Monthly Archives: October 2007

Mac OS X Leopard Installation

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I remember when installing a new operating system took a huge stack of 3.5 inch floppies (or 5.25 inch floppies!). And a lot of time. But what was really needed back then –at least by me– was patience and courage.

You knew to a near certainty that your computer wouldn’t work at the end of the process. Or some of your applications wouldn’t work or you’d spend hours tracking down and installing drivers.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped upgrading my computers with new operating systems and just purchased a new computer with the newest OS already installed. An expensive solution.

Osx
So I have had mixed emotions about the new release of Mac OS X (Leopard). Lots of new features I’m eager for, but trepidation. My plan was to wait until my Mac sensei, George, had time to do the installation.

On Saturday he informed me that this was something that I could do. Back up my data, and stick in the installation DVD.

I took the added precaution of burning my photos and music to DVD and then (with hunched shoulders and squinted eyes) slipped in the installation DVD for Leopard. Less than an hour later, the new OS was running and –so far– nary a problem.

I won’t bore you with my early impressions of the features of this new system. The web is swarming with those. I will share one thing…

Time Machine is the new backup/restore application that comes with Leopard. So I bought a new external HD, plugged it in, and let Time Machine make another full back up of my computer. It will update that back up every time I connect the laptop and the drive.

The real test of any such app is the restoration. When the time comes I need to recover a file or –god forbid– the entire contents of my computer. Let’s hope that’s off in the future. But it’s a pretty slick tool and so easy to use, I will.

But the installation was as advertised: slot the DVD and take a nap.

“War hasn’t been profitable for decades”

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I recently read Halting State by Charles Stross. It’s science fiction (for lack of a better description) set in 2012 (in Scotland and/or cyberspace). You can read the description on Amazon. A couple of paragraphs have been haunting me for a few days. Not sure they’ll make much sense out of context, but I include them here for future reference:

“This is the twenty-first century, and we’re in the developed world. You’re probably thinking wars are something that happen in third-world shit-holes a long way away. And to a degree, you’d be right. Modern warfare is capital-intensive, and it hasn’t really been profitable for decades; it was already a marginal proposition back in 1939 when Hitler embarked on his pan-European asset-stripping spree — his government would have been bankrupt by March 1940 if he hadn’t invaded Poland and france — and it’s even worse today. When the Americans tried it in Iraq, they spent nine times the value of the country’s entire oil reserves conquering a patch of desert full of  — sorry, I’m rambling. Pet hobby-horse. But anyway: Back in the eighteenth century, von Clauswitz was right about war being the continuation of diplomacy by other means. But today, in the twenty-first, the picture’s changed. It’s all about enforcing economic hegemony, which is maintained by broadcasting your vision of how the global trade system should be structured. And what we’re facing is a real headache — a three-way struggle to be the next economic hegemon.”

Who is we? That’s the question you’re asking yourself…

” ‘We,’ for these purposes, is the intellectual property regime we live in — call it the European System. The other hegemonic candidates are the People’s Republic of China, and India. American isn’t in play — they’ve only got about three hundred and fifty million people, and once we finish setting up the convergence criteria for Russian accession to the Group of Thirty, the EU will be over seven hundred. China and India are even bigger. More to the point, the USA went post-industrial first. Their infrastructure is out-of-date and replacing it, now oil is no longer cheap, is costing them tens of trillions of euros to modernize. Plus, they’ve got all those rusty aircraft carriers to keep afloat. It’s exactly the same problem Britain faced in the 1930s, the one that ultimately bankrupted the empire. But today, our infrastructure –Europe’s– is in better shape, and the eastern states are even newer. They went post-industrial relatively recently, so their network infrastructure is almost as new as the shiny new stuff in Shanghai and New Delhi. So there’s this constant jockeying for position between three hyperpowers while the USA takes time out.”

Shoestring video production

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My colleague David produced a 2 minute video for one of our clients recently. His post provides the background. I like the piece because a) it illustrates how easy and inexpensive it is to produce video and b) it effectively tells the story (public health program, in this instance).

David shot the video with a small, consumer-grade still camera (with video setting) and edited with iMovie 08. I should note this was David’s first try and he did it while watching a World Series game.

