Some cool video search engines images:

A Great Day at the Google HQ!
video search engines
Image by Stuck in Customs
Check Out this Workshop near LA
For you are in the LA Area (or willing to travel for an interesting workshop), join my friends Frederick Van and Joeseph Linashke for their workshop at nearby Joshua Tree. These guys have worked hard to put together a really excellent program… you can visit the website to see everything that is included!

New Interview Up with Ron Martinsen

I had an interview with the extremely nice Ron Martinsen. Head on over Ron’s photography blog to have a loosee! He also has a nice discount code on my textures tutorial, in case you have been waiting for a good deal!

Daily Photo – A Great Day at the Google HQ!

Wow that was a cool experience. Those guys and gals over there are super-nice. You never know… I guess maybe Google seems somewhat intimidating from the outside, but after I met guys like Cliff, Brian, and Chip — I felt right at home.

I gave an hour-long talk in one of their theaters there. It was super-packed and people were standing all around because seats were gone. We were graced with the presence of one Sara Jane Todd from @Peachpit to help out selling books – and we sold out! Also, my Brazilian friend Fabio, the editor of Abduzeedo was there too, so it was great to see him.

The Authors@Google (video link) program has a neat deal where they subsidize books, so Googlers don’t have to pay full price. I saw all kinds of cool stuff and took a lot of pics. I have to get most cleared with Google Corp Comms before I can release… but I nabbed shots of a spaceship, a new pseudo-holodeck, and more mysteries await! We even got to eat lunch there in the Google cafeteria, which had some of the most excellent food I’ve ever had in such a setting… they even have a small organic farm on the campus… well, I could go on and on… but I was very impressed and happy to meet so many enthusiastic people!

The video should be done in the next 2-3 weeks or so. We’ve got good-man Brian at Google slaving away on editing the whole thing together!

from Trey Ratcliff at www.stuckincustoms.com

Microsoft Windows Live Essentials 2011 launch
video search engines
Image by Axel Bührmann
Darren Huston, global vice president of Microsoft’s online and consumer business, believes consumers are in for the rides of their lives.

View on black using Fiveprime’s Black Magic

Press release:
Microsoft makes big play for the South African consumer

Microsoft’s aggressive push into the consumer market has been given a further boost with the official launch of Windows Live Essentials 2011 — a free suite of programs for photos, movies, instant messaging, e‑mail, blogging and family safety.

Live Essentials 2011 is the latest chapter in a veritable wave of consumer-facing software from Microsoft, which includes its Windows 7 operating system, the Office 2010 productivity suite, the Internet Explorer 9 browser, its Bing search engine, the upcoming Windows Phone 7 and Kinect, a gaming system controlled solely by gestures and voice commands.

Speaking at the launch in Johannesburg today, Darren Huston, the global vice-president of Microsoft’s consumer and online business, said today’s marketplace was being shaped by the consumer.

“Consumers have assumed control and they want to connect to more of what they love anytime, anywhere, on any device,” said Huston. “At Microsoft, we’re listening closely to understand consumer needs and their expectations for technology that is personal, relevant, and social.”

Windows Live Essentials was designed specifically to take full of Windows 7. It includes Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger, Mail, Family Safety and Writer. New to this release is Windows Live Mesh, which allows users to automatically synch various devices across the internet. Consumers can download Windows Live Essentials 2011 by visiting www.explore.live.com.

At the launch, Huston sketched a vivid vision of a technology world in which consumers want experiences across all of their screens to be seamlessly connected, relevant to them and easy to navigate.

“They don’t want to think about technology, they want it to ‘just work’, no matter the time or place. But ease of use is not enough. Today, technology has to be more personal, more relevant and more social,” said Huston.

One of the main things people do on their PCs is communicating and sharing with the people in their lives. The new Windows Live Messenger now connects users to Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and hundreds of other sites. Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker work seamlessly with Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and other popular photo/video sharing sites, while Windows Live Mail connects easily with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and other popular email services.

Another highlight of the new suite is its ability to organise, create and share photos and movies. With Photo Fuse, users take multiple photos of the same subject and then combine the best parts into one perfect photo. With Windows Live Movie Maker, users take their favourite photos and easily turn them into movies to share with family and friends, complete with transitions, titles and captions.

Organising photos is even easier with facial recognition: once people are tagged, the program automatically searches the entire photo library for their faces.

The launch also saw sneak previews of Windows Phone 7 and a prototype of a Windows-powered slate device, which the company hopes to bring to market in 2011.

From mid-2011, Windows Live Essentials will also be available in five indigenous languages in South Africa: Tswana, Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans.

"The way people organise, connect and share with each other is changing,” said Huston. “We designed the new Essentials to connect you and all you that’s important to you across your multiple PCs and devices, including the services you use every day so you can get more done with your photos, movies and friends.”