Our friends at Stackify have created something visually interesting to showcase the history of data storage as it compares to height or distance.  Here are some quick stats to wet your whistle:

• Floppy disks debuted in 1971 holding .08 MB equating to .96 inches
• CD’s were introduced in 1983 holding 550MB equating to 550 feet
• The average smartphone today holds 16GB aka, 3.1 miles
• 1 exebyte, the total data transferred per month on the Internet in 2004 is equal to 1,665, 926,707.8 miles. This puts you 936,835,895.6 miles away from Pluto

You may want to pack a big lunch for that trip. Check out the full graphic below.

So when you’re in the storage business, it’s understandable that some of our products may seem daunting to the average chap.

I consider myself to be a pretty tech savvy guy, but sometimes there will be something I need some help on.  So when I finally got my Seagate Central, I was prepared to bombard my colleagues with questions on setup or functionality. Looking back, I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s my own comfort level with direct attached storage (DAS) versus network-attached storage (NAS).  Even though it isn’t, something about it just seems more complex.

But five minutes later, when I was up, running and streaming pictures from a recent trip to the San Francisco Zoo, I admit, I was left feeling sheepish.

The quick setup sheet that comes in the package was pretty spot on giving instructions on how to set up the device.

Once online, you do some simple web setups for your remote access and after downloading the Seagate Media App (iOS/Android), you’ll be able to access your movies, music and photos or check out some of the pre-loaded samples already on the drive.

Admittedly, I did get a kick of being in a meeting the other day and showing one of the pictures from the zoo on my Seagate Central from my phone to a colleague who’d never been.  Who doesn’t like to show off once in awhile, right?

Stylish. Easy to setup. And with up to 4TB of storage, why not have 24/7 access to all of your content? I’m proud of what we accomplished with this product. I’m having a blast!

SeagateCreative: How did you get your start in animation?

Ryan Woodward: In 1995, I applied and was accepted into a new animation, training program at Warner Bros. Feature Animation.  After three months, they reviewed your work and decided whether or not you could go onto their first feature film, Space Jam.  I was fortunate enough to pass the training program, which was my launching pad for my entire career.  Back then technology, hadn’t caught up with the industry.  It was all about drawing, painting, design and no computer skills were necessary.

SC: Who would you cite as your artistic influences?

RW: Michel Gagne hands down.  He was my mentor and still is in a way.  Not only was his drawing and animating style but his passion for the art form as well.  He still continues to inspire me.

SC: You have a style that is distinctive yet commercially appealing to a vast audience. What made you choose this direction creatively?

RW: There was no choice.  I never consciously thought, “Hey, this style will work.”  I guess you could say that it was a natural evolution for me.

SC: As an artist, what are some of your favorite tools to use?

RW: I have a couple of Macs, a Cintiq and those are basically my tools, oh and my left hand (hehe) and a robust set of markers.  I don’t really have any favorite tools.  It all depends on what I am trying to accomplish.  I don’t have any bias.

If the shot require 3D, then I’ll use Maya.  If it’s compositing, after effects is my preference because I’ve been using it since the Iron Giant.

But the bottom line is, my preferred tool is the tool that I know that can get the job done fast and effective.  So on my off time is when I always experiment with software so I can hit the ground running when I start a new project.

SC: Do you have any particular habits to motivate you to draw like play music or watch TV while drawing?

RW: That is actually a really good question.  I’ve found that in order to be truly creative your mind has to be in a state of rest and peace.  For some people, listening to death metal will rest their minds and for others it’s classical.  Me, personally, I like Indy Pop Rocks on Soma FM, sometimes Metallica, and other times something softer like Alexi Murdoch.  It kind of depends on what I’m drawing or animating.

SC: When collaborating on a project, how much direction are you given as the artist, and how much direction do you give back either to the writer or even the inker, letterer, etc?

RW: In film, it all depends on the director and how he wants to work with storyboard artists.  Some directors like board artists to be very active from the idea stage in the beginning.  Others prefer more of a strict adherence to the script.  My preference, obviously, is the more creative input.

SC: What are some of your favorite things to illustrate?

RW: I like my art to evolve constantly.  So if I notice I have a preference and I’m drawing a lot in a particular way, then that’s my hint to change it up.  It’s just part of my personality, but I get really bored when I start to see repetitive design principles.

SC: What’s one piece of advice you’d give an aspiring artist to help them be creative or develop their ideas into art?

RW: I suppose it goes along with a lot of these questions, but the ability to be versatile in drawing, design, technology opens up a lot more doors than if you’re a one trick pony. It requires a lot more work (through the night and on weekends) but that’s the sacrifice that will help set you apart from others.

SC: What new projects are on the horizon we can look forward to?

