Here is a quick video to test your Awareness in life. Enjoy!!!

Chi sent me this through Facebook. Makes me evaluate who the roots are among my friends. I know who they are and so do they. Here is hoping you have many roots yourself.

Last Month I did some moderation for an event at the International Rotterdam Film Festival here in Holland. There is a write-up in independent magazine about it. Have a look!

Blogging Rotterdam, Part Five: Understanding Europe’s Zeal for Media Literacy The Independent’s Randi Cecchine, a filmmaker and educator from New York City, is impressed to learn that governments in Europe are eager to come up with policies to promote media literacy among their citizens, particularly young people. But as a European friend suggests, the role of the government in establishing guidelines concerning media literacy and education can be complicated—especially if media makers are cut out of the policy-making loop.

Via: Randi Cecchine on www.independent-magazine.org

Here is my quoted excerpt (for family to be proud) the rest you should really read if you are interested in this stuff.

Gabriel McIntyre (I’ll call him Gabemac) was the charming conference moderator. I found it interesting that they chose an American to lead the discussion. Gabriel is originally from Atlanta, but has lived in the Netherlands for many years, working as an educator and with emerging technology and advertising.

He helped me understand the European media literacy context a little more clearly, reminding me that most media is funded by the government, and that historically media has often been used for propaganda for pretty bad purposes. The notion is that if the government has such a large role in creating the media, it also has a responsibility to enhance the cultural undersanding of media.

I ask Gabe what he thinks comes out of events like this.

“Policymakers make policy. It’s up to artists to take the policy and make it right. That’s always how it is, in any democratic society. And if they didn’t make right policies, the artists wouldn’t take it up. Or they would say, you screwed up there—this is better.

Teaching Design for Virtual Theater and Games I often find myself explaining to people what that actually means. I tend to use examples of what it is rather than the philosophy (which is a real long keynote if you ever have the time). However this video really reminds me of the kinds of stuff that my students would do. Have a look and enjoy how much fun it is to give people the feeling they are in a twilight zone for just a little while.

I just heard that my good friend Steve (who has been there for me through a lot of shit) has popped the question and is getting married! He is in Australia at the moment and decided to ask Ghislaine there. I have to admit I was rather surprised becuase I never thought Steve would want to get married, but I guess when the right woman comes around, you just go in full throttle sometimes as a romantic. I wish the both of them lots of happiness and now I get to save for a possible trip to Australia for the wedding! SWEEEET!!!

This is a great video to remind ourselves of what we have and to focus on the wealth and privileges we have. If you are able to see this you have an internet connection and a computer and are very privileged. Remember that. First step to change is awareness.

Laurent from Lift posted this video he made of me at the DLD this week.

We are in Munich this week for the DLD 08 conference making films. This is the first one to get things kicked off. A really great conference with lots of amazing people. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some good interviews up on Watchme from it. Here is the first film.

Link: sevenload.com

Me and Uncle Jack

It’s good to be back and see everyone. This is me and my uncle Jack. We used to go climbing together when I was a kid. We don’t do that nowadays. Maybe someday soon though.

Watch the video

GabeB and Rudy made this awesome Tag Cloud animation for XOLO.

South Africa’s state owned electricity provider Eskom leads by example in this cool advertising campaign.

It’s My Birthday!!! YEAH!!!

It’s that time of year to play this awesome song from my firend Steve! Furthermore for my Birthday WE ARE LAUNCHING THE XOLO ALPHA!!! How cool is that. So here’s the deal. Today we will be sending out the first 10 invites, checking the system and then follow with some more invites. It may take a week to get through our list, but we are starting. What a great birthday present that is. If you haven’t sigend up to be a tester you can still do that at www.xolo.tv still, but you have to be fast.

For those who are wondering what I’m doing for my birthday, I will be at the Holland New festival every evening from now until friday. Friday there is a cool party, so come by and have a drink with me.

It’s a great day so far!!!!

Watch the video

Watch the video

Poker night @ GabeB’s

Last Friday we played some Poker at GabeB’s. Mindcaster, bicycleMark and Richard Bluestein showed up as well. Richard grabbed the tape recorder and just put it on the table to a show. You can hear it here. I won a whole 10 euro that night! YEAH!!! It was actually just great to see Richard and the Mark(c)s all together.

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I made the DLD book this year. How cool is that! Thanks to Guido for making this picture.

Watch the video

For Mom and Dad. I finally digitized and uploaded this film for you. For the rest of you this is a video of my sister Arielle performing in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” while she was at a summer college in Cambridge this past year. It was great to be able to see her. If you are wondering which one she is, she plays Oberon. If you still don’t know who that is, she is the one with the long red hair. So now Mom and Dad you can finally watch this! Please note, if you want to watch it in Fullscreen mode, click here.

Click To Play

Yesterday at Picnic Guido was showing me his new iTouch. That’s basically a touch screen iPod for those taht don’t know. And of course he had XOLO.TV on it. Very funny and very cool.

This year at picnic they have some really fun ideas with the confrence badges. On the badge you see photos of other attendees that match your own profile. They also place all the tags you have on your profile on your badge as well. How funny was it when I saw Jens’s badge from BMW and on his badge he had Gabe B.’s photo of people he needs to meet. (picture below). Just now Bruno Giussani walked up to Mindcaster and asked how his Wifi was working. I pointed out to Mindcaster that Bruno was one of the people on his badge. Hilarious. It’s a small world conference.

MINDCASTER :: A ROOM WITH A VIEW: Huit Heures A Paris

Mindcaster posted a great video of a trip he and GabeB took to Paris last week to talk to Damien and TV Loonland about publishing their content.

