(Wed Feb 06, 2008) [/Misc] #
I hope one day to attend a TED conference.
It's highly unlikely given that attendance is by invitation only, but a guy
can dream. In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoy watching the TED talk videos.
What I like most about watching the videos is that they aren't all focused on
software or technology. For that matter, they aren't all focused on any one
thing. TED brings together the world's greatest thinkers and doers to give
inspiring talks on various themes: art, biology, climatology, design,
economics, invention, poverty, religion, technology, and so on.
Here's the interesting thing: It's a single-track conference. Everyone sees
the same talk at the same time. This seems inefficient because we're used to
conferences with sharp focus—the software geeks go one way, the climate
change experts go another, and consequently the folks trying to solve global
poverty issues don't immediately benefit from the advances made in software
and climatology.
But TED is in the idea-spreading business. And to efficiently spread ideas on
a grand scale, you need a wide-angle view. All this stuff is changing and,
more to the point, at some level it's all interconnected. So if you're looking
for inspiration, I highly recommend a steady intake of TED talks. Here are a
few of my favorites:
(You can also subscribe to the videos via
iTunes.)
Enjoy!
(Thu Nov 01, 2007) [/Misc] #
Every Halloween after all the kids have sufficiently ransacked the neighborhood,
the porch lights go dark and everyone meets up for the traditional chili cookoff.
It tends to dissipate the effects of the sugar rush, and it's a welcomed relief
from the cold. Plus it's a great way to catch up on the neighborhood gossip,
so they tell me. I go to taste all the chilis.
This year they had an official chili guide printed. The recipes aren't
recorded anywhere that I know of, but the guide was there to warn your
taste buds. I snagged a copy of the guide because I liked the names and creativity.
#1: Killer Chili
* The one that started this madness...
* Contains bacon, beef, and pickled cactus
#2: Merrle's Chicken Tortilla Soup
* Served for 2-3 Halloweens
#3: Bean Chili
* A repeat favorite for the past 3 years
* Contains kidney, black, and pork & beans
#4: Traditional Green Chili
* New this year!
#5: Mescalero Chili
* New this year!
* Contains ham, roast, sausage
* Has NO chili powder or cumin
#6: Bad Attitude Chili (Texas style)
* New this year!
* Contains beer, bourbon, and baker's chocolate
* Also has smoked paprika (weird, we know...)
They were all outstanding. The Traditional Green Chili was my fav this year,
with Bad Attitude Chili coming in a close second.
(Tue Oct 23, 2007) [/Misc] #
So you want to buy tickets to see the Colorado Rockies in the World Series?
They're exclusively available online... if you're lucky.
When ticket sales opened yesterday, the website took 8.5 million hits in a
90-minute period. Then the system melted, and someone had a very bad day (and
night) in the IT department. Fans were hopping mad. Thinking they'd try the old fashioned payment method, they turned up at the box offices only to be turned away. Reports that the problem was caused by a "malicious, external attack" were irrelevant.
Ticket sales re-opened today at noon, and they are "very confident we will get these tickets sold today." (Only 500 tickets of nearly 60,000 available were sold yesterday.) The fix? Throttle access to the site through a countdown timer. (View source for the JavaScript.) When the timer reaches zero, cross your fingers!
(Mon Sep 10, 2007) [/Misc] #
I've spent many a day tuned in to "A Prairie Home Companion" while motoring through Kansas, Wyoming, and Arizona. Indeed, just hearing Garrison Keillor's comforting voice reminds me how thankful I am to pick up an AM station. (Yes, I have an iPod now, but if you've ever driven through the aforementioned states, you'll appreciate the entertainment value of channel surfing the ol' radio and the sheer joy of discovering something intelligible.)
Now I don't know much about Garrison Keillor. To me he's just a disembodied voice that helps the miles melt away. To fellow motorists (all two of them) he's what causes them to wonder why the idiot they just passed is chuckling to himself. But this weekend our local newspaper ran an electronic interview
with Garrison, and two responses struck a chord with me.
On writing:
“Writing is revising. You just keep messing around, cutting the dead
wood, forcing the plants to bloom, until whomever you're writing the piece for
gets exasperated and then you send it to them.”
On performing on stage:
“Near-sightedness is the secret. The audience is just a big warm blur,
very Renoiresque, like a hillside of flowers, and I don't see them as
intelligent, critical individuals. I see them as flora. When I talk on stage,
I'm talking to a few friends who I imagine are listening to the show (actually
they don't, most of them are too busy, some of them have been dead for years).
It's the power of illusion. If I actually saw the danger I am in, I would run
in terror.”
(Thu Feb 08, 2007) [/Misc] #
Are you wearing yellow swimming trunks, or do you have a surfboard?
