Tuesday, January 31, 2006

John W Scherer Video Professor BLOG January 27, 2006

On the scene at the Sundance Film Festival

John W. Scherer VIDEO PROFESSOR Blog-Let’s talk tech!

The Sundance Scene
We had great success launching our new eBay tutorial at the Country Music Association Awards so we picked the Sundance Film Festival to showcase our new Learn Wireless Networking tutorial. And we weren’t disappointed.

First, if you are into film at all, make sure you attend the festival at least once. Park City, Utah is an absolute gem of a town and ski resort. And you can imagine how lively it gets during the festival! But the traffic is unbelievable!!

I want to personally thank several stars including Chazz Palmenteri
, (A Bronx Tale) Joe Pantoliano, (The Sopranos, The Fugitive) Oscar Winner Mary Matlin (who also has turned in some terrific performances on The West Wing) and Ally Sheedy, (The Breakfast Club) Ronald Reagan Jr. (That name sounds familiar) Harry Shearer, (Spinal Tap, The Simpsons) among others, for dropping by our display while we were at Sundance. They all took time to sign a limited edition Sundance Film Festival poster, of which just 300 were produced this year. The autographed poster will be up for auction on eBay shortly, with 100% of the proceeds going to the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis.

We often hear about the huge egos with some movie stars, but that certainly wasn’t the case with the stars we met at Sundance. All were friendly, down-to-earth and they all shared very inspirational stories about their own lives with attendees. And because of their kindness, some money is going to St. Jude’s! More info on the auction here next week.


Ron Reagan Jr autographs Sundance Poster for eBay auction


John W. Scherer with actor Chazz Palmenteri


John W. Scherer with actor Joe Pantoliano


John autographs HTML tutorial at Sundance


Video Professor's Cindy Reif and Robin Deluca with actor Tyler Hilton




We also had some fun with the folks from Bravo! and did several interviews with various Internet trade publications covering the Sundance Film Festival. Look for me on the Bravo in March. We’ll keep you posted.

Our “Learn Wireless Networking” tutorial was very popular with Sundance attendees, also topping the most requested list were our eBay, PhotoShop and Excel tutorials.


Dangerous precedent?
A major confrontation is shaping up between Google and the Federal Government. The government wants Google to hand over records of searches conducted using Google. Google says “no way.” The precedent about privacy could have major implications.
Read More >

Different story however in China
Google has a little different attitude when it comes to dealing with Communist China. There’s little if any freedom of expression there and apparently that’s just fine with the folks at Google.
Read More >

BlackBerry Blackout?
Bad news from the Supremes to the makers of BlackBerry. Might the screen on that handy, can’t live without it device, go black?
Read More >
And this just in: A Judge has set an injunction hearing in BlackBerry patent case for February 24th.

Yeah, but how is the football team?
I wish they had this option when I went to college. Stanford students will soon be able to download all sorts of lectures, etc., by just going to iTunes. Or should I say iU?
Read More >

Off Topic
The difference between winners and losers
The folks here in the Denver area are still smarting (as are the Broncos) from the loss to Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship game. There was a telling shot late in the game, when the CBS cameras pointed at QB Jake Plummer on the sideline, sucking oxygen, hair hanging down to his knees. A beaten man who’d given up. That shot was in contrast to Texas QB Vince Young at the Rose Bowl. His team was down 10 with 6 minutes left, and Vince was NOT sitting down. He was cheering on his team, telling them, to believe, that they could win and would win. That’s called leadership.

One last note from Sundance: Several of the stars shared many stories of difficult time in their own careers, when literally there was no money, and no options. But the successful ones didn’t give up. They kept on trying, going for that 11th audition after being turned down in first 10. And then there was Jake Plummer, head down in defeat, sucking oxygen. And that’s why he lost, because he gave up.

Quote o’ the week
"Our guy made the plays.”-Pittsburgh wide receiver Cedric Wilson.

Site o’ the week
Ok, there’s a trick to this. See if you can figure it out. If you can’t, it is indeed, very mysterious!
View Site >

Contact me anytime at CEO@videoprofessor.com!

John W. Scherer
CEO and Founder
VIDEO PROFESSOR, Inc
Member: Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau. To view our report, go to www.denverbbb.org.