There are so many reasons that effect whether you do something or you don’t and a big factor, if not the biggest, is motivation to do it. What creates motivation and how can we hold onto it. I’ve never heard of someone being too motivated at a task. It’s always a lack of motivation. If there is a lack of something then there is obviously at one point a normal state, but with motivation I can’t seem to find that state. It’s always very motivated or not at all.
Let’s take this blog for example. My goal when starting this blog was to have at least one post-a-day on it and here we are going on a month with not a single thing written. Why is that? It’s not that I don’t have things to write about, have time to do them, and certainly not because I’ve given up the entire idea of having this blog. The problem lies in the simple fact that my interests have been elsewhere.
I’m at a fantastic point in my life where I can say that I am very much creating my own fate. I am building a company surrounded by all that I love and I’m working with fantastic people who, just like me, can’t seem to get enough of it. We have a true passion for what we are doing and I think that translates well in what we do with each step of building this company.
The hardest part for me is being patient. Some things require time, but as anyone can tell you I’m more of a man of action which is hardly the best approach. I think that if I can keep up the motivation of myself and my team we will continue to create, develop, and progress at the fantastic speed we have come to expect from our company.
I will get more and more into this blog as things become more transparent about what I do and what my company is all about, but until then you’ll have to excuse the lack of posts by the comfort of knowing some exciting ones will be coming shortly.
Live online streaming is really at the peak of it’s technological breakthroughs and now it is up to the masses to take that technology and figure out the best use for it. I read a lot about big corporations dipping their toes in every once in awhile, but seem legitimately scared to plunge in and change the game like we all want them to do.
What is holding them back and what can we do to help them take that jump into our world. Is it something that we can do as broadcasters/viewers or is this really a job for the Content Delivery Networks? I really question our great CDNs more and more as time goes by because I cannot for the life of me pin down where they have their focus and/or company direction.
Does anyone else feel old or dated when they text message someone? When almost everyone you meet has a smartphone it’s almost pointless to send a text message. More than that. It’s almost rude to send a text message because you don’t know their service plan. Maybe they only get 200 SMS messages a month and your “Yo” text message cost them a dollar. Good luck getting a response on that.
To move forward we have to figure out a way that you can hit up your friends to schedule a night out or at least a LAN party.
There is an endless stream of mobile apps that let you chat from your phone and plug directly into your social networks and contact lists, but the question is which ones will let you say “Yo” the best?
I don’t think it’s really a personal preference. I think it really comes down to which one performs the best in general. Taking that into account if you have an iPhone and are not interested in paying for another app go download Meebo. If you do have some spare cash to spend on bettering your social life then go download Beejive.
When I posted an article on myself lacking the ability and will-power to be a gamer, much less a console one, little did I know I was already in the process of becoming one. I can’t claim full-out “gamer” status because I am very much a casual gamer and still not very good. It’s a process.
I hate to give credit to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but I don’t really have a choice if I want to keep our relationship an honest one. It’s a good game and I don’t mean to bash it, but I just don’t like the multiplayer or the fact that all my friends are obsessed with the multiplayer. I played through the single player campaign and it was good enough to get me to play it over in a harder difficulty. That’s a good side note: I always play the single player first on easy mode. Judge me if you must, but I’m not wasting my time trying to prove that I can jump/crouch/shoot backwards/360 spin to get past the third level only to find out on the fourth level the game sucks. Forgive me.
Anyway, the important thing to focus on is that here I am playing a console game not once, but twice through. When Battlefield: Bad Company 2 came out I grabbed it since it seemed like basically the same game. Went through it twice on the different difficulties and loved it. It’s just so much better than Call of Duty. At least the single player. I care not about online play.
OK so here is the thing. I don’t like to play online with console games because I hate listening to kids lecturing me on the fundamentals of the Medic class while simultaneously screaming about supposed cheats. Yes, I know there is a mute feature, but just because I can’t hear them doesn’t mean I don’t know they’re there. Know what I mean?
The basic rule to becoming a gamer is repetition. The more you play the better you’ll be and the better you are the more you’ll enjoy it and the more you enjoy it the more you’ll play. This continues until you either become addicted or you family and friends have an intervention by taking away your controller. Then you think you will just buy another controller, but when you walk in the door with a Best Buy bag in hand there is a circle of family, friends, and a stranger to greet you.
Maybe it won’t come to that, but just keep an eye on how much you play. Don’t forget that girls/guys are more important than beating the level.