Ze hopes you're surfing.
(Wed Jan 03, 2007) [/Misc] #
...from one of the preeminent thinkers of our time,
Dave Barry.
(Wed Aug 31, 2005) [/Misc] #
No, I don't plan on podcasting anytime soon, but I'm sure enjoying
listening to it take off. In-transition moments, such as when I'm on
a long drive or hanging out in various airports, just melt away when
I'm engaged in a good podcast. It's entertainment and education,
piped almost effortlessly into my brain wherever I am. More
importantly, I get to control the time, place, and the
content. But podcasts don't make for good background noise when I'm
focused on other things, like writing code. For the same reason, I
rarely listen to music with vocals when I'm hacking code, which pretty
much rules out all variations of rap.
Unlike blogging which basically requires that you're able to press the
"Submit" button, podcasting seems to take a bit more skill
and equipment. Of course that's not stopping a lot of people from
attempting to broadcast their voice to your ears. But I think the
adoption curve of becoming a podcaster will be markedly different than
being a blogger, for at least three reasons that may be blatantly
obvious.
You need a good voice. When I put those buds in my
ear, I want to hear something pleasant (see previous comment about
rap). That doesn't mean you need a radio voice. In fact, podcasts
with exaggerated radio voices can be some of the most painful for me
to listen to. And yet you don't want the voice to sound scripted.
It's ok to read from a script, but it needs to be a "loose"
reading. There's a delicate balance to be struck here. Instead of
trying to describe the voice I'm looking for, give a listen to Manton
Reece's first podcast. The story transitions with mixed in
content are something to be admired, but it's his wonderful voice that
keeps me listening.
You need good equipment. When I first tried my hand
at screencasting with a software
movie, I used a cheap microphone and it showed. Poor audio in a
screencast may not bother you much because you're distracted by the
video, but low-quality sound is immediately noticeable in a
podcast—and there's nothing to distract you. Oh, you can mix in
other music, sounds, and interviews, but even then you need good
(though not necessarily expensive) equipment to make it all sound
professional. And for that I refer you to Ryan
Irelan's shopping list. His audio sounds great even if he is broadcasting from
a closet.
You need good content. This is obvious, but I think
it's all the more important with podcasting. I can skim through
hundreds of blogs a day in short increments of time, but I only have
so much in-transition time to listen to podcasts. I could load up a
bunch of podcasts and try to skim them, but that's not really the
experience I'm looking for while cruising down the highway. And I'd
think it would be highly inefficient. Perhaps it's because my text
synthesizing skills have been through more training over the years
than my audio skimming skills. So I want good content either in terms
of highly entertaining or informative. For example, I'm enjoying the
Ruby on Rails podcast
because it's hot new tech and they interview interesting people. I'm
also keen on anything produced by IT Conversations
because I can quickly learn about tech topics that I don't regularly
keep up with, and they have a rating system that helps the cream rise
to the top.
Unfortunately there's not much you can do when it comes to having a
good voice, except maybe practice and take voice lessons. Some people
just have better voices than others, and they'll naturally gravitate
toward podcasting. Good content, however, is something you have a lot
of control over. Whether it's sizzling tech news or a captivating
story, there's usually someone willing to listen... at least once.
But I'm not seeing voice or content getting in the way of people
trying their hand at podcasting. Rather it's investing in good
equipment and learning how to use it that I think will be the primary
reason that bloggers don't become podcasters. Not everyone wants to
have a mini recording studio in their home or office, and yet I think
they'd be eager to go "on air" just like the pros. That's
not a problem as much as it's an opportunity. Perhaps we'll soon see
mobile podcasting studios roaming our neighborhoods. Or imagine a
soundproof podcasting station in your local Kinkos or public
library...
(Fri Feb 25, 2005) [/Misc] #
I spend a goodly amount of time coordinating travel logistics.
Optimizing that time is key to getting other important things done.
Google Maps is quickly tuning my
workflow.
Here's what I did this morning to pave the way for an upcoming TDD
workshop held at the client's site:
-
Gotta print training material:
kinkos near (client street address)
(It's not just a map, it's also a web site finder.)
-
Gotta catch a few winks every night:
hotels near (client street address)
(It's not just a map, it's also a telephone directory.)
-
Gotta find my way from the airport to the hotel:
Select a hotel on the map and choose "Directions: To
here". Enter the airport code in the "Start
address:" field.
-
Gotta find my way from the hotel to the client site:
Select the hotel on the map and choose "Directions: From
here". Enter the client address in the "End
address:" field.
-
Oh, and who can forget: Gotta eat!
pizza near (client street address)
(It's not just a map, it's also a menu.)
