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Here are some photos I’ve shot while attending SXSW Interactive 2010.

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Related posts:

- Battledecks Returns To SXSW Interactive 2010

- SXSW Interactive 2007 Photos

- SXSW Interactive 2008 Photos

- SXSW Interactive 2006 Photos

- SXSW Interactive 2009 Photos

The folks at Nikon let me try out a D300s camera. It’s a lot more pro-feeling than my Nikon D-60. Honestly, I’m not yet that clever with it. I’m trying it out, and shooting stuff, and they’re giving me little tips so I can try to do better stuff with it.

I’m part of their outreach project, which they’re doing for the South by Southwest event in partnership with YFrog. So, if you check out http://yfrog.com/nikon, you’ll see what me and a few others are shooting.

Why let an idiot like me use such a powerful camera instead of someone who’s a really great shooter? There are a few reasons. One’s obvious: I have a big audience, so Nikon is hoping that I’ll somehow coax you into buying one. I’m not sure how well that kind of option works. It’s not an inexpensive camera, so it’s not like you do an impulse buy.

However, the OTHER reason they let me use it instead of some pro is that I can be more like an “everyman” user. (I’ve written about the everyman before.) This is why Scott Monty of Ford is perfect for Ford. He’s their everyman.

So, the post? I’ve got a mixed reason. First, I’m telling you, “Hey, look! Nikon wants you to see me making their camera take fuzzy shots because I’m not a good photographer, but darn it – they like me!” Second, I’m saying, “as marketers, take a look at this kind of outreach and ask yourself what’s the yield. Believe me, if I somehow magically convince you that “even I can use this camera,” which is possible maybe, then how many will I be selling?

What’s your take?

1. Lady Gaga: Telephone

The highly anticipated follow-up to the pop giant's music video "Bad Romance," covered by On Smash, finds our Lady jailed in ripped tights, latex and caution tape. She gets sprung by Beyoncé, (whose music video Videophone last year featured Gaga) and the two cause general nonsensical mayhem and mass homicide in the spirit of "Kill Bill."

2. Kid Cudi: Pursuit of Happiness

Kid Cudi transforms his ballad into an Escher-inspired portrait of drunkenness. (Or is it a bad acid trip?) In this alternate video for the downer song from his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of the Day, he seems to be trapped in an eternal couch to doorway to window-ledge purgatory until the plot-line devolves into a fog-heavy dreamscape populated by strangely-dressed women.

3. The Allure of the Automobile

Featuring a vintage Jag that belonged to Steve McQueen, The Moment checks out this upcoming exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta that examines changing attitudes about cars alongside the notable rides that inspired and challenged them.

4. Getting Drunk at The New York Times

Big Think catches up with famed writer Gay Talese, who describes the liquor-friendly, smoke-saturated atmosphere at the famed newspaper in the '60s.

5. Beautiful Book Covers

The BibliOdyssey blog culls the best hand-bound book covers scanned from The National Library of the Netherlands, which has over 12,000 such books in its extensive collection. Neatorama uncovers this curio of beautiful and forgotten books.

6. The World's Largest House of Cards

Professional card-stacker Bryan Berg built a replica of The Venetian Macao in 44 days with 4,051 cards without glue, tape or any other prop, breaking his own world record. The Daily Mail has photos of the wonder, an architectural study in balance and detail, built inside the hotel.

7. Radio-Guy

We Love You So highlights Radio-Guy, a collector of old anatomical models of the brain and other wonderful vintage oddities which he sells on his website.

8. Factory 20

Thinking for a Living takes a look at another superb peddler of found objects, Sterling, VA-based Factory 20. Their website's extensive collection features all kinds of furniture, art, and objects from time periods such as the Bauhaus and industrial eras. Quality photographs reveal each object's inimitable qualities and heritage.

9. Aleksander Mukomelov: Infinity Bath

Definitive Touch recently covered the new contemporary designer bathtub by Aleksander Mukomelov. This high-tech soaking sensation comes with a built-in media console capable of playing music, infusing aromatherapy, and, of course, water jets.

10. Matthew Turley Photography

Yewknee points us to the portfolio of Salt Lake City-based photographer Matthew Turley, who skillfully captures landscapes and people in their most desolate state.

1. Lady Gaga: Telephone

The highly anticipated follow-up to the pop giant's music video "Bad Romance," covered by On Smash, finds our Lady jailed in ripped tights, latex and caution tape. She gets sprung by Beyoncé, (whose music video Videophone last year featured Gaga) and the two cause general nonsensical mayhem and mass homicide in the spirit of "Kill Bill."

