Posts Tagged ‘expo’

Busy Week
Thanks for coming to the site. We had another great week – busy week. It was a lot of fun and really productive.

Post – HPTF

Of course, we went to Vegas the week before to cover the HP Technology Forum Expo. Andy McCaskey, Kara Karsten and myself were working hard with interviews, product reviews and more. This week was planning to get some of the videos out to you. So far, we’ve posted the HP POD video on Friday and have a lot more coming soon.

Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale

This is what really took up the majority of the week. The last month I have been working hard in getting prizes together. Now it’s time to put a contest together. That is where the Summer of Podcasts comes in. Each week, Podcasters will be giving out codewords during their shows. We will be giving away a USB wireless VGA from IOGEAR (See the video below), a WebAround Web privacy screen and a lot more. The best part is a lot of prizes are from the Podcasters themselves. Caffination is giving some Coffee, Bageltech News gave a NYC canvas print, Bwana.org is giving Team Fortress 2 for PC and a T-Shirt, SDRNews is giving a MagicJack, Techpodcasts (Geek News Central) is giving an iPod Touch: there is a lot more.

Wednesday, July 1st is when the contest starts. Check out the site before hand to which shows are giving codewords for the week.

Bands

It’s summertime, so the band ramps up in it’s playing. It’s all well and good – I enjoy taking the trips and playing the gigs. This last weekend I played 3 shows and it wasn’t even Sunday. This afternoon is one more show. Next week is just about the same.

Interview

This last week, I was interviewed on the Isthmus – a local tabloid – style paper in the Madison area. The interview will be out next week, when that happens, I will post it.

PC/Mac Smackdown

Had lunch with Cal last Wednesday. He said – “Hey, why don’t you come on the show”. I said “Sure, why not?”. Therefore, I was on the PC / Mac Smackdown with Cal Davis and Rachel Baker.

Windows 7

Pre-Orders of Windows 7 means a significant discount. I have Windows 7 RC on my Dell D600 and really like how it works. What is even more interesting – Windows 7 works a lot better on that machine than when I put on Ubuntu 9.04. Ubuntu would lag when I was working – and I mean REALLY Lag. I would litterally select something, count to 5, then watch it execute.

I am really impressed with this OS, so I am excited this is coming out.

MJ, FF and EM AND BM

It was a sad week for a lot of people. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson took the Trifecta this week as all three passed. Ed McMahon was the sidekick of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, Farrah Fawcett was the poster girl of the 70’s and of course, Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. While I was never a big MJ fan, I do appreciate his music and also how he let Weird Al Yankovic to make fun of his music.

I remember when I first heard “Eat it” 0n the radio. While I never listened to “Bad”, I did have the “Even Worse” album which featured “Fat”.

*Update – Just as I published this, the Internet found out that Billy Mays – the Oxy Clean promoter (as well as Mighty Putty, Big City Sliders, Kaboom and a lot more) was found dead at his  home. He was 50. I guess it’s more than a Trifecta…

Studio

This week was a lot of work with the studio. Only problem – I can’t find my staple gun. I had it, then it dissapeared. I am not sure where it went. AUGH!

Still, the new studio is doing well. I am hoping to record the first video there by Mid-week. My bedroom is getting cluttered with PC stuff and that needs to head down to the Dungeon. The door to that room is the main reason why I call it the Dungeon.

Looking at Phones

I have to admit, I have been looking at the iPhone 3GS. The one thing I like is I have fatter fingers. I was able to use the screen a lot better than with the 3G. For instance, when I hit the “N”, on the 3G, I would always miss and hit the “M”. However, with the 3GS, I have not done anything different and seem to be hitting the “N” key and actually getting an “N”.

I still have some tests to go. I am also looking at the Palm Pre, but in order to do that, I would have to switch to Sprint, which I don’t know if I am ready to do. Android is a possibility, but I really don’t want the G1. I am waiting for the Lenovo version.

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That’s pretty much it this week. Keep watching the site for more info on the contest. Of course if you want to give a prize for the contest, let me know.

Day Off - Sort of
A late Ramblings this week as I decided to stay offline last week. It was a long week and I was playing all weekend. It has been a while since I last took more than 24 hours off a computer, so that is a big feat for me.

