blog to GraphJam to I Can Has Cheezburger.
(Before we continue: Aside from the Lolcats trend that has kind of overstayed its welcome by, oh, many moons, I think Huh has something to answer for because of the Fail meme. I've quite had it with teens and young adults, with no practical life or work experience, instantly and angrily labelling something as "FAIL!!!" - not because it doesn't work, but because they simply don't like it.)
Huh's sites (more than 20 of them) are making a mint:
These spellbindingly inane blogs were built with the kind of user-generated content that has made Facebook and YouTube tremendously popular. But unlike these bigger sites, Huh's company has been in the black since its first quarter. Pet Holdings managed to haul in seven figures from advertising, licensing fees and merchandise sales during the first six months of this year, according to a report given to Huh's investors.
Hard to believe that 12 years have passed since one of the great web hoaxes of them all: the idea that Bill Gates will give you some of his money, and all you have to do is forward an email. It survives, in variations, even now, or at least the concept does.
Here's a list of other hoaxes that have played themselves out over the last 15 years or so, some of which were particularly clever.
According to new Anderson Analytics data, what social networks you belong to (and don't) can indicate something about you. All this talk about finding tribes online? It applies to companies trying to figure out where consumers are headed. Interesting piece in Advertising Age.
No doubt your computer has a clock on it, but here's an option to keep handy for time-checks: a handwitten version. The above capture shows the date; the hours, minutes and seconds are constantly changing. Check it out.
I am a journalist with CBC News in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. I'm taller than I look. This blog has been running quietly since 2004.
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