RSS with Enclosures or MRSS

One of the groups I am on had an accidental post from another group. These groups were a certain discussion on Ourmedia, Videoblogging and MRSS. I hadn't heard of MRSS, but they pointed to the specification here.

It will be interesting to see if a distributed media RSS war develops along the lines of MP3, Real Audio, WMA circa 1999.

San Diego Blogger Con

Some of the people at San Diego Blog are trying to set up a San Diego Blogger Con. That's cool. After attending BloggerCon III it felt like doing something locally would be really fun.

Safe and Sound Nannies

On the topic of customer service, we hired an agency to assist us in finding a nanny last year when we lost our son's first nanny. We obviously had some challenges and I won't claim that we don't own part of the problem. When we got to the start of the year, I shared with the company that we had hired that we had just had triplets, my wife had been hospitalized, my son had gotten very sick etc. I also said we want to sit down with them to discuss our needs. The principal of the company said she was glad to but wouldn't be in San Diego until the middle of February. When we had problems before and I had requested to meet with her, she had told me she couldn't as she was in Colorado at the time. When I realized that she was in Colorado for most of the first two months of the year I left her a message stating that we wanted a refund on a prorated portion of her fee and that we wanted to part ways. I got this response:

From: Ann Wycoff, Ph.D. [mailto:wycoff@safeandsoundnannies.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 6:01 PM
To: 'shapery@cox.net'
Subject: nanny conflict

Dear Derrick,

In response to your phone message of January 4, 2005 where you requested a pro-rated refund I would like to review the following events:

You signed a fee agreement with Safe and Sound Nannies on April 19, 2004. We began a search for a qualified nanny for your family at that time. We sent you Person A, an experienced nanny, on or about April 25, 2004 but because of your family's travel plans, you were unable to make a decision regarding her because your wife was out of town and was unable to meet her in a timely manner. In the meantime, Person A was hired by another family. We then sent you Person B information on May 7, 2004. Person B has been a nanny since l994. We placed her in her last nanny position and she worked for that family successfully for 3 years. You interviewed Person B and hired her. She started working for you in June, 2004. In late June I called you to check on her performance and collect our placement fee. At that time you said you were unsure about whether you wanted to keep her. I told you to take your time to be sure she is the right fit for your position before you pay our fee. I did not charge our fee at that time. I called you again approximately 2 weeks later and you still were unsure about whether you wanted to keep her. I told you at that time that it was probably best if you did not hire her and did not pay our fee, and we could stop there. We had other families who were interested in Person B. You said you would call me in a few days and make a decision. You called on July 12, 2004 and said you wanted to keep Person B as your nanny and pay our fee. We billed our placement fee to your credit card on July 12, 2004. You called me approximately 2 weeks later, on or about July 26, 2004, and said you were unhappy with Person B and needed a replacement nanny as soon as possible. Although Person B expressed complaints about working conditions to me, I supported your decision completely and promised you I would make you our top priority and find you a qualified replacement. You made it clear that you needed a replacement as soon as possible. You reiterated that this was a busy time for you and you needed a nanny very soon. It is rare for one of our nanny placements to not work out, and we take our replacement policy very seriously. We (Safe and Sound Nannies) immediately spent substantial funds advertising extensively and spent substantial time interviewing nannies for your position. Because our screening process is thorough, and because we only send qualified nannies to our clients, we usually interview at least 15 nannies by phone before we find 1 whom we are interested in pursuing further. Of those whom we pursue, usually 1 out of 5 pass the standardized, statistically validated personality screen, have excellent references (which we speak with personally), and give us an excellent in-person interview. In addition to meeting those qualifications, the right nanny for your position needed to be open to working 50 hours per week, have flexibility in her schedule, have the energy, willingness and ability to handle triplets and another child, (or be willing to work with another nanny) be willing to commute to Cardiff, and desire a long term commitment. Knowing that you were in a hurry, we put other families' needs aside so that you would not be inconvenienced, and we concentrated on finding qualified candidates for you as quickly as possible.

On August 4, 2004, we e-mailed information to you on Person C, including her application, references, and phone number. Person C had worked with children since l996, had a college degree, an excellent personality screen, excellent references, an excellent in-person interview, and was interested in your position. She also lived in Encinitas, which is close to your home. We find very few qualified nannies who live in Encinitas and we were excited to have found her. In addition to sending you the e-mail, I also called you to let you know about Person C. You agreed to call her but you did not.

On August 7, 2004, we e-mailed information to you on Person D. Person D had 10 years of experience, 22 child development college units, 4 excellent references, an excellent personality screen and an excellent interview. She was interested in your position. We had placed her in her last position of 2 years and the family gave her a beautiful reference. You did not call Person D either.

On August 10, 2004 I called you again and asked you if you were going to call our candidates. You expressed dismay that Person D was asking for $14/hr but that is the same hourly rate that you had offered and agreed to pay Person B. You said you were going to hire a family friend temporarily and would need a nanny sometime in November. You wanted to put the search "on hold". I mentioned that we had gone to extensive cost and effort to find you qualified replacements and you hadn't called either candidate, although you had told me you needed a replacement as soon as possible. You made no justification for failing to call the candidates. You sent me an e-mail the next day expressing your dismay that I had brought up the effort we had expended on your behalf. Although we had met our commitment to you as set forth in our agreement by sending you 2 qualified replacement candidates, I was willing to accomodate you over and above the parameters of our contract, and I told you we would search for a nanny to start in November. You did not call me in November. In December you sent me an e-mail asking me to call you after the New Year. I called you on Monday, January 3, 2005 as you had requested and you said you "may have decided" that you need a live-in nanny; you weren't sure what you wanted and would talk with your wife and call me on January 4, 2005. We don't place live-ins, and you and I discussed that in-depth during our first conversation in April, 2004. At that time you hired us to find you a live-out nanny. On January 4, 2005 you left a phone message saying "my wife and I can't work with you because you're not located in San Diego" and you wanted a pro-rated refund.

Safe and Sound Nannies operates a fully staffed office in San Diego. Although I spend a portion of my time in Colorado, my home is in Carlsbad and I participate fully in screening, checking references, and interviewing every nanny candidate who passes our initial criteria. I personally review every psychological screen on every candidate. I employ an experienced, trained, full-time assistant who is physically working in our San Diego office Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. and often on Saturdays. My assistant was trained personally by me and has participated in over 500 in-person intervierws with me in our San Diego office. She and I continue to interview candidates together in-person in our San Diego office. In the event that I cannot interview a nanny in-person, my assistant interviews her in-person in our office and I participate fully through a webcam and speaker phone. Every nanny is interviewed by both my assistant and me so that we have the perspective of 2 interviewers for each candidate. Every family who uses our service works directly with me.

Please refer to our fee agreement which states: "Safe and Sound Nannies agrees that should the service relationship between client and selected candidate be terminated before the 180th calendar day following the candidate's start date, Safe and Sound Nannies will present at least 2 additional qualified candidates, OR, at Safe and Sound Nannies' sole discretion, provide a pro-rated refund. This paragraph is not applicable if the service relationship is terminated because the position is eliminated..."

Safe and Sound Nannies provided "at least 2 additional qualified candidates" to you. Also, your position was eliminated when you hired a family friend. We accomodated you within the paramaters of our contract. We have hereby fulfilled our obligations to you and you are therefore not entitled to a pro-rated refund or any further actions on our part. Please direct any questions to my controller, Stephen Parker at (619) 987-4894, who will be happy to discuss the matter further. He will also be happy to provide you with his e-mail address upon request. I will not be involved in or respond to any further comunication on this matter either by phone or e-mail.

Regards,

Ann Wycoff

BitTorrent Made Simple?

I am eager to see how BitTorrent plays out as a distribution mechanism for media. This article by Marc Eisenstadt is a worthwhile, if long read if you are interested in the topic. If you are more interested on a quick hands on how to, he points to this article which gives a nice step by step. I haven't tried it yet, but as soon as I get some free time I will see if I can BitTorrent my podcast.

