A little something for the new year - a look back at a year in 40 seconds.

Eirik Solheim’s One Year In 40 Seconds blends still images taken from the same spot throughout one year. 

Details here.

Remember all the Year 2000 hype about computer systems all failing at the same time?

It looks like it’s hit the Microsoft Zune - 9 years late.

We’re going to apologize ahead of time to our friends at Microsoft, because we’re bringing the Zunetanic icon out of retirement for this one.

Across the world, Zune 30s have started dying. Here’s how one report describes the situation:

Apparently, around 2:00 AM today, the Zune models either reset, or were already off. Upon when turning on, the thing loads up and… freezes with a full loading bar (as pictured above). I thought my brother was the only one with it, but then it happened to my Zune. Then I checked out the forums and it seems everyone with a 30GB HDD model has had this happen to them.

Microsoft is aware of the Zunepocolypse, dubbed by some as Z2K, but so far has only issued this terse response:

We were made aware of a widespread issue facing owners of Zune 30 devices this morning.  We have a technical team working hard to isolate the issue right now and will update everyone as much as possible.  Thanks for your patience while we get to the bottom of this.

Think heads will roll because of this?

Update: Microsoft has an update: “There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.”

They expect the issue to resolve itself on January 1st:

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used).  The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year.  The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009.   We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on.  If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.  

Here in Iowa, in December, we are having predictably treacherous winter weather. A balmy 40-degree (F) day melts the snow, which freezes to a sheet of ice as soon as the sun sets.

I not-so-gracefully slipped on my way into the grocery store Monday night. Lovely. I wasn’t hurt (well, not too much), just bruised my pride when people saw me wipe out. Blah. Ow.

So the most recent podcast from international chemical giant BASF caught my attention.

“The Chemical Reporter” asks, “Why does ice melt when you sprinkle salt on it?”

It has some cheesy sound effects, and has a very over-polished corporate tone…. but overlooking that, the mini chemistry lesson was interesting. And helpful.

Other recent episodes include “How does a plasma screen work?” and “How does conditioner make your hair soft?”. The podcast feed is here.

Image: BJHokanson

For the past week, our local newspapers and television have been preoccupied with three main themes: feel-good features about Christmas, horror stories about murderous ex-husbands dressed like Santa Claus, and expanded coverage of multiple waves of bad weather (snow, fog, ice, snow, and ice-jammed flash flooding).

Pushed to the margins of the news (here, at least) has been the recent conflict between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian government in Gaza. Network news gives broad overviews, without any discussion of the conflict’s effect on normal, everyday people there.

The Mideast Youth blog today features a podcast interview with Ramzi, a teacher living and working in Gaza. Ramzi is an occasional contributing writer to the site, and he offers a first-person account of what was happening there over the weekend. With no electricity, and access to food and medical supplies, the picture he paints is grim.

Mideast Youth is a non-profit news blog covering North Africa and the Middle East. Their goal is “to prove the fact that diversity is powerful and positive, and [that] we should find ways to coexist for the sake of a better and more productive Middle East.”

The site features contributions from a wide geographic area, and a similarly broad range of personal, political, and religious perspectives, by their own description including “Palestinian Christians, Arab Jews, Armenians, Iranian atheists, Israeli soldiers, Sudanese poets, Pakistani activists, Kurdish students, Arab Americans and many more representing different sects, social class, nationalities or religions.”

The feed to subscribe to the Mideast Youth podcast is here.

Blendtec has introduced a new iPhone app, Will It Blend (App Store Link), that builds on the success of its insanely popular podcast:

What makes this app unique is that it contains original footage of Will It Blend? videos in a higher resolution that has ever been released before. The iPhone’s stunning screen is the perfect platform to see details of the blends that have gone unnoticed till now. The iPhone 3G blend was filmed using a state of the art Red Camera at 1,000 frames per second. Best of all, since the videos are stored natively on the iPhone, there is no waiting for a download or wondering how good the connection is.

Blendtec is leveraging the success of their podcast to open up a new revenue stream -  an iPhone app that basically repackages their video podcasts. 

While some people are still debating the future of podcasting and whether you can make money with it, Blendtec has used its video podcast to generate over 100 million views for a blender infomercial, and increase their sales 500%. 

Blendtec is making very smart use of podcasting - but they aren’t doing anything that a lot of other companies couldn’t do. Why aren’t more companies following Blendtec’s example?

via TUAW

blubrry has announced that it’s offering a free month of podcast hosting to podcasters left homeless by the Podango failure:

We are prepared to assist the Podango podcasters by offering a step by step process and and special tool to automate the transferring of media files from Podango to the Blubrry network.  In addition we are offering Podango podcasters 30 days of free hosting with publishing at the Blubrry network.  The 30 days of free hosting will give you time to continue your show uninterrupted and time to consider your hosting options.  You are under no obligation to continue hosting with Blubrry.  During or after the 30 day period you may move your shows to another provider.  Of course, we hope you continue hosting with Blubrry.

According to blubrry, they are also finalizing the code to move Podango podcasters’ media files automatically.

Details at the blubrry blog.

New media pundit Paul Colligan has some interesting comments for podcasters today, in response to Podango’s shutdown announcement:

If you are a Podcaster on Podango (or any other site that has their domain name (not yours)), now is the time to own the very media you’ve worked so hard to create. If you use any other service (Feedburner, Amazon S3, Libsyn, etc.) map YOUR DOMAIN to THEIR SERVICE. Domains are currently $7.47 a year….you have no excuse.

This way if someone goes down (and they always go down), you can fix everything with the quick repoint of your domain name.

Don’t just BE THE MEDIA … OWN THE MEDIA. Handing your content over to someone with a seriously flawed business model (and you know my feelings about Podcast Networks) with no plan of escape is as lame as launching a business with a seriously flawed business model and promising a world that you can’t deliver.

Colligan also argues that Podango’s troubles have no correlation to the future of podcasting and indie Internet media creation.

“Podango’s problems say as little about the future of Podcasting as GM’s problems say about the future of cars.”

Paul’s comments echo my thoughts and are especially timely, too.

I’ve always been skeptical of any service that gets between you and people that want to read/listen/view what you do. If you add intermediaries, you add points of failure that you don’t control. You need to judge the real value of these services carefully and use them in ways that mitigate the risk they can introduce.