Category Archives: Science & Technology

Skype from Norway

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I just spent half an hour chatting with Chuck Zimmerman who is in Oslo, Norway covering the annual meeting of the International Federation of Agriculture Journalists. More on that in a moment…

The purpose of the call was to play with Skype (and teach Chuck the correct pronunciation of fjord). Chuck’s had a Skype account for a while but –like me– really didn’t know a lot of folks using the service. I’m guessing a half-hour telco call would cost a few bucks, but the Skype-to-Skype call was free. And the quality was damned good. I’m not gonna post on this again until I can include some sample audio.

One final observation on Chuck’s coverage of the IFAJ conference. Of the approximately 200 journalist attending, Chuck guesses 95% are print and the rest are PR folks and a few radio types.

I’m guessing most of the attendees are there to drink beer, eat cheese and have a good time. Which, I assume, Chuck is doing, too. But not one of them is blogging the event. Chuck is doing it because the folks at Pioneer are paying him but, still…

Anyway, Skype was slicker than snot and I promise to get you a sample for those that haven’t played with this amazing service.

Gnomedex 6.0

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I am tingly with anticipation of Gnomedex 6.0, a three-day geek-fest in Seattle at the end of June. I’m just a geek wannabe but my money’s good so they let me in. I won’t even try to describe Gnomedex except to say everyone will be talking about all of the things I find interesting/important. The format of this year’s event is a little different but the line-up of “discussion leaders” is A-List all the way. And this year’s trip will be even a little more fun with Learfield COO Roger Gardner along for the ride. I believe they stream the entire conference live and I’ll try to find/post a link as we get closer.

Hotmail starting to suck

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I moved the link to my email address. It was just under the masthead on the right. I moved it down to the My Stuff area on the sidebar. And I switched from my Hotmail account to my Gmail account. Hotmail just aint getting it any more. More and more sites won’t accept email from Hotmail users because it’s eat up with spam. This has always been my throw-away account and I’m about to throw it away. I’ll keep it for now, just because it’s difficult to get your name (SteveMays@anything.com) anymore. If you want to reach me you can use the Gmail accsount or just post a comment and mark it personal. But know that I won’t be checking the Hotmail account very often.

Chimps and Geeks

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If you also missed the careerbuilder.com chimp ads in the Super Bowl, you can see them here. I’d pay a hundred bucks to spend the day watching those commercials being made. Nothing on god’s green earth is funnier than a chimp in a coat and tie.

Did I mention I’m all registered, booked and reserved for Gnomedex 6.0? It’s five months away and I can hardly wait. For three days I won’t have to explain or defend blogging and podcasting and RSS and all the rest. I will be be among believers. Not just believers, but those who are creating and applying these revolutionary technologies. I have no idea who the speakers will be or what they’ll be talking about. But everyone in the room will have a clue.