Wireless Sensor Networks Pt. 5 - This technology in action

Longtime readers have seen previous mentions of wireless sensor networks and motes by companies such as Ember and Dust. My last comment was here. One of the pilot projects has made really good progress and currently they have an online reporting system that tracks the status of temperature within a perishable pile of organic material to check for hot spots and spoilage.

If the company can find early indications of spoilage they can attempt to arrest the issue before the loss grows. Look at this report. If you navigate to layer 4, you can see a hotspot where the temperature is significantly higher than the surrounding sensors.

The application of these types of sensors in manufacturing and agriculture holds great promise for understanding environments at a system level and determining ways to solve problems before they start. Maybe this is why Robert Metcalfe of Metcalfe's law and Ethernet is spending his time on this kind of technology.

Triplet Video Post

Posted a triplet video here. Thought it was worth sharing.

Dave Harper - WinkSite

Two months ago, almost to the day, Dave Harper sent me a link to an article he posted regarding User Generated Content. I had intended to make a specific comment to his post, i.e., where I agreed and disagreed. I unfortunately didn't get around to doing that, and as I go through my drafts cleaning up some unfinished quotes I returned to the article today.

The topic, which is of course what I have focused on in what I am doing around blogging/podcasting and now video blogging, seems poised for a lot of attention this year as more tools of self publication and more methods of deriving and aggregating distribution appear.

Instead of commenting on Dave's post specifically, I would refer you to look at the article, but more importantly to the list of discussions and references Dave cites. Dave has provided links to 11 articles, one of which is mine, that talk about various aspects of user generated content. If you take the time to read my blog and are interested in this area, I think it is a worthwhile investment to read the article and the links provided.

The $250 Million Radio Show #13

New show posted here. Information here.

Other Media Stuff - Podcast page and Videoblog experiment

I kind of like to keep things separate so I set up a new page for The $250 Million Radio show. I will announce new shows here but pretty much everything else will be there. The feed will remain the same.

I also wanted to play with videoblogging and didn't want to just talk into my camerphone and I didn't want to mix it in with my normal blogging, so I decided to do a cheesy phone based documentary piece at The Phone Startup Project. I even went in and edited the dircaster php script to create an RSS 2.0 feed for the 'project'. The RSS feed for this can be found there as well.

When I more completely understand videoblogging I will post the occasional piece here, but for the most part I will limit it to the other page for the time being.

Vloggercon

Been reading in my feeds a lot of buzz about video-blogging etc. I finally went over to the site for Vloggercon and was amazed at the in page video integration of the video blog. So I joined the Yahoo group and swear that sometime in the next week or two I am joining the Vloggers with video posts here. I highly recommend checking it out. I need to see if I can play it on my phone though....

Real Time Media Prosumers

Anyone who reads this blog knows that recently my wife and I welcomed three new additions into our family. I like to keep the blog focused on the intersection of user generated content, technology and media, but occasionally take the liberty to intersperse the personal. As this was a unique event, I thought it worthy of sharing.

When my first child was born, I documented, rather a friend documented the event with a DVCam. Several months later I spliced together various cuts and made a DVD using Pinnacle software for our various family members. This was personal media creation and sharing. At the time I thought this was really impressive as I had spent some time working with Super 8 film and found the editorial process of this medium not really well suited to me.

The revolution in desktop video is being led by Apple and Pinnacle and others as they put professional, or arguably professional quality tools in the hand of consumers. If you take the time to get familiar with the tools, you can get a product that is definitely worth sharing with others.

Fast forward two years. As I waited in the prep room with my wife, I was armed with the same DVCam, a Sony Cybershot camera, and a Sony Ericsson P910. As we waited for the appointed time for the c-section, I periodically snapped pictures with the cell phone and immediately posted them to Flickr. I had told friends and family to look at my blog on the photostream section and they could see the event happen in as real time as I could provide. Periodically I fired up Opera on my cell phone and added some blog posts for commentary.

During the delivery we filmed a good portion of the time immediately after the babies arrived with the DVCam and then resumed stills with the cell phone and the camera. That night as I returned home I uploaded images from the camera to Flickr and then used the cross posting capabilities to post back on blogspot.

During this time period I had as many visits to my blog as I have had when I have had posts covered by Unmediated or Waxy or Dave Winer. Theses were not bloggers, rather they were family and friends sharing in a real time way an event that we wanted to share with others.

During the holidays in between feedings I reflected on how transformative this ability to use network connected personal media devices to create information to share with others. When you consider this type of activity and blogging and podcasting and a host of other activities, I think that we are clearly at the dawn of a period where media turns in on itself and we all become Real Time Media Producers and Consumers or Real Time Media Prosumers.

JD Lasica wrote a great post today that got me to the keyboard to write this. It will be interesting to see how the mainstream market adapts to these concepts and decides what are the right tools/software/services/distribution channels for this type of media.

FOAF

I have been doing some standards research for some technologies that may or may not be important to the some of the products we are developing. One of the areas I have been looking at is FOAF. After filing out my profile on Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut, Match.com, and way too many other services that have the same profile information over and over again, the promise of one FOAF file that I can use for all these types of services certainly holds out some promise.

Right now it looks kind of lightweight to me, but when they finish this version of a FOAF creation tool, then this will be interesting.

P1010854

P1010854,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

This is just funny.

New Years Eve Podcast - The $250 Million Show #12

Recorded with a real mic and about 10 minutes longer than normal. Find it here.

Featuring

3 Dates Later
P.R.Y.D.E.
Tourist
Super Happy Fun American TV Family Death Challenge
Eight Page Pullout
Guys On Couch
Rocket Dial

One more thought

Mark Cuban drives me nuts, but this is brilliant.

Reflecting on 2004

With the exception of my wife's health problems AFTER the triplet pregnancy(which are much better), 2004 was a great year full of many personal, family and professional highlights including in no particular order:

1. 10th anniversary
2. Birth of the Triplets
3. Son's second Birthday
4. Fantastic Trip to Belize
5. Founded a new business
6. Started Blogging - and kept on going.
7. Started a Podcast

Lots of travel, lots of new friends, lots of re-connecting with old friends. All in all a banner year. As for next year I resolve the following:

1. Launch our first product very soon.
2. Keep family #1 on my priorities.
3. Keep on media networking (blogging and podcasting and whatever else, can you say Vlogging?)


Well I am sure there are other things like, coolest technology of the year (P910), favorite new website (Flickr) best new bands, best books etc. but I think that its time to wrap it up until next year.

Life, Death and Health

These last several weeks my blogging has taken on a more personal tone, which is to be expected with the birth of a child, or in my case a bunch of children. I had anticipated getting back to my usual fodder, but the last week has been a bit crazy. So much so that I haven't been really posting or doing anything other than trying to manage the chaos at home.

Following my wife's homecoming, she began experiencing strange cold spells that happened over several days. We weren't sure what the issue was, but the third episode last Wednesday was so intense and was accompanied with restricted breathing that resulted in a 911 call. She was evacuated to a nearby hospital and we spent the next 24 hours determining if it was HELP syndrome, pneumonia or kidney infection or a combination. She remained hospitalized until yesterday and is now doing better but has some lingering issues that don't seem that bad.

In the meantime our 2 1/2 yr old contracted Croup and Bronchitis, which is very dangerous around preemies. We had to scramble to isolate him and my wife from the triplets, and everything seems to have gotten on the right path.

It is at these times that the fragile nature of life, death, and our health comes into focus and you truly appreciate how amazing the human body and modern medicine have become. We keep crossing our fingers and hope that by this time next week everything will return to normal.

Tate with his "$600 Christmas Gift"

Between Xmas and New Year 009,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

My aunt Gladys sent Tate a card and $2 for Christmas. We asked Tate what this was and he said it was $600. We fell on the floor laughing and I had to snap this picture for her as a thank you. Captialism starts young.

