Got Something You Want to Show the World? Open Screen Night is back!

Next Wednesday, we’re bringing back OPEN SCREEN NIGHT, one of our favorite, and most bizarre, Alamo traditions. At this event, we give YOU control over our screen. For this night only, you choose the programming, and we will project absolutely anything you bring (as long as it does not break the legal restrictions placed on us by the FBI, TABC, CIA, IRS, and/or USSR). Want to show off the new short film you just made? Perfect, bring it in. Wanna make everyone watch a particularly uncomfortable clip on YouTube? Just give us the URL and we’ll put it up. Have a favorite home movie or super embarrassing clip of your college roommate? Bring that in, too!

And even if you don’t have anything to show this time, come on out to have your mind blown. You never know what you’re going to see at OPEN SCREEN NIGHT, but somewhere in there you’ll definitely get a special treat. And if anything crappy gets shown you’ll only have to suffer through two minutes of it before our gonger can respond to your boos and get that garbage off the screen with one mighty bang on his gong.

Here’s a special note of encouragement from Chris Trew, the emcee of the evening: “The Stand-up comedy open mics in Austin are always packed with hungry performers looking for stage time in hopes of meeting new people to collaborate with or impressing people-in-charge to get some paid gigs. OPEN SCREEN NIGHT isn’t that different. If you’re a filmmaker (especially a comedic filmmaker) then you should be here with your DVD or YouTube link. It would be silly not to. Sure, you might get gonged, but if you do then take the note and come back next month with something better.”

Trew will be joined by his comedy theater The New Movement, who will be bringing their own special videos and will engage in entr’acte antics.

Do it! Doooo iiiittt! OPEN SCREEN NIGHT – Wednesday, January 26th, at 9:40 @Ritz.

Oscar nominations! Got some catching up to do? We can help.

As you’ve surely noted by now, the Academy Award nominations were announced this morning to the expected flurry of hype and controversy. While we may respectfully disagree with the exclusion of the likes of Christopher Nolan and Ryan Gosling from individual awards categories, the Best Picture slate is pretty solid. Check it out:

THE BLACK SWAN, THE FIGHTER, INCEPTION, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, THE KING’S SPEECH, 127 HOURS, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, TOY STORY 3, TRUE GRIT, WINTER’S BONE.

OK, so maybe they missed on BLUE VALENTINE but you can’t win them all. Looking over this list is especially satisfying because we have played all of these films in our theaters this year with the exception of WINTER’S BONE, which we couldn’t fit in at the time. And of these; THE BLACK SWAN is onscreen currently at South Lamar and Lake Creek, THE FIGHTER is playing at Village, THE KING’S SPEECH is packing houses at South Lamar and Lake Creek, and TRUE GRIT continues as one of the biggest attractions at South Lamar, Lake Creek and Village. It’s good to know that we have an audience that wants the best and we’re thrilled to provide it.

There were some big surprises in the other categories. One of the major headscratchers is the exclusion of Christopher Nolan in the Directing category. While all of those nominated did an excellent job, Christopher Nolan seemed like an obvious inclusion.

Another notable name missing is Ryan Gosling in the Best Actor category, for his performance in BLUE VALENTINE. While his BV costar Michelle Williams was nominated in the Best Actress category, he didn’t make the cut.

One positive surprise was the nomination of DOGTOOTH in the Best Foreign Language Film Category. We sort of thought this one might be too weird for mainstream acclaim, but there you have it.

We were also happy to note that the consensus best movie of 2010 from the Alamo Programming Team, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category.

As for all those Oscar Shorts, very few of us get too excited about these because so few have seen them, but as we’ve done in years past, we will be screening both the Live Action and the Animated Shorts nominated films at South Lamar starting on February 11. We’ll announce showtimes here when they become available.

Commerce Department and WAA Code of Ethics

Thanks to Tim Evans I was alerted to a report about the Commerce Department weighing in on privacy issues online. Suffice to say I agree with the direction Commerce is giving the Obama administration. Specifically the idea that, according to CNN’s Money, “the government ‘enlist the expertise and knowledge of the private sector’ to create ‘voluntary codes of conduct that promote informed consent and safeguard personal information.’”

