Exploring the history of home video and music media

Posted on January 17, 2013 by J. J. — 4 Comments ↓

I may need help (honestly). Anyone want to go on this data quest with me?

It wasn’t until November, when Led Zeppelin offered their new concert film (Celebration Day) on Blu-ray, that I asked myself, “Is it finally time to stop buying DVDs?” So I began to dig into the history of home video formats, and decided it would be fun to build a timeline (presented here) of both music and film media over the past 135 years.

Timeline of music and movie media types

This timeline screenshot (in Excel) is a very crude draft of what I’m aiming for. The quest is purely for my own interest, but if anyone else has good data, infographics, books, and links to share on the topic, I’d love to hear from you.

I’m sure I’m biting off more than I can chew, but I’m also interested in what the timeline implies for issues about copyright and the changing face of information exchange and media consumption in general.

Louisville Attractiveness

Posted on August 24, 2010 by J. J. — 2 Comments ↓

My friend Kurt and I revisited the people watching survey from last year. Last month, he was visiting from Nashville and we were sitting outside the Heine Bros on Bardstown & Douglass. In addition to taking the Dancin’ Kid Vid, we took about 45 minutes to judge the people around us and agree if they were attractive or not.

Louisville Attractiveness

My World Cup predictions

Posted on June 15, 2010 by J. J.

I’ve been unusually busy with job hunting and working this week, but I do have a couple minutes to keep you updated on the biggest sporting event in the world. It’s easier to follow the results than you might think, particularly if you use these handy scoresheets and websites – and it’s been much more predictable so far than the NCAA tournament has ever been!

WC2010 Excel screenshot — Excel Template World Cup 2010 clip (click for all drop.io files)

Spring cleaning a website

Posted on April 27, 2010 by J. J.

I’ve spent some time studying Zepfanman.com reports from Google Analytics, a tool I’ve been using for the past year. Without redesigning the site, I’ve taken cues from the reports to update some old posts and make the site load a little faster. You might call it spring cleaning. With less than 900 views a month, I don’t really need to fine tune the site, but hopefully some of you with your own websites will find a helpful nugget or two here.

Zepfanman.com optimization — WebPageTest 7.7 to 5.1 second Zepfanman.com load time

Nashville Attractiveness

Posted on March 20, 2009 by J. J. — 4 Comments ↓

Michael and I were at Centennial Park on Wednesday reading our books and enjoying the warm Spring sneak peek. We quickly turned to judging people’s (anyone appearing to be 18-60 years old) attractiveness. There is an approximate 1-mile jogging loop, so we grabbed the first available swinging bench (southeast side) and began our study.

Attractiveness chart

The method was fairly simple: From about 3:30 to 6, we watched people walk, run, skate, or ride by. As each person passed, we’d agree on a judgment and tally the result. Any questions?