smays.com

Less is more.

Or less. Ev Williams, pres/ceo of Blogger has a new look.

I can live without the rest.

Nick Denton is helping spread the the rumor that "Google has been advised to keep the location of its servers secret. The rationale: the Internet search engine now counts as strategic infrastructure, and could be a terrorist target." I have NO trouble buying that.

TV is dead.

Doc Searls is one of those people that can say anything...and I believe it. "With (Bill Maher) and Miller gone, what's left? Letterman's fangs wore to nubs ten years ago. Leno replaced McMahon, not Carson. News? The Big Three are relics. Decoys. Rather and Jennings are human furniture. CNN is a talking scroll. The only fun at Fox is watching Greta's old face come back."

One more click.

Jesus. I don't know how people with jobs find time to blog. And I seem to always hit it late at night when I'm wiped. Then I come across something nifty like the Law & Order Episode Guide. Like Betha Goza, I've seen every episode many times. Same for NYPD Blue. Ditto Homocide. Goza works for Microsoft and gave a presentation at Gnomedex that was possibly the best I have ever seen. Funny. Relaxed. Smart.

DeLoss called today to ask how often my office-cam refreshes (every 30 seconds). I gave him the finger and told him to refresh his browser. "Again! Again!" he cried. A new low for band width use. --- Moved my KBOA site to My Hosting today. Talk about easy. And cheap. Just $10 per month.

Two possible explanations.

Number One: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels in the U. S. (the world?) have never stayed in a hotel or motel. Number Two: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels really hate their jobs and transfer that hatred to the people who sleep in the beds they make up each day.

In every hotel I have ever stayed, the beds are made in such a way that when you turn down the bed, the bottom sheet (never fitted) is pulled completely free, forcing you to remake the bed. This is because the maid (or house keeper or whatever the politically correct term) insists on tucking the blanket, the top sheet and the bottom sheet together. You can't turn back the bed without unmaking it. Problem without a solution? Hardly. Tuck in the bottom sheet and let the top sheet and blanket hand loose (except at the foot of the bed, of course). You know, like you probably do at home. Which explanation is more likely? I hope it's number two. I hope every maid gets to stay in a hotel/motel at least once every year. And when they turn back the bed, I imagine them dropping to their knees one more time to re-make the bed. Good night.

May I have your autograph?

I'm told they have these baseball "camps" where middle aged guys can pay to go hang out with real baseball players. That's pretty much what Gnomedex was for me. Four hundred really smart, badly dressed, but very nice people (mostly guys). If they could tell by looking at me that I was not a true geek, they were too nice to mention it. We were summoned to the Des Moines Marriott by Chris Pirillo...the Lockergnome. Lockergnome is a person, a newsletter (300,000 readers), a website and an online community (called Gnomies). Chris put together an A-List of speakers that included some of the Big Names in the online world: Steve Gibson; Phillip Kaplan; Mark Thompson; Doc Searls; Evan Williams; and Leo Laporte. None of whom disappointed.

Cliff's Buffalo Theory

In one episode of "Cheers", Cliff is seated at the bar describing the Buffalo Theory to his buddy, Norm. I don't think that I've ever heard the concept explained better than this....

"Well you see, Norm, it's like this....a herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, the regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Conference blogging

I've been attending conventions, conferences and meetings of one sort or another for twenty-five years but this one is different. This one is wired. More to the point, it's unwired. Many (most?) of the attendees have their notebook computers fired up and connected to the Internet via a wireless network. So, while the speakers were making their presentations, many of the people in the audience were "reporting" what was being said by posting (text and photos) to their personal blogs. Now, I don't know if this is journalism or not. But I'm not sure it matters. Something is going on here. Steve Gibson is talking about Internet security and seconds later some guy in the audience hits the enter key and people all over the world can read about it (with photos). No networks. No editors. No filtering. How do we know that what we're reading is accurate or fair? Well, there were probably a dozen people blogging today's presentations. Pretty unlikely they'd all have the same ax to grind. Like I said... feels like something is happening here. [killed dead links in this post]

Gnomedex.

If you don't know, it doesn't matter. More fanny packs than Disney World. Geeks galore and one wannabe. When TechTV star Leo Laporte showed up at the pre-conference party, I morphed into a 13 year old girl who finds herself on an elevator with the 'N-Sync boys. A few minutes later Leo drags Megan Marrone (another TechTV star) over to meet one of her fans. You could see her mentally composing the restraining order.

