Video called the radio star

Speaking of Y2K7, I will be in ABC Channel 13 this Sunday morning at around 9:00am. If you remember to spring forward and are awake at that hour be sure and tune in. They’re using me (again) as a “technology expert” talking head. This time for a piece they’re doing on the Y2K7 issue.

You know when I said being on camera terrifies me? Being on live television is about a million time more disconcerting. Hopefully they’ll have the AC turned up and I won’t be covered in flop sweat.

I did get a trim on the old chinfro (beard) so as to look my best.

Y2K7 (The sky is falling)*

What with the upcoming time change for those of us who server under the yoke of Daylight Savings Time, this weekend is going to be interesting. As you are probably aware, we are getting to celebrate early this year thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

We’re having bit of a mini Y2K event. This time it’s called Y2K7. Much like Y2K I expect it to be a big hullabaloo about a whole lot of nuthin’, at least for most of us. I know plenty of system administrators and application developers who have been burning the midnight oil making sure all systems are fully patched and prepared for the early time change.

There are some things you might want to look at technology-wise to be prepared as a computer/technology user.

I wrote a primer for my show web site. It’s called Daylight Savings Time (DST) – Preparing for Y2K7.

I’ve included some useful links for upgrading anything from XP to Apple OS X as well as Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile devices. Pass the link along to anyone you think might need it.

——-

*again

Reminded once again that I have a face for radio

I got an e-mail from my friend over at ABC13.COM. He wanted to know if I was available to be interviewed by Jeff Ehling who’s the consumer reporter for the local ABC affiliate here in Houston. They were doing a piece on the proper way to delete data and dispose of old computers.

Unlike certain “experts”, I don’t make a lot of television appearances. I love doing radio, but when it comes to putting my face in the spotlight I get a very nervous. Still, I am always looking to promote what I do in my capacity as producer and host of Technology Bytes so I agreed.

Jeff did a great job of putting me at ease and asked some very good questions which I was able to answer without much hesitation.

Judging by the smiles I must have been cracking some jokes to ease my tension. I’m like a deer in the headlights when there’s a video camera aimed at me.

Watching a TV reporter has always been fascinating to me. Live interactive radio is what I am good at. Producing canned pieces for later airplay is not one of my strengths. Here you see Jeff doing a teaser piece to promote the story. It’s that thing they play before the commercial break to keep you from changing the channel.

Jay Lee in HD. Looks like I made a good choice wearing the blue shirt and my new glasses look great.

The beard could sure use a trim, though.

Weekend of geekin’

This past Wednesday, Dwight Silverman came to the radio show packing one of the new T-Mobile Dash smart phones. It’s a slick little device. Lightweight, slim, nice big display. It features a built-in QWERTY Keypad, Stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology, a 1.3 Megapixel camera and best of all, built in Wi-Fi. Running Windows Mobile this means you can get online at any Wi-Fi hot spot and browse the web as well as instant message and send and receive e-mail without optioning up for the additional data service plan.

It was love at first sight.

As it happens, I am a T-Mobile customer and my current phone was starting to show signs of dying the death so I called T-Mobile customer care and was pleased to discover that I was eligible for a discounted upgrade. The discounted price minus the instant and mail-in rebates made it a VERY sweet deal.

The phone arrived yesterday and today I am fully operational on the new digitalia.

The built in Wi-Fi totally rocks!

Cynthia and I have begun planning and saving for our trip this year. Our plan is to go to Spain in the fall for about a month.

The last two trips I have taken a digital camera and Cynthia has brought along her trusty Pentax film camera. As we have been planning this trip Cynthia expressed an interest in converting to digital photography. I pointed out that this could be a very good way of cutting some costs, seeing as how she would not have to buy a ton of film and pay to have it all processed. As we discussed it further she became more and more sold on the idea of getting a new digital camera.

Since she already had a Pentax and a few lenses it made sense to go with a Pentax digital SLR. Perfect timing, too, since Pentax just released the K10D.

Cynthia and I have been discussing this since before Xmas and today was the day. We went this afternnoon to the camera store and picked one up.

The K10D is an awesome piece of photographic technology. It’s very similar to my Sony Alpha 100 in that it has the built in image stabilization as well as the anti-dust technology. It goes a bit further in that it is weather sealed and sports a handful of additional features that my camera lacks.

I wouldn’t say it’s a “better” camera than mine, but I must confess a certain amount of techno-envy since it’s a newer piece of technology and my camera was released a few months ago making it a relative antique in comparison.

I comfort myself by remembering the “what’s yours is mine. what’s mine is yours” agreement we have as a long term couple.

A great geek gadget weekend for us. Cynthia has a real twinkle in her eye as she is reading up on her camera. I am excited about getting to share my passion for photography with her as I am sure this new camera will inspire her to get out and take more pictures.

