Matrix Group International

Month: September 2008

  • The National Parks – America’s Best Idea

    The National Parks – America’s Best Idea

    Last week, I had the honor of attending a private screening of a new film by Ken Burns: The National Parks – America’s Best Idea. The film will air on PBS next September 2009 and was supported in part by the National Park Foundation, an esteemed Matrix Group client.

    Even if you’re not a PBS kind of person, you probably know Ken Burns. His documentaries have helped us understand the Civil War, Thomas Jefferson, baseball, jazz and Lewis & Clark (among other things). And for all you Mac users out there, you know that iPhoto has a check box for “Ken Burns Effect” which adds slow zooming and panning effects to your slideshows.

    The screening was a treat and an experience of a lifetime. Ken Burns and his longtime collaborator, Dayton Duncan, introduced the screening of National Parks.

    We screened 45 minutes of what will be 12 hours. We learned the gripping story of Stephen T. Mather, the park’s first administrator, who got the job because he complained to the Secretary of the Interior about the poor state of the trails at Yosemite. We watched in awe as Ken Burns gave us the story of how Acadia National Park in Maine came to be. We listened to an inspiring interview with a park ranger who described seeing the buffalo one snow-covered day. (more…)

  • My Love-Hate Relationship with CAPTCHA

    My Love-Hate Relationship with CAPTCHA

    By now, most of us are familiar with CAPTCHA graphics, or the graphics with squiggly text that we have to retype correctly in order to submit a form.  I understand that CAPTCHA was developed to stop spam, prevent bots from hijacking forms and surveys, and prevent dictionary attacks against sites. But I’ve noticed recently that these tests are getting harder and harder, to the point where they are preventing me from submitting forms on the first, second, even third try.

    CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used mainly on Web pages to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer. For example, humans can read distorted text on a graphic, but computer programs (most of them at least) cannot.

    Here are some examples of CAPTCHA:

    • On the Matrix Group Contact Us form, you have to pass a CAPTCHA test in order to fill out the form.
    • If you click on Email Us on the same form, you have to pass another CAPTCHA test to view and click on the e-mail address.
    • To send a message to John Grau on his blog, you have to follow the instructions and type “transmissions” in a box.

    Here’s the problem.  Computer programs are getting smarter and smarter. “Spammers and malware authors are able to break Captcha process,” says Carl Leonard in an article in The Guardian.  As a result, CAPTCHAS are getting harder and harder. (more…)

  • Sony HDR-CX12 HD Video Camera

    Sony HDR-CX12 HD Video Camera

    Love the picture quality. The camera is small, lightweight and easy to use.

  • Thank Goodness for Citizen Journalists During Hurricane Ike

    Thank Goodness for Citizen Journalists During Hurricane Ike

    When my in-laws were told to evacuate their home in Houston last week, they were lucky; they managed to book a flight out to our home in VA before the two Houston airports closed down.  We spent Saturday and Sunday watching the news and hoping their friends and home were safe.  The most frustrating part about watching the news was the lack of local news — news about the neighborhoods, the houses, the schools, the people. Thank goodness for the citizen journalists of Houston.

    While CNN, MSNBC, and all the networks showed the same footage of the Hilton’s wall falling off, and the Houston highway that was six feet under water, my in-laws wanted to know how their Clear Lake neighborhood was doing.  Did everyone evacuate?  Is everyone okay?  Did the bayou flood?  How much tree damage was there?  Does the neighborhood have power?

    Slowly, and then more rapidly, especially by Monday afternoon, we got lots of information from the citizen journalists of Houston.

    Here is a YouTube video of a couple driving down the highway looking for their boat.  This road is close to where my in-laws live. (more…)

  • Millions Commemorate 9/11 on the Web

    Millions Commemorate 9/11 on the Web

    On the anniversary of that fateful day seven years ago, many of us paused, reflected, read the news, watched TV, and yes, many of us turned to the Web to help us remember.

    Here’s a roundup of the some of the official or particularly good 9/11 sites I’ve seen.

    The Pentagon Memorial was dedicated today.  This is the first of the 9/11 memorials at the official sites to be built and completed.  There’s a separate site for the fundraising effort.

    The Twin Towers Memorial and Museum site has videos and information about the memorial.

    The Flight 93 Memorial Fund has a tribute to the heroes who died in Shanksville, PA and prevented a third tragedy.

    The Families of September 11 site has a state by state listing of activities.

    911 Memorials features a list of memorials around the country and the world.

    Here’s a popular 9/11 video on YouTube.

    There’s even a 911 memorial in Second Life.  You have to have an account to see it, but you can read about the memorial.

    There are thousands of news and conspiracy sites, but on this day, all I wanted to do was remember and reflect.  If you found a site that was particularly moving, I’d love to hear about it.

  • My Favorite Free (Or Nearly Free) Road Warrior Tools

    My Favorite Free (Or Nearly Free) Road Warrior Tools

    Here’s my dilemma: I want to be able to resize images, but I am not a designer, I don’t need to do fancy designer-y things and I don’t want to shell out $650 for Photoshop or even $90 for Photoshop Elements.  I feel the same way about Adobe Acrobat: I just want to create PDFs, not manipulate them or optimize them, and I don’t want to pay $280 for Acrobat (the full version, just the reader).

    For the not-so-power-users like me, it doesn’t make sense to pay hundreds of dollars for programs that are overkill for my needs. Luckily, I’ve found a host of free (or ridiculously inexpensive) programs that are just right for my needs.  Here’s a list of my favorites:

    Gimp is an open-source graphics program. It’s a small download, easy to use, and it lets me resize images in three steps (select Scale, type your preferred image size, then press Scale).  Since I write and post my own blog posts, Gimp lets me be self-sufficient and not bother the busy designers and webmasters at Matrix Group.  Price: $0.

    Neevia is a super-easy PDF creator that installs as a print driver. I can make PDFs out of anything, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint files and Web pages.  All I do is press Print, select docuprinter, and enter the directory where I want the PDF saved.  Price: $19 (less if you buy a site license) (more…)

  • It’s an HD World

    It’s an HD World

    High Definition (HD) is everywhere. The Blu-ray format has won the HD DVD war and I’m seeing a lot more Blu-ray movies at my local video store and retail stores. As I mentioned in a previous post, Apple TV and the PS3 now have HD videos on demand.

    Earlier this year, Microsoft released Silverlight, their answer to Adobe’s Flash. The official Web site describes Silverlight as “a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.” I downloaded Silverlight in order to watch the Democratic National Convention live, in HD. The picture was unbelievably crisp and the audio was terrific. BTW, I checked; no HD feed on the official Republican Convention site.

    I didn’t realize it, but the NBC Olympics Web site had videos powered by Silverlight (not in HD, however). Here’s a link to a video feed of the closing ceremony and a PC World article describing what Silverlight allowed the Web site developers to do.

    (more…)

  • The Dark Knight

    The Dark Knight

    I haven’t seen a movie this good in ages! Full of surprises and great acting. Love the gadgets.