Jason Bradbury says:
I build stuff (DIY Hoverboard, Bluetooth Phone Glove, HUD for my car). I play too many video games. I own robots. And I blog and socially network my socks off! But is there a hero that reflects all that? This was the question that started my year-long journey into becoming a children’s fiction writer. The result: Dot Robot, a techno-thriller for the dis-connected generation.Secret codes, billionaire dot-comers, flying robots, crazy-cool gadgets and hardware overclocked to within an inch of its life. Into this digital mix comes a new kind of hero. A geeks’ geek: Jackson Farley. Jackson is a young mathematics genius and computer gaming virtuoso from Peckham, London. He is joined by American Brooke English, an MIT grad who can build just about anything and the Japanese Kojima twins, two nine-year olds who have earned enough through professional gaming to have identical Ferraris and their own private road to drive them on.
Can Jackson rise to the challenge? Is he boy-enough to lead a band of intrepid roboteers into battle against some seriously malevolent (cool) dot robots? Or will he and his kooky gang of misfits be consumed by the evil that surrounds them?
And yes, given my science fiction fan-boy status, the first thing I did when I got a publishing deal (there’s a trilogy on the way from Puffin) is ask for some money to get one of the dot robots from the book made! See Brooke’s creation, Punk made real by my friend and model maker Mike Strick.
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Irwin says:
Jim Flora Art LLC kicks off 2009 with a limited-edition, archival-quality fine art print of a 1947 Jim Flora Columbia Records album cover, Kid Ory and His Creole Jazz Band.Fine art print of a 1947 Jim Flora Columbia Records album cover, Kid Ory and His Creole Jazz Band: $200Kid Ory and His Creole Jazz Band was released in 1947 as a 78 rpm four-disc set, as part of Columbia's Hot Jazz series. Trombonist Edward "Kid" Ory (1886-1973) was a legendary pioneer in the development of New Orleans jazz stylings of the early 20th century. As a bandleader he hired a number of players who later achieved great prominence, including Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and King Oliver.
Does the Flora caricature on the cover resemble Ory? No way. "I could never do likeness," Flora once admitted. The cover figure looks like … something Jim Flora would do.
Only twenty (20) prints of Kid Ory were produced for this edition. Prices will increase for subsequent prints as the edition depletes.
Produced by Flora archivist Barbara Economon, the oversized print (larger then the album cover) was meticulously and painstakingly crafted from a mint-condition artist's proof sheet of the Ory cover in the Flora collection. It is the seventh iconic Flora cover to be issued as a limited edition fine art print.
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Norman Rockwell is considered by many to be the Great American illustrator. He's pretty great, bu I would give the title to another Norman -- Norman Saunders (1907 - 1989) -- because he set the standard for so many different genre illustrations over the decades that it's hard to believe one person could do so much.
A new coffee table art book from the Illustrated Press about Norman Saunders (written by his son David Saunders) just came out and I've been devouring its 368 technicolor pages, filled with examples of his work from the 1920s to the 1980s. The illustrations are arranged chronologically, and the book feels like a history of popular print media. Saunders was a prominent illustrator for Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Modern Mechanics, pulp detective, western, war, and science fiction magazines, men's adventure magazines, and bubblegum cards and stickers, including Wacky Packages and Mars Attacks. Anyone interested in 20th century magazine illustration pretty much has to have this book in his or her library.
NORMAN SAUNDERS (1907–1989) was the legendary illustrator of Mars Attacks, Wacky Packages, Batman, Pre-Code Comics, Men’s Adventure, Paperbacks, Pulp Magazines, and Sci-Fi. His unique artistic vision influenced the visual language of American pop culture throughout a century of changing fashions, and continues to inspire today’s important visionaries. Savvy collectors have long dreamt of a book on the entire lifework of Norman Saunders, and that dream has finally come true with the world’s first book to present his finest paintings in radiant reproductions, to savor the extraordinary artistry behind so many iconic images, familiar from timeworn vintage collectibles.Norman SaundersThe artist’s son has written an insightful biography, seasoned with quotes from the artist and his associates, chronicling the frontier childhood and training of an illustrator who rose to the top of his profession, and then spent WWII in China painting travel sketches. When Saunders defied the corporate forces of conformity during McCarthyism he was relegated to underground world of subculture publishing, where he continued his remarkable career by painting countless icons for Pre-Code Comics, Men’s Adventure magazines and Bubble Gum Trading Cards, until his happy rediscovery by fandom in his twilight years.
This is the consummate reference book on the entire lifework of Norman Saunders, with over 880 illustrations, of which more than 300 are from original art, including 30 working drawings, and 30 reference photos as well as 30 historic family photos, and checklists of all published works. 368 pages, 9”x12”, full-color, hardbound with dust jacket.
Observe this impressively accurate reproduction of the ASPHD(aka portal gun) from Valve software's acclaimed first-person-puzzler -
My boyfriend made this ASHPD for me for my upcoming Aperture Science Test Subject costume. It lights up both blue and orange along the tube and in the barrel, and the prongs light up red as long as the gun is on.No response from Aperture Science regarding possible IP infringement - Portal gun on Flickr
Susannah Breslin sends in this clip, and says even she has no idea what this so-called "sexpert" on Fox News is implying. Whatever it is, it's TMI.
Update: Our well-lubed commenters are probably correct in guessing that the Fox analyst [snort] means "making happy-fun terrorist fist-jabs in the air" when she says "fisting." This just makes it funnier.
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YouTube-driven sound experiments from "found footage."
Mike Knuepfel, a recent graduate of Stanford University with a BS in Engineering - Product Design, saw some of the projects people are doing with The Maker's Notebook and thought he'd share some of the embedded book prototypes he's been working on. Besides the above, which uses touch-sensitive LED circuitry and shape memory allow and a paper ratchet to activate components in a book, he also has a sort of quiz book, that lights up when you put people on family tree in the right sequence, and simple laminated circuit.
More:
For those who have successfully modded their PSP to run homebrew software, Ethan Bordeaux developer of the PSPSEQ music sequencer has posted an extensive series of video tutorials to get you up and running with the program. The free homebrew sequencer can be a little tough to jump into so this series can prove quite handy. - PSPSEQ on YouTube [via Create Digital Music]
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Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.
Which words are exactly considered profane is still unclear, but the bill does have a list of qualifications for profanity including words or actions that are lewd, vulgar or indecent in nature.Sen. Robert Ford pushes to outlaw profanity (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)
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Hey Makers! We're excited to announce this year's CRAFT Valentine's Day Project Contest! Show us your stuff and win a year's subscription to CRAFT! You can submit anything you make for the occasion (or for that special someone). Use of LEDs is encouraged. Members of the CRAFT team will be judging, and good luck!
Rules:
It must be 12 years ago now. I was living in Allston “Rock City”, playing guitar in a shoe-gazing instrumental indie rock trio. My G string broke. No, not that G string (not that kind of band). Out of extra strings, I managed to find a D string lying on the rehearsal room floor. I strung it on and kept playing. See, a D string is wound steel, and thicker than a G string, which is a single strand. But winding it tighter and tighter, I was able to tune it back up to a G.
From that day on, I exclusively played with two D strings (one tuned to G) instead of a normal set of guitar strings. It changed the way I played, changed the sound and timbre of my setup. It became a part of the DNA that made up whatever it was we were creating.
It’s been happening throughout history, of course. Beautiful accidents. Unintentional intentions. We can’t plan these mistakes, but wish we could. What seems like disaster, turns into the spark that ignites what we perceive later as “rightly so”.
And it happens all the time when I’m designing. Oops, I dumped a white paint can where color used to be. Wait. That’s nice. It’s become a part of my process. A part I can’t anticipate, or account for, but a part nonetheless.
I’ve been thinking about ways to facilitate these accidents. Make them happen more often. I haven’t come up with anything yet. Too much coffee, not enough coffee, time of day, etc. — are they really accidents, or our subconscious guiding the way?
Until I figure out, I’ll keep adapting, accepting and discovering.
The popular PICAXE microcontroller can now be programmed from Mac and Linux machines via the newly released AXEpad software. Great news for those weary from rebooting/etc to gain access via Windows - PICAXE software downloads
[Thanks Ralf!]
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Make: television is airing on Public Television stations all over the country this weekend. Be sure to check out our broadcast listings page for times and dates or find a link to your local Public Television station.
Here's a sneak preview of the Maker Channel segment from Episode 4, featuring the I/O Brush, Motorized Barcalounger, Massage Me Jacket, and Giant Match
Also, our Episode Guide page is a simple and easy watch past episodes and find the PDFs.
