Some Random Dude

Posts Tagged ‘media’

Get the Franklin Street Tumblr Theme

Very early on in the process of setting up the new Some Random Dude, I mentioned that all work done on and for this site would be made available as open source and/or free. It is something that I feel very strongly about and am deeply committed to following through on for as long as this blog is active. As a small first gesture, I am offering up the theme used for the Some Random Dude Tumblr site. Feel free to use it, alter it and improve upon it as you see fit. If you do not have a Tumblr account yet, I highly suggest that you get one — it is a genuinely great service. Read On…

Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts Album is About MUCH More Than Music.

If you have been reading this blog for even a moderate length of time, you are most likely aware of the unusually high amount of Nine Inch Nails articles on this site (seen here and here to name a few). Considering the general theme of this blog, I could see how this could be seen as strange to many. Still, I tend to write a lot about how digital media (which design-technology intersects with) is changing not only mainstream media, but the society which consumes it – which in turn impacts how we do our work. For the past two years, Nine Inch Nails has really been on the frontlines of pushing media away from the consolidated, copyright-heavy, corporate-run model to a distributed, grassroots, artist-run model.

Last night, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV, an independently-produced album that is available for download for the price of $5. There are 36 songs in this album, so that $5 looks even more reasonable than ever. For those of you into the tangible, CDs can be purchased as well. Additionally, 9 songs are available completely for free – no questions asked. While this is distribution model is new, it is not new – we have seen it with In Rainbows and Niggy Tardust, each with their own little tweaks on it. However, make no mistake, Ghosts is unlike any other album distribution we have seen.
Read On…

My, How Far Flash Video Has Come

For the few people out there still questioning the validity of Flash video as the best, if not only, solution for the web, you have to watch this. Make sure to click the ‘Maximize’ button in the top-left corner in order to see what I mean. Flash applications built in Actionscript 3 allow for a fullscreen mode – allowing things such as video to be viewed in a much more traditional, theatrical manner. Surprisingly high-quality video can now be easily viewed over the web with no server-side streaming software – allowing anyone with ample bandwidth to provide video to its audience.

This ability for rich media experiences to be delivered on the cheap is one more reason that: 1) Flash (or perhaps another future rich media delivery system) is going to become an even more integral part of the web/browser experience, and, 2) The TV, in its current form, is becoming more obsolete by the day. We all saw this coming, I am just utterly blown away at the pace that it is occurring. If you thought the public liked web video before, just wait until the next batch of video players to hit the scene that take advantage of all the features Flash 9/Actionscript 3 have to offer. It will make the current phenomenon look pitiful in comparison.

Via Flex RIA