Skype - Out, In, Etc.

I have found myself in the last several weeks using Skype a lot. We have had a couple of conference calls for AMP(Association of Music Podcasting) where I am President and I have been working with someone who is spending time on Acmenoise who will be working remotely with a distributed group of people. So I decided last night to take the big time Skype Plunge. I am going to ad a link to the blog, I bought a Skype In number I am going to publish and really want to see how far they can take this.

Edge of the Network Propaganda - Welcome to the Future

This is an incredible piece of videoblogging edge of the network propaganda by Chuck Olsen from Minneapolis. Do yourself a favor and check it out! Its witty and poignant. Cameraphones have replaced lighters at concerts. Classic.

The Scooter Diaries

Che Guevera rode a motorcycle through South America, as chronicled in The Motorcycle Diaries, and ended up departing his career as a physician in favor of becoming a revolutionary in the 3rd world. As we look to the mobile world and the incredible opportunities in edge of the network content we derive some of our inspiration from our scooters.

Podcast Broadcast

Infinity is creating an all podcast radio station called KYOU. More thoughts later...I've been aware of it for a little while and am curious to see what the execution is like.

Tate near San Jacinto

Tate near San Jacinto,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Having a great vacation.

ArtWalk

We came home early a day from vacation and decided to take a quick run down to the Little Italy section of San Diego to check out ArtWalk. It had been a number of years since we had been to this event as we try to go to Jazzfest in New Orleans on the same weekend most years. I was blown away. It had been a number of years since we had been there and it has grown substantially. In addition to the volume, the quality was awesome. Too many of these types of shows are heavy on the arts and crafts category. We picked up two small things by Grant Pecoff and Cynthia Colis. We had seen Grant's work for many years hanging in our favorite sushi bar in Solana Beach and couldn't walk away with out something small.

Mt. San Jacinto

Mt. San Jacinto,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

We took a break from the poolside for a quick trip up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. At the top we were six miles from the peak of Mt. San Jacinto. It was gorgeous. It reminded me of how much I miss hiking, which was something Jessica and I did a lot when we first started dating and well into the years before kids. I can't wait until I can make them march up with me. We had climbed this peak from the South Side probably 7+ years ago. 15 miles roundtrip. That's a good hike.

Google Video Upload Part Three

I got back from vacation and was anxious to check out my video that I uploaded on Google. Um, its still not there. Strange, but then it's free right? Its going to be really cool when putting video on the net is easier than configuring Trumpet Winsock to surf the Internet.

Lexis Nexis

Got back from vacation refreshed and ready to go. I had one interesting piece of welcome mail that I thought I would share. A couple of weeks ago when I heard about this story on NPR, I chuckled. Unfortunately for me I had two pieces of mail from Lexis Nexis when I got home. Ok, so I guess it wasn't that funny any more. I am going to be spending some time with them on the phone today and since I am a California resident I am "freezing my credit file". I'd recommend that if you live in California you should look into it.

Palm Springs

Each year around this time for many years my wife and I take a quick break by hauling out to Palm Springs and spending a little time by the pool on days where the temperature is between 90-100 F. This year we decided to take the brood.

All in all its been a good trip so far. I planned on not blogging or working or really doing much of anything. Today on a whim I fired up the laptop and found some free wifi. This from a house on a golf course. I guess that makes sense but in years past my cellphone barely worked.

I try to use this break to decompress and always try to read something I wouldn't normally read. (I normally read business and technology books). I think last year I was reading Free Culture but that might have been around July.

This year I am reading "From Jesus to Christianity" which is unlike anything I have read since Guns, Germs and Steel. I found myself slightly interested in the papal succession and had some lingering issues from reading The Da Vinci Code so the Michael White piece seemed like one of the better books on early church history. I have a friend Copil Yanez who undertook a study of the transformation of the Mormon Church as it achieved it's amazing current growth rates and began to smooth out the rough edges. Reviewing the foundations of early Christianity seems as interesting a topic. I'll let you know later.

Google Video Upload Part Two

Still can't find the file. Guess I'll try again...

Blogging, Riverside and Ned Cooney

I think that as you continue to blog, you increasingly understand the power of information and networks. Several months ago a friend from high school sent me an email as she had discovered my blog and wanted to see if I was the same Derrick Oien.

Recently I noticed a person from the City of Riverside had been reading my blog. Nobody came to mind, then I recalled that a friend I hadn't seen in like 10 years was the head of a non-profit in Riverside County. Rika Dotson, who was the other person mentioned previously was a friend of this person Ned Cooney as well. I emailed her to see if she knew his email address. I got it and sent him an email asking him if he was reading my blog. I didn't hear back.