A video compilation of my experince at the Music Festival Lowlands 2007. It was a great festival again this year. Thanks to Wiendelt, Hugo, Hans, Patricia, Peter-bas, Marieke, Walter, Stephan and of course Tamara!!!!

I saw this today. Apparently Gabe & Gabe’s world videos are number 3 on Veoh’s Top rated Series of all time at the moment! Very COOL!!! I have no idea how that happened.

This is a short video of an acrobatics act that wrapped up the Theater Festival in Amsterdam. over 30 theaters were participating. There were more plays than you can throw a stick at. It’s at the scale of the Edinburgh’s festival, but that’s where the organizers are headed. Amazing that they got no funding from I Amsterdam. This is the kind of festival that needs more attention from the city and from sponsers. For more information check the TF1 website.

Asterix

I came across this really cool app for making notes in videos. You can make a new note, much like one does on flickr on any video you can find on Youtube and other such sites. (At the moment it’s mainly youtube). The cool thing is the note allows you to add a description, url link, and tags. The REALLY cool thing about this technology is that not only does it sense automatically when the shot edit happens, but it also AUTO-TRACKS the subject matter to a very high degree. This means your note follows the video. Oh yes, and you can have more than one note running in the same screen at once.

I grabbed a film we did of Luc Besson at the DLD conference in Germany last year and noted some of the people in the crowd. Have a watch, try it yourself. I really like this technology and app. I expect these guys are gonna go far……

We changed servers so I had to change some stuff around. This should be updated soon. Man I hate this technical stuff.

People are always amazed at how much these reality shows and contests are so popular. It’s not crazy. What we are seeing is true drama, that is not being acted. I don’t care how good an actor you are, there is nothing like seeing real emotion, real drama or experiencing those fleeting moments that reality shows provide. As an example look at this clip to see this dorky mobile phone salesman bring tears (real emotion) to the crowd in this song contest.

This should really bring a smile to your face. Johnny Depp gets all the fun.

I didn’t see this one coming. Apparently apple has added support for Youtube videos on apple TV. which says to me technically they’ve just allowed for Flash video on Apple tv. Which says further to me that adding Metacafe or Veoh films is only a hack away. could this mean that Flash video is going to take over as the dominant file system for video podcasting rather than Mpeg-4? I wonder.

Apple ads YouTube support for Apple TV

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Eboman is a really interesting digital performance artist/dj/vj in the Netherlands.

Just got a twitter from David Sifry (CEO Technorati) that he just launched a really sweeeeeet simple search site for technorati. Have a look at it. It is simple, has RSS feeds of the search, different settings, and is just plain sweet and simple.

go bike yourself!

iFranz just posted this cool picture of these new saddle bags for his bike he had made. I’m so jealous!!!

Today I’m speaking at Blognomics 2007. It’s setup by my good friend Guido van Nispen to bring attention to the economics of blogging in Holland and the possibilities there of. Great stuff! I’m really happy to be a part of it this year.

After reading the comment from Tamara on my last blog post, and the fact that many people look over my sholder and ask me how I do THAT (whether that is some cool new web 2.0 app or revving up my laptops fans, I decided to start a separate blog with a bunch of Non-geek tips and tricks for my digital lifestyle. This blog is for those like Evert, and my brother and Sister who are getting new macs and want to geek it out, or for those who just want to really be on the edge without bleeding like Kelvin and Tamara.

And the GabeMac digital lifestyle blog is born! Enjoy!! And ask me questions in the comments there about what you would like answered. So go over and Check it OUT!
-Gmac

The Picture is of Evert showing his new Mac Laptop. I never thought I’d see the day!

What is that number? The key to unlock DRM on the new Blue Ray HDVDs. It’s been around for a while, since feb., and has been slowly creeping around the net in forums and such. It didn’t go big news until it got involved with a cover-up conspiracy on Digg however. Some lawyer thought it would be better to remove the post from this popular community news site, and all hell broke loose! So what’s so great about this code? I think it’s the base of the encryption that they use in the DRM butyou have to be a real GEEK to know how to use it, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until someone fits it into a keychain remote to kill the DRM in this new Technology. When will the Big Guys get it? DRM is gonna kill them. It’s pointless, useless and just causes a pain for people who actually pay for the content rather than those who are pirating it.

with thousands of Internet users now impudently breaking the law, Mr. Sprigman said that the entertainment and technology industries would have no realistic way to pursue a legal remedy. “It’s a gigantic can of worms they’ve opened, and now it will be awfully hard to do anything with lawsuits,” he said.

Example for you to think about. I don’t watch many of the shows on TV, as it’s on TV and I never have the time to watch them. But every now and then, I’ve got to keep up with what my students are talking about, so I have to watch a Heroes, or Lost or something. Where do I goto watch this? Sure you can Bittorrent this stuff all day (or weeks) waiting for episodes to download, but I’m impatient. I just got to one of these to sites for my movies and Tv shows if I don’t already have them on my Mail Rental DVD list.

Tvlinks
VideoHybrid

On a final thought, if Big Media wants us to pay money for content, I have a real simple solution for them. MAKE BETTER CONTENT!!!!! How many Summer Blockbuster line-ups this year are gonna be remakes or sequels? Something like 80%. Get creative guys!
Enjoy!

It’s always nice to see when good friends make a mash-up of the past years, and you see all these special moments that you were with them, or special moments of other friends. Even more so all the amazing things that you shared together or virtually. I think the sharing of virtual moments that really happen, and then recorded and vlogged is really special. It’s as if you are always with the ones you cherish, and the circle comes back inside by seeing other friends, girlfriends, loved ones having those special moments even without you there, but you still share the moments through this new medium. Okay, it’s early and I’ve just had my coffee, so maybe I should just say it was cool to open up netvibes this morning, and browse through my xolo tagged videos and see this mash-up again from Marc. Have alook and maybe you will understand. If not? Never mind. You will someday.

