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Tricaster Died Tonight

Well for some unknown reason in the middle of my live recording tonight my Tricaster died. Will be calling tech support in the morning to find out what the procedure is.

I can only shudder to think if this had happened during the 24hr Podcast or the Podcast Awards. I am not a happy camper at the moment.

Update RMA Issued by Newtek and the box is Fedex Overnight to San Antonio. The folks there have been nice enough to do a rush repair. Hopefully it is back in my hands next week.

GNC-2008-11-18 #425 Jam Packed Show

Back in the saddle tonight after taking the night off last night more details on the show. The 24hr Podcast has been postponed till December 20-21 but until then the show goes on.

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Tech Podcast Network at CES 2009

Andy McCaskey one of the team members going to CES 2009 representing Tech Podcast has put up a informational page on how companies can work with us to get great exposure during the 2009 event.

As we get closer to the event we will be populating the page with data on what our planned schedule is and introduce the additional team members.

Our Team Coverage begins on January 6^th 2009 Live from Las Vegas www.tpnces.com

TiVo a Pizza

TiVo and Domino's have joined forces to get you your favorite pie without picking up the phone. You will be able to access your TiVo and like a website - order your pizza, soda and sides to be delivered in 30 minutes.

This is not a good move, it's an interesting one. Services through your media box might just spawn some new ideas. Just like Grand Theft Auto - if you like a song, you can get it from Amazon.com. What if you were watching a movie on your Apple TV or VooDoo box and before you order the movie, you get a special on Pizza, Chicken or whatever. Maybe even your movie purchase could mean a coupon waiting at your favorite store.

Yep, the days of the Yellow Pages seem to be numbered. Then again, you might just see THAT on your TiVo or Apple TV.

24hr Podcast Postponed!

The 24hr Podcast has been postponed. This afternoon my grandfather of 99 years passed away. I will be traveling to Michigan to attend the funeral. While I understand the disappointment of not being able to do the event this Saturday and Sunday I am sure you all understand.

My plan is to do the event the weekend of December 20 and 21st which will match the exact weekend we did the event last year.

Todd Cochrane

24 Hour Podcast Apperance Opportunities!

For the second year in a row, I will be hosting the 24hr Podcast which is a non stop event that will cover podcasting, technology, new media, podcast advertising and a host of other topics.

This years event kicks off on Saturday Dec 20^th at 11am EST and finishes up 24hrs later! This years event is to raise money for disabled veterans. We have a goal to raise $3000.00 this year. Last years event was highly successful

During the 24hr Podcast, I have a number of slots open for podcasters to come in share their stories and talk about their podcasts. Last year nearly 30 segments were recorded that have been downloaded and listened to over 600,000 times.

If you would like to be considered for a segment on the 24hr Podcast where you will join Todd for the event drop him a email at geeknews@gmail.com with the subject 24Hr Podcast and tell him about yourself and your show.

Members of Blubrry, Tech Podcasts and Podcaster News always get priority placement. Be aware spots are filling up fast.

GNC-2008-11-14 #424 (1) Week till 24hr Podcast

If you want to be on the 24 hour podcast formally in a time slot let me know now. Also we will have time slots of open talk story time that will not be structured so it should be a fun event. Lot's of Science in the show tonight!

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Flip Mino HD Review!

Just about 30 minutes ago the UPS driver dropped me a Flip Mino HD. I pulled it out of its case turned it towards me and recorded this video. I then plugged the camera into my USB port and used the FlipShare application that resides on the camera and added a couple of titles to the video and pushed it to YouTube.

Total time to when it arrived to when the video was uploaded to YouTube was just about 15 minutes. More after the video!

Please note that the Video that on my hard drive before YouTube encoding is really nice. Amazing quality for such a small camera. The encoding from YouTube really did not do the video or the audio any justice

The next video is the same exact clip but what I did this time was load the original file up in a video conversion program reduced the size from 450 megs to 32 megs and uploaded that file to Blip.TV who then encoded it in Flash. I think the Blip video looks a lot better.