We recently hired a system administrator who worked with us at MP3.com who is based in Montana. Scott comes down once in a while but generally overseas our managed hosting group here in San Diego from afar. Yesterday I got a call from Montana and I answered the phone, "Yeah Scott"
"Hey Derrick"
"This isn't Scott?"
"No it's Ned Cooney"
"What the hell are you doing in Montana?"
"How did you know I was in Montana?"
"My System Administrator lives there."
"Weird"

We had a great chat. I still don't know who in Riverside is reading, but it was great getting in touch with Ned.

Ourmedia Vs. Google Video

I have had a couple of hiccups getting my podcasts over to Ourmedia. I think they are going to figure it out soon, which will be great. I like the Ourmeda Publisher tool so far as it is really feature rich as far as metadata for content. I am a bit bummed that the files are getting stuck at the Internet Archive, but hey its almost there right?

So the Google Video tool is even easier. Except it doesn't really have any other information other than the file name. Hmmm. Ok. So I sent a file to the Google servers and guess what? It's not in my account. Maybe this whole video thing isn't so easy. I know when we did Mp4.com several years ago we realized that there is a lot to chew on here. The good news in all of this though is that hosting really heavy content on the Internet just got a whole lot cheaper. I mean free. The question I have to ask myself is what are the hosts going to do with it? It will be interesting to see.

TMobile Voicemail Upgrade Problems

I just searched around the web and I guess I must be one of the only ones, but I have to say that the new TMobile voicemail upgrade has driven me to the edge of my sanity. I have phones from just about every carrier (surprise, surprise) but TMobile is my primary carrier. Recently they took the voicemail program that they have been using for the last several years.

Aside from major changes in how the voicemail works, I have had a number of really cool new features like missed voicemails, voicemails that mysteriously appear hours or days later, voicemail icons that wont go away - or wont appear. I can't take it. So I can understand that as a user I have to change how I use my voicemail if they change software providers. What I don't understand is why it doesn't work. That's not good.

Google Video Upload

Been trying to try out Google Video Service. The tool is really straightforward, but I can't seem to get past the login screen. Must be really busy right now. It's hanging or something. Can't wait to see what they are doing. Oh, I am so thankful for that Gmail invitation that allowed me in. Anyone need one? ;-) Right.

Triplet Spotting

I was driving in heavy traffic tonight northbound in between meetings with our developers and our CFO. The car in front of me had a license plate frame that said "I used to have time...Then I had triplets." I quickly pulled alongside him and honked my horn while rolling down my window.

"Hey, I have triplets too!"
"Yeah, how old?"
"Four Months"
"Mine are 10 years old, there is hope, don't worry."

I waved and continued on.

The New Office Toy

53BN0059.jpg,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Someone is going to get hurt on this. We have two for racing...

AMP - Association of Music Podcasting website

The AMP website went up over the last couple of days. It looks awesome. Check it out!

We went to Fry's today

Can a trip to Fry's ever really be satisfying? There are too many things to buy and not enough time or money to ever make it feel as good as you think it will feel before you go in. That said, we bought the following:

An Apple Ipod Mini for Jessica. Blue. 4Gig

I bought a Ramsey's Electronics FM Stereo Transmitter. Back in October I wanted to do a little broadcasting from a low power transmitter. So after I lean how to use a soldering iron and I can find a couple of hours to spare, I'm finally going to give it a try.

Two Electric Powered Razor scooters. The office was feeling a little stark and Fry's didn't have any beanbags. I am sure these are going to be a lot of fun. I'll post a picture or a videopost soon.

Copyright and Grouper

Neil Berkman, who worked with me at Echo sent me this link to an LA Times story today about Grouper and pushing the boundaries of intellectual property law. Neil said it reminded him of what I was writing about in The Copyright Fairy pieces.

There is no question in my mind that there are opportunities to make money for those who can solve the technological and intellectual property issues around media. As I have said before I think the best way to facilitate that is to work with people who openly embrace the interaction between consumers, technology and media. Any other hair splitting approaches such as limiting to a certain number of people, or streaming not downloading, seems destined for litigation. Litigation as a component of a startup's business plan is generally not advised. Rare cases like Lindows aside, I think that staying clear of the controversy is the best path.

On the Media - MP3 and Podcast Link

Nick corrected me and pointed out that the link to the MP3 and the link to the podcast. Very cool.

My Ipod dilemma

Actually my wife's Ipod was purchased several years ago when Apple first released the Ipod. She used it a little bit but then it sat on the shelf for a while. I picked it up periodically as my running was sporadic. When the podcasting thing burst on the scene, I adopted the device as mine. I actually really got to like it as I have also been running regularly. Until recently. You see, my battery is finally dying. It started out as strange outages when there was still a charge left and just continued to get worse. I'd say at this point its pretty much toast.