Collateral Damage – video powered by Metacafe

Look at how cool this is. We decided to do a test case with our XOLO video up loader for the new Concert at Sea coming in Holland this summer. What is really cool though is that we are also doing the behind the scenes of the concert and Paskal from BLOF and the #1 artist at the moment van Velsen are doing an interview together. But Check out what is on the microphone!!! COOOOOOL!!!!! Big Thanks to the guys at BLOF!

UPDATE
I figured out that the problem was with the FON and the DNS settings. Apparently what you have to do to solve this problem is change your DNS settings in your network settings on your computer. Seeing as how UPC has no real info on the DNS settings I found that openDNS works really well. Just goto openDNS and follow the instructions and it should work fine. Tam is happy that it’s working again and so am I.

Presedential Candidate Barak Obama made a very cool viral film against Hilary Clinton.
Even though I like both Hilary and Barak, I still don’t feel the american majority will vote for a first female or first black male president. I still think Al Gore should run again. However, this is a very good piece of viral campaign film that I enjoy becuase it shows me that some candidates are REALLY using the interenet and the culture in thier campaign. Have a look. Plus I’m a mac geek.

Gabe, Wiendelt, Ron, and Anina and I were invited to walk around the European Cable Conference in Amsterdam last month and do some filming. It wasn’t as cool as the DLD conference was. A LOT OF SUITS. But we made a few films, so it wasn’t a total waste. The intro video is below. More videos can be found here.

Spain really is a cool place to study. HAve a look at this awesome interface done my students at the Music Technology Group at the University Pompeu Fabra

I’m going to Montreal this week together with Tamara, and Martin Lessard has been kind enough to arrange a blogger meet-up there. I’m really stoked. Here is the link to his post with the details and the post below. I can’t wait!!!!

Gabe MacIntyre, AKA Bad Mother Vlogger, XOLO.TV Vlogger will be in Montreal. (French version)

To welcome him, I planned a gathering for all active/non-active/wannabe/curious blogger/vlogger/web2.0 trend setter of Montreal and vincinity,

Come on in for a drink: March 8th, 2007, from 5 pm à 7 pm at the Méliès. (Quite central, isn’t!)

Everyone are invited, join the club! (and 7pm isn’t really a formal limit)

So far here’s the one who confirmed their presence : Philippe Martin (from YulBuzz), Michel Leblanc, Éric Baillargeon, Sébastien Provencher, Marie-Chantale Turgeon, Christian Car (from Meïdia), Catalina Briceno.

If you’re interested, please leave me a comment to confirm that you’ll be joining us (just to make sure I make enough reservation in the lounge area).

This video is not for the faint hearted. If you love dolphins like I do, it will be difficult to watch. But what can we do?

If you goto this website you can at least sign a petition to get the Japanese government to change thier actions.

Hey everyone! Could you all do me a big favor frineds, colleagues, family and surfers by? Could you go over to the Valleywag and vote for me in that latest Vlog Hot contest? I’ve only got 6 votes! NO! It can’t be! Please help me keep my dignity! I really appreciate it!

Go Vlog Yourself on National TV

How cool is this! This week on National TV in Holland the top band BLOF played a set. The guitarist was wearing a XOLO.TV shirt! A salute to all the vloggers! Oh yeah baby!!!! The guys from BLOF are so cool for doing that. Plus is great that I like their music as well. Always helps eh .

Apparently I am IRON MAN!!!! Cool. Iron Man rocks, although I think I would prefer to be the Silver Surfer and jet out of here sometimes. But then I’d miss Tamara too much, so she’d have to surf with me. But Iron MAn is pretty cool as well.

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man 80% Spider-Man 75% Hulk 70% Superman 65% Green Lantern 65% The Flash 60% Catwoman 60% Robin 50% Supergirl 50% Batman 45% Wonder Woman 40%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…

There is a reason this video has been viewed 4.4 million times
by John in DC – 1/21/2007 01:32:00 PM

Matt is a 30 year old guy from Connecticut who traveled around the world and decided to film himself dancing, badly, on camera (using his simple little Canon digital camera, same one I’ve got). Then he got home, and edited the video by himself. That’s it. Watch it. You’ll be a better person for it. (And turn up your speakers.)

Read more about Matt here.

There are few teachers in my life that I’ve had that inspred me. Of course there was my Art teacher that got me into photography, my Geography teacher got me into nature, and for a few weeks there was Mr. Good, a substitute Physics teacher. And he was really the best science teacher I ever had. If I had him for more than a month maybe I would have ogne further in science to do fun stuff like this:

Route 66
Originally uploaded by aaleksander.

Most of the time you hear about people meeting eachother from other countries online first, then travelling great distances to meet ypo in real life. Well this is story is the exact opposite. While Tamara and I were travelling in thailand we met Alex from Poland. You know how backpackers meet-up. It was a day I’ll never forget becuase that day I heard I got my first seeding money for XOLO, and the day before Tamara and I swam with Dolphins. But I digress. We met up with Alex in a club on this island in Thailand, and he told about travelling around wanting to do photography professionally. He had more or less just started. I told him all about blogging, flickr, podcasting, vlogging etc. and he was really interested. Now a few months later I get a message from him that he has some of his travel photos online, and I REALLY like them. He’s thinking about doing some travel vlogs, and I wish him all the best with it. What I’m trying to say here is it’s nice to goto another country, meet someone from yet another country and then virtually travel with them after we have physically departed from one another. You never know who the highway or virtual highway has instore for your life.

