Tag Archives: Off-Topic

It Shouldn't Take a Genius

Kroc Camen posts up a slice of code to utilize the new HTML 5 video tag with graceful degradation for browsers that don’t support HTML 5 video yet:

Video for Everybody is very simply a chunk of HTML code that embeds a video into a website using the HTML5 video element which offers native playback in Firefox 3.5 and Safari 3 & 4.

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In other browsers that do not support video, it falls back to Adobe Flash:

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If Flash is not installed, QuickTime is used:

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If QuickTime is not installed then Windows Media Player is used in Internet Explorer for Windows Vista and above. This means that it is actually almost impossible for the video to not play in IE on Vista / Windows 7. Even without Flash and QuickTime, you’d have to disable Windows Media Player or all ActiveX entirely!

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Finally, if all else fails, a warning is issued that provides links to download the video, and links to software relevant to getting the video to play within the browser itself. Since this is just HTML, you can put anything here you want.

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This is all done without JavaScript and requires only two video encodes, one OGG file for Firefox 3.5, and one MP4 file for everything else (Flash / Safari / iPhone). Instructions on how to convert your videos to these formats with the correct settings are provided further down this article.

There are example screenshots and sample code to show you how to accomplish this on your own site.

This is a perfect example of exactly what is wrong with the Web. You shouldn’t have to create two separate video encodings, upload them, make sure your server is using the correct MIME-types for the videos in question, and insert twenty-three lines of HTML code in order to get video to play well in a browser and with as full compatibility as you can muster.

I understand from looking at the various articles and back-and-forth going on right now that the browser vendors are unwilling to come to terms on a video standard for using the video tag. That’s kind of to be expected (as is the fact that Microsoft apparently isn’t even showing up at the negotiations). Apple in particular has a pretty decent stake in pushing h.264. I highly doubt Theora is the future. Flash has basically emerged as the de facto video standard in the past few years, largely because of YouTube and similar services.

This is just way too difficult. I don’t know what the solution is, but I know that both at work and at home I’ve decided to use YouTube for just about everything video that I post on a site because it’s the closest thing to simplicity that exists right now. It’s relatively easy to get something up on the service, it takes HD (and as of today, a 2GB max), and videos on the service are automatically converted to h.264 for viewing on the iPhone because of YouTube’s working with Apple to make it so. It’s still harder than it should be to embed the videos in a page (especially since no decent plugins exist for self-hosted WordPress that are in active development), but at least it covers most of the bases you need to get a video working in someone’s Web browser.

I do agree with him that the impending problem with getting video in browsers is that of handheld devices. iPhone has had great success with YouTube, but other services don’t work with iPhone and it’s likely that as the number of handheld devices increases, the video solutions are only going to become more complex.

(Link via Daring Fireball. Photo credit: one less tv by flickr user Kevin Steele.)

Added an external hard drive today…

Added an external drive today after a small file system scare that made me fear for my photo library. I’m currently going through the initial backup for Time Machine.

Also: I display my nerd cred.

timemachine

Josh Bernoff on why traditional marketin…

Josh Bernoff on why traditional marketing and social media marketing are at odds with one another:

The problem is simple. Marketers don’t understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time. Like one of those maddening not-full-duplex speakerphones where you can’t interrupt somebody, this is what drives customers nuts. Think about it. None of those talking channels allows a response. None of those listening channels encourages actual feedback from the company.

The marketing industry’s idea of a two-way communication is to put an 800 number or a web address in an ad and take orders.

Like any shift in thinking, it’s already started with motivated individuals who wish to make a difference. It’s only a matter of time before this kind of thinking begins to permeate the culture of successful organizations.

O'Reilly is publishing a book entitled …

O’Reilly is publishing a book entitled Best iPhone Apps:

Best iPhone Apps is a reliable guide to the best, most useful, and most entertaining iPhone apps, concisely cataloged and described. This colorful catalog gives you the quick lowdown on each app, with brief tips on how to use it. This is the guide for discriminating downloaders.

Very rarely have I seen an idea for a book that will be as out-of-date as soon as it is published. I like O’Reilly, but this is a weird idea.

This must be for an audience that isn’t me.

Gary Hamel on managing what he terms the…

Gary Hamel on managing what he terms the “Facebook generation” (I’m abridging the list to remove his explanations, so you would do well to read the whole article):

I compiled a list of 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life. These are the post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow’s employees will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company is “with it” or “past it.”

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  1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
  2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
  3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
  4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
  5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
  6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
  7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.
  8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
  9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
  10. Users can veto most policy decisions.
  11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.
  12. Hackers are heroes.

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These features of Web-based life are written into the social DNA of Generation F—and mostly missing from the managerial DNA of the average Fortune 500 company. Yeah, there are a lot of kids looking for jobs right now, but few of them will ever feel at home in cubicleland.

The generation gap between the Boomers and Generation Y/Me/F/whatever-you-want-to-call-them is going to be a big battleground in the business world over the next few years, if it hasn’t already begun. These are two groups with vastly different expectations of what it means to be part of something.