iPhone Confessions: George Kopp (Week One)

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George is a serious Techno Boy. He has a geek job with the state for his day job (all Windows) and moonlights on Macs (and some PC’s) for love (and a little money).

George knew he’d eventually own an iPhone but thought he could wait awhile. He made the mistake of stopping by the AT&T store (Day Two) for a look-see and wound up springing for the 8 gig model.

George’s love-of-all-things-Mac is tempered by his no-bullshit-geek-o-rocity. By that I mean, he expects much from his techno-toys. But once he got the iPhone in his sweaty little hands, it was prom night. I got caught up in that as we talked and had to edit our chat more than I intended. Sorry, George.

Listen/Download: 5:30 MP3

Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives

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A new Forrester report divides the U.S. online population into six groups according to their social participation on the Web.

More than one-fifth of those classified as Creators—those who blog, publish Web sites, upload videos, or participate in other content creation activities—own Macs, while only 12 percent own Dell computers.

The majority of Spectators (they read blogs, watch videos, and listen to podcasts) own Macs while the majority of Inactives (they don’t participate online) own Dells.

Scott Adams on Hypnosis

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“…the best super power that hypnosis gives you is a different world view. Nothing in this life makes sense if you assume people are rational most of the time. Hypnosis teaches you how easily people’s memories and impressions can be altered. And it’s not just the gullible people, it’s all of us. It’s humbling. And it’s the most useful skill I’ve ever learned.” [Full post]

iPhone Confessions: Dave Morris (Week One)

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Dave MorrisDave Morris is the voice of great radio stations and television stations, film studios, syndicated shows and more. World wide. I know this because it says so on his website. He’s also a blogger (a good one). And a gadget junkie.

He was one of those crazies standing in line the day the iPhone went on sale, so we called him up for a report on Week One.

Unlike some of the others we’ve chatted with for this series, Dave is not a Mac guy. Windows all the way. But he’s only slightly less “gushy” about Apple’s latest creation.

Download/Listen: 12 min MP3

DVD: Not Just the Best of Larry Sanders

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Larry SandersThe Larry Sanders Show was a satirical television sitcom that aired from 1992 to 1998 on HBO, starring stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders. The series was partly inspired by Shandling’s stint as a guest host on The Tonight Show.

The Larry Sanders Show is easily one of the best five TV shows of all time (I’m sorry, this is not open for debate). And now I own a DVD with 23 of “the best episodes” of the series as well as eight hours of new stuff. I’m going to try to hoard this like the last baggie of ganja but suspect I’ll burn through these in a week or so. This is just one more reason why it’s better to be me than you.

Radio’s “discarded audience”

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“First the standards vanished from radio, as stations that played lots of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald went dark. Then over the past couple of years, the oldies format collapsed, and suddenly the sounds of Motown, Elvis and the Beach Boys were hard to find on the radio. Now, even classic rock stations are starting to feel the pressure, as commercial radio strains to find ways to connect with younger listeners who find most of their music online.”

AARP is happy to address the frustration that there’s “not enough choices on the radio.” The organization is finding that its 39 million members are eager for programming they can tap into through the latest technologies. AARP is podcasting, Web streaming and even offering a branded version of Pandora.com. AARP’s next wave of audio programming will be “user-created media a la YouTube.”

— WashingtonPost.com – Thanks, Kay

NYT: The Road Home

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“It is frighteningly clear that Mr. Bush’s plan is to stay the course as long as he is president and dump the mess on his successor. Whatever his cause was, it is lost.

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans’ demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened — the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war.

This country faces a choice. We can go on allowing Mr. Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or we can insist that American troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage — with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading.” — New York Times editorial

Scott Adams: Rounders vs. Accumulators

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“Most people have at least a few big problems in their life. But the vast majority of life’s problems are the little kind. There are two ways to deal with the little problems.

ROUNDERS: This group rounds things off. A problem that’s a two on a scale of one to ten gets rounded to zero. If a rounder has five problems that are all about a two on a scale of one to ten, he’ll tell you he has no problems.

ACCUMULATORS: Accumulators add up all the little problems until they equal one big problem. If an accumulator has five problems that are each a two on a scale of one to ten, that feels like having one problem that’s a ten.

At the end of this thought-provoking post, Mr. Adams gives his readers an assignment: Describe your own job in one sentence. For example: “I help people hate each other.” (Divorce Lawyer)

That “in one sentence” part makes it very difficult. The best I could come up with is: “I drive one of the Sunday School buses for the Church of the Web.”

A new media model?

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“The business of news is changing in ways that reduce traditional newsroom career opportunities, while opening more options for journalists who are willing and able to do more than simply report for someone else’s venue. I suspect we’ll start seeing some major news brands morph into alliances between scaled-back in-house newsrooms and independent, online-focused news and content operations – including more hyper-local and niche news.”

[E-Media Tidbits/Poynteronline]