I said it on XOLO.TV just a couple of weeks ago, and people didn’t notice. Well it is out! The Apple iPhone is here. Not a a complete iPod of 60 GB, but it just about is. For those who just got a N93 (like me) damn! Oh well. Something to get to test asap!!!

Here’s a link to the site.

Cheers!!!

P.S. I wonder if it has a vibrate function. Okay no jokes about the ibrator now!

I opened up my online bank to transfer over rent and so forth and I see a new message that ABN AMRO has opened an office in second life. Oh man there goes the nieghborhood. So let me think what you could do? Store your Linden? Or how about transfer Linden to Euros, Dollars, Yen and back? I think it’s mainly a show at the moment. That they just thought, “We have to be in Second Life becuase everyone else is.” But in my opinion Second life really blows with all these companies coming in and “re-doing” real life in second life. Make something new, different like the ABM loan sharks club or something. Second life is supposed to be an imaginative exploration. Not a copy of real life. In any case, here is what the mail read:

Geachte relatie,
ABN AMRO opent, als eerste bank in Europa, de deuren van een virtuele vestiging in Second Life. Hiermee zetten we een eerste stap in de richting van de volgende generatie internet. Het doel is om de nieuwe toepassingen van deze omgeving te onderzoeken en te ontdekken. Ook voor u als ondernemer, biedt het wellicht nieuwe mogelijkheden.
Wilt u meer weten over Second Life en onze vestiging aldaar? Lees er hier meer over.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Drs. J. de Ruiter, Directeur MKB
Drs. F.H.D. Josephus Jitta, Directeur Directe Kanalen en Innovatie

Translation: ABN AMRO wants to help you as a company in second life. — Right.

Youtube may see the Brazillians in court becuase of a little scandal with one of thier beloved football stars ex-wives.
Brazilian court orders YouTube shutdown | The Register : “A Brazilian court has ordered the closure of YouTube following the site’s failure to completely remove a video showing Ronaldo’s ex-missus and her new boyf indulging in a bit a of beach rumpy-pumpy, Reuters reports.

Model Daniela Cicarelli sued YouTube after the offending film proved a smash hit among Brazilian YouTubers. She and squeeze Tato Malzoni last year ‘filed to force YouTube to take the video down and demanded $116,000 in damages for each day the video remains up’. Although YouTube did indeed remove some copies, other users reposted it and the whole sorry exposure dragged on for months.”

Now what will ever stop them from re-posting and re-posting and re-posting. I mean honestly. It’s a never ending cycle. Is this just meantt to be doomed? Funny how you never hear about revver, blip or metacafe being sued.

Well, the joint isn’t but the segway is apparently. As of New Year’s the dutch Royal traffic agency has banned this awesome mode of transport becuuase:
‘It doesn’t have a brake, you brake by leaning back, and that’s clearly not permissible.’

Oh man. This is such a funny country. More can be read here.
Dutch clamps down on Segways | The Register

That’s right. It may be January 1st, but I never really count this date as it’s a non-day when done correctly. You are usually so blown away from New Year’s Eve and all the stores are closed, everyone is hung over and tired. Just don’t count it. Last night was great. We first had Patricia, GabeB, In-Ah, iFranz and Renate over for dinner. Then we went over to Wiendelt’s for the 12:00 drink. After that we headed off through a firework gauntlet of amsterdam to get to the Doffer where Hans, Nieltje, Corrine and Marc met up with us. I’d like to write more, but I’m to tired and I can’t remember much anyways. I know I owe Hans a few films or something, and I remember now why I don’t drink champagne. It gives the worse hang-overs. Uhhhh.

Here are some pics of our breakfast together this evening. We didn’t get out of bed and eat until 5:00 p.m. and the moon was already out. Man. See what I mean by a non-day? And just so Tam doesn’t get to mad at me for posting this pic of her in the “morning”, even though I think she is beautiful, here is a link to some more pics of the evening.

Practical Joke in Amsterdam
Originally uploaded by gabemac.

Every now and again someone puts soap in a fountain here in amsterdam. This happend last week at the American hotel. All of leidseplein was covered in little bits of bubbles that looked like snow. Even mindcaster said, “damn it’s snowing’.

Watch the video

Watch the video

New Year’s 2005
Originally uploaded by gabemac.

Last New Years was a blast. This year looks like it will be as well. We’re all getting together for drinks, food, fun, music, dance and of course fireworks. Look at this pic from last year. Apparently Tamara looks like she is really appreciating my sexy moves for our new year’s kiss. What a woman.

DSC01324
Originally uploaded by hebig.

Great pic of Marc and Wiendelt @ Picnic 2006.

It’s been so hectic the last 2 weeks. I haven’t blogged much, because so much has happened. Just before I went for a trip to New York, my best friend Pavle’s father passed away. Tamara talked about it on her blog a bit. It was really devastating for him. That was a lot to deal with, and too much to give it justice in the few sentences that I have your attention. The only thing I can say is that his father was a REAL tough guy. He had cancer of the lower intestine for months, and the pain must have been unbearable. But his family didn’t know, and all he was using was aspirin for the pain. I’m not sure if he didn’t want to worry his family, or he just didn’t want to admit it himself, but he refused any treatments to prolong his life for another half year or so. It seems I’ve always got someone i know dying of cancer around this time. Last year it was my Grandmother. I’d like that to stop please.

