There have been a number of dust storms in the Southern hemisphere that have affected Australia and New Zealand. The city of Sydney has been covered by clouds of red dust that are simultaneously beautiful and sinister. Flickr user Tom Coates has created a gallery of amazing images.

Gather around the digital hearth children, here’s a story about a era before Youtube was a glimmer in anyone’s eye. A man ahead of his time, Jason Zada, created a site called WeeklyDv back in 2002. Each week there was a designated theme, anyone could submit a video and they would be put up for critique/comment.

There were a few “rules” to the site that were innovative then (and still would be today). In addition to following a theme, you had to shoot, edit and export the movie in 4 hours or less. I’m a firm believer in the idea of constraints enabling creativity and this was one of the reasons the concept appealed to me.
Over the lifespan of the site I made about a dozen movies, some were better then others, but I always had fun and the WeeklyDv community was a great one.

On a personal note, at this point in my life I was a stay-at-home dad with a 1 year old and the project gave me a much needed structure and creative outlet. In fact, the following clip pretty much sums it all up. Long live Guerrilla Dv!
(P.s. The video starts off severely underexposed but improves shortly!)

Techsmith is a company that makes useful software for folks like me who spend a lot of time documenting what happens on the computer screen. I have paid for multiple licenses and numerous upgrades for different applications over the years and never felt any regret. In addition to the quality of the software, I have always respected how easy their website makes it for anyone to find and install their products.

Here’s a case study. I have a new system on which I need to install Snagit, their screen capture software. After going to the home page I see a clearly marked link for Snagit. I click on it and am presented with a group of three links, the second of which is labeled “Try for Free”.

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Clicking on this link presents me with a big ol’ button labeled “Download Snagit Trial”. Clicking on this button starts the download immediately.

Click to enlarge view.

Three clicks = software download. To extend the experience, my Snagit trial is fully functional for 30 days. No export limitations or crippled functionality. Depending on the speed of my connection I can download, install and be using the application in about 3 minutes.

This is the way all trial software web sites should work. I don’t want to fill out a form. I don’t want a salesman to contact me. I don’t want a link sent to my email. I want the software up and running as soon as humanly possible. All companies should make it this easy for me to give them my money. My only criticism is that the site isn’t always consistent, for downloads to Camtasia for Mac, you need to go through the extra step of submitting an email.