D2L Fusion 2008 Presentation

I apologize for the delay in posting this presentation.

Click this link to view the presentation titled "Implementing a Province-wide Curriculum Sharing Project" as presented in Memphis at Desire2Learn's User Conference Fusion 2008.

"Dr. Horrible" Pushes the Online Envelope

You may or may not know Josh Whedon, but millions of fans do as the creator of such shows as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel", "Firefly", "Serenity", etc, etc, etc. As a producer, he has a strong following of very loyal followers, many of whom are very active on the web.

This week, Mr. Whedon again broke some ground by releasing the much-anticipated "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog". After a couple weeks of good online buzz, some viral media marketing, the first of three episodes was launched to much fanfare, so much so the servers crashed twice, leaving Whedon seeking improved server representation.

You can check out Dr. Horrible's Blog for FREE here.

What makes this groundbreaking? Just another online video? I notice a couple of things...

-Recognizable actors -No, not front name cinema movie stars, but certainly recognizable names. In fact, a couple of my favorites show up here, in fellow University of Alberta grad Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris, well beyond his Doogie Howser role these days.
-Hollywood production values -This isn't a webcam production. The cast isn't the only thing that's recognizable. Cinema value equipement, editing, scoring, and production all bring this up to a different level than 99% of online video.
-Viral being used without profit -Premeditated virals online have been used many times before, but always as a marketing tool, in the aim of profits. This seems to be more... innocent?

One other interesting thing... you can view the blog for free via the Dr. Horrible website, OR you can pay $1.99 and download each episode via iTunes. Free online, but pay via iTunes? This raises a few questions for me... who decided to charge for the iTunes feed? It's not like you can't download items for free via iTunes, so who is getting the cash for this? Whedon? The Production company? iTunes? It could be a cash grab taking advantage of those who are limited in online savvy, or just a really, really bad decision by someone removed. Certainly the receiver of the cash will be identified at some point.

Also, of note in my eyes, is the move to more professional online production. Could we be moving back to the cinema of the 1930s, when the serial series would come to the local cineplex each Saturday for another episode? The web may offer a resurrection of this type of serial program. Stephen King tried it by releasing a novel in serial format a few years ago, with mitigated success. This could be the start of that type of thing, online, again.
Anyway... take a few minutes and enjoy some online fun.

It has ARRIVED, but can it live up to the HYPE?

Yes, the iPhone 2 has now arrived, and the web is all a-buzz with excitement. The hype and buzz is alarmingly massive, and I'm left to wonder if the product will live up to the hype.

You can find all sorts of news, hype, and reports from CNet, among so many others.

My personal predication: The iPhone will be a massive seller, but more profitable for the telecom companies than Apple, and the Blackberry Bold will be a better phone, have better reviews, be more useful, but have far less buzz.

How does Apple do it? I have no doubt that marketing courses all over the world are examining how Apple continues to have the consumer buzz that other companies only dream of, yet hold such a small share of the market in their primary market, computers. From a marketing perspective, Apple Co. is purely magical.

Firefox Mobile Beta Demonstrated

In a blog, Mozilla Lab's Aza Raskin demonstrated a screen capture video of the beta (loose) of Mozilla's Mobile platform. Some very interesting application here, including the use of tabs (THANK YOU!), plus some interesting things to use with touch screens.

Have a peek at the video and a review here, courtesy of Webware.

Firefox 3 Release Date Set June 17

Mozilla has officially announced the release date for Firefox3 as June 17th, 2008, in their official release.

Trying to grab some hype, Mozilla is aiming for a Guinness Book Record for the most downloads on the 'download day party'.

Promotion of the Microsoft Surface

Although this is a fabricated advertisement, the functionality is the same as the practical demo that has been displayed. Therefore, unlike the Singapore post a couple weeks back, this movie is showing what's coming around the corner, if you remove the Zune aspect of it.



Or, have a peek at this parody of the Surface.


You can also see an actual demo of the Surface, from CES08, rather than the promotional video above.



Although the first applications will be in bars, restaurants, and other commercial markets, private home use is on the way. One of my favorite applications I've heard is the remote/TV guide. No more searching for the remote... you can control your entertainment entirely from the coffee table...

How will it stand up to the spills, crashes, crayons, and beating a typical home table takes?

Firefox 3 Demo

If you are not on the Firefox bandwagon, I encourage you to give it a try. The open-source aspect of this browser makes for many excellent features.

Firefox3 is about to come out, likely in June. View a nice demo of this new browser here.

Computer Manufacturers Take a Cue from Cell Phones

The sub-notebook world has been all abuzz with Asus' Eeepc, and many others are jumping on board. While the prices are competitive, this article by Mike Elgan suggests the sub-notebook may go the way of the cell phone -- FREE.

The idea, same as the cell phones, is to give them away at a loss, or free, but tie the consumer in to a longer-term contract that gathers the costs back, and then some. This system has worked amazingly well for cell phones, though little else, but may translate well to the world of sub-notebooks.

It's an interesting thought, one that RBC has already jumped on, as have a few other organizations.

Time will tell.

Robot Arm Displayed at D6

At "All Things Digital" (D6), Dean Kamen displayed his robotic arm. Although he's been demonstrating iterations of this arm since 2007, the min-controlled aspect is new, and has created some strong buzz.



Kamen's arm, nicknamed 'Luke', is amazingly sophisticated. Kamen is likely best known as the inventor of the Segway device.

Spectrum Online has this report on the "Luke-arm."






You can read from the D6 review here.

Certainly fascinating science, tech, and advancement, but also makes me appreciate how fortunate I am.

Top 10 Chemistry Videos Online

Wired has put together their top 10 chemistry videos, which you can view here. If there is one thing fun about science, it's blowing stuff up, of which there is some here, but nearly all videos are clearly explained and could be a nice educational supplement for students.

If the top 10 isn't enough to get your fix, check out Kent's Chemical Demonstrations. flammable ice, making water boil by using ice, all sorts of interesting stuff on this site.