On to more pleasant things, I went to New York for a conference. GEMS or (Global Entertainment and Media Summit). Not much of a summit. I think there were maybe 50 people there? But I did meet with a couple of interesting people that I hope we will be doing some great “Green” projects with. New York was in full Christmas swing. EVERYONE was out on the streets shopping. MAn what a lot of people. I hope to have some videos up soon of that. I was a bit worried of Bed Bugs as that’s what everyone said be careful of. I really searched my hotel room for any signs, but found none, so I think I’m safe. I can’t really say too many exciting things as I was only there for 2 nights before I left for Paris and Le Web 3.

It was larger than last year, and it was really freaky being there. Le Web was the first REAL conference that I spoke at about videoblogging. It was wild to go back there after one year, and to know SO many people in the web 2.0 biz. It gave me a realization of how far I’ve come in such a short time. And made me wonder where I and XOLO.TV will be in another year from now. The conference was hijacked by French politics which I’m sure you can read all about that scandal all over the place. For me it was great to meet up with old friends, and new. A real treat was meeting Luca. The crazy Italian blogger who is a big fan of XOLO. I guess in the end this whole web thing has added a new dimension to meeting people. The only thing is, I have to read about the lives of som many friends now, it’s almost hard to keep up.

But it is nice to be back home again. I was soooo tired that I couldn’t do anything at all for a couple of days. I was seeing double even after my second cup of coffee. Time to wind down and enjoy the holidays my body was telling me. So that’s what I’ll have to do. In any case, I’m hoping for a version of XOLO that I can really let loose on before Christmas, that would be a great present. But an even better one will be no laptop, lots of wine, food and friends in the end. So to all the virtual friends out there. Be Merry!!!!

Watch the video

You’ve heard it before. We love to fry things in the south. Fried chicken, fried snickers bars, fried shrimp (thanks bubba) and for thanks giving Fried Turkey. You may wonder how that works?

Well you first put a sloppy paprika sauce on it like my uncle is demonstrating here. Doesn’t that look good?

And then drop it in a big vat of hot fat. YUMMMY!!! While you are waiting you have a few beers, talk to family, catch up etc. It actually cooks the turkey really fast, and yes it is juicy!!!

But of course we have all kinds of great dishes to go along with it. Tamara loved the Squash Caserol. For those not from the South, squash is a yellow vegetable. May favorite is Sweet Potato Suffle’. Of course my Aunt Bonnie did the family’s famous Pound Cake. It puts a pound on you with each bite, but it tastes soooo gooood. Tamara loved that and is begging me to make it.

I guess I’ll have to wait till she gets better. She’s come down with some flu that everyone else has got. In-Ah has it, Jag has it, even Wiendelt was in the office today coughing all over everybody. I really hope I don’t get it. I did make Tamara some of my famous Chicken Soup to get better. In any case

It was great seeing the family again for ThanksGiving. I think it may be a while before I get back to the states though.

Hugs and Kisses to the whole family!!!

Watch the video

Today is ThanksGiving here in the states. After coming over to talk to some people about investing in a second round for XOLO.TV I get to spend some time with my family. And I’m really lucky that Tamara got to come along as well. It’s not often that I get over to see my parents, uncles, aunts and cousins for Thanks Giving.

I think the last time I was here for Thanks Giving was at least 6 years ago or so, if not more. I’m really excited to see everyone, and I have all these Christmas gifts already for the Family. Although I haven’t wrapped them yet. Well I couldn’t becuase of the freakn’ security checks that if anything was wrapped, they would be unwrapped, and I’d have to wrap it again. Thus wrapping and travelling is a waste of time.

Well the cars is being loaded up, so I gotta grab the cameras and go have some turkey. YUM!!!!!! Oh and sweet potatoes. Gotta love those!!! A little note for the non-americans, it’s usually turkey for Thanksgiving and Honey Baked Ham for Christmas.

Wiendelt made a great video of the Jam Party 2006. There are more videos to come, but enjoy this in the meantime.

There was a great vibe going on in the Akhnaton Club in Amsterdam last night. Wiendelt and Esther organized the 3rd Jam Party. It’s when a bunch of friends get together, practice for a month and then perform great jam songs for fun. But don’t think it’s not professional. It’s sounded excellent! Gabe B sang a number of songs, Hugo sang a great rendition of “Saturday Night”, Wiendelt and Esther tore down the house many times and I got to sing a song as well. If you missed it, that’s too bad. It may be a while before another Jam Party is organized seeing as how Esther is about to have a second child. Oh man, when does it end all these kids being born around me? In the mean time, there will be some videos online soon I’m sure, but you can always check the Jam Party Photo pool on Flickr. If you were there and have some great pics, please add them to the pool! The pictures added there were taken by Tamara. They look excellent, but she thinks she still needs a better digital camera. I tend to agree actually. Any advice for what she should get? Let us know. It’s almost Christmas.

To everyone who came to the party and helped organize it, thanks for a wonderful night. Now I need to go take another aspirin for my hangover.

Cross Media Week 2006 some more interviews.

QuickTime Version

More Interviews from the Cross Media week in Amsterdam.

Download QuickTime Movie Here

Halloween 2006
Originally uploaded by gabemac.

Last night Tamara and I threw a Halloween Party. It was to celebrate MY Birthday, Tam’s birthday and a 3 year Anniversary. Click on the picture to go see some more photos. It was excellent seeing all the costumes that everyone came in. And oh man was there a mess this morning. After 5 hours we’ve finished cleaning and are now reliving the night. Notes for next party:
- 3 bottles of Vodka is not enough
- Need more Cointreau
- No one drinks red Vermouth
- Tamara’s guacamole dip evaporates within seconds

Is nothing working when posting to blogger? Anyone? still not working!!!

