What's Noka Worth?

A long but facinating expose on a line of high priced chocolates aimed at the exectutive crowd. Turns out these insanely priced chocolates are merely re formed and repackage bulk choclate, done in a Dallas strip mall! Lessons on marketing, spin, and chocolate abound. Worth the read

Visited Countries

create your own visited countries map
Website that allows you to create a world map with the countries you've visted hilighted red. I have a few more to go.

Merry Xmas from the N64 kids

Here's hoping Christmas was as exciting as this clip. You have to read the story about it as well.

Christmas morning 1998 - packages all around the tree. Dad, video camera in hand, hits "record" as the action begins. Rachel (6) and Brandon (9) begin to tear into the wrapping of a big present and then start to scream hysterically as they realize a dream that has come true.

"Nintendo 64!... Oh my... GOD!!!!!... YES!... YES!!... YES!!!" They got the PERFECT present.

Jump ahead to March 2006 - 16 year old Brandon is sharing home videos with his girlfriend Aysha who sees it for the first time and explodes with laughter... Brandon then took her suggestion and posted the one minute video online.

The clip quickly became an internet sensation with remixes, spoofs, animations and even online tributes to the N64 kids.

July: VH1 airs the video on "WebJunk 20"

September: Jay Leno highlights the video on "The Tonight Show" as part of a segment dedicated to videos found on YouTube and the immense impact that these videos can have on modern culture.

November: N64kids.com is launched, BMW uses the kids in their Holiday TV commercial, MTV uses clip in video game show commercial

The N64 kids have created a place for you to view, laugh, and share your own "Dreams Come True!" videos with friends and family.

Explore all that this site has to offer. Come back often to see updates with new exciting content. Tell your friends and family about us. Please email us your comments or suggestions.

Brandon & Rachel wish that your holiday dreams come true too!

30th Century Man Trailer

The UK trailer for 30th Century Man is online! The definitive doc on the story of Scott Walker, this trailer will give you some idea of his influence and his impact on popular music.OOh this looks GOOD!

Wifi Pirates of the Plains

wireless.jpg
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

once again I am on an open Wifi network here in Regina. I think this Macbook's Wifi reception completely BLOWS AWAY my old tiBook. Ever spot I have been with both reveals twice as many listings with this new Macbook. Though I have no idea which house on the bay has Pimpin Industries! Oh the secrets held with in the suburbs of Regina! :-)

The Places In Between

Read this in almost one sitting,after a glowing review in last weeks Globe. A great travelogue of one of the most daunting places on Earth. He walked in regions no one, not even Afghans travel. After reading this book which recounts his travels 2 months after the fall of the Taliban, you understand how complex the situation is over there. The more I learn, the more I realize how doomed the "mission" is over there. You can read the first few hundreds words here.

BG on BT TV

I was asked to be on City Tv's Breakfast Tv, but since I'll be away the holiday week, I've managed to convince Brian to do it!

So set your VCR's and PVR's everyone, Breakfast TV on Wenesday Dec 27th sometime between 8 and 10 AM. He'll being giving tips on what to do with that new camera you received for Xmas.

I just wanted to make sure no one missed it! :-)

The few of you who have appeared on the show or in other media venues might want to give him a call and give him some encouraging words of advice. I think he's a bit nervous and I don't want him to swear on TV!:-)

Have a wonderful holiday season and someone save the show I want to see it when I get back!

Hilarious Jarvis Cocker video

From vdieos.antville.org.This rather ok song from Jarvis Cocker of Pulp fame is elevated by a hilarious video.

Turkey Bowling in Moosenee

Turkey Bowling in Moosenee
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

The staff encourage a customer in his pursuit for a strike.

You better shoot tethered!

The link is a YouTube video of an astronaut on space walk, losing a camera. When you drop a camera in space, it becomes a satellite. They are gonna have to monitor that camera until it burns up.

