Capitalogix

Happy Holiday Season Wishes

I put together a short photo album and holiday card.  I hope you'll click this to watch.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Best wishes for a happy holiday season and a terrific 2009.

"Stand By Me" Music Video from the Playing for Change: Peace Through Music Project

I saw this and thought it was worth sharing.  It is a video of different musicians, around the globe, combining their talents to create a worthwhile version of of the classic "Stand By Me". 

Here is the direct link to the video.

"Playing for Change: Peace Through Music" isn't really a documentary as much as a global concert film, recorded on the streets of New Orleans, Barcelona, South Africa, Tibet and elsewhere.  The filmmakers (Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls) traveled across the globe, finding musicians to record versions of "Stand By Me" and Bob Marley's "One World" by themselves, and without any of the individual musicians ever having met each other. The finished project combines these performances to create an a "music video" of these artists playing together on these inspirational songs, as well as playing their own music.

The purpose of the project is to help impoverished people in the areas visited, and to show how music brings people together regardless of their cultural differences.  Find out more at Playing For Change.

Another Type of Image Toy - Deep Zoom

The new Deep Zoom technology in Microsoft's Silverlight is pretty cool.  The smooth in-place zooming and panning that Deep Zoom allows is a true advancement and raises the bar on image viewing. High resolution images need to be prepared for use with Deep Zoom to control the zooming experience.

Here is an example.

Also, here are three links worth exploring about Deep Zoom:

• This is a Deep Zoom site of Hard Rock Café Memorabilia (Hard Rock)
• This is a Barack Obama supporter site using Deep Zoom (Obama)
• And finally, here is a demo of a web site designed for Deep Zoom (Vertigo)

If you want a little more background on this, here is a post about why this technology is new and different.

New Imaging Tools Will Change How You Access Information

Photosynth is a new technology from Microsoft.  It is software that could transform the way we look at digital images. Using still photos (and more), Photosynth builds a breathtaking new form of composite image, and lets us navigate them.  This service turns multiple photos of a scene or site -- say, an art gallery or a building -- into a 3-D scene you can virtually "walk" through on the Web.

Ten-years ago I saw something like this; it was the interface to a game called Myst.  It was ground-breaking at the time.

In the early phase of adoption for Photosynth, I expect to see things like the 3-D rendering of the Canals in Venice.  It is an easily accessible way to explore the concept.  Soon, however, this could evolve into a new way to hyper-link a wide range of data, meta-data, and business information.

To get a better idea of what this can do, watch this video from the Ted Conference introducing Photosynth.

Think about how much the web has already changed how you do research?  Also, because it is so easy to do now, think how much more research you do.  For example, I'm amazed at how often I search Google or Wikipedia. Similarly, I use sites like Digg, Technorati, Regator, and various blogs to find relevant information - even if I didn't know I was looking for it.

Photosynth is different, and in some ways a step beyond, those research tools.  It is graphics-centric instead of text-centric.  And I can imagine a new type of front-end (a new framework) for accessing information stored virtually anywhere.  Consequently, I expect to see a lot more of this, and things like it.

Click here to explore some interesting Synths.  You can make your own, too.  For example, here is a link to a Photosynth of, my son, Ben's dorm room at Duke.  It took him about a half-hour to make it.

Note: you can use arrows on the screen to navigate a Photosynth image; and the "Space Bar" is helpful, too, because it jumps to the next cluster of 3-D images.

Pilobolus: Things Aren't Always What They Seem

In trading, recognizing that things aren't always what they seem is a big part of the game. 

Here is a clever video that plays on that concept. It is from Pilobolus, a talented dance and performance art troupe.

Here is the direct link.

And this one has an unexpected ending.

Here is the direct link

Also, here is a link to their performance at the TED conference. (TED)

And here is an article about the "magic" of Pilobolus worth looking at. (CBS)