Solar Powered Backpack— The Solar Timbuk2 Mk.2

How I converted a standard Timbuk2 backpack into an iPhone-charging, laptop-toting, enviro-hipster envy making, solar power machine. Plus all the instructions for you to make your own. (more…)

You Touch it WHERE? Smartphone Touch Screens Compared by Actual Robot

The nice folks at the MOTO development group have released this video detailing the performance characteristics of various touch screens on the market. It gets ugly for the Droid.

This is just one performance test, but frustration runs high when you touch it here and it opens something there. Click through to see the video.
(more…)

AllThingsD- Almost Famous: Chris Messina of Google

Almost Famous: Chris Messina from E. Drake Martinet on Vimeo.

A minute with Chris Messina of Google. We talk Buzz, Facebook and the future of openness at Google.
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Matters of the Heart Photo Essay

This 11-image photoset appeared at SFGate.com in December 2010.
(more…)

Please DONT Retweet! A Tale of Learning by Failure

Early last week, Stanford’s graduate journalism Students used phones, email, text messages and twitter to reenact the earliest moments of reporting after the recent catastrophic earthquake in Chile. Did they do irreparable harm to the information landscape? To those who lost loved ones in the actual quake? To the reputations of their own brands?
(more…)

Quick Search /
Twitter for iPhone 101 – In 5 Minutes
September 2nd, 2010

Twitter for iPhone 101 Turn your device sideways if it helps you see the images. Next, go to my ‘Twitter 101 for Journalists’ Cheat Sheet Then, take it to the next level. Wan’t to post a picture, share a link, add your location or look up recent #hashtags you’ve used? It’s all easy. Click the [...]

Twitter 101 for Journalists- Cheat Sheet
September 2nd, 2010

Tweeting Guidelines 1. Confirm you are tweeting from the correct account. 2. Keep it to < 120 characters 3. Get others’ @usernames to mention in tweets. Ask for their “twitter name” or “twitter handle.” 4. Lead with the important info. 5. Finish with only one correct #hashtag 6. When tweeting from a shared account, finish [...]

Crayons for Web Designers’ Children
August 26th, 2010

Cause you gotta start ‘em early. Also, if you want the hex codes for the whole Crayola family, webdesign community ColourLovers.com has them.

Waterfront Covered. My Images from the NYT Crowd-Sourcing Project.
August 11th, 2010

A few weeks back, The Newy York Times City room blog decided to give the crowd-sourcing business a try and build a photo montage of the NYC waterfront. New York has a working waterfront, and lots of it. Manhattan, after all, is an island. I went out to Brooklyn Bridge Park around dusk and looked [...]

Covering the Waterfront: Shoot Photos for The New York Times
July 29th, 2010

The weekend of July 31, The New York Times’ City Room blog is asking you to help them cover New York’s waterfront, in a crowd-sourced storytelling adventure.

Below you’ll find all the info needed to submit some images and descriptions. Some of the best will be featured at nytimes.com and likley in the print edition of the paper.

They don’t have a post with instructions about it up yet, so I’ve pasted most of the email sent out about the project here so everyone can join in the fun.

Video: News From The Gulf- Planned, Shot, Edited and Filed from the iPhone 4
June 29th, 2010

Planned, shot, edited and filed all from the iPhone 4- this is my report from the gulf coast early in the week most experts predict the oil from the BP spill will begin to come ashore.

I’m currently on a road trip on my way to become an intern at The New York Times somewhere between the tech reporting and social media desks. Predictably, I picked up a new iPhone 4 on release day, with the hopes that the new camera and editing tools would make it a formidable news gathering device.

While my comrades and I didn’t see any oil on the beaches yet, we came across some very interesting preparations underway by the local population, as well as plenty of orange BP sponsored oil protection booms.

From Hacker News: 2000 iMac vs. 2010 iPhone 4
June 21st, 2010

2000 iMac Operating System – Mac OS 9.0.4 Processor – 500 MHz PowerPC G3 CPU, 128MB Memory Graphics – ATI Rage 128 Pro, 8MB of memory (8 million triangles) Screen – 786K pixels Data Transfer Speeds – 1.3-12.5 MB/s (DVD-ROM-1/100 Ethernet) Storage – 30GB Hard Drive Dimensions – 15.0 x 15.0 x 17.1 inches Weight [...]