RW: I’m animating a title sequence for a Brazilian Soap Opera.  It’s very much in the vein of Thought of You.

Be sure to check out Ryan’s work and download his most recent project Bottom of the Ninth on your iOS device. You can follow Ryan Woodward on these social channels:

Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Official Site

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Skeletonwitch Guitarist Scott Hendrick

Are you a fan of heavy metal? Curious how today’s Metal masters make their monstrous music? Then put on your studded wristbands, throw your metal horns in the air and read this interview with Skeletonwitch guitarist, Scott Hedrick.  If you’re not familiar with this heavy metal band originally from Ohio, you’ll definitely want to check out their official site and sample some of their music on available on their Facebook page.

SeagateCreative: Taking into account how long Skeletonwitch has been peforming together, how important is it to you to back up your music?

Scott Hendrick: Backing up digital assets is very important for us! We’ve been a band for 10 years so the amount of “stuff” we’ve accumulated is ridiculous.

For example all the demo tracks, early mixes of albums, artwork for t-shirts and albums, tour itineraries, invoices, tax documents, etc….

We want to keep all that stuff for many reasons, such as reprinting artwork, re-issuing old albums, having promoter and venue contact info handy, possible IRS audits and just plain Having a digital hard drive to store that stuff keeps us from ending up on an episode of “Hoarders.” Of course we’d be on the grim, black metal edition of Hoarders, but we’d still make the cut.

SeagateCreative:  Have you ever had a situation where you lost your assets? What do you do to preserve your work?

Scott Hendrick: Thankfully the band has never lost any crucial data. I believe our singer, Chance (Garnette), had a laptop stolen once and he lost a bunch of personal stuff. That’s never fun. Hopefully he didn’t have any “nudes” saved on that computer. Although, I don’t take him for a “nude-selfie” type of guy.

SeagateCreative:  Oh my!  So when you’re in the studio, what’s your process to record an album?

Scott Hendrick: We just recorded our 4th full-length album, so though the songs and sounds change, we have our methods down to a science. One thing that is key is coming in prepared.

We arrive at the studio with a clear picture of all the songs, all the dynamics, and how we want things to sound.  Of course, once you’re knee deep in the project different ideas spring to mind and little changes will be made. That’s only natural.  But I would stress coming in to the studio prepared.

We always record the drums first. We spend an entire day just working on getting the drums to sound exactly how we want them to. Then the next several days are spent recording the drums while Nate (Garnette), our other guitarist, plays guitar along with the drummer to help keep time and provide feeling.

When the drums are done (usually takes around 4 or 5 days) we work on finding guitar sounds. Once the basic rhythm sounds are locked in, we track all the rhythm guitar parts for the album.  Then we find a lead guitar tone and add on all the guitar solos and higher-string guitar melodies.

Then we repeat the process for bass and finally vocals.  After that we make various tweaks, add dynamics, sometimes subtly change a part or an accent.  Once things are sounding good, structurally and tonally, we sit down with the producer, in this case Kurt Ballou, and provide feedback while he mixes all the sounds together.

Once we get it where we like it, we send it off to the record label so they can say that it sucks and we have to start all over! (Only kidding!!)  That’s never happened. In fact, they were gushing about this new record.  Which actually sort of scares me because they’re usually more reserved in their comments, good or bad.

So that, in a simplified nutshell, is how we make a record.  Oh, and every night when we stop recording, we back everything up onto external hard drives.

SeagateCreative: When you’re looking to collaborate with someone for a particular project, what do you look for and how does that impact the creative the process?

Scott Hendrick: We look for someone who will do what we say! Hahaha! Kidding! We’ve never worked with a co-writer, studio musician, or side player, so I can’t speak to that.

But with an engineer/producer the first thing we look at is their body of work. In this instance, we loved the sound of many records produced by Kurt Ballou. Fortunately for us, we were able to ask around and get first hand accounts about his ability/demeanor/personality in the studio as well. All reports were highly positive, by the way, so we hit him up, he agreed to do it, and the rest is history.

Since the larger part of the creative process (writing the songs) was completed before we entered the studio, Kurt’s creative influence largely came in the form of dynamics and spicing things up. He came up with some great rhythm and accent ideas, he fixed some harmonies I wrote that clashed a little, had a great idea for adding a harmony part to a riff, added “noisy” ambiance to a part. Details like that. And hey, the devil is in the details! Haha!

Seagate’s Mark Re, left, accepts innovation award from Raymond Tumacder of Thomson Reuters.

Quick—think of the world’s top innovators and which companies come to mind? Apple, Google and Samsung are sure to make most such lists. Now, make room for Seagate.

The company has been ranked among the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators. Seagate joins the above technology stalwarts, along with consumer-focused companies such as Nike, GE, Sony and Panasonic, and automotive firms Toyota, Honda, Ford and Renault.

