Gary The Puppet's Magical Internet Adventure

Gary The Puppet takes a trip through Web 2.0 companies in New York City.

I've been meaning to post Gary The Puppet's Magical Internet Adventure for awhile now. It's a silly little DIY video about Gary The Puppet (of IndyMogul fame) traveling to a bunch of New York-based tech companies. Gary is performed in the video by IndyMogul's Erik Beck and the wonderfully wacky Ben Ross.

Follow Me On Twitter

Are you on Twitter?

Like any good early adopter/online-fad-chasing-blogger I've had a Twitter account set-up for quite awhile now. Lately I've really been getting in to it too, so follow me on Twitter. You can read my random musings, eaves drop on conversations I'm having with fellow Twitters and find links to neat/cool/funny puppet videos that for whatever reason don't make it here to the blog.

If you've got no idea what I'm talking about and you don't know a tweet from a chirp, don't worry! There's a handy video on YouTube that explains Twitter in plain English. It'll tell you everything you need to know to get started.

Why Blip.tv is the Best

In my opinion Blip.tv is the absolutely best place to host your videos if you are producing puppet podcasts (or any other kind of video podcast). The basic account is totally free and they offer a great set of features, including the ability to make a little money and can automatically post your videos to other popular services like iTunes. What I like best is that they are first and foremost focused on hosting shows and serving creators. Several puppet podcasts are hosted on Blip, including dotBoom and JigSaw. I started hosting my old Bear Town videos there recently too and I've been very impressed with Blip so far.

If you put videos on the web, give Blip a try. I don't think you'll regret it.

Update: I just noticed that Blip is having a problem with visitors to their homepage being prompted to download an executable file called XPantiVirus (don't do it). Give them sometime to fix the problem and try out Blip tomorrow. They really are great, they're just having a bad day today.

YouTube DNS Hijacked?

I was starting to write a couple posts for PuppetVision this afternoon when I noticed that YouTube was either unreachable or offline. I did some quick sleuthing and discovered that YouTube appears to have had it's DNS record hijacked.

The DNS system is responsible for (among other things) translating human-readable URLs (e.g. www.example.com) into IP addresses (e.g. 208.66.188.165). Without a secure DNS system the internet becomes nearly impossible to navigate. The idea that hackers could do this is to a Google owned site is pretty scary considering how many people and businesses rely on Google services like YouTube, Blogger, etc.

Update: Apparently, this is much ado about nothing. According to Android Apps, YouTube was briefly down because Google was updating it to support Adsense for video, not because of some kind of hacker attack. Other people say the outage was related a technical foul-up after Pakistan blocked access to the site. Either way, YouTube is back up and running.

Happy Valentines Day

PuppetGreetings.com offers several Valentines Day ecards, including one featuring "Sunny and Chair".

It's Valentines Day! Why not mark the occasion with a little puppet fun by sending your sweetie an Valentines ecard from Puppet Greetings or JibJab's Sendables?

Tweet! Tweet! I'm on Twittter

So, okay, I admit - I do a lot of blogging. In addition to PuppetVision, I also post over at PuppetBuilding.com, occasionally write about digital puppetry and related technology at Machin-X and I've recently started updating my Bear Town Production Journal (which was PuppetVision's predecessor) again. I've been pondering away to make it easier to track all the stuff I put up online in one place and thought that Twitter - the free micro-blogging service that lets you send updates or "tweets" about what you're doing to your friends - might be a good way to go. So from now on I'll send out tweets whenever I am posting or doing interesting puppet-related stuff online.

You can check out my new Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/puppetvision/. If you use an RSS reader you can also subscribe to my Twitter RSS feed.

Put Puppet Building on Your Web Site

Want to add a little puppet building to your web site? There's now a dynamic widget available that you can use to put the latest headlines and tutorials from PuppetBuilding.com on your web site or blog or Facebook page. Just click "get widget" above. It can be installed automatically on most major platforms (Wordpress, Blogger, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) with just a few clicks, or you can grab the raw Javascript or Flash code and embed it manually yourself.

Don't forget, there's also a handy PuppetVision Blog widget available too.

New Year, New PuppetBuilding.com

Happy New Year everybody!

Just in time for 2008, have a look at the new, improved PuppetBuilding.com. Not only does it look an awful lot nicer, but I've made a lot of changes behind-the-scenes that will make it a much, much more fun and useful place to visit in 2008. Subscribe to the PuppetBuilding.com RSS feed and/or keep your eyes out for what's coming next.

Miro: The Best Way To Watch Puppetry on the Web

The open source Miro video player (I last wrote about it back in June when it was still called The Democracy Player) is out of beta testing and it's a fantastic application. Miro can automatically download, manage and play videos from RSS-based "channels" and popular video sharing sites like YouTube. It's a great way to watch videos online and best of all it's completely free! If you love to watch video on the web download it today and give Miro a try.

PuppetVision on YouTube: 100 Videos and Counting

The PuppetVision YouTube Group - where I regularly share many of the best puppet films and videos featured here on PuppetVision - is now home to 100 videos. If you're a relatively new reader to the blog or just looking for some fun/interesting/great puppet films and videos, spend some time exploring the collection on YouTube this weekend!

Puppet Madness - Video Sharing Site Devoted To Puppets

Puppet Madness is a new video sharing web site devoted to puppetry.

A brand new web site that has just launched is Puppet Madness, which is sort of "Puppet Tube"; a video-sharing site for videos about puppets and puppet building. YouTube already hosts just about every puppet-related video you could want so I'm not completely sure there's a real need for a puppetry-specific video sharing site. At the same time, the biggest problem with YouTube is that it's so big it's difficult to navigate and find what you want quickly. It should be interesting to watch and see how Puppet Madness is embraced by the online puppetry community over the next few months.

