November 30, 2006
Retired
sLop (the blog you are reading) is retiring..
The archives should stay up indefinitely though so feel free to continue linking in if you like..
In the coming weeks, I should have something new up. Please stay tuned.
Posted by vanevery at 11:49 AM | TrackBack
June 24, 2006
Video Comments, Video Comments, Video Comments
mobvcasting >> Blog Archive >> Interactive Video Blogging Session at Vloggercon
At this session at Vloggercon 2006, I presented the video comments plugin which this video is using.. Check it out. Click on "Watch Video" after the jump. (Warning, the video is long and big)
Posted by vanevery at 03:42 PM | TrackBack
February 28, 2006
Cat is using my mobvcasting software
Cat's Mobile Vlog
Set up your own mobile video blog: ParseVideo
Mine is: MobVCasting. There is also a public one at: Open Vlog
Posted by vanevery at 02:34 AM | TrackBack
February 12, 2006
rocket boom ebay auction closes at $40k!
Posted by vanevery at 09:54 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Moment Capturing 2
Dee Blind Mice Blog Archive Moment Capturing 2
I come across so many great video blog pieces that are just fleeting in my memory. Postings in this category will be an attempt to hold on just a little bit longer.
Dee and Jaki have started a series of video blog entries inspired by Jay Dedman's Momentshowing. This is the second in the series and is fantastic.
Posted by vanevery at 09:32 AM | TrackBack
December 14, 2005
Lines Mirror
A piece that I have been working on. Inspired by Toshi and Shiffle.
Video:
Application:
flat3d.zip
Posted by vanevery at 03:12 AM | TrackBack
November 19, 2005
OpenVlog at MobVCasting
I have been doing something that I call MobVCasting for some time.
Essentially, it is video blogging with a twist. My vlog posts are created, edited as well as posted directly from my mobile phone. I use MMS (or Multimedia Messaging or picture messaging or whatever your provider calls it) to post videos to my vlog.
You can see what I do by visiting http://www.mobvcasting.com/wp/
I am almost to the point where I feel comfortable offering this capability to all who are brave enough to try.
Although I am not ready for offering personalized service (which would entail posting to your blog though mobvcasting), I have opened up a test MobVCasting vlog that anyone is free to post to. I am calling it OpenVlog at MobVCasting. You can see it at: http://www.openvlog.mobvcasting.com/
Anyone is welcome to use their mobile phone to post to this "open" vlog. You will need a video capable phone and the ability to send MMS (multimedia messages or picture mail or whatever your provider calls it) to an email address. The address for this service is openvlog@mobvcasting.com. The subject of your message will be the title of the post and any text in the body of the message becomes the body of the text.
One last thing, your mobile phone provider may charge you to send MMS messages. So if you give it a shot, don't go overboard until you get your first bill.
Please feel free to send any questions or comments my way: shawn@mobvcasting.com
Posted by vanevery at 12:22 AM | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Local Report
local report: home
For those of you wondering what I have been up to for the past month or so, here is your answer: Called, Whitman Local Report, this is a performance piece utilizing mobile phones to create a montage of video "reports" and phone "reports" all in real time (live).
I created some custom software that runs on the phones (Nokia 6710's) to shoot and automatically upload video from the participant's phones (30 of them) and more software to playback the videos as they come in (with some controls for play, pause, stop, next and previous).
Hans, my technical collaborator, took care of setting up an Asterisk server and queue to receive the phone in reports and play those out as they came in.
We have one performance to go, please tune into the live stream, come to the live event or check it out afterwards. The previous 4 are available now if you would like a taste.
Here is some press that I just came across: Art and Innovation Collide
Posted by vanevery at 12:02 PM | TrackBack
March 19, 2005
Totally Addicted - Video Dump
So, I can't stop making videos with my cellphone. Here are a bunch from the past week that I have not posted individually.
Colorado:
Lift
Karen, Michael and Me
Karen, Michael and Me 2
Buffalo
More Buffalo
Subway:
Karen Shoots
Pole
Canal St.
Turnstyles
Feet
Hands
The people
Posted by vanevery at 12:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 17, 2005
My Phone Bill
So.. I finally received my phone bill which reflects all of these vlog posts from my phone.
Here is the breakdown from my bill:
ADDL DATA $0.03/KB 986 KB(S) 29.58 
MULTIMEDIA SNT 5 EVT(S) 2.00 
>100KB MLTIMEDIA SNT 12 EVT(S) 9.60 
So, deciphering this, I got charged almost $30.00 for data usage, $2 for 5 MMS messages that were less than 100KB and almost $10 for MMS messages that were greater than 100KB. Setting aside the data usage for now (because I think that is from some streaming tests that I was doing), the MMS messages are either $.40 or $.80 per message. Considering that I am using this for video blogging, almost all of these messages are going to be greater than 100KB (my phone/ATTWireless has a 300KB sending limit) and therefore will cost $.80 each.
