A vid 4 Rose

Kodak Zi6 HD and iLife 09 test from Gabemac on Vimeo.

This is for my friend Rose. She is helping me out so much right now. Helping me get all the pieces back to restart my life in Amsterdam again. Everything from helping me clean my apartment, moving, taking me out, and even folding my clothes. An Angel.

The music in the video is “Something Beautiful” by Coco O’Connor. http://cocooconnor.com

The other reason I made this video is I am testing the Kodak Zi6 that I received from Kodak last week. I am also testing the new iLife 09 and iMovie 09 filters and workflow. Following the standard workflow and exporting to HD video this is the result I get.

I liked the fact that the Kodak imports in iPhoto, and then is transferred to iMovie easily. I don’t have that with my Sony camera. The shots I took were in intense lighting conditions to push the envelope of the camera. I liked the shot it took, but I wanted to play more with iMovie for the final result. I used a number of filters with speed and color settings in iMovie to achieve this effect.

Pros: The Kodak camera is a simple lightweight HD camera that a vlogger likes to have around. It took the direct sunlight shots very well, and did decent compensation for the hotspot sunlight shots next to the ivy.

iMovie has finally put slow motion back in. The effects and filters are very welcome, and the workflow is nice once you get used to it.

Cons: The Kodak camera does not handle low light situations very well. It is also rather large, (larger than an iPod) to always have around with me. I think most of the space is the battery and the usb flip out connection (which although is really cool, I have to use a USB hub for my laptop to connect it and my mouse or external drive at the same time).

iMovie has a nice clip editor, but it no longer scrubs audio when you are trying to tweak an edit to music and it becomes very frustrating. It would also be nice to have a “standard” HD for web export from iMovie which it does not have natively. The closest you can get is the large sharing selection if you do not want to export via QuickTime and set the settings yourself, which is what I did.

Semi-Spring

Semi-Spring, originally uploaded by Amsterdamize.

It was nice to take a break from unpacking today. I went to the park with some good friends, It is nice to live so close to the park where we can walk around and enjoy the sun. Even though I had a lot to do, many boxes to unpack, furniture to sell or move, and keep looking for a job; it was nice to take that break and enjoy life back in Amsterdam for a bit. Thanks for the pics Marc. Thanks for the call GabeB, and thanks Suze for the hugs.

Mobuzz runner up for Fiasco awards

Apparently Mobuzz.tv was one of 9 nominated companies to win the Fiasco award in Barcelona. No, this doesn't make me feel like a failure at all! Thank god Vista came out.

Microsoft’s Vista wins Fiasco Award - Apple 2.0

A quirky, slightly tongue-in-cheek project of the Catalan Association of Telecommunications Engineers, the Fiasco Awards are designed not to “criticize” or “engage in public derision,” according to their website, but to recognize that “technological advance is not a straight path” and that “success and fiasco are … head and tail of the same coin.”

“God rewards fools,” reads the award’s logo.

Using a balloting system weighted to ensure that “an opportunity was given to local projects,” a consolation prize went to SAGA, the Administration and Academic Management System of the Catalan Government.

The nine finalists were all over the lot, mixing the famous, the local and the obscure. The list included One Laptop Per Child’s $100 computer; Linden Lab’s Second Life; Google’s (GOOG) Lively; the DAB digital radio system used in Europe; the Madrid-based Mobuzz.tv project; Maresme Digital, a project for bringing digital television to Catalonia; and some Linux-based free software packs distributed by the local government administration.

Here is the video. Mobuzz is number 4. Well at least we are with some big names. :-)

Re Post Amsterdamize a weekend biking

AMSTERDAMIZE » Sunday Cycles

My friends arrived and decided it would be nice to go for a bike ride. One visiting from Munich, the other just returning to Amsterdam from Madrid, both of them needed a rental. No biggie, a short walk downtown and 10 euro’s later we were on our way. Going up down the Amstel River was a nice option, stopping for beer, bitterballen and apple pie, then comfortably return to the city.

Madrid Carnival pictures

Carnival in Madrid A great day in Madrid with Elisa and Karina, all ex-Mobuzz like myself. What a great day we had together. Thanks girls!

Here are all the pictures:

Jon Stewart on Twitter

This is hilarious. Sorry Jon. With Bush out, you have to stretch and bust on twitter? Come on mate.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Cat Vs. Printer

Saw this come in through Facebook. I think we have all been there at one point or another. Poor Puss.

A taste from Davos

Ok. There is a video coming, lots actually, but here is a little taster of my trip to Davos and the World Economic Forum. Anyone read "The Alchemist" should know P.C. below.

Night out with JAG

I haven't been blogging as much as I should have been, so I figured it is time for some catch up posts. Before hitting the DLD conference with GABEB I went out with JAG. I've only been talking with JAG online, and it was so great to finally meet her in person. We had a great night dancing at the Escape in Amsterdam thanks to a couple of free tickets from Pensly. Here is a short video of dancing. Ok, it is one of my,  "I don't care" video styles. But still nice. I'm sure there are a lot of jealous guys out there going to look at this. All I can say about JAG is that she is one of the coolest people you will ever meet.