P910 Review Part 2 - The prototypical PMD

When I decided to buy the Sony Ericsson P910, I didn't just want another fancy phone. Shawn and I have spent countless hours talking about the evolution of what we refer to as the Personal Media Device. This "PMD" or whatever you want to call it, isn't just a cool phone that can take pictures and make phone calls. This is the device where we originate, consume, and experience content in an always connected and location aware setting.

We see devices become ever more complex and capable of doing amazing things. We see networks evolve into high speed data pipelines that don't really care about who/how/or what they are connected to. Traditional media is created at the center of the network with expensive production budgets. The future world of media, media created at the edge of the network is quickly sprouting up around us as evidenced by blogging, podcasting, self publication, social networking as construct for media dissemination, etc.

So my personal exploration was to find the device or devices that gave me the best glimpse into what that world will look like. I looked at a variety of devices and ultimately decided on the Sony Ericsson P910 for a variety of reasons including some personal bias given my history with Sony and my devotion to a lot of their products.

The device I wanted to use had to meet a number of criteria including:

1. The ability to access the Internet and actually recreate the web experience on the phone.
2. The ability to create media, whether that is pictures, video, or text.
3. The ability to consume media, again along a variety of media types.
4. Good form factors and usability.
5. The ability to eliminate my laptop on business trips.

My take on the P910 is as follows and not necessarily in the order above:

Size and form factor: The P910 is a bit bulky compared to all of my previous phones. Although it is large, it is fairly lightweight. Although I appreciate this as I usually carry a phone in my pocket, I am concerned about the ruggedness of the device once I experience the inevitable drop. The P910 is an interesting device from a form factor because of it's multiple modes on input including normal handset keypad, a thumbpad(a shrunken version of the Blackberry for my money) and a touch screen data entry facility. In addition to this I have augmented the data entry capability by purchasing a Bluetooth full size keyboard. This keyboard is a critical piece to addressing criteria number 5 in my personal checklist.

Overall I have found the size to be fine although not as sleek as the Audiovox that Scoble raves about. The thumbpad is not something that is really useful for a largish sort of man with big digits as I fear I am going to break it off. That said, I find myself varying the different input modes as the situation dictates and find that I like the flexibility and actually use the thumbpad at times. All in all I think that I rate this area as above average.

Software: I like the Symbian OS. It has some bugs that one can expect on any sort of device, but the P910 comes shipped with a variety of applications that allow me to live in the Microsoft required business world I live in, while giving me a lot of flexibility. Specifically the piece I am most happy about with respect to hardware is the presence of the Opera browser. I love how Opera works on this handset. Aside from some network configuration issues I experienced, it has been awesome. In addition to the shipped software, you can get a variety of Symbian UIQ software that has been successful on previous versions of this device (P800 and P900). The biggest disappointment on the hardware side was the limites support for PIM software other than Outlook and Lotus. I regrettably had to migrate from ACT to Outlook which has been disappointing as I think Outlook is a really buggy and disappointing PIM relative to packages like ACT and Goldmine.

In general all of the software I have used has been good and I have tried to really push the handset and have generally felt that is has responded well.

Bluetooth: I love Bluetooth, but the P910 has highlighted some of the bugs associated with Bluetooth which I think is a given when you start to push the limits of bluetooth functionality. I have a Jabra headset that I use with the phone, the laptop and for my podcasts. I have had intermittent problems with dropped connections with the headset and the handset and I have had one major pairing drop off that I found disappointing. In addition to this I have the Bluetooth keyboard that really highlights the bluetooth failings. If I am typing rapidly with the keyboard while connected, I get a serious lag and sometimes dropped pairing. Not good, but if I route around this issue, I can get by.

Internet Access: I have had great success with Internet connectivity. My Blackberry style email functionality is addictive and wrong. I need to stop checking email every ten minutes when I am offline. IM works great. Internet surfing works great. The biggest issue has been network related and I think that relatively speaking the handset and network have performed adequately given the state of this type of technology.

Media Creation: Love it. The camera is a bit light, I wish it were megapixel. That said, the pics are of decent quality and I used the phone to document realtime the birth of our triplets. I guess that might be kind of weird, but the family and friends watching thought it was cool. The video capture is nice too. I need to find a videoblogging hosting site to start posting. I used the sound recorder to record a portion of my podcast, the $250 Million Radio show. I have used the keyboard and blogger to write some of my recent posts including some of the posts right before my kids were born last week.

Media Consumption: Nice. I use Bloglines to keep up to date on my RSS feeds. I can check out any website I normally would surf on my computer, on my phone. I have downloaded both the Daily Source code and Morning Coffee Notes in the last several days. This is the one area that I am a bit disappointed in. The speaker kind of sucks. Adam sounded great. Dave was hard to hear. If I could have transferred the sound to my Bluetooth headset that would have fixed the problem but it isn't an option. Apart from this I can download and play MP3 files and stream video to the phone.

PC Replacement: This device is really close. I can do all my Internet related stuff, email, IM and website surfing. I can review and do minor edits of all Microsoft apps. I can view PDF files. I have a memory slot port that takes up to a GIG. I have a full sized keyboard that is a little buggy, but generally works. If I am traveling with prepared docs for meetings I am good to go. If I have to edit and change docs, I think this falls down.

Conclusion: This is the first PMD that I have owned and it really speaks to me about a world that is just around the corner. A world where you can document your life on the fly, while you run your business, stay in touch with family and friends, and where technology recedes into the background. There are probably cheaper alternatives, but if you want to see why the P900 is the best selling smartphone, and to get a glimpse of your future mobile connected world, I think that the investment is a worthwhile sip at how our world is going to change in the very near future.

Evolving Personalized Information Center

This is really cool. It is a long clip that a friend pointed me to from a recent Slashdot post. Although this is a dystopian version of what may happen, it encapsulates many of the trends that the people I speak with see emerging as the future of media distribution.

P910 Review Part 1 - TMobile

I don't think you can really do a review of a cell phone without some extensive commentary on the carrier you use. Before I go into a really deep review of the Sony Ericsson P910, I thought that some comments on my carrier, TMobile, made sense as a starting point. As some added context I should add that I have a Verizon account and phone, a LG VX6000 and my wife has a Sony Ericsson T637 that she uses with her Cingular account.

I originally set up my account with TMobile after I left Vivendi. I wanted to have a really flexible cellular plan and relatively consistent bills. Most plans in my opinion are predicated on getting you to go over plan and then pay some heinous fees. As I was usually talking on the phone between 1500-3000 minutes a month, I opted for a 5000 minute plan. I knew that it would be next to impossible to go over that amount of time. The base rate for this plan was $99 a month. I added several customizations to the account including:

TZones which gives me unlimited Text Messages
And Tmobile Internet Access (I used to have Tmobile WIFI)

All in I pay around $150 a month with taxes and 411 calls.

Over the last two years I have been generally happy with the service and have noticed a steady improvement over time, probably partially as a result of the acquisition of the Cingular cell towers after the ATT and Cingular Merger.

For the purposes of this review the following are the most relevant to my experience:

Tmobile Internet GPRS
Tmobile Tzones GPRS

When I originally purchased my P910, I simply inserted my SIM chip into the phone and away I went. Everything worked, Email, IM, and Opera. Over the next two weeks, I hit a really bad snag. I could get the default Sony Browser to work, but I couldn't get Opera to work. Opera is the only way to go from my experience, so I spent a lot of time, backing up, reinstalling software etc. Finally I called TMobile. I should have done this first.

I had to be handed to Level 2 and Level 3 support on the various calls I made over the several days I was trying to debug this, but they were always really helpful and knowledgeable about what I was trying to accomplish. I would recommend that anyone using Tmobile with this handset call immediately to get your configuration set.

From a performance standpoint I have been happy. I wish that the handset supported EDGE connectivity, and that TMobile offered it, but generally website load times and email transfer times have been really reasonable given my previous GPRS experiences on a less advanced handset.

In conclusion, I have been really happy with Tmobile in general, and with this handset in particular. I think Tmobile has done a really good job creating a price leading and feature rich network that should fit most people's needs.

So without further ado, the P910 Review in the next post.