Update:
After getting numerous errors, doing searches on Google, talking in Forums, etc. Blogger is finally posting again to Gabe.NL. HOORAY!!! I’m so happy.

So I had to first turn off comments, rss feeds and archives to get it to work. Then slowly step by step started to add those back. After 1 month it is back and I can start blogging again, and man is there a lot that happened in that time!!!

Cross Media Week 2006 wast last week here in Amsterdam. I was invited to talk about “Consumer generated media”. And of course I walked around getting some impressions of the event. Have a watch.

QuickTime Version

working in amsterdam
Originally uploaded by murque.

Tamara was looking theough our Flickr contacts this evening when she saw a picture of my old desk and office. WITH SOME GIRL SLEEPING THERE! I guess that’s not strange as we are no longer there at the offices near the river in Amsterdam, but it came through a photo stream of one of my ex-students / intern / friend (but not in that order). The interent is a small place indeed.

Watch the video

Watch the video

Watch the video

Watch the video

Tamara and I went to Lowands this weekend. It was great! Of course we were not alone. IT seemed everyone except Gabe B and In-Ah were there. We had Wiendelt, Hugo, Patricia, Peter-Bas, Marieke, Marcel, Tatjanna, Hans and Paul were there as well. Great Fun. Click here below to see our pics from Lowlands (on the picture). Below that is a video made by Wiendelt.

To keep up with my travels with Tamara in Thailand, we decided to make a new blog. More of a travel blog.
To see it please go here:
Gabe and Tam in Thailand!

Sawadee kap!

Through my travels the past month I have watched the World Cup in 5 different languages. It started off with English and Spanish in the United States. ESPN was covering the World Cup pretty well while we were at VloggerCon in Sanf Francisco, and then Atlanta. However the Spanish station Univision something (which has recently doubled it’s viewership since the World Cup) had better covereage. You have of course seen us watching the games in the airplanes on the way to California, but it was great to watch it with my uncle Dean who was my soccer coach as a kid, and who has a tournament named after him in Georgia. You can see him and Tamara in the picture here in full supporter getup.

Then back in Holland I watched the continued matches while I prepared for my trip in Berlin. Watchng the first rounds of many teams, and Holland winning thier second match to secure entry into the next round. Then off to Berlin.

In Berlin of course everything was in German. I still can’t get used to the conference way of watching a game which the Germans love. It basically swithces in between the different games playing at any one time, which means that you never get to watch a Goal happen Live! Bummer. I was so disappointed when Holland lost as I feel it really is home for me now. But life must go on, even though I was in Full Orange getup for the games.

Then I arrived for my backpacking trip through Thailand yesterday. I thought World Cup coverage would be sparse at best. I was wrong. We got updates from the pilot of the game, and once we got our hotel sorted out, I went to a bar 1 block away and watched the highlights of the English loosing to the team that shall not be named (see above holland vs. X), and the French winning over Brazil games. It was all in Thai, so I didn’t understand a word of it. But I saw all the amazing moments of the Matches and understood enough. I’m currently posting this in an internet cafe in Bangkok. The price price per minute is 25 euro cents. Gives you an idea of what the football clothing is that they sell here. I saw some German, and France game shirts (the official ones) for about 100 baht. That’s about 2.5 euro! Sweet!

So there you have it folks. One Cup, 2 Gabes, 3 cameras, 4 countries, 5 languages and counting. WeallSpeakFootball!

My last day in Berlin and I went on a little travel with my Mini Cooper and Tom Tom to guide me. After going around and seeing the sites like Check Point Charlie, The Prusian Palace, and other amazing sites, I met up with Frans and Alex to enjoy a nice brewski on the side of the water to philosphise about the tao of blogging.

It was a real emotional and thought provoking trip going around old East Germany in the Mini. Here you can see a picture of the Mini with the Amercian flag crossing the wall’s monument line, just a block from Check Point Charlie. It seems there is nothing left of the old East German way as everything has been taken over by Subway, Starbucks, Hilton, etc. Good or bad I’ll let you decide.

It was such a great experience to be in the Coke Flat for 2 weeks and meeting all the awesome people that came by and be a part of the whole football madness. Getting tickets to the games was a real treat, and one I hadn’t expected. I could literally smell the grass from the pitch
I was so close in this picture after one of the games. I know most people are gonna role thier eyes now, but I really want to thank KnallGrau and Coca Cola for the oppurtunity to be a part of weallspeakfootball. It’s something I will not soon forget and enjoyed thouroughly. To those who still get to go, make the most of it I say, and steal a couple bottles of Coke Blak for yourselves.

The Dutchies have arrived!

Watch the video

Weallespeakfootball Music video

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weallspeakfootball, leaving Berlin, back to Amsterdam
Originally uploaded by mindcaster.

My Baby got home safely. Even though she was driving a french car. Thanks for looking out for her Marc! Great pic here as they are driving back from Berlin. She looks happy.

Look who Gabe and me met today…
Originally uploaded by pleitegeiger.

Nicole and I were walking around the Fanfest here in Berlin today and look who we ran into? Apparently Pele is doing a promotional tour for a new album he has made. Okay. As long as I get ot have a picture with him. It was a rather surreal/virtual experience.

Rooney from England plays with a coke can

Is this real or not? I don’t know but it’s pretty cool. SWEEET! I wonder if the can would have been crushed had it been diet coke?

no comment
Originally uploaded by ifranz.

