smays.com

Dear diary... never mind

I don't have enough self-discipline to fill a thimble (Do people still know what a thimble is?). But I do try to post something here every day. And I almost always miss a few days every month. So I was a little surprised to look over and see I only missed one day this month.

Like solitaire, this is a game that would be easy to cheat and no one would know. So I resist the temptation to post, "I got nothing today. Sorry."

Hold on a second. THIS post is an "I got nothing" post. Damn.

"...due to technical difficulties"

New York Times: "In an attempt to clear up questions about how an Alabama television station lost its signal at the start of Sunday’s edition of “60 Minutes” on CBS, the management of the station, WHNT-TV, issued a statement Thursday citing equipment failure.

The station, in Huntsville, said that after a review, it had concluded that the blackout was related to a similar interruption during a basketball game the day before.

The break in the signal, which lasted about eight minutes, came as the CBS News program was beginning a report of special interest to Alabama residents: an investigation into whether the trial and conviction of a former governor, Don Siegelman, was politically motivated. The report included charges that Republican and Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, had sought to discredit Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat."

I'd be scared shitless if I was the engineer or producer who actually pulled the plug on that segment. A loose end that Uncle Karl might like to tie off. You folks in Huntsville can watch the segment online.

USA! Still number one!

Washington Post: "More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today.

With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the United States leads the world in both the number and the percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving even far more populous China a distant second, noted the report by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States."

W to fund war with bumper sticker sales

Microtrends vs. Macrotrends

Arianna explains why Obama is winning:

"Hillary Clinton's campaign model," David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist told me this morning in Chicago, "is a very tired Washington model: 'I'll do these things for you.' Barack's model is 'Let's do these things together.' This has been the premise of Barack's politics all his life, going back to his days as a community organizer. He has really lived and breathed it, which is why it comes across so authentically.

"Of course, the time also has to be right for the man and the moment to come together. And, after all the country has been through over the last seven years, the times are definitely right for the message that the only way to get real change is to activate the American people to demand it."

"Small is the new big," (Mark Penn wrote). "Many of the biggest movements in America today are small."

Except when they are very big, and getting bigger by the day. And you've missed them.

Learn how to be a cigarette-safe kid

President Bush is proud to present, in cooperation with the Flammable Pleasures division of RJ Reynolds, vital and wholly accurate information that can make YOU a CIGARETTE-SAFE KID!

1. Keep Cigarettes Safe from Water! Water causes wetness, and wetness can keep your cigarettes from properly igniting and efficiently delivering scientifically calibrated doses of totally non-addictive nicotine into those sticky little air sacks way at the bottom of your lungs!
2. Bedtime Smoking Smarts! After bedtime prayers, nothing relaxes like a cool drag from a hot Winston (brand) cigarette.
3. Keep Cigarettes Safe from Breaking! A sturdy and stylish cigarette case is what all the cool kids have!
4. Let the Buyer Beware! When choosing an adult to ask to buy you cigarettes at a cruelly authoritarian, liberal-managed convenience store that won't sell tobacco to persons under 18, make certain never to speak to anyone who looks like s/he might be on the Federal welfare rolls - they will steal your cigarettes, leaving you craving (in a purely nonaddictive way) a smoke ! !
5. Remember: Fresh = Tasty! Never forget that an important part of the exclusive appeal of cigarettes is their highly perishable nature; they stay smokably fresh for only three to four hours after their cellophane seal is broken.
6. Keep it Clean! If your preferred brand is filterless, your fingers and teeth may become pleasantly discolored by stubborn, yet fashionable nicotine stains.
7. Smoke Right, Smoke Safe! As you get older, the way you hold your cigarette will become increasingly important.

[Thanks, Angela]

Imagine there's no tower, no transmitter, too

Once again, Mark Ramsey asks the right question:

"So the question your (radio) station must ask itself is this: What would we be and do if we didn't have a broadcast tower at all and only had a website? How would we build this thing?"

Omar's Obit

BALTIMORE—Omar Little, the veteran stick-up artist who inspired fear and fascination in drug-plagued neighborhoods across the city, was shot and killed in a west-side convenience store yesterday.Police said the assailant remained at large.

