24 Jul 2010
Here are some teardown instructions/destructions for opening up Digidesign’s Mbox 2. This little journey took place after the USB port decided it would be a great time to fail, thus rendering the entire device useless. Got to love it when a $2 part breaks a $500 device, huh?
Presented with a choice of shipping it off for at least 2 weeks and some probably-not-insignificant freight costs (the device in question was under warranty but a parallel import from the US), the best option was, of course, to crack the thing open.
YouTube evidence of the (highly successful) insanity follows:
I’ve been using it reliably for about a week now and can say confidently that no damage was done! In fact, it’s actually sounding better, too.
Not only did the USB port coming loose stop data from flowing, it also caused grounding issues and introduced some hum/other noise when it was incorrectly positioned. The new USB port has not only stopped the device from spontaneously disconnecting, it’s also improved the quality of the audio recorded. Brilliant.
06 Jul 2010
This was the first time I ever encountered this face-detection feature, and it just so happened Facebook picked a particularly poor photo to introduce it with!
Clearly they’ve started using a face-detection algorithm to pinpoint probable candidates for tagging – unfortunately, the algorithm is easily fooled by V for Vendetta masks. The photo in question features four friends and we have no idea who is whom – it was a few years ago and we’re all identically clothed!
Nice one, Facebook!
05 Jul 2010
I heard precisely one person complaining loudly when WordPress 3.0 first released but I’ve hit no snags so far – elegant, painless upgrade on WebFaction (Disclosure: I’ve got an affiliate link in there, 10% of your spend – but I’d recommend them even if you want to strip the link out) which is more than can be said for most web hosts I’ve used over the years.
Admittedly I’m not using the most zany set of plugins in the world, but it’s nice to know that an open source project can be so darn painless. Upgrade, the water’s fine.
05 Jul 2010
Just bought a cheapie compact digital (well, next to the Nikons I usually chuck around) to do some low effort filming with and decided to (literally) take it for a drive. Titles and speed are the only changes I’ve made to the footage apart from the fact it’s only PAL widescreen.
The camera did okay, but for the slight inability to focus a lot of the time (and forget manual focus, this is a strictly for-dummies camera) – no vertical flaring or other weirdness that has plagued many a digital still camera in the past.
For me, it was a toss up between jello-vision D90 land and getting a compact digital that would do HD (1080/50i) well enough to last in situations where hiring a real camera is total overkill. Biggest downside so far seems to be battery life. The internal mic is decent enough for a lot of uses because, beautifully, the whole thing is pretty much solid state and the zoom is internal/not-that-noisy. The few unfavorable (audio) reviews out there seem to come from the party video crowd – and they’re right, no, it will not deal well with Tiësto’s basslines.
Crap battery life aside, seems like a decent camera so far.
09 Jun 2010
Today I had an interesting conversation about business podcasting for a B2B focused small business looking to generate leads and perceived expertise in their area. We chatted a little bit about the tools that were needed and observed that, far from being a big burden, podcasting is relatively low effort while giving an authentic connection with people who consider you an expert in your field.
Podcasting fulfills much the same role an email newsletter/mass contact does – yet manages to differentiate itself in the medium to actually get onto people’s desks in a bit of a unique way. Technically podcasting is pretty easy to implement, with WordPress being one obvious tool to make it happen online and most new computers sporting Windows, OS X or Linux coming with free software included (or at least easily available) to produce the content.
So what’s our role? Just lifting the bar, really. From snazzy intro/outro music to standardised call-to-action snippets that get attached or rotated week by week, a little bit of expertise goes a long way to creating a successful, easy to create podcasting experience. This makes it easier for small businesses to stay in it for the long haul, building better brands, leads, and adding value for customers.