Archives by Date: April 2005
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April 30, 2005
Nashville Is Talking!
Cool: Today I came across Nashville is Talking, a blog and blogroll by Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN. On their About page, they call Nashville Is Talking "a blog devoted to the daily conversation that is news in the Greater Nashville community. If it's being discussed in Music City, we hope you'll find it here."
Long-time Nashville blogger Brittney Gilbert made the jump from waitress to professional blogger a few days ago. Monday through Friday from 8 to 5, she works in the WKRN newsroom.
Will other stations follow? Nashville is a pretty big market -- the 30th largest in the US.
· WKRN weblog aggregator launches [Rexblog]
· Dream Job [Sparkwood & 21, Brittney's blog]
· Nashville is Talking
Posted in on April 30, 2005, 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
April 29, 2005
Backpack by 37signals
I was lucky enough to receive a golden ticket for 37signals' latest: Backpack, to be released this Tuesday.
I haven't played with it much, but I'll say this: Wow. They've done it again. They describe Backpack as the "personal information you've been craving" -- and it's not too far from the truth.
I'm sure they'll be lots of buzz about this over the next few days.
Posted in on April 29, 2005, 04:00 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
April 25, 2005
TSA and Government Waste
An article in last week's New York Times told the sad, sad story of the bureaucratic Transportation Security Administration:
"The Transportation Security Administration wasted money on an operations office lavishly equipped with artwork, tens of thousands of dollars of silk flowers, expensive kitchen equipment and a state-of-the-art fitness center with towel service, according to a report by the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department that was released on Tuesday."
Among the items that the department's own inspector general found the agency wasted money on:
- $253,292 of artwork
- $29,032 for an art consultant
- $30,085 on silk plants
- $13,861 on lamps and other items
- Seven kitchens, nine microwave ovens, and 10 refrigerators (incluidng two expensive Sub-Zero models!)
The spending occurred in 2003 "while the agency was setting up a $19 million transportation security center...for 79 full-time employees."
What a mess.
Yet the most disturbing part of all this is a report published the same day "concluding that the TSA's airport screeners had made no progress since 2003 in detecting weapons or explosives."
Is it fair to say that the entire TSA is a huge waste of money? I'm not sure. It's about time for the TSA to stop worrying about things like banning lighters and fix itself.
· Transportation Security Agency Criticized [New York Times]
Posted in on April 25, 2005, 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
April 24, 2005
Six Apart Partners with MLB to Launch MLBlogs.com
Wow -- Om Malik reports that Six Apart has partnered with Major League Baseball to launch MLBlogs.com: "MLBLogs, a service of MLB.com, is the only blog service that offers the official colors and logos of every current MLB team."
Will users pay for something they can get for free from places like BlogSpot? The deal is obviously a steal for Six Apart, but why is MLBlogs.com so ugly? It's awful. The blog templates are a little bit better, but they seem to have advertisements on them. Right now I'm looking at one for Gameday Audio from MLB.com.
It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
· Major League Baseball, Six Apart Deal in the Works [Om Malik on Broadband]
· Now I Can Finally Blog at Work... [Ryan Nelson's Blog, MLB Web Developer]
· Major League Baseball Empowers Fans to Blog [Micro Persuasion]
Posted in on April 24, 2005, 02:48 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
April 20, 2005
Google Does It Again: Real-Time Stock Quotes
Google has done it again... they now offer real-time stock quotes. This, to me, is huge! Hundreds of web sites will give you stock quotes, but they are all 15 or 20 minutes delayed.
Yahoo, for example, charges $9.95 a month for this service.
Wow.
· Show Me The Money [Google Blog]
· Google adds real-time stock, ride info [ZDNet News]
Posted in on April 20, 2005, 11:20 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
April 18, 2005
Unrealistic Expectations and Bob Jones University
I usually try and avoid having unrealistic expectations. Apparently, the good folks at Bob Jones University don't feel the same way.
They made news a few years ago for dropping a ban on interracial dating on the heels of a visit by then-newly-minted President George Bush. President Bob Jones (I wonder if there's any relation...) called it a "rule we never talk about" and besides, they "can't back it up with a verse in the Bible."
Founded in 1927, approximately 5000 (very sheltered) students attend this unaccredited institution of higher learning in South Carolina. They offer 125 majors, but the five most popular are Bible, Counseling, Elementary Education, Humanities, and Nursing. They even have an elementary school. This school is certainly a tad different than the school I currently attend. But none of this actually bothers me.
Their unrealistic "student expectations" do. Some highlights:
- From their Student Expectations page: "Dishonesty, lewdness, sensual behavior, adultery, homosexuality, sexual perversion of any kind, pornography, illegal use of drugs, and drunkenness all are clearly condemned by God's Word and prohibited here." One of those things doesn't belong with the others... (Note: Personally, I don't think many of these things are "condemned by God's word," but...)