Using some proto-board, epoxy filler, and a conductive pen, you can quickly create a custom breakout board for small SMT devices on the cheap.
It's a know fact that the surface mount devices are becoming more and more popular leaving behind the traditional through-hole mounting method. While for the electronics industry surface mounting brings a lot of benefits (one of them being the ability to pack more components per square inch) for the regular hobyst surface mount devices are often times a "show stopper".
This tutorial for is those of you who absolutely need to mount a small surface mount device for prototyping purposes and do not have the means or time to pefrom a traditional surface mount. There's obviously a "correct" way to mount a SMD component and I highly recommend reading the Surface Mount Soldering guide at Curious Inventor first before attempting this method. However it's always good to know that there's an alternative method that does not require any investments in expensive SMT equipment or materials.In this tutorial I'll describe how to mount an analog LIS244AL accelerometer (data sheet), that comes in a tiny leadless LGA-16 package. The size of the component is 4x4x1.5mm. It has 16 solder pads, each is 0.3x0.4mm. This is the tinest component that I ever have to deal with. When I first saw this device my first thought was that there's now way I can mount this little device without creating a custom PCB and using the traditional surface mounting method.
For the purpose of using small SMT components in your prototyping work, it looks like a really handy way to make things a bit more hobbyist friendly.
"Reverse" Surface Mounting of small leadless SMD components
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YES-2-Tech, part of a program called Youth Exploring Science (YES) at the Saint Louis Science Center, published an instructable about making geodesic greenhouses. They write:
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!Working and building the domes has been exciting, but also very beneficial. We traveled around St. Louis teaching kids and adults about the purpose and functions of the greenhouses. Also, we supervised the building of domes at different community centers. With a geodesic dome greenhouse, you can extend the growing season of your plants and protect them from the harsh weather outside.
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Burbia has photos of this sign someone put on their front porch. It says "Scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses & our neighbor Jerry NOT WELCOME."
Read the find print here.
"James Lovelock: One last chance to save mankind" (New Scientist), Pre-order "The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning" (Amazon)So are we doomed?
There is one way we could save ourselves and that is through the massive burial of charcoal. It would mean farmers turning all their agricultural waste - which contains carbon that the plants have spent the summer sequestering - into non-biodegradable charcoal, and burying it in the soil. Then you can start shifting really hefty quantities of carbon out of the system and pull the CO2 down quite fast.
Would it make enough of a difference?
Yes. The biosphere pumps out 550 gigatonnes of carbon yearly; we put in only 30 gigatonnes. Ninety-nine per cent of the carbon that is fixed by plants is released back into the atmosphere within a year or so by consumers like bacteria, nematodes and worms. What we can do is cheat those consumers by getting farmers to burn their crop waste at very low oxygen levels to turn it into charcoal, which the farmer then ploughs into the field. A little CO2 is released but the bulk of it gets converted to carbon. You get a few per cent of biofuel as a by-product of the combustion process, which the farmer can sell. This scheme would need no subsidy: the farmer would make a profit. This is the one thing we can do that will make a difference, but I bet they won't do it.
Billing itself now as "the first mobile game for business travelers," Jetset (as it's now known) uses the iPhone's location-awareness to link fliers to whichever airport they're currently in to unlock special local souvenirs (your guess as to which have to be in to unlock the 'poutine' and 'Greek coffee-cup'), which can then be sent to friends via its interconnected Facebook app."Persuasive Games' experimental Jetset"
Mark Ryden will be signing copies of his new art book The Tree Show at the MOCA store in Los Angeles on Jan 31st (3-5pm).
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Ron Lockhart, the Sequoyah County Sheriff, said the department has checked with every mining company in the county but none have reported any blasting....Mysterious Rumble Vexes Sequoyah County (via Fortean Times)
The U.S. Geological Survey has reported activity in Sequoyah County but does not believe it to be seismic.
Jamie Wilkinson of F.A.T. writes:
I'll be moderating a panel at the ROFLCON NYC event this Saturday (Jan. 24th) with fffffellow ffffatties Steve Lambert and Tobi Leingruber (@ 2:45pm; just before Bre Pettis among others) We will be talking about Firefox-based art projects like Add-Art, China Channel, Tourettes Machine, and how to win the internet. We'll also present Artzilla, our new repository for Firefox add-on projects usually denied from listing on the addons.mozilla.org universe for being *cough* "useless art."
New York City ROFLThing
*When:* January 24th, 2009
*Where:* Santos Party House (96 Lafayette Street, Manhattan, NY)
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Hey folks, we'd like to know who's watching Make: television so here's a quick survey that only takes about 5 minutes to complete, if you have a moment please fill it out!
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Military Vehicle Technology FoundationI was lucky enough to get a tour with a bunch of other SRL people in the 90s. amazing collection. he had 2 scuds at the time. we got to see this bridge building tank that he turned on for us! also anti-aircraft tanks with matching satellite truck, tanks from russia, britain, us, etc. he even has a huge pipe organ and built a separate earthquake proof building to house it and has a miniature steam train running thru his property that we got to ride.
Here's a BBC radio documentary about Vélib' (loosely velo + liberte = free bike?), a bike-share program in Paris. It costs nothing for up to half an hour, 1 euro per hour after that, and has 20,000 bicycles in operation! I like that you earn free credits if you leave bikes at the top of hills, as well as the guy talking about his friends falling off bikes after late nights out. I'd be interested to hear from a bike shop in Paris on whether they think this program increases or decreases bike-buying. Where's the biggest program (if any) like this in the U.S.? Check out the official Vélib' page for more.
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The guy who created those Death and Taxes posters has created a new gem: "389 YEARS AGO." Jess Bachman explains, "It's not for the policy wonks but I think people will love it. Probably the only thing with Obama's name on it that you might keep around after he is out of office. Anyways, if black history is your thing, or even if it's not, you can't deny the progress we have ALL made." They're $35 while the first printing lasts, plus S/H.
Gil Weinberg is having trouble with his drummer he's trying to get both of Haile's arms to work at the same time. That would be an unusual problem, except for the fact that Haile is a robot. Haile's microprocessor-controlled, motorized arms are able to play ordinary acoustic drums, with expressive control over timbre and dynamics. But while the movements of its anthropomorphic, wooden body are impressive, Haile's listening ability is as important as its playing. Using custom computer software developed in the Max/MSP multimedia environment. Haile can analyze the performance of a human drummer and respond in real-time "We've tried to create a new musical experience- to surprise you," says Weinberg. Haile's responses range from simple imitation to variation and even intelligent accompaniment. The results vary: sometimes, the algorithms simply don't work, or don't work in a way that makes sense to human ears. But Weinberg, who was a jazz pianist for years before he became interested in computers, is most excited by the moments at which Haile feels like an equal musical partner, and plays in ways no human would.
"I've played with people for years," says Weinberg, "But especially when you're in a particular genre, you know what to expect Here, we are in uncharted territory" While Haile's human-robot communication skills continue to evolve, it's also getting a chance to facilitate human-human communications. Next, Haile travels to Jerusalem to play on a program featuring collaborations between Jewish and Arabic percussionists. The composition is called Jam'aa, or "gathering" in Arabic. Drawing on the communal tradition of Middle Eastern music. Haile will interact with professional darbukah and djumbe players, transforming what they play. At least, once the remaining technical bugs get solved "Talk to me Monday," says Weinberg; by then, he hopes Haile will be able to play with both arms.
Robotic Drummer: makezine.com/go/robotdrum
From the column Made on Earth - MAKE 6, page 25 - Peter Kirn.
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From Seattle Dorkbot:
We are pleased to announce the call for proposals for Seattle Dorkbot's art exhibition "Strange Things" is up! As in previous years we are seeking a broad range of art that uses electricity as a major component: interactive installations, art that borders the line between physical and digital art, kinetic sculpture, large scale collaborations, lighting installations, web- based art, networked art, ubiquitous computing...to name a few. This year we are also inviting artists to create and collaborate on works that explore the theme "Emergent Communication." Artists are encouraged (but not required) to work in groups to build pieces that communicate with each other (and potentially the viewers and environment) in novel ways, to create a larger system that's greater and more complex than its individual parts.
2009 Theme: Emergent CommunicationRead more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Announcements | Digg this!
This year we are also inviting artists to create and collaborate on works that explore the theme "Emergent Communication." Artists are encouraged (but not required) to work in groups to build pieces that communicate with each other (and potentially the viewers and environment) in novel ways, to create a larger system that's greater and more complex than its individual parts. Methods of communication are up to the artist(s); you could use anything from two pieces bumping into each other to complex network protocols sharing media. Artists will be encouraged to document how their pieces communicate so that others can create works to join in the conversation.