Famed for his brazen robberies of area drug dealers, Mr. Little had retired from what he called “the game” a year ago, moving to the Caribbean with a new romantic partner. But he apparently returned to Baltimore this winter to seek revenge following the brutal murder of a beloved business associate.

Fan's of Omar and The Wire will want to read the full obit. [Thanks, John]

Major League Baseball imposes online restrictions

Lost Remote's Cory Bergman: "Major League Baseball is instituting new restrictions for web content. Websites will now be held to two minutes of video (or audio) a day gathered at MLB facilities — but formal press conferences are exempt to this rule. Similar to the NFL, there’s no live streaming. But in an unique twist, sites will be limited to 7 photos per game. And no photo galleries, either (it’s unclear what they mean by that.) All non-text content must be removed after 72 hours. If you don’t follow the new rules, your press passes could be revoked. The Sports Business Journal has the story here, but a subscription is required."

Paranoid Theory #1: MLB (and NFL) want to control their content from creation all the way to the end user (the fan). They foresee a time when they don't need TV and radio networks to broadcast games and related events. It will all be streamed directly to a mobile device. MLB/NFL will keep all related fees and/or advertising. Media outlets that want to cover these events, will do so on MLB/NFL terms.

Trying to twitter the debate

Or is it tweet the debate? Kinda fun.
http://twitter.com/smaysdotcom

The Good Life with David Burge

Newspapers are putting an ass whuppin' on radio stations online. Maybe they have more people, more money... whatever. Your honor, as Exhibit A I offer this video from JournalStar.com (Lincoln, NE).

David Burge isn't Comedy Central funny, but he's local celebrity funny and I find that even more charming. This trip to a minor league hockey game is fun and Mr. Burge is endearing (I hope this doesn't read as gay as I think it will). And someone did a nice job  editing the video.

Why a journalism class leans toward Obama

The Clinton campaign has been complaining they aren't getting a fair shake from the news media. No idea if that's true or not. But Cory Bergman at Lost Remote shares this story:

"This is fascinating. A University of Washington journalism class is aggressively blogging the 2008 campaign. They’re attending primaries and caucuses, cameras and laptops in hand. The professor, David Domke, says he’s noticed a lean towards Obama among the students in part because of the way Obama’s campaign staff respected the bloggers.

“The Obama campaign treated us like pros — they called us back within minutes, set up interviews, got us press passes, went out of their way to make the campaign accessible,” Domke writes. “The Clinton campaign, in contrast, didn’t return a single phone call, didn’t provide press access, and did virtually nothing to encourage our coverage.”

Domke concludes: “The Clinton campaign has made the case that Obama is nothing but rhetoric; he’s supposedly all words, while she’s all action. Our experiences showed us that their campaigns — at least in Seattle — were exactly the opposite. In their treatment of my students, Clinton’s campaign was all talk, while Obama’s was all walk.”

"Sheeeeit"

Fans of The Wire will immediately recognize the signature expression of Senator Clay Davis. How sad that "he" started twittering (tweeting?) so near the end of this great HBO program. [via Andy]

Steve's Shared Items

See the little blue-bordered box on the right side of this page? That's my Google Share box and the headlines link to stories or blog posts I think you might enjoy. Well, that's not really true. They're stories I find interesting. No way to know what you'll think. I love this tool. Sometimes I'm too lazy or lacking in imagination to say anything worthwhile about a story so I just "click" and it shows up in the little box. I just wanted you to know this isn't some RSS feed. I pick the stories.

Is it still funny if it's true?

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Andrew Sullivan: The Clintons' Last Stand

"Clinton is a terrible manager of people. Coming into a campaign she had been planning for, what, two decades, she was so not ready on Day One, or even Day 300. Her White House, if we can glean anything from the campaign, would be a secretive nest of well-fed yes-people,  an uncontrollable egomaniac spouse able and willing to bigfoot anyone if he wants to, a phalanx of flunkies who cannot tell the boss when things are wrong, and a drizzle of dreary hacks like Mark Penn. Her only genuine skill is pivoting off the Limbaugh machine (which is now as played out as its enemies). Her new weapon is apparently bursting into tears. I mean: really." [Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish]

This kind of post-mortem is showing up all over the web. Too soon? Don't know. But they remind me of this photo of HRC with my friend and co-work Kay Henderson, taken during the campaign in Iowa. Senator Clinton looks so... serene.