I’m in Berlin now for the weallspeakfootball.com project. I’ll be here for the next 2 weeks. As if I didn’t have enough vloggers and bloggers around me this month with Podcastday2006 and vloggercon2006. But I just can’t gget enough. I’ll be posting some more videos up here, and on weallspeakfootball.com. This picture was made by Renate, the wife of good freind of mine Alexx from iFranz.tv. There are now in New York and I wish them the best time there!!! Awesome trip guys, enjoy! Standing next to me and Alex is Burkhard from einfallsriech.tv ( I hope I spelled it right, I can’t speak it for shit.) I nay case keep watching this space and the others to see some World Cup fun!!!

It looks like we are making headway in the Net Neutrality action. More news from that can be found on savetheinternet.com. What was nice was this letter I recieved today:

Dear Mr. McIntyre:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding
H.R. 5252, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and
Enhancement Act (COPE Act). I appreciate hearing from you.

I understand the importance of quick and affordable
broadband service to Georgia’s small businesses, homes, and
schools that will enable us to share information in a global market,
enhance our lives through technology, and communicate more
effectively in an ever changing world. As you know, the internet is
a critical communications tool for millions of Americans.

The COPE Act has been introduced before the House of
Representatives to promote the deployment of broadband networks
and services. There is currently no Senate version of this bill. Be
assured that I will continue to support fair market competition, the
protection of consumers, and lower prices in any legislation
regarding broadband that comes before the Senate.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. If you
would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest
congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up
via my web site at: www.chambliss.senate.gov. Please do not
hesitate to be in touch if I may ever be of assistance to you.

Sincerely,

Saxby Chambliss
United States Senate

This is filed under, “What the fuck was the homework assignment?”. This guy made a robot which moves around. I know what you are saying, the Japanese are doing this, so what? Well, this robot is being controlled by a COCKROACH! Things are springing to my mind. I think the most prominent is:

A cockroach is killed by raid. Other cockroaches get together and say, “We can rebuild him. We have the technology!”

This is a world wide issue, that vould cause the next dot com crash. What is the issue? If you haven’t heard about Net Neutrality yet, imagine a world in which telecom providers in the US restrict access to various web services such as google, or flickr, or even iTunes. Slowwing down access to these sites or even rerouting to another site which has paid them more money to service. This is being down also under the umbrella of “security”. Or more like Sensorship. What an aweful world that would be, with no easy access to my family photos, indenpendent record labels, independent press and citizin journalists, or even my friend’s blog. Well it’s happening in theUS right now and will affect all of us worldwide. This needs to be stopped.

YOU READING OR WATCHING THIS! If you love the internet and the freedom of information that you can access on it goto:

www.savetheinternet.com

dienstag abend #2
Originally uploaded by couchpotatoes.

Here’s a pic from Pre Podcastday 2006 (i.e. getting drinks the night before). You wouldn’t know it but those are big name podcasters sitting around me. I guess that’s the perks of podcasting vs. vlogging, you don’t show you face as much and are more anonymous. Thanks for the shot chouchpotatoes!!!

strida for gabemac
Originally uploaded by mindcaster.

Well, it looks like I decided on my new company mode of transit. Only an incredibly cool fold up bike for us green vloggers! www.strida.com

Went to Spain this weekend to chat with Anil about our World Cup gig, and Rodrigo was in town (VpodTV) so we all had a few bottles of wine together. Rodrigo posted the same video from his phone on rodrigo.typepad.com

United Vlogger

Watch the video

I always wondered how Darth Vader explained himself to get the Death Star blown up.

Wiendelt made this awesome video of Queensday 2006. I haven’t gotten my footage together yet. Been too busy, but this gives a great impression of it all.

Vloggercon PROMO : XOLO.TV + Mefeedia.com

Watch the video

I just heard from an inside source that Greenpeace has placed a container of radioactive waste in the front hall of VROM. VROM is the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment for the Netherlands. Workers at VROM are scared to leave as they may pass by the radioactive waste. They are basically trapped. Greenpeace is leaving the waste at VROM until 17:00 today but are hoping that Deputy Minister Van Geel officially accept this “gift” from Greeenpeace.

UPDATE:
Aparently the Deputy Minister is going accept the gift in a couple of hours @ 17:30. Another bit of news, those “Ambtenaars” (Dutch word for government workers) are so stupid, there were a number of them just standing around the container talking and drinking coffee after they recorded enough radiation within 6 feet of the container to be dangerous. HELOOOOO!!!!!!

Reading through my daily dutch news I see my good buddy Marc turns out to be a wanted hacker!!! Oh my god! I turned to Marc here in the office and said, “Dude, you’re wanted! The cops have busted into your home and all!”

“What?, Where?”

“Here look on my laptop!” He looked shit scared for a second. Then we clicked and all was revealed.

telegraaf.nl [Binnenland]

My baby is sick and I’m in Germany working. Could you guys please send here comments to get better or digital postcards, becuase I can’t make her feel better by being with her.

Tamara’s website

So Gabe B and I are travelling today to Leipzig, Germany for the Mini experience at the AMI (Auto Motor International).
Mini is sending us to go vlog there. We’ve got lotsof tapes, mic, and I’m about to go get a funky haircut. I think it should be pretty cool. German Blogger Thomas Gigold will be showing us around, because we are a bit green. In any case if you wanna check out the vlogfest check out, www.vlogbymini.de

Cause lets face it…

Sending me & Gabe to a German auto convention…

With the freedom to vloggin’ vlog what ever they want…

Could be vloggin’ interesting.

BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | Star Wars TV ’saviour for fans’: “With Rick McCallum (Producer of Star Wars for those that didn’t know) saying they are going to be making over 100 hours of a new Star Wars TV show.

