Blankbaby is known to his friends as Scott McNulty (though he is @blankbaby on Twitter). He writes this blog, is the Chief Blogger at Comcast (check out Comcast Voices), co-hosts (with Marisa) Fork You, is a senior contributor to MacUser, frequent contributor to Macworld, and author of "Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read."
Everything on this blog is Scott's opinion, and his opinion alone. It in no way reflects the opinions of his employers, friends, concerned passers-by, or anyone else for that matter. But you're smart, you knew that already.
Way back in November I posted a little video with side by side footage from a Flip Mino HD and a Kodak Zi6. No one reads my blog (let's be honest here, I haven't been a very good blogger as of late on here anyway!) and yet as of today that video is up to over 30,000 views. Clearly, I should start my own tech blog and live high off the hog like John Gruber.
That, or people are just really interested in seeing footage of both of those cameras compared.
Just because the t-shirt is well designed doesn't mean it is ok to put my words (or tweets) on it without asking me.
Twitshirt is poop (no matter how well crafted it is), but you can opt out if you don't want someone making money off of your work (though they will give you two bits for each $20 shirt they sell... though they won't send you any money until you reach $20 in royalties, and you won't have ANY idea that this money is waiting for you unless you sign up for Twitshirt... but Twitshirt CAN sell shirts with your words on them without you signing up. Seems fair, right?) you can opt out*. I did, and you should too.
* A note about the 'Blacklist' functionality on the Twitshirt site. It doesn't offer you any feedback after you enter your Twitter username and password and click Submit. It just dumps you have to the Twitshirt homepage. Did I successfully opt out? I have no idea.
Update: I looks like the Twitshirt folks have heard the rumblings and are hard at work 'reversing the polarity,' which I can only assume they are going to make the site opt-in instead of opt-out, which really clears up all my complaints.
I've been Twittering lots of the last few months and that is where I've been sharing links and the like. However, I've missed blogging here at good old Blankbaby, and so I am going to try to step it up here (though I am starting another major writing project, so we'll see how long I can last writing all the time).
Tweenbots are getting lots of attention from the blogs today, and I can see why. Who wouldn't want to write about cute little robots that can only go in one direction and must depend on the kindness of strangers to get to their final destination?
Sometimes I feel like a Tweenbot myself, though I don't have an easy to read flag with directions printed on it.
If you're been paying attention you know that I am real live published author of a book called Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read
One of the little known facts about writing a book for PeachPit Press is that they send you 25 copies of your book to do with what you will. I'm keeping the first one the sent me (which I like to think is the first copy ever printed though somehow I doubt that is true) and I've given out a bunch of copies to friends and family (at least those who are interested enough in the book, but not so interested that they would buy a copy themselves), and I still have 16 copies of the book taking up space in my office. While these books are sitting on a shelf in my office they aren't helping anyone learn about WordPress, so I thought I would give them away.
Here's the deal: the first 16 people to comment on this post get a copy of my book. I'll email you for your address and then I'll send you a copy of the book at no cost to you. All I ask in return (nothing is free, people) is that you share with me your thoughts about the book. You can do this in a number of ways:
The goal is twofold: get some people talking about my book and find out what people think of it. Everybody wins!
Get to leaving those comments, people!
Update: Woah! Who knew so many people would want a copy of my book? I do believe I'm out of copies for the moment. Sorry, folks!
I found myself in Barnes and Noble yesterday afternoon after visiting the UPS store, and I was browsing the books as I do. I was happy to note that all the copies of my book (which I previously took a picture of) were gone. I hope that means some lovely people in the neighborhood picked up the book and are even now launching a WordPress blog.
Up to the third floor I went to look at the science fiction and I saw Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery on the bookshelf. After reading the back I was intrigued so I snapped a pic of it with my iPhone (using the Amazon app, since I knew it would be cheaper at Amazon) and was on my merry way.
When I got home Amazon had found the book and send me a link to the physical copy, which features a link to the Kindle version as well.
Before I continue, I should explain what a Kindle is, for those not in the know. The Kindle is Amazon's eBook reader. Basically, you can get books downloaded to your Kindle over the air. You don't need to sync it to a computer at all, just buy a Kindle book at Amazon and in a few minutes it shows up on your Kindle without any user interaction. It is very cool, and I enjoy my Kindle.
