Video chat on the Mac

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iChatTwenty years of DOS and Windows has conditioned me to expect new things to be difficult. As I fired up the Mac in preparation for this evening’s attempt to have a video chat with Bass, I was mentally girding myself for a long, frustrating evening. Bass was already online and waiting for me so the first thing I saw was a little window asking me if I would accept a video chat? Uh, yeah, sure. And there was Bass, in all of his video glory (video).

We played with the lighting a little and he offered a few tips for good video chatting. But there was none of the futzing and fiddling and tweaking and rebooting. We were…chatting. A few more experiences like this I’ll be handing out Mac flyers on street corners. Now all I need are some folks to chat with. My .mac user name is smays.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

BTW, the video clip about (:30) was shot with my little Casio. George tells me about a handy little app that records iChat sessions. Stay tuned.

Radio stations: Fix your websites

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Most radio station websites are nasty. Sorry, but it’s true. Regular readers already know my thoughts on this, but take time to read a more thoughtful commentary by Brian Maloney in Inside Radio. In a nutshell, Maloney urges radio stations to “fix their websites” before they do anything else. You’ll know radio station managers are getting a clue about new media when their websites are as good as those of their local advertisers.

Station Manager Clue-Check #1: Make a list of your 10 largest (annual billing) advertisers. Go to their websites and print the home page. Now, do the same for your station website. Spread them out on your desk and compare them.

Apple promoting business podcasting

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I haven’t played with GarageBand much but plan to. Supposed to make podcasting a snap. And the folks at Apple think there might be some business applications for podcasting:

“Promoting your business just got easier. Create a podcast with GarageBand, post it to iTunes in minutes, and reach customers, clients, and partners in a whole new way. Chefs are sharing recipes. Maternity store owners are giving the lowdown on diaper bags. And other professionals are airing business discussions, marketing new products and services, and keeping people informed.”

Communicate. Sell. Blog.

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I was talking with one of our advertising clients today and we got off on to the subject of how a blog could help him tell his story. He works for a state agency so it is unlikely he’ll get permission to blog because government department heads didn’t get where they are by trying risky new stuff. But the client said that when he brought up the subject of blogging with some of the foot soldiers, their eyes lit up. They got a little pumped at the prospect (or as pumped as government workers are allowed to get).

About six months ago I posted on how I might use blogs and podcasts if I were still doing affiliate relations for our networks. Today’s conversation started me thinking about this again.

If I were a sales rep of any kind, I’d have a blog. I’d post about things of interest and use to my prospects. My blog would be how my clients (current and prospective) know me. If I could make it relevant enough, useful enough… my clients would come to me (or my blog). I wouldn’t have to constantly be begging for appointments. They’d call me up to do a lunch and talk about some idea I posted about.

Blogosphere bullshit, you say? Perhaps. My co-worker David has been posting on a new Learfield blog that illustrates this idea. His posts are informed. Passionate. They deliver value.

Selling has always been about communicating. Wanna communicate in the 21st century? Better learn to blog.

That guy in Wings? (Carl Hiaasen)

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Reading (3rd time) Carl Hiaasen’s Skinny Dip. One of the main characters is a middle-aged guy that has been divorced six times. All waitresses. Part of his screening process was to ask them to name the Beatles. If they could not, the cultural gulf was probably too wide. How could you not know the names of the Beatles?

While discussing last night’s American Idol performances (Taylor Hicks sang a Beatles song) with a female co-worker today, I asked if she (mid-20’s) could name the Beatles. She could only come up with McCartney. Alas.

73% of U. S. now online

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Latest Pew Internet Survey (PDF): 73% of respondents (about 147 million adults) are internet users, up from 66% (about 133 million adults) in January 2005 survey. And the share of Americans who have broadband connections at home has now reached 42% (about 84 million), up from 29% (about 59 million) in January 2005.

Percentages vary by education and income, but no more than you might expect. No idea how accurate the survey results but I continue to be amazed at how many people refuse to believe this is happening. Or, perhaps, don’t want it to be happening. No idea why.
 

First AppleJAC meeting

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Mac adAttended my first meeting of the local Mac User Group last night. Met some nice people and saw a couple of good demos. George Kopp showed us how Boot Camp makes it possible to run the Mac OS and Windows XP on the Mac. Very handy. And George speculated that the next Mac OS will make it even easier. Saw a fascinating demonstration of SketchUp, a 3D landscape design application. And we started off the evening playing the new Mac TV ads that started airing this week. I’m the guy on the left but I want to be the guy on the right. These are great ads that tap directly into the Mac Lust I posted on several weeks back.

Before leaving the subject of Macs… a thought on the age-old Mac vs. PC debate. I’m too new to Mac and too technically ignorant to have an opinion of which might be the superior computing experience. But after only a couple of weeks, I have a theory. Macs are more fun than PC’s. A person who knows what they’re doing can probably get the job down with either Mac or PC but I suspect the Mac user will have more fun getting it done. If that matters to you.

Last MacNugget: Scheduled to try out the iChat thing tomorrow night with Bass. If there’s a way to record the video chat, I’ll post some here.

Good war?

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Wow. Leave it to Dilbert’s dad to make a reasonable case for attacking Iraq. Assume for a moment that it was something along these lines that put us in Iraq… would it have made sense to make such an argument to the American people? Maybe even let us vote on it? And, for the record, I no longer consider the bought-and-paid-for suits in DC as representing my interests. I’m suggesting a vote of the people. Or, perhaps, everyone but me understood from the beginning that this is what the war was about.

Blogging the NFL Draft

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The NFL Draft is under way and that’s a big deal in Green Bay, Wisconsin (home of the Packers). And all other NFL cities, for that matter. Bill Scott is the sports director for the Wisconsin Radio Network (one of Learfield’s state radio networks) and has been covering the the draft for 16 years. This year he’s blogging it.

In previous years we’ve put a live audio feed up on our satellite channel so Bill could do reports. And we’ve streamed the audio on WRN.com. But the physical setting and the timing just didn’t lend itself to this kind of coverage. Now Bill has his laptop and wifi so he’s blogging. I assume other media are doing the same.

I’ve posted on this subject countless times but still find myself a little amazed that blogging might be the best way to cover and event like this. Would live audio/video be better? Well, it would be good. But if you missed it, you missed it. The blog posts will be up there until we pull it down.

This is a first for Bill so it’ll be interesting to get his thoughts on this. Watch this space.

Programmer responds to Lee Abrams blog post

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Randy Raley calls bullshit on Lee Abram’s recent blog post (XM Sound). As a long-time jock (I still love that term) and programmer, Randy was “there” when Mr. Abrams was making his radio bones and offers a local radio perspective. In a perfect blogging world, Mr. Abrams’ blog would have his comments open and Randy could have added his. Then, Mr. Abrams could have responded. Then you have a conversation.