Viddler

What’s an SSD? A Solid-State Drive. SSDs store data on solid-state memory (also known as flash memory) that can be written and read by a computer. Common places to find flash memory is in iPod Nanos, iPhones, SD cards, and USB thumb drives. SSDs combine multiple flash memory chips to create a larger storage capacity than most of the aforementioned devices.

SSDs are a newer and more stable form of storage for computers as it contains no moving parts like HDDs do. HDD = Hard Disk Drive — Not to be confused with HD = High Definition. Moreover, once SDDs reduce in price (they’re currently more than twice the price of HDDs for the same capacity) they will most likely become standard in all new computers.

Of course, if you’re a geek, you already knew all that. Okay, how about this? How are Solid-State Drives made? Fancy machines? Robots? Hot ovens? Sure! TweakTown (subscribe) visited the Runcore factory in Hangzhou, China, this week to discover the complete process of how an SSD is made.

I don’t know about you, but I was in a bit of geek heaven right there. Now you’ll know the temperatures that an SSD goes through when in production. Just in case that question is asked at the next trivia night.

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In May 2008 I quipped that I thought Two Guys on Beer (subscribe: tgob), the video podcast out of Philadelphia by Dave Martorana and Johnny Billotta, would be a big hit someday.

I may have been onto something. Last month TGOB debuted on Philly.com. This month, they have a brand new Web site. They also have a pretty special episode that just went live… an interview with Jim Koch, the founder of Samuel Adams.

The interview, which took place at the Field House during Philly Beer Week, spans many generations starting with Jim’s great great grandfather and onto the present day with the growth of the company, the beer, and the brand. An excellent interview and well worth the watch.

Please excuse me while I grab a Boston Lager from my keg.

What’s your favorite soft drink? I know a lot of people like plain ol’ Coca-Cola or it’s cousin the diet version. That’s most likely due to the mind-blowing amount of money that Coca-Cola spends to get the product in front of your eyes through advertising.

When it comes to a fun drink you think of Fanta, right? In most countries it was introduced as an orange-flavored fruit drink. Now, there’s over 90 flavors around the world — many of them only available in select countries. The orange flavor is bright, fun, and bubbly (not just because of the carbonation).

The Fantanas are a group of four girls that were created to promote Fanta in a fun and energetic way. There’s currently only three girls, and Fanta is looking for a fourth Fantana. When I think of a fun, bubbly, and darn crazy girl, I think of Michelle Glavan (a.k.a. LeggyBlonde). By now you probably know her from “I Kissed a Dog” and Awkward Kids. Watch her entry for the Fantana contest.

Now go to Michelle’s contest page, vote *5 stars*, and comment something rad.
You can vote daily until September 10th, 2009. Do so.

The fourth Fantana will also win $5,000; 2nd place receives $2,500; 3rd place receives $1,000.

Viddler’s Community Spotlight shines on users of the community that are creating greatness and/or having loads of fun. If you’d like to suggest a video for the Community Spotlight, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Earlier this month Ranger3 released their latest single “Sense Of Direction”. It’s available for download on Amazon and iTunes.

Along with the release of the song, they also released the official music video for the song. Directed by award-winning animator Eric Power (RMV profile) and commissioned by Radar Music Videos (subscribe), the music video features the adventures of claymation animals in a Texan woodland. Of course, claymation and stop-motion go hand-in-hand.

The single also comes with a remix of Ranger3’s song “Old Simplicity” by Irish electronica artist Acera. Value baby!

About the Artist

Ranger3 are an Anglo-Irish duo formed in 2005 in Camberwell, London. They named themselves after the highly successful technology laden US Rocket whose mission was to land on Earth’s moon, but actually missed the moon by 36,000 km and spiraled off into space, losing contact with the earth. Cool name; pretty sad story about the rocket though.

The English half, Jim Perkins, is a composer, arranger and producer who blends acoustic and electronic instruments and sounds. The Irish element, Ronan Burke has a fondness for electronica, krautrock and folk songs about romance and death. It takes a dynamic duo like that to create the awesomeness you just heard and watched.