Facebook Moving to Answer the Quora Question
May 30th, 2010

Facebook is beta testing a product in the same space that so many giants have attacked and fallen short. The curated question-answer service has stumped the biggest of bigs. Has it been about social scale all along?

On The Mount: A Photo Tour of Lick Observatory
May 29th, 2010

Lick Observatory has been doing science since the late 1880s, when the first telescope was installed there. These photos were part of research for a forthcoming article. UC Lick Observatory

Hacks and Hackers Unite: Developing an iPad app for The New York Times Lens Blog
May 26th, 2010

This past weekend, a little crowd of journalists, app developers and designers got together under the watchful eye of one Burt Herman to engage in an act of positive rebellion. They were there to wake up the old grey lady, drag her out of her bed, and teach her to dance like lady Gaga instead of like Grace Kelley.

Idealized Science Ditty
May 25th, 2010

It’s a lovley song by a classmate of mine and a member of the Bluegrass band Nimbleweed. The Idealized Science Diitty

Are Highlights “Content?” Are they “Communication?” Amazon Thinks So
May 13th, 2010

There has been much hubub about Amazon peeking over the shoulder of its Kindle users, possibly without their asking. How are they justifying it? They may be treating your highlights as “communication” as defined by their web terms of use agreement. Highlighting = content creation = contribution. That’s a new one.

Pigs Fly and I write a Post About Hanson. Sort of.
May 5th, 2010

It’s an homage to my favorite pulp movie, shot on my favorite line of cameras. Bonus points if you can figure out who is playing the tambourine in the video. It took me a couple times.

Take a Moment with Lens: Sunday’s New York Times Project Connects You with Your Fellow Photographer
May 1st, 2010

This Sunday, 8am California time (15:00 U.T.C.), Lens, the New York Times photo blog will attempt to realize a web 1.0 dream- synchronization of a worldwide action. The blog staff, led by NY Times Sr. Staff Photographer James Estrin, has planned and publicized an event to document a single moment in human history on a global scale.

Truth Today, Phrenology Tomorrow: Reporting on Science in Shifting Sands
April 30th, 2010

Would you stake your reputation on statements of someone who will keep their job even if they are dead wrong?

Quickie Photos of Prototyping for Branding
April 29th, 2010

My Digital Media Entrepreneurship group from used a Stanford d.school technique to brainstorm 100 possible names for our product, organize them by theme and then cut them down to the final four, all in under 10 minutes. Here are two quick photos of the process

People Are Slow: How to Get User Insights and Innovate Quickly
April 24th, 2010

We all need to find insights about how to make our projects more relevant to users, but have only a finite amount of time to gather user data. If we were bigger and funded, we could to focus groups and A/B testing out the wazoo. Instead, I suggest you take a page from the Stanford design school (d.school) playbook.

Video Portfolio
April 13th, 2010

This is a short sampling of some of my video work. All videos here were produced for D:AllThingsDigital, and featured both there at at WSJ.com. In all cases the writing, production and editing are my work. In cases where I’m in front of the camera it is following me, I had some videographer help. Hey, [...]

Live from the Palo Alto Apple Store— Its an iPad Campout!
April 2nd, 2010

I’ll periodically be live streaming from in front of the University Avenue Apple store in Palo Alto, CA. I’m covering the fanboy mayhem for AllThingsD, but I figured we could have a little live video too. I’m tweeting the action from @withdrake. Scoble is here, Ben Parr stopped by, and as soon as my intrepid [...]

Solar Powered Backpack— The Solar Timbuk2 Mk.2
March 30th, 2010

How I converted a standard Timbuk2 backpack into an iPhone-charging, laptop-toting, enviro-hipster envy making, solar power machine. Plus all the instructions for you to make your own.

You Touch it WHERE? Smartphone Touch Screens Compared by Actual Robot
March 27th, 2010

ice folks at the MOTO development group have released this video detailing the performance characteristics of various touch screens on the market. It gets ugly for the Droid.

This is just one performance test, but frustration runs high when you touch it here and it opens something there. Click through to see the video.

AllThingsD- Almost Famous: Chris Messina of Google
March 26th, 2010

Almost Famous: Chris Messina from E. Drake Martinet on Vimeo. A minute with Chris Messina of Google. We talk Buzz, Facebook and the future of openness at Google.

