April 2008

NABshow in Las Vegas

The Office of Student Computing Resources has sent me off to Las Vegas to attend the National Association of Broadcasters Show, which is a huge training and exhibition conference for people and companies involved in broadcasting of all kinds. I am attending a 'Podcasting Summit,' which is a series of workshops designed to teach people how to podcast. It's been great training for me. I know a lot of the information they are covering, but I have also filled in a LOT of gaps. I also have a broader perspective about the importance and role of podcasting in communications. Podcasting, if it doesn't directly replace broadcasting, will provide important models for delivering 'pull' content to people. In other words, broadcast has been dying out because someone at a radio or TV station decides what will be displayed to their audience and on what schedule. Podcasting allows people to pull the content they want off a server and save it for viewing when they want. Which would you prefer? Most would prefer the choice involved in deciding what content they will watch and when. Our habits are already confirming this reality.

I have a radio in my car with an iPod interface. When I drove to work, what do I listen to? Some creepy, homophobic morning radio show on the local hard rock station or my iPod? (I like listening to hard or alternative rock in the car, but the radio shows that play this content have the most idiotic, biggest asshole radio show hosts imagineable!) Well... I ALWAYS choose my iPod. It has NPR podcasts on it every morning for me to listen to, and once I have listened to NPR I can listen to the music of my choice. This is why more and more people are listening to media content. Radio stations should take note and be afraid! Like it or not, radio is dying because consumers have more pull options available to them than ever before.Tech

Same is true for video. Podcast can also deliver video. Yaay! Maybe this spells the end of crap TV, too!

It is safe to assume from my ramblings that I am enjoying the conference and am learning and thinking a lot. I'm actually excited to get back to work and start collaborating with my work friends on implementing all kinds of new ideas I am learning about...

Carl came with me. In the evenings we have been going out for fun in Las Vegas! Last night, we went to the Wynn hotel to see 'Le Réve,' a technologically awesome acrobatic show underwater. It was wild! It defies description, actually. We ate at an amazing Italian seafood restaurant before the show. Expensive but sooo yummy!

This morning we went to downtown Las Vegas to Fremont Street. Here is a panoramic photo of Carl, and where we were from Google Maps:




View Larger Map

Spring Fever, Glaucoma

Spring fever has started to settle in! I hardly feel like being in the computer lab these days. Yesterday Patti wanted to go for a walk, so she and I walked to Euclid and back (Carl and I have a PO Box there so I could have an ulterior motive for the walk). It barely helped. I have a hard time concentrating.

I have been helping Carl plant cacti and weird desert plants in the yard. To keep up my interest, I have asked him to give me an achievable task when I am doing yard work, so it tends to be 'put this cactus in the ground here' or 'dig a big hole with the pick here' or 'bury this irrigation tube,' but that way I feel like I have accomplished something when I'm done rather than being overwhelmed by how much yard work there still is to do. It's been working. I've plated several plants and what we have done looks nice.

Our 100 dollar vacuum broke this weekend. Cheap piece 'o crap, like lots of American made stuff in the past couple decades. We used to be land of the free, now we're land of cheap shit, selfish attitudes, and stupid voters. Sigh. Anyway, I pulled out a good old Electrolux we had in the garage and ordered parts from totalvac.com ... wow, what a great company! Here's a link if you have been looking for vacuum parts. I'll be able to fix up the Electrolux and have a great vacuum that will last another 50 years without spending too much, so that's a relief!

TotalVac


My 39th birthday was a couple weeks ago. Quite uneventful. Carl gathered a couple of my friends, Bobbi an Kathy, and took me to dinner. Mom and Dad sent me a check, which I used to upgrade our home telephone system. It was just a nice, regular day...

Last week I was diagnosed with glaucoma. Mine does not exhibit the usual high ocular pressure. They found it last year by examining my retina. This year they confirmed it. Bummer. I went in for more tests Monday. Hopefully I have not started losing vision yet. My ophthalmologist's office is terrible, though. The staff is so rude and they are disorganized, and if something happens for which they ought to be embarrassed, they glower and fume at you like it's your fault! I have yet to have a visit with them that isn't creepy for some reason or another, and that's not an exaggeration. I've been four times and every time they have been assholes! For example: last year I was sent the results of my field of vision test, and it wasn't even filled out! It made me less confident when I got the 'normal' results, they could have been covering up for misplacing the test or something after such a stupid lapse! This year I was given a follow up appointment, they didn't data enter it, and when I showed up for my afternoon appointment I had to fish my appointment card out of my bag. If I hadn't saved it, they would have turned me away! So I am grateful they caught my diagnosis so early, but I will be looking for an office I an trust for my ongoing care now. Try to avoid Eye Associates of Tucson... oy!

OMG! LOL... I just previewed this blog entry and I come across as such a crabby capitalist! Lauding and complaining about various businesses... LOL. I'm going to leave it as is. Guess this kind of moodiness is to be expected due to Spring Fever!