Posts Tagged ‘great’

You might remember the products. You might remember the hype. Then, you are tooling down highway 41 years later and all of a sudden you think to yourself – “Hey, whatever happened to…”

Failed ideas. Maybe it was a great idea, but wasn’t made right, or design errors brought it down. Maybe it was just a bad product. Well, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see if we cannot repeat these errors again.

Oh yeah, why 16? Well because we could.

The Computer Watch: Whether it was the Ruputer, the MSN Direct ‘Smart’ Watches, the Timex Data Link Watch or another gadget watch – BTW – I remember having a “Transformers watch”. It was awesome!

Still, the Dick Tracey style communication watches, the “Computer on a wrist”, never really hit it off. I even remember a watch that gave you directions. You would put in the paper tape and turn a little dial to indicate where you are and where you are going.

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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.

This week for TVazine, we go through a review that I thought was all but lost. A couple months ago, a hard drive crashed and with it – a few of the video reviews I did early on that were not published yet. However, I do back up systems, and found that this video was saved in a backup I did the month before.

It was a copy that I already edited down, so I couldn’t put it into 720 format, but I was able to do a little tweaking on it. I also am playing with some new title intros, so let me know if you like the new intro.

In the meantime, we review the Fretlight guitar – a special guitar that connects to the PC via USB, then lights up the fretboard to direct you on how to play certain songs. This guitar is great for learning and comes with software to help out.

We look at the guitar and where it stands as a musical instrument and a teaching tool.

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?

I use Twitter a lot. I wanted to stay informed, especially from friends. I decided to port all direct messages to my cell phone. That way I didn’t have to install a Twitter client. At first that was great – I could respond to people I need to talk to.

That has all changed with the Twitterbot.

Now, if I “Follow” the wrong person, I get a direct message:

Thanks for following me. I hope to talk to you, but in the meantime: here is a free gift hllp://i.am.spamming/you.

I am not impressed – In fact, I am downright annoyed. You want to get unfollowed by me? Then all you have to do is send me a bot like that. I’ll unfollow you in a heartbeat.

I don’t mind @replies. But the direct replies are the ones that go to the cell phone too. I am glad someone is trying to open communication, but this is redicuous.

So what can be done to change this?

Twitter could block directly direct messages – Maybe set up a blocker to direct messages until the two have conversed or a 30 day grace period has passed. Maybe even an

“Allow this person to DM you” option. Just because I want to follow them doesn’t mean I want them to spam me.

DM Karma – If your Karma is below a certain level, you cannot DM anyone.

In the meantime, I am going to have to turn off the option to SMS me for direct messages. I guess what was a good thing last year might not be so much this.

How to put a PC in a car? How about a full dashboard that is monitored by PC? Hyundai wants to help out.

Hyndai KIA Computer Display

Andy McCaskey talks with Michael about how computers are getting integrated with vehicles. Wifi in the car and a great alarm system are some of the features they talk about.

Save 10% on your Godaddy.com order using Promo Code ‘Pod125′

Visit Rawvoiceoffers.com and use the Promo code ‘HYUNDAI’ for more info.

For a while I have been wondering what I should do with my old Podcasts – After all, they should be somewhere for access, but where? Today I decided to put up Episode 1 on the Internet Archive; a collective for archiving the World Wide Web.

It’s not a be-all/end-all for where my older shows are going to go. For now I will still have the old Podcasts in the exact same area as before. However, it’s always good to have another spot if you want to check out how the show has progressed. For now I will be putting up the first few shows on the site.

If you listen to the 1st show, you will notice it is called “The Show”. I didn’t have “Geekazine” just yet. It also contains the intro of my previous Podcast – “The Independant Music Podcast”. It’s a good meter of where the show has gone since October 2007.

Internet Archive is also responsible for the Wayback Machine – a website that Archives your website. I have a few websites archived there. You can see how a web site was like up to 10 years ago. This is great for figuring out if your website had a previous life.

Thanks to all involved for having a great outlet in the Internet Archive.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (20.6MB)

I started a new group a couple months ago to not only get new podcasters interested, but also have existing podcasters get together and talk about different aspects. I decided that if it’s a meeting about Podcasting, it should be a podcast itself. Therefore, we recorded the first Madison Podcasters Group Podcast.

I decided that since this isn’t really a centric item and there is a lot of good information, then it will be added to the Quickcast. It will also have it’s own group, too.

The subject of the first podcast group – how easy it is to set up and make a podcast. We talk in general about setting up a mic to a computer and recording it, how much it’s going to cost you and how difficult it really is to set up a podcast.

There is some great information out of this hour. The sound is a bit ‘hummy’, I have tried to work out the noise. It is chuck full of some great material, so please bear through the hum and check out the show.

Next month’s meeting will be: How to host your podcast. 3-03-09

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (33.7MB)

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You’ve been working at your job for years. You’ve made lots of money for the company and are the most loyal employee they know of. Yet, tough times are ahead and the company decides you are one of the 10% they have to let go to stay afloat. It’s a frustrating thing to have happen, but what are you gonna do?

Now let’s flip that: You are at your job and survive the cut, but now you are in the position to take up a part of that person who was laid off.

As companies like Intel and Google are looking at trimming the fat, it makes the average consumer wonder – what will our customer experience be without 10% of the workforce?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.1MB)

Brought to you by Gotomeeting. Go to Gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts for an Unlimited free trial.

We are back on the wagon, it was a tough WITH to produce because of this cough.Nonetheless, we found some great history and are reporting to you.

December 16th 1988, Kevin Mitnick is charged for breaking into and stealing software from DEC. He also gained control of MCI codes in England and LA. Mitnick became a martr for some computer geeks as he bucked the system in ways people were unsuseptable to .  My personal favorite is how he got free pizza.

Other events that happened this week – Suspenders were patented by Mark Twain. Microsoft stops supporting IE for the Mac. The Altair 8800 kit is first released, Symantec and Veritas merge and a lot more. Of course to get all the events, you’ll have to listen to the podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (9.4MB)

Well, it was 366 days ago that the first posts for Geekazine surfaced (Leap Year, ya know). It’s been a little longer for the podcasts. Nonetheless, this site went live on November 7th 2007.

Since then we’ve had over 175 podcasts and video casts, over 400 posts, a few posts and some people got some great swag. We’ve talked with some great names in the last year – from Bryce Whittey from Technibble, Josh Chandler, to Jeri Ellsworth.

I would first like to thank everyone for a great first year. I would like to thank the sponsors: Gotomeeting.com, Careersaver.com are the two main ones. I would also like to thank all who have sent donations to the site.

Thanks to Norbert Davis from TCTPodcast.com for all the Cool Tech Corner episodes. Thanks to the cast at Techpodcasts, Blubrry and Raw Voice for making a great community. Thank you to uStream for giving me a facet to do the LIVE Show every Monday. Thanks to Vocalo – I haven’t made an episode there in a while simply because I just run out of time, but I am still appreciative for all they did.

I am going to make the next year even better. We have a good stream of people going to Geekazine and to the sister site: Dorkazine. I have some great news. I have signed up some more web sites and we are going to incorporate them into the family. More in future ramblings.

We survived the election. We survived the MicroYugo. We survived Steve Jobs health. We are Survivors – The Eye of the Tiger.

Once again, feel free to email me @ geekazine@gmail.com or call me at 608-205-4378 and say hi. Give me some ideas. Submit an article for use on the site. Let’s make next year better than ever!!