Knowing my love of gadgets and instant gratification I am sure you must think I instantly bought the Kindle version, right? I would have, except for one thing: the price. The Kindle version costs $9.99 (which is the typical Kindle price) while the physical book costs $10.17 for a brand new copy. Saving $.18 just doesn't make the Kindle version all that attractive to me, especially when I was flipping through the book in B&N and I thought to myself, 'This is a well made book.'
I've just ordered the physical copy.
I'm continued to be impressed by the results of our new Canon G10. I took this picture of 30th Street Station and the Cira Center without a tripod. I just steadied the camera for a second and snapped away.
Impressive.
The Canon G10 (or as I like to call it 'the Twitter camera') has arrived. I haven't had the chance to take too many shots with it yet, but I did put a 16 gig SD card into it (so we can take 4100 pictures or so) and immediately took a picture of myself.
I'm so vain I probably think this picture is of me (don't I? don't I?!).
Scott McNulty watchers (and you know you're one of them) might have been wondering, 'What the heck has Scott been up to?' I haven't been blogging here, I haven't really been posting much to MacUser, I haven't been posting new episodes of Fork You... what have I been doing?
It turns out that I've been writing a book (I'm as shocked as you are). That's right, on December 12 (or there abouts) you'll be able to walk into any of a number of fine bookstores and pickup a copy of 'Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read' by yours truly (I'm told that some Barnes and Noble stores will have a special display with my books. Cool, huh?).
This book is the perfect stocking stuffer for anyone, no matter whether they are interested in WordPress or not (they will surely be interested in my witty and sparkling prose) and if you buy a copy via this link I even get a little kickback from Amazon (double score!).
I'll post more about how I came to write this book in due course, but I just wanted to share the fact that I have written a book that will soon be published and in bookstores everywhere (by a real publisher, no less). Ain't that cool?
The other day Marisa mentioned that she wanted a smaller camera than her DSLR to throw in her bag. Just to have with her in case something cool happened, or to bring along in situations where a big honkin' camera wouldn't be looked upon kindly.
The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Having been out of the market for a point and shoot since I got my Rebel XTi (which I still like oodles and oodles, though I haven't been taking as many pictures with it as I once did) I didn't really know what options were out there. Sure, I could research some cameras myself and come to an informed decision, or I would put my question into a magic box and get an answer fairly quickly.
Twitter, for those of you out there that haven't heard of it, is a 'microblogging' service. It simply asks you one question: 'what are you doing,' and you have 140 characters in which to answer it. The great thing about Twitter, though, is that you can follow other people's tweets and, in turn, have your tweets followed by others. Your followers can be people that you know, people you find interesting, or just random people.
For some odd reason there are about 2000 people who think I am interesting enough to follow on Twitter (surely a chunk of that number are Twitter spam accounts). This gives me a large group of people that I can query. I tweeted that I was looking for a point and shoot camera to compliment my DSLR and the responses came rolling in, like magic.
I thought it would be only fair to list the various cameras that I was recommended:
Isn't it great that all these folks bothered to answer my random question? Thanks to all of you!
I noticed a clear majority in support of Canon, which pleased me since I have lots of Canon gear (not that that really matters in the point and shoot world, but I have a good sense of their devices' UI and menu structure which is often very handy). That made me look into Canon's offerings a little more closely.
I spoke some more with Marisa to see what she had in mind. I thought she wanted something that would fit in a shirt pocket (which meant I was leaning towards an Exilim) but she was more interested in features. "It should be able to fit into a bag," is what she told me. That changes everything!
My decision was made for me after I read this review of the Canon G10 and saw the accompanying images. They are amazing, and while I am sure I won't be able to shoot anything like that it won't be for lack of a good camera.
I just ordered the Canon G-10 from Amazon and I'll post my thoughts and some sample pictures from it as soon as I play around with it for awhile.
Ain't the Internet awesome?
Flip Mino HD vs Kodak Zi6 from Fork You on Vimeo.
Yesterday I posted by first video shot with the Flip Mino HD, which was cool and all but what people REALLY want to see some video from the Flip as compared to the Kodak Zi6. Being the cool guy that I am I whipped up this video shot around the apartment. I used a rubberband to attach the Flip to the Zi6 and went to town.
Marisa thought it was ridiculous, but I am just performing an important public service here.