Give 'em back their guns, but take away those damned computers!

Ah, for the good old days when all you had to do was send a few soldiers to the TV and radio stations and padlock all the newspaper offices.

"Pakistan's government has banned access to the video-sharing Web site YouTube because of anti-Islamic movies that users have posted on the site.

In January, a court in Turkey blocked the site because some video clips allegedly insulted the country's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. It is illegal to insult Ataturk in Turkey.

Last spring the Thai government banned the site for about four months because of clips seen as offensive to Thailand's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Moroccans last year were unable to access YouTube after users posted videos critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of Western Sahara, a territory Morocco took control of in 1975." [Associated Press]

Sunday Morning

YouTube's DNS is hijacked

Yikes! A few minutes ago I was uploading a video to YouTube when the site... just went away. I found this explanation at yelvington.com:

"YouTube has disappeared from the Internet, apparently the victim of hackers who managed to gain control of its root DNS record. My wife and I were just moments ago watching some videos and suddenly YouTube became unreachable. A whois request for Youtube.com returns this:

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information.

YOUTUBE.COM.ZZZZZ.GET.LAID.AT.WWW.SWINGINGCOMMUNITY.COM
YOUTUBE.COM.MORE.INFO.AT.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
YOUTUBE.COM.IS.N0T.AS.1337.AS.WWW.GULLI.COM
YOUTUBE.COM

... and all packets destined for YouTube are disappearing into the network of PCCW Telecom of Hong Kong."

As much as I might enjoy getting laid at SwingingCommunity.com, I'd rather have my YouTube back.

UPDATE: 2:13 p.m. Looks like YouTube is back up.

UPDATE: 4:00 p.m. Pakistan declares war on YouTube.

Has Barack stepped on his Obama?

HRC lashed out at Barack Obama today for using a strategy out of “Karl Rove’s playbook” by making speeches of hope while sending Ohioans what she called “false and discredited mailings” on health care and trade policy.

There's a good analysis at FactCheck.org which concludes the direct mail piece "... lacks a good amount of context and could mislead those who are not familiar with Clinton's plan." The mailer also includes a quote from The Daily Iowan:

“forcing those who cannot afford health insurance to buy it through mandates … punishing those who don't fall in line with fines.”

Again from FactCheck.org: "Obama doesn't tell readers that this is a college newspaper written and edited by University of Iowa students. That's not to say it's wrong, but a student newspaper carries less authority than a professionally written and edited major U.S. daily."

That's chicken shit BO, not at all what your supporters expect from you. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one. Maybe you didn't see this flier before it went out, but that's no excuse. Just give us the facts and we'll decide who has the better plan.

FedEx Cup TV Ad

Given that the FedEx Cup commercial has been viewed more than 80,000 times in the last few weeks, you could make the case that it's not just a TV spot. It got emailed around our office yesterday morning.

The latest version of Photo Booth was supposed to make it easy to put a still image or video behind you when doing an iChat video conference. I've had mixed results, even using the green screen backdrop I set up in the basement. But Apple will get this right eventually and it will be very useful, as seen in the FedEx spot.

Diggnation in St. Louis

Me and a couple of pals drove over to St. Louis this week and stood in line in the bitter cold for most of an hour to watch a taping of Diggnation. If you're not familiar with Diggnation, think Wayne's World for the Internet with lots of beer. And in this case, a live audience of 300+ screaming, twenty-something fans. Almost all male. I've seen less rowdy hockey crowds.

I found this video of the pre-show (we had much better seats) on Digg (appropriately enough). As I watched the taping, I had the sense we were seeing a new kind of entertainment for a new audience. This is not your father's TV. Freed from the constraints of networks and the FCC, the hosts can guzzle beer and say whatever comes to mind. And the crowd was very much part of the show. To which I will post a link once it's up.

