Author Archives: Steve Mays

No more talking politics

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Nopolitics

"Never discuss religion or politics." It was one of the few rules I set for myself that I actually followed.

I’m not a fan of organized religion so it hasn’t been difficult to avoid talking about it. The same was true for politics until Obama began running for president. Sure, I’d been bashing Bush for years but it was only when I came out for Obama that friends started trying to pull me into mini-debates.

In my enthusiasm for Obama and the better future I hope he represents, I broke my rule and engaged in these discussions. Big mistake.

Looking back, I now see the point –the only point– of these encounters was to convince the other guy he was wrong. Even with friends, there was a negative undertone to these discussions. I’d go in feeling up and positive… and come out down and negative.

So I’ve decided to avoid discussing politics. We can talk about anything else you want… my sex life, books and films, The Office, whatever. But no politics.

I’ll post on political topics here, but that’s strictly therapeutic. I don’t expect anyone to read these posts and, frankly, discourage it. smays.com has always been, first and foremost, a personal journal. A place to write some things down.

There. I feel better already. You should, too.

Flip Mino (if I’d only waited a week)

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Mino2

I bought a Flip Ultra video camera last week, just to play with and show friends. Henry has it now and I can’t wait to see what he (an extremely talented professional digital artist) comes up with. Everybody that sees this little gadget seems to love it.

And now there’s a smaller/cuter/cooler version. The Flip Mino is 40% smaller than the Ultra and comes with 2GB of memory (records up to one hour of video). Pick one up at Amazon for $179. Shit. If I had waited a week…

We wuz robbed!

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Idolloser

As the days dwindle down to a precious few, Bill Clinton is bringing back fond memories of those early American Idol try-outs. You know the ones I mean. A large woman (seems like it was usually a woman) comes storming out of the audition room, pushing past Ryan Seacrest screaming, "Fuck Simon! Fuck him!" At least that’s what I assume she was screaming. Idol producers bleeped the audio and covered her mouth with a little "censored" sign so we couldn’t read her lips (Did she say "Freak you,Simon!? What does that mean?").

Maybe Hillary can be the Syesha Mercado of the primary contest. Go out with a little style. A little class.

I’m telling you, this will make one hell of a movie if and when someone good gets around to making it. Like, oh… how about Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Maybe get John Travolta to play Bill. You know who would be good as Hillary? That British actress… what’s her name? Emma Thompson! She’d be perfect.

Bush: “We have a better way. Kill them!”

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A little gem from “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story,” the new autobiography of retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the onetime commander of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Following the the killing of the four contractors in Fallujah in 2004, W tried to go all George C. Patton in a video conference with his national security team and generals:

“Kick ass!” he quotes the president as saying. “If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can’t send that message. It’s an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal.”

“There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”

Can you imagine being in combat with dick-wad like Bush commanding your unit?

Missouri Department of Transportation is YouTube’ing.

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MoDOT (Missouri Department of Transportation) has new videos about highway and bridge projects, highway safety and other projects on YouTube.

  • A flyover animation of the future landmark Mississippi River Bridge – St. Louis
  • Footage of the rapid construction of the Jefferson Street Overpass – Jefferson City
  • MoDOT Saving Lives and Reducing Injuries – A synopsis of MoDOT and the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety’s initiatives to reduce fatalities and injuries on Missouri roads.

There are also several other MoDOT videos available, showing how dedicated truck lanes would work, dramatic footage of the Route 19 Missouri River Bridge demolition, guard cable crash tests and an aerial view of the ongoing construction on the new Interstate 64 in St. Louis.

During the early days of YouTube, I hear the clueless ask, “Who wants to watch some guy doing the chicken dance? What a waste of time!” They couldn’t (can’t) see that, in time, even big old state agencies like DOT would figure out creative uses for the technology.

American Airlines: Boarding of the Fittest

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Departurelounge

How bad has air travel in the U. S. become? We all know about the delays, canceled flights, germ-laden air, 12-hours-on-the-tarmac and all the rest. But the story my friend George shared this weekend is, I fear, a chilling portent of what’s ahead.

He and a colleague were flying back from a business trip (Baltimore to St. Louis) on American Airlines. Of course the flight was over-booked (by three people) and the gate agent offered vouchers for anyone willing to give up their seat (I think he said it was $200).

