Singer Sheryl Crow entertains the crowds at the UMB Bank Pavilion in Maryland Heights, Mo on September 10, 2006. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt) – Larger image
Monthly Archives: September 2006
Casio Exilim EX-Z1000
My beloved Casio camera started giving me some weird white screens and rather than wait for it to completely fail at a critical moment… I upgraded. The Casio Exilim Ex-Z1000 is the new, bigger brother to the model I had. Slightly larger form factor but that allows for an even larger display. Lots of megapixels and some optical zoom. But the real clincher for me was the video. With a 2 gig SD card, I can record up to two hours of video! Amazing. Sound is pretty good, too. Here’s a little 2 min clip (13 meg .wmv) I shot last night. John Fougere and David Brazeal doing the weekly high school football scoreboard show.
Excellent customer service from Embarq (Sprint)
Flipped open the MacBook last night and discovered I had no net access. No DSL light on the modem. No dial tone coming into the house. Called Sprint (now Embarq) DSL Tech Support because it was the only number I had. He transferred (nicely) me to the right number where Naomi gave me a couple of things to try. They didn’t work. This morning I called back and spoke with Ivan who determined the problem is inside the house and since I didn’t have the “inside the house service plan,” it would cost me $25 for every 15 minutes a tech was on site.
But then Ivan said, “Wait a minute. I can put you on a new pricing plan that will save you about ten dollars a months AND include free “inside” support.” Uh, yeah… let’s do that. The tech will be out Monday morning.
I don’t think I posted on this, but several months ago a nice lady at Sprint noticed that I was paying more for DSL service than I needed to, changed me to a package that gave me more features for less money.
I’m sure many of you have horror stories going the other direction but, for the record, the Embarq/Sprint folks have been making my life better.
PS: Weekends are usually when I do most of my blogging but w/o net access we’ll be dark for a couple of days.
Update – 9/11/06: Embarq said a repairman would show up between 9-11 a.m. so I was prepared to wait all morning. Steve arrived at 8:30 a.m….found the problem almost immediatley and was gone by 9:00 a.m.
Update – 9/12/06: Couldn’t get online last night. Had dail tone, but no connect to net. Called Earthlink (Sprint ISP) and talked to Jeremy. Polite, helpful and really new his shit. Quickly determined my account had be de-authorized (for some unknown reason) and got me going again. I hope I don’t have any great Embarq/Sprint/Earthlink customer service stories to share for a while.
Living Healthy (44) – Cancer Prevention
Recorded September 9, 2006
Seth Godin on comments
“I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though. First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning. Second, it takes way too much of my time to even think about them, never mind curate them. And finally, and most important for you, it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters.”
Blogging for president
I’m sorry, but radio and TV has completely fucked up the way we elect the leaders of our country. Think about it. We elect presidents and senators and governors and damned near everybody based on:
* :30 TV spots
* Debates that aren’t
* Speeches the candidate didn’t write
* Yard signs (that’s a small town thing but it’s universal. The guy with the most yard signs wins)
Do any of these reveal anything about the ideas or intelligence of the candidate. No way. You know what would? A blog. A blog written 100% by the candidate (not sure how you could keep the bastards from cheating and you know they’d try).
Make every candidate blog during the year leading up to the election. They can post as often as they like… about any topic they like.
This has the added benefit of requiring the American voter to get more involved than watching some mindless network television salted with attack ads.
“Wait a minute, smays. Leadership requires courage and values (like mine) and a bunch of other qualities that have nothing to do with how well you express your ideas in writing.”
Horse shit. If you can’t think… you can’t lead. At least not well. And I want to measure the quality of your ideas. Not the ideas of your campaign manager, or your PR firm… your ideas.
If you’re hung up on the writing thing… let’s throw a podcast into the mix. Every candidate produces a weekly, fifteen minute podcast. Any topic, any format. But the candidate must produce it him or herself (they go into a glass walled studio, put it together and upload it).