Campaign like it's 1999

Good story in the NYT on spending by the Clinton and Obama campaigns. The focus seems to be the mis-management of spending by the HRC camp. But this little nugget caught my eye:

"Mr. Obama broadcast 3,000 more advertisements than she did, and he was able to air those ads not only in the states that were immediately up for grabs but also in contests on Feb. 5 and beyond. Mr. Obama spent nearly $480,000 on 1,331 spots in Missouri; he won the state’s primary, a closely fought contest and a national political bellwether, by one percentage point."

No matter who wins, this campaign will be sliced and diced and examined for years to come.

Apple wants to be your news and information station

From Apple Insider via Podcasting News: "An Apple patent reveals that the company is working on a podcast aggregator that would dynamically collect the news that you are interested in and deliver a personalized news podcast. In other words - Apple wants to be your news and information station.

The system would allow you to:

    * Subscribe to and personalize a podcast with software like iTunes;
    * Select news segments selected from a variety of categories; and
    * Automatically download the personalized podcast to your Apple TV, iPod or iPhone.

The custom news show could consist of a 5 minute segment from CNN on the day’s national news, a 5 minute segment from a local news station, and a 10 minute segment on sports highlights from ESPN.

Once you select the playlist of content that you’re interested in, Apple’s servers would request the latest podcast content from content creators, stitch the segments together and then deliver the personalized podcast to iTunes or other podcast software. As part of this process, Apple could insert targeted advertising dynamically."

Hmmm. A listener in the states served by our networks could include one of our 4 minute state newscasts, a three minutes sports report and a farm report. That "stitching segments together" part is what I find intriguing. Terry Heaton wrote about the "unbundling" of media. Is this a "re-bundling" of media?

If I were programming a local radio station, I'd be damned sure I had a killer local newscast/podcast up on iTunes.

Cool Tattoos

Thanks to a fascinating new technique you can cover yourself in body art and no one will be the wiser, unless they see you in the dark, which is the only time these tattoos are visible.

The new technique uses blacklight reactive ink, which is reactive to UV light. [The Cool Hunter]

Doc Searls: What's Around the Bend?

Doc Searls is on a panel (Public Media 2008) titled Technology and Trends: What's Around the Bend? From his list of ten, here are three I found interesting:

• Cell phones will be the new radios and televisions. This will start to happen in a big way the minute Apple opens its iPhones to independent developers of native applications (rather than just ones that run in a browser).

• Websites will become as inadequate as transmitters. That is, both will remain necessary but insufficient means for reaching listeners and viewers, and for relating to them. "Live Web" methods such as streaming, file sharing, social networking and "rivers of news" will all play roles as well.

• Archives will be the ultimate killer kontent. Stations and networks will come to value not only their own archives, but will work to make those archives as easy as possible to find, consume and otherwise use — and to open CRM systems for VRM tools to make it as easy as possible for listeners and viewers to voluntarily pay for the privilege. Bigger inventory, bigger income.

I couldn't begin to guess the number of hours I've spent archiving material (I think Doc hates the term "content"). MissouriDeathRow.com; Legislature.com; Missouri Supreme Court oral arguments; and --once upon a time-- Missouri State Highway Patrol accident reports. We saved damn near everything but I can't say that I noticed a huge appetite for that archived material and I was never smart enough to make any serious money with it. But we've got it.

Candidate conference calls

Dave Winer wants to listen to those daily conference calls the candidates have with reporters;

"It seems much of the real action in the campaign happens here, but we (voters, taxpayers, citizens) have no access. I listened to an MP3 of one of the calls, with the chief strategist and communications director of the Clinton campaign. It was fascinating, gave me a picture of how the press and the candidates relate that I had never seen before."

A few years ago I asked one of our reporters to post the audio of one of these conference calls where a bunch of reporters are on with the news-maker.  She was shocked that I asked and explained that the call was "just for reporters" and they decided which portions were news-worthy. And the reporters would not want "just anyone" to hear their questions.