HP Tech Forum

I had a fun time talking and working with Andy McCaskey and Kara Karsten with SDRNews. We had such a blast. We also put forward the mobile interview booth rig. We call it the “MacGyver” rig. Nonetheless, it was connected to uStream and we were able to conduct a few interviews for the event. Check out all the info on the Twitter log at #HPTF.

Great to meet some new bloggers: Shane Pitman of Neowin, John Obeto of AbsoluteWindows. We had a great week along with Halley, Tom, Calvin and Rebecca from HP and Buzzcorps.

Fryes at Vegas

Also got to go to Vegas again. While we didn’t run around town as much as with CES (everything was contained in Mandalay Bay), we did venture out to go to Fryes. It’s actually my first time at Fryes and I was pretty impressed. Of course, it was Vegas, so the store has a big slot machine up in it’s store front and stacks of coins as barrier posts. The inside was very big and complete. Andy had to get a new scratch drive since the one he brought died. We got what we needed and headed back to the safe Mandalay Bay

Mandalay Bay

Wow. This is a city contained in a building. That is, if you have the money for it. My room – which I call the “Bob Newhart” room – was decked with all the amenities. TV in the bedroom and the bathroom. You can connect an external device easily and be watching a movie while soaking in the tub.

The casino area was always hoppin. There were bands both on the “Sushi Pop” and “House of Blues” stages. Restaurants all over the building. A small walk and you are at “theHotel”. They even have their own beach – where we watched the Beach Boys play a set. Well, it was a short set for me, since I had a flight to catch.

Podcast on the show floor

I had the unique opportunity to record the show from the HPTF Expo floor. It was great because I didn’t have to set up a rig, do a show, rip it down and go to another area to post. I would also like to thank Simon Calder for helping out with the show notes so I could focus on other things.

What I got out of the show

Of course, there were a lot of things I have learned from this event. I have run server rooms before, but I was a little out of touch with the current technologies. FCoE was the big one I learned about. Also building a server is a lot different than before. Greener, more powerful and reliability were the best parts.

The Keynotes were just amazing. Learning about how these big companies are working on green technologies is amazing. Dr. Michio Kaku and his views for the future were amazing. A “Smart toilet” is definitely something to get excited about.

The Weekend

I got back to Madison at 8 AM on Friday. It was a long trip (5 hours, turned into 7 due to timezone changes). What was worse was on the trip back, I was not really impressed with the airline I flew. The one thing I noticed is they were not really friendly.

An example: We flew through a couple storm fronts during the trip. Most airlines would say “This is the Captain. We are seeing some turbulance, so please remain in your seats and buckle your belts. Thank you.”

The airline I was on? Well: “Please buckle your seatbelts”.

The airline also had screens drop from above. While I would normally invite this, I was in a evening flight. I had difficulties sleeping when something like a video monitor is playing. Of course, I didn’t pack my sleeping mask. Therefore, I was stuck watching “Confessions of a Shopoholic”. While other people loved this movie, I didn’t find it as interesting.

I got home around 9 AM, in which I proceeded to collapse on the bed for a couple hours. Woke up, caught up on some work I missed during the week, then headed off to play a show. Since it was out of town, I had to pack for another night away from home.

Band Gigs

Saturday was a day of playing. We played a friends graduation, then it was up to the Dells for our regular show at the Baja bar. There were 4 different Bachelorette parties that night and they were not in the Baja at the same time. As one party left, the next one showed up. Crazy.

New Guitar

While we were in transit to the Graduation party, we stopped at a local music store. There, I found a used Acoustic / Electric guitar. I picked it up as a spare for future shows. It needs some work to it, but not much to make it ready to play out.

Lazy Sunday? Not.

Of course, the day started out with this post. A quick breakfast, then it’s getting things ready for the week. Have to work on “Week in Tech History”, then I have to figure out how to put together the new video studio. Lots of soundproofing to do.

I suppose I should get to it. Thanks again to everyone for a great week. How do you top that?

Day 2 had brought upon a lot of cool stuff. We put together the booth for uStream interviews, we walked the floor of HPTF and we had a great time at the Luau.

Here is the Wrap Up Video for the HPTF 2009 Day 2. I am at awe of the 1000 videos playing right behind me. I think there is a market in turning that into a tanning booth – watch your favorite shows while getting a nice tan.

