Flip Video

I just got a great new toy: a Flip Video recorder. It's so incredibly small and it takes decent video.

MY REVIEW:

Video Quality: B+ (Pretty darn good! Plus they just came out with an HD model. The quality in the sample below is degraded due to Blogger's compression -- it looks much better than this!)

Audio Quality: B+ (Not Dolby quality, but it does the trick.)

Image Stability: C (It's hard to keep it from shaking because it's so small.)

Usability: A (It's so simple to operate. Just turn it on and press record!)

Battery: B (Two double A's will last long enough to get your shots.)

Recording Length: A- (You can record two hours of video on this little beast!)

Here's a sample video I shot from a recent trip to Amsterdam:

Overall Grade: A-/B+ (I recommend this great little gadget.)

Adobe Learning Summit

I've always wanted to be selected to speak at a conference of my peers. For years I was always behind the scenes running the conferences. But I never had the opportunity to speak at one.

A few months ago, Adobe contacted me and asked if I'd speak at their Adobe Learning Summit in San Jose. Naturally, I accepted.

My session focused on the insights my team and I have gained for launching a global business over the past year. Here's a link to my abstract. It was a great experience and I met some great people.

My only regret is that I didn't have time to attend the shin-dig at the Adobe headquarters that night. But overall, the conference was great! Nice job Adobe!

Nothing Exotic About Business Travel

There's nothing exotic about business travel. I've spent that past 8 days in Denmark and Amsterdam. Before that (in my previous post) I was is Asia. However, it's nothing but airports, train stations, offices and hotel rooms. It's really hard work!

I know. I know. I'm still in Europe, right? You're correct. And I did get a day to look around Amsterdam. I guess I'd consider that a bonus for the toughness of it all.

There are two big problems with extended biz trips.

1) my family is so far away. I really miss them a lot. I think of them all of the time and I Skype them whenever I get a chance. But even Skype doesn't bridge the physical gap of me being there with them. It's a really hard thing.

2) my email doesn't stop. Everyone is in the office while I'm trying to sleep. But before I can get to my email I'm in all-day meetings. So, it's really hard to do my work. I have to find seams of the day to do it... during a break or late at night.

So tomorrow I leave for home. The time can't pass quickly enough!