I'm with Mr. Winer. I'd love to hear these calls, raw and unedited. I'll decide what's news and what's spin. No filtering, please. I have to wonder if some reporters might be concerned this could raise questions about their editorial judgment. What they decided to include in the story and what they left out. I fail to see how that could be a problem if their story ended with, "...you can listen to the entire conference call on our website."

Fifty-four pages of pissed off news folk

AngryJournalist.com asks, "Why are you angry today? Tell us what's making you upset at your journalism job. Anonymity guaranteed. No real names."

My very own Atomic Fez

At long last I'm the proud owner of a Fez-o-Rama fez. And I was able to help out with a worthy cause at the same time. While my leopard skin fez makes me feel like the love child of Idi Amin and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle... it doesn't approach the quality of workmanship of the Atomic Fez. Fezmonger Jason even threw in an extra tassel (maroon) for formal occasions.

Snapshots

Photographs aren't really memories but they are as close as we can come to a tangible manifestation. Perhaps a razor thin slice of memory. During our glory days, we took a lot of photos. I feel fortunate to have so many and get great satisfaction from putting them online.

The images seem somehow more alive than those in albums or shoe boxes. I especially like looking at them in a group. The memories connect and link back and forth like a page full of hyperlinks.

smays is feeling a little nostalgic in the final run-up to the big six oh. If you recognize yourself in any of these images, you know what I'm talking about.

HP Hands commercial. Easier on a Mac?

You've seen those clever HP Hands spots on TV? Mac enthusiast Cameron Kerr (19) created an amazing parody of the ads. I'm trying to remember if I had any cool skills at nineteen.

50 sites on politics in 50 states

From NYT.com: "The plan is to pull together 50 Web sites, one for each state, into a political hub called Politicker.com. Each site will serve as an intensely local source for political articles, speculation and scandal.

Ten sites are online already, and the 11th, covering Kentucky, is scheduled to go up this week. The site(s) will be advertiser supported. “Instead of taking out ads in five papers across the state, if you want to reach the most influential and politically active people, all you have to do is buy an ad package on the site.”

Learfield's news division operates four news networks that cover the legislature and news from around the state and politics. I'd be hard pressed to say exactly how many of our stories are political (year in and year out) but a fair number. Will something like Politicker.com be going after the same online audio?

Maybe. While we still see ourselves as being in the network radio business, a venture like Politicker.com might begin to answer the question: Who will our future competitors be and how will the be different from us?

What happens when nobody needs a TV

That's the question posed in this post by Corey Bergman at Lost Remote:

Last week, a Broadcasting & Cable editorial warned that TV newscasts could follow the way of the newspaper.  This week, B&C’s Jennifer Yarter asks, “What happens when the web starts to replace the television?” Yarter said the catalyst of her column was a dinner with a group of tech-savvy 20-somethings who said they don’t watch TV or even subscribe to cable or satellite. They just watch whatever they want online. Yarter writes, “Most of these young adults are falling into a new territory of media consumption that could potentially eliminate the need for local television stations.”

Absolutely, and consider this: the only thing that most local TV stations produce is local news. Local TV news in its current form, when translated online, looks very similar to everyone else’s news. If it’s not truly original or unique, it’s a commodity (especially in aggregated environments). And as more people get their local news online instead of making an appointment to watch it on TV, revenue loss will accelerate. A solution here is to start producing original content that bridges platforms — that’s unique enough to not only to attract an audience but create fans. Fans are people who accept no substitutes. Can local TV news, by itself, create this kind of online loyalty? I don’t believe so. It will require new, innovative, locally-produced niche programming that spans TV, mobile and the web. In other words, a whole new approach. Similar to the newspapers, it will be a matter of survival.

I keep asking myself why nobody in a position to do so, is tackling this. The answer I keep coming up with, time after time is that reinventing your TV station (or your radio station) for the new world we're in is --in the short term-- risky and expensive. And the decision makers are close enough to retirement (or have their fuck-you money put aside) that they have decided (even if they haven't admitted it aloud) to manage their stations to "a profitable demise." Milk the cash cow until Bossie goes dry.

Mark Ramsey: "Where is the innovation in radio?"