This was the first year that Seagate made the two-year-old Thomson Reuters list. Other storage-industry companies on the list include EMC and SanDisk. See the full list here.

“This is a real honor,” said Seagate’s Mark Re, SVP of recording media and heads R&D, who accepted the award last week in Cupertino on behalf of the company. “It reflects the fact that we’re very innovative in our product line, and that we’re supplying solutions that our customers value. Our employees at Seagate always strive to do better, and I think that shows in the amount of IP we’re generating and in all aspects of our business.”

Seagate has amassed more than 7,400 global patents for its inventions; the company generated more than 350 U.S. patents in 2012.

“This award confirms Seagate’s commitment to global innovation, the commercialization of its inventions and the protection of its assets,” said Raymond Tumacder, regional manager for Thomson Reuters. “Seagate has proven, without a doubt, that it belongs in this elite category.”

IP, or intellectual property, is a key yardstick for measuring a company’s innovation. The Thomson Reuters list evaluates companies based on criteria such as the ratio of patents that were filed and actually granted, and the subsequent influence an invention has after it’s been patented. Click here to read the full methodology behind the list.

According to Thomson Reuters research, companies among the Top 100 Global Innovators added 124,214 new jobs year over year and had a 15 percent increase in cumulative stock value from 2011 to 2012. The largest percentage of Top 100 Global Innovators companies comes from North America (47 percent), followed by Asia (32 percent) and Europe (21 percent).

It reminded me of our Spring Gift Guide which highlights many of our key products including Seagate Slim, Seagate Central and Wireless Plus.

These drives are top of mind for me right now because one of my closest friends just had his first child and has been posting pictures to Facebook almost hourly. I remember being “that guy”. Truth be told, I’m still that guy.  I love taking pictures of my family  (who doesn’t, right), but for him, he’s starting off fresh with the opportunity to chronicle every milestone of his daughter’s life. Having kept up on his updates, it’s been fun to reflect on my own experiences as a father as well as my experiences as a son to my own father. (And did you know that our hard drive software allows you to download your Facebook and Flickr photos?)

I’ve been known to refer to hard drives as time machines. That magical device which will take you back to a particular place or time where you can reflect on those picture perfect moments.

With the aforementioned holidays on the horizon, isn’t a hard drive to protect all the important memories the perfect gift idea?

I recently stumbled upon a presentation entitled Death to BS (um, properly spelled out there, but I know you’ll get the gist) by Brad Frost that highlights a number of interesting bullets that directly pertain to our business of storage. Take a gander at these stats:

• There are 4,500,000 photos uploaded to Flickr daily
• There are 40,000,000 photos uploaded to Instagram daily
• There are 300,000,000 photos uploaded to Facebook daily
• In 2000, there were 86,000,000,000 photos taken. In 2012, the number was 380,000,000,000
• There are 72 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute
• Each month, there are 4,000,000,000 hours of video watched each month on YouTube
• 90% of data ever created was done within the last 2 years.

I’ll stop there and let that sink in a minute.  Let’s see a quick show of hands of anyone who may be freaked out right now.

The amount of data consumption isn’t something that you think about. (Well, we do. It’s kind of a job perquisite.)  We’ve done informal polls on our social channels to see how many people regularly backup their data and the statistics are staggeringly small with reasons ranging from people being too busy (or too lazy) to not knowing how to do so.

People are curating content at an alarming rate, and there is nothing to indicate that it will slow down. We’re cool with that. For the sake of “job security”, please, make more.

But what then?

Well, that’s what Seagate Central is for. With this device now available at your favorite retailer, you can access your content from anywhere through our Seagate Media App. With capacities ranging from 2TB-4TB, this compact device can take all the content you throw at it and shout “FEED ME MORE!”

Creating a backup of your computer is a snap as it comes with our premium software and even works with Time Machine®. We’re just doing our part to eliminate excuses to not backup your computer.

So let’s make a deal.

You keep posting photos, creating videos, making memories and savoring special moments. We’ll keep making the devices for you to save it on and make it available for you when you need it the most.

Well guess what? We have an app for that.

Available for either iTunes or Android, the Seagate Media App will allow you to access all of your movies, music, photographs or even your documents wherever you are.

This is an amazing time saver for the business traveller who’s always on-the-go but needs to remain connected to important files or even the “supermom” who’s got a car full of kids and needs easy, accessible entertainment to quell the masses.

Better still, this app works with not only the Seagate Central, but our Wireless Plus hard drive as well. Because the Wireless Plus holds more than 500 HD quality movies, why wouldn’t you want to have them at your disposal? So regardless of your device, we’ve got you covered.  What are you waiting for? Download the Seagate Media App today and let the good times roll.