"I'm just here to regulate funkyness."

Winston Baldry (James Gandolfini), The Mexican.

Mall Ball.

There's already something virtual about standing in a batting cage and hitting softballs "thrown" by a machine. But the balls are real and if you connect, the jolt in your hands and arms is real and the ball really goes somewhere. I saw a new twist on this old attraction in the food court of our local mall recently. Chain link batting cage, about 10 feet square. Instead of a mechanical pitcher, there's a large screen TV. For a couple of bucks you get to swing at eight "pitches." Of course, nothing is being pitched. You're swinging at the image of a ball "coming at you." I'm not sure how this part works but, if you connect, you hear the virtual crack of the bat and see the ball sail off into the distance. Now, this is a virtual experience. As a business, it's nearly perfect. I give you money to let me swing a bat...at nothing. The chain-link batting cage is there --like everything else-- to foster the illusion (and reduce injuries).

As I watched several young men take their turn in the cage...I flashed back to my own pathetic little league days. Willie Mays was hot in the 50's so my coach thought it would be neat to have Mays in center field on his roster. In an effort to play along I would attempt to mimic Willie's famous basket catch. For me this meant letting a high, fly ball carom off my chest before falling to the ground. I was no better as a hitter and quickly discovered that my best shot at getting on base was to crowd the plate and let the ball hit me. I'm going back to the mall some day soon and stand squarely in front of the virtual pitcher to see if it still really hurts.

More good radio.

For months my wife has been talking about a radio program called This American Life (produced by WBEZ in Chicago). I finally heard the show last week and must say it was pretty damned good. It was about a group of inmates at a high-security prison outside St. Louis that has been performing Shakespeare's Hamlet for fellow inmates and outside visitors. Due to prison logistics they can't stage the whole four-hour play at once, so they've been performing it serially, one act every six months. In the show I heard, they follow the cast for half a year, as they rehearse and stage the last and bloodiest act: Act V. This is good radio and worth a contribution.

Road Trip

Spent about 18 hours behind the wheel last week (Jefferson City, MO...Des Moines, IA...Indianapols, IN...Jefferson City). Such a journey would once have been a butt-numbing drag. Having 100 channels of news, music, talk and comedy made the hours fly by. I can tell that folks are getting a little tired of hearing me rave about XM but it's hard not to talk about this. Most common question is: How often do you lose the signal? Uh, never. Sure, if I stop under an overpass the signal goes away but that's pretty easy to avoid. And the quality is just amazing. Like blogging, XM is just one of those things that has to be experienced. PS: The Indiana State Fair turned out to be all work and no play. PPS: Back to Des Moines on Thursday for Gnomedex.

Basile executed.

This past Wednesday, Daniel Basile was executed by the state of Missouri for the 1992 contract murder of Elizabeth DeCaro. After the execution, friends and family of Daniel Basile met with reporters from the Missourinet and the Associated Press at a gas station in Potosi. The audio runs about 15 minutes.

Two-Lane Blacktop

"Two men live for only one thing: racing their car, which has been stripped down to its barest essentials in order to give it maximum speed. Things like heaters and rear seats have been removed... steel has been replaced with fiberglass. And as they have done with their car, they have stripped away all "extraneous" elements from their lives, and from their very selves." I'm not a car guy either but I loved this movie. And, as far as I can determine, the only movie with James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (playing characters other than themselves).

Until we get it right

Gus Mueller makes a concise and compelling case for reincarnation. He only offers a couple of theories but they seem correct and I'll hope for more. The universe is big and possibly forever.

Dilbert

"Each of you will adopt an empty cubicle and decorate it to appear occupied."

Brought to you by...

During the early days of KBOA, commercials were read live by announcers or recorded to acetate disks. Most of these were lost or destroyed but a few of the recordings survived. I recently obtained a wonderful collection of KBOA spots from the early 50's. It runs 7:30 but is worth the listen. My favorites: Cotton Pickers Friend; a spot for the Richmond Theater (1951) in Senath, Missouri, showing A Place in the Sun; Challenger Feed; and spot my father recorded doing his Liberace impression. Click here to listen.