The new camera is going to retail at $229.00 it can shoot in 720p which is 1280x720 in 16:9 cinematic wide screen. The new Flipshare application seems to do a much better job and even has some basic titling capability.

There is 4gb of onboard memory (wish there was more) and it will record about 60 minutes of Video. Overall Flip continues to hit home runs with these products. While the price point for the HD version has went up. I cannot even imagine this type of quality 4 years ago from a camera that is smaller then my cell phone.

Gunnar Optiks Glasses Review

Nearly two week ago I received a set of glasses from Gunnar Optiks that are being touted by the company as being digital performance eyewear. Which as you use them is supposed to relieve a lot of the effects many of us get by sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time.

Testing eyewear can be a very subjective thing so I wanted to really see if I could determine if the glasses were having a positive effect on my eyes over the course of two weeks. My strategy included wearing them for three days straight while sitting at the computer then not wear them for three days.

I kept a log of typical things that happen to me after a day of sitting at the computer. Primarily headaches, dry eyes etc. What I have concluded in my not so super scientific manner is that I had fewer headaches and that my eyes seemed to not be as dry and itchy.

I did notice that while glasses were tinted, that the things seemed just a fraction sharper which was the thing that surprised me the most. The eyewear retails between $90.00 and $190.00 and while I may have been skeptical in the beginning I do think today that this company is on to something. The team behind the product come from the sports eyewear industry.

Here is my advice, if you are suffering from headaches and eye fatigue from setting in front of a PC all day this is a product at least worth checking out. I look forward to hearing others experience with this product.

Please note that I am not making any medical claims, I am only relaying my perspective from wearing these glasses a total of about 7 days over a two week period.

Solar Panel Technology Continues to Develop

As most of you know, I'm a rather passionate advocate of alternative sources of energy, most notably solar. A new development from scientists from the Future Chips Constellation (FCC) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have created the coating using nanotechnology - engineering at the molecular level, to create a boost to traditional solar panel captures.

A non-reflective coating, comprised of seven extremely thin layers, each about 50 to 100 nanometers in height, is made of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide nanorods positioned at an oblique angle. This non-reflective ability, and the angle, allow solar energy to be captured even at non-optimal angles. This means that during the course of a day, more actual energy-grabbing hours can be effectively used than with traditional single-layer panels. In addition, the layers do not have to meet exacting standards of thickness, removing much of the tedious manufacturing that must currently be completed to create solar panels.

I am encouraged that research into solar technology continues. As each new process and method is developed, we come closer and closer to a real solution that we can all use. Solar is ultimately renewable, free to capture, and generally non-harmful to the environment in the manufacture of the panels themselves. Now we just have to get the costs down to something reasonable.

Alzheimer's: Not Just a Treatment, But Now a Cure?

Researchers from my own city (St. Louis University) have discovered a particular hormone that, when manipulated, can allow disease relief directly into the brain. One of the biggest roadblocks to recovering from brain injuries is the blood-brain barrier, a sort of “gatekeeper” that keeps injurious chemicals out of the brain. Its unique construction also blocks out drugs that might be able to help in the case of brain injuries.

The researchers describe the blood brain barrier as a sort of bouncer at an exclusive nightclub. While the bouncer welcome those on the approved guest list, it looks for trouble-makers trying to crash the party, refuses to let them in and evicts them if they do get in. The researchers were able to identify the particular bouncer responsible for keeping out the hormone PACAP27, which regulates general admission. By altering a molecule, the blood brain barrier was then able to let in PACAP27. The entrance of this hormone allowed repair of damage from Alzheimer's and strokes. Read that sentence again. They key word is repair. That means a reversal of symptoms and damage.

Right now the research is fixed on mouse brains, but the same principles will likely apply to the human brain. This research could lead to incredible advances in repairing central nervous system injuries.

Paid Too Much For Your LCD Television?

The government is levelling fines from three LCD producers, including the venerated LG. Apparently, LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa all conspired to fix prices on their LCD products, including televisions, computer monitors, and cell phone screens. The fines total $585 million.