More or less exactly what John Lovett and I proposed back in September of this year.

I have started reaching out to the media on this point — that we in the digital measurement community are already taking matters into our own hands and stepping up — but we could use your help! Please, if you know anyone in the press, send a link to this blog post along to them and help spread the word that as a community we can take responsibility for our own actions and we are willing to do what is right for consumers around the globe.

This issue affects all of us in the digital measurement sector — vendors, consultants, and practitioners alike. Please help us create awareness about our efforts.

Here are links to the relevant background materials:

• We have become our own worst enemy … a call to action!


• Proposed “Web Analysts Code of Ethics”


• Update to the “Web Analysts Code of Ethics”

Here is the link to the near-final draft of the Web Analysts Code of Ethics:

• Last chance to shape the Web Analysts Code of Ethics (WAA Blog)

The Standards sub-committee for the Code of Ethics met yesterday and as I publish this blog post John Lovett is presenting the final version to the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors. We expect the Code to be available to sign at the WAA web site in the coming weeks.

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EaselJS / Canvas Generative Graphics Flickr Set

Just a quick note, but I have created a Flickr set which contains some of the generative graphics I have been creating using canvas, JavaScript and EaselJS.

You can view the set here.

I havent released all of the code used to create all of the examples, but I will release the code / examples as I finish them. Ill post new images on the set whenever I create something I think is interesting.

Even More Web Accessibility Jobs

Great to list even more accessibility jobs!

Web Accessibility Specialist at Modis in Wilmington, DE (long-term contract). Modis is seeking aWeb Accessibility Specialistfor a long term contract position with their industry leading client.The Accessibility Specialist will be responsible for identifying and suggesting potential solutions for accessibility violations based on W3C WCAG 2.0 standards.

Web Accessibility Specialist at DeVry University, Wood Dale, Illinois. The primary purpose of this position is to consult with course developers on the guidelines and application of web accessibility to online courses created in Kinect. This includes researching section 508 and determining enhancements needed to course structure and media.

Accessibility Product Manager at RIM (BlackBerry) in Canada (Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa). The Accessibility team is responsible for ensuring BlackBerry products and services are usable and accessible by the widest possible audience. This includes researching, specifying, designing and driving through to implementation various internal and external accessibility solutions. The successful candidate will be the voice of the customer and responsible for driving, from concept to implementation, emergency access BlackBerry solutions that meet the needs of persons with disabilities, wireless carrier partners and applicable legislation.

Accessibility Practice Lead, Atlanta, GA, 6-month contract. Collaborate with the User Experience and Development teams in planning, documenting and testing usable accessibility compliant interfaces. Proactively determine process, efficiencies, patterns, training and communication opportunities to improve our online experience for all users. Present and conduct training sessions for various teams on web accessibility process, planning, documentation and testing. Complete audits and test current and new products for compliance. Draft and maintain standards documents and remain abreast of trends and developments in the area of web and software accessibility.

The Zen of HTML5 presso video

I did a talk last week for London Web on the history and philosophies of HTML5, largely prompted by recent developments like Google Chrome dropping support for H.666 video, the renaming of “HTML5″ to plain “HTML” and the silliness of the HTML5 logo.

Watch “The Zen of HTML5″ on the Opera Developer Network, with loads of resources to get you going. (“Get you going” in a “get you started” way, not in a viagra way.)

Blender wins PortalProgramas Open Source award

The nominations and voting can be read here:

http://www.portalprogramas.com/software-libre/premios/software-libre-revolucionario

Blender download and info page:
http://gratis.portalprogramas.com/Blender.html

The award - 300 euro - has been received and will be spent on our documentation project, especially for improving our wiki.blender.org website.

Thanks!

Ton Roosendaal
23-1-2011

http://www.portalprogramas.com/software-libre/premios/software-libre-revolucionario