Podcasting Chuckle

Wow do I have a backlog of RSS feeds, emails and podcasts. I can see that the next couple of days are going to be busy. In the meantime, check out this.

The $250 Million Radio Show #11

Show #11 featuring:

Deron 5L
The Gospel of Gloom and Gladness
Hutch
Justin and Tomek
3 Dates Later

File

Everyone came home

We all came home yesterday. The triplets never made a trip to the NICU, and now they are all home with us. Tomorrow, back to normal posts. I will continue to post some pics on Flickr for a while, but no more commentary, unless of course I can't help myself.

Thanks again.

A New Normal

Well it's been two days and we are taking it a day at a time. Tate has met the new intruders and he seems to like them. Jessica is recovering well and we expect her to go home Saturday. We aren't sure yet when the babaies will get cleared, but we think it will be soon thereafter. Thanks for the emails and calls.

Long Day

Triplets 020,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Ok, so far so good. The triplets managed to stay out of the NICU. We still have a ways to go, but mom and babies are doing great right now. More new non-cameraphone pics on Flickr.

All is well

Mom is doing great.

Mallory 5lbs 9oz
Brit 5lbs 4oz
Tucker 5lbs 5oz

Minutes away

I am standing by. 1

Ok this time it's for real

We are doing the c-section tomorrow morning at 9AM. Guaranteed. Tomorrow I add to the worlds population problem. Oh well. Seriously though, I have to admit that I am struck by the idea that I am going to meet three new people tomorrow who are my children. I guess that isn't a common occurrence.

So as for that P910 review I am working on, and a miscellaneous post about user generated content, I guess they will have to wait. Pics can be found at my Flickr site. View it in semi real time.

Media I am Consuming Now

Books - Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media

TV - NFL, Anything HD like Discover, HDNet, etc. Wow HD is beautiful.

Games - Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas. After you get stuck on a mission, nothing satisfies like cruising around and beating people senseless. Or not.

Music - Pink Martini, Killers, Bright Eyes, My Chemical Romance, Fear Before the March of Flames, Johhny Cash, Cafe Tacuba.

Podcasts - Daily Source Code, Dawn and Drew, Evil Genius Chronicles.

Ringback Part Three

Tmobile launched Ringback yesterday under the name CallerTunes. Of course, I had to try it. Yeah sounds like a good idea, until you actually realize that everyone who calls your phone is going to hear a song. I could play some punk rock. Yeah, not good for business. I could play some classical. No, people might think they are in a telemarketing zone. I really don't know what to do. I ended up selecting Jingle Bells by Willie Nelson as it seemed like the least offensive alternative. The song plays for a really long time before going into voicemail. I think this is going to be a problem.

I have a really good idea though. If you had a personal message that was your ringback tone then that would be cool. "Hey I know you are calling me. If I am around I will answer your call. Unless I don't like you. Then you get voicemail. Then I won't call you back. So if you haven't gotten the hint...." Anyways you could see where that goes.

I jumped the gun...

Its going to be next week. The little ones need to cook a bit longer. Sigh.

MY WIFE AND I ARE HAVING TRIPLETS!!!!!!

Wow. I can't believe it. We are awaiting the results from an amnio test to see if their lungs are ready. If this test is good, then they come out tomorrow at lunch time. I obviously won't be posting much for the next couple of days, but I will be sending a ton of pictures to Flickr. I did a ton today. So if you want to see what happens the URL and RSS feed are below:

URL

RSS

Why Do I Blog - Media Networking

I saw the posts on this and thought I would add my thoughts about my motivation....so without further ado, Why Do I blog?

1. Gene Hoffman. When I first met Gene, which I think was 3 years ago, I started checking out his blog that was published on something called Movable Type. I thought this was SOOOOOO Geeky, but his writing was, as Gene is, very interesting. That said, I think his wife Heather is an even better writer. I didn't get it at first, but I thought that this was a really cool way to do web diaries, if I could just figure out how to use that strangely named tool.

2. Education. When I started blogging last spring, it was to understand what the experience was like. I know that I have some serious ADD, and this had the promise of documenting for me, the various things I am interested in over time and it would be the only way to understand firsthand this thing called blogging. I wanted to understand what this medium does for users. Today, I still learn new things as I continue to indulge in my ongoing education and conversation with myself and others.

3. Media Networking - In a world of a million channels, a world where it is harder than ever to find what you are looking for, people will find you through the media you create. I have found that by documenting periodically the things I am doing, seeing, thinking about, I can keep in touch with the many people I have become fortunate enough to call friends. It is a way to keep people posted about what's going on with you, and for you to follow what others are doing. Even more interesting than the people you already know, are the people you find you meet when you put yourself out there.

In the last several months, I have been contacted by people I haven't spoken with in 10-20 years. I have also made the acquaintance of many really interesting people like JD Lassica and others who are fascinated with media in the same way I am. I have talked to people about TV sets. I have had people email me to find out the name of a band on my podcast.

We will distribute media through our network of friends. We will find our friends through the media they create. We will meet people who have common interests through the media that we each create. At a fundamental level, this is why I blog.

The $250 Million Radio Show #10 - The Triplet Special

Ok, so we have the triplet c section scheduled for Friday at noon, barring any sudden change. Here is a nice little pre-triplet podcast. Catch you on the other side.....

Featuring:

Illroot
Foreverdown
Madison
Tourist

Microsoft Passport Insanity Part Two

David Weinberger has a similar issue, although I wasn't as troubled by the kissy face thing.

Sony Lawsuit against Blogger

I read about Kottke getting nasty legal threats from Sony and liked this post here. Having worked at a company that was sued, and PAID OUT over $250 Million dollars to content companies, I am painfully aware of the use of copyrighted material. It would behoove those of us who want to comment and hold stuff out there for others to get acquainted with the copyright laws. If we don't like the ways that the laws are being written, and enforced, we need to do something about it by calling our legislators and creating alternative models that don't step on the laws and invite trouble.

Aside from any issues of newsworthiness etc., the content companies are clearly within their rights to take the actions that they do, and it is a rational approach given existing law. I think the comments that Lawrence Lessig makes regarding the need to change these laws should become important reading material for people who don't like the state of the law.

Ringback Comments

I hadn't checked my RSS feeds this AM, but MocoNews links to this article that suggests that Ringbacks may be a passing phase like when you played that stupid song on your voicemail that you required your friends and family to listen to before they could leave a message.

Ringback

This morning I had to call our development partner, eMbience, to discuss some product related items. I called Nimish on his cell phone as it was early and I wanted to make sure I spoke with him directly. When the call apparently connected to his cell phone to ring, I heard what I think was a waltz by Beethoven. I am not quite sure which piece, but it was obviously something classical. If I weren't a cell phone geek, I probably would have hung up the phone and tried calling back again. Because I am a cell phone geek, I listened to the phone for a while and then Nimish answered the phone.

As a fan of new cell services, this is really cool. As a general consumer, I am not quite sure I get it. Without some kind of education or information, it felt like I went into some kind of phone telemarketing hell, or my phone wasn't working right. I am sure as consumers figure it out it will be cool like ringtones, but I expect there is going to be a lot of head scratching for a bit.

Microsoft Insanity - MSN Spaces .Net Passport

Ok, so I am more than interested to see what Microsoft has come up with as it relates to blogging and I am very curious what Spaces has. Of course when I go to set up an account, Microsoft requires me to have a .Net passport account. End of demo. I refuse.

When every other blogging tool has a low barrier to entry, why would Microsoft require this? I know that if I blog at a MS site then they will have information about me and all that, but requiring .Net passport is just too much.

It is these types of actions that have me using Firefox and Eudora and Symbian OS on my phone. I just wish MS would learn to play nice.

MiniGPS - Update

Been playing around a bit with Mini GPS. I really think the alert function is cool, but it does have some strange behavior that I hadn't anticipated. You can assign an action to the logging in or logging out of a cell tower. I decided to put an alert that told me when I got to work and that sent an sms to Tom. So as I roll into the parking structure this morning, my phone goes crazy telling me I am at work. I of course know this, but it doesn't want to stop sending me an alarm. I finally get it to stop, and then shudder when I think about the 10 or so SMS messages I must have sent to Tom. He quickly sent me an SMS that said "WTF? 23 sms messages? I will be at work a little later"

Ok, so I have some more work to do with this.....