All the hours I watch the online live feed and nothing happens. I don't bother and now this!:-)

David Pogue on Vista

Seems there are few cool things coming to Windows Vista. They are the very same cool things we Mac users have been enjoying for a few years. Oh and the bit at the end about how they only expect 5% of the machines out there able to run it, gotta love that.

Here are some of the grace notes that will remind you of similar ones on the Mac: A list of favorite PC locations appears at the left side of every Explorer window, which you can customize just by dragging folders in or out. You now expand or collapse lists of folders by clicking little flippy triangles. When you’re dragging icons to copy them, a cursor “badge” appears that indicates how many you’re moving. The Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons glow when your cursor passes over them. There’s now a keystroke (Alt+up arrow) to open the current folder’s parent window, the one that contains it.

Some of the big-ticket Vista features and programs are eerily familiar, too. The biggest one is Instant Search, a text box at the bottom of the Start menu. As you type here, the Start menu turns into a list of every file, folder, program and e-mail message that contains your search phrase, regardless of names or folder locations. It’s a powerful, routine-changing tool, especially when you seek a program that would otherwise require burrowing through nested folders in the All Programs menu.

A similar Search box appears at the top of every desktop (Explorer) window, for ease in plucking some document out of that more limited haystack.

New programs include the Sidebar, a floating layer of single-purpose programs called gadgets ( Apple called them widgets) like a weather reporter, stock tracker, currency converter, and so on; Photo Gallery, a deliciously simple shoebox for digital photos; the bare-bones DVD Maker, for designing scene-selection menus for home-burned video DVDs; and Chess Titans, whose photorealistic board can be rotated in three-dimensional space.

Flip 3-D, which presents all open windows in all programs as cards in a floating deck, seems to be modeled on Mac OS X’s Exposé feature — minus the ability to see all the windows simultaneously. You have to flip through the “cards” to find the one you want.

Now, before the hate-mail tsunami begins, it’s important to note that Apple has itself borrowed feature ideas on occasion, even from Windows. But never this broadly, boldly or blatantly. There must be enough steam coming out of Apple executives’ ears to power the Polar Express.

Great Ads

This is an old link, lost it and found it again... great ads from around the world. They also have a wonderful section hi-lighting the rip offs and copy cats.

By reading this,You are the person of the year?

The reaction to Time's Person of the Year choice has been generally negative. You, the users of the web and web 2.0 are the "Person of the year" The same people won't buy Time magazine! I googled it!

The venerable but not-much-venerated newsweekly is sucking up to you, its hoped-for audience, pure and simple. In naming "you" as its Person of the Year for 2006 - complete with reflective plastic on the cover - the fading publication demonstrates how its weakening financial condition has led to a weakening of editorial judgment.

If you look at the list of previous Persons of the Year, they have subverted the concept before, as far back as 1975, naming The American Woman as Person of the year.

Aperture birthday, I was off by a week!

Inside Aperture recounts the first year of Aperture's life on it's first birthday. They recount all the negativity surrounding the program I alluded to in my presentation.

Initial reactions were mixed, but mostly negative. Ars Technica came out with a scathing review, blasting the program on almost every count. Other Mac rumor sites predicted the demise of Aperture, claiming the entire Aperture team had been fired by Steve Jobs. Adobe rushed out a competing product called Lightroom in an attempt to steal Aperture’s thunder. It became very popular to bash Aperture.

If this were a movie plot, you’d assume Aperture was the black-hatted bad guy and that the Adobe Photoshop fanboys were wearing the white hats, riding in to save the day.

I hate being wrong

Ok ok don't be mad,... but it turns out you can play music with your slide shows in Aperture. I know I said different in my presentation.Hey sorry, but they hide the options in the prest menu. Not exactly handy! I don't when they added it, could have been in the last couple updates, maybe that's why it's hidden in the preset menu. They can't cram it into anywhere else, yet.