Matters of the Heart Photo Essay
March 25th, 2010

In late 2009, San Francisco Chronicle Staff writer and fellow Stanford grad student Kathryn Roethel and I followed the Coughlin family through several weeks of treatment and preparation leading up to Little Chase’s Make-a-Wish trip to Disneyland.

Please DONT Retweet! A Tale of Learning by Failure
March 8th, 2010

Early last week, Stanford’s graduate journalism Students used phones, email, text messages and twitter to reenact the earliest moments of reporting after the recent catastrophic earthquake in Chile. Did they do irreparable harm to the information landscape? To those who lost loved ones in the actual quake? To the reputations of their own brands?

A Brief History of the Internet – Way Cool Storytelling
February 20th, 2010

“History of the Internet” is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.

Chatroulette- Freebasing the Social Web
February 12th, 2010

The Nutshell: You head over to chatroulette.com, hit start, and your webcam and microphone are activated. You are immediately connected to another live human being, selected at random from the users online at the time. If a person doesn’t look interesting for whatever reason, you just hit next and you are shuffled over to the next random person. Sounds Harmless, right?

Beautiful E-Mags Miss the Point
February 2nd, 2010

E-Mag designers are paid by magazine companies, not readers. It shows.

No one seems to remember the quiet, indelible, human truths that have driven magazine consumption for a hundred years. It’s not too late.

The Best (and Creepiest) Map Mashup Evar
February 1st, 2010

Maybe it isn’t dymanic like the map I made of flickr pictures in my most recent mashup post, but this one is infinitely cooler.

Cycling for Sight 2009- Photomap from the Tour
February 1st, 2010

In August 2009, I had the pleasure of documenting the Braille Institute’s 2009 Cycling for Sight charity ride. The map is a set of 133 geolocated photos pulled from my flickr page.

Rethink the NEWs.
January 28th, 2010

If you are interested in how the the news is presented and why its broken, I say this. Watch this, laugh, ponder, foment rebellion, repeat.

Digital Journalism: The Project Proposal
January 25th, 2010

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Ning, email, digg, delicious….. Today the personal sharing options are endless. Using enough of thes services in concert most certainly connects you with more people than many “broadcasters” who have to be licensed by the FCC. That is it say, its powerful stuff.

CES’ Huge Growth Depicted—That’s What She Said
January 12th, 2010

I know we don’t need another CES postmortem, so I’ll keep this short.

I’ve grabbed some images and statistics that give a sense of CES’ modern largesse as compared to twenty years ago.

What Fresh New Hell is This? – Facebook Adds Pickpocketing Feature to its iPhone App (Updated)
January 7th, 2010

Many of us followed the twitter griping surrounding Facebook’s recent privacy settings changes. Today’s release of Facebook 3.1 for iPhone is maybe the most frightening yet. For the first time, everyone’s favorite drunk-picture dissemination platform is reaching directly into your pocket for other people’s info.

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?
December 3rd, 2009

For Redwood City parents coping with 5-year-old’s chronic disease, normal life is the greatest gift.
My colleague Kathryn Roethel produced an amazing magazine length story that I was lucky enough to photograph. Please read this amazing story of a remarkable little boy.

Stanford d.school and Pepsi Project Hope
November 21st, 2009

This is the final project video from Stanford’s design school. We were tasked with solving urban malnutrition and poverty. We had three weeks.

Live Blog: NewTeeVeeLive
November 12th, 2009

Today’s NewTeeVee Live conference at S.F.’s Mission Bay Center is aimed at foretelling, and maybe saving, the future of TV.

Who They Gonna Call?
November 9th, 2009

Canadian geese have come to dominate the lawns of the city’s beloved Memorial Park. In their Thursday, Oct. 1 meeting, the Cupertino Parks and Recreation Commission took up the unusual problem and discussed goose abatement strategies.

First Column at AllThingsDigital
November 9th, 2009

A new feature wherein All Things Digital looks at up-and-coming and innovative start-ups you should know about.

This week: A video visit with, some questions for and a few pertinent stats about Chris Wetherell and his creation, Brizzly, a Web-based social media reader.

Journalism Portfolio
November 3rd, 2009

Please also have a look at some of my multimedia work.