- Students can have jobs, but they may only work in town until 10:25pm (or midnight on weekends). Freshman must have a prayer captain, assistant prayer captain, or upperclassman with them. They can't serve alcoholic beverages, and have to be home by the nightly prayer meetings. Try meeting these constraints in the real world.
- "Abercrombie & Fitch and its subsidiary Hollister have shown an unusual degree of antagonism to the name of Christ and an unusual display of wickedness in their promotions. In protest, we will not allow articles displaying their logos to be worn, carried, or displayed (even if covered or masked in some way)." (from Dress Code)
- Don't even think about using an unfiltered internet connection or e-mail account. Luckily, the big brothers at BJU will remove everything objectionable from your internet feed so you don't have to!
My buddy Mike Rundle has much more on all this. As he says:
"Listen up BJU students, this is the real world talking. There is more to life than G-rated movies and lollipops, and if you get fooled into thinking the real world will hold your hand after college then you're living on a fantasy planet. Homophobia is stupid, hateful, and wrong, and by going to school at BJU you're perpetuating an ugly part of human nature. Life is more than white people sitting around campfires singing kumbayah and practicing abstinence, and the faster you figure that out the better a world citizen you'll be."
Posted in on April 18, 2005, 11:26 PM | Comments (4) | Permalink
Adobe Purchases Macromedia for $3.4 Billion
The Wall Street Journal tells me that "Adobe Systems Inc. announced the acquisition of Macromedia Inc. for $3.4 billion in stock in a deal that will bring together the software of two companies with broad resources to distribute documents, video and other media to personal computers, cellphones and hand-held devices."
Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, who will continue as chief executive in the new company, said of the two companies "we are probably twins separated at birth." I think that's going a bit far, but this is a huge deal that could have giant implications for web developers.
The mergers and acquisitions continue!
· Adobe Systems Buys Macromedia In Stock Deal [WSJ, Subscription Req'd]
· Google News Articles
Posted in on April 18, 2005, 12:18 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
April 15, 2005
My Day of Poor Customer Experiences
I just came back from a short trip to Washington on business, and it was awful. I kept running into poor customer experiences. A few specific culprits:
Amtrak is obviously having serious problems today. I travel Amtrak pretty regularly... in fact, last week I got a call asking me to participate in a focus group for them. So, imagine my surprise when booking my ticket yesterday I learn my Student Advantage discount now requires a three day prior purchase. They made no effort to communicate this to me. The only e-mail I get from Amtrak is trying to convince me to sign up for a credit card.
Today, Amtrak scored low points too. Fridays are peak travel times, especially on the Northeast Corridor. Apparently their fancy Acela service trains have cracks in the brakes and has been shut down "indefinitely," so everyone in the world tried to jam on an unreserved train.
For the record, I don't find Acela Express to be worth the almost double the cost. I've tried it a few times, and the trains have always left late and mysteriously crawled at some points. When you see cars getting there faster than the train, it's disappointing.
It was as crowded as a New York Subway -- I've never seen anything like it.
RadioShack was also disappointing. Minutes before I had to leave yesterday, I discovered my Dell Power Adapter had somehow frayed, rendering it useless. I had to use my laptop to make a presentation this morning.
My first thought when I arrived last night was to head to RadioShack -- surely they must have some kind of replacement power adapter. Well, they did, but it was out of stock at that store and every other store in the region. Yet OfficeDepot, right next door, had plenty in stock.
I ended up purchasing a Targus adapter. While it does power my laptop, my battery refuses to charge. Hopefully I can convince the $70 adapter to charge my laptop's poor battery. Otherwise, my laptop has turned into a paperweight.
How frustrating!
Posted in on April 15, 2005, 07:08 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
April 12, 2005
CNN's Inside the Blogs - Why So Poorly Produced?
There's been lots of talk about CNN's "Inside the Blog" segment on Inside Politics. Basically, two CNN staffers get in a studio with two Macs hooked up to large plasmas and attempt to tell the world what the "bloggers" are talking about that day.
Does anyone else think the segment looks awful? Two cameramen (that are frequently visible on-screen) shakily zoom into the plasmas as the CNN staffers highlight and scroll what they're reading. I rarely can even read what's on the screen.
Why not get a direct hookup to the video out like they used to use on TechTV? It can't be that hard... and it's pretty safe to say CNN won't stop covering blogs.
Perhaps there's something I'm missing, but come on CNN, get your act together.
Posted in on April 12, 2005, 05:17 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
April 06, 2005
BREAKING: GAWKER MEDIA LAUNCHES SPLOID
Today Gawker Media launched Sploid, its twelfth blog. While some would argue that I'm just biased, I'm a fan. Some would also argue it's not reallya blog. As Nick says:
"One thing the webheads among you will notice: the headlines are big and, in the default view, headlines are ranked by importance rather than by recency."
Stay tuned.
Posted in on April 06, 2005, 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