2. Kid Cudi: Pursuit of Happiness

Kid Cudi transforms his ballad into an Escher-inspired portrait of drunkenness. (Or is it a bad acid trip?) In this alternate video for the downer song from his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of the Day, he seems to be trapped in an eternal couch to doorway to window-ledge purgatory until the plot-line devolves into a fog-heavy dreamscape populated by strangely-dressed women.

3. The Allure of the Automobile

Featuring a vintage Jag that belonged to Steve McQueen, The Moment checks out this upcoming exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta that examines changing attitudes about cars alongside the notable rides that inspired and challenged them.

4. Getting Drunk at The New York Times

Big Think catches up with famed writer Gay Talese, who describes the liquor-friendly, smoke-saturated atmosphere at the famed newspaper in the '60s.

5. Beautiful Book Covers

The BibliOdyssey blog culls the best hand-bound book covers scanned from The National Library of the Netherlands, which has over 12,000 such books in its extensive collection. Neatorama uncovers this curio of beautiful and forgotten books.

6. The World's Largest House of Cards

Professional card-stacker Bryan Berg built a replica of The Venetian Macao in 44 days with 4,051 cards without glue, tape or any other prop, breaking his own world record. The Daily Mail has photos of the wonder, an architectural study in balance and detail, built inside the hotel.

7. Radio-Guy

We Love You So highlights Radio-Guy, a collector of old anatomical models of the brain and other wonderful vintage oddities which he sells on his website.

8. Factory 20

Thinking for a Living takes a look at another superb peddler of found objects, Sterling, VA-based Factory 20. Their website's extensive collection features all kinds of furniture, art, and objects from time periods such as the Bauhaus and industrial eras. Quality photographs reveal each object's inimitable qualities and heritage.

9. Aleksander Mukomelov: Infinity Bath

Definitive Touch recently covered the new contemporary designer bathtub by Aleksander Mukomelov. This high-tech soaking sensation comes with a built-in media console capable of playing music, infusing aromatherapy, and, of course, water jets.

10. Matthew Turley Photography

Yewknee points us to the portfolio of Salt Lake City-based photographer Matthew Turley, who skillfully captures landscapes and people in their most desolate state.

Launched at last month's Design Indaba expo, the Inception Collection from Snapp was one of the more attention-grabbing product collections there. With its use of brilliant hues and bold forms, the group of five objects stood out from much of the more craft-based wares on view.

Founded by industrial designer Jonathan Fundudis and mechanical engineer Renko Nieman, the Johannesburg-based firm aspires to lead the field in contemporary South African product design and manufacturing. The brand fabricated their inaugural collection entirely from Corian, which they selected for its ability to be machined, thermoformed, laminated and finished using both new technology and traditional production techniques.

Highlights from the collection include the Lamellae fruit bowl (top), inspired by the underside of mushrooms, the Slice cutting board (next image), in which two wedge-shaped voids allow for both handling the board and scooping chopped food, and the alluring Twi-light table lamp (above), which turns on and off by pressing the top cap.

Since Corian is a notoriously expensive material, and producing these pieces in small batches could be quite costly, we're interested to see how the gentlemen at Snapp can scale up their design projects to reach a wider South African, and international, audience. They've certainly got some good ideas, so watch for more from them in the years ahead.

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging in London have developed an algorithm that can identify brain activity patterns specific to the recall of specific memories.

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Yesterday in Canada it was Bottled Water Free Day. It is a project of the Canadian Federation of Students, the Sierra Youth Coalition and the Polaris Institute. Only ten years ago the concept of bottled water was a novelty. Now, bottled water is seen as a necessity—water fountains have disappeared and bottled water has infiltrated our schools, workplaces and communities. The bottled water industry is less regulated than municipal water systems, consumes more energy and releases more harmful toxins into the environment than tap water.

“Across the country students are standing up against the wasteful bottled water industry,” said Noah Stewart, National Deputy Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “Tired of having to pay Coca Cola, Pepsi or Nestle for a drink of water we’re calling on schools to ban the sale of bottled water and re-invest in water fountains.”

Author: Marc

As we profiled in our Never Mind the Valley series last month, New York is increasing its stronghold on the east coast startup scene. The city's rich media and international business ecosystems make it the perfect launch pad for startups looking to leverage these markets. One other reason the city has seen successful growth of entrepreneurship is the holding company Betaworks, which shows no signs of slowing after raising $20 million from Intel, AOL, RRE Ventures and several others.