Bluetooth Update

Yesterdays 'travel without laptop' experiment went pretty well. The only major glitch I had was something associated with bluetooth. I was banging away on my little Stoway Blue Tooth Keyboard and started getting some weird behavior, like stuck keys and long delays displaying text. At one point it just stopped. I assumed the battery was dead. I put it away and started picking with the stylus. Later that day I noticed that my headset was no longer called a Jabra headset but instead had a weird serial number. All of a sudden the pairing with the headset barfed.

I was a bit freaked out and decided to reboot everything. I did this and after some rework pairing all the devices, things were good. I used the P910 and the keyboard all the way home reading websites and RSS feeds on bloglines and managing to get out some emails as well.

I did have a couple o panic moments when I wanted to find some information that was on the laptop, but all in all it was very cool. I think I am pretty close to writing up a big review on the P910.

Pacific Surfliner

Pacific Surfliner,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Heading Home.

The Metro Red Line

The Metro Red Line,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Subway to Universal City...

Union Station

Union Station,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Room where they filmed a scene from Blade Runner. Of course this afternoon they were filming a new sci fi film there as well....

Anaheim Stop

Anaheim Stop,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Angel Stadium.

Solana Beach train station

Solana Beach train station,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Off early this morning to Los Angeles.

What is Moblogging? Postscript

Ok, I expect that this will be a typo filled post as I don't think the spellchecker will work on the handset but maybe.

So my contention has been that mobile blogging will be a different experience than normal blogging. I still think that this is what will occur, but I write this post using my Sony Ericsson P910 and my Stowaway keyboard. With this configuration, I have a replacement for my laptop. I am using Opera to look at websites, and my email client works like a Blackberry. All this while riding the train.

In addition to this I am posting occasional pictures and comments to flickr for cross posting later today.

I don't think there is much of a near term likelihood of normal people using this kind of configuration anytime soon. To me, the short text or picture type messages are more in line with 'mobile blogging' than using this kind of configuration to do my 'normal blogging. Anyway, that's my opinion.

Triplet Update - They are coming soon

We had the last ultrasound yesterday. Jessica is around 32 1/2 weeks and the kids measured, Mallory 4.7lbs, Brit 4.3 lbs, and Tucker 4.7lbs. Based on this the doctor wants to schedule the C section for next Friday. Wow, now this is getting real, they are almost here...

MiniGPS - Hints of the LBS future

Several months ago when I was doing a survey of J2ME and other handset apps, one of the applications that caught my eye was from a company called Psiloc that makes a product called MiniGPS. I have continued with getting familiar with the Sony Ericsson P910 that I am just crazy about, and last night decided to get a copy of MiniGPS.

It is a really cool application. While most of us in the United States are in the nether region between LBS and non-location aware handsets, this application identifies the cell tower that you are attached to. You can go around and check the cell tower where you are located at during your travels and assign an ID to the tower. For example my home, the Intercasting office, and the Starbucks by my house. Once you have identified these locations, you can actually program events to correspond with your connection to that cell tower. For example, I could send an SMS to my wife when I hit the cell tower past the merge of Interstate 5 and 805 indicating that I am getting close to home. If I took the coastal route I could send her a different SMS telling her I took the Del Mar route.

Of course most of this is novelty today, but it speaks to the power of what LBS will be able to do and also the importance of location as a new metatag for a variety actions that we take as we move around in our increasingly connected world.

Copyright Counter Revolution and the Trend Towards Edge of the Network Media

The last several weeks have been very busy so I thought today would be a good day to catch up on some long overdue RSS feeds and started posts. The oldest started post from two weeks ago was in response to this Robin Good article.

There isn't much to add to what is contained there or in the Wired article referenced other than it is crucially important for us to educate ourselves about what is happening in copyright law with things like Induce, and that we create opportunities for content and media distribution that stand apart as an example of alternatives to the existing infrastructure. The best way to do that is to think through what the missing pieces are for this infrastructure to be successful such as measurement, ease of use, methods of promotion and more importantly to not let these alternatives be polluted by using them to distribute copyrighted materials which will only invite the wrath, pr and armies of lawyers controlled by large media companies.

p910 camera phone pic from 31,000 feet

p910 camera phone pic from 31,000 feet,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Got to try out the airplane friendly mode of the P910a on this flight today from San Diego to San Jose. Pretty cool to have this mode. It didn't seem to kill the battery too bad.

Content Ecosphere - Part 2 / BitTorrent

I had a couple of comments to the last Content Ecosphere post and wanted to hit on a couple of the issues raised.

Jason mentioned that BitTorrent has great stats, which I think is very important, and its great to see it. I started down the path of experimenting with BitTorrent a bit, and bought a TShirt, and found that BitTorrent isn't very user friendly, even for someone who is fairly technical. More importantly I think some of the following as existing roadblocks for the time being:

1. BitTorrent seems best for widely distributed files. If you are Adam Curry, or you want to distribute content that has a certain critical mass in terms of audience, then this works well. If you are looking for more marginal content in terms of audience, then you throughput is really low. An example I tried was a copy of Max Headroom shows. I thought they would be plentiful but when I started the downloads the transfer rate was really slow, although it did spike up occasionally.

2. The architecture inherently puts you at risk given the current copyright litigation jihad. The key rulings so far around copyright infringement speak to those that share as guilty of violating the various copyright laws of your jurisdiction of choice. Because you have to share on BitTorrent, you are exposed. Granted sharing open source or Creative Commons material doesn't necessarily put you at risk, the concept that its ok if I download only gets hurt by the architecture, which I think will scare some people off.

3. Nothing is really free. The adware invasion inflicted on people who have used Kazaa and similar services puts a damper on the likelihood of mainstream consumers to use P2P services like BitTorrent even though I don't believe that the situation is similar. I think the lesson many people have learned recently is that opening up your firewall to these types of programs, or making the installation, can become a big drag on computer resources.

4. Barring the above, BitTorrent seems like a really strong distribution option for those who want to proliferate content at low expense. I think that the rate of the MP3 file downloads cited by Jason in his comment is more a function of the relative newness of torrent files relative to MP3 files.

There was another comment regarding how this relates to wireless that I will address separately. If you are interested, the other podcasters displaying the data around this conversation can be found here:

Radio Brothers

Jason and Ben sent theirs in email. If they post them somewhere to link to, I will update this post.

Podcast 9

Out of the holiday haze and back to life. Uploaded Show #9 featuring the following:

Madison
The Wrists
Four Letter Lie
Sputnik Monroe
Illroot

Enjoy the file or from the feed.

If you like or dislike something email me at derrick@doien.com or put some music at www.acmenoise.com and drop me an email to check it out.

Sony Ericsson P910 - Initial thoughts

I want to write up a formal review, but I think that's going to take a couple of days of use to get a complete feel for what the moster can do. Here are my initial experiences so far:

1. The contact management integration is great. I was able to put in all of my 1000 or so contacts but it required me to abandon ACT and move to Outlook. I am really bummed about that as I think Act and Goldmine are much better software than Outlook. I had a ton of problems with the calendar functions from Outlook to the handset.

2. Bluetooth integration with my Jabra headset is much better than with the T610.

3. Battery life seems adequate but not outstanding. I think this is going to require a car adaptor for travel and an extra battery pack charger.

4. Memory stick Duo is not the normal Memory Stick. I didn't anticipate that. That is a bummer.

5. Web browsing is really cool, although still a tad slow which is a function of my network to some extent (TMobile). That said my all you can eat data account makes me feel okay about it.

6. The thumbpad is really small as I have read elsewhere, but it is usable. Tomorrow I pair my Stowaway keyboard and get cracking.

All in all I am really excited by this device. The reason I bought a phone that made me cough at the price was to understand the constraints and possibilities of the next generation of handsets. The wireless future is truly exciting. More later.