Meetings will be held in Seattle starting in January to spark ideas and connect artists and engineers, and a wiki will be made available for sharing and documentation. If you have an interest in participating in this part of the show contact Eric McNeill at strangethingsseattle [at] gmail.com .
vapour brothers (their "Radiohead TV" piece for the world's best band, Radiohead, is shown above)
pleix
copy goes here
sticks
gym class
timmy's wish
they are made of meat
pencilface
the bunny boy
Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)
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While we watch from afar, we see people who have great meaning to their lives, who every day have something to do that excites and inspires them, for the rest of us -- we know the feeling, we used to have it, until Thursday morning, when it all came crashing down. Reality reinvoked, our normal humdrum lives reappeared, and we have to live them. There are taxes to pay, appointments to make, charges to answer, etc etc.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Turn two salad bowls into a spherical array, ball of sound with amazing results.
Thanks go to Michael Zbyszynski for the original article in Make: Volume 11.
To download The Ball of Sound MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.
Check out the complete Ball of Sound article in MAKE: Volume 11 "Ball of Sound"
and you can see that in our digital edition.
Charles and Ray Eames were incredibly influential American designers - one of their most famous projects was a short film called Powers of 10. It was produced in 1977 and I was a little surprised to find that it's still amazing to watch. It's available for viewing on the Powers of 10 site - you do have to register, but it seems pretty benign, they don't ask for money or anything.
The ultimate Eamesian expression of systems and connections, Powers of Ten explores the relative size of things from the microscopic to the cosmic. The 1977 film travels from an aerial view of a man in a Chicago park to the outer limits of the universe directly above him and back down into the microscopic world contained in the man's hand. Powers of Ten illustrates the universe as an arena of both continuity and change, of everyday picnics and cosmic mystery. The film also demonstrates the Eameses' ability to make science both fascinating and accessible.
More:
Feel Small Project
Charles and Ray Eames were incredibly influential American designers - one of their most famous projects was a short film called Powers of 10. It was produced in 1977 and I was a little surprised to find that it's still amazing to watch. It's available for viewing on the Powers of 10 site - you do have to register, but it seems pretty benign, they don't ask for money or anything.
The ultimate Eamesian expression of systems and connections, Powers of Ten explores the relative size of things from the microscopic to the cosmic. The 1977 film travels from an aerial view of a man in a Chicago park to the outer limits of the universe directly above him and back down into the microscopic world contained in the man's hand. Powers of Ten illustrates the universe as an arena of both continuity and change, of everyday picnics and cosmic mystery. The film also demonstrates the Eameses' ability to make science both fascinating and accessible.
More:
Feel Small Project
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Take two salad bowls and turn them into a spherical array, ball of sound with amazing results.
Thanks go to Michael Zbyszynski for the original article in Make: Volume 11.
View the PDF of this project and then pick up Make: Volume 11 here for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.
Bastian Chroos' 256 button Monome makes a regular version seem very tame. Check out the video to see it in action and the link below for some images of back of the PCB.
via Arduino Blog
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
?"Bloom", a project by artist Sam Spenser, turns an ordinary tree into an augmented sculpture by introducing yellow umbrellas on the end of each branch. Really nice way to add some color to the neighborhood on a dreary fall or winter day.
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3rd Ward is offering a couple of in-depth classes and free workshops that may be of particular interest to the Make community. Readers of Make are invited to enroll in the classes at 3rd Ward's reduced member rate. Sign up via the special paypal links or call 718.715.4961 and mention this post!
Sound Sculpture - Mondays Feb 9, 16, 23, March 2, 7-10pm
During this four-week class students will learn the basics of electronics with an emphasis on sensors and sound while at the same time collaboratively developing a massive sound installation in the 3rd Ward gallery. The course will culminate in a full-blown opening for the installation which will remain on display until the end of March.
Nonmember Cost: $475 Promotion: $400
Paypal link for Make/3rd Ward Promotion
Full class description
How to Make Crappy Stuff Awesome - Wednesdays Jan 28, Feb 4, 11, 18, 25
Learn the basic concepts for creating furniture and other useful objects out of recycled and found materials for little or no investment. Students will have access to a full wood shop, a wide range of power tools, a spray booth, and a sewing machine. One part furniture rehab and one part design, this class will focus on the techniques needed to turn crappy stuff into something you love.
Nonmember Cost: $455 Promotion: $380
Paypal link for Make/3rd Ward Promotion
Full class description
Plus, a series of free workshops focusing on audio and video technology:
Processing Introduction - Monday February 2nd, 7-9pm
Processing is an open source programming language and software environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. In this intro we'll discover the basics of Processing and how easy it is to start coding, then move on to more advanced topics to give you an idea what possibilities are in store.
Circuit Bending - Friday February 6th, 7-9pm
Learn the basics of what electronic circuits are made of and how they are put together, then how to twist the intended use of that circuit to make wild, loud, and utterly unintended sounds! Free to watch, or a $20 materials fee gets you a 37-key electric piano and parts. A performance of bent instruments will close the evening.
Contact Mic Building - Friday February 13th, 7-9pm
Learn how to build your own high-quality contact mics for all your close-up recording needs. Contact mics record surface vibrations, meaning they can pick minute sounds like ice melting and hard-drives spinning. Free to watch, or a $20 materials fee gets you supplies to build two contact mics. A performance utilizing the special properties of these mics will conclude the workshop.
VDMX Tutorial - Monday February 16th, 7-10pm
VDMX is a revolutionary environment which enables you to construct a custom video processing pipeline as well as an interface to control it. This workshop is ideal for any visualists who are looking to expand their horizons by creating the custom realtime video processing applications of their dreams.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
"Doubles" is an electronic musical instrument that uses two controllers (which resemble air hockey mallets) and a surface of rolling beads. When moved, the controllers are measured in speed, distance, and their motion is used to create the resulting audio and visuals.
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Just posted! Our latest lens review, featuring Sigma's 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM. Completing for the moment our mini-series of APS-C format image-stabilized superzooms, we see how this lens measures up against similar designs which we've also reviewed in the course of the past year. With the likes of Canon and Tamron entering this market in the past few months, how does Sigma's two-year old offering measure up against the competition?
"This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID Scheme. Combine it with the index to your life formed by the planned National Identity Register and everything recorded about you anywhere could be accessible to any official body. If Information Sharing Orders come to pass, they could (for example) immediately be used to suck up material such as tax records or electoral registers to build an early version of the National Identity Register. But the powers apply to any information, not just official information. They would permit data trafficking between government agencies and private companies - your medical records are firmly in their sights - and even with foreign governments."
We urge you to write to your MP straight away via http://www.WriteToThem.com - don't wait. The Bill is being rushed through Parliament, even as we write. It contains a number of controversial provisions, but to the casual reader appears mainly to be about reforming inquests and sentencing.+ A CONCEALED ASSAULT ON PRIVACY + (Thanks, Glyn!)As it progresses, NO2ID will be publishing more information but it is crucial that every MP realises how dangerous the information sharing clauses in the Coroners and Justice Bill really are. This will only happen if YOU tell them.
*In your own words*, please ask your MP to read Part 8 (clauses 151 - 154) of the Coroners and Justice Bill, and to oppose the massive enabling powers in the "Information sharing" clause. The Bill is due its Second Reading in the Commons on 26th January 2009.
Request them to demand the clause be given proper Parliamentary scrutiny. This is something that will affect every single one of their constituents, unlike the rest of the Bill. There is a grave danger that the government will set a timetable that will cut off debate before these proposals - which are at the end of the Bill - are discussed.
Can Free Content Boost Your Sales? Yes, It Can (via Michael Geist)“We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”
And you know what? Despite the entertainment industry’s constant cries about how bad they’re doing, it works. As we wrote yesterday, Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.
Humberto writes in -
Ever had a message you wanted to tell the world around you? Ever wished you had a way of taking information and having it light up in front of you, a phalanx of diodes doing your bidding, emitting light on command to form out your epistle? This video outlines how to build your own large LED Array that can be used to display patterns, simple preprogrammed messages, or even scroll data from your PC. Using a microcontroller, and a whole lot of LEDs this tutorial walks through the concepts behind making this 24x5 display possible on only a single microcontroller chip. The tutorial explains row column addressing, demonstrates the use of the diode's properties double the number of columns, and contains the complete source code for the project. It is great as DIY weekend project. Greatly extendable project with a lot of room to be creative
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We have some excited updates to the MAKE suggest a site form... - ok, exciting for us and some makers out there. You can now put your city, state and country in the form if you choose to. We like this, and makers asked for this, it helps us know where makers are doing things and also where we should go (and possibly get a MAKE group or Maker Faire going) -- so please fill these out when you send in something. And lastly, there's a new check box that indicates if you're a MAKE subscriber - we get up a few hundred projects sent in a week, if you're a MAKE subscriber let us know!
