I returned Wednesday from South by Southwest (SXSW), where I had access to the Film and Interactive tracks. In short, it was really cool, and I?d recommend it strongly to any member of the Crack Team. There was far too much to do, and I ended up missing all parties, the trade show, and the web awards. However, I did attend some very thought provoking panels and saw a few films. So, ok, that doesn?t sound as cool, but as an info junkie and armchair philosopher/sociologist/film critic, I had my priorities in order. And just doing that felt like a marathon.
As I have time, I?ll post about various panels attended, films viewed, and observations gleaned while at the conference.
That was probably the biggest story of Oscar night – no upsets. Lord of the Rings swept like a broom, and in some categories I felt it was carried by its own momentum rather than its merit. I loved the books and thoroughly enjoyed the films, which I admit was an insane undertaking, and should have been recognized earlier. Perhaps if it had, maybe some more deserving nominees (IMHO) might have won. As Agent Renegade has said, the Academy loves films that put a lot of people to work, and the trilogy spread the wealth to over 25,000 people. Well, I guess I’m a lot happier for it than I was for Titanic. Here’s my take on a few categories: Continue reading No Surprises→
News 14 Carolina had a brilliant idea: let businesses notify them of snow storm closings via a web form, and they’d display them over the air in a bar at the bottom of the screen. Fully automated, very efficient. No human supervision whatsoever. Click here to see how it turned out.
I’ve recently been made aware of the concept of “peak oil”, which says that since there is a finite amount of oil on earth, we’re eventually going to reach the top of the bell-shaped production curve. After that, prices increase dramatically, and since so much of what we need to exist is tied to oil, we return to pre-oil population levels. In other words, about 4 billion of us die off. Continue reading Peak Oil, or We’re All Gonna Die→
The technical Oscars took place on Valentine’s Day, and Jennifer Garner made a lot of new friends. She now has the undying love of Hollywood’s best and brightest, in addition to the CIA [USAToday.com]. My favorite quote from the CNN story:
“The audience cheered loudly whenever she pronounced a particularly daunting technical term properly.”
Wired has an excellent, very thorough article on the outsourcing of computer jobs to India. It’s required reading for all current and future techies. And accountants. And financial analysts. And every professional who could work from home. The bottom line? It’s time to become a higher evolutionary. Continue reading Bombay Companies→
After much struggling with the misnamed eZpublish, I’ve decided to switch to Movable Type. Maybe now I’ll get some writing done. Continue reading First Post→
