Digital Handel's Messiah, 1994

In 1994 my company won a contract to broadcast the the annual Kennedy Center Handel's Messiah performance live on the web with video. We'd barely just started our company, MediaZones, and the only reason we got the gig was because very few companies were doing live internet video. We'd had some cursory initial success with local Seattle events and that made us the default experts. So, we loaded all our digital gear into travel cases and headed to Washington, DC to try and make it work.

We were hired by a company associated with the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. They'd made all the arrangements to get our crew from Seattle to DC and all we needed to do was make a postage-sized flicker of video appear on their webpage while the live event was going on. We used a now-defunct software-hardware combo called Xing Technologies that required we lug a giant server with us, along with 4 desktops and a laptop. Not to mention our cameras, microphones and cables.

In those days we felt lean and mean when it came to equipment. When we were at events, the TV crews would gawk at us and be amazed that we could broadcast from just seven suitcases. They couldn't take us seriously because we, in their minds, had barely any equipment. We didn't even have a van. How could we be professionals? How indeed.

Back in 1995, I sketched this comic rendering of the whole adventure and I have recently posted it online.

In comming weeks, I'll post some photos of this trip...I just uncovered another box of media from those old early days of the web. Stay tuned!

Idioms, Credos, Sayings and Maxims: Part 2

In October I began collecting helpful little aphorisms, mottoes and adages that many consider "words to live by." Below are a few more to add to the list.

“Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.” Every piece of information we get from another person is filtered thru their unique reality, thus it is tainted. Plus, what we see with our own eyes ain’t always that reliable either.

“When all you have is a hammer then every problem starts looking like a nail.” Artists should experiment with new mediums. Musicians should try other instruments and knowledge workers should broaden their toolsets and approaches.

“Shit in. Shit out.” The end result is a direct product of the effort and talent put in. This also means that a project is only as good as it's initial assets and ideas.

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” This was proven time and again during the early days of desktop publishing when young designers realized that computers rendered 16 million colors…and set about to use every one of them. In a single project.

“Luck favors the prepared.” The harder I work, the luckier I get.


See also: Idioms, Credos, Sayings and Maxims: Part 1

The Restless Phantom Jimmy Leg Syndrome

I was glad to hear that I was not the only one. Recently experts have confirmed the existence of "Phantom Vibration Syndrome." This is when you think your cell phone is vibrating, but in fact it is your imagination.

You pat the pocket that holds the phone and...nada.

It has also been called “vibranxiety."

The good news is that we are not crazy or dying, probably. In fact we are simply oversensitive to that particular sensation. The pleasurable act of receiving a call is punctuated by a stimulus that we learn to anticipate. This is a learned habit. We have re-wired our brains. Scientists call this neuroplasticity. We've hacked ourselves and now we are malfunctioning.

This is not to be confused with Restless Leg Syndrome, Phantom Limb Syndrome or The Jimmy Leg.

Do Not Erase: My Lust for Whiteboards

I have always been pro-whiteboard. I do not miss the days of the chalkboard. I welcome the glossy white surface! I once created a small conference room where all the walls were covered with whiteboard material. We could brainstorm or write notes or just sit there and stare at the wide open expanse of board.

The other day I was driving over the Fremont Bridge in Seattle and saw a billboard for Google. They've been advertising in Seattle a lot lately, doing a bunch of hiring for their Fremont and Kirkland offices. I love the want-ad they created. It's a giant whiteboard with "Do Not Erase" scrawled across it. Sorry for the blurry photo, I was driving by and I snapped the above picture with the iPhone during traffic.

If you too feel the whiteboard lust, then perhaps you should contact Wall Talkers. These high-end, custom dry-erase gurus will create all manner of whiteboard mayhem. They make curved whiteboard walls or they'll paint all surfaces with special dry-erase paint so that literally everything is write-onable!

If you don't have a whiteboard that prints out onto paper, then you'll need to take photos before erasing. Thousands of people have drawn all manner of things on their dry erase boards and posted the photos to a group on Flickr.

Many have been inspired by the mighty whiteboard, including artists and animators who create fun hand-drawn animations like this.

Comic: Digital Bear Bot

Definition: Smoke Test

In the computer industry we use the term "Smoke Test" to mean an initial test of some software or hardware. Y'know, you plug it in and see if it smokes.

