Why no computers in the grocery store?

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Maybe I’m just not shopping at the right stores, but wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to have a couple of computers scattered around where you could search for items? You get a little “You are here” icon and a dotted line to the location of the item. They could offer suggestions. Looking for pasta? How about some garlic bread? You know they could sell enough ads on the thing to pay for the installation and upkeep. Why make us roam the aisles, looking for someone to help us? Hardware stores, video stores, every store. I can’t imagine why this isn’t being offered.

Equally hard to understand… have you noticed more businesses are having people stand beside the road, holding up signs? I saw a guy today in the middle of a busy 4-way intersection holding up a “50% off at K-Mart” sign. Is this really an effective advertising vehicle? And is this a coveted job or punishment for screwing up?

“I’m not gonna fire you, Mays, but I want you to take sign and go stand on the corner in the sweltering heat for the next couple of days.”

I have to confess I broke my #1 Rule (Never leave home without your camera) so I don’t have photos of this phenomenon. I’ll update in a day or two. If you’ve ever done this job…or sent some poor schmuck out to do this job, please enlighten me.

Merrill Brown on future of news

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Editorial by Merrill Brown on, the founding editor in chief of MSNBC.com and is a former executive with RealNetworks:

The future course of news, the basic assumptions about how we consume news and information and make decisions in a democratic society, are being altered, perhaps irrevocably, by technologically savvy young people no longer wedded to traditional news outlets or even accessing news in traditional ways.

There’s an inescapable conclusion to be drawn from research I completed earlier this year for the Carnegie Corp. of New York about the news habits of 18- to 34-year-olds. In short, the future of the U.S. news industry is seriously threatened by the seemingly irrevocable move by young people away from traditional sources of news.

The thing that always chills my bones in pieces like this is the total absence of any mention of radio. Where are we?

Rick & Ryan’s All Geek Marching Band

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I’m hanging out in our new sports operations center and hear the haunting sounds of someone playing the mouth trumpet. I was surprised and delighted to discover our own Ryan Kormann riffing away. About this time, Rick Kennedy steps out of his studio to join in with Musical Hands. He insisted that he wasn’t warmed up and was a little nervous, but his musical gift was obvious. [watch on YouTube]

iPod Nano

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Zowie. Nobody needs to read one more gushing review of the iPod so I’ll try to tone this down, but…damn. The UPS man left a little cardboard box on the front porch today and inside was my iPod Nano. As in small. I already had iTunes installed with my meager music collection imported but syncing up with the iPod was about a 4 minute process. 259 songs…zip…in my shirt pocket.

I don’t remember very many computer experiences being this easy (I know, I know…the Mac thing). The user interface is…a thing of beauty. Sorted all my songs. Easy to navigate. And the sound? Well, I’m not audiophile but it sounded perfect to me. The iPod ads frequently talk about photos and I couldn’t imagine that being very useful, given the size of the screen, but I have to admit it’s kind of cool. I’ll put some more on.

It’s easy to see why these things (in all flavors) are selling so fast. I showed it to Barb and she immediately decided she wants one. Anniversary present, in the bag.

And you know what? I’ve had the thing for half a day and I’m already thinking, “Maybe I should head on over to iTunes and buy a few songs.” We’ll talk about podcasts in a future post.

If you live on a farm and you wanna keep warm, propane

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If you want to heat right, you’ve got to use it at night – propane.
All your troubles are past when you use LP gas – propane.
It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right – propane.

Well, you can heat up the barn and keep the hayloft real warm – propane.
You keep it in a big tank, because, ay, does it stink! – propane.
It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right – propane.

Lyrics by Clyde Bauman

Ten years of streaming

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Finally got around to going through the last box of files that came along with the recent office move. Found a file with notes and correspondence with Mark Cuban (PDF) (November and December, 1995). Cuban was cutting lots of content deals back in those days and he was hot to stream our football and basketball broadcasts. Almost nobody knew what streaming was and it was damned hard to imagine that anyone would ever listen to “the radio” on their computers. His company was called AudioNet back then and became Broadcast.com before he sold to Yahoo! How could that have been 10 years ago? And what will this all look like 10 years from now?

Update: First contact from Cuban was on September 9, 1995.

Cliff Birklund

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I’ve been thinking a lot about advertising these days. Radio advertising in particular. I have met hundreds of radio sales people during the past 30+ years. My father sold for many years.

Cliff Birklund (I don’t remember how Cliff spelled his name) was hired to do news at KBOA but eventually moved into sales. In a previous life, he was a commercial artist and I’ll never forgive myself for not saving more of his doodles. This one is a classic (have I posted this before?) but I’ve always liked this self-portrait.

Update: Bob Heater asks how Cliff could have –in 1978– doodled something on a 1989 calendar page. I left KBOA in 1984 so I must have salvaged the drawing on a later visit to Kennett.

iPod Nano

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Walt Mossberg calls the iPod Nano “the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I’ve tested — including the iconic original white iPod. And it sounds great. I plan to buy one for myself this weekend.”

I’ve tried three or four cheap little MP3 players and they work, sorta okay… but I’ve had iPod lust since I saw the first one. And the new Nano is just too much temptation. And, yes, I know I can get more gigs for less money blah, blah blah. I’m paying extra for the cool.

Every day there’s more and more interesting new podcasts out there so it’s time to gear up. Review to follow.