In a few weeks we'll announce so BIG new things on the MAKE site, stay tuned!
Photo credit: norebbo
My initial interest was to find out more about how a movie like this can be produced without being inside the traditional commercial movie system, how much effort and money required and what was the trigger that had pushed this Australian gentleman to spend his lifetime savings to produce such an ambitious project.
But as I interviewed and discussed with Robert Anthony his story, I realized how critical and even more challenging is going to be the marketing and distribution strategy that will be needed to make this DVD into a memorable success.
Today, even if you have a great product, the road to great visibility and viral distribution takes a lot more than just slapping a price on it and finding a few affiliate partners for distribution. Word of mouth, search engine visibility, and possibly a community of raving fans are the key ingredients to get an online in front of the right people in the most effective way.
But how do you that?
In this double-video article, you will see first my interview with Robert Anthony, the producer of the movie, as I get the inside story of why and how the movie was produced. After that I recorded a separate video where I suggest what I see as the ideal marketing strategy for getting a product like Robert Anthony's movie to become an online success.
Here both videos with a full text transcription for each:
Intro
Robin Good: Hi everyone here's Robin Good live from Rome, Italy, recorded for most of you who are watching this interview, but still live at this very second, and bridging the oceans across the world for... what is it? Twelve hours time zone difference, Robert? How much do we have? Robert Anthony: I think it's 11, but yeah, 12. Who wants to argue between friends? Robin Good: No, I just don't know! But in any case, my friend here next to me is Robert Anthony. We've become friends over the course of the last 48-72 hours because we have tried to make our setups work together. We weren't the luckiest pair this time, and so we've become friends in the process of doing it. But let me introduce officially to you Robert Anthony, who I've invited here today from Australia, because he's the producer-director of a new independent movie.
Robert, would you like to introduce yourself? What is the topic and what kind of movie you have produced recently? Robert Anthony: The movie is called "The Wheel of Life - What if", and it asks the question to people about what we would do with their lives, if we had a better opportunity.
Robin Good: So, if I understand correctly, and I did watch quite a bit of the movie, which is a full-length feature of about 120', correct? Robert Anthony: That's right, yes.
What the Movie Is About
Robin Good: The movie really covers all the components of life that, in one way or another, we forget about, we do not give enough fuel as other parts of our life, and so get out of balance. What Robert has done, he has gone out to reach people who are some kind of real scholars, in different parts of lives, people who have kept asking good questions about why things are one way and not another, and have come up with solutions that have helped many many people. People who have written books, people who are helping other people, very unique people. I don't like to use the word "expert", because too many times this word is associated with people who get just some kind of certification from an institution. We've just too many of them, who need to prove in the field that they're good, not because they got some certification from somewhere, or because their father was doing something great and now they're just taking over. Robert has gone out not for those typical experts, but for people who I think really have really garnished on the field something special. Do you agree with this view Robert, or you think it is too radical? Robert Anthony: No, I agree entirely. Most of the people come from school of hard knocks not before they got their qualifications. They were people that had been out there and done all the things that they are talking about and then they went and got their qualifications. So, what we found was that in people's lives we had some of the best people around to offer the advice not only because they've done it, but because then they went and got their qualifications. Now they can talk from authority. and that's what we found. The best part of it doing, was that they just loved it passionately deep, and they want to help people. So Robin, yeah you're right, they were from all walks of life and they just... I can 't explain it, because it was just so exciting.
How It All Started
Robin Good: So, more digestible for everyone who's watching: Robert, do you want to share how did this thing start up? How did it come to you to do a movie, and why did you want to do it on this very topic of improving one's own life? Robert Anthony: It started off really because of what I was noticing in my work as a management consultant, how people had low self-esteem and they just didn't appreciate themselves. I started looking into things and I came across an ancient philosophy called the wheel of life, and when we started looking into the wheel of life, we found that it was a tool that had been left around for nearly 3.000 years and we just didn't use it properly anymore. What I started to look for was a way to get the message out to people, that they can actually use it, and by using it they can get their lives back into balance. We didn't want it to be something really fancy that people paid a lot of money for. We want to make this available to the world, so we looked for the simplest way to get it out and it turned out to be a DVD. Then we didn't want to charge a really lot of money for it like some other DVDs that have come out recently, and I leave their name out, but they leave the people without the tools to improve their lives. We believe that this vehicle gives everybody the exact tools to do it. That's a simple daily exercise that they can do, and there's more of the journey to come for those who want to get more involved. But just by looking at this one simple tool, people can make a radical difference to their lives as they find it today.
How Long Did It Take to Get the Movie Out
Robin Good: Good. Tell me now: how much time did it take for you and the people who've helped you to make this project become a reality? Right now people can come to your site and... you want to remember us the URL? Is wheeloflife.tv correct? Robert Anthony: That's right, yes.
Robin Good: And to get this "Wheel of Life" out there, on the site, and ready for purchase on DVD, how much time did you have to spend from the time you got your first inspiration? Robert Anthony: It took me about eight years in total, and then once we started making it, we had to bury a few of the original takes and productions because it just wasn't right, and it took another year to get it right. Because it's so important that we reach out to people in the right way. We didn't want people believing that they had to have a mindset. What we found in all the researches we did for this was that everybody knows, as one of the gentleman on this says: "you put somebody in front of a hamburger with french fries and you put a chicken salad beside them, people know what the better thing is to eat". Because the cravings and other things that happen in their lives, oftentimes we pick the bad things to wait. What "The Wheel of Life" is about was telling people that inside you know what to do, but you don't always have a friend there to help you. So, we brought this out to be their friend, to help them along, give them something to go back to, so they can get the inspiration, so that they felt better about themselves when they achieved a target, a milestone. To let people know that you're not alone when you make resolutions and you fall over, that we all make new year's resolutions, and how many of us keep them? So, what is it, a bad about our behavior and about our support system that we need to actually make these things into a reality, and that's what we set out to do, was to show people that they can actually do something if they really want to do, and that we believed in them. To answer to your question, eight years. And then very hard twelve months.
How the Resources Were Brought Together
Robin Good: Good, and how many people did you have to get involved, and where did you find these people to produce a movie, since you weren't a movie producer or director before. How did you get the whole resources together, where did you find them? Robert Anthony: It began in Melbourne, Australia, when we first started looking at how... the original idea was to go into corporations and tell corporations that they're undervaluing their main essence, that was the start. We had about five experts that came along that were mostly trainers and neuro-linguistic programmers, a couple of psychologists. And then when we realized that this thing was a lot bigger, I hate to use the terminology, but the universe provided them, and we had people who came from all over Australia, we had people from Singapore, London, America, New Zealand, and what we found was that they're all experts who were interested in being there for other people, and helping them with their life processes. Don Tolman for instance, he's an American nutritionist, and it took me 14 months to track him down, and it was just the perseverance too. So, it was a combination of perseverance and the universe providing.
How the Movie Was Financed
Robin Good: That's a great story, and that tells a lot of people how much really you have to insist on something even tough things are not going the right way. Robert has been there, if we heard correctly, eight years at this project. He has produced a first release, he didn't like it, he didn't think it was good, and went on, shot again, re-edited and maybe even a third time, but he didn't give up on really what he wanted to achieve. That's what I think is also so great about this story, not just what's inside the DVD, which I think it can be very valuable to many people, but especially the story behind it, which is always what I'm looking for. My next question Robert is: people would ask immediately how much money did you spend on this, and did you get venture capital to do it? How was your approach to finance such a long and complex project? Robert Anthony: We used all of our family savings. In total, its cost is nearly a million dollars. Probably by the time we'll finish up when we add up my time, it's something like a bit two and half million dollars. But in the end it was just the passion to get the project out there. Venture capital thought it was crazy. I had one gentleman that told me I was trying to climb a mountain higher than Everest, and then I gave him the story of a gentleman that climbed it from New Zealand and he didn't have any legs, so Everest cannot be that tall, can it? Look, I think we created the barriers that stop us from doing things, and in the end we were so determined to get this out and I had the support of my wife and my family. We were so determined to get it out that nothing would stop us, and then we found that people were at the same lines that came along and landed us their savings. It's been a very family-orientated project, and this cost a lot of time, a lot of money, but I think it's going to be very worthwhile. I believe that the world is going to get the benefit from it. I believe that people of the world will realize that they're better within themselves, once they start to see how simple it is to change the process and the way they feel about themselves, and the way they talk about themselves.
