I think that we are all familiar with the epic duel between David and the “giant” Goliath from the first book of Samuel. Twice a day for forty days, Goliath, the giant champion of the Philistines, comes out and challenges the Israelites to send a champion of their own to decide the outcome of their conflict in single combat. The Israelites are afraid of him, but the boy David steps up to the challenge. Armed only with his staff, a sling, and 5 stones, David faces Goliath and his armor and sword and shield. He strikes Goliath in the head with the first stone from his sling, and the Philistine falls on his face. David takes Goliath’s sword and decapitates Goliath.

While this story is an example of faith and trust in God, it has also become the rally cry of the entrepreneur. One person CAN compete. An individual can stand up to the big man and over come the odds to win. In this story we see that there was only one person in the whole army that was willing to take a chance, but those numbers are changing. With today’s technology an individual can set up a business and be a success.

As I am working to understand more about this changing market and my place in it, I’ve found a prime example of this principle on the internet. With the popularization of web and mobile applications, there is a rush to cash in on the next big iPhone app. The iTunes store seems to have its favorites, its Goliaths, that gain in popularity as they are pushed to the front lines, but where are the Davids? How does a little guy compete with that ocean swell? That Gigantic corporate structure with it’s herd of fans doesn’t know me or what I might want but my friend Blake has an idea.

Blake is David. He’s the guy with the idea. He recognizes that there is a vast ocean of opinions about these different applications so he’s made a way to turn to and trust his friend’s opinions called Appteria. By tying into his social network on Facebook, and inviting his friends to join together with their social networks, he has made a way to get a more trusted recommendation on new applications. Check out the site and find some great new programs. It’s such a great idea that Apple decided to make their own fan page on Facebook.

Goliath is not as tall as we once thought, and the stones in my sling just got better.

In a fantastic combination of technology and geekery comes the TomTom portable navigation device with turn by turn directions from none other than his royal Lord of the Sith, DARTH VADER!  Over the next few months you will also be able to download the voices of C-3PO, Yoda, and Han Solo. The Darth Vader voice module costs $ 12.95 and can be downloaded from their website here.  In the video below, you can a taste of how difficult it was to work with Vader on this project.

My friend Blake sent me a link yesterday to the “Linchpin Index“.  I was a bit taken aback to see my photo on the page, then I was deeply flattered.  You see, Blake works for the community website Squidoo which was founded by Seth Godin.  On the Squidoo site, users can create their own pages called “lenses” to share their knowledge on all subjects.  Seth Godin is, well, he’s a thinker.  His views on marketing, media, fans, and platform vs. eyeballs have helped to shape the way I work.

In his new book, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” Seth describes that, “…in the old days, a linchpin was a tiny piece of hardware, very light in weight and low in cost that held the wheel onto the wagon. Without a linchpin the wheel would fall off. It’s the part you can’t live without.
And I use that as a talking point to get me started down this road of talking about how our economy has shifted from 150 or 200 years of industrial compliance in which a workers job is to feed the machine and keep the system running, to a new age which just dawned, a revolution, in which the employees we’re willing to pay, and the people we seek out, and the jobs that we care about, are done by people, not who follow a manual, and do what they’re told, but people who matter, who make a difference, who are linchpins, who we can’t live without.”

I’m thrilled to be listed with people who make a difference.  I guess it’s time to get to work!

When Netflix was established in 1997, it was venturing into some uncharted waters. Instead of running down to Blockbuster or your local Video Shack, a Netflick subscriber creates a list on the company website, called a rental queue. Then, for a flat monthly fee, the movies are delivered to the subscriber’s home. It’s pretty cool stuff. After spending nearly $300 million a year on postage, the company seemed ready to make another leap forward in technology and truly put the NET in Netflixs by offering streaming video.

I have a Playstation 3 and I’ve been very happy with it. I was thrilled to learn that through the wireless connection I could watch YouTube videos, and for a little while, Hulu was available on the PS3. However, it seemed that whenever I went tried to use these services the connection was always slow and would be constantly buffering the video. We would connect my wife’s laptop to the tv and watch Hulu wirelessly as a test and that seemed to work just fine. I decided to use the Playstation Store to rent a movie to see if their own service worked better.  I started the download and walked away for 30 minutes so that enough of the movie could download for me to watch it.

So when I first heard that Netflix would be streaming video to the PS3 I was skeptical.  They don’t have the same number of shows available streaming as they do in the regular delivery service but 17,000 movies and recorded television shows isn’t bad. I put the Netflix disk in the system and in just over a minute I was watching Legend of the Seeker without a hitch. Well done Netflix, well done.

My wife has worked very hard to get our kids into a night time routine so that they’ll go to bed without too much fuss.  Somewhere along the way, they decided that they needed to have flashlights.  We couldn’t stand to walk into the room and find the kids asleep with the batteries dead on the flashlight.  So for Christmas we found some Wind-Up flashlights and they have been pretty awesome.  Well, the other day I saw a great concept from designer Qian Jiang, Wind-Up Batteries!  Get more info at Yanko Design.

I spend the majority of my working time in front of a computer connected to the internet.  I LOVE the idea of having an iPhone, but I feel like it’s a lot of technology that would go unused because I’m never too far from my computer.  Also, the majority of my family is on a T-Mobile plan so we have free mobile to mobile calling.  That being said, there are some new uses for the iPhone that I am REALLY liking.  I am working on building up my online network through this blog, YouTube, and Facebook.  When I’m away from my computer at conventions, I’d like to stay connected and the iPhone seems to be trying to make that all possible.

