Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

About 5 minutes back from Chicago and am I taking a nap? No. I’m back on the site. What am I, crazy?

What a great time with Andy McCaskey and Kara Karsten putting together 2-3 days worth of content. Lots of video uploaded and produced.

Also learned a lot about CMS systems. Most people there were either Drupal or Joomla shops, with a couple Plone and Alfresco speakers. Still, there was a lot of content to go around. Met some real influential CMS experts.

There was a Joomla vs. Drupal theme going, though. They even wrote songs about it. I posted them both up – not great quality, so be forewarned.
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This last weekend was a roller coaster of a ride. Last week we saw some issues with the site when I cleaned up the system. For some reason, the mySQL was going off the charts. Therefore the Service Provider decided to counter by putting the whole site into a 403 error. Both Geekazine and Dorkazine were affected, as well as a couple other sites I run on this host.

We worked hard at it and the problem fixed itself, at least that is what the support agent told me. At any rate, the system was fixed and I was able to get shows up.

Or not.

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I just bought my first case of 16 oz bottles of Mountain Dew. All I can think about is “10 minutes fueling Geekazine, forever in a landfill”. I need to figure out something to do with these bottles so they don’t end up there.

My mom used to take the 2 liter bottles, cut them up and turn them into wind spinners. She had a template that she cut from, used a soldering iron to make a more precise cut and then decorated it to put out in the yard. Not that our house was filled with those things – but it definitely was a crafty project that she liked to do.

My Dad, on the other hand was into wood crafts. He used to make cribbage boards. It all started when he saw a semi-truck cribbage board. He said “I can do that” – And he did. He then moved to other items. This one is a lighthouse he made a few years ago using an old AOL CD.
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Geekazine is implementing a simple survey to find out what you think of the weekly Podcast. This is for the main Podcast only (Quickcast survey will be done later).  It will give you an opportunity to voice what you like or dislike on the show.

The survey does have an option for you to say who you are, however you can remain anonymous. I do ask that if you do not put in your name, to at least put in your location.

The link is below. Thank you for your input!

Take the Geekazine Podcast Survey

The best part is this is the last snow of the season and hopefully it won’t be as bad as they say. Just wet slush. Just a small annoyance, then warm weather.

Now on to some cool stuff. I stopped by SWAP – Surpluss with a Purpose the other day. Basically, it’s a shop that gets furniture, computers and other interesting stuff from the University and other government offices. They then refurb and resell.

I was at the shop the other day and picked up a couple SATA hard drives for a few bucks. I went there looking for office chairs and couldn’t resist the deal. Didn’t get a chair though. Keeping my eye open for the right one.

We have some cool stuff happening. The big news on Tuesday in which I cannot really talk about, but some other great news is that we are starting another website on the Portal. Will be talking more about that soon…

Had some great numbers of listeners for Week in Tech History and the Podcast. Thanks to all that downloaded and listened to both shows. Next week we’ll be introducing a new sponsor.

Frank has been doing some great stuff on the site. The Dell Mini video has been watched by a lot of you. Expect some more cool stuff from Frank.

Started up the other videos for the upcoming weeks. Should have the first one next week. Also going to be recording some video with Andy McCaskey in the next few weeks. Should be a lot of fun.

Band has a few weeks off. Good timing, too. I have a lot of work with the new site coming up.

That’s it for now. Keep tuned in for the special announcements next week.

So last week on Thurs. I got sick. Didn’t think much of it, took some nyquil and slept the day. That night I was feeling much better, but Friday was a different story.

That night I was ok and Saturday I was good until I wasn’t. We did a show and when I got home, I knew it was something more.

Sunday was a blur. Monday was a semi-blur.

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Another week has gone by. It was a fun one but also just bland. In fact, I am trying to think back to the week, and having a hard time remembering what happened. I know that once I start writing I’ll remember. Then there is the “oh carps bait! I forgot to talk about this”…

First of all, Kudos to Robert Scoble for making the move on. He’s got a great group following him, so whatever he does will be pretty successful. It would be fun just to spend a day with him and see what and how he does it.

Of course I commented that if he ever wants to do something for Geekazine, he is always welcome. I know it’s a long shot, but sometimes you have to do that. After all, Gene Roddenberry got his start by taping his resume on a pizza box.

