2012 | Scott Savage's Blog

WhatsLiveNow.com launched

On May 21, 2012

In an effort to get back into coding and learn the YouTube API’s better I have put together a very simple site, www.whatslivenow.com. It simply checks the YouTube Live API every 15 minutes, saves the results to a MySQL database, and then displays the latest live events ranked by how many “Likes” they have had. This makes the chart a little less dynamic than I would have liked, but the viewCount parameter isn’t currently being populated, so my preference to rank based on what has the most current viewers isn’t possible.

It’s also a nice experiment with CSS and jQuery Mobile, using a template I found called Splitview. I had to make a number of changes to make it work for this example, but visually it looks pretty simple and is very functional across desktop, tablet and mobile devices. I will play around with the functionality over time, but for now I am happy that the experiment was a success. I think with the addition of some social media functionality it could be a nice second screen experience too. Please let me know what you think!

Noontec Gigalink N5 Firmware Update

By Scott Savage

On May 9, 2012

In Hardware

The Noontec Gigalink N5 is a NAS media that has a few nice features – including DLNA, BitTorrent, a web interface and BYO hard drive.

The problem is that it doesn’t really work very well. The 30mm fan is noisy and isn’t variable based on case temperature, sometimes it doesn’t turn off, UPNP doesn’t work, you have to wipe your hard drive before installing, the noontec.com website got laced full of malware for a week… the list goes on. Basically it’s bargain basement electronics.

Anyway I managed to get in contact with one of their engineers, who provided me with an updated firmware package (which for some stupid reason is not listed on their website). The best part about this update over the stock firmware is that it includes an online firmware update function. This means hopefully this is the last manual firmware update you need to do. It really is a big improvement, although for some reason the UI is now increasingly inconsistent.

Click here to download the NAS_J1.04D_Ver2.1.7_USB2.0.bin firmware update for the Noontec Gigalink N5 (zipped up).

Admonsters Presentation on “The Future of Video”

By Scott Savage

On April 5, 2012

In advertising, Internet, marketing, youtube

On the 22nd of March 2012 I attended the 2nd ever Admonsters Conference in Sydney, Australia. I presented on the Future of Television, and chose to focus on my personal perspective around the accelerating convergence of video advertising and content as it moves online. My inspiration sprouted from statistics and creative used in Robert Kyncl’s CES talk and some video engagement ideas from Kevin Allocca.

It was an honour to be able to present in front of colleagues in the same niche profession, especially in my home town which is a geographically obscure place to be doing such a role. My biggest mistake was underestimating their involvement with video advertising – I thought the number would be around 10%, but it turns out 80% of them work with video. It was exciting to see the local market maturity, but it was a little humbling to see all those hands raised at the end of an entry level video presentation. I did however thoroughly enjoy the presentation and I received a number of comments from others that really got something out of it. I really do feel that content marketing is a massive growing area, however I acknowledge that it’s a difficult area to strike a perfect balance in. If it was easy then YouTube would have no paid advertising and I wouldn’t have a job. 🙂

If you are interested in seeing the deck I presented, then please Download the Presentation Slides.

Software runs my life

Year: 2012

WhatsLiveNow.com launched

Noontec Gigalink N5 Firmware Update

Admonsters Presentation on “The Future of Video”