IMR: All http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/all/ Journal entries, blog posts, moblog images, videoblog movies and media reviews by Ryan Kawailani Ozawa. IMR: Extras: HawaiiVog: Bon Dance by Flip Video http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/videoblog/archives/2007/08/bon_dance_by_fl.html Flip Video camera out of Pure Digital. It's a cheap ($130), simple (four buttons), basic digital video camera designed for "the YouTube generation." It records up to an hour of MPEG-4 AVI video on its built-in memory and transfers to our computer via a built-in USB plug. It doesn't get much easier than this!

The video files don't work "out of the box" on Mac computers, at least not without a special codec (provided) or running QuickTime in Rosetta mode (for pre-Intel machines). But software is provided for basic viewing and transferring on OSX. Windows users get free "Movie Mix" software, a bare-bones utility to edit clips together, add some basic themes and a soundtrack, and export versions optimized for YouTube or Grouper (now Crackle). This movie was assembled using "Movie Mix" (running on XP under Parallels), which generated a WMV file. I then converted the WMV to an iPod-optimized H.264 encoded MPEG video for my videoblog.

Though obviously too limited for hardcore vloggers, the Flip Video is perfect for someone looking for an affordable and easy way to share movie clips online. It's also a great choice for kids who have the movie-making bug, but to whom you're not quite willing to entrust your more expensive gear.

You can also view this video at YouTube, Google Video, and BlipTV. The iPod-optimized MP4 file served up in the feed (MP4/60MB) is here. You can also download the movie in multiple sizes and formats here, courtesy the Internet Archive.]]> Ryan 2007-08-04T12:24:29-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: Lunch http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005050.html

Lunch downtown with Burt Lum, Todd Ogasawara, and Bill Spencer. Sent

from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-03T17:09:21-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: Lunch http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005049.html

Lunch downtown with Burt Lum, Todd Ogasawara, and Bill Spencer. Sent

from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-03T17:05:10-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: Lunch http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005048.html

Lunch downtown with Burt Lum, Todd Ogasawara, and Bill Spencer. Sent from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-03T16:54:51-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: Lunch http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005047.html

Lunch downtown with Burt Lum, Todd Ogasawara, and Bill Spencer. Sent from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-03T16:52:50-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: Lunch http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005046.html

Lunch downtown with Burt Lum, Todd Ogasawara, and Bill Spencer. Sent from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-03T15:13:13-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: Lunch http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005045.html

Lunch downtown with Burt Lum, Todd Ogasawara, and Bill Spencer. Sent from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-03T14:54:31-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: Lunch http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005044.html

Lunch downtown with Burt, Todd, and Phil. Sent from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-03T14:50:26-10:00 IMR: Extras: HawaiiBlog: Capitalizing on Caturday http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/weblog/archives/005043.html ThinkTech Hawaii
During yesterday's lifecasting talk at Hawaii Public Radio, I got to meet Eric Nakagawa, a guy who's impossibly close to one of the year's hottest Internet memes: lolcats.

Lolcats are those Photoshopped pictures of cats with ridiculous captions that are so pervasive, they've spread beyond inboxes and blogs and message boards to the mainstream media. Time, the Houston Chronicle, and dozens of other news outlets have attempted to explain the unexplainable.

Well, if you're a lolcat fan, your first stop on the web is very likely I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER. And if you're a lolcat fan in Hawaii, you can be proud that Nakagawa, one of the site's co-founders, lives right here in Honolulu.

Now, lolcats have been around for years. Hardcore fans will be quick to tell you that wacky captioned cat photos first surfaced at 4chan, an active and irreverent (to say the least) community of anime lovers. Every "Caturday" — ostensibly the day before Saturday, until it was decreed that every day was "Caturday" — members would post their cat-based creations, basically looking to one-up each other in humor or outrageousness.

It wasn't long before these pictures escaped into the wild, and they started popping up on other sites more and more frequently. Enter Nakagawa, who found a picture of a hungry looking feline bearing the caption, "I CAN HAZ CHEESBURGER?" He set up a website in January to showcase it, and the next few cat photos that caught his fancy. He dubbed them "lolcats." Only then did the meme inexplicably explode. Suddenly, Nakagawa's site became the hottest spot on the web.

Nakagawa was as surprised at the popularity as anyone else. He was profiled in Businessweek, which described him as "an accidental entrepreneur." He and his anonymous partner started selling ads, and investing in new features. It wasn't long before Nakagawa quit his full-time job in the bowels of a local health care firm and started wrangling lolcats full time.

Nakagawa knows that Internet memes are random and ephemeral, and that at the heart of "viral" and "buzz" is newness. He's already got big ideas for his next act. Now that I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER has liberated him from the confines of corporate cubicles, the sky is the limit.

You can download and listen to Jay Fidell's interview with Nakagawa via the ThinkTech Hawaii website. Note that he also stuck around and joined the online-only aftershow discussion on lifecasting. For a transcript of Nakagawa's remarks, read on.]]> Ryan 2007-08-02T17:21:01-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: ThinkTech Hawaii http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005042.html

At Hawaii Public Radio KIPO 89.3FM to discuss lifecasting on ThinkTech

Hawaii. Here's host Jay Fidell and news director Kayla Rosenfeld. Sent

from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-02T08:42:34-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: ThinkTech Hawaii http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005041.html

At Hawaii Public Radio KIPO 89.3FM to discuss lifecasting on ThinkTech

Hawaii. Also in the studio, Eric Nakagawa, cofounder of the immensely

popular lolcat repository, ICanHasCheezburger.com. Sent from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-02T08:27:21-10:00 IMR: Extras: Moblog: ThinkTech Hawaii http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/moblog/archives/005040.html

At Hawaii Public Radio KIPO 89.3FM to discuss lifecasting on ThinkTech

Hawaii. Sent from my iPhone.

]]> Moblog 2007-08-02T08:18:11-10:00 IMR: Extras: HawaiiBlog: Mixed Plate Special is Served http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/weblog/archives/005039.html
Today brings the official launch of Mixed Plate Special, a new online lifestyle magazine focused on Hawaii. A "virtual exhibition space" of sorts, Mixed Plate Special aims to chronicle modern Hawaii life in a variety of ways.

"We're really excited about bringing a fresh media outlet to the islands, one that adds new dimensions to storytelling — audio, video, flash — that we hope will enrich the reader experience," writes editor Catharine Lo in announcing the new site. "We want our stories to pop, and we want readers to become more engaged than they can in print."

And Lo knows print. She and fellow Mixed Plate Special contributor Ryan Senaga are longtime contributors to Honolulu Weekly.

Mixed Plate Special features four channels that will offer regular features: "People, " "Arts & Culture," "Food & Drink," and "Outside." Keeping things fresh is the "Daily Scoops," a blog that covers anything and everything in pupu-sized servings.

The site makes good use of the Joomla content management system, allowing Mixed Plate Special to showcase a variety of content with ease. And if you find yourself lost in exploring the many nooks and crannies, you can just subscribe to the site's main RSS feed and easily track the latest updates.

In addition to Lo and Senaga, other Mixed Plate Special contributors include 'Olelo veteran Angela Breene and Darin Isobe, accomplished designer and photographer for several PacificBasin Communications publications.

The masthead lists one Bruce Beinert as publisher, and he's also among the site's most active bloggers. Beinert was apparently once affiliated with Sugar Mill Inc., an ambitious high-tech start-up incubator that briefly occupied the old Waialua Sugar Mill. Years later, and it's clear he's still full of big ideas.