I have been thinking about when the revival of the LIVE SHOW will be. I need to start thinking about how I want to do this encarnation and if it works with my schedule. That was the biggest issue – Mondays worked about a year ago, but now it seems I’ve got more work to do. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

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This weekend has been a whirlwind. I’ve been working on some new items and I went out of town yesterday. I also had to figure out what I am going to do this week. Tomorrow I have to report to Jury Duty. I may be out for 4 hours, I may be out for 4 days. God forbid I may be out for 4 weeks.

While I don’t think it will be the extreme latter, I have to make preparations if I am out for more than a couple days. That means the Podcast may not happen on Wed. Therefore to suppliment, I am planning a mini-podcast for Monday. Add to that the Quickcast. That means a lot of work on a Sunday.

Not that I mind. I enjoy doing this WAY too much.

FAWM is almost complete. I’m at 13 songs and the 14th is a collaboration with Madison favorite – Beth Kille. We went back and forth on this song, but I think we came out with something that people can remember. If there is time, I will sit down and make a 15th song.

Tuesday is Mardi Gras. Wednesday is the beginning of LENT. While I am not as religious, I still try to make one life changing 40 – day challenge. I did not plan to do one for this year because I gave up a couple things this last year. I also wanted to focus on the site. Maybe my 40 days will be dedicated to the portal redesign. We’ll see what happens.

That’s all for now. 2 Podcasts coming tonight. Else, I’ll see you on the other side.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Ramblings. With all the videos and other things happening, I’ve just been running out of time. Still, we need to ramble every now and then…

First of all, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day. Hope the day is full of love and happiness.

I found out the CES videos have been tweeted by CEA – the company that actually puts on CES. Because of that, more people have been checking out the video. Thanks to all that have been coming to the site.

I am missing the LIVE Show, but in another way glad I took the month off. Lots of stuff happening so I can focus on the new items.

As for FAWM – I have written 9 songs. While I’m having fun, I haven’t found that “Breakout song”. Maybe this year is going to be an off year. We’ll see what the next 5 will be like.

This weekend is chuck full of stuff. Not sure if I will have the Quickcast ready until Monday morning. We’ll see what happens. Last night was up north, tonight is Valentines and tomorrow we are toasting a friend who is heading out to Iraq. I am not sure what’s going to happen with the Monday version ‘Week in Tech History’ come March because we will have officially done the segment for a year.

That’s it for now. Check out Franks’ Thoughts including the newest one about the Charter Bankruptcy announcement.

Todd Cochrane is heading to Japan, so he’s putting up as much video he can. Therefore, I’ve been putting up all the videos. Add in the Backchannel posts and I’ve doubled the amount of articles on Geekazine for the next few weeks. Nonetheless, I am willing to sacrifice the time to get these videos up.

I also started getting back into the swing of things. Bitstrips, Quickcasts and the Podcast. Of course, there was no LIVE Show on Monday due to a very special day of mine. I ended up spending the day celebrating. Although I took the day off, it turned out I had to get some work done. Oh well – it’s all for the cause, right?

I did 2 things I never thought I would – I ate SPAM and installed Windows 7 Beta. Last week I got a laptop up and running that I didn’t expect would work. I basically bought it for parts, but when I found out there was no problems with it, I started buying parts to turn it into the second laptop.

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It’s interesting how much work I not only had to catch up on, but also the work I created. The CES trip was fabulous – it took me to a place I have never been before. In all reality, I have never wanted to go to Las Vegas. The sounds of a casino can get annoying after a while for me. Yet, it really wasn’t as bad as I thought.

We stayed at the Monte Carlo – which I have to say I was not impressed with at all. Todd is campaigning the fact that the $14 – a – night internet connection was not great. While I agree with him, I had some other issues that really make me want to not stay there.

I actually changed rooms during the stay. The construction of their Civic Center was annoying (which I know is not their fault, but really – who drops steel beams at 5 AM on a Saturday or Sunday morning? That could have been done during the week). The reason why I moved rooms was initially because of two things – 1. They said the internet would be faster in another room (yeah, right) and when the other rooms took a shower, I would hear loud rattling by the pipes.The move to the next room subsided the pipe rattling, but you could hear the water draining no matter what room you were in.

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