The artist community on Vimeo is really strong, as are the corporate entities (such as The White House) that publish on that site.  About an hour into exploring, I’ve watched a half-dozen mini-documentaries and some really great visual stories.  The one below is my favourite today.

Look around from kokooma on Vimeo.

Uploading Puerto Rico

As far as uploading, I’ve read that the video quality/colour/sound  is much better for free Vimeo accounts than YouTube, even in 480p. Judge for yourself, I put up a hastily edited video from my Puerto Rico trip on YouTube, as well as Vimeo.  Take a look, we had a pretty sweet vacation.

There have been high profile attempts at designing new, complete, usable components to solve specific problems such as interactive assistants and horribly bloated CD lists.  But in recent memory, all pale in comparison to the Ribbon that Microsoft introduced in Office 2007.  The Ribbon is what replaced the toolbar system used in previous versions of Microsoft Office.

The ribbon effectively solves the problem of displaying the functionality of a very complex and feature-rich piece of software like Word or PowerPoint much more effectively than toolbars, tabs, and other competing concepts.   In combination with gallery views of icons, and organising things in use-driven groups, the solution is elegant and ages well.  It’s unfortunate (read: fucking brutal) that Microsoft is patenting this idea in the current climate of software openness and growth, but I digress.

Jensen Harris did a presentation at MIX ’08 about the history of Office and how the ribbon was developed.  A must watch for any employed interface designer:  the ideas about religious tenets, building lots of high-fidelity prototypes,  evaluation over a number of months, and constraining ideas to make reasonable decisions are worth discussing.

YouTube video below, but the complete presentation is available from Microsoft.

Recently Dr. Wesch spoke at the University of Manitoba where he explained the the basis of this video in a talk entitled, “Michael Wesch and the Future of Education.” I found it fascinating! He describes how he so naturally incorporates emerging technologies into his courses from the smallest seminar type class to the largest lecture theatre filled class.

More importantly he not only talks about the technologies but how he encourages extraordinary participation and collaboration from his students by engaging them in meaningful learning activities.

[...]

During his presentation, the Kansas State University professor breaks down his attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future.

Toronto’s urban population, be it black, white, asian, or whatever, is financially better off and generally more educated than the similar demographic in the U.S., so why is that  not giving us an advantage?  Maybe I just answered my own question – but I seriously doubt that the ability to make good hip hop is tied to poverty and the lack of a high school education.   On this tangent, Famous (myspace) has a track 4th Biggest City, released early last year.  The theme is:  we’re in the fourth biggest city in North America, VideoFact gives you $40k, and the CRTC will make sure your song gets played at least 30% of the time on any urban station; carpe diem.

There is always the one notable exception:  Kardinal Ofishall.   Sure, there are K-Os and Shad-K, both of whom have the university crowds buzzing, but Kardi kills it for the city.  He is the epitome of Toronto hip-hop ambassadorship.  He rose far above that framework that Choclair, Saukrates, and the rest of the Northern Touch crew laid out.  Bakardi Slang might as well have been an advertisement for a newer, more bloodclot English language that Plies could slur, but the album died a bad label death when MCA folded.  He put out Not 4 Sale, a pretty pop-friendly album (stream it here), for which he caught some heat from people who care – but someone has to blaze the trail of Toronto to the main-stream, nes pas?

But here I’m trying to focus on the non-Kardi Toronto hip-hop world, which feels much smaller and harder to know.

To me, recently, Famous and Luu Breeze have been the standout MCs who  have the chance to take a stand in the mainstream.  Maybe not in the profound hip-hop megastardom way, but rekindle hope amongst listeners: the way Black Milk (myspace) and others brought new light to post-Eminem Detroit, or P.O.S. (myspace) gave hope to black kids in Minneapolis who want onto Rhymesayers.

In Ain’t No Use Famous discusses the shortcomings of being the rapper he is, as he’s trying to play catchup with the influence of those who told him to tuck his pants to his socks, obey his thirst, and wear white T’s.

This kid Luu Breeze (myspace) has an album dropping soon, so I’ve been told by every conceivable media tidbit about him.  The mixtape was sleek, you can download it here.  Charge It to the Game is obviously going to be the single, is a banger, but after two high profile videos, I’m not impressed with L&G Films.  A Yatch? At least be excited to be on a boat.

More to come.

Many people who deal with information on a regular basis tend to think that since you can only stack a chair in a single location, the virtual representation of that chair should be categorised in one place as well. It’s hard to explain why that’s a silly idea (and why it’s done often), but he does a very good job of doing just that.

He draws from a really neat reference: The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, and compares Wikipedia to Borges’ theoretical, infinite library (that, naturally, drives its librarian mad). That bit is in the Q&A period at the very end.

Thanks to Gil P. for this one.

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2159021324062223592