SeagateCreative: Tell us about the inspiration behind the story for your new short film, “Loves of a Cyclops?”

NP: Nathan Punwar: A few years ago, I had an image in my mind of a person with a lens for an eye — someone who saw the world through a viewfinder instead of his own eye. It was just that image. I thought I might animate it.

Over time, I started to think about what it would mean to require a device to translate the world into something that made sense, and how each animal sees the world differently. Each eye is a different lens, a different interpretation. These thoughts formed a story about a one-eyed man who can’t see the world his peers do, so he struggles to find his place in it.

SC: When you have a new, fresh idea, how do you decide if it’s worth pursuing?

NP: It’s just a matter of how persistent the idea is, how long it can stick in your head and refuse to leave. So you have no choice but to give into the idea until you get it out of your head. For me, getting it out involves walking it down every potential avenue and then backtracking to the one path that seems best to explain it to everyone else.

SC: Do you have a specific technique or ritual you use for creating?

NP: There is no technique other than to try to allow myself to be as perceptive as possible to my surroundings. This includes truly listening to people, which isn’t always as easy as it seems it should be. So there’s that, and the fine balance between it and allowing the mind to wander and float away on a tangent midday.

SC: You wrote, directed, and edited this film. Is there a particular step you find the most creative?

NP: It’s all creative and fulfilling. Writing is the most frustrating and potentially rewarding. If that goes well, and it rarely does, it makes the rest more fruitful, because you’re crafting from material that is already quality. But each part relies so precariously on the others to succeed, which is why I like doing all of it, but definitely not all at once.

SC: In terms of gear and equipment, is there a specific piece that helped you create a breakthrough in filmmaking?

NP: Simply owning a camera that we can use both casually and professionally… Even though we want to spend as much time as possible preparing to make a film as good as it can be, now we can shoot something that strikes us at any moment and repurpose it later, or play with the footage anywhere. At the very least, this means my sketchbook is no longer restricted to the page.

SC: Is there any experience you have from other art forms that play into your ability to make a film?

NP: Though I’m not a true musician, I’ve played music my whole life. I might consume more music than I do films, so a soundtrack is always on my mind. But I try other arts, even ones I’m bad at, because good films involve photography, performance, writing, design, music, fashion, architecture, lighting, and more. If one falters, so does the end result.

A film may not be pure in the same way other arts are, but it has the ability tie them together to convey something in a way that none can on their own, which is why I want to understand and answer to each and every aspect individually.

SC: How did you work on the music for this film, then?

NP: Our composer is Mike Schanzlin, and I would say he and I are on a similar wavelength with music. We make mixes together, and talk about collaborating on ideas often, even though he really knows how to record and play, and I don’t. So he turns my abstract descriptors into musical themes with his studio magic. There was one song I really wanted to include, though, outside of our original score. It’s an early demo recording by Real Estate, and the guys in the band were very cool about letting us use it in the film.

SC: Where there any significant obstacles you encountered while trying to make this film?

NP: Our greatest obstacles were really self-imposed. We decided upon three things from the beginning. The first was that we would primarily cast non-professional actors, mostly friends. The second was that we would make the film with equipment we owned or had access to, with no real budget other than what I could afford to spend out of my own pocket. The third was that we would schedule around everyone’s day jobs. For these reasons and more, it took us about a year to finish a 25-minute film. But these limitations also led us to have some of the most fun and strange experiences on our shoots, the kind you can’t have on a set where significant money is being spent every minute.

SC: What’s one piece of advice you’d give an aspiring filmmaker to help them develop their ideas?

NP: I’m still aspiring, too, so I guess my advice to myself is to take a different route each time. Whoever didn’t get the last thing might get the next thing. Even if I’m still exploring the same ideas that interest me most, at least it’ll be in new and different ways, allowing the work to discover more deeply, or at least find its way to new audiences.

SC: Where is “Loves of a Cyclops” screening and what’s next from you that we can look forward to?

NP: “Loves of a Cyclops” will be screening at festivals this year, with additional screenings in New York City. My partner Kathleen Kyllo (who produced and stars in Loves of a Cyclops) and I are attempting our first feature script together, or some kind of series, or whatever it turns into. At some point, we’ll have to figure out a way to finance these things, but for now, we’re just focused on trying to write something true and good.

Unless you’re actively paying attention, you may have missed some of the corporate acquisitions that have taken place over the last couple years consolidating the Big Data business.  The nice folks over at Blue Ocean, have been nice enough to create this handy infographic that breaks down the Big Data landscape outlining some of the trends taking place in this aspect of business.

The infographic really positions Microsoft to place itself into an industry leader in a few years, so it’ll be interesting to see how the race plays out given how late to the party they were.  But as the saying goes, “slow and steady wins the race.”