Credit unions across British Columbia are launching a revolutionary new micro-loan program to help young people kick start their future. They are not looking for the perfect credit score, either. Just a remarkable idea. These three micro loan recipients talk about their entreprenurial challenges, their early success, and their passion to make a difference. http://www.beremarkable.com

CALAN
The founder of a Coquitlam-based non-profit promoting love and compassion.

NICOLE
A young mother and owner of a children’s consignment store in Nanaimo.

ANDREW
A poutine-loving food truck entrepreneur from Summerland.

I got myself an iPad last week and i love it. I really enjoy using it to read books, magazines, and browsing the web is actually very pleasant. I’ve downloaded a couple of news/social media news aggregators (Pulse and Flipboard) and I think it’s awesome being able to see my Twitter feeds in graphic format–so if someone I’m following posted a link, I’m able to see a page that’s populated with all those links preloaded whether they are web pages or images.

As for production purposes I found an app called Easy Releases which allows me to get signed consent form releases right on the iPad. I just fill in the necessary info, load up the template and pass it to the talent. They read and sign right on the iPad, which then emails me a copy of the PDF version of the form with their photo attached. Pretty cool right?

I already knew this device was a game-changer but now I’m even more convinced. So I’m looking forward to looking for new ways to enhance my work with the iPad, such as the teleprompter made for the iPad http://www.bodelin.com/proprompter/

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl while my wife and I were in Rwanda last week. Here are some photos I took when we visited them. This is her second girl, so I’m an uncle twice over! Lots of girls in our family!

A client of mine asked me this morning if I could encode to OGG format. I know this is possible, but I’ve never actually done this before. Most of my clients are still asking if I can encode to WMV which makes me shiver each time I think about it. WMV is a horrible codec and the encodes always seem to result in the audio slipping out of sync each time. Sure this is fixable, but it’s just so time consuming, and time is very valuable and limited when working in this business.

So, I did a bit of research and I discovered that Theora OGG is not that widely supported yet on the Mac platform. I did find the Xiph Quicktime component which allows me to export via Quicktime 7 (sorry, Quicktime X removed all the useful export options of Quicktime 7). If you’re running Snow Leopard, you will need to use your original OSX system disc to reinstall Quicktime 7.

On first test, it seems to export fine enough with options for video and audio quality.  As the format matures, we’ll start seeing some more full featured encoders.  If you are a web developer concerned about having your website content play across the widest number of platforms, then you might want to consider Theora Ogg video formats along side H.264 and (god forbid) Flash, with a script that chooses the best option based on the user’s web browser.