I fear it’s a bit late for this holiday season, but this WiFi detecting T shirt would make a great gift for that geek on your list. Not only finds WiFi signals, but displays the strength.
Runs about $30 and you can remove the electronics for washing, although that wouldn’t be much of a problem for the people on my list.
Spotted this at Keith Povall’s Sturdy Soapbox.
The Iowa Caucuses (Jan 3) is a big deal in the national political scheme of things. One of Learfield’s news networks –Radio Iowa– will cover it, just as we’ve done since the network began in 1987.
We’ll provide two 4-minute reports each hour throughout the evening. These audio reports will be fed by satellite to affiliated radio stations throughout the state (and streamed live on our website). The radio stations will air some or all of these reports along with whatever other programming they are doing that night. This is the way networks like ours have operated since… well, since forever.
The editorial edge of state networks is our ability to focus on the "state" angle of the stories we cover. The Iowa Caucuses will be the big national story of the day (evening). Every news organization in the country will be covering the story, wall-to-wall.
So where’s our niche? What do we provide that a listener can’t get more of, faster somewhere else? Is our "target audience" people who can’t be in front of their TV or computer that evening? We have to proceed on the assumption there will be people listening to their local radio stations that night and hearing our reports a couple of times an hour.
I’m not sure where I’m headed with this ramble. I’m just trying to understand how –and to what degree– things are changing for news organizations like ours.
And whither the bloggers? Will they be live blogging the caucuses? Is that allowed? Not sure what that would add, since the news organizations (or the Associated Press) will have –I assume– someone covering each of the caucus locations.
My friend (and Radio Iowa News Director) Kay Henderson has been living and breathing Iowa politics for the last year or so. She probably has the answers to most of these questions. Or at least some interesting insight. I suspect she’s too busy to enlighten us, but watch the comments, just in case. She checks in here.
I think I’ve lost the thread of this ramble… I just know that I’m glad I’m no longer responsible for coming up with long and short term strategy for our networks.
We’ll know how many radio stations are "clearing" our reports on Caucus night. We will NOT know how many people are listening to those reports. That’s a question for the Magic Eight Ball. If I could ask one more, it would be how will all of this change four years from now?
I spotted this lovely camo covered recliner at the local Orschlen store this morning. Aside from the inherent aesthetic value, I wonder if it is practical as well.
You come from a week of deer hunting and the last thing you want to hear the old lady bitching at you. So you sneak in –in full cammy, of course– and plop down in this baby and disappear.
“Kids, have you seen your father? I thought I heard him come in. Hmm. Guess not.”
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That’s how Lou Gossett addresses David Caruso’s character before choking him into submission in An Officer and A Gentleman (1982). Later in the movie, Caruso has to be rescued from the bottom of the pool in a training exercise. Caruso is an acquired taste but I always found him one of the baddest dudes on the little screen. It hurt me to see him get humiliated.
But this post was going to be about Debra Winger, who made a bunch of bad movies but was really good in two: AOAAG and Urban Cowboy. And she was sort of okay in Black Widow.
I know squat about Hollywood but have to believe she had bad management. Her deep-throated sexiness and more-than-adequate acting chops should have taken her farther.
And for your comment hounds, how about the best drill instructors (or non-coms) in military movies? R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket? Adolph Caesar from A Soldiar’s Story? Tom Berenger from Platoon?
The ice storm that hit mid-Missouri last night knocked out our power about 10 o’clock this Sunday morning and it didn’t come back on until after 6:00 p.m. We spent the day camped in front of the fire place.
Any information about the extent of the power outage or when juice (and access to the net) might be restored was going to have to come from one of our area radio stations. I’m sure that if I could stand to listen to the Rams broadcast (local AM) or an opera (NPR) long enough, I’d hear something about our situation.
But Google has conditioned me to expect (and demand) instant access to the information I need. Yes, I understand that the radio station has to serve the needs and interests of all of their listeners. Some want music (maybe), some want sports, some want news and weather. So everyone has to wait patiently and trust the radio programmers to dole out info and entertainment, like UN aid workers tossing bags of rice to screaming refugees.
So there we sat in our chilly, dark living room, unable to tap into the Great and Powerful Internet. My only source for information –had I the patience to wait for it– was the local radio station. And it’s not fair to second-guess the local radio guys. I don’t know what was happening at the station. But they were reporting 17,000 people in and around Jefferson City without power. I think I might have gone wall-to-wall with updates.
So, does this situation make me value my local radio station any more than I did before the lights went out? Or has on-demand access to… everything, raised my expectations to a new level that will be difficult or impossible for terrestrial radio to every reach again?
Friend and co-worker Bob Feldisch has been with our company about a year longer than I. He’s taking on new duties and the post on our corporate blog is note-worthy.
When King Bob started with Learfield:
Since that time:
This makes a great blog post but you probably wouldn’t see this much imagination and fun in a corporate, inter-office news release. I love the fact that the blog was was the first and –as far as I know– only place this news was posted.
“The Butterfly” and it is billed as “The Living Room Flier” a full radio controlled mini plane you can fly around your living room. “Full Proportional radio control enables you to fly with precision in any room 12′ X 16′. Just add 4-AA batteries to the combination transmitter/charger and you’ll be ready for action anytime Take the Butterfly with you ANYWHERE in it’s own protective aluminum briefcase (included!). The Butterfly costs $239 and it would take Lucy about 2 seconds to shred it.
I love these things because they almost always tell me what I want to hear. You answer 10 or 20 questions about life style, diet, family medical history and so forth. Sort of the web’s answer to those scales that would tell your future as well as your weight.
My Real Age is 44.5 (not that there’s anything wrong with 59), my life expectancy is 92.5 (compared to average of 78), which means I can expect to live 12,200 days. But who’s counting.