You can expect product and app reviews, gossip from the tech world and analysis of news from this group of experts. The show will release three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I think you’re going to like the hosts of the show and really trust what they have to say each week. Jon has diligently built up a reputation as a thought leader in the space and we’re thrilled to have his team joining us.

Please help me in welcoming Technobuffalo to the Revision3 family by checking out the show and subscribing for future episodes!

Ryan Vance | Vice President, Programming & Production | Revision3

The Revision3 Storage Archive

Revision3 has shown incredible growth over the last year, thanks to all of you. With that growth , however, come some growing pains. Our servers were sweating, hard drives were bulging, intertubes were full, and platforms were…uh…platforming. So, over the winter we rolled up our sleeves in the engine room and got to work. Most of the upgrades have been completed – or are close to completion – so we can continue to expand our great programming to you, as well as our reach.

Here’s a sampling of what we’ve been up to. Hopefully, you’ve noticed and have been enjoying the new changes.

Our new episode discussion system: DISQUS
Our previous forum system was good, but not great, so in March we rolled out a new forum system based off the popular DISQUS service. If you are a DISQUS user on other sites, it will feel like old home week to you. (You can also merge your existing DISQUS login with your Revision3 login. Yay.)  If you’ve never used DISQUS before, you’re in for a treat: realtime commenting, mobile integration (forthcoming on the Revision3.com site), media embedding in your comments, and much more. Check it out under each of the show and episode pages.

Our improved CDN service
You don’t have to know what a CDN service is to know when it isn’t performing well. CDN stands for “Content Delivery Network,” and it pretty much does what it says. It is the “tube” part of the intertubes, using advanced technology to download or stream large-scale content to all four corners of the earth. For a year now, we’ve been getting complaints about delivery to places like Australia, Western Europe, the UAE and even parts of North America. Back in February, we asked for your help evaluating new solutions to that problem, and you responded in droves. (Nearly 1000 of you gave us your feedback, thank you!) Last week we began rolling out a solution based on your feedback. We’ve seen results of the changes via measurement, but the proof is in the pudding. Folks who had been having problems with downloads and streams in the areas I’ve mentioned have begun to report to us that they’ve seen a noticeable, and welcome, improvement. We’ll keep at it, but its good to see we’re moving the needle.

The T-Rex of Hard Drives
Take a look at those glowing eyes at the top of this post. Go ahead. Take a close look. That’s not your daddy’s thumb drive you’re staring at, you are looking at part of a system that provides 240TB of serious RAID storage for Revision3 content. It’s large enough to cover our production and partner needs for quite some time to come, as well as provide instant access to our archive of content for our editors. It provides redundancy and backup, and – the best part – it’s a green system. Drives which are not currently in use are powered completely off until they are called up to serve up their delicious goodness.

Tablets are a’Comin’
We heard you and brought out real Revision3 mobile applications for iOS and Android late last year, and we heard you again about Revision3 applications designed for the iPad and Android Honeycomb tablets. I’m happy to tell you they are in the works as we speak, so… stay tuned.

The 10′ Experience
…or leanback… or Revision3 on your TV… or license for being a couch potato. Whatever you want to call it, we’ve got it. Roku, GoogleTV, Connected Televisions, iTV, Windows Media Center…whatever your flavor of poison, we’ve got you covered. Take a good, long look at Revision3.com’s leanback experience.

That’s just a few of the revisions to Revision3 that we’ve been up to over the winter. We’ve also been drinking beer, but not (necessarily) at thesame time. Watch this space for more announcements of new tech as we keep up with the demand you guys are putting on us. Thanks for that, we need a reason to get off the couch.

And that’s a big part of the reason why I’m so concerned about how the courts have removed the FCCs ability to police net neutrality across broadband ISPs. Left to their own devices, it’s only natural to expect large cable operators, including Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T and Verizon to start favoring their own cable networks and services, and slowing down competing services.

Heck, it happened back in 2007, when Comcast was ratcheting Bit Torrent traffic down , which negatively impacted us – as we used to distribute all our shows via BT.

But now, three years later, we’re an even bigger thorn in the side of traditional TV. Our shows are getting audiences that rival some of the best on cable TV, more and more people are abandoning traditional cable services for web-delivery of Netflix, independent TV, Hulu and other video sources, and new devices from Roku, Boxee, Syabas and others offer even more freedom of choice.

But today that choice is threatened. I just wrote an opinion piece for GigaOm detailing Why We Cannot Let Neutrality Fail. I encourage you to read it. But get involved too. Write your representatives and tell them you don’t trust the big ISPs to protect your interests.

Tell them you watch Web TV… and you Vote!