Imagine reading blogs written by George W. Bush; Bill Clinton (or Hillary Clinton); Al Gore; John Kerry; John McCain; Al Sharpton; Dick Cheney; Ralph Nader… you get the idea. Can you honestly say you wouldn’t have a better feel for who these people are and what they really believe? Of course they’d try to scam and bullshit you. But it would be so much harder to do.
I can fool you for 30 seconds at a time. Especially if you’ re not paying much attention. But if you’re reading what I say every day, for a year… you’re gonna learn some things about me. Good and bad.
And here’s the proof of this pot of pudding: Regular readers of smays.com have NO doubt that I would make a really bad (fill in the elective office).
Feedback: LeAnn says the tone of this post lacks “the same effervescent, entertaining qualities of your other posts. I am concerned someone pissed you way the “f” off on Thursday.” Nope, Thursday was a very nice day. But the post does read “angry,” doesn’t it. I should really stay away from politics.
I had to look up the definition of “effervescent” (vivacious; gay; lively; sparkling). I think I can sparkle but vivacious will be a stretch.
Mac desktop image
I am incapable of keeping a clean, orderly desktop on any of my Windows machines. Folders and files and shortcuts scattered from top to bottom. It is in no way the fault of the OS. It’s my sloppiness. I have discovered, however, that I can keep the MacBook desktop clean. Maybe it’s the dock or the way Finder works or, perhaps, it’s just the beautiful desktop images that ship with OSX. It would be a shame to cover them. I don’t know. But here’s the desktop as of 5 minutes ago.
Short Attention Gamer
Had lunch with Todd Fuller yesterday. Todd’s the communications guy for the Missouri State Teachers Association who –along with his partner, Gail McCray– does a weekly podcast for MSTA. I posted an interview with Todd and Gail last week.
I don’t know if it’s his first love but Todd’s a gamer and –along with his pal Matt– produces another podcast called Short Attention Gamer. According to their website:
“Short Attention Gamer is the podcast for those who love playing games but don’t always have the time to play them. Matt and Todd, both family men and gaming enthusiasts, take you through the newest games and consoles available and breakdown which of these reward those individuals who can play for only short periods of time. If you find some of your best gaming sessions are taking place in a locked bathroom with kids banging on the door on the other side, then this show is for you.”
Todd is a pretty modest guy but, reading betwen the lines, I got the impression SAG is a well-known and popular podcast. Exhibit A: A very clever annimation by one of their fans who took a segment from one of their podcasts and… just watch it. It’s short and funny. And if you’re into games, check out Short Attention Gamer.
Interview: Dan Arnall, Business Editor, ABC News
In the mid-90’s (1996? 1995) I went searching for someone that could help our our company get online. Websites were a new thing and I didn’t have a clue where to start, so I called Mike McKean at the University of Missouri School of Journalism (not sure if he was a professor back then) and he said he had a student that was really sharp, had his own web page, and might be just what we were looking for.
I met with Dan who told me he and his best friend, Allen Hammock, had a company that could do just what we needed. I think the company was about 10 minutes old at that moment but we wound up hiring Dan and Allen (who became affectionately known as the Cyber Twins) to guide Learfield into the new digital age.
We got wet –like everybody else– when the Internet bubble burst and Dan and Allen moved on to pursue their careers. Dan, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, kicked around in Seattle and San Francisco for a bit and then went back to to get his masters degree at Columbia University.
We chatted for half and hour earlier this evening, talking about his duties at ABC; the changing world of journalism and media; living in Manhatten and Brushes with Near Greatness (John Lithgow and Tony Danza). (AUDIO: 30 min, 10 meg MP3)
Technical Note: After screwing the pooch on a couple of Skype interviews, I’m proud to report this sounds pretty good. I was a tad hot but I didn’t lose the interview.
It’s a guy thing
I came across this really amazing photo of urinals in a men’s room and remembered posting on this topic about a year ago. When I went searching for the earlier post I discovered my link now takes me to a page full of unusual urinals.
Perhaps one’s fascination with urnials increases with age and we spend more and more time gazing at bland men’s room walls.