Any company that has “communication” in their name, better have some people capable of producing a video like this. I have a hunch we’ll wind up doing a lot of these for current and future clients.

Man kills wife with ceramic candy dish

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“A (Wisconsin) man accused of murdering his wife told a jury today that he shoved a ceramic candy dish down her throat so she would shut up — but he didn’t mean to kill her. Patrick Zurkowski of Spencer also says his wife, June, attacked him with a paring knife.

The 40-year-old Zurkowski is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the March 2006 death of his wife.

An autopsy determined June Zurkowski had been beaten and suffocated after pieces of an Easter bunny-shaped plate were lodged in her throat. Prosecutors say Zurkowski killed his wife of 3 and a half years after an argument over money.

Zurkowski testified for about two hours this afternoon and was the only defense witness called as the trial winds down.” [WCCN Radio]

Another happy iPhoner

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Iphone150I’ve known Marhall Wilson since he and Barb started working together at the same law firm (Marshall has recently moved on). If I had to guess, I’d say he’d be better at fixing a broken generator than partitioning a hard drive. I don’t think he’s goofy for gadgets like many of my acquaintances.

So when I heard he’d purchased and iPhone, I was curious about his experience to-date:

I carried a Treo for several years. The Treo was my introduction into
“smart phones.”  I was instantly hooked on the mobile email and internet
access. Following the recent death of my Treo 650, I purchased a Blackberry Curve.  I was unsatisfied with the screen size and quality. I missed the touch screen feature, and I never became comfortable with the “roller ball” navigation.

I was hesitant about the iPhone because (a) I do not need or use an iPod, and (b) I had read that the iPhone wasn’t well suited for “business” use.  The screen quality plus the way the different applications worked together was the big seller for me.

I purchased my iPhone on the 20th (I’m writing this on Thursday the 25th) so it is still new to me. I am thrilled with it.  Our computer tech guy set it up so that the device will reach out and retrieve my emails every 15 minutes.  This is more than satisfactory for me.  The screen is just stunning.  The following are some of the pros and cons
in my opinion and in my limited experience:

  • Pro:  did I mention that the screen quality is stunning?  Viewing videos, photos, and websites is a pleasure.
  • Pro:  I love the built-in Google maps with the satellite photos.  The
    clarity of the screen, with the easy zooming in and scrolling around
    make the map feature fun as well as useful.
  • Con: no GPS.
  • Pro: safari, the web browser, is great.  Being able to open 2 or 3 or
    ?? Web pages at a time is great.  It is happy to show you the whole
    page (too small to read) and then zoom in to whatever field you wish.
  • Pro: the way it will switch from vertical to horizontal mode while viewing photos or the internet is great.
  • Con:  If you take a photo vertically, you can get whiplash trying to
    rotate the device to look at it sideways because it will automatically
    adjust itself to the new orientation.  Perhaps there is a way to lock
    out the rotation, but I haven’t found it yet.
  • Con: the internet reception in my house is worse than with the Treo or
    Blackberry, although phone reception in the same location seems fine.
  • Pro: Out in the real world, internet pages load plenty fast enough for me.
  • Con: the virtual keyboard is as bad as you’ve read about, although I’m
    learning.  I wouldn’t want to “have” to be typing lengthy emails all
    day.
  • Con: no zoom or video on the camera, although I never used the Treo’s video camera all that much.

Overall, I love it, and I haven’t even utilized the music piece of it. The phone, internet, email and text messaging features are as good as or better than the Treo or Blackberry. Having YouTube, Google Maps, and a simple weather site resident on the device is great fun. Having only 1 button is plenty. I should also mention that the screen is really impressive.

Newspaper’s Internet radio station streaming fire coverage

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“The San Diego Union-Tribune’s site SignOn San Diego offers a streaming Internet radio station, SignOn Radio. Today they’ve been supplying steady coverage of the fires, including phoned-in live reports from area residents and people following the story from other regions. News staff are manning the radio, taking calls. It seems like they’re doing a pretty good job of applying journalistic judgment to both official information and call-ins.” [E-Media Tidbits]

I’m listening to the SignOn Radio stream on iTunes. W is stumbling through a press conference. I think he actually said, “I’m from the federal government and we’re here to help you.”

