After working on the Tweetports component for Joomla! 1.5 I have become intimately familiar with the Twitter Search API and the power and limitations associated with it.  More importantly I learned there is the still untapped power in tweets and tweeting, twittering, oh heck who knows what to call it. Twitter has largley been defined by its use and users and has become a powerful communciation tool but also provides the capability for people to talk about every inane thing they do during the day.  Trust me; there is such a thing as TMI (Too Much Information) and the fact that you clipped your toenails or just added salt to your pot of chili fits squarely in that category.  That is the simple beauty of Twitter - use it for what you want.

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The studio system of moviemaking (what we all call "Hollywood") has suffered some major blows in the last few years. Despite the success of blockbusters like Avatar and Ironman 2, many major (read expensive) films have failed to draw large enough audiences to offset their costs, and studio revenues are suffering accordingly. Studios have latched onto new technology like 3D (more on this topic later) as a way to raise ticket prices and lure patrons into theaters. The high costs attached to studio filmmaking has led to a risk-averse system pandering to a "lowest common denominator" audience, giving us sequel after sequel, and remake after remake, with very little original thought in their products.

The one bright spot in the film industry is that of independent (known as indie) films. The film festivals are bulging with massive quantities of high-quality indie and documentary films, and some have enjoyed major success at the highest levels, like the Academy Awards and Golden Globes (The Hurt Locker and The Cove are good examples).

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The Open Source movement has become a commercial market force, this didn't happen over night but has been gaining steam for more than a decade.  In most cases open source provides clients with a value proposition that would have been unimaginable in the not too recent past, access to source code, low to no cost acquisition of technology, and throngs of people developing software for you for FREE.  But with this upside is also a risk of shoddy code, continuous undocumented changes, and project direction that doesn't necessarily fit with your corporate vision.  I will be addressing the Open Source movement on my blog for quite some time but I want to address those "throngs of developers" with my comments today.

Test. Test. TEST.  With an open framework, such as Joomla or WordPress, anyone can write a module or component that is very useful and fills a myriad of particular niches.  One of our strengths at EO MediaWorks is the knowledge and ability to fix and modify these parts and pieces so that we can deliver well integrated and stable end products.  Invariably we spend a bunch of time chasing bugs in other people's code.

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The Apple iPad, released this week, is a real game changer in the computer industry. Not because it is a tablet computer...there have been plenty of those...but because it is so un-computer-like. The iPad is a truly portable, and very affordable device that requires virtually no computer skills to use.  

Running the extremely intuitive iPhone operating system, the iPad does not require a mouse, keyboard, or other input devices to perform basic functions.  People can read an article, surf the Web, check their email, watch a video, or play a game simply by making a few basic gestures with their fingers.  Of course all this capability has been available on the iPhone for several years, but the difference-maker is the beautiful 10" iPad screen.  All that screen real estate, combined with great battery life (12 hours of continuous video playback!), in an extremely portable form factor, means that the iPad will soon be the device of choice for commuters, business travelers, those with young children, students, and computer-phobic individuals of all ages.

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