Indiana State Fair

Due to a staffing crises at one of our networks, I've been pressed into service to cover (?) the Indiana State Fair. Since ours is an ag network, I'll be there for Farm Day, August 14th. It's been a while since I've been entrusted with an asignment like this and I'm desperate not to screw it up. It promises to be a pretty exciting day:

Old-fashioned Pancake Breakfast (There must be contemporary pancake breakfasts)
Square Dancing Tractors and Antique Tractor Olympics (Square Dancing Tractors? I'm there!)
Celebrity Milking Competition (I didn't know you could)
Rooster Crowing Contest (Good audio)
National Shropshire Show (I'm not sure I can say that)
Open Shetland Show (...or this)
Sheep Shearing Demonstrations (...or this!)
Clogging (Plumbers' online journals?)
Country Western Dancing (couples) (I'm staying for the individual competition)

I'm sure there will be out-takes and I'll try to share them here.

Is that a digital camera in your pocket?

Like Nick Denton, I really would like to have one of these. "The Cubik is the world's smallest megapixel digital camera. Its 1.3 million pixel CMOS captures images at 1280x1024. Its on-board 16mb RAM stores 50 1280x1024 or 99 640x512 low-res pictures. You can even capture a 90 second movie (no sound, though)."

Clear Channel.

Interesting three-part series on radio's Death Star, Clear Channel Communications by Randy Dotinqa at Wired.com. Murky Water for Clear Channel; 'Good Mornin' (Your Town Here)' ; Clear-Cutting the Radio Forest. A Salon.com story in the same vein examines CC's woes. All of the above by way of Kurt Hanson's Radio and Internet Newsletter.

Customers and Consumers.

A-List blogger Doc Searls was once a radio guy and is not happy about the state of commercial radio. He makes a strong, clear point I've struggled with for 30 years. "Commercial radio's customers are its advertisers. It's consumers are its listeners. Its business is selling air time to advertisers. It raises the value of that air time by attracting the largest possible number of listeners, in the most desirable demographics. How it does that is irrelevant to the business itself."

He references a story by Jennifer Davies in the San Diego Union-Tribune (Corporate radio has pulled the plug on many a radio personality) that's depressing --but hardly surprising-- to this one-time DJ. "The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be an almost 8 percent decline in need for broadcasting announcers in both radio and TV because of industry consolidation. In addition, pay for radio announcers is stagnating with the average hourly salary of around $9."

And as for tomorrow's listeners? "Teen-agers no longer take their cues from radio, searching out new music online instead. Since 1998, teen-age males listen to the radio almost 7 percent less a week. Teen-age females' weekly radio listening is down close to 9 percent. Teen-agers listen to the radio less than any other age group, according to Arbitron."

Hey, Ladies! Look at me! I'm a dick!

I've been a fan and regular reader of The Disgruntled Housewife for years. One of the best sections of the site is The Dick List. Nikol Lohr explains: "The Dick List began 7 years ago at the Pasadena house. It was a very girly house for a long time. It was also a very listy house. So in honor of both of those characteristics, we developed an oft-revised, publicly posted Dick List in our kitchen. It had a two-fold purpose: 1) promoting girly solidarity through bile-spewing; and 2) reminding us that certain guys were real dicks." Men, if you're still "out there," you should periodically check The Dick List.

If you can make it there...

My little buddy Dan Arnall is now in New York, N.Y., attending Columbia University School of Journalism. One of the original Cyber-Twins, Dan is returning to the True Path of Journalism after a few years of Dot-Com'ing in Seattle. We hope he's blogging the experience.

Signs

IMDB review: "The film is spellbinding because you constantly feel as though something really extraordinary is about to happen. Unfortunately, the anticipation is never rewarded and the story ends suddenly with a disappointing and unsatisfying conclusion." Yeah, that's probably pretty accurate. But I liked the movie more than that reviewer. Mel Gibson has never had fewer lines in a movie.

XM Radio adding a book channel

They're calling it Sonic Theater and promising "Audio books and radio dramas for all tastes." Can't quite picture how this will work but it's a free channel, so we'll see. My newest favorite channel is The Loft. Acoustic rock, I think. Heard a James Taylor song today that (again) I've never heard before. Missed the title. One lyric caught my ear: "Wild with expectation, on the edge of being old." That's me in nine words. Tried to find the song but gave up.