Now for the rant: I attempted to change my wireless plan with ATTWireless online. Unfortunately, in order to change my plan, I have to "migrate" to Cingular who recently been bought ATTWireless. This in itself isn't so bad but low and behold, I would have to get a new phone, pay an activation fee for the privilege and signup for an another year of service. Yeah!!!!!!!! I love wireless providers (not).
Ok, so after calling the wonderful 611 number they provide, I talked to someone who had no idea what MMS is. In any case, I found that I could change the optional services on my account and for $2 more than what I am paying for text messages already I could add 20 "picture messages" to the service. So I went for it..
Now, I still have some concerns:
The main one is: Will I still get charged more for MMS messages that are greater than 100KB?
In any case, as Jay brought up to me, first, I need a WiFi phone with Skype and second, micropayments suck since I need to decide whether or not I actually want to pay for posting a video to my blog each and every time I shoot one.
Posted by vanevery at 03:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The cube
The cube
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March 14, 2005
What I did this weekend - Skiing in Vail (Part 2)
Posted by vanevery at 12:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What I did this weekend - Skiing in Vail
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March 11, 2005
Soho fri march
Soho fri march
Posted by vanevery at 07:59 PM | TrackBack
March 10, 2005
Hello -- Showing Class Take 2
Hello
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MNN Training
MNN Training
Posted by vanevery at 05:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 09, 2005
Dimitri is getting a sparkfun
Dimitri is getting a sparkfun
Posted by vanevery at 11:23 PM | TrackBack
March 08, 2005
Today's Muvee
Playing with this silly software that came on the Nokia 6630 that I am using.
It is called Muvee and it is really goofy. I just don't understand why people use silly templates for image galleries, dvds and now video phone videos.
Anyway.. Enjoy.. ;-)
Posted by vanevery at 11:59 AM | TrackBack
March 06, 2005
Grimaldi's
The Best Pizza in the World.. Really..
Posted by vanevery at 04:02 PM | TrackBack
Subway Collage
Posted by vanevery at 03:52 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 04, 2005
Letting Jeff have a try..
Posted by vanevery at 07:10 PM | TrackBack
Showing my class..
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Response to Jay @ Northern Voice
Response to Jay @ Northern Voice
Posted by vanevery at 04:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 02, 2005
Subway
Subway
Posted by vanevery at 01:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 28, 2005
Snow
Posted by vanevery at 10:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 27, 2005
This is a vlog
This is a vlog
Posted by vanevery at 05:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What are these little video posts all about?
So, you may have noticed that I started posting little videos to this blog. I have always been interested in video blogging but could never find the time to create vlog posts on a regular basis. A couple of nights ago I couldn't sleep so I worked out a process to help me out.
Ingredients:1 Cell Phone with Camera
1 Dedicated Email Account
1 Weblog
1 Unix Cron Utility
1 Perl Script
1 MT-Enclosures Plugin
Put it together:
So, I admit cell phones don't produce high quality video but what follows does work and can be somewhat decent especially considering how easy it is to post videos to your blog once it is setup.
You need a cell phone with a camera that takes video and can do MMS messaging and furthermore send MMS via email. Most modern cell phones have and can do all of the above. I am using both the Nokia 6820 and the Nokia 6630. Both models shoot video in 3GPP format a standard and therefore pretty via to a wide variety of media players.
On my phones, I simply shoot the video (and sometimes edit it on the 6630) and send it via Multimedia Messaging to a specific email address that I have setup for this purpose. Of course, I haven't yet received a bill for all of this from my phone service provider so I am not sure of the repercussions here but I hope it won't be prohibitively expensive to continue.
On my server, I utilize the above perl script (which I originally wrote for picture messages but have recently modified for video and automatic blog posting) run every minute via a cron job. If you take a look at the script, it utilizes the email subject for the blog post title and any text in the body of the message as the body of the blog post. Furthermore, it utilizes an embedded a QuickTime player set to the source of the video that is parsed from the email/MMS message.
Last, I did a slight modification to the MT-Enclosures plugin script so that it would automatically create RSS 2.0 enclosures with pointers to the 3GPP videos. This way folks who subscribe to my feed with ANT or another video aggregator will get my videos.
Here are the lines I added to the MT-Enclosures Plugin:
elsif ( $url =~ /^.*\.3gp$/i )
{
$mime = 'video/3gpp';
}
Right after the existing lines:
elsif ( $url =~ /^.*\.png$/i )
{
$mime = 'image/png';
}
Viola.. Automatic Video Blog Posts from my cell phone...
(These instructions are a bit incomplete, I know, but they should get you started on the right path. Also, if you have any mods or bug fixes for the perl script, please send'em to me).
Posted by vanevery at 04:01 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 26, 2005
Gates
Gates
Posted by vanevery at 05:50 PM | TrackBack
Subway
Subway
Posted by vanevery at 05:41 PM | TrackBack
Mobile Vlog: Day 1
It's cold out...
Posted by vanevery at 02:05 PM | TrackBack
First Video Blog Piece - from my cellphone..
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