A little while later they made the announcement again, including some reference to not being able to depart until the oversold problem (now down to two) was resolved. Still no takers.

A few minutes later the agent came back on the PA and made an announcement that George recalls as:

"Ladies and gentlemen. We are still oversold and we can’t delay departure any longer. Please line up for boarding… the last two people in line will not get on this flight."

George couldn’t believe his ears. Everyone in the departure area looked at each other for a second and then stampeded, pushing and elbowing trying to insure they wouldn’t be at the end of the line.

This might just be the most chicken-shit thing yet from an airline. The gate agent could determine the last two passengers to book the the flight and break the bad news. Instead, they made the other passengers fight and claw like animals to get on the plane.

What about the infirm or women with babies, I asked. "No pre-boarding of any kind."

Yes, maybe this was an isolated incident. One gutless gate agent. But
can you imagine if this is –or becomes– standard procedure?

PageCast: Short, sweet and real

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There are just so many things I like about The PageCast, I’m not sure where to begin. First, what is The PageCast.

It’s a 60 second video by Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin, previewing the three stories that he thinks you should be watching for today. You’ll find it on the top/right of The Page. Big whoop, right? Okay, here’s some of the things I like about this simple idea (and this particular PageCast):

  • It maximizes the reach of a popular, plugged-in political reporter.
  • It’s short. One minute. Easy to watch, easy to produce.
  • It’s real. Or at least it appears real. Today’s PageCast was recorded in what appears to be Mr. Halperin’s hotel room in South Dakota (prior to Tuesday’s primary). And he obviously just came from the gym or a run. (Note to TV and Hollywood directors: THIS is what real sweat looks like. Not the little spritz you put under your star’s arms and on his chest. Save this image for future reference). And Mark hasn’t shaved yet. The guy looks like we all do on a Sunday morning.
  • Zero production. If I had to guess, I’d say he recorded this with his Mac Book sitting on the hotel desk. Probably in one take. He emails the file to some web monkey who uploads to The Page and it’s done. No crew, no director, no editing.

The news directors of our radio networks would be great at this. And their listeners/readers/viewers would eat it up.

UPDATE: My buddy Kay reports that Mark Halperin records PageCast between 7-9 a.m. (usually), wherever he happens to be and in whatever he happens to be wearing. If he’s on the West Coast, he usually records them at night. He thinks of what he wants to say just before he begins recording (or in the shower or at the gym), on his MacBook Pro (edits with iMovie).

The idea was prompted by the desire to put video on The Page, while keeping it easy to produce and watch. Just as I suspected. Simple idea, well executed.

Minority Report Billboards

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“Billboards are, for the most part, still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out.

Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by — their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database.

Behind the technology are small start-ups that say they are not storing actual images of the passers-by, so privacy should not be a concern. The cameras, they say, use software to determine that a person is standing in front of a billboard, then analyze facial features (like cheekbone height and the distance between the nose and the chin) to judge the person’s gender and age. So far the companies are not using race as a parameter, but they say that they can and will soon.

The goal, these companies say, is to tailor a digital display to the person standing in front of it — to show one advertisement to a middle-aged white woman, for example, and a different one to a teenage Asian boy.” [New York Times]

Alas! poor Dell! I knew him, Horatio

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I’ve had a PC running Windows in my home office for… well, since there were PC’s running Windows. And before that, a Zenith running DOS. I went through a long Gateway phase before switching to Dell. And my latest Dell tower is several years old. Since getting the Mac Book Pro a couple of years ago, I only turned the Dell on to download/install Windows security updates.

And I noticed I was spending less time in my office because I wasn’t using the PC much. And I really like my little room. I missed it. So we’re sending the Dell to the farm where it can chase rabbits and play with the other computers. Replacing it is a Mac Mini.

Mac Heads will be familiar with the Mini but for your PC folks, it’s a square little slab about the size of a cigar box. No monitor, no mouse, no keyboard… just a miniature computer. But a powerful little bugger.

Dellmacmini

But the real power is how easily it networks with my Mac Book Pro. George set it up for me and I won’t try to explain it but suffice to say I can get to all the files on both computers from either computer. Lots of syncing via .mac.

Update my iCal at work… and the Mac Book Pro iCal syncs… and the Mini syncs. I can access all the photos in iPhoto on the Mac Book, as well as my iTunes library. And so on and so forth. I know my IT friends can make all of this happen with Windows but I could not.