What's disappointing in these types of anti-trust and anti-competitive charges and pleadings, is that the people that were overcharged (that would be you and me) will not reap any of the benefits. That money goes to the government, right into the general revenue fund.

If this had been a class action suit, we might have all gotten $20 in discounts or credits or something. But we're not getting anything out of this deal.

Still, I'm glad that anti-competitive legislation is in place, and that those policies are enforced. At least companies can't get away with conspiratorial price fixing without some oversight. But I know in the end, we the customers will be paying for the judgment these companies agreed to.

Holiday Toys

I'm starting to put my list together for Santa for the holidays. Yes, Geeks can have dreams too!

Starting off, I've already purchased some things for the kids, including Sansa 8 gb MP3 players. These sweet little units are as powerful as the iPod without the costly risk of replacement when they get banged around too much. While I would love to get them all iPods, I don't think they'd survive the hustle and bustle of my teens.

I, myself, am looking at the new HD-capable Flip camera. Sweet at $229 and I could have so much fun with such a thing. I mean, I could do so much important work with this thing. Yeah, that's the ticket. The Flip Mino HD looks just like earlier versions of the Flip, only it films in HD. It shoots video in 1280x720 720p resolution, wider than the previous 640x480 size, and touts one-click uploads to websites like YouTube, MySpace and AOL Video. You can also upload to Vimeo and bleep.tv, which will actually upload your video in its original HD format. It also comes with cables to hook up directly to your television! How cool is that?

We don't do video games, so I'm not looking at anything for the Wii or XBox, but I am looking for some great deals on LCD televisions. If I can get a decent one for a decent price, that may also be on the Geeky Santa List this year.

What are you looking at for the holidays?

If You Can't Get Them to Come to You...

Then you should come to them!

That's Sears' stand, anyway. After a terribly failed attempt last year to get people to join their online community, which was just a glorified way to spread their advertising, they have found a new tactic.

Users of Facebook can now "become a fan" of Sears, and get a $5 gift card for their trouble. Considering you can't buy a single thing at Sears for $5, this is a thinly disguised attempt to get people into the store, or onto their online site, to spend money. If they can't get you to come to them, then it's easy to just come on over to a place that already exists and get potential customers' attention there.

I'm a Facebook user, but I won't be becoming a fan of Sears any time soon. These kinds of questionable sales tactics always turn me off. Even less reason now for me to shop at Sears, although I wasn't a huge fan before.

GNC-2008-11-11 #423 24hr Podcast Date Announced

The 24 Hour Podcast will be November 22nd and 23rd. If you want to be on the show or know of someone that should be on the event I need your help in filling the 24 hours with great content.

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24 Hour Podcast Announcement

For the second year in a row, I am planning to do a 24hr Podcast. Last years event www.24hrpodcast.com was a huge success. We raised a significant amount of money and was able to contribute 5 OLPC laptops to needy children around the world.

This year I will be raising money for disabled veterans with the goal of raising $3000.00. Pledging is starting today! You can pledge now, and pay later by sending a email to geeknews@gmail.com and pledge the amount you feel you can afford we will send payment info later.

I had hoped to do this event in December but my schedule is such that I am going to shoot for doing the event the weekend of November 22nd & 23rd. I have to get the schedule together quickly within the next 10 days.

If you have a compelling story and it surrounds the new media space, technology or science.  I would love to get you on the schedule for the event. Being I have a continuous 24hrs to schedule you into the program there is room for a lot of people to participate. If you want to be considered for a slot drop me a not and tell me what you want to talk about. geeknews@gmail.com

Podcast Awards Winner Announcement Today!

The 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards Winner announcement happens today at 4pm Pacific / 7 PM Eastern / 1AM GMT. Watch here or join chat at live event at www.podcastawards.com 

Podcast Awards Winner Announcement

On Sunday November 9th at 4pm PST / 7pm EST or 1am GMT I will announce the 2008 People's Choice Podcast Awards Category Winners. This will be a live streamed event from the PodcastAwards.com.