You can see this in HD by checking out the video at Vimeo.
It is one of the worst kept secrets on this blog that I work at the University of Pennsylvania. It is a great place to work, which might explain why I have been here for over five years, and they seem to like me around here so that's good (and they are ok with me blogging like a mad man, and doing Fork You, and running TUAW, and doing other freelance things which is nice). Anyway, I was at work the other day and one of my co-workers told me that my name came up during a planning meeting for the Higher Education Web Symposium which Penn Medicine is hosting (being driven, one assumes, by the SOMIS Web Team).
I thought it odd that my name would come up during the meeting, since I have nothing to do with Web Design in general nor do I have anything to do with this Symposium. It would seem it was requested that I blog about the Symposium, so blog it I am. Now, I don't know if this was an actual request or just a joke (I mean, who really wants a mention on Blankbaby? Not too many people I would wager) but I figured why not post about it?
If you're in Philly on July 15/16 and are interested in Webby stuff, you should check out the agenda. Looks pretty good to me, though there isn't a session on blogging. What's up with that?
I'm not a graphic designer (I can hardly dress myself, which is very evident when I hang out with Philly's creative types. They all look together, and I look like... well, like me) but I know when I like things. The logo for the NY Time's blog Jet Lagged is awesome. I really, really like it. Fork You doesn't really have a logo as of yet, but I would like our logo to be in the same spirit as this one (though with less planes in it, probably).
I'm a geek, this we know. I also happen to be fairly well known on the Mac web (for whatever that's worth). This means that my friends, family, and random strangers often turn to me with computer troubles. I've helped people I hardly know recover data, replace harddrives, figure out what computers to buy, and how to fix any number of computer issues. When I was doing desktop support I often joked that people figured I supported anything that plugged into the wall, so my co-workers would ask me about the fax machine, the microwave, or the office fridge.
I say all this to establish the fact that I generally know what I am doing when it comes to troubleshooting technology in general. Marisa has just recently employed troubleshooting tactic that would never have even crossed my mind. And I quote:
Getting back into bed, I spent the next half hour sending good thoughts to my computer. I imagined a beam of light pouring over its pearly white case. I told it how much I appreciated it and how I just needed it to work for a few more weeks. I reminded it that its purpose in life was to compute and by not turning on, it was denying that which it had been born to do (I have never claimed to be normal).
That is a very Marisa thing to do, but not the way I would go. That being said, her iBook did start working again so what do I know? Henceforth I am just going to forward all computer questions I get to Marisa and I suggest you do the same.
I've been reading lots of negative thoughts about the Amazon Kindle (mostly via Daring Fireball) and I just don't get it. Sure, everyone loves physical books, but I sure as heck don't feel the need to own every single paperback I read for the rest of my life. Some books I want to keep forever and ever, some I just want to read and be done with. The Kindle is great for mass paperbacks. Oh, and did I mention it does newspapers and magazines as well (at the moment the content is limited, but do you think Amazon can't get more publishers on board?)?
I can understand that folks bristle when Jeff Bezos suggests that the Kindle is going to replace books. Bibliophiles will always want to collect books, feel books, smell books, and experience books. I count myself amongst that breed of people (I'm typing this post up in a room that contains at least 250 books, so believe me when I say that I like books). However, let's face facts: most people don't read. Most people don't care about books in the least, and that's why the Kindle (or something like it) is going to succeed in the long run.
A general lack of interest in reading doesn't seem to be a point in favor of the Kindle. The Kindle costs $400 and then, once you're plunked that down you have to pay even more to fill it up with books from Amazon (though in reality you don't, but that's another post). Why would a non-reader buy one of these devices? They won't, but you know who will? The bleeding edge techies like me that produce content, read books, and love tech. We'll be the first people to love these things (and I already love my Kindle) and the next generation of devices will be cheaper, look better, have more functionality, and appeal to the mass market. Imagine a $100 device that looks like a piece of paper, but which contains your entire morning paper, all your magazine subscriptions, and that book you really want to get around to reading. It can also be used to look things up on Wikipedia, and in a pinch to check your email. That's the promise of the Kindle, and it delivers on every point today other than price.
The Kindle isn't perfect, but is a still a very interesting piece of technology that only very foolish people would write off from the get go.