They just broke for AP headlines. I keep looking at the MacBook to remind myself I’m listening to “radio” from a newspaper. Spooky. I remember boasting that only “radio” could really cover this kind of story.

Lost Dutchman of Affiliate Relations

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In the 17 years I did affiliate relations for our networks, I was on the road a lot. Typical trip would have started early Monday morning (sometimes Sunday evening) and ended late on Friday. I might have have extended a trip over a weekend once or twice but that was very rare.

The new Endurance Record for an affiliate trip has to go to Scott Brandon, the head of operations for Learfield’s news division. Scott has been on the road –continuously– since September 17th. He’s been in seven states; 45 towns (and counting); covered 4,500+ miles; eaten 13 Chinese buffets; stayed in 8 really bad motels; 4 really, really bad motels; consumed three bowls of beer cheese soup; two glasses of beer (Miller); attended one Packer’s game and lost one iPod. And saw some sights:

“A camel grazing on the side of the road in Fond Du Lac; a giant fish thing in Hayward; and two truckers sharing a one bedroom at the Super 8 in Park Falls. But, by far, the strangest and creepiest was just outside of Phillips, WI. You round a bend and see a field full of… well… concrete people and horses and deer and dogs. Very Adams Family-ish. I walked through the park just to make sure it was really as “chill down your spine” as I thought. It was.” [Photos]

Scott’s long journey comes to an end next week as his affiliate ghost ship comes back into harbor. He’s going to need a lot counseling and time to adjust. We assume he’s working on a book.

Focus, Passion and Originality

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Karl Long, a Web/Social Media Integration Manager at Nokia, identifys three traits of a successful blog – focus, passion, & originality:

“Focus – I think one of the most important choices a blogger makes when they start their blog is what their focus is. Think about a first time visitor getting dropped on your blog from a search engine or stumbleupon, are they going to understand in 2 seconds exactly what your blog is about? If the answer is yes you will have a much better chance of building a readership quickly and you will have a successful blog. If not, you may well build a successful blog but it will take years as opposed to months.

Passion – This is the only possible way that you will be able to sustain regular posting of a high enough quality over the course of years. If you don’t have the passion your blog will become a ghost town very quickly. People talk about the passion in the writing, and how important it is for readers, but IMHO the passion is all about the ability to sustain you through the emotional roller coaster ride of writing a blog. Sure your passion will come through in your writing, but it is your passion that will keep you plugging away when no one is coming back, no one is commenting, and no one is linking to you. Passion may not be the only thing that will drag you along, but it is the most enjoyable so unless you are a masochist you better love what your talking about.

Originality – In branding terms, what differentiates you from the crowded playing field of blogs all talking about the same thing. They don’t call the blogosphere an echo chamber for nothing, because most of the time everyone is reflecting and amplifying what else is happening around the blogosphere. Original content and original ideas in the blogosphere stand out like beacons in the night, and not to labor the metaphor but they also attract other bloggers like moths to a flame.”

[via LexBlog]

Profitable blogs

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This is a really good article by Sam Zuckerman at SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle):

“More quickly than most anyone imagined, blogging is growing up. From the blogosphere’s anarchistic roots, a professional cadre is emerging that is creating an industry whose top-performing businesses now earn serious money. The industry is expanding at warp speed. Blog-based media could just be poised to elbow aside traditional print and broadcast outlets to become one of the dominant sources of news, information and opinion, many observers believe.”

This is a must read for anyone in the media business. Management or foot soldier.

Thinkpad goes to a good home

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The high bid for the Thinkpad was $276.01. My little silent auction drew six bids. There was a tie for the high bid ($250) so I gave the high bidders an chance to submit another bid. Mary went up to $275 and Myra bid $276.01. I think that’s a fair price for the Thinkpad but I’ll hold on to the check for a few days, just in case she gets Buyer’s Remorse. Then it’s off to the local Humane Society. Thanks to all who submitted bids. Sorry, Henry, but this was a lot more fun than eBay.