Bigo & Twigetti is Ranger3’s label and I must say that B&T’s website is damn funky and fun! They have (LOTS) free downloads, mixes, and much more. Seriously, check it out!

Ranger3’s debut album “Old Simplicity” can be downloaded from Amazon, iTunes, and obtained in CD form from Rough Trade.

Discover more about Ranger3 on Twitter, mySpace, and Facebook.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Norm lives in Southern California. He has a real passion for beer. Some may say he’s a beer snob. His wife and friends tend to get tired of him talking about beer, and his quest to find the perfect beer. Thus, in 2007, he created My Beer Quest (subscribe) and decided share his quest for the perfect beer (with people whom are interested) by writing a blog.

More recently, Norm has started talking about his passion for beer in video form. He usually reviews one beer on each short episode and gets closer to finding the perfect beer. His favorites so far are from California.

I couldn’t resist showing you this episode Norm published back in February. He reviews a beer by the New Belgium Brewing Company, named Giddy Up!. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s one awesome name for a beer!

I love the warm colors of My Beer Quest. It make it feel all cozy and beer-like. The beer and cigar posters in the background definitely set the scene too! Giddy luck on your quest, Norm!

Be sure to check out some more videos on My Beer Quest. Norm publishes a new episode about once a week. You can follow Norm on Twitter: @BeerExpedition.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Cupcakes are a delicious treat any time of year, any time of day. In recent years gourmet cupcake stores have been opening up in cities all over the world. In Beverly Hills (Los Angeles) they have Sprinkles Cupcakes and in Paddington (Sydney) they have The Cupcake Bakery, but there are many more! For most, gourmet cupcakes can only be an occasional treat because they tend to have a gourmet price.

If you think making your own cupcakes might not look as fancy, well then you probably haven’t seen a cupcake cookbook before. I used to work at a candy/chocolate store (Sugar Fix) that imports international products. Many times a week we’d be asked by mothers if we had a certain hard-to-find item that was needed to place on top of a cake or cupcake. So, I know how picky kids and moms can be when it comes to making something like cupcakes.

Laurie Gelman of Howdini (subscribe) and Liv Hansen of Betty Crocker kitchens show us how to design four cute animal-themed cupcakes. All you’ll need is orange, brown, white, and black icings as well as any flavor cupcake your heart desires. Watch as these ladies create adorable sweets for any “jungle party” you might be having!

See the shopping list and written recipe instructions for these cupcakes.

These animal cupcakes could also be used for a zoo party, safari party, or even an Africa party. You could also use the same icing colors in this video for Halloween-themed cupcakes. I just made this video much more versatile, hey!

Imagine how many combinations you could create out of the dozens of how-to food videos that Howdini provides! Not to mention the hundreds of how-to videos they have on subjects ranging from Jobs & Money to Green Living to Style & Beauty. There’s no end to the possibilities!

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

If you don’t own some kind of multiplayer music performance simulation video game, then you’ve probably been playing WoW too long. Or, you’re like me, and neglect your video game console altogether.

Either way, with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DJ Hero, and many more spinoffs, there’s so much choice out there that you could easily be overwhelmed. If you’ve decided it’s time to get a makeshift band in your living room, then note that they’re all essentially the same; you have to hit notes at the exact time they appear cross over a line on your screen.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band are the two major competitors. They come in various flavors depending on what kind of music you can replicate in the came. Typically, the whole set features 2 or more guitars, an electronic drum set, and a microphone. The original Guitar Hero game only came with a single guitar.

Joystiq (subscribe) has provided a cool trailer for Band Hero which is being released in November 2009. Unlike the standard Guitar Hero games, where the guitars are the main focus, Band Hero challenges all the players with a pop rock soundtrack.

Who can resist a soundtrack that includes Lily Allen? Now you just have to wait about three months for Band Hero to be in stores. Gosh, what a tease!

Here’s the Amazon link to pre-order.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post. Band on!

