MacBook Pro Boost Graphics Tip

Those of you who have a new Apple MacBook Pro may or may not be using the full potential of the graphics card. Recently I installed Boinx TV onto my computer, to play with this live recording app on the mac. When I started it up, it asked for me to use my Higher Performance graphics card. You see on the MacBook Pros are available with 2 graphics cards.
1. NVIDIA GeForce 9600M
2. NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

Apparently the default settings in System PReferences-> Energy saver had set my graphics to "Better battery life" even when plugged in. I simply switched it to "Higher Performance" and now it seems HD renders, and other graphics intensive projects are going faster.

So if you are having performance issues with graphics on your MacBook Pro, check the System Preferences like above and switch. Only bad problem is you have to logout and login again when you switch. Bummer.

Hope you enjoyed this little GabeMac tip.

My life is a Romance Novel?

It is somewhat scary when you are single and the universe keeps sending you weird messages. Last weekend I was casting for a role in a commercial (which I didn't get, bummer) where I was told I was going to play a "romance novel cover model" to try and pick up girls with some friends. Now on google alerts I get the message that apparently I am in one: (a review from Wild Lady (Scarlet))

"Claudia Beaumont is in danger. Gabriel MacIntyre is having real trouble convincing her of that. And he's having trouble keeping his hands off her too. It should be easy - heck she's exactly the sort of woman he loathes; but then he discovers the real LADY behind the WILD."

What the !@#$? You have a very sick sense of humor universe. Well that's what the review says. So m aybe I should start looking for my Claudia Baeumont on facebook now.

Amsterdam Movers

I've been getting rid of a lot of stuff on freecycle.org over the past week to make room for my new room mate, etc. Saturday, a bike rolls up to take my old bed away. Seriously! Actually I remember moving from a couple of apartments on bikes as well since living here in Amsterdam. So here is the proof of the pudding. Enjoy Amsterdamize!

Conference tours

Well it looks like there are a lot of conferences coming up in the next couple of months. So far I will be attending and speaking at the following conferences. If you are in the area, drop me a line on twitter or email. Always looking to meet up with people. Israel: (March 26-31) Kinnernet 2009 COM. Vention 2009 Speaking about Viral Marketing, showing off my Wii VJ project and some more fun stuff.

Spain, Bilbao: (April 24,25) Nonick conference Moderating a panel for Online Video with Pim Betist (sellaband.com), Nir Ofir (iamnews.com), Marc van Woudenberg (Amsterdamize) and others.

Montreal: (May 13) Webcon 2009 Talking about Virtual Immortality and our digital identities from a digital anthropological viewpoint.

I hope to see you at one of them at least!

Review from Rockstars of the web

clog blog : LondonBloggers.net

It was the last presenter who made us all sit up and take notice at the end of this nine-hour blog-fest: Gabe Mac, self-proclaimed Bad Mother Vlogger, took the day’s Rockstar theme to the extreme as he pranced around the stage to a funky remix of a classic Scottish pipes tune. He wore streaks of blusher, serious eye make-up and twanged his Wii Air Guitar madly. He had our full attention. His siren of a sidekick sported bright red stilettos and figure-hugging leggings, dancing about him with a giant video camera, causing the feminists in the audience to tut tut and shake their heads. I think that was the point. Then Gabe Mac toked on a spliff rolled for him on stage by Stiletto Chick, crooning “good stuff, baby”, and any thoughts of audience fatigue left the room. Like him or hate him, we wouldn’t be bored by him.
Gabe Mac told us his vlogging evolution story which suitably began in Amsterdam but is now based in Madrid. We watched some of his own favourite posts and tolerated his thespian arrogance and shameless self-promotion. In summary, I think Gabe Mac was acting his pants off for us, but can’t really be sure, just that off-stage he seemed like a much quieter soul than he was projecting to us in his presentation. You probably need to decide for yourself whether or not he’s worth watching. Check the link at the end of this post to see what this Bad Mother Vlogger is all about.

Here is a small video

Like2Dance

One night in Spain, I just felt like dancing. It is something great to do when you are feeling down. I highly recommend it. Make a video of you dancing in your place and post it as well. Tag it like2dance!

Re post of Jeroen Mirck from Blog 08

Jeroen Mirck » Blog Archive » Blog08: blogging, vlogging and rock stars

Blog08: blogging, vlogging and rock stars

Even though blogging has been around for quite some time, it was the first time that Amsterdam played host to a conference dedicated to blogging, Blog08. An initiative of two enthusiastic Dutch youngsters, it was mainly an inspirational event, disguised as a kind of rock show. Although there was a live band, the ultimate rock star was “bad mother vlogger” GabeMac who closed the conference with a rocking vlog performance. The audience joined him in singing “we will, we will vlog you!” But the major theme of this conference was being passionate about blogging, which also applies to people who are in it for the money.

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. :-)