This behind-the-scenes video is an amazing testimonial of the video possibilities of the new Canon EOS 5D Mark II, and of course, the creative talents of Vincent Laforet and his crew. The Reverie video itself has been viewed close to two million times since it was uploaded.
In a classic case of one-upmanship, like in I’ll do you one better, Yahoo just released its own web analytics application to rival that of Google. As a long-time (and satisfied) user of Google Analytics and web analytics in general - this site is running on one - what is instantly attractive in Yahoo’s offering is the promise of almost real time turn around, and access to raw data. Google normally needs 8-12 hours hours to display your current statistics.
Yahoo Analytics is based on IndexTools, which Yahoo recently acquired and now has quickly put to good use.
This video, now running through YouTube’s fiber network, is a promotional piece for Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC 2008), where the software giant is expected to give out copies of Windows 7. Well, this video will probably do that event more harm than good. See for yourself.
“I’m talking about windows se-ven, you’re taking me closer to heaven. Yeah, right!!
Ten Years. That somewhat low key article is how A List Apart writes about its first decade defining how we use and build the web. From its simple beginnings as a mailing list, then a magazine, an ezine, ALA, as it is fondly called, has been the leading journal of standards-based design, introducing foundational concepts and advanced techniques that were “initially mocked, feared, and hated, but are now part of every good web designer’s repertoire”. It’s list of authors are now the web’s leading figures, speakers and authors.
So to ALA, we’re a captured audience and we mark this milestone with you, and look forward to the next web.
Now, here’s bad news for all company bosses. If you believe those workers hunched over their desktop PC are busy with work-related stuff, think again. A study by network consultancy firm, Volco, reveals that workers spend 25% of their office time goofing around on the internet.
That goofing translates to personal online activities, such as writing personal email, chatting with friends, updating profiles in social networking sites, downloading digital media, online shopping, and the like. Of course, surfing during office hours is not a new phenomena. As early as 2003, studies have already shown that US companies are theoretically losing up to 200 billion dollars a year to workers’ private online activities during working hours.
But all those private online activities are not necessarily bad. Offices may actually gain by having workers do their banking online rather than spend an additional thirty minutes during break time to do this. And those heavily engaged in social networking activities may actually help bring in contacts for the company, the study added.
An interesting aside was a question on what workers would rather do without - their coffee break or internet access? Go figure… and get back to work.
Blogging is still as popular as ever, according to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report for 2008, but growth has slowed and more and more bloggers have specialized or have monetized their online presence.
Some statistics: 184 million recorded blogs worldwide since 2002; 346 or million peopleor 77 percent active internet users around the world read blogs; and total internet audience for blogs collectively is 188.9 million, more than Facebook and MySpace combined.
Technorati also published a number of other statistics about bloggers, such as the fact that 66 percent are male (57 percent of US bloggers are male), with just over a third of all bloggers falling into the 25-34 age range. More than half are employed full-time, and they tend to be more educated and affluent than the general Internet population. 48 percent live in North America, with the next largest chunk (27 percent) coming from Europe, and then 13 percent from Asia. They tend to write about an average of five topics per blog, ranging from personal/lifestyle to technology to politics and music. 54 percent say that they blog for fun and that they don’t make money on their blogs, but 42 percent also say that they’d like to make money “some day.”
Their conclusion: Blogs are here to stay. To which I say, “Amen, fellow-bloggers, Amen.”
Widely touted to be the one of the world’s most visited web page, Yahoo’s front page is undergoing another makeover. This time, the direction is towards customizable widgets made popular by social networking giants Facebook and iGoogle.
More importantly, though, Yahoo is going to allow its home page and these widgets to interact with third-party sites and services. There’s a detailed writeup of the new and old Yahoo at TechCrunch.
“I’m a PC… so please love me instead of that cute, exciting Mac down the block!”, seems to be the undertone of this new ad campaign from Microsoft. It’s a break from the usual, though, so that must be a good thing.
Watch it here.
Contrary to common belief, I do read all comments on this blog. I don’t always immediately get to act on them. Case in point was Thea’s recent comment to post pictures of her mom’s 50th surprise party last January. It may be too late for that so I’ll do one better - a video of the event that Martin Limgenco recorded on his mobile phone and passed on to me a while back. Here it is for your enjoyment. For those who want to look at pictures, they’re still at Thea’s Multiply page.
It’s finally here - the long-awaited (by Canon aficionados, at least) successor to the Canon EOS 5D. And the new camera is surpassing all expectations so far, in the process putting to rest doubts about Canon’s superiority (or do I say, parity) over Nikon in the digital camera realm.
So what’ s new? Headlining the 5D Mark II is a 21.03 million image pixel full-frame CMOS sensor with several improvements meant to improve shadow rendering and noise levels at all ISO settings. The highest ISO sensitivity setting goes up to 25,600 for shooting in near dark conditions.
The refined sensor is also at the heart of Canon’s first foray into digital SLR video: the 5D Mark II can record clips at full HD resolution, 1920 x 1080 pixel (1080p) at 30fps, with sound (captured via either a built-in mono mic or through an external mic connected to the camera’s stereo mic jack). This is a grade higher than the latest video offering from the just-released Nikon D90.
The EOS 5D Mark II is slated for release end of November at a street price of $2,600 for the body only. Canon is strongly positioning this SLR to be a powerhouse for those who need a lot of pixels and HD video in one body.
Read more of the mouth-watering features here.
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