Video Podcasts

Best of: Our Favorite Videos

Merlin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:05:24 -0500

Back at work killing time? Sure you are. After all, it's nationwide "Thumb up your butt" week, right? You bet it is.

So, from the archives of 43 Folders (and the on-hiatus Merlin Show), here's four of my favorite videos of stuff I've done. Hope you like 'em.

"Inbox Zero" Google Tech Talk

58 minute presentation at Google's Mountain View campus; July 23, 2007
(original post)

It's amazing to me that this little fellow has now been watched 213,000 times (If you're counting, that's over 23 person-years of viewing time. yikes.)

Anyhow, I really like how this turned out, and it's been very cool to hear how many people this has turned on to the idea of doing something more responsible with their email.

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Interview: Jonathan Coulton

10-minute interview with internet troubadour, Jonathan Coulton
original post

I conducted this interview with the wonderful Jonathan Coulton right around the time I found out I was going to become a father. Have to say that, given my mood at the time, I found what he had to say inspirational.

I'd love to catch up with Jonathan again some time and see if his email mojo has gotten any more satisfying for him since we talked.

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Merlin Show Interview: Jeffrey Veen

16-minute interview with Google's Jeff Veen
original post

Jeff's been a swell pal and great guy to work with (I managed projects for him back in the day). In this particular instance, Jeff's insight into how to move aside the BS and get to the kernel of things is not to be missed.

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IDEO "Know How" Talk

1-hour conversation at IDEO's Palo Alto campus; September 9, 2007
(original post)

Sure, I was high on the Theraflu, but this gave me the chance to talk about the idea that's most got my attention right now: "How do we deal with the lack of scarcity in our electronic world?"

Many thanks to my pals at bOING bOING for putting this on lots of people's radar screens. Much appreciated.

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”Best of: Our Favorite Videos” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 27, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Merlin at IDEO: "Know How" Talk with Scott Underwood

Merlin — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:06:47 -0400

Scott Underwood from IDEO was kind enough to invite me down to their Palo Alto HQ for a tour of the renowned design group (they designed Apple’s first mouse!) and to participate with him in one of the company's internal "Know How" talks. It was very informal (and -- because this was during my recent "100-year sinus infection" -- I was completely high on cold medicine).

We talked about Getting Things Done, life hacks, knowledge work, nostalgia for scarcity, and the problem of getting addicted to productivity advice, among many other topics. This one's a tour de force.

Video runs about an hour, and yes: I am wearing a handsome Big Lebowski tshirt. Abide.

Click To Play

Mea culpa -- this was an intimate little gathering held for the benefit of those in the room and wasn't intended as a for-video talk show shoot. So audience members' questions were not recorded on-mic. Apologies for you not being able to hear them, but I think you'll mostly catch the gist.

Many thanks to Scott Underwood for inviting me in and for hosting the talk, and thanks also to Eric Stangarone, who shot the video and who was kind enough to permit me to share this with you guys, as well. Awesome company. Great people.

Update 2007-10-09 08:14:45 PST

Oooo...almost forgot -- alternative media formats (thanks, Blip!)

”Merlin at IDEO: "Know How" Talk with Scott Underwood” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 09, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Merlin on MacBreak Weekly: iPhone Release Show

Merlin — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:42:04 -0400

MacBreak Weekly 46: iDay

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay >

iPhones in hand our MacBreak quartet gives you their first impressions of the latest from Apple...

Here's a direct MP3 download of MBW 46.

Believe it or not, this week's episode was about Apple's iPhone. Yes, the iPhone. I know: I was surprised, too.

Also, we shot a quick MacBreak (video) on Thursday night where we visited with people queued up outside the Stockton St. store here in SF. I chatted with a bohemian clown, an expensive-looking video camera, and a man from Gizmodo who had a webcam attached to his head. Just another Thursday in Union Square.

Anyhow, the iPhone is out, it's pretty, and lots of people are buying them. For further coverage of the iPhone and the experiences of its excited new users, kindly visit the entire internet.

”Merlin on MacBreak Weekly: iPhone Release Show” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 30, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

TMS: John Roderick, Chris Wetherell, and John Vanderslice

Merlin — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:03:46 -0400

The last week or so of The Merlin Show has featured three fun interviews with independent musicians -- talking about Macs, handling email, and figuring out how to get paid. Stop by for visits with John Roderick, Chris Wetherell, and John Vanderslice (or view the videos right here, after the jump...)

