Zac Bowling’s Mind

This is a site that I put some effort into helping create that we just released. Check it out. Over 19 million business listings. LeadSwami.com

This cracks me up. I hate to write blog posts with little of my own content but this video sums up the McCain campaign pretty well.

Just after the laying off of 3 others at Seesmic last month, my friend Loic le Meur, the founder and CEO of Seesmic, came to the decision today to lay off another 7 people people at Seesmic. With the troubling economy and difficulty for start-ups to gain any capital at the moment, he made the decision in order to make sure that Seesmic survives this economic down turn.

it makes me sad and angry that the economy has gotten this bad that things like this are happening. It’s amazing how close this topic has come to the next presidential election. It will probably be the primary deciding factor in this election. How does this even happen? I have no confidence in our economy’s structure. We need radical change in how we do business here in the states. I believe there are core faults in our system.

Either way, long live Seesmic!

This video shows that a bunch of people seen right through the Mojave switch-a-roo.

Honestly, these marketing campaigns do nothing for me. Fix the enterprise desktop IT issues first with Vista.

This spoof makes me laugh though:

Last night I got the EZ300HD pocket HD camera from RCA from Circut City. It was $129 ($140 after taxes). I had a chance to play with the older Small Wonder EZ200 which I really enjoyed.

The great part about this camera is that it records at 720p (1280×720). You can see a sample below.

RCA Small Wonder EZ300HD - Test 1 from Zac Bowling on Vimeo.

Specs:

• Records in three modes: HD (1280×720), HQ (640×480?), and WebQ (320×240?)
• 2 GB of internal storage
• Supports full-sized SD cards up to 32GB for additional storage (with a built in adapter for MicroSD cards)
• HDMI port (Mini-HDMI size)
• Standard AV out (RCA Video and Audio)
• Still photos at 1280×720
• Propitiatory Li-Ion battery with an included external charger
• Flip out camera (so you can record yourself)
• Lip stick like, pop out USB port
• Landscape and Macro switch focusing switch
• 4x digitial zoon
• Package includes: Lanyard, carrying sack, USB extension cord, AV Cable, battery charger and power connector

First off, I loved the RCA Small Wonder EZ200 when I played with in Palo Alto earler this month. Very simple. I’m a techy so I normally love feature overload, but I did love the simplicity of that camera.

The EZ300HD remains to true to that concept of being simple. It’s a little bit bigger but it packs a much larger screen (the same size as the Kodak Vi6 HD Pocket Camera). You can record about 1 hour of HD or 6 hours on WebQ using the 2GB of internal storage. You can record youself using the flip out camera, and the HDMI port really surprised me.

Unboxing:

Conclusion:
It’s a pretty fun camera but it has one major issue. The specific H.264 codec implementation that they choose for the camera isn’t quiet compatible with anything but a few off beat tools. That means the ease of use is sort of killed by having to install a 3rd party codec. Thankfully this noted everywhere and if you are a Windows user then the codec is stored on the device in a little installer. If you are using a Mac though, you have to install the latest VLC (0.9.4) to play (and convert) the video or ffmpeg (or ffmpegX) to convert the video to a format that you can use in other tools like iMovie, Final Cut, or Adobe Premier (unless you upload directly to the web, which YouTube and Vimeo are able to convert it for you).

The audio isn’t very great. Records mono at 22,000hz using a propitiatory Microsoft codec (but everything seems to handle it ok). The sound isn’t that great though. The microphone is sort of cheap.

All in all though, for $129, its not to bad. If you want something mobile, cheap, and can make pretty good quality videos for YouTube or vlogging, its decent.

I’m voting for Rick Noriega this year to be the next US Senator from Texas. John Cornyn has not fully served us the way he should, and it’s time for a change.

College Humor is pretty funny.

Homepage image

This is a huge milestone. A lot of work went into getting this release out.

With it comes C# 3.0, Linq, VB.NET 8.0, System.Windows.Forms 2.0, and so much more!!

Also checkout the redesigned Mono homepage (eating our own dog food on the backend as it runs Mono).

What really bothers me is the “battleground states”. I’m so annoyed by it. If it wasn’t for the few states that signed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact into law, I feel like my democratic vote in the wonderful state of Texas would go to waste.

It’s sad that the only way my vote is going to count is thanks to other states. The electoral college system is outdated and stupid. Even when it was created, it was a bad idea. I challenge anyone to give me an explanation otherwise.

If we got rid of the electoral college or at least the winner take all approach of our states to hand out electorates, candidates would have to come each state. Each vote would count.

In the current system, I feel like a disenfranchised voter. It makes me angry. So angry that I’m looking for a group if there is any here to join with to campain against this. If there is none, I will create one. I’m taking this to our state senate.

This year I’m voting for Rick Noriega for US State senate (John Cornyn served us fine but its a time for a change). I’m also voting for Tom Daley for Congress (Texas 3rd congressional district). I challenge both of them if elected to stand up for taking down the electoral college at a national level. I also challenge every state senator and representative to support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact in the mean time.

This has nothing to do with party politics, but still if we did away with it, we would see a surge in 3rd party candidates and we no longer see the phenomenon of “battleground states”. Candidates would campaign across America because every vote would count. It wouldn’t matter if your state was predominately any party.

The current system is unfair and illogical, so this is my battle.