Sponsor

It is a little harder to place a label on Betaworks compared to other similar entities that some would call incubators. The important thing to know is that Betaworks considers itself a holding company and will not only invest in companies but will hold and operate some of them as well. Having previously raised $8 million in 2008, the company has put their money to good use; Betaworks' history includes helping start companies like Bit.ly and Chartbeat, while investing in other real-time Web apps like Tweetdeck, and helping in the sale of others like Summize, which was acquired by Twitter in 2008.

Needless to say, the company seems to know which horses to bet on, which is likely the reason why several corporations and investors teamed up to refresh their capital. Along with Intel, AOL and RRE, investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Softbank and The New York Times Company all contributed to help Betaworks keep moving forward.

The real-time Web is a trend we've been following very closely at ReadWriteWeb as evidenced by last fall's Real-Time Web Summit. For startups in this space, especially those on the east coast, Betaworks is a great resource and potential investor. The new funds will not only go toward helping bolster their already impressive list of companies, but also to bringing fresh new companies on board. As with the recent $750 million raised by Battery Ventures, the large collaborative investment in Betaworks is another solid indicator of returning venture capital dollars after a lackluster 2009.

Discuss

Droga5 has developed an equally hopeful and heart-wrenching spot for The Tap Project - an agency-originated idea and now UNICEF initiative - painting a picture for what having access to plentiful, clean running tap water can mean to the daily lives of children and families in a country like Haiti. The message is clearly targeted to those of us in more developed nations that take it for granted - and can help do something about it.

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have had success with an experiment to grow new arteries

Cisco has introduced its new Internet core router, CRS-3, which is more powerful than its current platform.

Using the sun's natural path through the sky, Jiyeon Song has created a beautiful sculpture which produces a series of short poems throughout the day using light and shadow.

Watchismo has an exclusive look at Celsius X VI II's first product, an impressive merging of a mobile phone with a tourbillion watch that integrates a patented rewinding mechanism hidden within its hinge. The upshot of over three years of development and based on complex micromechanics, opening the phone activates the internal device.

Inspired by tourbillion watches—invented in the late 18th century to offset the supposed effects of gravity on accuracy by rotating a full 360º within a cage—Celsius' love for mechanical triumphs of centuries past permeates the many components of the the Papillon. Made using 547 mechanical components (most of them hand-finished), the new gadget strives for "the dream of a completely mechanical mobile phone: a phone in which every function will operate mechanically, solely through human energy."

To produce the hybrid, Celsius collaborated with renowned watchmaker Richard Mille and horological design team Confrérie Horlogère. The upshot is a true example of excellence in design, expertly combining mechanical and technological achievements into a gorgeously sleek simple black body.

German-based international watch and jewelry fair BaselWorld will host the launch of this remarkable phone when it's unveiled next week with a price of $275,000.

PSFK curates a daily selection of relevant and noteworthy news headlines from around the world.

With an all-star lineup and a truly meaningful objective, the online auction Crafts For A Cause keeps the spirit of helping Haiti alive with a host of tees, totes, guitars and other objects decorated by some our favorite creatives all up for bidding.

Initiated by L.A. native Binki Shapiro (of Little Joy fame), the benefit features goods decorated by fellow musicians, actors and artists alike. From a camera painted by Drew Barrymore (above left) to Daft Punk's toy robots (above right) and Rodarte sweatshirts signed by the sisterly duo (bottom), Crafts for a Cause mobilizes today's great cultural movers and shakers.

All proceeds from the auction will go to Artists for Peace and Justice, a Haiti-based humanitarian organization dedicated to "providing an education, hot meals, clean drinking water and regular medical treatments to the children living in the slums."

The auction opens 15 March 2010 at Bidding For Good, and ends 27 March 2010. Opening bids range from $15 to $5,000, making it accessible for most. Check out Crafts for a Cause to see photos of participants creating their pieces up for auction and see more of the items, including pieces by JD Samson and the Fleet Foxes, in the below slide show.

Our team has been growing fast! We just hired two great new researchers and are currently interviewing candidates for analyst positions as well. We are looking for someone who has experience measuring campaign performance across digital channels and who can look at how emerging technologies will fit into a cross channel strategy. We are looking for someone with 5-10 years experience. We are open to hiring this person in NYC, Cambridge or Foster City, CA. If you or someone you know is interested in working at Forrester, please submit your resume here: http://forrester.myvurv.com/main/careerportal/Job_Profile.cfm?szOrderID=...

The Economist Intelligence Unit has released the results of a survey listing 132 cities with the highest cost of living from around the world.

Here is a look back at some standout design stories from the past week.

Green Ring is a device which is used to check air pollution.