oro en paz, y fierro en guerra
There was a mini-photowalk the other day down in Lehi. Based on my proximity, I couldn’t pass it up. Plus, being able to shoot with Rich Legg, Kim Guanzon, Scott Jarvie, David Daniels, Jeremy Hall, and a few others too is something that you just don’t say no too.
Had a fun time, it was cool to see some tricks that people are using. Great time to learn when you can watch and follow others.
So, I am up on the 18th floor of Zions Bank tower, what a view.
***Update***
These images were all taken with my iPhone, so no complaining about crappy quality. With the clouds and the light, the temple looks like some kind of dystopian structure, rather then the holy edifice that it is.
Lots of discussion about Qik and the iPhone today. As a preface, I don’t want you to think that everything is glowy and that I have drank some form of apple flavored Kool-Aid. I like Apple stuff, I have bought a ton of it. I use their stuff, I have broken it, hacked it, forced it, and on an on.
Now, on to the big picture.
Apple does a lot of things very well. They are known best perhaps for having one of the best vertical integration systems in the world. They build the hardware, then write the operating systems, and follow up with world class software that resides on their machines so that the consumer, you and me, are never let down. There aren’t device drivers, there isn’t phantom hardware that doesn’t work, it all does, because they can control the environment where it resides. Because of this, the consumers stay happy, knowing that if it is supposed to work, it does.
Now, enter the iPhone. Pictures are taken in two different varieties, portrait and landscape. Portrait are taken in the conventional manner of holding an iPhone, with the home button at the bottom. Landscape is taken with the phone rotated 90 degrees so that the home button is on the left or the right. Due the accelerometer in the phone, the shutter button rotates with you. The phone knows that it is ok to rotate, and the interface changes with that. In my mind, this is the perfect solution. You should let your users know when the interaction is going to change. Hats off to the interaction designers at Apple.
Now with video, there is are a few formats, but in essesnce, everything is shot landscape. You may shoot 16×9, 4×3, or even in a cinema format like 2.35:1.
So, imagine this situation, you are at an event, and want to capture a moment of video, what do you do? Pull out your iPhone and shooting some video. You are shooting in a portrait landscape, because that is where the button is, and you can do it with only one hand. What happens when you get back to the house though? You kick start iMovie, and go to start editing, and here is your video, turned 90 degrees the wrong way.
iPhone Video Demonstration from Jake Spurlock on Vimeo.
Not that this was shot with the iPhone, but to illustrate what video would end up looking like if done with it.
So, here is my rationale, Apple has a decision to make. They have to reformat the screen for video, making it so that you are stuck shooting one way as part of the video application. The problem with this is that people want to take pictures and video at the same time. So, jumping from one framse size to another would be jarring. If they keep it like the camera app, they would get people who when they get home see that there video is all turned 90 degrees. When they load it into iMovie, it would come out that they have to rearrage all of their clips. My take, is that this isn’t going to happen.
Now, what about Qik and other streaming applications? Do they take the video at portrait, and they rotate it? Do they make an interface that forces the user to turn the phone on the side? I don’t know, I haven’t pwned my phone yet to see the results. (Tried, but it didn’t work. If you have a suggestion, let me know.)
So, what do you think? Will we see video on the iPhone? Are we doomed to let the peeps with Nokias hog the streaming space on Qik and other sites?
Sound off in the comments.
Did you know that The Wonder Years has never had a DVD release because they can’t get the music rights? I mean, the show of my childhood, Kevin, Paul and Winnie can’t have a comeback because they can’t get the rights to some of the songs? Fred Savage needs this to reboot his acting career. He might always be over shadowed by younger brother Ben and reruns of Boy Meets World. BTW, remember Tompanga? Hottie.
Back to the Wonder Years, Daniel Stern who is the tall thief from the Home Alone movies is the narrator. Never really put that together until now.
The boys from our sister site RideUtah.com swung by the Candyland Rail Jam at Brighton last week.