That's my first pass through a travel logistics tuning cycle using
Google Maps. It's already far more efficient than anything I've tried
previously. And as soon as I post this, surely someone will tell me
how to tweak it further. Please do. My travel schedule only gets
more intense from here.
Google Maps is truly amazing. Oh, the geeks love it, not just for
what it does, but how it does it. But having shown it to
a few non-technical folks, they also immediately appreciate how it
changes the way they locate information.
Now, what I really want is for this thing to travel with me!
By the way, it appears that the front page of Google Maps was updated
sometime late yesterday. Mad props to whoever did that. I'm no
longer confused as to where to type in information. Less is more.
Just one text field responds to all queries, just like Google itself.
Also of note: I accidentally pulled up Google Maps in Safari,
and it worked! Before it would gently remind me that my browser
wasn't supported.
(Fri Feb 04, 2005) [/Misc] #
Herewith, answers to questions about my experience with the
recent
addition of an iPod
Shuffle, a brief wish list, and then a convenient hack I use but didn't
realize was helpful until someone asked a question.
In response to your questions...
-
You really have to hold an iPod Shuffle to appreciate just how small
and how light it is. Judging by the weight, you'd swear there
was nothing but air inside.
-
The sound quality is really quite amazing, even when using the Shuffle
with the car cassette adapter. For best results, you'll want to set
the volume at around 50% on both the Shuffle and the car stereo. If
the Shuffle volume is too high, its amp wants to overpower the stereo
and your ears immediately notice the distortion. Getting the right
mix can be tricky given that the Shuffle doesn't have a volume
indicator.
-
When you autofill from a playlist, for example, the Shuffle preserves
the relative ordering of songs. More on why this is important later.
-
No, I don't miss not having a display for two reasons: 1) I've never
had an iPod with a display to miss and 2) I generally don't go looking
for a specific album/artist/song. If you like to queue up a song from
your vast music library on request, you'll be disappointed with the
iPod Shuffle. It's just not made for that. I generally listen to
iTunes in Party Shuffle mode, so the iPod Shuffle fits my lazy DJ
style.
-
It takes approximately 12 minutes to fill an empty 1G flash to full
capacity using the USB 2.0 drive on my PowerBook. For those 12
minutes, your Shuffle's battery is getting a charge.
-
The Shuffle remembers where it was when you last turned if off, so
when you power it on it picks up where it left off. Audio books
purchased from Audible are apparently bookmarked, so you can
seamlessly listen to a book from cover to cover on the Shuffle and in
iTunes.
-
Remember that by showing your Shuffle to someone, you just cost them
at least $99. Seriously, this product sells itself and by owning one
you have become a billboard for Apple.
Two small improvements that would improve usage:
-
Turn the light on the front solid green while the Shuffle is powered
on. It's just too easy to forget that it's on and accidentally run
down the battery when it's not in use.
-
Put coarse-grained grooves or some type of stick-um on the surface of
the play mode switch. My switch is so smooth that I have a hard time
getting enough traction with my thumb to move the switch.
As for that embarrassingly-obvious hack you've been
patiently waiting for...
Problem:
Imagine you're sitting in seat C32 high over some desolate part of the
country. It's dark out, and the last two songs in Shuffle Mode have
put you right to sleep. Just as the uncontrollable drooling begins,
the shuffler queues up Falco's Rock Me Amadeus. On your way
back down from slamming into the overhead compartments, you not only
remember why Falco was a one-hit wonder, you're also painfully aware
of the perils of letting the Shuffle choose the next song.
At this
point you really want to be lulled back to sleep with the assurance
that all the songs for some time will be restful. The trouble is, you
know that finding that restful collection will require pressing the
"Next Track" button more times than your thumb can handle.
Patent Pending Solution:
Recall that autofilling
preserves the relative order of the songs. Thus, you can create an
iTunes playlist that has a collection of raucous songs followed by a
series of restful songs, then autofill your Shuffle with that
playlist. In Shuffle Mode you'll get a nice mix of both, just like
your hometown DJ used to deliver to you back when listening to Falco
was cool.
When you're ready to doze off, just hit the "Next
Track" button until a restful song is located. In other words,
bum the shuffler to save time and your thumb, playing the odds that
the shuffler will find a song in your restful collection quicker than
a linear search with your thumb. Then simply switch the iPod Shuffle into
the mode that plays songs in order. Ah... dreamy songs for a while.
Oh, and sorry about that $99...
(Thu Jan 27, 2005) [/Misc] #
Mark Husson, graphic
artist extraordinaire and crafter of web goodness, must have felt
really bad about diminishing my iPod Shuffle to 3 easy steps. Or
maybe I was just trying to get him back for his (brilliant)
tomfoolery. Either way, I ended up being the recipient of a
favicon.
Thanks, Mark! What song's gonna play next?
