This is Forest Key’s blog, about stuff.
Forest is a product guy who likes media tech, travel, and strives to be a passionate DEI advocate and ally.
I seek to meet and listen+learn from people with diverse life experiences, cultural traditions, and neurodivergent modes of subjective reality.
Some short demo vids of software I’ve created:
Work
What was Voodle?
Voodle was a tech startup that built a short-video messaging app that launched in 2020 and shuttered in 2022. The…
What was Pixvana?
Pixvana was a VR Video tech startup from 2016-2019 that built a cloud virtual reality video processing, streaming, and editing…
What happened to Pixvana / Voodle?
In fall 2015 we made an ”emerging tech” bet on VR and chose a “swing for the fence” scale risk-reward…
My thoughts on Future of @work Team Collaboration
I spent a few hours answering some great questions for a blog post that i wanted to point to. the…
Me on the What Fuels You Podcast
We have been working with an awesome talent search firm called Fuel Talent and CEO Shauna Swerland reached out to…
On Building a Diverse Team
I just finished reading an amazing sci-fi/fantasy series called the Broken Earth trilogy from N.K. Jemisin and it has really…
Voodle for iOS Launch
Very excited to kick off life for Voodle for iOS, which launches Monday June 29th 2020. As my son Carlos…
Voodle Concepts
We are off and running adding content to explain Voodle, and our beta testing is underway. So, excited. Here’s a…
From VR, onwards to Voodle and voodling
In January of 2020, after nearly 4 complete years working feverishly and with great passion and focus on the virtual…
Onwards to voodle
Voodle is a vegetarian noodle, but it is also a great name for a software product? Video-doodles! Voodles are plural,…
Pixvana SPIN Play for iOS
Well after 4 years at Pixvana chasing after the dream of VR and headset based immersive storytelling, today marked a…
Unfurling URLs
Ok so we are adding support to Pixvana SPIN Studio to share URLs more easily of what we call SPINs,…
I had XR-vu, and I liked it!
“XR-vu”, or “VR-vu”…whichever term comes into vogue in the near-future, i want to go on record as saying that it…
Unboxing Kandao Obsidian R VR Camera
Just unboxing a Kandao Obsidian R VR Camera, this is going to become my personal VR blogging / testing camera,…
Obituary: Luis Emilio Casanueva Tagle
Our papa Emilio Casanueva passed away Friday May 25th, 2018, at the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara CA. He was…
We shipped Pixvana SPIN Studio!
These people (including some that aren’t pictured): Just shipped our first baby, Pixvana SPIN Studio: Pixvana SPIN Studio is an…
Sofia the VR Explorer by Jesse Link
Seattle fine artist Jesse Link completed a commissioned piece for me to adorn the Pixvana office. He completed the piece…
SPIN VR – Pixvana’s storytelling platform
@Pixvana this week we announced our Virtual Reality Video platform, now known as SPIN VR. The word SPIN has obvious connections…
Masters of Visual Effects 1999 Style
Too fun. So in 1999 some buddies and I put together a series of instructional video tapes (that we shipped…
If Pixvana was an animal…
At Pixvana we use a company culture mini-pulsing product from one of my favorite seattle startups, TinyPulse. Each week the…
Field of View Adaptive Streaming for VR
Kudos to Aaron Rhodes and Sean Safreed for the first of many Pixvana videos that outline some of the unique…
Adaptive 360 VR Video Streaming
We’re having a lot of fun at the Pixvana working on various VR storytelling technologies, what we have termed “XR…
Clear Example of VR Video Assembly
Here’s some really clear images and videos that illustrate a VR Video assembly process using a 6 camera go-pro rig.…
Why VR Video Will Be BIG
A lot of my friends have asked me why i’ve plunged into starting a new company, and, why / how…
Pixvana is a lovely word, and i will make it MINE!
I’ve got a new favorite word that i’m investing energy in imbuing with greenedness: Pixvana. Pixvana is evocative of video delivery…
Trotamundo wins Perk of the Year 2014
I’m incredibly proud and happy to have won the Geekwire Awards Perk of the Year 2014 for buuteeq’s employee travel…
Virtuous Employee Feedback Loop
My company buuteeq has grown to over 110 employees in 5 offices around the world, so a huge component of my time/role…
Silverlight RIP : allegorical thoughts from 2004 strategy presentation
With the announcements this week at Microsoft’s Build event (which I only fleetingly caught news of via twitter reposts), and…
buuteeq : Founder Thinking 2010-2013
The Future of Hotel Websites…isn’t Flash Adobe Flash® is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash gained popularity as…
Silverlight in Asia
These are various Silverlight posts i wrote on my original blog from 2006-2009, merged here for posterity. “WPF/E” now called…
Surface… Minority Report type UX, today…
Wow, i can’t believe it has been over a month since I chimed in to this blog. I had imagined…
Microsoft Expression : Behind the Scenes
Ahh.. Microsoft Expression Studio. Today we announced our final availability, pricing, naming, and key UI innovations for the Expression family. Expression Web…
Travel
Other Sutff
King County Easy Property Tax Protest
My friend Alec has started a useful service for property owners in King County Washington. Each year the county tax assessor evaluates properties and…
iBelieveInSwordfish Inc.
