Great effects reel from Sea Level (thanks Jory)

I came across this article in my Google Reader: DVD format battle attracts a new rival: HD VMD
I have to point out some things regarding the whole battle war feud competition between DVD DVD and Blu Ray …and now possibly HD VMD – this is going to confuse the shit of out consumers.
When manufacturers constantly update their hardware formats, they’re unintentionally causing buying anxiety in consumers. We’re at a point now where a lot of people have finally gotten around to buying a DVD player, and some have even gone as far as to start their own collection – whether this collection be purchased or ripped from Netflix DVD’s.
In 2007 two new formats emerged with more resolution muscle and capacity and we were told to scrap the DVD format, go with one of these new formats – although we weren’t sure yet what the adoption/endorsement from major studios was going to be yet on either format (now that we’re into March of 2008 it seems Blu Ray is the ‘winner’).
Then this morning I read about this new HD VMD format.
Enough is enough.
What happens in situations like these are what Barry Schwartz calls the Paradox of Choice. Basically, if people are presented too many options, or in this case, asked to change video formats too quickly, instead of picking one – they don’t pick any.
Contrast the problems of hardware upgrades to software upgrades. Let’s use my favorite new device – my iPhone.
The iPhone updates (and OS X updates in general) happen without the need to replace anything due to their nature (it’s called SOFTware for a reason, actually, it’s technically called firmware).
The whole process is practically seemless – just download the software update, install, and reset/reboot. No additional hardware, memory, plug-ins or connectors.
We can see the benefits of such software-based systems with a simple and very likely scenario.
Say Apple suddenly decides it needs to update your iPhone with a new version of Quicktime with dozens of new features and functionality and will sport a Super Extra Ultra High Definition resolution. If the iPhone relied on hardware upgrading to make this happen there would be 3 possible outcomes:
1. You upgrade your iPhone hardware and everything goes smoothly
2. Apple makes you buy a new iPhone to enjoy the new features
3. You upgrade your iPhone hardware and everything goes horribly wrong
4. You do nothing, and keep your iPhone as is
Of course, we don’t have to worry about any of these possibilities since all we need to do is connect our iPhone to iTunes, sync it and restart it.
Google understands the power of this with Google Docs and all their other online tools. Google can change their software at will without affecting anyone’s computer. I won’t even get into the benefits of not having to launch software locally from your hard drive.
Technology systems reliant on a fixed format lack agility.
Umair over at Bubblegeneration has some more great thoughts on Why HD-DVD And Blu-Ray Are (Strategically) Obsolete.

The cover story in Wired right now is Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.

But free is not quite as simple — or as stupid — as it sounds. Just because products are free doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere, isn’t making huge gobs of money. Google is the prime example of this. The monetary benefits of craigslist are enormous as well, but they’re distributed among its tens of thousands of users rather than funneled straight to Craig Newmark Inc. To follow the money, you have to shift from a basic view of a market as a matching of two parties — buyers and sellers — to a broader sense of an ecosystem with many parties, only some of which exchange cash.
The most common of the economies built around free is the three-party system. Here a third party pays to participate in a market created by a free exchange between the first two parties. Sound complicated? You’re probably experiencing it right now. It’s the basis of virtually all media.

You have to read the story to have that title make sense to you.
…and I think The Beauty Of 99¢ iPhone Apps (via) shares a lot of the same thinking.

This was pasted around a few years ago, but it’s always refreshing to watch (although the narrator’s voice is pretty stale):

Know your music history!

If you’re gonna have a hit,
You gotta make it fit —
So they cut it down to 3:05.

• The Entertainer by Billy Joel
  I give you the new most viewed video of all time (as of 3.6.2008) on Youtube:
  
  Cansei de Ser Sexy sure knows what Lithe is talking about re: Hemingway and Britney Spears.

So after a year of being an art director at Schematic, my Flash muscles have gotten out of shape. Before Schematic, I used to juggle many hats – HTML, design, Actionscripting and animation. Now I work with people who are dedicated to these specific tasks, so that I can focus on my task of designing an art directing.
WIth that said, I’m working on some freelance projects as well as a side project at work (kind of like my own ‘20 percent project‘) that requires I get back into Flash and start programming again. (Not because someone told me to, but because I want to. My father is an engineer so I know I have some of his geek genes coursing through me).
Back in the day I used to use Laco’s tween class for scripted motion in Flash. Then that evolved into Fuse Kit.
My friend Quigga has told me to drop Fuse and use TweenLite. Put simply – it’s lean and mean. Check out the speed test and you be the judge.
I also started using another Greenstock class for preloading assets, the PreloadAssetManager class.
Hello again Flash, here I come!

Swissmiss has post on THEBLOG WEEMADE, a blog dedicated to showcasing kids artwork.
Meh.
It’s missing something….
…maybe it’s missing some Maddox flavor: I am better than your kids, parts 1 & 2.
This image has some serious explaining to do:

I would seriously be crapping my pants if I had a big-busted, Viking-looking teacher that looked like that. Check out those HEELS!!!!!

When Picasso was quoted in saying, “good artists copy, great artists steal” – the folks at Meizu took the ‘copy’ part and ran with it (found via Engadget):

As someone who has been working as a professional interactive designer for over 8 years, I can’t count how many times I’ve been inspired by other people’s work. Without getting into a whole discussion on ‘what is originality’, all artists (architects, painters, sculptors, designers – clothing, product, environment, interactive, web) are influenced by everything they see, hear and touch. No one exists in a vacuum.
Picasso didn’t copy African masks in his Demoiselles d’Avignon – he stole them. Stealing for Picasso – and all other great artists – involves a sophisticated level of mutating the original ‘stolen goods’ and creating something new with them.
Paul Simon also stole from African music on his amazing album Graceland. You can hear the references, but the music is entirely his.
Other artists ‘steal’ things in more subtle ways that aren’t immediately visible – in the form of geometric shapes and proportions and physics theories (where would we be without simulated friction in interactive design?)
Meizu is copying the iPhone.
I can’t imagine doing what Meizu did and being comfortable with it. If they were doing it purely as a ‘phase 1’ before evolving their own designs, that would be fine. But they’re not.
The sad part about this is that the interface Apple created for the iPhone is just one of many amazing solutions that is possible. Apple has not created the only possible interface for a touchscreen smart phone.
If people would do more stealing than copying, they would know this.
In the end, it’s just sad, because Meizu is missing a great opportunity to create something new and fresh.

I Really Hope Microsoft Has More Than This – If Microsoft wants to even think about competing with Google* – they’re going to have to figure out a new business strategy.
I’ll be truly surprised and impressed if Microsoft does.
*Yes, I said Microsoft has to compete with Google, not Google has to compete with Microsoft, because Google has changed the rules of the game by offering a Sharepoint and Office alternative that is free AND online.
Microsoft has to play on Google’s turf and time is running out.
Game on!

Adobe Pushes DRM for Flash (via) – Ahhhhh damn. Here we go again with the DRM.
MacBook Air stock selling out almost daily? – I really want to keep hearing these reports of the Air being a ‘flop’. The naysayers really can’t conceive of a person that is so digital that they don’t require a DVD drive or an (wired) ethernet connection.
FastCompany.tv – Ummmm. Ok. well, this site is kinda grey ain’t it? It also feels very stagnant, like there’s not a lot of activity going on here.
…and why must I be welcomed with Scoble’s fat gob?
I hope they keep iterating until they get it right.