Not only can you play slide shows with music in Apeture, but the link is to an article about exporting simple flash based slide shows with a 3rd party plugin. More plug-ins for Aperture, the better!

FlickrBooth

A Flickr plug-in for Photobooth, the very fun app you get with the built in iSight. Could be very usefull this Macworld!

All cozy and warm

All cozy and warm
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

This little one is wearing no coat, no socks no shoes. She was only 5 months old and very cozy warm in her mom's hood. (By the way I have updated the map at flickr with all my shots so you can see where they were taken!)

The Black Rod

here's a description of this blog:

We are citizen journalists in Winnipeg who break stories ahead of MSM. We analyze news coverage by the mainstream media and highlight flawed logic, bias, missed angles and serve as the only overall monitors in the province of Manitoba. We do the same with politicians (who require even more monitoring.)

and here's a portion of a recent post. It high lights how small and interconnect the powers that run this province really are.

Weakest Link, Part Two

There's a reason the Tories have set their sights on Industry Minister Scott Smith. He's been their best friend this session.

It was Smith who revitalized the P.C.'s by letting slip how little support there has been from the private sector for the Spirited Energy rebranding excercise so far.

Stage One of the rebranding was to sell Spirited Energy to Manitobans.
Stage Two, which started this week, was to take the sell to the rest of the country.

The government said Stage One cost about $2.4 million, of which $1 million came from the private sector. In an unguarded moment Smith revealed that some of the "private sector" support was really from Crown corporations. That got the Opposition hounds baying.

Smith tried to quelch the criticism by naming names of some of the private sector supporters of Spirited Energy and how much they contributed. The total fell more than half a million dollars short of the $1 million he originally said had come from the private sector.

Tory leader McFadyen worked this bone Monday, but dropped it the rest of the week. We can't say whether it was because he lost interest in where the NDP spent advertising dollars, or whether he decided it was better not to alienate the Winnipeg Free Press, which has editorially supported the Tories, and which may have a conflict-of-interest when it comes to Spirited Energy ad monies.

The FP ignored Scott Smith's revelations as long as it possibly could, hoping they would go away. Then, four days later, a strange story appeared on Page A6 of Tuesday's paper.

It's a lesson for any journalism student on " How to read the newspaper and separate flim flam from news".

A. There was no byline. Now how unusual is that? It was the only story in the entire paper without a hint of who wrote it. Don't you wonder why?

B. The story undoubtedly started as a legitimate story from the Legislature bureau, probably about Hugh McFadyen's questions on Monday. We bet an editor immediately flagged it for the attention of editor Bob Cox. Cox blanched, and took it to publisher Andy Ritchie. Ritchie wasn't going to carry the can; he dialed the paper's Spirited Energy expert, co-owner Bob Silver, who sat on the committee that recommended the branding in the first place.

Silver made some suggestions. Ritchie and Cox added their own touches. And the story was rewritten beyond recognition. A group effort, nobody wanted the credit of a byline.

C. A story about an alleged lack of support from the private sector for Spirited Energy morphed into a story about the great support of the private sector. Except that the only source quoted was Dave Angus, in his role as the president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. Not one real business owner can be found in the story. The only other person quoted is Free Press publisher Andy Ritchie who gives his boss's branding campaign a rave review.

D. The writer(s) get around to the numbers in the bottom third of the story, the part that only diehard readers get to.

He/she/they wrote that
"private sector and community contributions to the Spirited Energy campaign include $300,000 donated by the Broadcaster's Association of Manitoba for on-air advertising space, as well as $165,000 of advertising space provided by Canwest Global. Manitoba Public Insurance gave $60,000 for this summer's travelling Spirited Energy street teams. Free Press Publications donated $53,000 of advertising space."

E. We guess MPI falls under designation"community contributions." We also noted what was missing from the list.

The Winnipeg Sun.

Scott Smith said last Friday that the Sun's contribution was $15,000.