Thanksgiving email from 2 years ago...

I sent the following to my staff two years ago. I thought it would be fun to share it:

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It's a time to take stock in things as we reach the end of a year, hang out with family and friends, and gorge ourselves on rich foods. It's also the longest stretch of time off we consistently have away from work year after year.

I like the fact that nobody partakes in any commerce, other than buying food and drink, and that it doesn't necessarily favor one religion over another like many other holidays around this time of the year.

I used to help my mom in the kitchen when I was a child and as I got older I latched onto this holiday as the one holiday a year that I placed special emphasis on.

During the first couple of years of my marriage, Jessica and I would begin preparations for dinner the night before, and we turned the evening prior into an impromptu party. Mind you, that really just involved me and one of my best friends starting out with eggnog and then escalating into scotch as the evening progressed. Some mornings me and the turkey had a real rough time as I had failed to drink enough water to offset the scotch the night before.

This night before became a ritual in our house, so we decided to invite any of you who may care to come over this Wednesday night for a little wine, cheese, snacks etc. from 7 - 9 PM.

P910a

P910a,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

The T-610 was replaced last night. I am currently setting the new moster up. This was the last pic from the old one, looking at its replacement.

User Generated Content - Content Ecosphere

Things go in phases I guess. One of the things I enjoy about blogging is keeping drafts of things that are important to you. I received an email earlier today from Jason Evangelho who does the Hardcore Insomnia Radio Podcast. He asked myself and a couple of others to provide some subscriber data about our shows as he is a fan of our shows (as we are of his I assume). It prompted me to finish this which I began in September, and the answer to Jason's question is now embedded....

I was talking with someone last spring about MP3.com and generally about the drivers for user generated content businesses. Different people will come up with different conclusions based on their experiences, but to me the formula is as follows:

Hosting + Stats + Audience = Audience + Artists(generally) + Marketable Demographic/Psychographic Data

At Mp3.com we offered the first three, free song hosting, artist stats and audience. The bands/artists drove their fans to the site increasing their stats, and growing the audience. We in turn received more general consumers, more artists, and could derive interesting things from the data for the purpose of advertising, programming etc.

An interesting idea that a good friend of mine often repeats is that people are motivated by only four things: Power, Adventure, Love and Fame. User generated content can arguably reach different aspects of each, but the one that gets tricky is fame. With the exception of the A list bloggers in the blogging world, or bands, or photo enthusiasts, most of us grapple with a measure of audience or more simply Fame. Our efforts want a feedback loop to understand if what we are saying is reaching anyone or if it has any value. We look at our site meter stats or our bloglines subscribers. These are markers but not good absolute measures of fame. They are not Nielsen, or Billboard, or a Best Sellers list or some other equivalent.

The User Generated Content Ecosphere must have some component of Hosting (free or paid), some sense of audience ( I do 'this' somewhere where people might randomly come across what I make) and a sense of Statistics (What am I doing relative to everyone else). There are clearly pieces of this, and I mean this post less as a statement of what must be, rather I mean it to be a starting point of a conversation about what does the alternative media distribution system at the edge of the network look like? Which brings me to Jason's question....

I don't know how many subscribers I have to my Podcast. I do know that instead of working out a BitTorrent or some other alternative distribution ala P2P, I have the luxury so far of using a hosted account I have for some other purposes to host the podcasts I have created. The benefit of centralized hosting is the monitoring of your statistics. As a data freak I comb the logs frequently to try to gleam meaning from what I see. I know that in addition to the many complete downloads I get, there are a large number of small sized requests that transfer very few bites. I have some half baked ideas about what they represent but will withhold commentary until I know more. So, Jason, in answer to your question, here is the detail of the requests for each of the shows I have done as of this morning Tuesday November 23:


59933: 4.44%: Nov/23/04 8:10 AM: /temp/250million05.mp3
56917: 1.56%: Nov/23/04 8:10 AM: /temp/250million04.mp3
49742: 2.12%: Nov/22/04 6:06 PM: /temp/Show 3.mp3
42735: 3.66%: Nov/23/04 8:21 AM: /temp/250million06.mp3
38363: 2.49%: Nov/22/04 6:00 PM: /temp/250million02.mp3
25698: 3.23%: Nov/22/04 6:01 PM: /temp/250million.mp3
18406: 2.24%: Nov/23/04 8:21 AM: /temp/250million07.mp3
878: 0.26%: Nov/23/04 8:31 AM: /temp/250million08.mp3

I roll off the shows at 5 per feed so currently only shows 4-8 are in my feed.

It sort of begs the question to me of what happens with podcasting if we all move to BitTorrent. We definitely defray our costs, but what mechanism do we put in place to measure our audience? How do we know that the data we transfer is ever listened to? What is the Arbitron of podcasting/blogging/moblogging, etc?

High Definition TV

I am a big early adopter of pure technology as it relates to computers. I had a Vic 20 and one of the next generation of PCs for many years. I was a little slow to get involved with BBS's and didn't really hit the Internet until 1994. Since then, I have been using whatever new comes along at all times.

The area where I have been a laggard has been home audio and video. I never bought nice televisions. I never bought a good stereo. To this day, I use a really bad desktop style stereo at home and don't own a nice receiver or speakers. Given my love for music this is really odd. Two years ago I made my first exception.

As someone who is fixated on media, I thought that understanding Hi-Definition Television was important to understanding how home entertainment will transform in the coming years. I didn't think that the transformation was limited to a better picture, rather I thought it would impact what programming looks like and what is important in that construct.

My first step was to buy a Sony HD Ready TV, a 250lb Tube monster. I didn't understand what that meant at the time, but what it means is that you have to buy more stuff, namely a converter that takes a signal and readies it for display. At the time I had Digital Cable and satellite. I looked at both of their offerings and was disappointed by the recurring cost. It seemed fairly high given what the offering was at the time, essentially a couple channels of HD programming.

My next step seemed sort of odd, but I knew that the government mandated over the air digital signals and that the networks would be broadcasting digital signal you could capture with an antenna, so I decided to buy an antenna. I had to install two because the local networks broadcast from two different points at different locations in San Diego County. It has worked great. I continue to get satellite and also get local channels in HD via the antenna.

So why all this? I decided to upgrade. I recently got an HD Plasma TV Sony KDE-42XS955. It is awesome. I am freaked out by the whole plasma thing, but I am convinced that I will be fine for a long time as this is really the home theater TV. I was a not quite early adopter of TiVo, but have now fully embraced DVRs as I added an HD DVR to go with the TV. Tomorrow it all gets set up.

The viewing experience on HD has been interesting. For football, it feels like you are at the game. For other shows, you can actually see the bad acne on some actors. It definitely adds to shows like Cold Case that look more professional that they do to me on normal signals. If you are curious, I would wait a bit for pricing to come down, and if you have satellite, know that you need an antenna for local channels, which is sort of odd.

I haven't had a chance to check out Voom or any of the Mark Cuban stuff, but plan to do so and report back later.

Podcast 8

Is here. The triplet mania, and fantasy football are killing my blogging this weekend. Later tonight. Sure. After I actually get some work done.

Birthday week

I kind of took the week off from blogging. I turned 38 this week which sounds really old to me, but was sort of a strange marker as my mother passed away before she was 38. All in all it was a great birthday, got to spend some time at the spa, caught The Motorcycle Diaries, and hung out with the family.

I have three posts I need to write and a podcast to post probably later this evening.

I also decided that even though I haven't been able to confirm the ship date for the Sony Ericsson P910A, I went ahead and pre-ordered it today. I cant wait to get it. I saw the launch promo which put me over the edge.

Change This - Bootstrappers Bible

I don't usually plug something before I read the whole thing, but the Bootstrappers Bible by Seth Godin. It's long which is why I don't think I will get to it for a couple of days, but my quick skim suggests that this is a great reference piece for my fellow entrepreneurs.

People Who Hate Los Angeles

I read this from Dave Winer. I thought his comments were lame. Then I read this by Doc Searls before I had a chance to put my thoughts down.