How to Measure "The Wheel of Life" Real Worth
Robin Good: One critical question would then be: how are you going to measure, and given six months or a year from now, what criteria are you going to use to say: "this was a successful project and I'm very proud and happy of it"? Robert Anthony: I suppose if we're able to brief on the money that it's been lent to us to get this out there. Also... I get a little bit embarrassed about it because we do want to do a lot of philanthropic work. We see that there is a lot to be gained out of this, that there's a lot of work that can be done to help people who want to live differently. We want to set up some nutrition's kitchens, we want to set up some environmental courses, we have made contact with some indigenous groups. In six months' time Robin I would like to see it be the number one DVD in the world. I would like then to move on to the other projects we have planned like we've got a similar series planned to go into schools for children, because we see the need there... just the way children perceive and talk about themselves, we don't like the fact that they do it in a way that they put themselves down. That little voice in the back of their head that we all have, that automatically says: "I'm not good enough". We want to teach people how to make that voice say "I'm good enough, and I'm better". And if we can do that with children, imagine how powerful it can be. We can get rid of all the, maybe not get rid of, we can readjust the amount of hatred that goes on in the world, like we are going to look at the Middle East and all the sad things that go on there. And it's adults teaching children how to hate. If we can do something about that, at a very early age, the word will be a better place for them. And then the dreams and the aspirations that we have with this project, that the DVD is the first part of a bigger, bigger thing, and that as the best the DVD sells, then we can get involved in all of these other things and we can use the profit of the DVD to push things forward. If you do manage to watch the DVD, the other thing you'll notice is that on the DVD we have some indigenous ladies. The reason that we got them there is because we deliberately sought them out. Because the fact that they understand the lands that they inhabit, whereas I think that too many Europeans have forgotten their ties to the land, and we're trying to rekindle some of that spirit, too. So it's a number of aspects rolled into one. And really is there for humanity, it's not there for anyone person. I think the power of the Internet is people search for yourself are showing us there is no barriers anymore, we're all one and it's about time we realized that. It is that what the DVD is endeavoring to do.
Robin Good: Thank you Robert, that's fantastic, and this was my brief introduction to the work of Robert Anthony, who's the producer and director of a very unique movie called "The Wheel of Life", you can find out more by going to wheeloflife.tv right now on the Web, and Robert will be very happy to get your feedback, comments, suggestions on anything. As myself, we're all trying to make the place where we live a better one for everyone. Thank you Robert for sharing your time today, and look forward to see you reach that... I don't know how many million sales you said, but the most DVD sold on the Internet. I gave you my strategy yesterday, and I will add it up actually to this interview, so that you'll see what you want to do with it, but best of life to you and congratulations for putting together such a great project. Robert Anthony: Beautiful Robin, you stay in touch, because I'm going to stay in touch with you! You have a lovely day! Ciao! Robin Good: You too, ciao!
"The Wheel of Life"
Robin Good: Here I am, this is Robin Good. I just finished talking to Robert Anthony, the producer-director of "The Wheel of Life". You can check it out at wheeloflife.tv. This is an independent movie, not the typical Hollywood-circuit type of thing, and it is a commercial thing because presently you have to pay to get that DVD shipped to your door. But it is a special movie because it talks about self-help improvement reaching your human potential, putting in balance the different parts of your life. It's not the typical movie plot. Here there are special people sharing their experience, unique people who have invested their lives in trying to improve it and understand what it is that we need to do properly for things to go right. Basically the idea of "The Wheel of Life" is that there are different components in life that you need to equally serve, attend to, take care of, water like they were living plants. All these aspects, need to be in proper balance and if you just feed some of them and not the others, things are never going to go fully right.
A Winning Marketing Strategy: Word of Mouth
Now, I wanted to spend an extra minute to share with you what I think is the winning marketing strategy for somebody who is in Robert Anthony's position. He says he has spent, or he and his partners have invested, more than a million dollars to pull this project together over the course of many years. And he said he may spend even more to get it where he wants it to be. My key suggestion is: here you have an opportunity to really leverage the power of the Internet. Which is to let WOM, word of mouth, work for you and do all of the marketing work that would cost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars if somebody wanted to do things like traditionally are done for movies, or commercial productions of this kind. <br /
Give For Free Instead of Charging Money
I think that the winning strategy for such a movie is the one of not holding anything, but really giving out fully this movie as a present. If it's true that this wasn't born as an idea to make more money, and if it is true that this were really things that you wanted share with as many people as possible in the world, independently of the fact that they had, whatever amount of dollars to pay for a DVD, or had a machine to play the DVD on, you just wanted this information to get out to as many people as possible. My advice is: let that information go, make it fully available, put that two hours on YouTube, on whichever platform is needed. It doesn't matter what's the name, but put it out there in as many places as possible, in full. It may not be the greatest quality, it may not look as good as in the DVD, but that's all perfectly fine, because you want your message to go out there. And you know what? The beautiful thing that will happen if you do this, is that people will buy your DVD in numbers that are orders of magnitude greater than if you just sold it and promote it with a few clips here and there, a few nice trailers. People are going to pick up just the trailers and go away with a little insight you share inside the trailers. They're not going to check the DVD because to see the DVD they have to do some effort, they have to pay some money, they have to send you the money, you have to send the DVD and all this. And very very few people will do it. Possibly the people who already know about your work, or are very specifically interested about it for some other reason. But if you really want to get the highest number of sales out there, you have to listen to what Paulo Coehlo and other big book best-sellers, writers out there, are saying. Which is: it doesn't matter how many free copies are circling out there, or better yet, it actually matters, how many free, pirated copies are out there, because the more there are out there, the more people will buy your original version. It just happens that if there's the free version, I go look at it, and then I say: "Oh, did you see this movie? Let me send you the link, I would like you to check it out!", and I send it to my best friends and some of them will send it to their best friends.
Sharing May Be The Marketing of the Future
When you like something, you want to reciprocate, you want to give it out as a present to other people, you want to own it in some way so that you feel even more gratified, you want to see it in high quality and invite friends to watch it on the big screen in your living room. All of this will happen if people can appreciate the beauty that is in the movie. But if you create a beautiful movie, a beautiful something, and you just give little bits of it, and say: "Well, if you want it all, buy it". I don't think is going to work. Unless you've given out already a lot before and people know exactly the type of value you're going to give out in there, or, I don't know, unless you let them see what's out there. I think that there are enough proofs out there that this can be a winning strategy. I know it's very hard to swallow, I know that many partners are not going to be liking this idea at all, but I needed, as I'm an explorer of how to use new media solutions, with all the limitations and mistakes that I make, I do like to state my own vision on this. I think the vision for the future, for whoever is in your same position, is to let this thing go out for free, as much as possible, maybe in lower quality than normally would be, and that will do your marketing. I don't know if you'll do it, but my compliments for you for having created it, and the fact that you're already stopping and listening to this, it's a great reward for me. All the best for you Robert, and ciao to everyone!
Photo credit: norebbo
My initial interest was to find out more about how a movie like this can be produced without being inside the traditional commercial movie system, how much effort and money required and what was the trigger that had pushed this Australian gentleman to spend his lifetime savings to produce such an ambitious project.
But as I interviewed and discussed with Robert Anthony his story, I realized how critical and even more challenging is going to be the marketing and distribution strategy that will be needed to make this DVD into a memorable success.
Today, even if you have a great product, the road to great visibility and viral distribution takes a lot more than just slapping a price on it and finding a few affiliate partners for distribution. Word of mouth, search engine visibility, and possibly a community of raving fans are the key ingredients to get an online in front of the right people in the most effective way.
But how do you that?
In this double-video article, you will see first my interview with Robert Anthony, the producer of the movie, as I get the inside story of why and how the movie was produced. After that I recorded a separate video where I suggest what I see as the ideal marketing strategy for getting a product like Robert Anthony's movie to become an online success.
Here both videos with a full text transcription for each:
Intro
Robin Good: Hi everyone here's Robin Good live from Rome, Italy, recorded for most of you who are watching this interview, but still live at this very second, and bridging the oceans across the world for... what is it? Twelve hours time zone difference, Robert? How much do we have? Robert Anthony: I think it's 11, but yeah, 12. Who wants to argue between friends? Robin Good: No, I just don't know! But in any case, my friend here next to me is Robert Anthony. We've become friends over the course of the last 48-72 hours because we have tried to make our setups work together. We weren't the luckiest pair this time, and so we've become friends in the process of doing it. But let me introduce officially to you Robert Anthony, who I've invited here today from Australia, because he's the producer-director of a new independent movie.
