I’m testing a new build of CamTwist. Rather than just run it on my desktop I decided I should probably try streaming it live to see what happens. Below is my live video and chat room:

In anticipation of a few projects I have going on I have moved to my own hosted platform.  For anyone who wants to do Wordpress or Drupal hosting I thought it would be nice for me to go over what options I went with and why:

HTTP Host - MediaTemple.org.  I like MediaTemple because they have incredible uptime, great prices and packages that will fit almost anyones needs.  I used their Grid Service (GS) for a while but my needs are a bit more complex so I went for a Dedicated Virtual server (DV) which gets me a full Plesk control panel. 

Registrar - GoDaddy.com.  While they used to be the big evil registrar that would steal your domains right from under you they seem to have turned a new leaf.  Great pricing, mobile access and a powerful administration tool make this my favorite registrar.

DNS - DNSMadeEasy.com.  If you even think for a moment that using the DNS service that comes with your registrar is a good idea then you’re a fool.  Registrars really suck at DNS hosting and so I use DNSMadeEasy.com which has a remarkable uptime and a ton of options for both forward and reverse DNS settings.  The admin interface is a bit rough but when it comes down to DNS you’ll want a low price, 100% uptime and the most amount of flexibility.  In the 8 years that I have used these guys I have seen zero issues.  The best part is that if you go for an enterprise account (around $60.00 a year) you get free domain monitoring (which is usually a couple dollars per domain) plus DNS failover so if your main host goes down you can fail to a backup page.  Really great stuff.

E-Mail - Google Apps for Business.  Use IMAP and just about any client other than Outlook (the worst e-mail client ever built, ever, ever) and you’ll have an amazing e-mail experience.  If you have a Macintosh just use Mail.app and call it a day.  I have tried to sell this to users for years and they seem to fight me every step of the way.  Once I break them down they move to IMAP and never, ever look back (unless of course they stay with Outlook).  Google Apps is free, has good enough IMAP support and still allows for a webmin interface.

Platform - Wordpress.org.  This is personal preference.  I would say it is between Wordpress.org for blogs and Drupal.org for full platforms.  Stay away from MovableType as they don’t scale well at all and the platform is simply a pain in the butt to work with.  Oh yeah, and it’s based on freaking Perl.  WTF?

Graphic design - Bluefox.  The Bencredible site actually was not designed by Bluefox, and you can tell.  Hard to read, bad fonts, just a really amateur design.  All of my future sites will be designed by Bluefox as he has a really great feel for web 2.0 stuff and the latest trends in pretty.

In the end the above items allow for very rapid deployment of your blog or community based platform.  Fast, easy and as close to 100% uptime as you’re going to get without load balancers or moving to the EC2 service. For now as we wait for DNS to fully make the switch (24 to 48 hours) you may bounce between the old and new site. If you see this post you’ll know you have come to the right server!

Not that long ago I sent in my own Good Question to WCCO asking why they were not broadcasting their news in HD. The beautiful irony is that I send in that very question in, wait for it… HD!

Today I found out that while WCCO news may not be HD (yet) they do have a twitter account for breaking news stories. Ok, cool and good first step to getting my attention. Then I dig a bit deeper and find that not only do they have a Twitter account but they also have at least one N95-3 cameraphone that they are playing with.

WCCO is not sure how they are going to use it yet. Does one go for the Qik angle and stream breaking news directly from the phone? Should they walk the studio during a live broadcast and give a behind-the-scenes view of the show? Is there another angle that they can use the device for and really push the boundaries of new media? I don’t have an answer to these questions yet (mostly because they don’t know either) but I have a feeling that they will be doing something very cool, very soon.

My suggestion to WCCO News: do it all.

WCCO News isn’t known for getting the younger crowd but I think if they start to hit all of the new media markets they will slowly get there. I’m speaking as someone in the 18-30 year old demographic here. Go HD (don’t tell me it is expensive, I used to do R&D for HD studios far larger than yours, I know exactly how expensive it is, suck it up). Get on Twitter not only for breaking news but for other station personalities as well. Get on Facebook and MySpace for all of these personalities too. Have a nightly UStream.tv broadcast using something like the upcoming version of CamTwist that will allow you to cut between multiple cameras (one in the control room with ISO/IFB audio, one in the studio pointed backwards, one in the MCO, etc., etc.) Have Qik live streams that are linked to your Twitter account and bring these cameras out with you in the field. Bring us, your audience, in to the conversation. Make the news a community driven event again. Make your broadcast a social network in and of itself! Be innovators in Electronic News Gathering, push the envelope, force the other local stations to take notice. Heck, make CBS take notice. These technologies are incredibly inexpensive or in many cases free. All of them open you up to a whole new audience, some of which is even outside of Minnesota.

This is either going to be very exciting when WCCO starts to move forward, or they are going to get scared, back down and do something lame. Here’s hoping they just do it all.

