Category Archives: Science & Technology

Panel: “Revolution in PR Technology”

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been invited to be on a panel at a meeting of PR professionals next month. It’s the “January Joint Meeting” of CSPRC/IABC/PRSA. I’m hoping to be able to pronounce the acronym by January 10th. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it interesting that none of these big public relations organizations are using RSS, blogs or podcasts. But they’re talking about it and that puts them ahead of the pack. Depending on the sound set-up, I’ll record it and post it here.

Ford squeezes office into truck

Posted on by
Reply

Ford Motor unveiled a mobile office designed for the new F-Series truck that includes a touch-screen computer, printer, wireless broadband access and Global Positioning System. Ford, which introduced its mobile office at last week’s Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas, is targeting general contractors but the first thing I thought of was farmers and ranchers. [C|net]

When we first started repurposing content from our farm network for the web, everyone said, “Farmers don’t have access to the Internet.” When we started streaming our audio reports, they pointed out, “Farmers are on very slow dial-ups and can’t access rich media.”

I’m no visionary. I just pull my head out of my ass a couple of times a day and take a look around. If your pick-up is your office, this is gonna make sense to a lot of farmers.

5,655,320 pieces of digital crap

Posted on by
Reply

Phil posted our spam/virus stats for September. 95% of our inbound email is spam. And I’d say that percentage holds true for the crap that hits my USPS mail box. A bunch of shit I didn’t ask for and don’t want. As we used to sing back in the 60’s… deep in my heart, I do believe… there will be a day when we only see/hear messages that we want to hear. It’s closer all the time. So spam on you annoying turds. Make it while you can.

Shareing the nano

Posted on by
Reply

Belkin Wireless Transmitter and NanoPopped into Staples today and picked up a Belkin TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter for the nano. The plan is to load up with tunes and podcasts for the long drive to Destin. I must say this model seems to work much better than the first one I tried and allows me to select any open frequency (instead of just 4 down at the bottom of the dial).

I’m listening more and more to podcasts. Favorites to date: Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code; Leo LaPorte’s This Week in Tech (TWIT); and NPR’s Tech News.

Frozen Nano: Apple feet of clay

Posted on by

After gushing all over everyone about the superior design of my Apple Nano, the little bastard has locked up tighter than a drum. Frozen solid. Tried all the fixes suggested on the Apple website but to no avail. Even tried to run the “restore to factory pre-sets” app but couldn’t make the PC see the Nano. Hmm, just like any other computer device, it would seem.

Update: When the battery finally ran all of the way down, the Nano powered down. When I plugged it back in the the PC, it apparantly reset itself.

Why no computers in the grocery store?

Posted on by

Maybe I’m just not shopping at the right stores, but wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to have a couple of computers scattered around where you could search for items? You get a little “You are here” icon and a dotted line to the location of the item. They could offer suggestions. Looking for pasta? How about some garlic bread? You know they could sell enough ads on the thing to pay for the installation and upkeep. Why make us roam the aisles, looking for someone to help us? Hardware stores, video stores, every store. I can’t imagine why this isn’t being offered.

Equally hard to understand… have you noticed more businesses are having people stand beside the road, holding up signs? I saw a guy today in the middle of a busy 4-way intersection holding up a “50% off at K-Mart” sign. Is this really an effective advertising vehicle? And is this a coveted job or punishment for screwing up?

“I’m not gonna fire you, Mays, but I want you to take sign and go stand on the corner in the sweltering heat for the next couple of days.”

I have to confess I broke my #1 Rule (Never leave home without your camera) so I don’t have photos of this phenomenon. I’ll update in a day or two. If you’ve ever done this job…or sent some poor schmuck out to do this job, please enlighten me.

Ten years of streaming

Posted on by

Finally got around to going through the last box of files that came along with the recent office move. Found a file with notes and correspondence with Mark Cuban (PDF) (November and December, 1995). Cuban was cutting lots of content deals back in those days and he was hot to stream our football and basketball broadcasts. Almost nobody knew what streaming was and it was damned hard to imagine that anyone would ever listen to “the radio” on their computers. His company was called AudioNet back then and became Broadcast.com before he sold to Yahoo! How could that have been 10 years ago? And what will this all look like 10 years from now?

Update: First contact from Cuban was on September 9, 1995.

Gnomedex 5 wrap-up

Posted on by
Reply

We’re standing here on the upper deck, sailing away from Gnomedex 5.0, and tossing our lei into the digital ocean. If it floats back to Gnomedex, we will one day return. I’ve been attending assorted conferences (most of them broadcasting related) for 30 years and I have *never* been to one that I found more interesting…more relevant…more important. That might just be the geek wannabe in me but I don’t think so. A new Web is bubbling out of the magma and it’s molten mix of syndication/subscription and podcasting and personal media. And I believe it is becoming a digital tsunami. And the first waves have already started to come ashore here on Radio Island. And I think the waves will get bigger.

I wish I could tell you everything I heard or saw at Gnomedex and why I think it’s so important. But it’s like… like “trying to tell stranger about rock and roll.” If you’re really interested, all or most of the sessions will be online (audio for sure, maybe video). I urge you to listen. I’ll post links and assorted “after-thoughts” as they become available.

Gnomedex: Day One.

Posted on by
Reply

You’ve heard the old joke about the guy that robs a bus full of Japanese tourists but the police catch the guy within 10 minutes because they had more than 500 photos of the thief. That was the first day of Gnomedex 5.0. Almost 400 people in attendance. All online, blogging every word.

But not smays. My Thinkpad wireless refused to work which might have been a good thing since I could pay attention and not worry about blogging the event. Pretty big announcement by Microsoft on how they’re integrating RSS in IE 7 and Longhorn. Looked pretty cool to me.