My friend’s boutique creative agency in San Francisco Bay Area has always been known by its full name, iBelieveInSwordfish Inc. I dusted off some…
Pismo Beach Building & Planning Department – My Experience
In 2020 we purchased a lovely vacant lot in the seaside town of Pismo Beach, CA. and started to build a home. 4 years…
Carlos Key Filmaker
My son Carlos Key has a few websites up and the search engines need a little help finding them, so the young filmaker and…
Remove and Replace Ford Focus RS mk3 Billet Badges/Emblems
I replaced my front and rear Ford emblem/billet badges, on my 2017 Ford Focus RS mk3
Hotels in Zapallar, Chile
There are two high quality hotels in Zapallar, both open year round. Each is small–so if you are visiting during a holiday weekend or…
Zapallar Restaurants
The two most well known restaurants in Zapallar are “El Chiringuito” and “El Cesar”. Both serve excellent seafood and Chilean specialities and have full…
Nearby Towns and Day Trips
Cachagua Cachagua is just 3km south of Zapallar, mostly characterized by thatched-roof houses and it’s long, expansive beach. The flat beach is one of the popular…
El Tigre Mountain Hike
If one would rather take a mountain hike as an alternative to one of the recommended coastal hikes, there is a well established trail along…
Zapallar to Cemetery Hike
The hike between Zapallar and the cemetery north of town is a wonderful coastline walk, partly a stroll on a rambla (developed pathway) and…
Zapallar to Cachagua Hike
The hike begins at Mar Bravo. Take the pathway that leads down from the park and head south along the coast. To avoid the…
Santa at the Beach on Christmas Eve
Every Christmas Eve, Santa makes sure to stop in Zapallar. He arrives in Zapallar by boat rather than by sleigh. His boat is brightly decorated…
Mar Bravo Park, Zapallar
Mar Bravo is the spot in Zapallar where the Pacific Ocean meets up with the granite of the coastline in spectacular fashion. The township maintains a…
Activities in Zapallar, Chile
Zapallar invites visitors to just state at the ocean vistas which abound throughout the town and in most hotels and rental property homes. …
Getting to Zapallar, Chile
Driving directions from Santiago to Zapallar – Drive time approx. 2 hours <distances below are approximate>: NOTE: If driving from the airport or Santiago, be…
Isla Seca Rock Outcrop in Zapallar
Isla Seca (“Dry Island”) is the granite outcropping that defines the end of the bay on the right. A popular walk for all is…
Cerro de la Cruz
Cerro de la Cruz is the peninsula that graces the left side of Zapallar bay. It is characterized by the lone pine tree that…
La Rambla along Zapallar Beach
The Rambla is a pedestrian walkway circumventing the bay, from Isla Seca on the right completely bay around the corner on the left to…
Zapallar’s Beach
The beach of Zapallar, nestled in the bay, is one of the most picturesque you will find. The clean beach of yellow sand is…
F80 BMW m3 Kidney Grill Replacement Install
I changed the kidney grill “bib” from the factory chrome to a matching black; this is apparently pretty common cosmetic upgrade/change, and it was…
My Apple Watch Review, vis a vis Fitbit Surge
I sold my Apple Watch after 1 week of use, here’s why! After a sordid 1 week fling with the Apple Watch, i decided this…
Strava and FitBit Surge Together / Review of Fitbit Surge
I’m training for the Copenhagen Marathon in May of this year (2015), and have been using Strava and a new Fitbit Surge device to…
Small Talks event in Seattle re: Millennials in the Workplace
I spoke at a Small Talks event last week on the subject of Millennials in the Workplace (millennial are the generation born in the…
Tokyo Marathon
What a great experience. First some context, a marathon is 26+ miles, or 42.165 km. I ran my first and only other marathon in…
LA Marathon 2007
My head is going to explode, and my toes hurt! First my toes–I ran the LA marathon this last weekend. It was an absolutely…
3 replies on “Forest Key Musings”
Hi Forest – My mom just showed me your blog & I read the entry about Caetano Veloso and your experience w/ the king’s court. Made me feel instantly in sync with you! Would love to catch up one of these days, though I know how busy life gets. Besotes a todos, Nina
Hi Forrest, thanks for you amazing blog! We are from the Netherlands and planning on flying to Cile, buy a car and driving it to North Amrica 🙂
We read some tips on buying cars in Chile, but perhaps you can give us a few pointers? We are especially interested in cars one can sleep in. What are the chilenean rules on camping off-site?
thanks, Reinout
Hi Reinout,
There is a great book on the subject of driving a car from Chile to far north in Alaska at the top of North America, it is a bit dated as it was written 20+ years ago, but given your interest in that itinerary/trip, i still would highly recommended. The author is Tim Cahill who i love and is a great fun-to-read travel writer. The book is called Road Fever, here it is on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Road-Fever-Tim-Cahill/dp/0394758374
Buying a car in Chile–cars cost a lot more in Chile because of import duties based on the size of the car’s engine, and cost of the car. So cars are about 40% more expensive in Chile than they are in the USA. Compared to Europe/Netherlands, they may be approximately the same. If you are buying the car with cash, you will need to find a way to get the $$ into Chilean Pesos into the country, which can be hard to do if you are taking about $20,000 or more Euros… i did it by moving $10k USD at a time via wire transfers, took a few weeks to get the funds settled. Once you have the car, getting insurance was a hassle. So, as an alternative to buying a car and driving it all the way to the USA… you might think of renting a car in each country and not dealing with the border crossings? I took my car to Argentina for a weekend, and it was a huge huge huge hassle… nothing like the convenience of driving between Netherlands and Germany 😉
As for sleeping in a car and or camping: I don’t think you’d have any trouble car camping on side of roads/etc. throughout Chile–it is sparsely populated and there is lots of land/space. There are also many national parks/monuments where car camping is common. I think from a security perspective, you would also be ok in the smaller towns, but not in the big cities where you would be safer/more comfortable getting cheap accommodations in a hotel.
All of that said, driving a car around Chile is wonderful. I was just down there again a month ago, and did a good 8 hr drive to the north and loved every minute of it. We stopped in small towns for walks and meals, and just super enjoyed as I hope you and your family will if you make the trip! let me know if I can answer in more detail on any subject.