I'll be posting more about my thoughts on the Kindle and the PRS-505 in the coming days since I own both of them. If you have any questions for me about either device let me know in the comments and I'll try and answer them all!
Some of you might know that Amazon announced their new e-book reader called the Kindle on Monday. Following the announcement, the blogosphere said it was bound to failure (where have I heard that before?). As of 2:25am Wednesday, November 21st Amazon has sold out of its initial run of Kindles (they should be back in stock on the 29th).
There is no telling if this is a consequence of consumer demand exceeding Amazon's forecasts as to how many people would want this thing, or if Amazon is taking a page out of Nintendo's book and creating a little product scarcity to drum up business. All I know is I got mine in the mail today, and I'm already in love.
Flop? I think not.
It has been exactly 1 year since we posted the very first episode of Fork You. The first episode, embedded above, took about 3 months to produce from start to finish. We've managed to get that turn around time down to about 3 days from filming to posting (though most of the time it takes longer than that, darned real life work!).
I'll be honest with you, I thought Fork You would be fun to do but I never really thought I could convince anyone else to work with me on it, or that anyone would watch it, or that we would continue to do it week after week (for the most part, though we've missed a few weeks here and there). 32 episodes, and over 110K views later it turns out I was wrong on all parts.
Now, that 100,000 sounds much more impressive than it actually is. Keep in mind that is the sum total of all our episode's numbers, and anyone in the online video biz will tell you that those numbers are pretty meaningless. We don't know if people simply loaded the video, if they watched it, if they watched it all the way through, or what. That being said, for a silly little podcast in Philadelphia with no backing that ain't bad at all.
Fork You has been much more of a success than I ever thought possible, and a year later I'm still having lots of fun doing it (though I can't speak for anyone else involved. I'm a bit of a bastard to work with). What more can a guy ask for?
I would like to thank Marisa, Thad, and Angie for thinking this silly idea was worthwhile and being involved from the start (Thad and Angie helped us film the very first episode, and have helped with almost every episode since!). I should also thank all my Philly peeps that are too numerous to mention (actually, I am too lazy to list them, but you know who you are) who help us make Fork You a reality. People seem to be excited about the podcast and that's pretty darned cool. I mean, even my mom likes it (Marisa's mom likes it too, but she only watches it because she has a crush on me)!
What does the future hold for Fork You? I have no idea, but we'll continue to refine the show, have fun, and see where life takes us.
If you have any ideas on how we can make Fork You ever more awesomer let me know in the comments!
Here's to another year of Fork You!
Another Fork You is available for your viewing pleasure. The good folk at Orion were kind enough to send us one of their cookers and produced the best damn turkey I have every had. Seriously, if you have an outdoor space you need one of these cookers.
This episode is the first in a 3 part series about Thanksgiving, so stay tuned for the second installment on Tuesday.
I've been a busy, cranky man of late. I've been staying up way past my bedtime for the last few days cranking out video podcast after video podcast.
Last week we posted not one new episode of Fork You, but two (meatloaf, and the one that proves I have better taste than Marisa). Today comes two more new episodes of foodie goodness, but only one of them is a Fork You.
First, the Fork You crew paid a visit to The Spring Gardens a few months back, and we have finally had time in our production schedule to get the episode up. This one really showcases our great new camera. Doesn't that footage just make you long for a garden of your own? Thanks to Stephan for taking time out of his schedule to talk to us:
The other video Marisa and I posted today was over at Slashfood, Weblogs' food blog. Some of you might know that I'm the head honcho over at TUAW, a Weblogs Inc blog that covers all things Apple, and Marisa is a Slashfoodie. It would seem that Brad Hill, the big Man at WIN (that's what the cool kids call Weblogs, Inc) had caught wind of Fork You (mostly from my Tweeting I would imagine) and he liked what he saw. Thus began a very long discussion about Marisa and I making Fork You for Slashfood with a couple of key differences:
We were hesitant for a few reasons, but it mostly boiled down to the fact that we like having complete creative control over Fork You. We can say or do whatever the hell we want, and we don't have to ask anyone (as long as we both agree, that is). Brad suggested we do 2 episodes of Slashfood in the Kitchen (that's the name of the podcast) and we figured what the heck. And so I give you the first episode of Slashfood in the Kitchen:
At the moment it is only available via AOL's video sharing site, Uncut. I hope to get the QuickTime file up soon so that it will be an actual podcast.