Design Boot Camp
October 27th, 2009

Reinventing the retirement experience for the rebellious baby boomer. A project deliverable for Stanford’s design boot camp.

44th Annual Carlos Kelly McClatchy Memorial Symposium
October 23rd, 2009

The NYT Doesn’t Cost a Dime Anymore. I Don’t Know Why We Expect it to Turn on One.

In front of an audience of roughly 100, some of whom appeared to have arrived from the myriad alumni events happening on campus this homecoming weekend, Professor and Pulitzer winner Joel Brinkley moderated a combo lecture and discussion between some of Journalism’s giants-left-standing.

NPR & PBS Public Media Camp- #pubcamp
October 17th, 2009

The room is filled with the collective anticipation of dozens of public media’s brightest, geekiest minds.

Testing Apture- The Ghana Edition
October 4th, 2009

This is a test of Apture. If I were to write about Ghana, this is what Apture can do. I can also look at Stanford. And Miran Pavic. If I were to add a link to Make-a-Wish, it would be here. Damn.

Stanford Journalism Forum Podcast Matt Bai—National Political Reporter, The New York Times Magazine
September 28th, 2009

Our original conversation with Mr. Bai was over an hour. We’ve selected a few highlights to give a sense of the experience had by those at the forum, and of Mr. Bai’s place in journalism.

Stanford BlogLuck 2.0
September 28th, 2009

This week we covered the basics of audio recording equipment and then delved into Wordpress Extend and Firefox developer tools.

Stanford BlogLuck ver1.- Teaching Tech
September 21st, 2009

On Sunday the 20th, the Graduate Program in Journalism Cohort at Stanford held the first installment of our “BlogLuck”. The goal of the program is to leverage the various expertises in the group into informative lessons and conversations to share amongst the group.

Hardware Projects: Jamcase
September 17th, 2009

Background: In 2004, I was starting work at a radio station and playing the harmonica a lot. I would carry my harp case and practice amp to friends’ houses and jams various places. The gear setup wasnt bad, but I thought it could be better. the Jamcase was my first more involved build. It entailed [...]

Case of the Haunted Bike Light
September 16th, 2009

So I’m almost finished with a fun little project to turn my SF style bike helmet into something a little more useful thanks to some clever tail light integration. That post will be up in the “Projects” page in the next day or two. However, while photographing the light I’m using, something very strange happened. [...]

How do YOU use it? Data Stream of Consciousness
September 9th, 2009

All of these communications technologies: Twitter, Google Voice, skype, Flickr, etc are, lets face it and call a duck a duck, just data handling and interface engines. It’s all streams of digital information, that is, ones and zeros at the most basic level.
We are witnessing the slow death of telephony.

My First allthingsD Assignment- now online!
September 6th, 2009

This week I officially started my employ as intern at allthingsD, WSJ affiliated tech sector news site. I attended my first staff meeting at their headquarters in the Noe Valley in SF, and hopped right in the saddle to write my first “Weekend Update”. Its a weekly wrap-up of some highlights from the previous week [...]

An Open letter to Animoto
September 5th, 2009

Hi Guys, I recently reupped my all access pass for the first time in about a year. I had just created a video and the combo of you $3-$25 pricing strategy and the quality of the new video effects sealed the deal for me. My only concern is that like MOST purchasers, I may have [...]

Animoto Love- Birthday Card 3.0
September 1st, 2009

We’ve all seen singing cards. We’ve recieved evites. I think this is WAY better. Happy birthday Trenton. I’ll never be as old as you.

Cycling for Sight 2009- Photos
August 16th, 2009

Day 1- The Team Arrives Day 2- Braille Santa Barbara to Pepperdine Day 3-Pepperdine to UC Irvine Final Stage- UCI to Braille Institute San Diego

Cycling for Sight- Audio
August 16th, 2009

Below are a few audio pieces I put together surrounding the Cycling for Sight 2009 ride. [podcast]http://www.withdrake.com/newsite/wp-content/Podcasts/CFSGenesisStory.mp3[/podcast] The Genesis Story This is the genesis story of the ride, featuring ride co-founders Dave, Johnathan and Andy. They talk adventure cycling, crazy ideas and the line between genius and insanity. Give a listen. Its about 10mins. long. [...]

