The Chris Brown LP

A beautifully articulated video on Barak Obama, the campaign and the issues at hand by Lawrence Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society.

This week I found out the sad news that my cousin, Shawn, was killed in combat while serving in Iraq on Monday.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his parents, sisters and new bride.  Shawn was really making a difference in his life and working hard to make the world a better place by serving his country.  We'll all miss his jokes and never forget our memories of him.  He will be remembered as a Hero for his ultimate sacrifice.  I can only hope this war will soon end so no other families will bear such losses.

Here is what the local press has written:

Logansport, IN - The fight for peace is over for Indiana soldier killed after only four months in Iraq.

Newspaper

His teacher and even some of his classmates are learning about the loss of 20-year-old Army PFC Shawn Hensel.

At Logansport High School, they will observe a moment of silence Thursday to honor a local man in the news and Wednesday, the news was not good.

"It was just quite a shock," said John Morgan, PFC Hensel's former high school history teacher. "It was a very somber feeling just to know someone who went to Logansport High School has died in Iraq."

Hensel was reportedly killed in a crossfire in the fourth month of his first Iraq deployment. Morgan knew Private Hensel well. "He was quite a character, liked to joke around and have a good time." But he says he worked hard when it came time to finish the job.

"He was really a bright kid," said Morgan.

Hensel left school in 2005 just short of graduation but worked hard to earn a GED and get into the military.

"He was just looking forward to serving in Iraq just to see what it was like. The military life really appealed to Shawn," said Morgan, who saw him just before his deployment.

Like others in his hometown he says Shawn was proud of is country.

"Tragic...pulls your heart strings," the commander of the local VFW Post described. "It's hard on everybody."

Other Vietnam veterans at the post also know about losing a 20-year-old comrade.

"You think about it all your life. You really do. It goes away sometimes and comes back. But it's always in the back of your mind," said Navy patrol boat veteran Mickey Brechbiel.

Teacher John Morgan says he wrote PFC Hensel's name on the chalk board for his class to see Wednesday. "I just hope out of all of this Shawn will always be remembered as a hero to the students at Logansport High School."

As he was deployed last spring, Private Hensel's mother told his hometown newspaper she was "scared to death." But proud of her only son.

It is not easy for Shawn's mother to stop crying."I can stop for a second, and that's about it. Because I miss him so bad. Every time I talked to him on the phone, he'd say, 'I love you, Mom,'" Beth Hensel said.

Shawn's father hopes people remember one thing about his son.

"I just want everybody to remember that he served his country and he was proud to be a soldier. He loved it," David Hensel said.

Shawn would have come home from Iraq next July had enemy crossfire not brought him home sooner.

I'll post information on the services and funeral as soon as available.

I heart Discovery Channel and if there is one time of year that I relish more than any other on Discovery, it is undeniably "Shark Week".  This year marks the 20th year of Shark Weeks on Discovery Channel, so you can expect to see some of the most over-the-top footage and coverage ever.

So how does this fit into web development and marketing?  Well, it does.  In coordination with the upcoming Shark Week, Discovery.com has added widgets for blogs and a Facebook application to stream the last teethy content to your favorite profile or hub.  Also, there is a Shark Week Video Mixer that allows for custom video production using the Discovery Channel's footage that is mashable and sharable.  Those sharks may be millions of years old but they have evolved for web 2.0.

Note:  You cannot use this widget or most others for that matter on Vox.  Vox hasn't made widgets accessible on the platform...yet.  Let's hope that the Vox team gets with the game and starts enabling this functionality...SOON.

It's hard to imagine a world today without the internet despite its relatively short existence.  But what would happen if the Internet crashed completely??  This may be the outcome...

Ben Forta, Adobe Systems Inc's Senior Technical Evangelist, will be visiting Indy today to present a preview of the features and updates to the upcoming release of ColdFusion 8 (Scorpio).  Ben's role with Adobe is focused primarily on ColdFusion and Flex.  He is highly recognized as one of the most knowledgeable resources in the world on ColdFusion web development.  He is also author of the best ColdFusion book, IMHO, the Web Application Contruction Kit (WACK).

The event will be held at the former Walker Information building at Noon on Tuesday, May 8.  A copy of Flex 2 with Charting and a copy of ColdFusion 8 will be raffled off as well.  Pizza will be served for attendees.

For more information and details on the event, please visit the Hoosier Fusion site.  To learn more about Ben Forta, please visit his site Forta.com.

Thanks, Ben for not forgetting Indy in the pre-release tour!  ColdFusion rocks!!

Are you a savvy web developer or even a novice aspiring for a career in web development?  Or maybe you just like to add cool stuff to your MySpace, Facebook, or blog?  If you fit into one of these groups, listen up.  Widgets are the word.  And widgets are part of a new paradigm in web development that encompasses the social and collaborative nature of the internet.

So what the heck is a widget?  A widget is typically a reusable component that can be easily incorporated into any web page by inserting a portable chunk of code.  Widget developers do a lot of the hard work in creating functional components that can be shared and consumed by the larger user community.  Many widgets also offer some level of customization to best integrate with the existing branding or theme of a web page.  Widgets are typically built using a combination of HTML, JavaScript, AJAX and/or Flash.  But other flavors can also exist.  Another advantage to widgets are their ability to facilitate rapid application development.  Why reinvent the media player..er, wheel..if you don't explicitly have to do so?

