2008 Dot Com Taipei The Video!

It’s pretty clear that everyone in the Dot Com Crew that made it overseas had a wicked time in Taipei, Taiwan. We put up at ton of coverage of COMPUTEX 2008, ate out of toilets, dodged scooters but were eventually shut down by John Chow’s Evilness as he got us banned from Pho. Although there are still many videos to process and upload, I thought I’d give you guys a small teaser of what I’ve got in store. This video is a compilation of some clips that I put together to the tune of Weezer’s Pork and Beans single, a video that seems to celebrate Internet Stardom, even though the lyrics don’t seem to have anything to do with that.

The video features Ed Lau, Michael Kwan, John Chow with cameos from Jason of Techwarelabs (singing with John Chow). Enjoy!

No iPhones or Flip Flaps were harmed in the filming of this production. Speaking of which, don’t forget that I’m the only blog giving away Flip Flp…oh, and a “non Market Leverage Branded” iPod nano. What does that mean exactly? It means that I didn’t engrave my name and your name onto it so that you can’t sell it or give it away again. If you want in on this contest, click here for the details.

Another Flipping Edition of Dot Com Pho

Man, there was so much footage at today’s Dot Com Pho! Part of the job of editing is to be able to keep what is important and what isn’t. With only a 10 minute window via YouTube, this task was made all the more difficult. Because of all the extra time spent on sorting all these clips, I had to go back to iMovie 08 which I am much more familiar with. Though I didn’t do too bad with last week’s video using iMovie HD, I felt I spent far too much time fiddling with the advanced features. As a result, there were a lot of transitions and fancy stuff that I wouldn’t normally use in the last video. I feel that this week’s video is definitely a lot cleaner and I hope that you see some of your feedback in it.

For this week, I focused more on the people of Dot Com Pho. I focused on Michael Kwan’s unfortunate need to sell himself for 50% off, Greg Morgan’s love for Michael Landsberg, Gary Ng’s obsession with gaming John Chow’s Blog. Of course we have the Super EGO himself, John Chow and his thoughts on not thinking at all. We also have a new member indoctrinated into the Dot Com Crew. Ray (can’t remember your last name) of FlipVancouver has reached “regular” status (whatever that means) and John Chow presented him with one of the many free USB drives that he poached from Gigabyte who is one of the sponsors of this week’s event. Ed Lau also makes a brief appearance as he bitches about his accommodations.

So who’s video reigns supreme this week?

Stephen Fung’s - Another Flipping Edition of Dot Com Pho

John Chow’s - Dot Com Pho - Highly Leverage Edition

Again, if there are any comments on how my video can improve, please let me know. Hopefully you can see the indifference of a 30 minute edit job vs the care and craftmanship that is etched into 4 hr edit job. I kind of think of this like how the Incredible Hulk movies ended up. By rushing to the box office, John Chow made the first Hulk movie. Then I have to come along and remake it into something that you can be proud of and I think it’s easy to see the difference.

Don’t forget that Flip Flap, who you see in the beginning title screen of this week’s video, still needs a new home. If you want to win Flip Flap along with an iPod nano that doesn’t have a stupid Market Leverage logo laser etched onto it so that you can’t sell or give away again, then check out this post to find out how to enter to win.

Flip Flap Shows You How To Relax

Flip Flap has become quite the Dot Com Pho celebrity. People wonder who is he? How did he get here? Did Gigabyte make him? Well, only John Chow would ask if Gigabyte made him (of course not! DUH!). Today, I’m going to share with you one of his remarkable talents. The talent of complete relaxation. If you get into a situation where you are absolutely infuriated, just watch this clip and you’ll calm down. Repeat as necessary.

If you think he’s relaxing and soothing in a video, wait till you get the real deal in person. What? You mean you’re giving away one Stephen? That’s right! This month I’m giving away my beloved Flip Flap to ONE lucky person. Oh, and I’m giving away one of those iPod nano doodads too to another reader. If you want to be the new owner of Flip Flap, because owning Flip Flap is FTW, then enter today. You only have till July 1st, 2008!

The Reason Why We Had No Pho in Taipei…

We had Taiwan beef noodles, hot pot, heck, we even had EPIC curry. But unfortunately, our plans for Dot Com Pho went to the dumps as we had to eat out of modern toilets for our weekly meet up. We never had one string of Vietnames Noodle in Taipei, which we affectionately know as “Pho”. Well, there was a reason for that.

Now John Chow says that we were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. But that’s not the real story. The real story is that when they saw the Root of All Evil coming their way, every Pho restaurant decided to close shop. They didn’t run away when Ed, Michael and me stopped by.

Because John got the boot, that meant that we got the boot by association. Man, we can’t take this guy anywhere! There must be like this super “Pho Network” that notifies other restaurants of the presence of Evil.

I guess the key to getting Pho in Taiwan next year is simple: Leave John happily in his room, complaining about the weather while the rest of us head to Pho!

Dot Com Pho - Flip Flap Edition and Giveaway!

In John Chow’s absence, I was able to take over the production of the weekly Dot Com Pho Video again starting with the May 17th Edition and then the May 25th Edition. Since I shot the pilot episode, it was only natural for me to take on the task once again. Now that the whole crew is back in Canada (except for Ed Lau who is somewhere in Japan) it’s time for another episode of Dot Com Pho!

Since I had gotten very used to doing the Dot Com Pho episodes over the last couple weeks and raising the quality level BACK to where I set it with the pilot, I wasn’t ready to let go of producing them quite yet. John Chow has decided that it will be up to the readers whether he goes or I go, at least till he gets shipped off to Lincoln, Nebraska (aka Middle of Nowhere) for the Top Affiliate Challenge later this month.

In order to up my game, I changed the software I used and switched to the totally unfamiliar iMovie HD. Though more powerful, I found it quite a bit more difficult to use versus iMovie 08 so I had to fiddle quite a bit with it. In the end, the software is quite a bit more powerful, although I personally think iMovie 08 has the potential to be better with new plugins down the road.

So what’s your favourite Dot Com Pho Crew up to this week? Tune in with John Chow, Michael Kwan, Greg Morgan, Gary Ng and me to find out!  To kick things off, hot off the YouTubes, is my version of the Dot Com Pho - Flip Flap Edition…

For a different point of view altogether, here is John Chow’s Flip Flap Edition. Same day, same people, but totally different editing…

So do I get a break next week? Or do you want me to keep going until I get sick of it? Only you can decide!

Oh…and One More Thing…

As an incentive, I’m going to use this opportunity to start a new contest!

If you leave your comment on this post about who should live to edit another day, I’ll enter you into a draw for an “UNBRANDED” iPod nano 4GB Silver that I won at the ZOTAC Party! Unlike the one that Market Leverage is giving away through John Chow this month, this iPod nano is free from any branding nonsense so that you can enjoy it as you please and if you are Chinese, you can even re-gift it properly because it doesn’t have your blog name or Market Leverage’s name on it. Yay!

To increase your chances of winning, you will get one additional entry if you provide another unique comment on my video’s YouTube Page and if you blog about this contest and leave a trackback, you’ll receive another FIVE entries just because I said so for a total of SEVEN lucky entries! WOW! If your trackback doesn’t show, feel free to leave a link to it in the comments on this post.

To sweeten the pot further, everyone that participates in any of the aforementioned methods will be entered once to win my beloved “Flip Flap” because it’s “Flip Flap” FTW! Market Leverage doesn’t have one. John Chow doesn’t have one. But I have one and it could be yours! Contest closes July 1st on Canada’s Birthday and is open to anywhere that snail mail goes.

Good luck and Have Fun!