Mark thinks radio has lost its guts: "Where are the new formats? Where is the new talent? Why is Talk Radio pretty much the only form of radio that isn't music-intensive? Why are most Talkers late-middle-aged conservative white dudes? Our non-music format options are ridiculously thin - why?"

I've wondered the same thing. It's not uncommon for an owner to have five or six stations in a market, running some safe format on everyone of them. As Mr. Ramsey points out in his post, to try something innovative would require imagination, talent and guts. Short supply these days.

Princess(es) and the Pea

Ripley and Lucy in repose.

Campaign trail slugs and hugs

"It's amazing how fast campaign trail slugs turn into hugs in the name of party unity -- and a prime speaking slot at the national convention. And candidates wonder why voters have grown cynical?" [Arianna Huffington]

Protect and Serve

The thing I love about this video --other than the suspension of the asshole cop-- is the uniform he's wearing and the tiny clown car he gets out of. No wonder the guy is filled with rage. And there's the video, at the top of Digg's Most Watched (3,000+ diggs). Officer, you are a star!

Bubble gum ad

The Cool Hunter. I never chew bubble gum but this ad makes we want to try this brand.

LA Times reviews Sheryl Crow's 'Detours'

"Sheryl Crow has proven her mettle so many times that her unique position is now taken for granted. She may be the most successful woman rocker ever, with the most consistently auspicious career. But she's still often dismissed as merely competent."

"Crow's progressive lyrics hit like rubber-band pings fired by some joker in the back row at school. No one is likely to sing her verses at a march on Washington. But by addressing serious issues in the language of pop, they remind us that political speech and casual breeze-shooting can and do often intersect." [Full review]

Balloon man visits nursing home

Balloon artist Addi Somekh creates balloon art at a nursing home. I have nothing but admiration for people who give their time and talent in this way. I spent some time in a nursing home with my pop and there's precious little to smile about.

If the Balloon Man ever comes to visit me at the Home for Retired Bloggers, I would like a huge pink penis hat. [nirvan via Boing Boing. Music by The Evangenitals]

PS: Barb and some friends getting ready.

Enough with the politics already

Hey, nobody is more surprised than I by my political awakening. My fear simply overcame my cynicism. But hang on, it's almost over and I see four possible outcomes:

1. Hillary gets the nomination and wins the White House. We've already seen what a Clinton administration looks like.
2. McClain wins in November and gives us four more years of Bush.
3. Obama gets the nomination and wins in November (long shot). But turns out to be like every other politician to plop his ass down in the Oval Office.
4. Obama gets the nomination, wins in November and delivers on some of his promise of change. (Long, long shot)

If any of the first three occurs, I'm done. We missed our chance. Maybe the last one for good long while. If #4 comes in... I'll rent Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Dave and then shut the fuck up.

Personal goodbyes to our commander-in-chief

A simple idea. A website where you can post a video saying farewell to George W. Bush. I sampled a few, expecting to a lot of angry people saying bad things about W. They're probably some of those, but I didn't find any. This one by Robert in NYC was more typical. Frustration. Disappointment.

I also expected to find some video by Bush supporters. "We love you, Mr. President! God bless!" Again, they might be there but I didn't find one. My friend George (different George) wondered if the site censored positive videos. Maybe but somehow I don't think so.

Spooky phone call

My friend George and I get together most Saturday mornings for coffee and conversation. While chatting this morning, George gets a call and he unholsters his iPhone. He gets a funny look on his face and says, "It's from Steve Mays."

I'm thinking it's from Barb. She couldn't call me for some reason, so she rings up George.

"No," he says, "It's from your cell phone."

I pull my Tracfone from my coat pocket and, sure enough, it's calling George.

If you are unfamiliar with Tracfones, I should tell you it doesn't have a "redial" feature. And while I have George's number in my phone, it's about six down in the list. So how could this have happened?

I would have had to bump (against my chair) the down arrow six times... and then bump the "dial" button. Now, I ask you... what are the chances of that happening and the recipient of the call be the person I'm talking to? Hmmm?