Los Angeles is a truly unique city unlike any other on the planet. It is a city dripping with opportunity and seedy characters trying to get ahead by any means necessary. Where Manhattan is a wonderful mass of people and buildings, LA is a city of geography. There is no 'there' there. From the snowcapped Angeles Crest Mountains to the hills of Malibu to the tip of Palos Verdes, Los Angeles is a city you experience by driving through it, in it, around it. It is a car city.

It's a city with no history and a city of dreams. People come here from all over the world to re-invent themselves, to make a new future and to sometimes fail in a really sunny place. Its a city of great wealth and poverty. Driving along Wilshire Blvd. from Downtown Los Angeles through the Central American Pico Union District, to Korea Town, to Mid - Wilshire and the La Brea tarpits, to Beverly Hills to Westwood, to Santa Monica, is truly a cultural experience.

I could go on for pages but more importantly, to me the provincial view of others towards any city is funny. I love New York, LA, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Washington DC, and of course San Diego. Each of these cities have their pluses and minuses that can really only be experienced when you pour yourself into the unique experience that they offer. If you can't take a city for all its beauty and ugly, you should stay home.

Dimensional

Ok, so I post about eMusic the other day and then the company that owns eMusic, Dimensional goes out and buys the Dreamworks publishing catalog.

It's an interesting strategy they are taking, picking up a variety of assets at presumably a really good price. It will be interesting to see what they do next.

Capitol records

Capitol records,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

10 minutes earlier while cruising through Hollywood.

Harbor freeway

Harbor freeway,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Dont Drive and Blog! T610 south 101 overpass at intersection of south 110, downtown LA.

Podcast 7

Finished show 7 on the train. Will upload it when I find some Wifi. Had some cool references this week at Podcastreviews, Podcat, and Adam Curry's PodSquad.

eMusic re-launch

For the second time in a couple of months I have been prompted to complete a post that I had saved as a draft as a result of an email. The last time it was an email from Always On. I don't really have an update on that other than I keep forgetting to visit that site in my rapidly diminishing free time.

This time it is eMusic. eMusic relaunched about a month ago. At that time I wanted to give my two cents on what I thought of the changes. [Full disclosure - I oversaw eMusic for around a year and a half, and must say that I wasn't personally responsible for any significant changes to the service offering during that time other than to insist on consolidating it on the same platform as MP3.com. The team at eMusic has done an amazing job with the least amount of resources for a real long time. This is meant as a post from a long time subscriber and fan. That said....]

When eMusic relaunched I spent a lot of time on the site, as I have always done since they have implemented the 40 downloads a month model. I don't know why it bugs me about subscription services, but I feel like I got cheated if my counter resets to 40 and I didn't get all 40 downloaded in a month. There are a lot of good underlying IP reasons for this as well as economic, which I understand given digital music history, but as a consumer it is the same reason I cancelled my pressplay/Napster account.

I overlook this annoyance for two main reasons. 1. eMusic gives me open MP3 files. Very cool. No problems moving files around, no device compatibility problems, etc. 2. It has an amazing catalog of music for music fiends. Almost every indie label of note has a deal with eMusic. Vitcory, Epitaph, Concord, etc. It isn't the service for everyone, but if you like your catalog specialized but deep, there is nothing like it.

So the new owners of eMusic made a major overhaul to the service and moved it yet another platform. Moving from one platform to another isn't a trivial task and it is key to building the future of where you want the product to go. I applaud them on that. In the process they have added a bunch of community features that I haven't really figured out yet. They also added editors which is a great concept for people exploring deep catalog. They added the editors at the same time that they got rid of the recommendation engine. Bad. This was my primary means of finding new interesting eMusic content.

I hadn't been to the site for a couple of weeks, but knew that before my renewal day that I would have to go download something, anything to get to my 40 tracks before they ding my credit card again. Then I got the email telling me about all the cool features. I was pumped. I went immediately to the site and knowing that the recommendation engine was gone that I would see a new article from my editor of choice. Not.

For future reference. Please update ALL the features before spamming everyone. It was kind of disappointing and I still don't know what new tracks to download of the 40 I get.

The bigger question I have for eMusic involves the market opportunity. I met with an acquaintance in New York and we talked a bit about eMusic. I told him that my theory with eMusic was that its THE best service out there for certain customers but that barring the addition of significantly more content, it may have reached the majority of that audience given the growth rates I saw. I hope I am wrong. I will give it a couple of more months to see if I keep the credit card treadmill running, or call it a day.

Triplet Update

I got sick over the weekend. When I left BloggerCon I had a real bad headache that over the weekend evolved into some low grade combination illness that isn't deadly, but really has cramped my ability to get stuff done when I should be really working hard. It kind of pisses me off. So what does this have to do with triplets?

I had a big time physical last week and our perinatologist and pediatrician both recommended that everyone in the house get a flu shot. I am sure you can see where this is going. So at the conclusion of the physical I get a tetanus shot, a flu shot, and a pneumonia vaccine. Tate, our two year old had the day previously come home from pre-school with hand, foot and mouth disease or as I call it hoof and mouth disease. I think that the shots combined with my son's amazing viral powers got me in this mess.

Last week at the long ultrasound all the babies are looking good, weighing 3.1 lbs and continue to develop quickly as triplets do. I am sure the triplet updates will increase as the day of reckoning approaches. For those if you who don't know, we DIDN"T use fertility drugs and it doesn't run in the family. I guess we are just lucky.....

$250 Million Show #6 from BloggerCon

Posted show #6 here. Nothing about BloggerCon just recorded before and after. A little more impromptu for me but given the normal quality or lack therof of the commentary its a normal show. Had an email asking about the first band. The name is Appogee. Very cool country meets electronica from a guy who has done some cool Bright Eyes remixes. All the show credits for #5 and #6 later.

BloggerCon III Law

The best for last? Loved hearing Lessig put the issues in context and seeing as he is at the forefront of the technology and content wars, there probably are none more aware of the issues large and small. Lots of Hank Barry as well. I meant to ask him and don't recall if the contributory copyright damages claim against Hummer Winblad was ever put to bed. I assume it was. That's a scary thought, because I funded Napster I get creamed. Ouch.

Had to bone out to do the airport thing, unfortunately missing the closing session, The Fat Man Sings. Hope to catch up on it through MP3 files later. All in all a very interesting day. Recorded a podcast before and after that I will throw up on the server, hopefully before my plane leaves. More afterthoughts later. Something about what happens when the most influential bloggers number in the thousands and a gathering like this doesn't work....

BloggerCon III Mobloging

Interesting discussions around moblogging / promise/examples/etc. It felt like the 'anguish', if I could be so free to describe it as such, is largely related to how many of us grapple with how it is different and the same as web blogging, etc. It seems to me that as more tools get into the hands of people to enable this concept of mobile blogging, it will become more clear what it is. I also think and the point was made repeatedly by a few, that there are many people for who the mobile device is their only method of connecting to the "Global WAN". These people will be too busy creating and consuming mobile originated content that they wont really have the time to engage us in a conversation of what is 'is'.

BloggerCon III Post Overload

This was a highly interactive session. I didn't really have much to add. I am not sure that it changed my perspective on overload. Read the right amount of stuff for me. Groom my lists periodically. Keep the time to as small as possible to fee satisfied. The fireworks around commercial speech with David was interesting. I didn't understand the polarized opinions I had heard mentioned elsewhere. I think Dave was right, and I am not blowing him, but HOW he was right was understandably off putting to many in the room.

BloggerCon III - Post Podcasting

The National Anthem - This Land is Your Land....Nice very Jib Jab.

Adam Curry did the first session on podcasting that was lively and interesting. My favorite part was towards the end when Hank Barry raised the issue of MP3 as a format, and Larry Lessig hinted at making podcasting impervious to lawsuit. I don't think a lot of people got it, but my previous post from two days ago echos what they were saying....

It was fun to get a quick word with Hank Barry afterwards as a kindred spirit in understanding the lawsuit issues.

