Jason Thibeault's Blog: From My Pen, page 9

Planning Is(n’t) Everything

I used to be a college creative writing professor. I remember the start of each semester like it was yesterday: lesson plans in hand, a structure for the 12 weeks, an organized approach to shape nubile young minds striving for a creative perch. But what does that have to do with writing?Part of the reason that I started Dime Novel Publishing was to rail against the very thing I used to teach, that planning was everything. Lay out your story. Sketch your characters. Get an outline of chapters....

QR What?

If you don’t know what a QR code is (it stands for “quick response,” btw), you aren’t in the minority. Although the technology has been around for a while, it has only recently begun to catch favor, perhaps as a result of the growing number of smartphones with the cameras and software capable of decoding them.

So if you are a marketer or business owner, pay attention. QR codes are catching on. In fact, there are services out on the web to help you build your own QR codes that you can use to po...

Photo: Look Into My Eye

Not what you might expect reading the title but a truly amazing top-down view of hurricane Irene taken by U.S. astronaut Ron Garan from the international space station.

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Originally posted 2011-08-25 13:35:03.

Photo: The Grandiose of Minuscule

One of my core beliefs about photography is that it enables us to see the minuscule: atoms, bacteria, and cellular structure. Things we cannot see with the naked eye. The NewScientist has published a story with eight images of the minuscule, colored/modified to make them look like you might find them out your kitchen window.

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Can you guess what the above is? I can tell you that it’s not a picture of the Grand Canyon. Click below to discover what this picture is and see the rest of the series:

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The Internet of Things

A recent post by ReadWriteWeb on the Future of the Internet got me to thinking about the “Internet of Things.” This is not my term and I’m not the first person to talk about it. But it’s definitely a topic that deserves more attention as more and more electronics come connected to the Internet out of the box. So I have put together a list of articles (and my thoughts on them) to explain, clarify, and provoke discussion on this topic.

The Internet of things will dwarf the Internet of people | T...

Is “TV Time” Dead?

Providing services in the video space, we try to look years in the future. In fact, when Limelight was founded, that’s exactly what the visionary creators did: they believed that online video was going to be big and that companies would need a global, high-performing, scalable solution to ensure a great experience delivering video over the Internet.

But how big? Is watching video online ultimately a fad? Will it ever replace the tried-and-true behavior of sitting in front of the couch to watch...

Hands-On: AOL Editions for iPad

AOL recently launched their Editions by AOL application for the iPad. This application is along the same lines as Flipboard and other personalized magazine applications for the tablet. I decided to take this for a test drive based on another, related post I wrote about the evolution of the magazine.

The application is highly configurable and very easy to use. The first step is to connect it to one of three social media outlets:

Facebook,
Twitter, or
AOL.

Once connected, you can specify a zipcode (...

Photo: The Surrealism of Nature

Sometimes you can just lose yourself in a photo. It may not be art. It may not be very interesting. But visually, it is stunning and inspires the imagination. Such is the case in a recent posting by NatGeo.

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Originally posted 2011-08-15 11:50:50.

This Awesome Destroyer of Worlds Is the Best Astronomy Image of the Year

Originally posted 2012-12-18 23:39:00.

The Beginning of the Universe…for Beginners (and other simplified particle physics stories)

How did the universe start? It’s all about the particle physics. But let’s be honest…that stuff is complicated. Not any more. CERN has partnered with Ted Ed to simplify everything with some really cool animated videos.

The Beginning of the Universe

(Lesson by Tom Whyntie, animation by Hornet Inc.)

How did the universe begin — and how is it expanding? CERN physicist Tom Whyntie shows how cosmologists and particle physicists explore these questions by replicating the h...

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