SiteSucker: Great util for backing up your blog

I've posted more than 3,000 times since starting this blog in February, 2002. I don't recall writing anything profound but I'd sure hate to lose it all.

Typepad provides a way to back up your posts but you you only get the text, images and other files can only be backed up manually, one at at time.

George pointed me to a utility called Sitesucker (Mac only) and now I have almost 8,000 files --my entire blog-- safely backed up and burned to a DVD that will go in the safe deposit box on Monday.

This is an amazingly simple utility. Enter the url, hit go and it sucks down all your files. And it maintains the file/folder hierarchy.

Not sure how I could ever restore this blog is something happened, but at least I have all the files. That would be some comfort.

TV will never be the same

Gave the Apple TV (Take 2) a good test drive last night by watching Ratatouille. I don't think I rented the high def version but this was still as sharp and clear as anything I've watched since getting this TV.

Just to be sure, I rented The Brave One in high def and could see by the progress bar that it was going to take a while to download. But within a minute or two, a message came on that said we could start watching the movie. Once enough of the file has downloaded to buffer, you're good to go.

I've also been sampling more video podcasts. The Apple TV makes this so easy it didn't dawn on me right away, but I don't have to subscribe to these podcasts. I can, but it's not necessary. I can just hit play. On the latest episode or previous ones.

When I try to describe Apple TV, people say, "How is that different than Tivo?" Tivo is great for recording network or cable shows, but there's a world of stuff online that will never make it to network or cable. And Apple TV has made it drop-dead easy to watch these programs on the big screen. Think plugging your TV into the Internet.

Analysis of Hillary Clinton's remaining voting blocks

This is almost too cruel to post. [236.com]

Singing Valentine from India

I got a call from India this afternoon. It was a singing telegram from Barb. A charming lady (with some backup by Mr. Baboo) sang the tune below. You can learn more about Taj Tunes on their website. The story behind the website it equally entertaining. That they can do this for just $5 is pretty amazing.

"I'm So Happy"

I love it when you call me... (ring-a-ling-a-ling)
I love it when you sing... (lah lah lah lah LAH)
I love it when you hold my hand... (Awwwwww...)
And even when you cry... (wah wah wah)

I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I'm so happy when I'm with you.
I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I hope I make you happy too.

I love it when we spend time... (tick tock, tick tock)
I love it when we laugh... (hah hah hah)
I love it when we hug and kiss... (smooch)
And even when we fight.... (you jerk!)

I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I'm so happy when I'm with you.
I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I hope I make you happy too.

Oh yeah... I hope I make you happy too...
Oh yeah... I hope I make you happy too!

$300K grant for "Dream City" Kennett

According to the news release that just hit my in-box, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has selected my home town as one of his DREAM (Downtown Revitalization and Economic Enhancement for Missouri) which comes with a $300,000 grant to make structural improvements to its downtown area. The money will be used for things like awning and façade improvements to buildings in downtown Kennett to make them more attractive to potential employers and job creators.

When I was growing up in Kennett, the downtown area was thriving. When the big discounters came to down, "downtown" dried up and the last time I was home it was a pretty sad sight. I don't know if new awnings will turn the tide. In memory of brighter days for Kennett... and hopes for brighter days to come, "Kennett, My Home Town." [Photo by Charles Jolliff]

Download KENNETT_MY_HOMETOWN.mp3

Apple TV. Take Two.

I think they got it right this time. My Apple TV brings the net to my living room. I can rent movies, buy TV shows and music, watch podcasts and YouTube videos and view photos from Flickr (mine or anyone else's).

I can Tivo all my favorite shows and watch them when I want but the new Apple TV feels like a very different viewing experience. Give me a week or two to get familiar with it. I'm looking forward to watching more video podcasts. This might be the future of TV. Smarter folk than I seem to agree.

Tough Room

In last week's This American Life, host Ira Glass lived one of my fantasies. He sat in on an editorial meeting of The Onion, "where there's one laugh for every 100 jokes." Being funny is hard work. The segment runs 14 minutes.

Another segment featured Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author and famous journalist at the New Yorker magazine. He tells a great story about his first job in journalism.