So that’s what the BBC is reporting. Oh man at least 100 hours of new episodes. My god!!! LEt’s see we’ve already got the Animated series, 6 films, enough making of’s to throw us into a coma, and now 100 hours of a TV series that’s going to be released of Star Wars!!! I’m going to have to go on sick leave for 2 weeks just to make a decent Star Wars marathon…

On the other hand Lucas at the same time is saying that Big Budget films are doomed. “The market forces that exist today make it unrealistic to spend $200 million on a movie. Those movies can’t make their money back anymore. Look at what happened with ‘King Kong.’”

But what I think is the kicker is when he says, “it’s no accident that the “small movies” outclassed the spectaculars in this year’s Academy Awards. Is that good for the business? No — it’s bad for the business. But moviemaking isn’t about business. It’s about art!” Right Luke! It’s about Vlogging and the force is with us!!! I can’t wait for the first multi-million dollar vlog. That would be hilarious.

Studierstube.org:

” The Handheld AR project extended from PDAs to Smartphones. In March 2006 we created a simple demo that shows our technology on an i-mate SP5 phone.

This demo shows an animated character rendered live on an ARToolKitPlus marker.”

I’m sure many of you who watch the Dutch television of heard of Minister Verdonk (Verdronk) the Minister of Alien Affairs and Integration , and her incredible right wing approach to immigration in the Netherlands. I’m sorry I cannot take this woman seriously. Let’s look at the last copule of acts she has tried or has passed:
- She tried to pass a fine to anyone who public spoke any other language other than Dutch. Yeah that’s gret for the tourist inducstry. Thank goodness this was laughed out.
- She deported Taida Pasic (18 year old girl) just a few months before she could get her highschool degree, becuase there were some forms improperly filled out. Now she has to go back Kosovo where she probably won’t get as good a diploma or education.

So now Verdronk says all Iranian Gay and Lesbian refugees can go back to Iran, becvuase it’s safe for them there again. Huh? (Check this link on Human Rights Watch) Well if you consider the death penalty to be safe Verdronk, I guess so. How does this woman sleep at night. I really wish we could just drop her in the middle of some foreign country and have her try and find her way cak to the Netherlands. Then maybe she would understand what it’s like to be a foriegner.

For those of you who feel that Verdrtonk is right and too many Aliens are penetrating Holland, I say go try and take the Dutch Citizenship Test to see if you pass to be Dutch or not.

Netherlands: Threat to Return Gay and Lesbian Iranians (Human Rights Watch, 8-3-2006)

Zadi from Karmagrrl vlog is working hard on the “film your issue” festival. If you feel politcal, and want to make a statement, go submit your film to www.filmyourissue.com

Submit your film!!!

This promo was made by Zadi:
www.smashmouth.com/vlog

L1110576.jpg
Originally uploaded by Guido van Nispen.

A few weeks ago Frank from “frank-ly” asked me to do the videos for the Dutch Bloggie Awards 2006. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a shit load to do with moving myself and helping Bauer move, besides trying to earn a living, but we said ok. The films were a big hit at the awards, and we will be putting them online this week over at the XOLO.TV vlog. I hope you all enjoy them.

For more pics from the event, check the flickr photo pool dutch bloggies 2006.

I came across Beach n billboard via trndblog. It seems like a simple idea. Get yourself a tractor and start plowing the beach with ads. But who owns the beach? And what will happen to my wonderful beach views on vacation? Some advertising goes way to far in my mind. I’m just wondering what will be next? I mean when I go to the beach now I have the skywriters in the air, the bach ads in the sand, the billboards walking to the beach. I’m just waiting for some big ass tankers to start putting ads on the side of the boats when I’m swimming in the sea. I guess I’ll just go m ake my own island out of coke cans and be done with it all.

Imagine you are a major newspaper in the Netherlands. Today is the national elections and people want to know what the outcome is. And BAM! Your server goes out becuase your provider has cut off your connection becuase to many people want to read your site. Yeah that really sucks. Will that’s what’s happening to the Volkskrant today. So sorry guys.

What to say about Apple’s unveiling of thier new Mac Mini and Boombox and other products today? Let’s start with the Mini:

Okay of course they were gonna be adding the new Intel processors into the new compact Mac. I didn’t need a crystal ball to tell me that one. So is that cool? Uh, I guess, kinda. I’m not sure what I feel about the Intel chips until a few people have tested it out themselves with their own software. I don’t need to be another Apple Guiene pig.

So what IS cool? Well I would have to say the Front Row o be able to view all the media shared in iTunes is cool. That includes video. Hey I’m happy about that. But no news on the ability to play video playlists in Front row yet which is what I want man. Maybe it’s in there, only an update will tell.

But where is the cool TIVO function and EPG on this thing? I want to record episodes of Seinfeld and watch them when I get home. I guess I’ll have to go with elgato for that, or just stick to my vlogs. Yeah I’ll do that.

So the BOOMBOX. WTF was Steve smoking when he thought of this one. A BIG ASS SPEAKER for my iPod which doesn’t have surround, or allow me to connect to my DVD player, playstation, whatever. Only my iPod. This thing reminds me of the days of rundmc with a big ass box walking down the street, but now there’s an iPod sticking out. Great for watching vids on it. NOT! I mean for the same price I buy an entire home surround system with DVD player or a bunch of the Logitech portable speakers, that I can easily carry arround with me.

So I don’t think I’ll be buying any of these so called “FUN” products. Except the iPod leather holder does look pretty nice I have to admit, but I’ve seen another one that doubles as a wallet and you can actually watch the videos without taking it out of the case. Three strikes Apple.