I am working on a new personal project which right now is known as NASASpaceCast.com (no domain there yet so no actual link). This will be a weekly live video podcast on all things space flight as well as live coverage of NASA space missions including the upcoming STS-123 flight to the International Space Station.

So far I have many pieces of the puzzle in place. I already own all the audio gear myself (I have some pretty kick butt gear), I have the computer but what was missing was the video side and the show image. The video portion of the show is near completion with a new revision of CamTwist from Steve Green (it is going to be uber cool). The show image (branding) is being worked on by BlueFox AKA Sean Blake (one of my favorite designers) and below is the first draft of what you’re going to start to see.

This of course is just the logo and will be the basis for what all of the show graphic, advertising banners and templates look like. I also need to make a final decision on domain name. The options I have are: NASASpaceCast.com, SpaceVideocast.com, SpaceVidcast.com and SpaceFlightCast.com. If you have a preference please leave it in the comments below. Personally I go between NASASpaceCast.com and SpaceVidcast.com. What I really want is Spacecast.com but that’s not going to happen as it is already taken by a TV network (curses!)

The final steps will be to create a theme song, which I’ll start working on soon and finish up the show outline. I’m really close to release, about 80% there. Then again I was 75% of the way there about 2 months ago. I’m in the stages where one element can hold up the whole thing. Unlike other live videocasts and podcasts I want to ensure that I have fantastic production values and make a show that is fun and interesting to watch week after week. Content is king but it needs to be fun too!

Keep watching Bencredible.com for more interesting announcements and behind-the-scenes info on NASASpaceFlight, the Compass Networks (more on that soon), and the resurrection of the old TechnologyEvangelist.com podcasts under a new brand. Very exciting stuff is headed your way soon! I’ll keep updating everyone on the progress of these projects here.

Rob’s big catch, originally uploaded by benjaminhigginbotham.

My brother caught this. Holy crap. I don’t think I could lift a fish that large let alone catch one!!!

Recently I started going to the gym to get in to better shape. 30 years of life and I don’t think I have ever actually worked out. My body has taken a beating and it is starting to affect my concentration, specifically around 3:00pm.

I’m not just going to the gym, I’m also changing a few of my bad habits. I have cut out soda, I’m eating better and I’m monitoring my stats using a web site called Gyminee.com.

Gyminee is an interesting creature in that it allows me to share my fitness and nutrition data with other people as well as post this data on a blog. Oh look, I have a blog!

The really nice thing is that there is an iPhone interface for Gyminee.com that allows me to quickly and easily input my workout or calorie information on the fly. Don’t have to remember what I ate when I get back to my computer and since it is designed for the iPhone it is so fast that I can input the data while waiting for the check or while getting on/off the treadmill.

Really cool site, I may even write about it on TE… Undecided yet.

Jason DeRusha of WCCO has a nifty segment called “Good Question“. I thought it would be funny to give him a hard time and ask why WCCO broadcasts some shows in HD but won’t broadcast their news in HD. I didn’t expect an answer and I certainly didn’t expect WCCO to air any part of my question. To my surprise on 02/18/2008 on the 10:00pm news WCCO decided to explain exactly why they don’t broadcast their news in HD. Here is that segment:

WCCO 4 news Good Question Segment on HDTV

You may have noticed a few edits in that segment where I came in. That’s because my original question was a lot longer and clearly not designed to ever hit air. For fun here is the original I submitted to Jason in its entirety:

Original question for WCCO 4 News

Fun things I noticed:

• It looks like WCCO uses SlingBoxes as a confidence monitor to ensure that KCCO and KCCW are playing nice
• The shot as Jason watching me ask my question as he sits at his desk makes him look very Dr. Evil. I was expecting him to turn around and say “MWAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA”
• I submitted the segment in 720p h.264 HD and they decided to record it off the screen via a camera rather than bring it in to the NLE
• The VTRs look like DVCPRO decks, I would guess DVCPRO 25
• Even if KCCO and KCCW are not ready for HD today, so long as the metro area is ready it is possible to broadcast HD here then donconvert for the other markets
• If you look at my desk you can see a mixer which shows that yes, I actually do have wiring closets “in my house”
• While I am happy that Jason thinks I have the best looking home office ever, in fact that was my actual desk at the real office (with studio lights)
• WCCO’s segment was a blast! Cariann and I laughed all the way though. Well done guys, well done indeed!

Orchestra Hall, I think, originally uploaded by benjaminhigginbotham.

Got free tickets to a concert at Orchestra Hall to watch a friend
perform. There is a reason they were free. I call the above picture
“the view”. I’ll just close my eyes and pretend I’m in…. uh,
Orchestra Hall.

SD is still good for something, originally uploaded by benjaminhigginbotham.

My parents know that I hate their old RCA colsole TV set. When the
old unit died and they were forced to upgrade to HDTV they decided to
leave the old unit around and use it as a TV stand just to piss me off.

Mission Accomplished!