There are literally hundreds of widgets already available and I expect this marketplace will have a massive growth explosion in the next few years, particularly due to their universal nature and the aggressive growth of social networks.  Some good examples of widgets are blogging  enhancements, hit counters,  badges for services like Twitter, interactive games, messaging and communication services, search engines, music players, and video players.  You may have already used or encountered a widget and not even know it.  Ever see a YouTube video on MySpace?  Ever wondered how some bloggers have gotten badges placed on their site?  Ever seen Google ads displayed on a web page (via AdSense)?  These are all widgets.  Many are free and some can even make you money such as Amazon.com's Add Quick Linker Widget with Amazon Associates ID (affiliate program).  In addition to blogs, social networks, and web sites, widgets are also becoming more supported and popular on the developing web desktop environments such as PageFlakes and NetVibes.

Three of the leading resources for widgets are WidgetBox, YourMinis, and ClearSpring.  Each site offers a library of hundreds of web widgets.  I have personally used WidgetBox on several occassions and found it to be an outstanding resource in my arsenal of web development tools.

Widgets will likely continue to contribute to the web 2.0 movement.  With tools like widgets and new web-based development platforms, which I will be covering in my next post, developers are discovering new and exciting ways to rapidly program web applications and deliver innovative solutions with less cost to the bottomline.

TypePad already supports most widgets including their own custom widgets called Blidgets.  Since Six Apart also owns and runs VOX, why aren't widgets supported?!?!  Contact VOX and let them know that you want widget support.

Additional Resources:

• Read/WriteWeb:  Web 2.0 Expo: All Things Widgets
• Read/WriteWeb:  Widgetsphere: New Playground For Marketers
• Read/WriteWeb:  Widget services ramping up
• Read/WriteWeb:  ClearSpring enters the widget space with a developer focus
• Read/WriteWeb:  Widgetbox Releases Blidgets
• Read/WriteWeb:  ClearSpring Gets $5.5M from AOL Founders
• Read/WriteWeb:  Widgetbox calls to widgetize the Web
• Read/WriteWeb:  Widget services ramping up
  

Apparently, famed designer Calvin Klein will be introducing a new line of cologne and perfume fragrances targeted at the blogger and technosexual communities.  The fragrances will be sold under the brand name IN2U.

I had not yet heard the neologistic term "technosexual", although it fits me pretty much to a "T".  In case you are wondering too, according to the Urban Dictionary, a technosexual is:

Like most CK fragrances, the new brand will be available for Him and Her.  IN2U for Him consists of a lime gin fizz with a combination of musks and a vetiver finish for a fresh, woody, oriental scent.  IN2U for Her combines pink grapefruit fizz with sugar orchid and neon amber for a fresh, warm, sexy scent.  You can find more information on these fragrances at ckin2u.com and purchase through Sephora.

This is an interesting market and certainly one that I would expext to continue to develop.  But I also question the ability of a non-tech product capturing the appeal of the technosexual community without some kind of tech/gadget angle.  Anyone else have two cents to chime in on this rather new approach?

TrackBack:

• ValleyWag:  Bloggers As Calvin Klein Models
• commandN Vlog: Episode #82
  

The highly anticipated next release of Adobe Creative Suite CS3 will be launched today.  With the acquisition of Macromedia, the two innovative companies have completely integrated and converged their individual product lines into a powerhouse of applications and suites.  Additionally, the Mac audience will finally have an universal binary suite optimized for the Intel-based Macs.  Previous versions of Adobe CS on Intel Macs had nearly completely eroded the performance benefits of the Intel processor.

With this consolidation and unification of products, Adobe will expand its CS offerings in a variety of suite solutions that best fit an individual designer, developer or production artist.  Suites include:

• Design Standard
• Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, InDesign CS3, Acrobat 8 Professional
• Design Premium
• Design Standard applications + Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3 Professional

• Web Standard
• Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Fireworks CS3, Contribute CS3
• Web Premium
• Web Standard applications + Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Acrobat 8 Professional
• Production Premium
• After Effects CS3 Professional, Premiere Pro CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Flash CS3 Professional, Illustrator CS3, Soundbooth CS3, Encore CS3
• Master Collection
• After Effects CS3 Professional, Premiere Pro CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Flash CS3 Professional, Illustrator CS3, Soundbooth CS3, Encore CS3, Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Fireworks CS3, Contribute CS3

I have been fortunate enough to see the earlier versions of many these applications while attending Adobe MAX 2006.  There are many compelling reasons to upgrade to these newest releases and amazing new capabilities.  I have been a beta tester for Photoshop CS3, Fireworks 9 (CS3), and Soundbooth for several months.  Each application has been tremendously improved.  In particular, Adobe has leveraged Macromedia's expertise in interface design to improve application workflow and usability.  The Adobe Acrobat Reader 8 is just one example.  Its a much cleaner and usable solution.  In line with these changes, Adobe modified its traditional pallettes to the more functional docks, but most importantly added a single bar rollover for each dock to increase workspace and lessen visual clutter.  It rocks.

I'm sure there will be much more to write here after I receive my official release.  Adobe is one of my favorite companies and one of the most respected innovators in software.  So get your creative juices flowing and check out these kick-butt applications!