John Roderick

John from The Long Winters brings his surly but lovable wisdom to my backyard, clarifying how he's like a building contractor and why he has to make sure no one tries to screw him on copper pipe. (Note: Contains strong language and frank discussion of show business) [View full show notes]

Click To Play

Chris Wetherell (part 2/2)

Chris from Citizens Here and Abroad and Dealership returns to talk more about how bad (no, really bad) he is with email and how surprisingly little dough a band makes from touring. [View full show notes]

Click To Play

John Vanderslice (part 3/3)

JV returns to talk about how to take a Mac on tour as well as why he stopped using Apple's Address Book and Mail.app for his 5,000-fan mailing list. [View full show notes]

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”TMS: John Roderick, Chris Wetherell, and John Vanderslice” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on April 05, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

TMS: The Mountain Goats' Peter Hughes

Merlin — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 05:51:49 -0400

011: Interview: Peter Hughes | The Merlin Show

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In today's episode, Merlin talks with Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats about the logistics of wired touring, keeping a tour diary on LiveJournal, and why The Mountain Goats don't have a MySpace page.

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”TMS: The Mountain Goats' Peter Hughes” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 27, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Vox Pop: Want HD video from iTunes and Apple TV?

Merlin — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 12:03:07 -0400

Since the new TV can handle video up to HD's 720p resolution, there's been a lot of speculation about whether the iTunes store will eventually start selling HD content, such as TV shows and movies. You can bet that the desire for that quality of presentation is theoretically out there (at least it is for this HD TV owner). The problem, as many folks have discussed at length, is that the file size for HD movies, in particular, may be prohibitively large for the garden-variety home broadband user.

As Greg Keene notes, "With simple math, we can extrapolate that a 2-hour movie would be about 3.9 GB." That's not only a substantially lengthy download for, say, a residential DSL subscriber, it also represents the investment of over 10% of the available space on the Apple TV's drive (as well as, it should be noted, an equivalent chunk of space back on your Mac or PC's disk).

In his very good "Apple TV: iTunes Store Movie Quality vs DVD, HD, Cable," Daniel Eran writes:

Since the existing "near DVD" quality movies are already large downloads, Apple would either have to highly compress HDTV or accommodate much longer downloads. Don’t expect a sudden move to HDTV from iTunes...

Apple optimistically estimates that broadband iTunes users can download its “near DVD quality” movies in a couple hours, so HD movies would either take well over a day of sustained downloading at full tilt, or require far more compression.

This is one reason I think the Apple TV may be giving a kind of temporary competitive advantage to producers of shorter-length HD content, such as -- well -- let's say video podcasters. It's a big reason behind our decision to start shooting and releasing The Merlin Show in 720p over the next month or so. The current hi-res version of the show -- which actually looks pretty good on my Apple TV -- is presented at widescreen 854x480, which makes our most recent, 14-minute episode weigh in at 88 MB (about 6 MB/minute).

Here's a comparison of the three screen resolutions (720p, hi-res/854x480, and iPod/320x176) for reference (This is just for relative size comparison; you can mentally change the image's "mm" to "px.")

Seems to me that the typical expectation for podcasts is that, while they will be released on a relatively regular basis, they will also get downloaded automatically in the background and then get synched to a device like a Video iPod or TV for viewing at the user's convenience.

But, movies, and to a lesser extent, single episodes of TV shows, strike me as more of an impulse item -- something you want to download and watch more or less now. Knowing there's two hours and multiple gigs of disk space between you and Norbit might be a disincentive to downloading, right? But, then again, people don't seem to mind the wait of their Netflix queue, right? I dunno. You tell me.

Given the constraints of time and disk space, would you purchase (and wait for the download of) HD content for your TV? What do you think is an acceptable resolution for content on your HD TV? Anybody hacked on their unit yet? Whither TV, iTunes, and HD?

