Travis Vocino Experiments in Art, Science & Technology.

My hot new company (which, unfortunately, is yet unnamed but almost named with the help of the awesome content maven Meryl K. Evans) is currently working on building a branding layout and viral marketing approach for a kid’s cooking show.

Yes, I hate the phrase “viral marketing” too, but it’s actually applicable in some circumstances, believe it or not. As in this case, the goal is really to create a sense of snowballing interest through the various networks. Before launching the official site, we’re releasing episodes on Viddler, Revver and YouTube.

I haven’t quite decided which network to sort of officially endorse. That is to say, which one’s embedding code will live on the official site and serve our adorable videos. Currently, I’m leaning toward Revver. Although I like most of Viddler’s features better, Revver has a couple tools that make it easier to monetize more distribution points — primarily iTunes.

Continue reading Gino Cucino, Ninja Kid Chef Extraordinaire…

So, I started helping Josh with The Apple Blog. It’s fun and hopefully it will help build a bit of branding for myself.

I read assloads of internet news all day everyday. On my iPhone, on my various computers, on the toilet. It’s retarded.

However, in all this time I never realized just how redundant all this shit is until I started actually looking for things to write about. I call this, Regurgitated Internet News. It’s nothing new and most people already complain about it. I’ve probably even complain about it before on my blog.

The basic premise is that there’s only a very small (like 1 or 2) sites that actually break technology news. Although we like to pretend these are homegrown blogs, they’re not. They’re the big names like Techcrunch. Everyone else just repeats these stories with a little blockquoting and a little commentary.

I’ll see an article about how the new iPhone firmware has 3G enabling sliders on AppleInsider, then I’ll see it on every other god damn site on the internet within seconds. Some of them pass it off as if they broke the story. The vast majority off absolutely no interesting commentary to go along with their rehashed article. I know, I’ve been guilty of this in the past I’m sure.

It’s something that Tyme and Scirvs were complaining about with the 9rules submissions last week.

This issue gets even worse when you couple it with the fact that everyone is competing for Digg and Reddit type promotion for their regurgitated stories. Sure, I’m cool with posting your shit on Digg if you really have something unique to say about the subject but not if you’re just blockquoting. All you’re doing is adding another layer of annoyance to get to the real fucking article.

Again, nothing new. Everyone complains about this. It hits home now though.

My goal with contributing to The Apple Blog is not to fall into this mess. While to a certain extent, if you’re reporting on Apple news you simply have to regurgitate some stories (when 25,000+ people subscribe to your feed, you have to give them something), but we can also rock out some really nice commentary and tutorials.

That’s what I plan to do.

God damn I love volcanos.

The Chaitén volcano now erupting in southern Chile is one of 200 to 300 volcanoes in the “Andean Arc” region of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia considered active by volcanologists.

“Volcanologists” being, of course, my new title of choice for all future business cards.

A cloud of smoke and ashes produced by intensified eruption of the Chaiten volcano are seen over Chaiten on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, in southern Chile. The eruption spewed incandescent material and blated ash some 20 miles (30 kilometers) into the Andean sky, forcing authorities to a complete evacuation of the area. (AP Photo/La Tercera)

Absolutely amazing, if you ask me. We’re talking about a context which encompasses the Earth as a whole. A massive swirling ball of molten rock that spews out into our living space and shifts along enormous plates. Bad ass.

The local cultures actually used the sediment from the eruptions to create things like pottery and art.

Whenever a new “get a bazillion visitors to your blog” system comes along, I get nervous. Well, “nervous” isn’t the right word, more like skeptical. I mean, remember BlogRush? Don’t get me started on that shit.

Anyway, there’s a new player in the market: Entrecard. More external javascript, more advertising click-back equations, more orange.

Continue reading WTF is an Entrecard?…

Why don’t “normal” companies do this?

Today 9rules had a streamcast hosted by Tyme and Scrivs (Mike was in the chat). Basically, they went over some opinions on sites that were submitted during yesterday’s open call for blogs using Ustream.tv.

Now, 9rules is a younger company of course, but what stops other larger sites from doing something like this? We’re all looking for a new layer of uber corporate transparency. Every decent web company has a Twitter feed, a Flickr account and everything else you can think of. There remains a level of interaction that seems untouched by most companies though.

Continue reading 9rules Engages with Streamcasting…

Marilyn Manson has released his own brand of 66.6% proof absinthe called – ready for this? – Mansinthe. Seriously.

Yes, soon to be the choice drink for goth pre-prom parties, the authentic absinthe is made in Switzerland, and per Manson’s specifications contains the highest amount of wormwood allowed by law. Before Manson, the 19th century bohemian spirit was once favored by old school bad asses like Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde.

Continue reading Can’t Hold Your Mansinthe?…

I wrote this short article for Dine Magazine’s new blog that will be launching soon.

I’m a man of science but admittedly not a man of supremely accurate wine tasting skills (we leave that to Patrick). So when I read about the trendy Molecular Mixology, my interest was sparked. Apparently, the chemical styles of molecular gastronomy are starting to be applied to the world of booze and breeding a new heard of cool scientists-meet-bartenders.

Continue reading Molecular Mixology…