2010 February

Why are you naked at the airport?

February 8, 2010 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Right after the horrific events of 9/11/01, I was stunned to watch my fellow citizens simply bend over and acquiesce to security measures that I thought were uncalled for and overreaching and so did security expert Bruce Schneier. I submit that making millions of people remove their shoes after one so-called “shoe bomber” hid explosives in his shoes is ludicrous, but few of us push back or protest.

Why aren’t more of us saying “no” to accelerated invasiveness of our persons and privacy? Are people simply lambs stumbling along blindly as they head off for slaughter? Is it OK for you to be full body scanned and essentially viewed naked at the airport? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Science Tagged With: bodyscanning, TSA

Make HD Videos w/Apple’s Keynote

February 7, 2010 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

Being an effective communicator in today’s more virtual world means you must master the tools to do so whether it’s effectively using your webcam or having noise-free conversations via Skype.

Today we are, as Matt Mullenweg of WordPress and Dries Buytaert of Drupal have pointed out, media producers as well as consumers. They have publicly stated that anyone who hopes to be effective online today (both as individuals and as organizations) must recognize that we’re all in the media business and must use the tools available to us (and video is the most obvious way) to deliver higher value communications than we’ve ever done before.

To that end, I love seeking new tools and exploring new uses for the ones I own. I’ve put together some examples in the overview called “How to Use Apple’s Keynote to Make HD Videos” about using Apple’s Keynote (available in their iWork ’09 suite) and it will hopefully help you see how you too can create and deliver HD quality videos that better tell your product story, message or any video communication you need to post online.

Creating HD videos is an especially interesting use of Keynote since most video sites now enable you to upload and deliver HD quality videos (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, VideoPress for WordPress) and HD quality is a great way to deliver product promos, your presentations or even creating intro slides for an HD video you’re creating in some other program.

Before you continue to the page that outlines how to deliver these HD videos using Keynote, take a peek below at one example of a video I did for our business and know that these types of video ads are MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE in selling products than a static product photo or a gallery below a static photo AND RESULTS IN HIGHER SALES (by 15-25% for us). It gives potential purchasers of our products a solid inside look at the $400 report and enables them to do so in 1.5 minutes which is a much better use of our website visitor’s time than expecting them to read dozens of paragraphs.

Here’s one video to start with but again, look at this page to see more videos as well as the “How to Use Apple’s Keynote” section:

[wpvideo o80YGdFd w=620]

Filed Under: IPTV, Media Shift, Social Media, Web/Tech Tagged With: apple keynote, HD video, videopress

My First Podcast: Conjuring Mr. X

February 6, 2010 By Steve Borsch 1 Comment

It seems like a lifetime ago, but in May of 2005 there was thing called “podcasting” that was still quite new and I decided to fulfill a passion I’d had since interviewing at Brown Institute (now Brown College) more than two decades prior for their program in radio & TV broadcasting. I never followed up on that passion since I was working my way through the University of Minnesota toward a business degree and my tuition, books, room and board for a year at the “U” was $1,000 less than one year at Brown….and that was a grand I just didn’t have at the time nor was I willing to give up my studies at that major university.

Deciding to break in to podcasting and dabble on the side while running strategic alliances at Lawson Software as its VP, I’d purchased a good microphone, computer interface and software and gave it a go that April of 2005.

My first effort was this story reading for my son and daughter and I published it on the web in May of 2005, complete with sound effects. Perhaps it’s the spooky, hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck subject matter or that it’s only 3.5 minutes long, but there have been nearly 10,000 downloads of this short story reading with the inevitable spikes in downloads around Halloween.

Give a listen…but do so only in the daylight or with others if it’s nighttime.

Conjuring Mr. X

Filed Under: Podcasting Tagged With: Podcasting, scary story, spooky

Get Those Kids in to the Sunshine!

February 4, 2010 By Steve Borsch 1 Comment

Studies have shown that 6 million of our kids are Vitamin D deficient, primarily due to the lack of being outdoors in the sunshine and soaking up this needed vitamin naturally. Fortified milk and foods — along with supplements if they’re given to kids — can help alleviate that problem, but unfortunately there are more compelling reasons to stay indoors and play videogames, use the computer, and be virtually connected to friends vs. being with them outside playing.

A couple of summers ago my wife and I came back from our nightly hour walk around the lake and I stopped dead in my tracks about a block from home. It was a perfect evening, not a cloud in the sky and 75 degrees, and there were no kids outside playing! This in a neighborhood which, at the time, had dozens of kids between the ages of 4 and 15 years of age.

When my bride and I were growing up TV was the main electronic distraction but Mom & Dad usually had it tuned to their favorite station until later on when we both became multi-TV households. Even then, it seemed like there were so many other things to do that TV took a back seat to playing with friends. After dinner, we couldn’t wait to get outside and play with friends and in my neighborhood kick the can was the game of choice which we played for hours every day in the spring, summer and fall.

This is not a Luddite-type post since I’m a huge fan of technology, social media and virtual connections. Still, the overweight population continues to grow and we need to find the balance. Reading this blog, you’re probably someone who “gets” the power and usefulness of the accelerating change going on with the internet and web, but it’s an imperative that our kids continue to get their butts outside, drink in the sunshine and fresh air (and store up that Vitamin D!), connect with the earth and play.

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness Tagged With: kids, Social Media, Technology

Is Lenovo’s IdeaPad U1 Competition for Apple’s iPad?

February 1, 2010 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

The accelerating category of tablet computers — targeted directly at the always-0n, always-connected mobile masses involved in cloud computing, social media and seeking devices to make life easier and more efficient — isn’t limited to the Apple iPad. Though I knew a bit about the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 from CES coverage, poking around this morning I uncovered this video by Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3, from the CES show that gives the best overview of this device that I’ve seen yet (and no, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s boooooring tablet/slate presentation at CES didn’t do much more than one could see by looking at pretty pictures).

This lack of my awareness (since I pay close attention to this stuff) is perhaps as telling as any other marketing analysis I’ve read recently, about the impact Steve Jobs made on introducing the iPad. I am surprised I didn’t see this video earlier since I’m a huge Revision3 fanboi and watch a lot of their shows and coverage. In any event, this is worth the couple of minutes to watch:

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5DYuVN6nuY

Filed Under: Innovation, Social Media, Web/Tech Tagged With: apple, ideapad, iPad, lenovo, slate, tablet