In the cheapest of cheap shots, the FP refused to even print the name of other newspaper in town.

F. They did however mention Free Press Publications. You see, there's some question about whether the advertising in the Winnipeg Free Press is donated, or if the government is buying it.

Which raises the question of whether the co-owner of the newspaper has a conflict of interest in promoting Spirited Energy to the government through his committee work and collecting hefty ad revenue from the government at the other end.

The question isn't answered by the reference to Free Press Publications. This term just raises more questions.

Did the newspaper intend the reader to understand that the Winnipeg Free Press donated $53,000 worth of ad space for the Spirited Energy campaign? Then why not say it in so many words?

If the story had referred to Free Press publications (small p), we would understand that to mean the community weeklies and Uptown, which are sister publications to the FP.

But that would leave us wondering whether the Free Press made any contribution of its own.

In fact, we are wondering that. A newspaper story is supposed to clear up questions that readers have, not make things murkier.

And they do get murky.

- Free Press Publications shows up on a list of Spirited Energy "partners" on the SE website.

- But the Ottawa Press Gallery carries a listing for "Free Press Publications and Winnipeg Free Press" under 'affiliations', the "and" suggesting they are two entities.

It's obviously going to take a lot more energy to get to the bottom of this story. Maybe that's why we need Wuskwatim and Conawapa so badly.

If your looking for me,...

This is where I'll be

Inside the DVXuser.com Phenomenon

When Panasonic released the DVX100 camera in November of 2002, they had no idea of the passion and fanaticism that would soon grow around their product.

The first 24p DV camera available to prosumers quickly became the talk of the online world by providing its owners with a visible means of producing footage at least visually equal to high-end film originated material. Frustrated by simply being a bystander in the existing online communities discussing his new favorite camera, Vancouver-based independent filmmaker Jarred Land decided he could do them one better. So in July of 2003, Jarred registered the domain DVXuser.com and opened an online discussion forum focused on DVX100 owners.

DVXuser"Our first couple of days were pretty quiet, just me saying 'welcome' and a few people stopping by to lurk or say hi," Land recalls. But the calm didn't last long. Word traveled fast among other online communities that a new home had sprung up. Within a year, DVXuser.com had over 3,000 registered users and many of them were talking about subjects other than the DVX100."

Flickr Easter Egg

crowded
Originally uploaded by drcolossus.

Gonna send this one and see how long it takes to populate the net... you add a note in Flickr and enter the test ho ho ho hat and the note becomes a santa hat! Go to the shot in Flickr to see what I mean. This is a shot of Jeope's. Wonder if he'll notice? ;-)

UPDATE: ho ho ho beard does the same thing to finish the look!:-)

Bruce Fraser terminally ill

Photoshop news is reporting that Bruce Fraser, noted colour expert and author is terminally ill. When I first got into digital photography in a big way and needed to learn about colour managment and all the issues around it, I'd search for articles by Fraser. He knows his stuff, but can alos explain it in a way most of us can understand.

From the article:

For those who don’t know him, Bruce Fraser is an internationally well known author, consultant and speaker on the topics of digital imaging and color reproduction. In addition to authoring the highly successful Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2, he has been a contributing editor for Macworld magazine and co-author of the best-selling books Real World Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Real World Color Management, Second Edition, and the recently released Real World Image Sharpening. Bruce has also penned numerous articles, most recently for CreativePro.com. Bruce is a partner in PixelGenius, LLC. where he designed PhotoKit Sharpener.

Seems the tribute to Fraser and his influence is already being planned for Macworld.

UPDATE: National Association of Photoshop Users has inducted Fraser in their hall of fame. Scott Kelby "I think it's safe to say that this industry wouldn't be where it is today without Bruce's input, advice, and guidance. He's a gifted and talented instructor who has dedicated his life to taking the mystery out of digital imaging technology, and that's why we're proud to honor him as the first recipient of NAPP's Lifetime Achievement Award.”

wii had fun

wii had fun
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

Kev had a demo Wii to try. It was a lot of fun! here Rob and I try boxing out.