Quick Podcasting Tip: Use Video Feeds

Using video RSS feeds is a great way to help promote video podcasts.

If you create a puppet podcast - or any other kind of video podcast at all - you should make sure you make use of Video RSS feeds. They work the same as the RSS feeds (or "newsfeeds") that blogs use, except that they contain video. They make it easy for your audience to subscribe to your videos using iTunes, the super-cool Miro player (in my opinion Miro is the best way to watch and download videos online) or just about any other program that supports video and RSS.

There's a good guide that explains how to properly shoot, edit and publish videos for the internet at Make Internet TV.

Democracy Player: A Great Way To Watch Video

I recently started using the open-source Democracy Player (it will soon be renamed the Miro Player) and I really, really like it. Not only can Democracy play just about every kind of video imaginable - Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, etc. - it helps you find some of the internet's best video podcasts via its built-in Channel Guide. You can also use it to download, save and watch BitTorrent files as well as videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video. It even supports high-definition video too!

For those of you who already produce a puppet podcast or are thinking of starting one, Democracy offers video creators a number of helpful tools, including one click video subscription buttons, Broadcast Machine (for publishing videos on your web site) and Make Internet TV (a guide to shooting and editing video for the web). Even if you don't want to use the Democracy software yourself, you can submit your show's RSS Feed to create your own Democracy Channel to help you attract new viewers.

You can download the latest version of the Democracy Player via www.getdemocracy.com.

Free Puppet Classifieds on PuppetBuilding.com

Got some puppets to sell? Looking for a particular type of puppet? Try the new puppet classified ads on PuppetBuilding.com. They're totally free and best of all automated so there's no waiting for ads to be manually added to the site. To publish an ad just register with PuppetBuilding.com, type in your ad, upload a couple pictures (if needed) and it should be automatically published in less than 24 hours.

And don't forget, if you're a puppet builder you can also create a listing for yourself in the free Puppet Builder Directory.

Add PuppetVision To Your Web Site

I've created a neat little widget that displays the latest news and articles from PuppetVision:



*Note: If you are viewing this in the site's RSS feed, the widget will not be visible

If you'd like to add it to your website or blog it's easy, just click on the "Get Widget" button. If you use popular services like Blogger, MySpace, Facebook, etc. it can be added automatically. If you maintain your site or it's hosted by a service not included on the list just select "Get Code" to grab the Javascript or Flash code to embed the widget on your site.

New Online Puppet Builder Directory

Build puppets? Looking for puppets? Try the new Puppet Builder Directory at PuppetBuilding.com. It's a totally free service designed to help puppet builders and people looking for puppets find each other.

If you're searching for a puppet builder or places to buy puppets you can browse the categories or search for someone close to where you live. If you're a puppet builder you can add yourself to the directory by going to the link above, registering and adding an entry in the appropriate categories. In addition to your location and contact information you can also upload photos of your work and you can come back and edit/update your listing at any time.

More features like the ability to embed video demo reels in your profile and a global map of puppet builders (similar to the Puppeteer Map on Frappr) will be added soon along with lots of other useful stuff, so keep an eye on PuppetBuilding.com for updates.

Puppetry 2.0

By now most people have heard the term "Web 2.0" but many don't really understand what it means. Web 2.0 was a phrase that was coined a few years ago to refer to what's perceived as a second generation of web services like MySpace, Flickr and Wikipedia that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. The term was originally used for a series of conferences held by O'Reilly Media, but it's since been adopted by marketers and web developers.

PuppetVision is mostly powered by Web 2.0 services. It's hosted by Blogger, uses an RSS feed supplied by Feedburner, has a YouTube Group and a Squidoo lens. There are lots of examples of other Web 2.0ish sites that puppetry artists are using to share ideas, upload work and connect with each other. Here's a few examples:

Frappr Map of Puppeteers
If you're a puppeteer or puppet builder and you're not on the map, you should be! This is also a great way to locate other "puppet people" in your area.

YouTube Puppet Groups
YouTube has a number of groups devoted to puppetry. With literally thousands of puppet-related clips on the site (the majority of them pretty uninteresting) these are a good way to help your work get in front of people who want to see good puppetry.

Flickr Puppets Photo Pool
Flicker also has several puppet-specific photo groups (or "pools") where you can upload and share pictures of puppets, but the main puppets photo pool is the largest and most popular.

The Puppet Building Wiki
The PuppetBuilding.com wiki is very slowly, but surely being built in to a really terrific database of puppet building information that anyone can add or edit. If you've got puppet building tips, tricks and tutorials to share consider adding them to the Wiki! And beyond just puppet building, the more broadly focused Puppet Wikia is gaining steam too.

Yahoo Video Search Beta

Slashdot reports that Yahoo! has just unveiled the beta version of it's video search engine. Video search is nothing new of course - Alta Vista has offered video and audio search for awhile - but it looks like this is best video search engine developed yet (you just know that somewhere Google is very envious right now).

Here's just a few of the videos I uncovered after a quick search using the term "puppet" earlier today:

Bongo - A yellow puppet does some head banging while riding in a car (creator unknown)

Giant Puppet Parade - Short clip of a puppet parade (Expressive Therapy Arts)

Show Reel - Demo reel for a company called Mimics Productions in the UK.

Milk - A very odd promo for Milk, you kind of see the ending coming but it's clever all the same.