BlakeAtwood.com

Just stumbled onto Justin.tv. He wears a camera, everywhere, all the time, and it’s live on the web. Craziness. You knew it had to happen, and what with the popularity of YouTube, the low cost of cameras, and possibly the involvement of subtle advertisers, Justin.tv has made The Truman Show become reality.

Then there’s Ustream.tv (I think they could have come up with a better name), which also offers to film "A Day in the Life of You."

Found via Download Squad, a great blog for free downloads, computer and internet tips, and random information like that found above.

[Brought to you by Orlando Condos].

This site has been around for awhile, but I thought I’d share the love for those that hadn’t heard about it. It’s hard to find the free stuff within the iTunes Music Store, but this site finds them for you. How nice. Now that I’ve got my paypal account tied to my iTunes account and I’m hoping for an iPhone or iPod this summer, I’ve all the more reason to download music and videos until my laptop explodes.

I guess I shouldn’t be that descriptive - exploding laptops have happened…although they haven’t been in the news lately, have they? A vast conspiracy? I think so. Then again, Dell’s been having their own problems lately completely unrelated to batteries. Seems like some people forgot about that small calculator app on all Windows machines. On the other hand, they’re going to start offering desktops and laptops loaded with linux instead of Windows, which was a direct result of their IdeaStorm campaign, something I think every major company should start offering. Hearing your customers best ideas is better than giving away free personalized pens.

Last year, a friend’s grandmother, Lillian Stiles, was mauled in her yard by six pit bull/rottweiler dogs. Just recently, the owner of the dogs was found not guilty in her death. I could hardly believe the news when I heard he was not guilty. Apparently, Texas law is somewhat antiquated when it comes to protecting the innocent from attacking dogs. Consequently, Lillian’s daughter has started Texas Families Against Dangerous Dogs. There are many things you can do to help the Texas government make the right decision during this session. Please consider taking a moment to voice your opinion to your State Senator and State Representative.

Link to scans on Srcribd. For a good laugh, go see the answers that some college kids put on their papers. I only wish I could have been this imaginative whenever I came upon a question that my mind answered with a blank stare. When you can answer with a drawing of a ninja turtle or an elephant (both for bonus points), then I think you should at least get a few points of credit for creativity. I guess that’s why I went to a liberal arts school. I’m pretty sure most of my professors would have given these kids at least a few points for originality.

Also, I peruse Digg fairly often, which is a site the aggregates web links upon which the users can vote up or vote down said links. I don’t vote too often, unless I want to remember where to find something useful, funny, or unique. You can see my list here, if you’re so inclined. There’s actually not much there, and looking at it, you might think I have some infatuation with Spider-Man. I do not, but I do enjoy the movies. Just so you know. The front page of Digg is always interesting too.

[If you're reading this, I'm sure you need a break from all the worries and stresses of life. Go find a Bed & Breakfast]

"In computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures (i.e. a large difference between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows." (Wikipedia)

According to my friend Donnie, the photographer takes three pictures of the same scene: one is underexposed, one is correctly exposed, and the last is overexposed. Using Photoshop or another digital image editor, the photographer combines the three pictures into something entirely new. It’s a process I’d like to learn in the near future.

HDR photography produces some pretty cool images that are real, but not quite. It’s impressive what some photographers can do. Many good examples can be found on Flickr, as this style is increasing in popularity on the web. See Austin area HDR images, the HDR Flickr group, and this guy, an HDR photographer in Austin.

[And in random news, did you know that you can buy Mailboxes online? I sure didn't.]

I just stumbled across a Christian alternative to MySpace called DittyTalk. Read that slowly. The first time I read it (on a Christian site), I thought it said something completely different. Do people think about such things when choosing a website?

Obviously not.

(The above link, by the way, is not for the faint of mind. Although all of the websites are fairly normal, the names they chose to use are very much abnormal and may not be safe for viewing in some countries). I may need to find some addiction treatment from lists like this on the internet. Seriously, you can’t get away from them, because I know I’ve seen the above list in my inbox multiple times.

Pastor Bryson Butts catches flak for "Church Doesn’t Suck" billboard
Pastor Butts? Really? And they’re upset about the billboard?

Moment of Silence for Church Turkey Greeter
Most faithful attendee tries to be like chicken, crosses road, doesn’t make it. Seriously.

Techno Churches, on "snagging aspects of the wider culture"
QOTD: "Martin Luther is said to have written a few hymns borrowing music from drinking songs."
99 bottles of communion wine on the wall, 99 bottles of wine, take one down, pass it around, 98 tiny cups of grape juice on the wall…"

All links found via Christianity Today’s Weblog

Almost as soon as I had typed the last period of my last post (regarding the benefits and wonders of Picasa), I decided to delve into the upgrade pricing of Picasa versus their inimitable pseudo-rival, Flickr. I knew about Flickr. I have friends that use Flickr. I never used the free option for Flickr because I have far too many pictures and would use my monthly allotted bandwidth very quickly, so why bother? Picasa allows upgrades, the only one of which I could entertain using was the first level upgrade, something like $25/year for 6.25 GB of storage. You’d think that would be enough for me, right? But no. I checked my photos, and we currently have almost 7 GB of photos. Crazy, I know, but it is what it is.

Then I looked at Flickr’s pricing. $25/year for unlimited uploads and unlimited storage. So, even though I liked the Picasa integration with their photo organizing software, Flickr’s plan was much more palatable. So I took the dive and bought a pro account at Flickr. I couldn’t be happier. Their online photo management tools are a breeze to use, some would almost say fun. Most of my pictures are marked private, for the eyes of only those I deem worthy, but a few of the goofier ones are available for public viewing. For the most part, I’m using my account to store all of our priceless images on a different hard drive than my own in case mine decides to randomly bite the dust (a la my transmission in my car a couple of weeks ago).

The funny thing is is that I did not want to spend money to store my pictures, even the seemingly trivial amount of $25. But, thanks to the fine folks at north carolina furniture and a few other places I’ve been posting on behalf of, I had $25 to spare. The choice was made for me. I had to acquiesce. Count me one of the millions that love Flickr.

Picasa (a Google product) just upped everyone’s storage to 1 gig, free of charge. I like the software and I like the website the photos are shown on, so I was happy to hear about this update. I’ve been looking for an inexpensive site to store all of my photos, and I know I’m going to have to pony up for more storage than just a gig. It was down to picasa or flickr, but with this last update (which includes video storage), picasa may just get my vote, especially for the software that makes it very easy to sort, categorize, and upload your pictures and videos. The picture below is the exterior of the restaurant we ate at before attending the double-bill of Huey Lewis and the News and Chicago. Unfortunately, we were about 20 years too late to hear a good show.

From Huey Lewis Concert…yes, you read that right…

And no, I don’t mean it’s a meeting place for Phds (otherwise I wouldn’t be allowed). Scribd is billed as a YouTube for documents where anyone can upload any document. Many free (maybe legal?) ebooks to be had. Worth a look. Anyone want to guess if it stays around for a year or more?

Also, as vidncd by currnt domain nams lik flickr and scribr, will our languag becom so shortnd that w will vntually dcid to do away with all e’s?