1.  Connect to Facebook through the iPhone and update status.  One of these days I may even start to twitter.

2.  Take photos and now video with an internet access on the phone to upload to YouTube and flickr and then blog about it… on the phone.  *YouTube is now connected to Facebook to automatically post your YouTube videos on your Facebook page if you choose.

3.   New developments with the Ustream app mean that live streaming video BROADCASTING from the iPhone may be right around the corner.

4.  With iSwipe, iTouch2Pay and the new Square Credit card reader it is now possible to take credit card purchases while I’m at a convention.  If I don’t want to use these, I suppose I could just allow people to use the phone to access their payPal accounts.

5.  With the changes to in new media, I could be creating my own comic books to deliver through the Apple Store as well as my own animated shows, video podcasts and of course animated games.

I need somebody to send me a free iPhone3G S to test all of this stuff out on ok?  :D

I found out about PayPal mobile today on PayPal’s homepage and went on to read some more about it here.  I could have used this information over the weekend.  So for Father’s Day my brother and I took my Dad out to Joe’s Farm Grill (they grow their own food and grill and WOW, but that’s another story).  Because I’m a struggling artist, I knew that my Dad or my brother would try and cover the bill for me.  I didn’t want them to do that so I brought some cash with me and when my brother jumped in front of me to pay the bill, I slipped the cash in his pocket and called it good.  One of the promoted uses of PayPal Mobile is “Split the Bill”.  You can send money through PayPal on mobile web at mobile.paypal.com or you can activate your phone and send money by text.

Another “fun” feature that they are trying out is called “Making an offer”.  How many times have you sat around and said, “I’ll give you $20 if you go eat that corn dog off the ground”.  Now with the PayPal offers you can make this game into a reality.  Here’s a real sample from the website.  Victor propositioned Domenico $7 to “Stop being such a creep”.

Also available as an iPhone and Android application making spending money and double-dog daring your friends to do stupid things all the more easier.  :D

The other day I was listening to a podcast called This Week in Media.  One of the reoccurring themes of this media podcast is the conversation about the future of TV.  When my family got a VCR I was amazed by the ability to set it up to record a show that I wasn’t around to watch.  I could then watch it at my leisure and even fast forward through the commercials.  This process is now called time shifting.  The TV show is available on MY schedule, and the idea of rushing home to see a show is not quite as relevant as it once was.

Well, now things have gone digital.  If you miss a show, there’s a good chance that it’s available for you to watch on the Internet.  It seems like all the major networks have an online video service and with the AppleTV and Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, you can now connect your TV to the internet through these consoles.  Now with everybody wanting to have an internet presence for their TV shows, it seems like things are getting a bit muddled.  It’s always been so easy to just sit in front of the TV and surf the channels, but how do you surf through the World Wide Web to find a show to watch?  You go to YouTube.

YouTube seemed to just be a dumping ground for user created video.  Now they’re supporting HD content AND they have a section for SHOWS and MOVIES.  You can watch all seven seasons of MacGuyver or the first season of The Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon.  How about the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau staring Alan Arkin in place of Peter Sellers.  Or how about the 1967 film Casio Royale starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and a chimpanzee as James Bond.

All this time I thought that the built in inclusion of YouTube on the iPhone and Playstation3 and other media devices was just a waste of time.  Now I see that it is all so that we can watch TV where ever and whenever we want to.

Sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. Music, and especially jazz, has always been referential, taking a pieces of other performers songs and placing them in new ones. This method of mixing up melodies and sampling was always done through the person playing the instrument. With modern digital technology came a new way to sample.

DJ’s would be live mixing songs in clubs and then making their own CDs from the “NEW” music that they’ve created. This musical art form is AMAZING. My friend Bret posted a link in FaceBook to ThruYou. This website is made to look like a hack or possibly a “Sampling” and re-mixing of YouTube. The artist and creator of the site is Ophir Kutiel. He goes by the name Kutiman and is a solo act from Tel Aviv, Israel. He’s schooled in the funk and fusion of the 1970s, Afrorock and Afrobeat, heavy psych from the 60s, hip-hop and modern R&B, a bit of reggae and dub, a couple decades of electronic music, and the general art of the groove.

He has taken bits and pieces from YouTube and sampled them into brand new songs. If you go to his YouTube channel you can see all of the source videos that he’s used to create his “New” songs.

here’s Kutiman explaining the process

download the mp3s of the YouTube samples here or check out his album

I don’t watch broadcast tv anymore, but I do enjoy their programing.  I hear about new shows or old shows from friends and then I download and watch them.  I don’t pay complete attention to when the shows are actually broadcasting because I never watch them live anymore.  So, I would turn to TV.com to check when new episodes are out and get some information about the shows.  Well, TV.com is changing.  The site is a part of the CBS Interactive Entertainment and it looks like they’re getting ready to go up against Hulu offering commercial supported streaming video of TV shows and movies on the internet.The thing that I think is most interesting about this is that CBS pushed out a streaming video player for iPhones of all the content available on TV.com, including for the first time impressive full-length episodes of

some—but not most—shows.  Cool stuff.  I found the article at Gizmodo.