Alright fellow gamers. Game on and I will see you around. I just finished Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and have no idea what to play now. Suggestions welcome. Kids…not so much.
It’s been a pretty good stretch of time since I posted an article here on WillKirkpatrick.com and there are several reasons for that. Mainly work, but also admittedly out of fear of being called the hypocrite that I am. I freely admit that I wrote not one but two articles declaring my distaste and unwant of Apple’s iPad. That would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m writing this article on an iPad right now.
I can’t help it! I didn’t care at all. I even slammed Apple for building such a worthless device. However, all you have to do is hold it in your hand for 3min and you are running to the store to pick one up. (yes I timed a sceptical techie on the train) I’m not alone in feeling this Apple power over them. I know because I was concerned it was a fanboy disease for a second. Thankfully it was just an iPad thing. The point is that I dare you to not enjoy using one. I. Dare. You.
Now if you want to go into the nitty gritty then we can. Maybe not everyone out there cares about a beautifully large multi-touch display and that is ok! Maybe you care more about it as a functioning device in your life.
So how does the iPad fit into your work-flow? It doesn’t really. It doesn’t offer any extra features to your current setup of a laptop and/or iPhone. I’m sorry I love it, but I don’t need it. I use it because it makes some things easier, makes some things faster, and is possibly the best device for around the house, but there is no more.
My final feeling about the iPad after three articles and three minutes is about not what it can do now, but what it has the potential to do. There are just too many potentially amazing software and hardware additions to list, but I think you can dream up enough to be on the same page as me.
As a live broadcasting user, viewer, and producer I’m constantly watching how close the relationships are between the CDNs and the content creators are. For one reason or another it seems like the distance of communication between the two is growing further and further away. I really can’t decide if this is a good or a bad thing.
For one, it generalizes the technology a bit more which gives content creators more ownership of their broadcast instead of it just being a show on such and such CDN. The problem is that it’s not quite at the point where it needs to be because there just isn’t peace yet between networks.
If you are looking for a place to put your personal videos then it’s pretty clear that you should put them on YouTube to get a social network for them. If you want private high-quality videos or just videos that you don’t want to share with the online world then put them on Vimeo. What do you do if you want to broadcast live video? Technical aspects aside it’s not really clear where you should invest time creating your channel.
We as a live community really are the ones responsible for any changes that need to be made because we are the ones creating and watching the content and the CDNs are constantly trying to use some method of guess and check to meet our needs. It’s difficult to put myself in the shoes of a CDN because we are sending them an incredibly large amount of mixed signals with the content we throw up there. We need to decide how live streaming should be used as a mainstream technology or we’ll just be stuck with CDNs that are constantly shifting focus.
I am open to various content points, but I can’t say that I believe such a powerful tool like live video should be used for watching fish or kittens getting born. I’m sorry. It’s fascinating and cute, but ultimately should just be thrown up on YouTube and played repeatedly all day if it’s that interesting. Aside from that type of content it’s hard for me to pin down the “best” use for live video. Many people would argue that it is a great social networking tool, others would say it’s a great tool for sports, music, and other events. There are just so many great possible uses for live video I can seen why it’s difficult to market.
If you didn’t get to catch me live tonight (4/16/10) then I am horribly sorry you weren’t there, but at least I can offer you some footage of how it went. I’ll be writing a post about how the experience was to come back to broadcasting live INFRONT of the camera for the first time in a while. I hope you enjoy both and make sure to catch me live again…next time I’ll give you some notice. I promise!
I’m not sure if I can really say I qualify as a blogger because I only do about five posts a week and most of them are rants on the things around me. I’d love to do more, but I can’t recommend my reviews over some on Engadget or Gizmodo because those are where true bloggers reside. I’m just here to give some friendly advise, ask question I need answers to, and give the occasional rant (which I so much enjoy).
However, if you blog at all or want to blog then there are a few good ways of doing it that I have found the best ways for me. WordPress is the core of everything I’m about to talk about so if you want to blog in some other hosting sites/servers then by all means do so. I just have nothing to say to you other than switch to WordPress you noob.
I feel so strongly about WordPress because I’ve tried almost every other option: Tumblr, Typepad, Blogger, LiveJournal, etc. They all lack something here or there and WordPress comes with a fully customizable package. WordPress will supply you with a basic personal blog or a fully decked out business blog depending on your needs. I will admit that there is a bit of a learning curve to WordPress, but I’ll explain how much worth it is. Read the rest of this entry »