Day 2 started out a little slower – not the expo, but us. We burnt the midnight oil, which with the time zone difference was 2-3 hours later than what we are used to. Nonetheless, we got all the audio and video up for the day.

8:00 AM: Started with a hearty breakfast. Recorded the Morning rundown.

8:45 AM: Got to out Stand and started setting up. Walked around the show room before they opened the doors.

11 AM: POD interview. Datacenters in a POD storage unit.

uStream of the HP Expo floor is up

12 PM: Lunch

1 PM: Started walking the Expo floor. Interviews with Gresham, Emulex, Fusion 10 and Q-Logic. Andy and Kara started getting interviews going at the SDR booth

5 PM: Gathering at the POD for munchies. Cirque Du Soleil performers were on hand. We all got some nice gift boxes with juggling balls enclosed.

6 PM: Andy, Kara and myself stayed behind to record the daily wrapup.

6:30 PM: I stayed behind more to do my weekly podcast from the show floor.

7:30 PM: Luau commences (I am still working…)

We will be live blogging the HP Expo keynote. Keep this page refreshed for updates

4:30 – 6:00 p.m. Keynote Sessions
South Convention Center, Level 2, Mandalay Bay Ballroom

Host: Tom Iannotti, Managing Director and SVP, HP Americas and TSG

Ann Livermore, EVP, TSG, HP

Paul Miller, VP Marketing, ESS, TSG, HP

Prith Banerjee, SVP, Research, HP; Director, HP Labs

4:40 PM: Intro with Tom Iaonotti

4:43 PM: Ann Livermore starts out. Talking about Market Leadership of HP. She mentions that HP is #1 in Revenue, part of the Forune 9 in the US.

HP will be getting aggressive in Networking. HP has made a series of acquisitions to poise themselves for this ramp up. Compaq, Colubris, Lefhand Networks. Software is getting pushed due to the merge with Mercury, Opsware.Finally, the EDS acquisition.

Ann begins to talk about the CIO challenge – HP has made investments in Data Center Transformation, Information Explosion and Everything as a service. Read the rest of this entry »

*This post will be updated several times in the day.

Got into Vegas last night at 11 PM. That was 1 AM my time. Went downstairs and checked out the nightly band (they play every Sunday and Monday) at Mandalay Bay. We also profiled the room, including 2 flat screen TV’s. This is what I am calling the “Bob Newhart” room.

8 AM: Met up with Andy McCaskey for breakfast and the Backchannel daily.

9 AM: Got to the conference hall, where we met Rebecca Taylor, Halley Bass and Tom Augenthaler from Buzzcorps. We also caught up with John Obeto, Shane Pitman. We walked around the Show floor.

10:30 AM: Met up with Calvin Zito. Went to the main hall where we saw the behind the scenes production it takes to present a key note.
Read the rest of this entry »

When I went to Las Vegas in January, I thought I would be going back to cover events. I didn’t think it would be so soon. But I don’t mind – a little hop over to the city that never sleeps for a few days of fun in the sun.

Except I will have a reason for going to the big city. I will be working with Andy McCaskey and Kara Karsten again for the HP Tech Forum Expo 2009. We will be covering the floor – CES style while also setting up one – on – one interviews with various vendors.

I will also be doing wrap up videos all week for the Geekazine channel and TVazine. So I thought I would start early by showing you what it takes to get ready for an event like this.

Andy will be getting the serious CES gear from Todd Cochrane, so I will have to make sure I have the little stuff covered. We will be doing the Backchannel content like we did at CES, so I will be bringing the AIPTEK camera. I will also be Podcasting my regular show on Tuesday, which means I’ll have to take the Blue USB mic with me and other various accoutremon.

In this weeks video, I get to do two things:

1. Show off the new studio space for future video
2. Show you all the items I am planning to take with me to cover an event like this.

It should be a great time. I will be on a plane and in Vegas by Sunday night. So that means I have a lot of work to do before then.

Oh, wait. I have a lot of work to do… Well, here is the video.

Viva Las Vegas

In 36 hours I will be back in a city I said I would never go to. Las Vegas. Years ago, I was opposed to gambling. We had a local casino and every time I would step foot in, I would be barraged with “Ding Ding Ding” noises that would irritate me to no end.