My wife has decided she is going to train for a half marathon and wants the device back. Of course I am more than happy to give it back as it doesn't work. She probably wont have a sense of humor about it and the whole flawed battery thing might be lost on her. Because of this I guess I am going to buy her a new Ipod. The dilemma is what should I do. I could buy my own mini. Or another Mp3 player like the iRiver. Or I could get a PSP, but I don't think that is very practical. Choices. I'll report back on my shopping field trip later this week.

An Impending Period of Transitional Chaos For Media

You know what, I may not have heard the show Nick mentioned. I think I actually heard this one. Either way, if you like this kind of stuff I would check them both out.

On The Media - The Chaos Scenario

Nick sent me this link. The show entitled The Chaos Scenario is what he pointed out to me. I had actually heard a part of the show when I was taking my morning ride out for Starbucks/Heroin for me and my wife. The parts that I heard were really fascinating and in the middle of it I heard JD Lasica opining about the fate of traditional media. The really scary piece was the comment by Proctor and Gamble that media isn't working for them anymore. Ouch. When the worlds #1 advertiser isn't happy a change is on the way. Unfortunately the link is in a Real Networks format, so I won't be listening to it. Maybe I can find an MP3 out there somewhere...

Venture Money Flowing into San Diego

Tom Ryan sent me this link, which I read in the LA Time over the weekend that there is a significant influx of venture money into San Diego. It's great to see some recognition of the developing community of innovation that is popping up in our neck of the woods.

The $250 Million Radio Show #20 - The Best of Show

If you haven't bothered to listen to any of my podcasts, give this one a try. I think it is a great collection of bands that is both fresh and accessible. The Mp3 file is here. The credits are here. The podcast feed is here. If you have listened, please keep on listening.

Hunter S Thompson's 21 Gun Salute

It appears that even in death Hunter is a man of amazing originality. He is going to have his ashes shot out of a cannon.

Harvard Preschool

Full disclosure - I didn't go to preschool. Hell, I went to an inner city suburban high school. Worse than that, I briefly attended a private liberal arts school in Oregon before completing my accomplished education at the prestigious California State University, Los Angeles (Magna Cum Laude no less) while working a full time job at Sony Pictures.

So my son Tate is supposed to be entering preschool we are told at the ripe old age of three. Now I am sure that my parents, who must have been clueless, or aspired to my spending my early years in oblivious play, didn't know any better. We on the other hand were vaguely aware of these horror stories about putting your kids on the waiting list of these schools soon after they are conceived. I found this to be ridiculous and waited (gasp) until he was 1 1/2. Since that time we have been begging, pleading, and doing whatever we can to get him into the preschool near our home that does seem like a great place.

That said, I can't believe that our generation, who I believe generally didn't attend preschool can be so caught up in the insanity of trying to get our kids into this school or that school at such a young age. So on with the school. Apparently we made it just by the skin of our teeth. Or so it seems. I am waiting with great anticipation to have a discussion of quantum physics or trends in non representational art in the early 20th century with my son sometime around the age of four. I am certain that it will be an engaging discussion. Oh, and when he is five, he is going to public school.

Handsets, Handsets, Handsets

53500041.jpg,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Too bad handsets aren't as easy to work with as PCs...

Google Map Part 2

My office is here. This is a super cool way to take maps to a new level. I'm not sure what the utility is yet, but the cool factor is off the map. :-)

U2 in San Diego

52U50030.jpg,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

I was amazed by the number of camera phones and actually camcorders at the U2 concert. Here is one I snapped. I have more over on Flickr.

My Current Media

Not much really because we are so busy. That said there are a couple of things:

U2 Concert: We caught the second night of the opening dates of the U2 Tour at the San Diego Sports Arena. It was a great show and IMHO was better than the last tour although I have to admit I have spent next to no time with the new CD so far. The show was a nice mix between intimacy, which my wife liked, and the hints of big media from the Zoo TV era, that I enjoy. I definite must see.

Music: Mars Volta - Francis The Mute. I had heard that this was the new Pink Floyd, etc. etc. I grabbed a copy the other day when I was making one of the only vehicle trips to Los Angeles in the last year (I almost exclusively take the train). So armed with the CD, I headed out. I was blown away. This is an awesome album. At times it is very inaccessible, but if you wait through the really strange parts you are totally rewarded with amazing sections. I think this is a really cool trend in hipster music away from some of what has become formulaic emo punk and towards something that is progressive revival / psychedelic revival. This CD and the Coheed and Cambria CDs are both examples to me of an interesting new chapter in new music that I hope takes off quickly.

Dirty Windows & Butterflies

My car, which is usually in bad need of a car wash anyways, is currently coated in the remains of many dead butterflies. Apparently the largest heard of butterflies in recent memory has been created by the record rainfall in San Diego and Mexico and literally tens of thousands of them are flying north to Oregon. Why I am not sure. It really is an amazing site though. I'll have to whip out the camera this afternoon.