The term originally comes from plumbing, where a mini-smoke bomb is tossed inside pipes to see where it leaks out. This determines if water will flow without any drips.

This has nothing to do with last year's exploding laptops from Dell.

Family Friendly Digital Media

I've recently made updates to another web site I created called FamilyMusicParty.com. The site publishes information about family-friendly music including videos, lyrics, artist bios and other fun stuff.

Comic: Making a Cybercast 1997

Back in 1997 I owned a company called MountainZone.com. We published outdoor sporting information on the web. We didn't know it at the time, but we were building a community.

We traveled from Seattle to Stratton, VT to broadcast the US Open Snowboard Championships. Since we were posting our audio, text, pictures and videos to the Internet, we called it "cybercasting" which sounded even sillier in the 90s than it sounds now.

We finagled ourselves into all-access media passes and we bartered a free room in exchange for a banner graphic on the event page. We were doing everything for the first time...breaking ground. Media folk and journalists rarely asked for web connections in the early 90s when we started our cybercasts, but by the late 90s it was becoming more common for press rooms to offer Internet. Although the connections were thru 28.8 modems, definitely not high-bandwidth.

We were serious about the sport and our team knew the riders, event planners and other professionals. By the end of the weekend there was underwear on the lamps, beer on top of the computers and silly string hanging from the ceiling. How we ever published anything is beyond me.

But it worked...and the visitors to the website started streaming in. First there were dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. By the time we sold MountainZone in 1999 we had millions of visitors pouring into the site to learn about mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding and climbing.

Above is a comic I drew on the plane ride home (click it for the full story). The photos are provided as proof (to myself) that it all really happened and it was not a dream. Watch this blog for more of my personal Internet history. I’ll be digging up some great dirt.

TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) Part 2

Back in October I wrote about the Internet industry's particular penchant for acronyms (see original post). As promised, here is an update with more web-speak definitions.

CLM (Career Limiting Move) "His dirty dancing at the company holiday party was a total CLM."

KPI (Key Performance Indicators) These are numbers that we should actually pay attention to.

WAG (Wild Ass Guess) Although clients will always promise that they won't hold you to your initial estimate, beware of publicizing any WAGs.

AYFKM (Are You Freakin' Kidding Me?) I have used this one a lot lately as I see the common everyday atrocities committed by some in the web business.

SME (Subject Matter Experts) Not at all like Smurfs, these know-it-alls are not necessarily cuddly. SMEs have massive currency in the knowledge economy.

ABC (Always Be Closing) In sales, as in your career, always be landing the next deal.

EOD (End Of Day) Always make sure to verify the time zone when someone requires something by EOD. And usually this means 5pm, but in a pinch it can mean midnight.

Check out TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) Part 1.

Definition: SneakerNet

We use the term SneakerNet to mean physically carrying a disc or flash drive from one computer to another. You move the files with your tennis shoes rather than over digital transmission lines. Sometimes, during the chaos of hard-core production, files just need to be carried. Networks break down and internet connections flake out, but the humans can always carry the bits.

Sometimes SneakerNets are the only way. Some files are so huge that it is quicker and cheaper to copy the data to a portable storage device and carry that device to the intended recipient. Scientists and data warehouses do this kinda thing all the time. Other users of SneakerNets are seeking high-security environments which can only be found today by avoiding cyberspace.

So remember, the next time you carry a CD over to a friend’s house to give ‘em a file, you are participating in a long history of file transfer. And one day your children will find it foolish and antiquated.

Definition: CamelCase

CamelCase is used to describe mashing compound words together and capitalizing the first letter of each word. Just like camels, these words have humps. I am noticing that this practice is being used more and more every day. Popular examples are AstroTurf, RadioShack, BlackBerry and QuickTime.

As with many habits of the computer industry, CamelCase comes from computer programming. That's why Microsoft used to be spelled MicroSoft. Rather than introduce spaces or hyphens into long words, programmers started using capitol letters to make variable names human readable. Sometimes CamelCase is actually camelCase (with the initial letter being lowercase, similar to how some variable names are spelled when writing code.)

CamelCase is sometimes called BiCapitalization when referring to marketing practices. I've also heard it called BumpyCase, HumpBackNotation and NerdCaps.

I am officially changing my name to ToddTibbetts and I live in SeattleWashington. I am a DigitalMediaConsultant. ThankYou.

Comic: Digital Power Overload