Blog

Metal Toad Brazil

As we round the bend into Fall (which officially starts September 22), we are reminded of the changing season by things that are familiar to us: getting kids back to school, a welcome cooling of the air, the changing of the…

Cloud risk reduction

The morning sun from my home in Los Angeles is blood red as it shines through the smoke. Alongside everything else that has happened in this year of 2020 — COVID19, political unrest — large areas of the Western United States…

Why Core Values Transform a Tech Company

We’re all familiar with the basic corporate American experience. You clock into work, perform your required tasks, and leave at the end of the day. Maybe you talk to a few coworkers throughout the day, but it’s certainly not…

How often should I update my website?

The short answer the the question: how often should I update my website? is every 3 to 5 years.  The much longer answer starts with: it depends.

The Impact of the Cloud on Universities

An Executive Interview with Chris Manriquez, Vice President for Information Technology/CIO at California State University, Dominguez Hills I’ve been chatting (virtually) with some of the execs I admire—from across a range…

AWS Rekognition, Comprehend, and Transcribe

Babu Frik, an Anzellan droidsmith with a talent for bypassing droid security systems, erased C3PO's memory. He felt very sad about it. He decided to use AWS Media Services and Rekognition to reprogram C3PO with...

Digital Rights Management (DRM) + Cloud

Executive Interview with Olga Kornienko, COO and co-founder of EZDRM, a cloud DRM-as-a-Service company. EZDRM’s innovative services provide a full spectrum of video security offerings in a cloud API-driven solution. Since…

Machine Learning - it's easier than you think!

10 years ago, a younger me interviewed a brilliant young man named Tony for a position as a programmer at Metal Toad.

Live Stream From Drone To AWS With S3 Backup

Drones are awesome, and a lot of fun. But what happens if your drone gets lost along with all its footage? Or, what if you want other people around the world to be able to tune in to what the drone sees — in real time — as …

How to Close an Office

On March 1, 2020, I handed in the keys to the Metal Toad office in Portland, Oregon — our corporate headquarters for the past five years — back to the building manager.  

Media Supply Chain + Cloud

In this interview, I chat with Erik Åhlin, CEO and co-founder of Vidispine about media supply chains, how M&E companies can leverage the power of the cloud, and what he sees for the future of the industry. 

The 5 Core Elements of Technical Advising

I recently had a conversation with someone who was looking for some advice on selecting a technical advisor for their team, and she had some great questions.