”Vox Pop: Want HD video from iTunes and Apple TV?” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 25, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Jeff Veen on simple tools, meetings, and leveraging the commute

Merlin — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 06:48:11 -0400

009: Interview: Jeffrey Veen, Part 2 | The Merlin Show

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In this second segment of our interview with Jeffrey Veen (here's the previous one), Jeff talks about making the best of meetings (and the time around them), lofi capture, and the beauty of simple tools -- including both paper and UNIX apps.

I especially like when Jeff discusses how he uses his shuttle commute time; by knowing that he can rely on firewalled time to bookend each work day, Jeff can confidently lob tasks out of the moment and into that quiet and reliable commute session. I find this a very GTD-like practice in that it sets aside time for processing, organization, and reviewing -- leaving the hectic work day free for pure doing.

(BTW: here's the book on writing that we talked about: On Writing Well by William Zinsser)

Jeff Veen: Part 1
Jeff Veen: Part 2

”Jeff Veen on simple tools, meetings, and leveraging the commute” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 19, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

The Merlin Show: Quicksilver proxies for application menus

Merlin — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 05:54:46 -0400

008: HOWTO: Quicksilver: Application Menus | The Merlin Show

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Many of the most diehard Quicksilver fans don't know "proxy objects" even exist. Proxies are a sexy way to build actions and triggers around abstract QS items such as "Current Application," "Finder Selection," "Album Now Playing," and even meta-stuff like "Last Command" and "Quicksilver Selection."

By making a trigger to "Show Menu Items" in the "Current Application," you can get Quicksilver-based access to almost any pull-down menu in a given OS X app. In today's demo, I show you how to bring this fast access to any of the bajillion drop-down menu items in Macromates' Textmate.

If you enjoy The Merlin Show, please consider subscribing for free via iTunes or Democracy, or just point the "podcatacher" of your choice at http://feeds.themerlinshow.com/TheMerlinShow.

”The Merlin Show: Quicksilver proxies for application menus” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 12, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

The War of Art, and JoCo on becoming a "true person"

Merlin — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:51:36 -0500

007: Interview: Jonathan Coulton, Part 2 | The Merlin Show

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I first heard about The War of Art from David Allen during our GTD podcast series last year. I finally picked up a copy a couple months back and read it in an evening. Like a lot of self-help books, it's longer than it needs to be (and it's not actually very long to begin with), but it does make some great points about what its author calls "resistance."

Resistance can be thought of as anything that pulls us away from doing the work we know is most important to us. It takes many forms (including procrastination, fear, distraction, and negative self-talk), but the effect is often similar: we find or permit all kinds of barriers to keep us from becoming the person we want to be, or from completing the thing we really want to make. Whether that's being a published author, a composer, a playwright, or a painter, our impulse to create constantly battles an impulse to do something else, or to do nothing -- to not upset our weirdly comfy stasis.

This book came up twice in my recent interview with Jonathan Coulton; both in part one and today's recently released part two. Jonathan strikes me as someone who has, so far, succeeded at talking down the resistance he'd faced, and now he's doing what he's great at, and, in his words, he's working hard to become the kind of "true person" that he wants to be for his daughter.

I think it's really important to underscore that beating resistance does not have to mean quitting your job or doing something equally dramatic; it just means that you identify and then choose to beat the crap out of whatever perceived obstacle keeps you from doing your work. You "go Pro" as Pressfield (not "Pressman") says, making it all about the work, and not allowing yourself to trail off when it gets hard or when you have to fight in order to get your stuff done. Pretty inspiring stuff, as far as I'm concerned.

I really liked this second part of the interview with JoCo; particularly when Jonathan confessed that his lack of an email system has him "screwed."

007: Interview: Jonathan Coulton, Part 2 | The Merlin Show

”The War of Art, and JoCo on becoming a "true person"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 08, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

TMS: Screencast on Quicksilver's "Comma Trick"

Merlin — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:03:59 -0500

006: HOWTO: Quicksilver: The Comma Trick | The Merlin Show

For Quicksilver fans, today's episode of The Merlin Show includes a short screencast on how to do the (still-surprisingly-little-known) Comma Trick.

(Hint: As a Mac OS X screen demo, this is an episode you may prefer to watch at high-resolution)

Click To Play

(Sharp-eyed? How can you tell this wasn't the first take? :-) )

”TMS: Screencast on Quicksilver's "Comma Trick"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 05, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"