My last home before Washington, DC was Des Moines, IA. A lot of friends and colleagues have been affected by devastating floods that most have overlooked. The short version, floods worse than Hurrican Katrina have been battering the Midwest... few have noticed.

One of my favorite bands, the Nadas, has an online album to raise awareness and funds.

River Songs - Authentic Records' Flood Relief Benefit Bootleg

Contribute to United Way of Central Iowa's flood relief fund while reliving some of your favorite moments from Authentic Records Authentic Records' Flood Relief Benefit on Sunday, June 22. Please pay what you can for this exclusive download. All proceeds benefit United Way of Central Iowa.
1. Barkers Beauty - Fat Andy
2. Come Lay Down - She Swings, She Sways
3. Promise - Benjamin Wagner
4. The Friday Night Fight - Brother Trucker
5. Angels & Devils - Tony Bohnenkamp
6. Feel Like Home - The Nadas
7. Templeton Rye - The Nadas
8. The River - The Nadas

The download is free, but donations matter. Do what you can.

Technorati Profile

Today is Diabetes Alert Day.

My company helped produce this video about an important public issue. Please watch.

Between two book deadlines and a catastrophic laptop failure (smoke... I tell you), the blog had died. But I've rebuilt it... with even more features than last time. The blog is live again, but the back posts still need to be migrated. You'll find these all back online by the end of the year. Sorry for the few weeks off... it was needed.

Chris Pirillo and Lockergnome have released their list of picks for 2007. There's a lot of good things here worth checking out. You can see the full list here (and its growing). Here are a few of the ones that I found most useful (and think you will as well).

Terms of Service Comparison for Video Hosting Sites

Online Spreadsheets for Collaboration

Blog2PDF & deskFlickr for Windows

Starter set of 10 Tweaks for Windows Vista

FontRenamer for Windows

Sharable Web-based Whiteboard

Hope you enjoy...

I'm always on the lookout for a new laptop case. While at MacWorld I came across a great bag for Macintosh laptops. Behold the glovez case from case-mate. On the inside its pretty standard, a well-constructed neoprene case. On the outside its very different. The case is wrapped in a perforated nylon exterior that makes it easy to grip and hard to drop. It also has two velcro closures to help keep it under wraps.

The cases are sized to fit all models of Mac laptops perfectly... in fact its a very snug fit and offers peace of mind that the laptop is well-protected. You can choose from four colors: Mocha, Silver, Red, and Black. The cases are very reasonably priced – $24.95 to $29.95 which seems plenty reasonable. I've been plenty happy with it and invite you to check them out.

Well after a few weeks off, I have re-enterred the role of online forum host. I have partnered with the great folks over at DV Magazine and DV.com to bring you a new interactive forum. This is a great place to share ideas, ask questions, and meet up with others who share a passion for all things pixels. The forum is totally free, you can access it by clicking the forum button in the menu bar above or through this direct link.

I hope you enjoy this new service and feel free to drop me a line with comments or suggestions.

So what was in my stocking this morning? The perfect gift for someone who is frequently stuck next to a computer for long hours. A USB beverage cooler (no really.. I swear). Plug it in to a USB port and it dips to 45 degrees within seconds. Its perfect for chilling several cans of Coke Zero (I'm on a writing deadline you see).

The device works, doesn't seem to draw much power, and it runs silently. I know you're jealous, so if you're significant other didn't get you one, than stop over to www.thinkgeek.com and pick one up.

It's that time again... we've launched our survey for the month of December. It's time for you to cast your vote and have your voice/click heard.

This time we want to know which new tutorials to produce. Which Motion Graphics design skill do you want to see more training available? I'll produce both a for sale product and an exclusive sample for those who vote and comment. Be sure to leave a comment with your email address and I'll contact you next month with a free training module.

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For most of you, it's holiday time... a time for giving of gifts and catching up with friends. Well I'm brining that same joy into the blogosphere. Exactly what am I giving away? It's a secret and I can't reveal it to December 15th... but check back then.

I promise some really cool free downloads that you'll want to get. A certain legal document prevents me from leaking any details, but you will NOT want to miss what I have in store. Trust me... GRIN.

It's that time again... we've launched our survey for the month of November. It's time for you to cast your vote and have your voice/click heard.

This time we want to know which technology two things. First, What are your plans in regard to High Definition DVDs? Are you an early adopter. sitting on the fence, or just don't believe the "hype?" Our second question, when do you finally expect to see the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 finally shipping?

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I will be walking this weekend to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. If you are able to, would you consider making a small donation to the cause? Every dollar raised goes to help in the fight against diabetes. Someone is diagnosed with diabetes every 21 seconds, this is quickly becoming the leading cause of death in America. America's Walk for Diabetes is my chance to give back (and yours as well). If you find this blog helpful or entertaining, please consider making a $5 donation. Thanks!

-Rich Harrington

It's that time again... we've launched our survey for the month of October. It's time for you to cast your vote and have your voice/click heard.

This time we want to know which technology has had the greatest impact on your career/hobby. To clarify, we're talking hardware, software, or both. If you had to pick one (and only one) which would it be? Additionally, you have the option to vote for the ubiquitous ‘other’ but please be sure to identify it in the Comments section. Feel free to offer other opinions in the Comments feed as well.

So iTunes and ABC are doing something cool. You can download the season finale of Lost (as well as Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives) for free. The first Million viewers can pull down the show as well as "The Lost Survival Guide" so you can catch back up.

As a podcaster, it's an interesting concept. Making something free, but 'exclusive' (if you consider a million to be exclusive). Still, I like free TV as much as the next creative type.

Be sure to check it out.... it's free after all!

As a person living in target number one (Washington, D.C.) the news of a recently foiled terrorist attack greatly bothered me. As the frequent business traveler, I was stymied by the news reports that all sorts of items such as laptops, cell phones, and iPods were being banned. I thought... how could they? Could you imagine a flight where no business traveler got any work done no child could watch a movie, those of us who like quiet time couldn't ignore the world by drowning it out with an iPod?
Read More...

Continuing my mixtape habit.... I invite you to listen to an iMix (a collection of songs arranged around a topic). Just click this link to visit the iTunes music store and you can here a little part of the soundtrack of my life.

Radio & TV features some songs for those who work in the film/video/broadcast industry. A little satire, a few good beats, and some nice instrumentals. Seems that all my iMixes run with a theme... but I guess all good mix tapes do.


I posted this iMix here as it relates to the video industry... if you like this feature, be sure to check out Raster|Vector, the computer graphics blog.