The Changing Role of the Photographer
August 16th, 2009

The following is an excerpt from a June 18th issue of the NYT online edition. I posed a question about growth of visual media in the online environment and the role of it’s producers. Assistant Managing editor Michele McNally had this to say. Talk to the Newsroom: Assistant Managing Editor Michele McNally The Changing Role [...]

Video: 6.5 million gallons of water at 25,000 ft. – NASA NBL Training
August 15th, 2009

NASA training from E. Drake Martinet on Vimeo.

Video from the Vomit Comet
August 15th, 2009

Here is a little video mashup from my ride aboard the vomit comet. You can see more pics HERE, but please enjoy the video.  I’ve addd a little video from inside the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Lab) where I did my physiological training VIDEO. Its also where they have the 6.5 million gallon pool with the [...]

NASA 0 G Flight- The most terrible experience I ever loved.
August 13th, 2009

My hop finally came today after reporting to Ellington Airfeild at 7am. I was suited up, attached to my electrodes and sat down for a solid half hour of three seperate breifings (think pre-flight safety briefing on a commercial aircraft but in an acrobatic jumbo jet). The Vomit Comet du jour was a 727 operated [...]

First NASA Photos
August 12th, 2009

The first NASA photos are up. Have a look. I’ll be writing a little story/recap about my NASA zero G experience probably from my flight out tomorrow. it feels about 500% more awesome than the pictures look. Also, look for some cool videos soon.

Cycling for Sight- Soundslides
August 11th, 2009

Greetings to all the return viewers, as well as first timers. The link below will take you to a very special video unlike anything we’ve produced so far. Its a combination of photos and sounds that gets to the heart of why CFS is so very special. Please come back to withdrake.com in the coming [...]

Cycling for Sight- The Last Day
August 10th, 2009

Just the beginning. Come back tomorrow night for lots more multi-media from the ride. Greetings again all. We gathered so much great multi-media material over the last couple days that its still being processed, chewed on, sorted and arrangted for your consuming pleasure. I plan on spending my day tomorrow finalizing some awesome features that [...]

Cycling for Sight- Pepperdine to UC Irvine
August 8th, 2009

Today our car route took us a little away from our bikers, so the media crew decided to roll out something we’ve been thinking about all along. There are a few pictures below, but the highlight of the post tonight is a very special kind of slide show. Throw on some headphones and hit the [...]

Cycling for Sight- Day 2 the RIDE
August 7th, 2009

Check out today’s photos! We had a great ride from UC Santa Barbara to Pepperdine U, on our way to raising $75,000 for the Braille Institutes. A photo montage is below, or feel free to check out the gallery below that. Cycling for Sight 2009- Ride Day 1 from E. Drake Martinet on Vimeo.

Cycling for Sight 2009- First Look Photos
August 6th, 2009

Just a few photos from day one of the ride. High spirits and fresh legs all around. CFS09 has almost met their goal of $75,000, and you can log on to donate. Just click the banner at the bottom of the photo gallery for details.

Get your Updates- Cycling for Sight!
August 5th, 2009

Beginning tomorrow, withdrake.com will be home to all the latest updates from the 2009 San Deigo Braille Institute “Cycling for Sight” Ride. Dozens of both sighted and vidualy impaired riders will be braving the byways between Santa Barbara and San Diego in a three day race for funds, awareness and community. I’ll be documenting the [...]

Photos are up!
August 5th, 2009

The photography section of the site has finally been fleshed out. Have a look, tell em what you think, leave your comments. Just head over to “Photofolio” in the “projects” section.

Sustainable Peoples Webisodes- Now on Vimeo
August 3rd, 2009

Here are a few videos from my 2008 Sustainable Peoples project. Sustainable Peoples Webisode 1- You Already Changed the World. from E. Drake Martinet on Vimeo. Sustainable Peoples Webisode 2- Faith, Medecine and a New Way Forward from E. Drake Martinet on Vimeo. Sustainable Peoples Webisode 3- Micro Agriculture and a Lifetime of Activism from [...]

Jealous?… You are if you’re 8.
July 31st, 2009

My 8 year old self is shooting temporally displaced spit wads at the back of my 25 year old head today. Jealousy, thy name is NASA. These are some iphone shots from this mornings briefing at NASA Ames. I guess this is post is the first of many about my experience as a test subject [...]