I stopped by the Slug Games at Brighton today. I got there a little late because I spent the morning teaching my 3 year old how to shred, and then the lunch hours riding with my 14 year old neighbor. The Candyland Jam seemed well attended by groms, but, I ran into some friends and everyone seemed to be having fun. Check back here or check out Slugmag.com for the results.
via Slug Games – Candyland Jam | Ride Utah Blog.
We have a little neighborhood get together with people that work in the tech industry. I gave a little presentation on Twitter last night. I gave a general overview, and then shared some of the tools that I use with Twitter.
TwitterMail creates tweets from a discrete email address. I use it to forward emails from the Salt Lake County Sheriffs department on canyon operations. In user here.
TwitterFeed takes an RSS feed, and the publishes an excerpt too Twitter.
Takes care of the tedious work of following people back that you follow. Also adds auto follow messages when someone follows you. Social surveys have recently been added too.
Nice Air app that gives you updates and then gives you the ability to search and find topics on Twitter.
Living in the ol’ 3rd District, I felt morally obligated to share this video…
I think that given a rematch, Chaffetz would have a much better time… The key is to know your opponent.
Well, I got to make some turns up at Deer Valley, and I have to say that after today, I have fallen in love with the place all over again. Deer Valley offers a veritable pantheon of great skiing. From the long and steep groomers, to the great beginner terrain, there is something for everyone. If you are lucky, you might even bump into Stein Erickson like me and mi amigo did today…
One of the secrets though, is the tree skiing… The acres and acres of tree skiing. Glades, tightly packed, aspens, pines, they are all there and open to your tight turns. When we started, we cruised over to the Perseverence Bowl, this is on the 9,400′ Bald Mountain. People like to jump over the edge at the first chance they get, instead cruise down the shoulder looking for the trees. You get about 400 feet of untouched, untracked powder before jumping into the trees. We were still cutting fresh new tracks late into the afternoon on this little gem. As you make your way through the tall pines, take a minute to soak in the surreal beauty, and then look forward to the the next 5-10 faceshots that you are going to get.
If you want something new to look at, and want to trade pines for aspens, cross over to the Lady Morgan bowl, on the other side of this world class resort. Head up Empire Express, and then ride the north shoulder, following the signs over towards the Lady Morgan Bowl. On the top of the ridge, follow it past all of the tracks, keeping your eyes on the untracked lines that lie just beyond some trees. Once again, tree/powder bliss. If you are lucky, you will see the little booter that was built sometime this summer. My buddy Josh that I rode with hit it a couple times in the following video, even going inverted, inbounds… Don’t tell ski patrol. 
After riding all day, there was still tons of powder. We didn’t even make it over to the Lady Morgan Express lift, or the Daly Bowl/Chutes. Bottom line, if you are looking for powder, cruise up to Deer Valley. It might be your favorite day of the year.
Deer Valley -Powder Day from Jake Spurlock on Vimeo.
From ABC 4
Two buddies, eighteen and nineteen year old from Cottonwood Heights were snowboarding down fresh powder and triggered an avalanche. One of them made it down safely, but the second was caught in it.
The force of the avalanche broke his snowboard in half as he tumbled down the mountain face first, then feet first, and even hit trees before coming to a stop, half-way buried.
His buddy helped dig him out.
Both of the boarders are okay, but they did get a warning from rescuers that they are very lucky to be alive.
They were in a very dangerous area and signs were posted warning that there was no avalanche control in the area.
To check avalanche conditions, go to http://utahavalanchecenter.org/.
Lets be safe people… When going out of bounds, wear a beacon, tell a friend, and practice avalanche safety.
Looking for up to date info on the status of the canyons? You can subscribe to email updates through the Salt Lake County webiste. If you are on Twitter, I created an account that pushes the email updates to Twitter. If you are like me, one more email in the inbox, and you want to pull your hair out…
If you are on Twitter, make sure to follow me, Kendall and the SkiUtah Yeti…
Are you on Twitter?