Robert, would you like to introduce yourself? What is the topic and what kind of movie you have produced recently? Robert Anthony: The movie is called "The Wheel of Life - What if", and it asks the question to people about what we would do with their lives, if we had a better opportunity.
Robin Good: So, if I understand correctly, and I did watch quite a bit of the movie, which is a full-length feature of about 120', correct? Robert Anthony: That's right, yes.
What the Movie Is About
Robin Good: The movie really covers all the components of life that, in one way or another, we forget about, we do not give enough fuel as other parts of our life, and so get out of balance. What Robert has done, he has gone out to reach people who are some kind of real scholars, in different parts of lives, people who have kept asking good questions about why things are one way and not another, and have come up with solutions that have helped many many people. People who have written books, people who are helping other people, very unique people. I don't like to use the word "expert", because too many times this word is associated with people who get just some kind of certification from an institution. We've just too many of them, who need to prove in the field that they're good, not because they got some certification from somewhere, or because their father was doing something great and now they're just taking over. Robert has gone out not for those typical experts, but for people who I think really have really garnished on the field something special. Do you agree with this view Robert, or you think it is too radical? Robert Anthony: No, I agree entirely. Most of the people come from school of hard knocks not before they got their qualifications. They were people that had been out there and done all the things that they are talking about and then they went and got their qualifications. So, what we found was that in people's lives we had some of the best people around to offer the advice not only because they've done it, but because then they went and got their qualifications. Now they can talk from authority. and that's what we found. The best part of it doing, was that they just loved it passionately deep, and they want to help people. So Robin, yeah you're right, they were from all walks of life and they just... I can 't explain it, because it was just so exciting.
How It All Started
Robin Good: So, more digestible for everyone who's watching: Robert, do you want to share how did this thing start up? How did it come to you to do a movie, and why did you want to do it on this very topic of improving one's own life? Robert Anthony: It started off really because of what I was noticing in my work as a management consultant, how people had low self-esteem and they just didn't appreciate themselves. I started looking into things and I came across an ancient philosophy called the wheel of life, and when we started looking into the wheel of life, we found that it was a tool that had been left around for nearly 3.000 years and we just didn't use it properly anymore. What I started to look for was a way to get the message out to people, that they can actually use it, and by using it they can get their lives back into balance. We didn't want it to be something really fancy that people paid a lot of money for. We want to make this available to the world, so we looked for the simplest way to get it out and it turned out to be a DVD. Then we didn't want to charge a really lot of money for it like some other DVDs that have come out recently, and I leave their name out, but they leave the people without the tools to improve their lives. We believe that this vehicle gives everybody the exact tools to do it. That's a simple daily exercise that they can do, and there's more of the journey to come for those who want to get more involved. But just by looking at this one simple tool, people can make a radical difference to their lives as they find it today.
How Long Did It Take to Get the Movie Out
Robin Good: Good. Tell me now: how much time did it take for you and the people who've helped you to make this project become a reality? Right now people can come to your site and... you want to remember us the URL? Is wheeloflife.tv correct? Robert Anthony: That's right, yes.
Robin Good: And to get this "Wheel of Life" out there, on the site, and ready for purchase on DVD, how much time did you have to spend from the time you got your first inspiration? Robert Anthony: It took me about eight years in total, and then once we started making it, we had to bury a few of the original takes and productions because it just wasn't right, and it took another year to get it right. Because it's so important that we reach out to people in the right way. We didn't want people believing that they had to have a mindset. What we found in all the researches we did for this was that everybody knows, as one of the gentleman on this says: "you put somebody in front of a hamburger with french fries and you put a chicken salad beside them, people know what the better thing is to eat". Because the cravings and other things that happen in their lives, oftentimes we pick the bad things to wait. What "The Wheel of Life" is about was telling people that inside you know what to do, but you don't always have a friend there to help you. So, we brought this out to be their friend, to help them along, give them something to go back to, so they can get the inspiration, so that they felt better about themselves when they achieved a target, a milestone. To let people know that you're not alone when you make resolutions and you fall over, that we all make new year's resolutions, and how many of us keep them? So, what is it, a bad about our behavior and about our support system that we need to actually make these things into a reality, and that's what we set out to do, was to show people that they can actually do something if they really want to do, and that we believed in them. To answer to your question, eight years. And then very hard twelve months.
How the Resources Were Brought Together
Robin Good: Good, and how many people did you have to get involved, and where did you find these people to produce a movie, since you weren't a movie producer or director before. How did you get the whole resources together, where did you find them? Robert Anthony: It began in Melbourne, Australia, when we first started looking at how... the original idea was to go into corporations and tell corporations that they're undervaluing their main essence, that was the start. We had about five experts that came along that were mostly trainers and neuro-linguistic programmers, a couple of psychologists. And then when we realized that this thing was a lot bigger, I hate to use the terminology, but the universe provided them, and we had people who came from all over Australia, we had people from Singapore, London, America, New Zealand, and what we found was that they're all experts who were interested in being there for other people, and helping them with their life processes. Don Tolman for instance, he's an American nutritionist, and it took me 14 months to track him down, and it was just the perseverance too. So, it was a combination of perseverance and the universe providing.
How the Movie Was Financed
Robin Good: That's a great story, and that tells a lot of people how much really you have to insist on something even tough things are not going the right way. Robert has been there, if we heard correctly, eight years at this project. He has produced a first release, he didn't like it, he didn't think it was good, and went on, shot again, re-edited and maybe even a third time, but he didn't give up on really what he wanted to achieve. That's what I think is also so great about this story, not just what's inside the DVD, which I think it can be very valuable to many people, but especially the story behind it, which is always what I'm looking for. My next question Robert is: people would ask immediately how much money did you spend on this, and did you get venture capital to do it? How was your approach to finance such a long and complex project? Robert Anthony: We used all of our family savings. In total, its cost is nearly a million dollars. Probably by the time we'll finish up when we add up my time, it's something like a bit two and half million dollars. But in the end it was just the passion to get the project out there. Venture capital thought it was crazy. I had one gentleman that told me I was trying to climb a mountain higher than Everest, and then I gave him the story of a gentleman that climbed it from New Zealand and he didn't have any legs, so Everest cannot be that tall, can it? Look, I think we created the barriers that stop us from doing things, and in the end we were so determined to get this out and I had the support of my wife and my family. We were so determined to get it out that nothing would stop us, and then we found that people were at the same lines that came along and landed us their savings. It's been a very family-orientated project, and this cost a lot of time, a lot of money, but I think it's going to be very worthwhile. I believe that the world is going to get the benefit from it. I believe that people of the world will realize that they're better within themselves, once they start to see how simple it is to change the process and the way they feel about themselves, and the way they talk about themselves.
How to Measure "The Wheel of Life" Real Worth
Robin Good: One critical question would then be: how are you going to measure, and given six months or a year from now, what criteria are you going to use to say: "this was a successful project and I'm very proud and happy of it"? Robert Anthony: I suppose if we're able to brief on the money that it's been lent to us to get this out there. Also... I get a little bit embarrassed about it because we do want to do a lot of philanthropic work. We see that there is a lot to be gained out of this, that there's a lot of work that can be done to help people who want to live differently. We want to set up some nutrition's kitchens, we want to set up some environmental courses, we have made contact with some indigenous groups. In six months' time Robin I would like to see it be the number one DVD in the world. I would like then to move on to the other projects we have planned like we've got a similar series planned to go into schools for children, because we see the need there... just the way children perceive and talk about themselves, we don't like the fact that they do it in a way that they put themselves down. That little voice in the back of their head that we all have, that automatically says: "I'm not good enough". We want to teach people how to make that voice say "I'm good enough, and I'm better". And if we can do that with children, imagine how powerful it can be. We can get rid of all the, maybe not get rid of, we can readjust the amount of hatred that goes on in the world, like we are going to look at the Middle East and all the sad things that go on there. And it's adults teaching children how to hate. If we can do something about that, at a very early age, the word will be a better place for them. And then the dreams and the aspirations that we have with this project, that the DVD is the first part of a bigger, bigger thing, and that as the best the DVD sells, then we can get involved in all of these other things and we can use the profit of the DVD to push things forward. If you do manage to watch the DVD, the other thing you'll notice is that on the DVD we have some indigenous ladies. The reason that we got them there is because we deliberately sought them out. Because the fact that they understand the lands that they inhabit, whereas I think that too many Europeans have forgotten their ties to the land, and we're trying to rekindle some of that spirit, too. So it's a number of aspects rolled into one. And really is there for humanity, it's not there for anyone person. I think the power of the Internet is people search for yourself are showing us there is no barriers anymore, we're all one and it's about time we realized that. It is that what the DVD is endeavoring to do.
