US Senate Committee Hearings on The Future of Journalism

This subject is close to my heart.  I have been thinking about the future of newspapers for many years now and in fact, I am convinced that I have a series of solutions that could save the news industry. I know that’s a bold statement but as I begin to outline my ideas, it will become obvious to everyone.

Web 2.0 Expo NY: Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library), Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape

I’ve heard great things about this guy. Wow, I’m impressed. Just when I start questioning what I am doing, I’m gonna watch this video.

more about “Web 2.0 Expo NY: Gary Vaynerchuk (Win…“, posted with vodpod

Ben Walker – You’re No One If You’re Not On Twitter

more about “Ben Walker – You’re No One If You’re …“, posted with vodpod

I heard about this in a @StevenWalling Tweet.  I think I actually pissed myself a little the first time I heard it.

Portland Techies On TV

I know.  A link to a video in a blog post instead of an actual embeded video is cheesy.  But if you are a regular reader of the Multimedia Misfit, you know that sometimes that’s how I roll, dog.

This week the Open Source convention OSCON 2008 is in town and together with the recent release of the iPhone 3G, mainstream media is taking notice of technology and business.  In a report titled “Your Money, Your Business: Old iPhones Selling For New Prices Online”, KGW Newschannel 8 reporter Joe Smith interviews @ravenzachary, @jabancroft, and @turoczy about iPhones old and new.

Link to Video

Web Pages the Misfit Way

Why would any self-proclaimed website designer like myself use a WordPress blog template? The answer is easy. Because they do a pretty darn good job of designing their blog sites and that frees me up to concentrate on content. Besides, the type of website “design” I do is not really pure. By that I mean that I don’t usually start with a blank page, lay it all out, write the code and attach a CSS file, etc. I usually start with a template in Adobe Dreamweaver , choose a color scheme (COLURlovers monitors and influences color trends), choose an appropriate font and start plugging in content. Choosing fonts for web use is easy. There are only about seven fonts that really work in all browsers, so I use one of them (Arial, Comic Sans MS, Georgia, Courier New, Tahoma, Times New Roman and Verdana). This is hotly debated among font nerds but trust me, these are best if you want everybody to be able to view your pages in all browsers. Remember, computers can only display the fonts that are installed on that computer. The average internet user does not have all of your fancy fonts installed on their computer.

Once I find appropriate places to put content, I go to town. Making graphics, finding and linking pages, writing, taking and optimizing photos, making animations, video editing and music are the fun things I like to do. It is usually pretty easy to insert these things into an html page.

When I run into any trouble with the inner workings of a page (often), I call upon my trusty sidekick, Robin (after all, I am Batman). She tidys up my mess and makes it all work. If my design isn’t working then it is easy to plug the content into a new design. This is also what having a WordPress blog site does for me. I can concentrate on content and leave the real design to the pros. I have designed a couple of pretty cool looking websites by slicing up a Photoshop document and importing it into Dreamweaver. There are many perils accociated with this method, so I warn against it. I will write about that in a future post.

Until I can get my hands on a copy of Adobe Thermo, or until someone throws a big pile of money my way, that’s how I roll, dog.