Sorry, I’ve been busy with some video stuff. Just in case you missed it, I put a mic on Jayden while he was opening his gifts to prove to you all what a nut this guy really is.

This is literally how it is with him all day. He does not stop talking and that’s probably why his voice is so raspy.

What I like particularly about this and other TechRestore’s other disassemblies is the familiar royalty free music from iMovie that I’ve used in many other videos.

TechRestore are masters at creating geek porn.

Microsoft hosted a networking event at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. The main goal of the event was to demonstrate new technologies from Live Labs.

The other goal was food … Microsoft is known to always have good food at their events. They certainly didn’t disappoint. Fresh sushi, gourmet grilled cheese, shrimp, and much more goodies.

I thought it mightbe more of a recruiting event. It didn’t feel like that at all. Though when I talked to one of the Microsoft staff and introduced myself as Ray, she said “you worked at Amazon right?”. That caught me off guard a bit, but perhaps they researched the attendees.

To be honest, I haven’t kept up with Microsoft technology lately. Since switching my main computer to a Mac and all the media hype surrounding Apple and Google, Microsoft has been a bit of an afterthought for me.

These two technologies actually encouraged me to boot up my dusty Windows 7 partition on my Macbook and try out Pivot and Seadragon. Well, Seadragon can run anywhere, but before the Silverlight version comes out, Pivot runs only on computers with Aero.

Back in my Amazon days, we put a lot of thought to digital asset management, but more about the mechanics and data models in the backend. Pivot provides a powerful interface to such a management system. It follows a similar browsing structure to my favorite plugin, Cooliris.

I walked away impressed, though empty-handed. I didn’t win the Xbox or Zunes they gave away.

Give the technologies a try. Here’s some additional information about the presenters

Jeff Weir, Pivot, Microsoft Live Labs

Combining a computer science and fine arts background, Jeff Weir is a member of the core design team at Microsoft Live Labs. He has worked extensively on Pivot, contributing to its interaction design, visual style, and the collections themselves. He also works more broadly within the lab User Experience team to create prototypes and additional immersive web experiences. Prior to Live Labs, Jeff helped design the user experience for Microsoft Codename Max. Before Microsoft, Jeff developed and designed web experiences at Mod7 in Vancouver and Barking Dog Studios in Guelph. In his spare time Jeff creates award winning interactive art projects.

Beatriz Díaz, Seadragon, Microsoft Live Labs

Beatriz Díaz Acosta is the Senior Test Lead for Live Labs Seadragon. She obtained her Master’s in Computer Science from Virginia Tech in 2004 and joined Microsoft right after. She has worked in Microsoft Live ID authentication protocols for mobile devices and in Bing Core Relevance fighting web spam. She joined Live Labs in 2007 where she helped start the test team for Seadragon and Photosynth. Her team helps enable and inspire Microsoft partners and customers to adopt Seadragon philosophies and technology, like the DeepZoom feature in Silverlight, to create transformative user experiences. Her research interests include pattern recognition and computer vision.

]]> http://blog.raym.ca/2010/04/14/microsoft-meetup-toronto-massive-digital-library-management-and-zoom-anything-with-pivot-and-seadragon/feed/ 0 Raym Microsoft Meetup: Live Labs Networking sign Microsoft Meetup: Microsoft events always have good food Microsoft Meetup: Aduja & Leslie (recruiters) Microsoft Meetup: View from the stage Microsoft Meetup: Beatriz Díaz demonstrating Seadragon from Live Labs http://blog.raym.ca/2010/03/30/guerilla-printing-canadian-music-week-just-in-case-you-missed-it/ http://blog.raym.ca/2010/03/30/guerilla-printing-canadian-music-week-just-in-case-you-missed-it/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:23:55 +0000 Raymond Mendoza http://blog.raym.ca/?p=2537 ]]> This was a few weeks back, but just in case you missed this. My bro in law, Darwin, and his business partner, Tyrone (who happens to be my other bro-in-law’s cousin) run a printing company called Guerilla Printing.  Guerilla Printing sponsored a VIP Lounge at Canadian Music week hosted by Melissa Di Marco (Out There TV) and Indie Love.

Wow, that was a lot of explanation. Enough of that. Here’s the video that came from that.

Independent artists featured include:

He died exactly a year ago today and the harsh memories and draining emotional days are still vivid.

Losing someone is like a splinter that never goes away. It’s especially painful when your attention is focused on it. The pain is more tolerable when you are busy, but you always know that the splinter is still there.

We’ve lived in a world without Dave for a year now. It’s certainly been a big adjustment for my sister, Eileen, and nephew, Brendan. I believe it’s still one day at a time for them.

Beavertails is still going on. Life relentlessly moves forward no matter who or what it’s dragging along.

We still have each other though. So we can be very thankful about that!

We miss you Dave!

We won’t be covering the one tonight.  The showcase should be entertaining as always.

It’s hosted by Mariano (Bag of Trix). Addy Chan, from Gadlfly, is performing as well.

Additional details (source):

THE BAZAAR – 9:30PM

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Don’t you love 60 second videos? Mine was 2 hours!

This is the 60 second version of a wedding we did last year for Jeanna and Jeffrey.

The bride and groom look great so there’s not much we needed to do. It’s a tear jerker when Jeanna cries

Joel and I were on the cameras. Gail handled the same day edit. I edited this 60 second version.

Despite tragedy and malfunctions, here’s something that might make take your mind off of that.

Just in case you missed it.

Nathaniel Baptism

Nathaniel was baptized on February 14 2010.

Nathaniel David Smith was named after his late uncle, David Paek, who died an untimely and tragic death last March 19th. His death has been a profound personal loss for his close family and friends and continues to be a daily struggle for those closest to him, especially his wife, Eileen and his parents that he left behind.

As we celebrate the birth of Nathaniel’s initiation into Christian life, we remember David and the happiness and love that he brought into our lives. Although Nathaniel never got the chance to meet David in person, we hope to instil what we think are some of David’s most distinguishing qualities in Nathaniel: strength, patience, initiative, self-respect, loyalty, and a sense of humour. As Godparents of his only son, Brendan, we promise to be there for him whenever he needs us and help Eileen raise him the way he intended.

David: It has been almost 1 year since we saw you alive & full of life. We miss and love you and wish you were here celebrating with us. You will forever be in our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers. Now and Always.

Love: Jason and Melissa

This what it looks like after applying the worm holes.

This is how we created the worm holes.