Robin Good: Thank you Robert, that's fantastic, and this was my brief introduction to the work of Robert Anthony, who's the producer and director of a very unique movie called "The Wheel of Life", you can find out more by going to wheeloflife.tv right now on the Web, and Robert will be very happy to get your feedback, comments, suggestions on anything. As myself, we're all trying to make the place where we live a better one for everyone. Thank you Robert for sharing your time today, and look forward to see you reach that... I don't know how many million sales you said, but the most DVD sold on the Internet. I gave you my strategy yesterday, and I will add it up actually to this interview, so that you'll see what you want to do with it, but best of life to you and congratulations for putting together such a great project. Robert Anthony: Beautiful Robin, you stay in touch, because I'm going to stay in touch with you! You have a lovely day! Ciao! Robin Good: You too, ciao!
"The Wheel of Life"
Robin Good: Here I am, this is Robin Good. I just finished talking to Robert Anthony, the producer-director of "The Wheel of Life". You can check it out at wheeloflife.tv. This is an independent movie, not the typical Hollywood-circuit type of thing, and it is a commercial thing because presently you have to pay to get that DVD shipped to your door. But it is a special movie because it talks about self-help improvement reaching your human potential, putting in balance the different parts of your life. It's not the typical movie plot. Here there are special people sharing their experience, unique people who have invested their lives in trying to improve it and understand what it is that we need to do properly for things to go right. Basically the idea of "The Wheel of Life" is that there are different components in life that you need to equally serve, attend to, take care of, water like they were living plants. All these aspects, need to be in proper balance and if you just feed some of them and not the others, things are never going to go fully right.
A Winning Marketing Strategy: Word of Mouth
Now, I wanted to spend an extra minute to share with you what I think is the winning marketing strategy for somebody who is in Robert Anthony's position. He says he has spent, or he and his partners have invested, more than a million dollars to pull this project together over the course of many years. And he said he may spend even more to get it where he wants it to be. My key suggestion is: here you have an opportunity to really leverage the power of the Internet. Which is to let WOM, word of mouth, work for you and do all of the marketing work that would cost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars if somebody wanted to do things like traditionally are done for movies, or commercial productions of this kind. <br /
Give For Free Instead of Charging Money
I think that the winning strategy for such a movie is the one of not holding anything, but really giving out fully this movie as a present. If it's true that this wasn't born as an idea to make more money, and if it is true that this were really things that you wanted share with as many people as possible in the world, independently of the fact that they had, whatever amount of dollars to pay for a DVD, or had a machine to play the DVD on, you just wanted this information to get out to as many people as possible. My advice is: let that information go, make it fully available, put that two hours on YouTube, on whichever platform is needed. It doesn't matter what's the name, but put it out there in as many places as possible, in full. It may not be the greatest quality, it may not look as good as in the DVD, but that's all perfectly fine, because you want your message to go out there. And you know what? The beautiful thing that will happen if you do this, is that people will buy your DVD in numbers that are orders of magnitude greater than if you just sold it and promote it with a few clips here and there, a few nice trailers. People are going to pick up just the trailers and go away with a little insight you share inside the trailers. They're not going to check the DVD because to see the DVD they have to do some effort, they have to pay some money, they have to send you the money, you have to send the DVD and all this. And very very few people will do it. Possibly the people who already know about your work, or are very specifically interested about it for some other reason. But if you really want to get the highest number of sales out there, you have to listen to what Paulo Coehlo and other big book best-sellers, writers out there, are saying. Which is: it doesn't matter how many free copies are circling out there, or better yet, it actually matters, how many free, pirated copies are out there, because the more there are out there, the more people will buy your original version. It just happens that if there's the free version, I go look at it, and then I say: "Oh, did you see this movie? Let me send you the link, I would like you to check it out!", and I send it to my best friends and some of them will send it to their best friends.
Sharing May Be The Marketing of the Future
When you like something, you want to reciprocate, you want to give it out as a present to other people, you want to own it in some way so that you feel even more gratified, you want to see it in high quality and invite friends to watch it on the big screen in your living room. All of this will happen if people can appreciate the beauty that is in the movie. But if you create a beautiful movie, a beautiful something, and you just give little bits of it, and say: "Well, if you want it all, buy it". I don't think is going to work. Unless you've given out already a lot before and people know exactly the type of value you're going to give out in there, or, I don't know, unless you let them see what's out there. I think that there are enough proofs out there that this can be a winning strategy. I know it's very hard to swallow, I know that many partners are not going to be liking this idea at all, but I needed, as I'm an explorer of how to use new media solutions, with all the limitations and mistakes that I make, I do like to state my own vision on this. I think the vision for the future, for whoever is in your same position, is to let this thing go out for free, as much as possible, maybe in lower quality than normally would be, and that will do your marketing. I don't know if you'll do it, but my compliments for you for having created it, and the fact that you're already stopping and listening to this, it's a great reward for me. All the best for you Robert, and ciao to everyone!
Ok gang, if you haven't seen this yet - here is our MODDING and ART contest! The SPEAK VISUAL™ Contest at the NVIDIA® Modification Station with MAKE!
DEADLINE IS JANUARY 25, 2009 - you have a few days left to enter!!
Do you SPEAK VISUALTM? - Speak in pictures, movies, games and maps - with a graphics processor from NVIDIA® you can speak the one language that never needs translation - NVIDIA® has teamed up with MAKE and created the "Modification Station" a special section on MAKE that celebrates "SPEAK VISUALTM" - from PC mods to amazing motion graphics this section will have some of the most amazing mods and visuals you've ever experienced. But that's not all - together, NVIDIA® and MAKE bring you the "SPEAK VISUALTM" contest. If you're a Maker who has an amazing PC mod, gamer station or PC hardware creation you can win amazing prizes -- from a new computer to the latest graphics cards from NVIDIA®. Not a PC modder? That's ok, if you do motion graphics, data visualization or anything that uses a graphics processor to bring your imagination to life you can enter too!
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I remember having to make cardboard shoes in 3D design class in college, but Mike Leavitt really takes the notion to town. From the show description:
The Seattle artist accurately replicates in cardboard a nostalgic footlocker of shoes, from ladies pumps to 1980's sneakers. Installed like a thrift shop, the cardboard shoes will be interspersed with Leavitt's famous action figures, trading cards, Barack Obama pieces, woodcarvings, velvet paintings, and other small collectibles. Leavitt also includes his "Homeless Executive House", a cardboard sleeping unit with a miniature scale facade of the New York Stock Exchange. Traditionally distasteful and modest objects consciously designed for commerce become appropriate in the art world.
Mike Leavitt participates in an art movement that is fast maturing - a melting together of designer toys, hand-made prints, tattoo parlors, skate shops, street art, and hand-made kitsch that is consuming the art market from the bottom, up. Between high art and a crumbling economy, Leavitt has found a common ground of inexpensive but technical works keenly tailored for broad appeal. Inspirations from woodshop, kitchen craft, and figurative representation energize his shoe replications. In his work, a cheap, disposable material comprises an expensive product, similar to the manufacture of boutique footwear. His cardboard shoes suggest commercial viability is now an urgent reality.
"Don't Stop Object Shopping: The Cardboard Shoe Show" by Mike Leavitt
Fuse Gallery, 93 2nd Ave (btw 5th and 6th Sts, F to 2nd Ave)
March 21 (opening reception 7-10pm) through April 18, 2009
How the Computer gets the answer - LIFE, 1967...
Step by step, an easy exercise reveals the workings of man’s most complex machine Two plus One—not exactly a problem to set the mind racing or to blow a computer’s fuse. Yet it is enough to send electric pulses flying through the computer’s intricate web of wires. Although we are barely in the third decade of the computer age, computers already touch the life of everyone in the U.S. Each year—each day—our involvement with these machines rises toward unimaginable levels. It is a commonplace that if it weren’t for computers we couldn’t fly to the moon, or even keep an accurate record of the national debt. On the question of how it does what it does, however, the computer has always remained essentially mysterious—unfathomable to all but a small handful of initiates. An officer of one major computer concern guessed recently that not more than 2% of his employes really know how it works.