Fair and Balanced

Got an e-mail last night from Ned Hibbard over at the local Fox affiliate. They were doing a piece on the discovery of the Quicktime vulnerability that’s getting a little “buzz” as we kick of the Month of Apple Bugs.

He wanted to know if he could send a camera guy over to the radio station during my show. The idea was to record us on air in hopes of getting a sound bite to use in a story they were putting together for the evening news about the vulnerability.

Not being one who turns down a chance for free publicity, I agreed.

They did end up using several seconds of video they shot. It wasn’t an Emmy award winning performance by any means. Still, it’s good promo for the show. Especially since they got the name of the show right, unlike the previous story I did for the NBC affiliate last August.

Flights of fancy

I began to entertain an interesting (to me) line of thought about work.
I wonder what it would be like to be an end user. How would it be if I could not, and did not have to, support my use of a PC from day to day….

Imagine my first day of work….

Ah, here I am! My first day as on the sales team at MegaBloat Software!
It’s an exciting time to be in the technology business, I tell ya. It’s all cutting edge and high tech. The world is changing and I’m right there on the fore-front!

Check it out, my computer awaits. Let’s fire this bad boy up and see what she can do.

*click*

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. The light is on and it’s green but nothing is showing up on the screen. Oops! It just changed to yellow….now it’s flashing. Darn the luck, they gave me a dud.

*rummaging through orientation packet*

Well, let’s give the Helpdesk a call. It’ll be a good chance to introduce myself. We tech-types need to stick together.

*ring*

Hello? Helpdesk? Hi, I’m Bob, the new sales guy. Yea, I started today and the computer you guys provided won’t boot….Yes, it’s plugged in, I’m not an idiot. *chuckle* You’re sending someone down? Cool. Thanks.

*technician arrives and pushes the power button and the computer springs to life*

Oh! You have to turn it on down there. I thought the power switch was here on the TV thingy. I feel so stupid. I am actually quite computer literate. Sorry to waste your time….

*technician leaves*

Well, THAT was embarrassing.

Ok, now to check out this puppy and get to work. A login screen. How do I login? Nobody told me what my login ID is. I’m sure it’s just an oversight. Better call the Helpdesk.

*ring*

Hello? Helpdesk? Yea. this is Bob. I can’t seem to log into my computer. I don’t have a login ID or password. What’s that? You say it’s in my orientation packet? Oh! That! I thought that was my e-mail information….It is? I use it for both? Uh….ok! I got it! Thanks! Bye!

How strange, my XP machine at home doesn’t make me log in at all. Those IT guys will need to fix this. I’ll get with them later. I am sure they will want to make things more efficient for me so I can sell, sell, SELL!

Ok, let’s have a look at the corporate intranet. Where’s the icon for the Internet? Good lord! Can’t their IT department do anything right?

*ring*

Hello? Yea, this is Bob again. My computer doesn’t seem to have the Internet…
What do I mean by that? I mean there’s no Internet thingy on my screen to click and open the Internet.

What’s that? Yes, there’s an icon that looks like a big E. Ok, I’m double-clicking it. There it is! Cool, thanks. Bye!

Strange, my computer at home the icon is very clearly marked A-O-L. These guys are really not that technical.

Now it’s time to check out the tools I will use to do my job. I should look at Excel….hmmmmm
No Excel

*ring*

Yea, this is Bob. How am I supposed to do my job without Excel installed on my computer? Can you send someone to my desk to get this resolved? I also need to get rid of the login screen. What’s that? Hold on….yea, Start, Programs…ok, I see one for Excel. I have to get to it this way? On my home computer there’s a icon doo-dad on my desktop. Never mind, I’ll just use it like this. I gotta run, it’s lunch time. Bye.

*co-worker comes to desk and asks how the day has been so far*

For a technology company, your IT department doesn’t seem to have it’s act together. I guess I’ll have to show them a few things. Where you wanna eat?

Yea, that would be sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Patch Tuesday

So Dwight Silverman spotted this shirt on Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog, specifically in this post.

It’s very funny on many levels, but mostly in that mega-dorky geeky way that not everyone gets so I find myself chuckling quietly to myself.

Through a bit a finagling he was able to acquire two, one for himself and one for me. How very thoughtful, Dwight! And THANKS!

To better understand why this is funny you have to know what Patch Tuesday is.

If you don’t get it, don’t fret. It just means that you are probably much more socially well adjusted than I am and that’s a good thing.

Microsoft’s next killer app

The potential of Microsoft Live Labs Photosysnth is mind boggling.

From Live Labs:

Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space. With Photosynth you can:

walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle;
seamlessly zoom in or out of a photograph even if it’s gigapixels in size;
see where pictures were taken in relation to one another;
find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing;
explore a custom tour or see where you’ve been; or
send a collection to a friend.

Check out the video tour that shows the basic concept.

Can you just imagine merging this with something like Google Earth?