Skype Hype starts now!!

I am starting my Skype Hype now, if only because until the end of the year you can call anyone's REAL phone in N America for FREE! After that a flat rate of $15 for the year will be in effect.

Don't worry,call direct to Skype users will still be free. Thats why I am encouraging you to either download or upgrade your installation of Skype. Mac users gain the video features and with the 2.5 beta, SMS messaging.

So try it out over the holidays, get Grandma to load on her PC and talk as clear if not clearer than the phone for FREE.

With my new laptop and the built in iSight, I will be running Skype at Macworld in January. Though the Wifi is limited to ceratin areas of the Expo floor, wouldn't it be cool to see live? Download it now!!

Camera rant: Olympus XA

A thread Dave linked to on Wpg Photo at Sportshooter.com talks about old rangefinders. A few people on the thread rave about the Olympus XA. I had one years ago, it was ahead of its time in so many ways. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, you could take the flash off if you didn't need it, you could focus, albeit it was faint, like a Leica, it had a 2.8 lens that was very sharp, aperture priority, on and on... This was all well before the first autofocus point and shoots were commonly available. At the time of their release you either had 110's or big SLR's. It was like Apple's Newton, far too expensive, way too ahead of it's time and a niche product. It's the XA's legacy that enable Olympus to lead for many years in the point and shoot market and still today turn out sme very cool digi p&S.
Man that was a fun little camera. I don't think I'd buy the one linked to, I mean FILM?! sorry :-).

Cheap 16X20's

This from WpgPhoto.com:

This week at Don's Photo you can get 16x20 enlargements for only $12.99!

They can be from digital files, negatives (colour or black-and-white, 35mm/120/220), or slides.

This price does not include cropping or colour matching to an existing print. There's a limit of 5 per customer, and no other coupon or discount can be used.

Think of the possibilities for Christmas presents....

Chris B.

Aperture Plugins

One thing I forgot to mention in my presentation. Aperture have a developer kit and you can develop plugins. I used one to export directly to Flickr for example. The link here goes to a plug-in that allows you to export to Gallery, the open source online gallery software.
I think we'll see more and more of this, as the real geeks discover all the tricks to Aperture, it could be really neat!

Funny CSI Miami movie

One of the primary reason's I can't watch CSI Miami, collected in one huge movie. Watch and pull your hair out, or put your sunglasses on. After about a minute you give into it and yet the absurdity wash over you. Anyone think Matrix?

Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I actually had Zip.ca send me the bonus disc of the 2 disc set cuz I wanted to watch the extras. I watched them last night. I am even more convinced Michel Gondry is a genius.
If you haven't seen this movie, I really suggest you do. Even if you don't like the story, watch all the tricks employed. What makes this movie even more amazing is how of many of the tricks are low-fi, not computerzied. For example the extras reveal several scenes where the actors need to be in several spots on the set within one shot, requiring them to run through trap doors,change clothes and then act within seconds. You really get the sense that Gondry knows he can do all this stuff digitally, but it wouldn't be as fun! Watching the extras now makes me want to watch the film again.

Presentation went well, disaster averted

Thanks everyone who came out to last nights presentation. Always a bit nervous when I do them, waiting for the sytem to lock up or I forget to speak or something.

Thanks also to Brock for informally talking a poll on how many people in the room read the blog, when he asked what camera I recomend this holiday season! :-) Everyone laughing before he was even done asking the question was very gratifying. You never really know who's reading this stuff, but you could tell at least half the room was in on the joke!

I hope everyone got something from the presentation. I always maintain we need more fo this stuff, just relating our experiences, learn from each other. Photogs are the worst for keep secrets, but as Bob Tinker says, "There really ARE no secrets!"