I really love how creative music artists are these days! There’s an increasing amount of them totally skipping any record label and just going through the whole process of creating an album themselves. Of course, the involvement of friends and family helps a lot.

Lindsey (yes, a single name like Cher or Madonna) is one such artist that is fed up with record companies trying to mould her in to something she’s not. So she decided to hustle her way on to the music scene by creating her debut album independently.

This music video for Lindsey’s song “Start A War” was created for next to nothing through the online business community BT Tradespace (subscribe). BT Tradespace brings businesses and their consumers together in an environment where they can built a lasting relationship.

About the music video

Lindsey’s website states she is beautiful, talented, and has a heart-breaking voice. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t decide whether to watch this music video because of Lindsey & the great cinematography and or close my eyes because her voice was breaking my heart. I think I mostly watched; my heart seems to be in good condition.

Lindsey founded a really creative project in October 2008 to fund her debut album. The project is called ‘Pick an Orange Project‘ (POP). In short, fans are able to donate a segment of an orange (£100) or an entire orange (£1,000 — ten segments). Lindsey reached her goal of £12,000, but has continued accepting segments and oranges until the album is released. Once the album is released, then 1% of all the sales after that date will be given back to those that got involved in POP — for a total or 12 months worth of returned earnings. That’s pretty snazzy! Especially when Lindsey most definitely will be raking in some good sales; I mean, with those eyes and that voice how couldn’t she?

Lastly, I must mention that this video couldn’t exist without the wonderful expertise of the team at Curly Productions — a creative video production company based in the United Kingdom.

Not surprisingly, all of the aforementioned entities are followable on Twitter:

• Lindsey: @thisislindsey
• Curly Productions: @curlyprods
• BT Tradespace: @bttradespace

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Japanese Anime series, Gundam, first airing on television in Japan. The animated sci-fi series — titled Mobile Suit Gundam — features mecha (giant robots) and began in April of 1979 on the Nagoya Broadcasting Network.

Since then, Gundam has grown into a franchise name — akin to Pokemon or Dragon Ball Z — with manga (Japanese comics), novels, toys, and video games just to name a few products available. As of 2008, the Gundam franchise was worth 50 billion yen (528 million USD). Moreover, it may not be well known in the United States, but it’s definitely a big deal in Japan.

A massive replica of Gundam was built in Tokyo’s Odaiba seaside park to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gundam’s launch. The 59-foot (18 metre) tall robot is open to the public daily with and can be viewed until August 31st, 2009.

Check out the sheer massiveness of it in PC World’s (subscribe) video below. Gundam’s Executive Director, Yoshiyuki Tomino, also explains how he didn’t initially like the idea of the robot statue.

I think the Gundam statue should stay there indefinitely. With all its history it marks a success for all involved. I’d love to go check out the statue myself!

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If you’re an avid reader/viewer of the Viddler Blog (with all the fab videos why wouldn’t you be?), then you’ll probably notice I enjoy spotlighting artistic people; especially on Music Video Mondays. That’s a pretty vague statement seeing as all content can be considered art, but there’s no doubt in the fact that the following video is about an artist.

Mini Graff is one of the most progressive artists in Sydney, Australia. Progressive art is that which is constantly changing and improving throughout its evolution. Imagine a mural which people are continuously painting over to change the look of it. That’s progressive, yo!

Mini’s art can be found throughout the inner city and beyond. From spray painting (some consider graffiti) a running couple on miscellaneous walls — reminding me of the UK’s Banksy — to striping colorful ribbons around poles, there’s no doubt it livens up the urban landscape.

Award-winning producer Evelyn Franks of Studio Evie (subscribe) produced this short documentary about Mini Graff for Alt Artist.

I find it interesting that in some countries/cities they encourage street art and even pay artists to make urban areas colorful, and yet in other places you can get arrested for even the smallest street art. Of course, graffiti tagging isn’t tolerated because it’s generally done in a single color on walls and signs that are important for safety; sometimes councils will build graffiti walls in an attempt to stop graffiti taggers messing up areas.

Do you like street are? Where do you draw the line?

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.