Fire-Wired Blog

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Like it or not, America is living through the most politicized times since Nixon resigned in 1974. Even with the general election months behind us emotions are still raw over a terse campaign season, its various outcomes, and future implications of victories up and down the ballot. Whether you’re elated or dejected the immediate political future has more people than ever tuned in and engaged. The tug of war between those determined to keep elected officials true to their campaign promises and opponents who are hoping to undercut them at every decision will be the most compelling competition of 2017. No matter which side you find yourself on finding the proper tools to stay informed is paramount to nearly anything else, and once again technology is there to fill the need. With the debate raging over the veracity of longstanding journalism sources and the onslaught of wholesale fictitious “news” online, the only surefire way ...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Human beings are visual animals. It’s hard for us to comprehend something unless we see or viscerally experience it. The perfect business example is the mind numbing effect analytics can have on a meeting when the person delivering them just starts spouting numbers. Data is the lifeblood of the digital economy, but without a way to properly comprehend what your sales figures, market share, unique visitor count, retention rate and every other bit of data signifies, the future outlook for your company’s growth is murky at best. Data visualization is practically a mandatory tool in today's business environment. With the firehose of data streaming full force at your company, the only way to make sense of they interconnect is to develop, charts, graphs, videos, and infographics that explain to decision makers how their business is failing or succeeding. As fancy as the term data visualization sounds, it has been around for a ...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com It’s the most wonderful time of the year… well except for the whole “finding meaningful gifts thing.” It is a sad truth that some people in our lives who would seem to be the easiest people in the world to buy gifts for, occasionally cause panic attacks over what to buy them. All of the classic easy gifts of the 90s and 2000s are dead. CDs have been replaced with mp3s, DVDs and Blu-rays are being overtaken by streaming and digital media, and while some may argue, we’ve finally come to the point where physical books have been topped by e-books. The funny thing is the object our technological affection is the cause of our gifting dilemma, the smartphone. Take a quick moment to take stock of all the things your phone offers. It is a camera, a communication device, a pedometer, a computer, a gaming system, a stereo, a creative software suite, and a bottomless void of music, movies, and books. Gifting any of these common items h...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com For some businesses and job roles being in constant contact is paramount. It might be hard to stomach at first but sales personnel, account executives, c-suite level employees, department heads, and many other positions are never really off the clock. In order to keep these positions tuned in company issued devices are a necessity. A generation ago that meant laptops, then blackberrys, and recently it has turned to iPhones and iPads, but before you put in a large order of identical Apple products considerable the alternatives. First off we can discount any product lines that for all intents and purposes are dead or on life support. That means Blackberry and Microsoft phones are not options. If a platform is not in use by a massive consumer base that means developers aren't going to service it, which means anti-virus software and timely security updates are not available. Not exactly a situation an organization wants to will...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Stealing is wrong. Right after we teach children to share, we have to teach them sharing doesn’t mean taking what’s not yours. At that age theft means taking someone else's toys, bike, or seat in the family van, but as you get older it takes on all types of different meanings. Stealing someone’s bike or wallet is an obvious concrete form of theft, poaching someone’s girlfriend or taking credit for someone else’s work… that misappropriation of an entirely different order. In these smaller examples it is obvious a wrong has been committed, it’s not until you get industry scale larceny that culpability becomes blurry. Case in point, the entire smartphone market is a disgusting mess of pilfered ideas. This fall, one of the biggest cases of intellectual property theft went before the supreme court. After years of battling in lower level courts Apple has finally got it's day in the highest court in the land to excuse Samsung ...

One year ago the 48 Hour Film Project left a bad taste in my mouth . Our film came in below my expectations, we missed out on best of city, and I found myself considering forgoing the 2016 competition. Thank goodness we didn't because this year's film turned out to not only be our best yet, it ended up winning the runner-up best film prize for the entire Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project. Occasionally I refer to myself as a filmmaker and for the most part I've never really felt comfortable with the term. First off, I've never actually shot with film, but mostly I've never really felt anything I've produced could be considered a narrative or production close to the term. Most of our previous 48 Hour Film project shorts have decent stories and acting but none of the productions really came together to what I would consider a "film." This year I think we've come as close to hitting that nail as we ever have. The film was shot uniquely, has a na...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Every two minutes camera strapped humans take more photos than existed over the course of the last 150 years. 1.8 billion of our images are uploaded daily to the internet, which means more than 650 billion photos are uploaded every year. Considering when by Joseph Niepce invented the camera obscura in the early 1800s it took 8 hours to capture a single image, the photocentric world we’re currently living in is completely absurd. Not only is the number of pictures taken ridiculous, the number of instruments with the capacity to take picture is nearly as farcical too boot. Between smartphones, DSLRs, point-and-shoot digital cameras, webcams, camcorders, security cameras, and every other device equipped with a lens and sensor you can imagine we are living in a severely bloated image capturing age. Interestingly enough, it’s only going to get worse. 15 years ago, if you went on a family vacation and wanted to take a group pictu...