(You know we mean it because we have a nice shiny "contact us" button)
Last night was the annual spring fiesta at Advent. It was held in the ol' countryside in Nibley where the grass is green, the air is ... sometimes a bit methane filled, and there are baby animals for the lil' tots to pet and taunt.
It was a great success, and we couldn't help but pull out some of the games you may have seen on TV lately ... and as you can see here, there are a few key people who are true champions at these crazy human tricks!
You've probably heard of H.264, the dominate video codec used by YouTube and just about everyone else these days. It has the backing of big companies like Apple and Microsoft, so what's the big deal surrounding this technology? Why are some people opposed to it being adopted like Mozilla (think FireFox)?
The answer to these questions is actually more complex than some make it out to be. Apple and Microsoft both have patents wrapped up in H.264 and so many have speculated that both these companies have a vested interest in keeping it around, but this is largely an over zealous exaggeration. Microsoft claims it pays out more than it brings in from patents even though it holds a whopping 75 patents on the technology while Apple actually only has 1 patent. Hardly seems like either company is make millions on it's patent holdings.
So the question remains why have Apple and Microsoft backed H.264 while much of the open source community has rejected it (like Mozilla). For open source advocates the answer is easy: it's not free or open. You have to license the technology. This doesn't effect most end users but does effect companies or vendors that want to market products that need encoders and decoders for H.264. This can include companies that produce everything from camcorders that encode the recorded video to video players that are used by browser like Mozilla's Firefox. This has caused open source pundits to develop an open source solution called Theora.
Why doesn't everyone just adopt this open source standard if its free and requires no license? Once again this comes down to patents. Just because Theora is open source doesn't guarantee that it doesn't contain technology that's patented. In fact the patent holders of H.264 have come out and said that Theora does use patented technology. If that's is the case or even if there is a chance that it's the case then it's a huge risk for a corporation to adopt a technology that infringes on these patents. It could get them tangled in expensive lawsuits and cost them a lot of money. This is precisely why Apple and Microsoft have "played it safe" and backed a standard, that while not free , "provides the best certainty and clarity with respect to legal rights from the many companies that have patents in this area." (taken from Microsoft's IE 9 blog when they announced H.264 support).
Now enter Google who recently purches On2 and it's VP8 codec which some say rival H.264 in terms of it's compression ratios (although this is unclear). Just int he last few days Google has opened this up (as in open source) in a project called WebM and has already started encode YouTube videos to take advantage of the technology. It's an exciting development, but it isn't clear if this is going prevail as both Microsoft and Apple will need to support it to gain sufficient momentum on the web. But Google is determined, already working with hardware vendors to get the encoders and decoders built into the hardware devices to speed it up and help in compete with H.264.
For now however we will have to live with no standard way of encoding video, especially for the web. This is perhaps the greatest hurdle standing in the way of the HTML 5 video tag and killing flash video on the web (note that I don't mean killing flash all together). It will be interesting to see how it plays out and if the web will earn a consistent video solution. It would sure save us web developers a lot of headache.
Related articles:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/04/know-your-rights-h-264-patent-licensing-and-you/3
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2010/05/03/follow-up-on-html5-video-in-ie9.aspx
Today our child was born and I planted a garden.
Mankind seems to have an innate yearning to build, to create, to design. As artists and designers, we are inevitably drawn to mimic nature – to create something as intricate, extraordinary and beautiful as mother nature provides. It’s the ultimate achievement. Michelangelo’s David, for example, is virtually a perfect recreation of man’s figure (large scale), and thus is considered one of the greatest works of art in history.
Many of the processes of human life and nature continue to confound even the greatest minds today. We know very little about how the human brain works, we still can’t predict weather patterns, and we have no idea what matter makes up our universe. The enigma of life and nature are what make it so captivating and alluring.
When my daughter was born just a few hours ago, I stood in awe as I witnessed one of the most stunning opportunities in life–to take part in the creation of another human being. This new form has has over 100 billion nerve cells, 300 bones, and an ability to think, learn and love.
The human body is the greatest “design” that has or ever will take place, and as the basil, peas, and tomatoes germinate and flourish in my backyard, I’ll appreciate and remember the processes of life that inspire and encourage me to create something new and great everyday. This is my goal as a designer, to create artifacts that encourage human interaction and somehow remind them of themselves–something beautifully complex.
Do you know where and when your customers interact with your company? You should. Mapping out the trail of interaction between your customers and your company is a crucial first step to creating a powerful communications strategy. Like a perfectly staged and written drama, a point-of-contact strategy sets up the characters of your play, blocks the stage and builds, scene by scene, a story for your company. Your customers-to-be are given an enticing introduction -- just enough to get their attention, get them interested and present your name. Then, as the plot thickens, each scene delivers a powerful addition to the story line.
When you plan your marketing campaigns around a strategy of contact, you take the guesswork out of communicating with your prospects. If you know when, where and how your prospects will be making contact with your company (or could be), you are one step closer to answering the question of what to give them and why, at that moment, they will be interested in hearing from you. Creatively crafted and executed to perfection, a marketing plan with a solid contact strategy as its foundation strengthens your brand with each piece of the campaign. Ultimately, this leads not only to success of individual campaigns, but also, and more importantly, to valuable brand recognition and equity in the long term.
Give us a call or stop by to discuss your company's customer interaction map!
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