– Jim Louderback

In an effort to make sure we provide you with everything that you want / need, we are looking to you for thoughts and suggestions about products we could supply from the store. We are open to any and every idea (as long as it is appropriate and possible) for every show. For example, AJ Vaynerchuk (a summer intern of ours) designed a concept for a Revision3 sneaker:

As you can see when we say anything, we really mean it! In addition to the products available in store, we’re going to be planning on some great free giveaways and stuff like that.

If you want to make a suggestion you can either leave a comment on this blog post, or make your way over to the Revision3 forums (here) and join the discussion there! An early favorite of the forums posters (and ours) is the laptop skins!

We are truly excited about getting this thing going and thank you in advance for all of the suggestions!
- David Prager

“Here at Revision3, we have always taken a keen interest in science, and all the great stuff it’s given us over the years- everything from these cool computers we use for making our videos, to its vaunted ability to blind Thomas Dolby,” says Revision3 CTO Jeff Rizzo. “We wanted to find a way to give back to a scientific community that has given us so much occasionally-useful crap.”

When the technical department of Revision3 heard of the groundbreaking research of the Brain Information Group of the Kansai Advanced Research Center in Japan into the effects of wearing perception-altering goggles for extended periods of time, Rizzo knew that they had an opportunity to contribute to Science. “Since we have videos, people have to see them in order to view, and by altering our videos, we’ve altered people’s perception of these videos. We can clearly do good science, except for the whole part about having degrees, and laboratories, and scientific training. This science thing is neat!” Look around the Revision3 Website today, particularly the videos, for clues how you can participate.

What does the future hold for this new “Science and Stuff” initiative at the pioneering company? Rizzo says, “The Koreans have some pretty advanced glow-in-the-dark cat technology that we could conceivably extend to provide some interesting mods for Systm, for example. The world is our oyster, and we at Revision3 have never let little things like training or talent stand in the way of getting what we want.”

We are very excited to announce the latest and greatest way to watch Revision3–the downloadable Miro player! By clicking here you can download the Revision3 Miro player, which automatically downloads all your Revision3 shows and keeps you up to date every time a new episode or show is released. It even comes with the coolest desktop icon ever made. Check it out and let us know what you think!

- Damon Berger

For those of you out there watching it all, I love you to death, but you can stop reading now. This announcement is not for you. But for everyone else who might have one or two favorite programs, and always wanted to watch more, I’m happy to announce a cool new feature here at Revision3.

It’s called “Best of..” and it’s our very own collection of the best clips from each of our shows. Every day we’ll be selecting the choicest segments from the previous day’s releases, and putting them into a special place here at Revision3.com. Even better, you can also subscribe to our Best Of just as if it were an actual show. That way you’ll automatically get our best clips delivered to your PC, your AppleTV, your Zune, or really anywhere.

There’s always something cool and new in our Best Of.. area here on the web, so make sure you stop back every day. And if you find something you really like, then watch the whole show. And don’t forget to subscribe to the ones that really catch your fancy, then you’ll never miss a single episode.

– Jim Louderback

Through our landmark deal with Transpera, not only can you stream and download shows (network and device permitting), you can share them with a friend’s phone too.

While, our new mobile site works with every mobile provider, it may not work with every phone. Most smartphones and the iPhone are supported. You’ll also need some sort of high-speed data plan, because we are talking video, after all.

Head here for more details on our new mobilized Transpera site. If you want to check it out yourself, point your phone to http://m.revision3.com/.

Just a few words on Transpera: This is a very cool company. They are really breaking new ground in mobile deliver of video, and we couldn’t have found a better partner to mobilize Revision3 video. Enjoy the service, and let us know how it works for you. Remember that we’re just at the beginning of the mobile video revolution, so you might see a hiccup or two here and there.

– Jim Louderback

Yes, we’ll be shooting at three different bars over the next three nights here in San Francisco, and we’d love for you to get involved. If you’re game, see below to find out where we’ll be and when. So come on by for a drink, a lot of fun, and your chance to be on a Revision3 show. (Sorry, but you’ll need to be 21 to attend.)

Thanks,
Revision3

2/26: Hobson’s Choice, 7:15pm

1601 Haight Street
(between Belvedere St & Clayton St)
San Francisco, CA 94117
http://www.hobsonschoice.com

2/27: Rock It Room, 7:15pm

406 Clement St
(between 5th Ave & 6th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118
www.rock-it-room.com

2/28: San Francisco Brewing Company, 7:15pm

155 Columbus Avenue
(between Jackson St & Kearny St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
www.sfbrewing.com

We’d be honored if you took the time to go and vote – just head over to the SXSW People’s Choice Awards page and enter your e-mail address. SXSW will then send you your pass phrase, go back to the site and then you can vote! It’s really easy and takes like 2 minutes total.

When you’re voting, don’t forget about how much you adore Revision3 and all our shows. *Nudge*Nudge*Wink*Wink*

Best of luck to everyone else on the ballot and we can’t wait to see who wins!

thanks.
- Ron Richards