Today on Offworld, we saw Spore expanding with two new PC games as well as onto the Wii and again on the DS, saw Noby Noby Boy get a firm post-Valentine's date, and wondered if Digital Chocolate's excellent one-button mobile game Tower Bloxx might be moving to the iPhone.
On an artier front, we looked into the soul of an Atari 2600 and what we saw was very similar to late artist Jeremy Blake's digital art output, saw the most sinister(ly cute?) art-game to ever spring from Unreal Tournament, and saw fantastic pixel-chic fineries.
One More Go columnist Margaret Robertson also told us about how Nippon Ichi's strategy RPG Disgaea was "a quest for numerical orgasm," vinyl toy designer Touma turned Animal Crossing into razor-toothed evil, a new PC demo for Puzzle Quest sequel Galactrix sucked half our day away, and finally, Persuasive Games' brilliantly scathing TSA social parody game Airport Security moved to the iPhone and ended up even smarter for it.
Here's another Make: Books PDF excerpt. This one comes from Tom Igoe's Making Things Talk, which tells you how to create Arduino- and XBee-powered devices that form networks of smart objects. This excerpt shows you how to work with two different distance rangefinders, the Sharp GPxx series of infrared rangers and the Devantech SRFxx series of ultrasonic rangers:
Electronic locating systems like GPS, mobile phone location, and sonar seem magical at first, because there's no visible evidence as to how they work. When you break the job down into its components, it becomes relatively straightforward. Most physical location systems are based on the same principle. They determine distance from several known and fixed locations by measuring the energy of an electromagnetic or acoustic wave coming from the object to be located. Then they combine those measurements to determine a position in two or three dimensions.For example, a GPS receiver determines its position on the surface of the planet by measuring the strength of received radio signals from several geosynchronous satellites. Similarly, mobile phone location systems measure the signal strength of the phone at several cell towers. Sonar and infrared ranging sensors work by sending out an acoustic signal (sonar) or an infrared signal (IR rangers) and measuring the strength of that signal when it's reflected off the target.
Distance ranging techniques can be classified as active or passive. In active systems, the target has a radio, light, or acoustic source on it, and the receiver just listens for the signal from the target. In passive systems, the target doesn't have to have any technology on board. The receiver emits a signal, and the signal bounces off the target. Mobile phone location is active, because it relies on the phone sending out a radio signal. Sonar and infrared ranging are passive, because the sensor has to emit a signal in order to measure the reflection. GPS is an active locating technology, because although the receiver doesn't emit a signal, it has an electronic receiver onboard to receive satellites' signals.
Sometimes distance ranging is used for acquiring a position, and other times it's used for refining it. In the following examples, the passive distance rangers deliver a measurement of physical distance, but the radio ranging tell you only when another radio is in transmission range of your radio, and whether it's near or far within the range...
Follow this link for the full excerpt.
Previously:
Buy Making Things Talk by Tom Igoe in the Maker Shed today!
Programming microcontrollers used to require an expensive development environment costing thousands of dollars and requiring professional electrical engineering expertise. Open-source physical computing platforms with simple i/o boards and development environments have led to new options for hobbyists, hackers, and makers. This book contains a series of projects that teach you what you need to know to get your creations talking to each other, connecting to the web, and forming networks of smart devices.
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I haven't had my iPhone for that long, but a constant frustration is its overachieving autocorrection feature, which could use a bit of training on the peculiar words and acronyms I tend to use on a daily basis.
Our favorite iPhone hacker, Erica Sadun, recently investigated this very issue and found that not all text input areas measure up. Certain applications will update the iPhone's custom word database, and some don't appear to have any effect at all, namely Notes. Safari, however, seems to be the key to manually forcing a word into the database:
It wasn't until I left Notes and hopped over to Mobile Safari that I was able to make any difference at all. In Mobile Safari, I opened a new browser, typed the same words into the Google search field and, in the words of Steve Jobs, boom. Just as one would hope, the dynamic-text.dat file immediately updated without any further repetition needed. I could also see the words by looking through the file.
To test my update, I then returned to Notes and tried typing my words again. This time, Notes immediately recognized my new additions as correct, without offering a special suggestion bubble.
If you've Jailbroken your phone and want an easier way to update the dictionary with your personal lingo, you can edit the file called dynamic-text.dat in /private/var/mobile/Library/Keyboard.
What the duck? Train your iPhone to (truly) learn new words
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I haven't had my iPhone for that long, but a constant frustration is its overachieving autocorrection feature, which could use a bit of training on the peculiar words and acronyms I tend to use on a daily basis.
Our favorite iPhone hacker, Erica Sadun, recently investigated this very issue and found that not all text input areas measure up. Certain applications will update the iPhone's custom word database, and some don't appear to have any effect at all, namely Notes. Safari, however, seems to be the key to manually forcing a word into the database:
It wasn't until I left Notes and hopped over to Mobile Safari that I was able to make any difference at all. In Mobile Safari, I opened a new browser, typed the same words into the Google search field and, in the words of Steve Jobs, boom. Just as one would hope, the dynamic-text.dat file immediately updated without any further repetition needed. I could also see the words by looking through the file.
To test my update, I then returned to Notes and tried typing my words again. This time, Notes immediately recognized my new additions as correct, without offering a special suggestion bubble.
If you've Jailbroken your phone and want an easier way to update the dictionary with your personal lingo, you can edit the file called dynamic-text.dat in /private/var/mobile/Library/Keyboard.
What the duck? Train your iPhone to (truly) learn new words
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Imperial Junkie & Kiser: pixel fashionistas, Discuss this on Boing Boing Offworld
Found via a trip through online fashion outlet Karma Loop, this set of games-brut Ts and hoodies from Imperial Junkie and Kiser doing Space Invaders and Galaga chic.From L to R: The Spaced Invaders Tee, The Galaga Junkie Tee, The Space Junkie Hoodie, The Space Invaders Tee.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This is a 1/12th scale model of the Dorpat telescope. It was built by William Gould for the National Geographic Society's Centennial Celebration. The original telescope was built in 1826 by Joseph von Fraunhofer for the Dorpat Observatory, and was one of the largest of its kind; you can appreciate its scale by noting the chair in the CAD model. Gould built this 15" tall model in his well appointed machine shop that includes Bridgeport and Aceria mills, a watchmaker's lathe and hand engravers dating back to 1917.
This is precision model making on an almost unfathomable level. Gould's skill and workmanship leave me speechless.
via The Internet Craftsmanship Museum
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(Click images for big)
Daniel Carter, creative director of MAKE, says:
A good old Cajun friend of mine, nicknamed Pecanhead, sent Angelica and me a "World Famous Mardi Gras King Cake" direct from New Orleans this week. It arrived today, and it is magnificently strange, delicious, colorful and bizarre. It tastes like a giant cinnamon roll with bavarian cream filling and sugary frosting and sprinkles on top. Apparently, you can order all sorts of fillings..Here's the official inventory: A 2-pound gourmet King Cake with bavarian cream filling, a Mardi Gras can insulator, Mardi Gras throw beads, two tiny babies (a.k.a. Baby Jesus, this being a cake celebrating "King's Day," also referred to as The Epiphany) and some Mardi Gras doubloons.
One of the babies is supposed to be hidden inside the oval cake, and whoever gets the baby Jesus is obligated to bring a king cake to the next party. We didn't know that part, so instead we have him displayed on top of our cake.
Order your own delicious and festive cake here.
Great garage mod punk from The Easybeats (1966). According to Frank at Save vs. Death, "George Young, the rhythm guitar player, is the older brother of Angus and Malcom Young and produced the first six AC/DC records. How's that for an awesome pedigree?" There's a family resemblance for sure!
(If you like this kind of music, you should listen to Little Steven's Underground Garage on Sirius, which plays the greatest songs from the 60 years of rock and roll. Drew Carey has a DJ spot a couple of times a month, too! You can listen to the show from the website, too.)
Yeast under a microscope, via Wikipedia
Chelsea Green has 2 great posts with Sandor Katz, author of "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements" and "Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods," on the wonderful world of fermentation.
First, here's license to experiment (if you needed it):
More than anything, I would recommend working with what you've got. Preserving the garden harvest does not require highly specialized exotic ingredients. In general, I would recommend using less refined versions of any ingredient. Unrefined sea salts typically contain a broad spectrum of minerals, including iodine. In table salt, the trace minerals are removed from the sodium chloride and then iodine is added back in (along with anti-caking chemicals). If you can, use ingredients that are less processed and which you can easily trace to their origins.
And secondly, exactly what I had been looking for: How to Brew Amazing Beer in Vast Quantities.
If you'll excuse me, I have to go buy some hops and barley now:)
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