Electronic Life - Dude! You’ve Just Been Google-Mapped!

A delightful parody of the Google mapping project is available on YouTube. Concern over possible invasiveness of the Google mapping project has resulted in a lot of talk and something even more stirring: a YouTube video!

The video uses comedy to examine how much data storage is enough. The European Union is looking at data retention techniques and has noticed some unsettling tendencies. Read the Red Tape Chronicles article at MSNBC about how the EU wants to change things. Maybe Big Brother will have to get some blinders!

Your Electronic Life - The Birds are A-’Twitter’-in’

It looks like I am gong to have to expand my communication lines again! A recent article in C|NET News by Charles Cooper seems to indicate that I am still not connected enough.

The Coop’s Corner article reviewed Twitter and how it can be an incredibly useful tool for PR and news types and for those of us who are just trying to be technically proficient and plugged in to an ever-changing (and the rate of change is accelerating!) industry.

For a truly shocking look at how fast a company’s PR can go bad, read the Jeff Jarvis “Dell Hell” saga listed in the Coop’s Corner article (click on the link, read Jeff’s letter to Dell and then go to where he lists his entire travail through Purgatory in the “here and here” in the third paragraph of his letter - and then read the comments below the letter). Ohmigod!

So I guess I need to be even more plugged in to see what problems people are having with their electronics by reading Twitter, etc. Aaah - I just knew that time between midnight and 6AM was being wasted!

Your Electronic Life - April Gadget Cravings

I found a couple of items in the April 2008 Crave vlog to be of interest.

The Nokia N95 (first item on the vlog after the intro’s, about 40 seconds into the vlog - about 4:30 remaining) is about a neat little phone which, when running the Qik video streaming service software, can be used to do live video blogs (well, with a five-second delay), transmitted straight to your website. Talk about real-time vloging! Read more

Green Ink and Paper!

In the “I’m going Green” zone some new items have turned up that will be of ihnterest to our readers in the US. Briefly: Xerox have created a new paper which should be released in a few years. The paper has a photosensitive ink that fades within 24 hours leaving the paper reusable. Read more about this here.

This could really do a lot for recycling of fliers, posters, newsprint, concert tickets, short-term advertising messages, and others I can’t even think of because I haven’t had enough coffee yet.

Solar Energy is becoming more accessible to customers and cheaper to get solar power installed. Read more about this here. I will admit solar energy has more appeal to me than wind turbines for maintenance and visual and noise pollution reasons. Solar panels seem so much more unobtrusive and sunlight is a bit more dependable than wind.

Green Power Generation Research

If you’re using a computer you’re most likely plugged into the national grid of your nation’s energy production company and paying a monthly bill to keep your connection alive. I’m starting to research the whole green idea and power is one of the biggies to address. I thought I’d head over to boycott-riaa.com as I haven’t visited in a while and see what they had to say and the first article I see is An Electrifying Situation by a guy who calls himself Dave. Could that be Dave Navarro? Well, I don’t know but let me tell you, he pointed out that hooking into an American Energy Company vs. an Electric Company is a much better idea and he explains why that is, and dammed if I can’t agree! So I do. Dave’s article points out that, at least in his state, surplus energy that you feed back into the national grid sets up a situation where you are paid by the Electric Company for adding to the available power supply. The calculations offered, if true, demonstrates a remarkable way to power the community and have a powerful green effect.

Closer to a Green Home

When I looked a little closer to home, I discovered that there is apparently some difficulty converting photovoltaic energy from solar cells into electical energy. Heat is pretty easy. but according to a Kiwi builder buddy, by name of Kevin, who has more than 52 years of experience in building and has built his own house to a design ahead of his time, you cannot get more than 12v DC out of a photocell - not enough to power a computer.

However, he tells me that a friend has a small wind turbine mounted on the roof of the garage at his lifestyle block and that this is generating enough power into batteries to power his computers pretty much every day. I’m going to be looking into that a bit more soon as I finish setting up establishing a legal library at Allforart.

Kevin’s house is ahead of its time in green design and accessibility. It has a wheelchair ramp and access, solar heating, a water tank that receives rain water off the roof - 3000 liters(!) on a beautiful rainy day, and a great vegetable garden which with a good compost heap coming along nicely and amply contributed to by the neighbors. Kevin designed the drainage before he built the house and laid the piping to ensure that water run-off would do the job of filling the tank. This tank cuts the water bill in half since it has been installed.

Now if he can harness the wind that blows reasonably steady up there on the ridge…free power! It’s that or find a lot of hamsters! I’m going to keep looking into this particular subject of wind-driven power generation and will let you know what I find out as it comes to light.

Green Art Production - Narrowing the Gap - Increasing Efficiency

Tuesday this week saw the release of a new free online tool from Xerox to help improve efficiency with printers and copiers. CNET announced it, and now it’s here. Just thought you’d like to know you can do an online calculation that may help improve costs. That’s it. Short and sweet.

More stuff coming on being green, but not with envy, oh no, that wouldn’t do at all. Read more

Marketing to Family and Friends: How to Blow Your Campaign by Failing to Prepare

Family and friends are going to be affected by a creative individual’s career.

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Artist’s Productivity: Information Processing

You’ve learned to empty your inbox in minutes and shift your focus to the day at hand. But we live in a world where we’re barraged with information, and the term ‘information overload’ is very real and it’s very bad for your mind - its ability to think and consider - and especially for your daily productivity. Read more

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Eleven - The business of art & entertainment is your business

In the eleventh article discussing the points of the Code of a Creative Artist, NDK talks about the artist’s relationship with the business and the people working in it to make the artist a success.
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The Give Away Myth: What They Don’t Want You To Know

In his piece BIG PICTURE: Just what is entertainment worth?, Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times perpetrated a common mainstream media and music industry myth, throwing the credibility of his entire article into question when he falsely states: “That’s why Prince gave away millions of copies of his latest CD, because the real money for him was in concert tickets.” Read more