Amber Mac

For all the links, visit us at commandn.tv.

May 25th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is my last night in DC.  Aside from meeting some amazing (and outgoing!) people before and after my keynote at ACTE, the one thing that sticks in my mind is my three-hour trip Sunday night to Georgetown.

I met up at Zed's with a friend for dinner.  After great 'n messy Ethiopian eats, we wandered up a nearby residential street (let's just say we're not map people, so we were guessing the river was that way).  Within minutes, we saw a friendly furry canine and his owner.  We quickly discovered their names, Woofie and Peter (respectively).  Peter took pity on us and offered to give us a "real" tour of his adopted hometown. 

With Woofie in tow, we followed 82-year-old Peter down crickety streets and learned about his life as a newspaper man in Buffalo and Washington, DC.  He escorted us to the Potomac River, just alongside the newly-designed Swedish embassy (a visual treat).  While gazing up the river, Peter pointed out the boathouse where he used to keep his rowing scull.  Between stories, including how Peter met his wife some 50 odd years ago, random strangers greeted us to say hello (but, most likely, to pet 5-year-old Woofie). 

We continued our tour back up towards M St., and by now I'm sure everyone passing us by thought we were Peter's kids (and of course we didn't tell them any different).  We stopped briefly now and again for Peter to check the weather on his iPhone, letting us know we would have sunshine today, and to show us how easy it was to take photos with his handy little device. 

By now we had spent a good long hour with Peter, and we figured his wife would want to see him walk on through the door, so we tried to say goodbye.  Peter wouldn't have any of it.  He asked us to follow him up to his home so we could see a real Georgetown residence, including his tree-lined backyard where Woofie finally ran free off his leash.

As the sun set, we politely said goodbye to Peter and gave Woofie a hug (she drooled with delight).  The moral of the story is that it only takes a minute to turn a stranger into a friend, and this blog post is my thanks to Peter for making it so easy.

May 19th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (14)

May 17th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (10)

While recording net@night tonight, Leo mentioned a site called Twistori, which is a social experiment based on Twitterers' feelings (what they're saying on the message-sharing site Twitter that involves the following keywords - love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish).  It sounds a little odd, and probably is a little odd, but it is amusing for a minute here and there (the design is clean, making the real-time "tweets" easy to watch).  Here's a shot of what just hit the screen.

May 13th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)

If you ever want to create a quick timeline of your "online" life, Dipity is an awesome tool that collects your data from Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and many other sites and maps it all out on a slick timeline (with multiple views - see my sample below, took all of one minute).  If you don't have any online feeds, you can create your own timeline from scratch with photos and info.  Check out this timeline of the Iraq War. They've also just launched TimeTube, which is very cool!

May 10th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (8)

At the end of last week I got an email from Leila Boujnane, CEO of Idee Inc., and one of the smartest and most charismatic people I know (whether she's keynoting a Toronto tech event or sipping Bourbon in my kitchen). 

Leila needed a how-to video for a new image search engine her company was launching (well, has launched, today in fact).  After seeing a demo of TinEye, I jumped at the op (amazing technology) and over the weekend my company did our best to work with Leila and Paul to represent how TinEye works.  I'm going to stop "talking" now because you'll hear enough of me in the video.

P.S.  Thx to Chris from MGImedia for rallying to shoot/edit this video with me until the final hours of the weekend.  You are the best.

Back to work on the TR project, will post more on this new social network when we're ready to share the site. 

May 6th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (24)

MESH is a 2-day web conference (well, 3-day now that MESH U is on the agenda) that takes place every year in Toronto (the 2008 event = May 20, 21, 22).  From debating the future of online video with Jian Ghomeshi to squashing rumours over steak with Michael Arrington, I can definitely say that MESH is never dull! 

This year commandN is hosting a contest in conjunction with MESH and MESH U.  You have one more week to enter to win a ticket to MESH (approx. $469) or MESH U (approx. $239).  Check out this video for more details (or visit commandN.tv) - it's easy as pie, and I suspect with a little effort your chances of winning are pretty good.  Fire up your cams!

P.S.  If you do get a chance to make it out to MESH, come on by to see the future of video panel with a co-founder of Blip.tv, CTV's senior director of technology, and one of CBC's producers (I'm moderating).  I'm also doing a workshop with the MGImedia team on how to make online videos people want to watch.  See schedule here.

May 3rd, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (7)