That has changed.

Not that I am an excessive gambler, but I have realized that if you are going to start a new business, you are taking a gamble. You put down more money than you can afford and you let it ride. If you are a smart gambler, you know when to move your chips, but nonetheless, they will still be on the table.

I started pulling the slots on a business model about 10 years ago. Crazy ideas on the web. My first Website was “Toonzed” featuring “Cybeeks” – a daily online comic about 2 IT professionals that lived together. It ran for a year and a half.

I did a whole bunch of music stuff in between 2002-2009, including my other current website – WIBands – a place for musicians to talk shop. It was mostly a forum with aspiration for more, but still in the works.

The big jump was when I started doing Geekazine and the podcasts within. I was podcasting prior with “Independant Music Podcast”. That ran for a small while on a monthly basis. I thought with Geekazine, I could take a better gamble and get more out of it.

So far, it’s been a year and a half and I am happy with the results. I have aligned myself with some great people and we help each other out in many ways. With sites like Dorkazine and TVazine upon the portal, I have been able to really ramp up the viewership. Sportazine will be the next in the portal and will be coming up shortly.

So I have been gambling for a while. So why not go to Vegas?

Understand, the two times I went, it wasn’t to gamble in a literal fashion. It was to gamble in a business fashion. In January I went with Todd Cochrane and Andy McCaskey to cover CES with the Techpodcast network. This time it’s with Andy and Kara Karsten to cover the HP Buzzcorps Expo 2009 -  Soon to be called “Ivy world”. They ran contests like “31 Days of the Dragon”, where they gave away thousands in prizes.

We will be putting down video for the week, along with the infamous Backchannel action. I have the camera all ready to go and can’t wait to get going.

So that is my Gamble. I might just play the tables for a bit, too. You never know…

The New Diggs

As you may have remembered, I was totally under the gun when my last lease was up. I held out a few days and it payed off as I found a new place with some great additions. It has this room in the corner of the basement that will be perfect for the Video production. It’s a bit boomy – 4 walls of concrete do that. But it will also be great for when I set up a green screen and produce some higher quality video.

iPhone App?

I have been talking with a few people about an idea for an iPhone app. I feel it will have a good showing and with 2.1 million opportunities to download it, I think that this app may be on at least 3% of the expected 40 million iPhone sales. That would be a potential of 2 million.

I have a developer in toe, but need an investor to cover costs. It is a low overhead, but one I cannot scrape together. I will post more info on Vator when I get a chance.

Where did that come from?

I found out about some cash I had that I didn’t expect. Only problem is it’s in a 401K from a previous job. If I did move it, it would take 120 days to do. I’ll have to figure out what to do. It would be nice to borrow from it so I can get some new equipment, but I am not sure how to go about doing that.

Congrats Sunspot

Sunspot, the band I have hilighted in my latest videos, just put out a new album called “Singularity” I haven’t heard the whole album yet, but I have heard some songs in live shows. If you get a chance, download it.

Win the Epson Artisan 700

Monday is the Quickcast “Week in Tech History” where we will talk about the third step in the Summer of Geekazine contest #1. Don’t worry. It’s actually really simple. And you can get a great printer with WiFi capabilities.

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That’s all for now. Now it’s time to roll the dice and head out to Vegas. Keep an eye on TVazine for some quick videos next week!

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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MacWorld and CES have been in competition on this week for many years. With that, we have had a lot of great announcements come out of thise week. G4, Mac Mini, the Lisa computer and a lot more on the Apple side, where CES announced everything from new computers from Commodore (did you know there was a 264 and 364 computer?), Atari, IBM, Gateway and many other companies.

We also saw Jobs and Woz reunite again at the MacWorld Expo, Time Inc and Warner communications merge to Time-Warner, then AOL buy it to form AOL Time-Warner. There is a whole lot of History this week, so check out the Podcast and get your fix on information.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.2MB)

On Tuesday, Apple did what it said they were going to do for the last 2 years – pull out of MacWorld. Of course, Apple will attend this years’ event, but they really dropped the ball by stating Steve Jobs will not be doing the Keynote address. So now MacWorld is left with the senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phillip Schiller.

MacWorld Should Say to Apple “We’re Mad As Hell and we’re not going to take this anymore…”

Read the rest of this entry »