I had a major crash of The Baldheretic Gallery.
Slowly but (bill)surely I have been restoring it.
Got my European vacation shots and the good Los Skarnales and Adrian Belew pics back in place.
More to follow.
A grand experiment in tech radio
Aurora Losada
photo by Dwight Silverman
On the the show last night we took advantage of a special guest to try something new. We were joined in the studio by Aurora Losada, editor of the Chronicle’s Spanish-language publications. Dwight had told me that Aurora was a fan of Technology Bytes and I invited her to be on the program.
Hailing from Spain and fluent in Spanish, Aurora was a perfect candidate for us to try something I had been wanting to do for some time which was to take questions in Spanish, translate them, answer them and then give the answer back to the caller in Spanish. Aurora agreed and our foray into multilingualism took flight.
The very first call was from a listener named Carlos. It worked like a charm. The rest of the evening we had various Spanish speaking callers mixed in with our regular callers. I don’t know if it was technically “good radio” but it was a blast for me and the crew and the callers who spoke Spanish seemed to enjoy it as well.
To the best of my knowledge this is the first time a technology talk show has been broadcast attempting to field calls in both English and Spanish and to my mind, it was a HUGE success.
Thanks to Aurora for being such a good sport. As Dwight mentioned in his blog, when it came to all the good natured kidding around that we like to do, “She gave as good as she got.”
The “Tower of Babel” affect was achieved when Bill called in from Germany via Skype and spoke a bit in German.
All in all, four languages: English, Spanish, German and Geek.
Army iTunes
Via Crooks and Liars and Bill Shirley;
Army recruiting through iTunes
The links seems to be a little flaky…but it does appear that the Army National Guard is offering free iTunes downloads as a recruiting tool.
www.1800goguard.com/music.html
http://www.clk4.com/NGD_10359/index.cgi
Three free iTunes just to be contacted?
I’m guessing that maybe you get the entire Lee Greenwood library if you actually sign up. And I can’t WAIT to see the camo nano! So much cooler than the coveted black one available to just anybody.
Cynthia and the hummingbird
Cynthia and the hummingbird, originally uploaded by The Bald Heretic.
We sat quietly amongst the hummers and I got this GREAT shot.
Ruh roh, George!
Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily
briefing. He concludes by saying: “Yesterday, 3
Brazilian soldiers were killed.”
“OH NO!” the President exclaims. “That’s terrible!”
His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion,
nervously watching as the President sits, head in
hands.
Finally, the President looks up and asks, “How many
is a brazillion?”
Hummingbirds Attack!
For the last few weeks we have had 2-4 hummingbirds in the yard. This evening there must have been 15 or more buzzing around.
2005 Houston Press Best of Houston Awards
Best Tech Geek
Jay Lee
Jay Lee, Houston Chronicle Help Line columnist and co-host of KPFT/90.1 FM’s Technology Bytes, makes understanding the oft-frustrating wired world of computers possible for even the most basic of users. Lee’s strength is in his simple instructions and advice. But if you want to get hard-core, he can also out-geek any challenger on the methods of machinery. Lee first became interested in computers in high school in 1978 with a Tandy TRS-80 (that sleek design, the sensuous hot buttons…oh, wait, we’re talking about a machine here…), but he didn’t own his first system until the late ’80s. “It didn’t work when I took it out of the box, but I was able to sort it out myself. That’s when I knew I had a knack for computer troubleshooting,” he says. Lee notes that spyware is now the “single most common cause of computer performance problems today” and preaches with the zeal of Jimmy Swaggart in a whorehouse about the urgency to back up, back up and back up your computer’s data and files.
Storm Warning
000
WTFZ25 WNSSC290700
SHITSTORM TOMMY FORECAST/ADVISORY 2A
NATIONAL POLITICAL WEATHER CENTER WASHINGTON DC
TPS FORM 20001
0700Z THU SEP 29 2005
TOPICAL STORM TOMMY CENTER LOCATED AT AUSTIN TEXAS 30.3N 97.8W AT 29/0300Z
HAS JUST BEEN UPGRADED TO A CATEGORY 1 SHITSTORM
FOLLOWING FORMAL INDICTMENT OF REP. TOM DELAY…
A POLITICAL FALLOUT WARNING HAS BEEN DECLARED FOR AN AREA
WITHIN 50 REPRESENTATIVES TO EITHER SIDE OF TOMMY WHICH COULD
MAKE LANDFALL IN HUNTSVILLE TX IN THE NEXT 24 TO 48 WEEKS. SHITSTORM TOMMY
HAS A WELL-DEFINED BROWN EYE MAKING FURTHER STRENGTHENING VERY LIKELY.
A CATEGORY 1 SHITSTORM IS A MINIMAL SHITSTORM BUT IS CONSIDERED
DANGEROUS TO RESIDENTS OF LOW-LYING AREAS SUCH AS CAPITOL HILL
AND THE WHITE HOUSE…REPUBLICAN INTERESTS ARE ADVISED TO SEEK
SHELTER ON THE MORAL HIGH GROUND IF THEY CAN FIND ANY.
AS WITH MOST SHITSTORMS IN THE 2001-2005 CYCLE, TOMMY MAY BE SHORT-LIVED
DUE TO THE ABSENCE OF SUSTAINED DEMOCRATIC PRESSURE…ALREADY CATEGORY 3
SHITSTORM KATRINA AND CATEGORY 2 SHITSTORM RITA REORGANIZED FROM REMNANTS
OF HURRICANES WITH THE SAME NAMES…MAY BE DOWNGRADED.
REPUBLICANS IN THE AFFECTED AREAS SHOULD TAKE PRECAUTIONS…RIGHT-WING
MEDIA SPIN TO PREVENT THE STRENGTHENING OF TOPICAL STORMS CINDY, KARL
AND THE MINIMAL TOPICAL STORM GAY.
$$