Oh, and the picture up above has nothing to do with either of these episodes, but I think it is a good picture of me.
Another Fork You is online for your enjoyment! This one took a while for me to finally get finished, but we're hoping to post an episode a week for the next two months (which might kill me, though it was my idea so I shouldn't complain).
Oh, and we're working on some other things to keep the ball rolling.
I don't know why, but I find Reed's MealToday hilarious.
September 1st, 2007 is shaping up to be quite a day. Colin, of Viddlerfame, asked Marisa and myself, of Fork You fame, if we would be up for doing some contest judging for Viddler. Since we are like BFF's with Viddler (like, totally) we said sure! Soon we learned that the man, the myth, the guy who is shorter than I thought he was: Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV would be judging with use. He's been on TV, and profiled in lots of magazines (even John Gruber watches Wine Library TV, something tells me Grubs doesn't watch Fork You), so we were pretty excited.
We then found out that not only would we be judging the MealToday Contest (best video wins an iPhone or a camera) but we would be doing it live at Indy Hall's grand opening on September 1st. If you aren't familiar with Indy Hall it is Philly's hot new coworking space and it is super cool (or so I have heard, I haven't actually had a chance to check it out myself, but watch Alex's tour).
I know what you're thinking, "How can I get in on all this fun?!" Head on over to Upcoming.org and RSVP (by the way, Upcoming.org sent me a tshirt many moons ago. When I got it, it didn't fit because it was a XXL and I was a XXXL kind guy. I now wear that shirt to the gym... yeah, I'm all kinds of awesome).
One final note, Colin asked Marisa and I if we would be up to filming some video for a promo for the event. Being the media whores that we are, we said sure! After the Philly Blogger meetup we set the camera up, sat on the stoop outside my building, and did whatever it is we do. Above you'll see the 1:40 minute highlight reel that I put together for Colin. Originally it was just meant for Colin's eye, but it would seem I can't hide anything from Alex and before I knew it the video was on Twitter. Luckily Marisa was OK with it, and so it is available for everyone to watch! We did many variations of this same promo over 30 minutes with no prep, because that's the kind of podcasters we are. It has been viewed 1113 times at the time of this writing. What is wrong with people?
Anyway, hope to see you on September 1st!
I am sure Robert Scoble is a very nice guy. He's smart, affable, and very passionate about technology. Plus he was once a Blankbaby reader, he stopped reading a while ago, but something tells me he'll see this post.
The problem with Robert is one that many of the A list tech bloggers have: the geographical echo chamber. Sure, most of the A Listers know each other in real life, and of course they are going to link to one another. However, there is this propensity for West Coasters in, or near, the Silicon Valley to think that all tech happens there (the same geographical echo chamber can be seen in many residents of Manhattan. Many simply refuse to leave Manhattan because they see no reason. If it matters, it happens in Manhattan, right?).
This idea crystallized when I read this passage on Scoble's blog, which oddly enough is about Web 2.0 stuff gaining traction outside of the Valley:
The thing is I’m getting reports from around the world that people are talking about Facebook in weird places like Moscow and Paris and Cape Town.
Now, I'm not sure what makes these places 'weird,' but it isn't like they are small little backwaters. According to Wikipedia Moscow is the world's 20th largest city by population, followed by Paris which takes slot number 21 (Philadelphia clocks in at 45th, which makes it SUPER weird, while San Fran-Oakland takes the 87th spot beating out Cape Town which is 98th).
My point is that urban centers are always places where art, commerce, and technology have historically intermingled. It is the height of arrogance to think that people outside of Silicon Valley aren't doing cool stuff (or using Facebook for goodness sake!). Lots of cool stuff is even happening right here in good old Philadelphia (Ban Franklin, by the way, certainly didn't think Paris was weird. He was a noted Francophone and America's ambassador to France for a spell).
I want an iPhone as much as the next guy, but AT&T creeps me out a little. They issued this press release last year, from which I will quote the important part:
The news media have carried reports alleging that AT&T is participating in an unlawful NSA terrorist surveillance program. Unfortunately, the law does not permit AT&T to respond to those allegations.
AT&T could tell us if they were spying on us, but then they would have to kill us. Multitouch doesn't sound all that great now, does it?
[via Chris Messina's tweet]
Eeeeevil! I have 
Recent Comments