Don't Panic

Panic software make Transmit, my fave FTP program for the Mac, among a few others. People must like their design skills cuz Panic has documented a ton of instances where other webiste have ripped off Transmit's icon, entire web page layouyts, heck even the photo of their office has been used! Good way of showing how unoriginal most web pages really are.

An emmy!

EMMY.jpg
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

This is Dennis Tam of Systematic Design. He won an emmy for animations for Superbowl 2004. yes THAT superbowl!... He does it here in Winnipeg. Oh and he went to Red River. For an upcoming Red River campaign.

The plane the plane

The plane the plane
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

people were asking about what plane I flew in. Here it is. 6 of us and gear not much room left over. This is while we gassed up in Churchill

Inland Empire

the link goes to the trailer and is the only glimpse we have of David Lynch's new film Inland Empire. Rob talked about it on his blog a ways back, how Lynch is using simple DV to shoot rather than film. So now he's free to do what he wants so we get a 3 hour movie that dives into all sorts of dark corners. Aint it cool reviewed it here.

Michael Grecco time lapse photoshoot

A time lapse movie of a photoshoot Michael Greeco did of Martin Scorsese for DirectTV> Don't blink or you'll miss the brief moment the subject actually shows up! I once assisted Grecco when he shot here years ago. Let's just say you must need a big personality to handle the stars.

Moosenee

Moosenee
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

The short chopper ride over. As soon as the ice is frooze, ski doo's to the route, and then eventually a winter road. Summer it's boat service. But in between the seasons, it's $35 each way.

Chooper to Moosenee

Chooper to Moosenee
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

Took two trips of this chopper to get all 6 of us and the 400 pounds of gear across the river from Moosenee to Moose factory.

Throat singing

Throat singing
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

These two sisters are throat singing. you can read about it here
Pretty cool to hear it, in person. They have performed in Alaska and New Mexico.

Dinner

Dinner
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

Caribou stew and bannock, with the rest of the caribou "curing" inthe background.

Caribou stew

Caribou stea
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

cutting up the caribou with the ullu.

Cleaning Skin

Cleaning Skin
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

Eva is makking kamiks from a caribou skin. I have more shots of this process including her softening the skin with her one remaining tooth! She was a wonderful elder who was great to show us everything. We went to the family's house for dinner that night

Sealskin jacket

Sealskin jacket
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

Joshua had this jacket handmade in Rankin Inlet. It says Arviat on one arm and NWT on the other. Oh and he's a New Jersey Devils fan, in case you haven't noticed. I think we saw a fan for every team in Arviat, though the Leafs rule.

Da Boys

Da Boys
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

Couple guys in Arviat

Arviat Parking lot

Arviat Parking lot
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

Busy day in Arviat. The front of the store

Life, or at least career, altering gallery of images

To all the pros who drop by, check this out. Follow the link. Click on those snaps, let them load and admire the detail. Pretty nice eh? Yeah I thought so to. Ok wanna hear something wild? You sitting down?...

Those are from a Video camera. That's right, video, not still! Do you hear that? That noise, is a sea change coming to our industry, maybe not right away, maybe 5 years from now, but it's coming.

You know that phrase "But want I really want to do is direct" You might not have the option!

The Biggest Telephoto lens EVAR!!!

arl Zeiss recently announced a totally unique 'monster lens', the built-to-order Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 1700 mm F4 lens. Designed to be used with a Hasselblad 6x6 medium format camera this monster lens weighs in at 256 KG (564 lb) and uses unique methods for handling focusing (because of the weight of each glass element). This lens becomes the largest telephoto lens for non-military use anywhere in the world. The price hasn't been disclosed (although we've heard rumours) nor has the private owner, although some of the text on the lens is in Arabic and it carries a 'State of Qatar' emblem.

Red rock location shoot, NOT!

1921.jpg
Originally uploaded by ianmcc.

A very rough mockup I did while shooting clothes for the 1921 jean line. It won't look like this when it's done, but I thought I would share what we were striving for all day.