Next Up Overload.

BloggerCon III - Post 1

Up early, heading off to grab some Starbucks and then settle in for a fun day at BloggerCon...More here later.

OK, back on. Latte over on University avenue. Crisp fall morning in Palo Alto. Kind of reminds me of when I worked here back in 1998-1999 at Sun Microsystems.

Got to Blogger Con very early. Decided to start Podcast of show #6 in the parking lot. Realized I never posted the link to show 5 which was an electronic version. Put in some commentary and then went in to register.

Here's where it got a little more difficult. It appears I was in the large group of people who didn't have their registration cards in the stack. Of course I panicked briefly as I had flow here from San Diego and not getting in, or not getting a good seat, would really suck. I got to meet Dave and explained that I was on the list. This was right after the guy ahead of me freaked out. Not cool. Patience, reason, usually works. They pulled up the list and realized that there were a large number of people in my situation, on the list, but not with a card. It could have something to do with the way the cards were sorted...by first name. That and I saw a guy walk out with a bunch of cards a little while later....Hmmmmm.

Oh well, so here I am set up on wifi and waiting for the show to start. Should be a blast. Saw a couple of people I know already, Stowe Boyd, Andy Abramson...More later.

Podcasting, Copyright, and Lessons from Digital music

Over the last couple of days I have been listening to some of Dave and Adam's podcasts and I must admit that I cringed a bit when I heard some familiar music and caught some comments about using BitTorrent to catch the West Wing.

Specifically this morning I listened to an IT Conversations with Dave from October 27th which was very cool and gave me a lot more insight into Dave than what I have gleaned from his blogs these few short months I have been reading it. He describes podcasting in awesome terms regarding the evolution of the technology, but fails to speak to the IP issues. (Not Internet Protocol :-) )

Podcasting, which I think is not what this ultimately is labeled, has a decision to make. The leaders of this 'movement' or however you want to describe this have two paths that I see. The first path is to savor the technical elegance of what they have created with RSS and enclosures and OPML, etc. and ignore the underlying copyright wars that have been fought since the time of the passage of the DMCA. Napster's solution was elegant. MyMP3 was elegant. We all recognize and bemoan the state of content vs. Technology as articulated by Lessig and others. If people insist on using copyrighted content, and talk of embracing the technology that the media companies despise in a flagrant way, this form of distribution/new media/ edge of the network content will be demonized, litigated and made an example of by the armies of lawyers that fight these battles daily.

The second path is to make this an attractive means of distribution for traditional media. You do that by building an audience. You do that by showcasing those artists and creators of content that embrace the new paradigm. You do that by pointing to useful uses of BitTorrent like software distribution that hold the technology out as being ultimately good replacements for the broadcast or physical alternatives. You do that by approaching the media companies and offering to work with them in innovative ways with their cooperation. I think Warner Music Group is a good example of that with MP3 blogs. You learn the lessons of previous litigation and understand where you are stepping on a landmine and where you aren't. At Mp3.com we weren't found guilty of allowing people to stream from lockers content that arguably may have Fair Use merit. We were found guilty of ripping the CDs and putting the files on servers. That hurts, and it doesn't really advance the argument over Fair Use. At least today.

I heard a comment about a podcaster getting an ASCAP license, which is very cool. But that isn't all that is required. The publishers will argue that a mechanical reproduction of their content requires a license and payment.

An alternative distribution platform, that is spearheaded by well known and intelligent people who can lead the direction of this technology/movement, will ultimately succeed or fail like so many other creative and technically brilliant ideas depending on the choices they make. I hope they show the promise of this technology and get the media companies to move towards us, not move us towards the courts.

User Generated Content: Godcasters

I read Doc Searls article about the election. It's a great piece, but as a media obsessive, I thought that this article that he references is even more interesting.

This is not unlike Rhizome Radio or other forms of low power FM and AM radio. Very cool, independent of your politics. Inexpensive cost structure, hive like coordination, navigating the edge of administrative and legal definitions.

I believe that the edge of the network media distribution systems continue to find ways around the blockages and constraints of the system to deliver the message, much as TCP/IP was designed to support messaging after a nuclear war. (Ok so I take a little license without explanation)

The bad news is that traditional media will continue to use the resources at their disposal to stop the unfettered development of distribution systems that are not respectful of their current business models. The good news, not unlike the open source movement, is that there is strength in numbers and that the collective intelligence and effort of the edge of the network is a mighty powerful force.

One Vote at a Time / One Customer at a Time

Of course I was glued to the television last night until around 10:30 PM when I threw in the towel. I was doing the math in my head and couldn't figure out how they would get the votes from the provisional ballots to add up. The commentary all night was around the late results in Ohio and how they would close the gap. They did, but not in a meaningful way.

I have scanned a number of blogs today and have seen a lot of people wonder out loud how we could all collectively be so stupid? This makes me laugh. Of course all of us who didn't vote for Bush had strong feelings about why he shouldn't be re-elected, but so did the people who voted for him, and at last count there were 4,000,000 more of them than us.

Aside from the issues and motivations on both the left and the right, to me it really comes down to the challenge we face as well in business, we have to win our customers/voters one at a time. We have to not only get them to love our product/candidate but we have to get them to actually make a purchase/cast a vote. When you boil this night down in the coming days, the side that won was the side that managed to get their people out to vote. We all knew that there was great polarization, but we also knew it was a dead heat. When that happens, those who show up win. They did a masterful job of getting their side to show up. It truly is a meaningful reminder to me.

Religion and Politics

This morning I decided to take my son Tate to the polling place to vote with me. As we drove up to the polls I recalled that all of my early impressions of politics were shaped by my great grandmother Henrietta Castillo and my step-great grandfather Abel Sanchez. She was a very short, fair skinned lady who was the daughter of a Spanish minister. Her husband, who wasn't my blood great grandfather but had been married to her for decades before I was born, was a dark skinned Mexican-American from the area that had transferred to the United States in the Gadsen purchase, an area around Nogales and Tombstone Arizona.

I spent a lot of my childhood with them as my father was stationed overseas and my mother worked. They lived in the barrio around the Santa Fe switchyards in San Bernardino. They were the quintessential Grapes of Wrath people. They didn't have much, but worked hard, and were very impactful in my youth. When I was around 7 years old or so, they would sit down with me and show me all the voter information. They would talk to me about the issues, and would tell me all about politics through the eyes of die hard Roosevelt Democrats. Elections have always made me think of them, and I know that my eternal fascination with politics can be traced back to them.

Over time my politics have migrated from their influence from my campaign work in high school for a conservative Democratic Assemblyman from my hometown, to Green Party organizing work in the early 90s, to Jerry Brown volunteer in 92, to Clintonite Centrist Democrat today. I think that if you are exposed early to politics, its hard to break away from those early influences, much like religion. That's not to say that you don't renounce or move away from either, its more that it becomes a part of the things you think about and consider throughout your life.

It wasn't until later today that this fully occurred to me and I laughed to myself when I thought about Tate at the polling place. We walked in and showed our ID and I turned to him and asked him to tell the lady what we were going to do. He looked at her sheepishly and said 'Vote for John Kerry'.

Podcast Update

Will do Show #5 before I head to Palo Alto for Blogger Con. Show 5 will be electronic, hopefully a little Thievery Corporation like if I can find enough chill out music. We sent out an Acme email tonight so for those of you looking to links of the earlier shows, you can search the blog or click on the links below:

Show 1
Show 2
Show 3

Jess overlooking Tikal

Jess overlooking Tikal,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Looking out across the canopy at Tikal - Guatemala. It was like something out of Return of the Jedi. This photo was taken from one of the ledges from the highest point in Tikal.

Caracol - Belize

DSC00083,
originally uploaded by brikmaster.

Taking it easy after a climb to the top of the highest pyramid in Caracol.

More Flickr Meets Belize

Ok, so a little more trying out Flickr and the pics will be done. Apparently the free account resets each calendar month so I put up more pictures today. I will cross post a couple and then get back to some serious political website surfing. The end is near!!!!!