OverExpressed

Animating Mount Shasta with Animoto

I’ve been using Animoto for about a year and a half now (one of the few products I have stuck with from the humble beta beginnings).  It is an extremely simple way to make professional, film-quality slideshows on the web.  I know some of you may really enjoy the control you have using something like Windows MovieMaker or whatever the crApple equivalent is, but there is something to be said for brainless ease of use.

Using Animoto

There are only 3 steps to creating an awesome video:

1. Add Photos. There is support for direct upload from flickr, facebook, or your hard drive.  Though I would recommend stearing clear of the facebook option since they irreversibly compromise the image quality on all of your uploads (which will lead to a lower quality video in Animoto).  You can also insert text captions and highlight particular photos to be featured.
2. Add Music. You can either use their library of music (broken down by genre), or you can upload any of your own tunes (mp3 only).  It would be nice if they also split the music up by tempo or mood or some other parameter that could better link to the theme of your slideshow (like Netflix recommendations – “Cerebral dark comedies involving 3 or more midgets and a french mime”).
3. Finish. You can add some basic information about the video (title, etc.)  Then you’re good to go.  Animoto will automatically begin analyzing your music and rendering a sweet video with your photos.  This process seems to take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the length of your video and probably how many users are making videos at the time.
4. Re-MIX! (optional) If for some reason you aren’t pleased with the first video animoto generates for you, you can have it render a remix with just one click.  All new effects will be introduced in another attempt to somehow make your life look interesting and meaningful.

The Cost of Animated Awesome

You can make an unlimited number of short (30 second) videos for free.  After that, you can make individual full-length videos for $3/video or you can sign up for an all-access pass ($30/year) to get unlimited full-length videos.  Any of your videos can be converted to DVD-quality for $5 each.  They also have a professional plan but I don’t think I know any of those.

The video embedded above came from my recent mountaineering adventure up Mt. Shasta that resulted in my temporary Angelina Jolie Lips (click through if the video isn’t showing up in your feed reader). I woke up a couple of days after the hike and my lips had actually healed together. After soaking them in warm water for a while, I was eventually able to poke my tongue through and slowly rip my mouth back open. So yeah, wear sunblock kids.

What is Bioengineering?

It’s the first day of summer, and it’s high time I finally joined the big conversation happening on the internet.  Sure, I’ve been participating semi-passively through google reader, facebook, friendfeed, twitter, etc. for a while now.  I have alpha and beta accounts with just about every newfangled web service in existence.  But now I’d like to pour a little bit of my voice into this shiny new blog.  Yes, a blog.  I’ve finally caught up with the 90′s.  I think I’m ready to tackle some topics that require a little more than 140 characters.

Why Blog?

I’m a big fan of Seth Godin (a popular marketing guru).  One of his many nuggets of wisdom that has stuck with me relates to the cost of now.  Basically, you pay a high price to get something sooner.  For me, I have some sort of unhealthy thirst for information that leads me to be constantly tapped into the next big thing in science & technology.  I willingly jam my mouth right in the firehose’s path.  And doing this puts me in a unique position to process and assess cutting-edge ideas and technologies.  Seth warns that if you pay the price for this information, you should do what you can to leverage it:

Sometimes, in our quest for the new, we overpay. Most of the time, moving down the curve will decrease your costs dramatically, without hurting your ability to make smart decisions. Alternatively, when you choose to spend the time (or money), leverage it like crazy.

- Seth Godin, The high cost of now

Right now I share what I learn with close friends and through a slightly larger network on Google Reader.  But now I think it’s time for me to put more of my own ideas in writing.  Obviously my primary motivation here is to get some boss street cred, but I also hope to contribute something practical to the lives of my readers.  You’re drowning in a sea of science and technology, and I’ll be your lifeboat.  Or at least positively buoyant.  Like a stick.  A floating stick named Rick.

Science, Technology, and Productivity in Bioengineering

So let’s start with some background.  I’m a bioengineer.  If you don’t know what that is, it’s probably because nobody has really defined it that well yet.  It’s a painfully nebulous term that covers everything from genomics to computational biology to prosthetic limb replacement.  If it involves biology in any combination with mechanics, chemistry, physics, electrostatics, computer science, or business, people can and have categorized it as “bioengineering”.  I specifically place myself in the neat little area of biomolecular phenomena, explored through the lens of micro- and nano-fabricated materials and structures.  I basically put things like DNA and proteins in small chambers to try and make some sweet tools for applications like rapid, inexpensive diagnostics.

As a bioengineer you often find yourself at the interface of ologies, ometries, and omicses.   It’s all part of the Bio2.0 bubble.  Want more funding?  Make up a word.  Add a convincing suffix and you’re all set.  We’re drowning in acronyms and initiatives to the point where nothing means anything anymore.  What’s really up with cancer?  What about HIV?  Why can’t I just clone an extra liver for the weekends?  When will I get my genome and what the hell am I going to do with it?  Science hasn’t always had the best record when it comes to public relations.  Hopefully I can leverage some of my interests and expertise to shine some light in this oftentimes shady expanse.

To improve the science, though, I also believe in the power of working smarter, not harder.  This drives me to optimize the tools I use on a daily basis so that I can get more for dime my time (TM).  More perk for my work (TM).  More spinach for my minutes (TM).  More pepper for my effort (TM).  Man, I could do this all day.  And for this, I apologize.  I don’t even know what pepper would be in that analogy.

Back to the point, I currently share these tools with friends and family in a pretty low-throughput manner.  But now, with OverExpressed, I’m making a one-stop-shop for all of this information.  Hopefully you can find something useful here, and if you have any comments or feedback, you can’t overexpress them enough.  Ha.