Within the next week we will announce the date for the Awards Ceremony where we will announce the People's Choice and Best Produced category winners. During the awards ceremony you will get to hear from each of the 22 category winners through a interactive online event.

This years event has run very smoothly, if it had not been from the 46 volunteers from my podcast this event would never have been possible so huge Mahalo to them. I hope that you take the time and check out all of the podcast that were nominated, they all have highly engaged audiences whose host are podcasters that have found the magic to grow significant audiences.

Through our Sponsors support they have allowed us to buy the cool prizes that makes this event different. Literally thousands of dollars in prizes will be given away during the awards ceremony next month.

Did You Notice Something About the GNC Podcast?

In my daily routine, I download a lot of podcasts. I figure it's part of my job - I podcast, therefore I should listen to other podcasters. For Instance, I am listening to a new cast (for me) called the Geek Rodeo Cast. Geek News Central, SDR News, Totally Cool Tech Podcast, Caffination Podcast, TWIT and many others.

And yes, I listen to my podcast, too (Geekazine). I figure if I cannot get through my own podcast, how would I expect others to? In listening, I can also catch any issues. I just heard another podcast that started, but was only 2 minutes in length, when it should have been 30.

So I was downloading Todd's podcast today when I noticed it was taking a lot longer. The other shows had completed, so I just figured it was a connection issue. As I always say: The Internet is always as fast as it's slowest connection.

When I started to listen to the show, I noticed the quality. Now I know that Todd had issues with his mixing board and went to get a new one. But this was different than a new board. Don't get me wrong - it most likely helped, but what made me notice even more was the fact the show was in 128 Kbps.

For those that don't know - most podcasts are produced in 64 Kilobits per second, or kbps. Basically, it's like listening to a talk show on the radio. And for most talk, that is all that's needed. In comparison, MP3's are usually at 128 kbps. Audiophiles usually have their music at higher bit rates, like 256 or more. That would be overkill for talk shows.

Hearing Geek News Central in 128 kbps was not only different, it made me open my eyes as to the quality of podcasts. The sound was clearer and made the show sound more professional.

There are downsides, though. The size of the show pretty much doubled. The download time also increased. nonetheless - the pros really outweigh the cons.

Now I haven't talked with Todd about this. I am not sure if he did this on purpose. But I'll bet I am not the only one who notices the difference. Makes me think if my shows will sound better at a higher rate.

If it wasn't planned, I say "Keep it up". It really makes a difference. If you haven't heard the show yet, you should really download it and listen. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Interview about TechPodcasts.com on the DV Show

Check out this Video interview I did with the team at the DV Show. I talk about the Tech Podcast Network along with some of the cool things we are doing at RawVoice. The DV Show

Thanks to the Team over there for the opportunity to talk about the network.

GNC-2008-11-07 #422 Important Announcements in this Show

Info on the Podcast Awards Winner Announcement also big thanks to the folks at Blue Mics for stepping up with prizes. Check out the latest Round Table at TechPodcasts.com.

Link to Full Show Notes with all Links to Today's Commentary

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Gary Vaynerchuk responds to Howard Sterns Social Media Rant

Gary had a great response to some things Howard Stern has to say about social media. For those of you that have been holding back from jumping into new media you should listen to this.

On a side note you all know that I have said since 2004 that the new media evolution will continue to force those in the traditional media space to change or become irrelevant.

Check out Gary's site today.

Using Social Media in the Election

One thing you have to hand to the Obama campaign they knew how to use Social Media effectively during the campaign. The Republicans can learn some lessons from this and so can some companies.

Many of the things the Obama camp did cost them nothing but one of their staffers time to make sure they were engaged. One instance was the utilization of Ustream.tv

As many of you know I have been using Ustream for the live portion of my podcast and while I draw small crowd in the middle of the night. The Obama team would put a live Ustream Channel at ever speaking event he went to and thousands would tune in.

This is just the tip of  the iceberg, they used blog commenters and bloggers effectively to neutralize negative commentary. With a dedicated group of staffers watching blogs they would pounce on sites almost instantly when someone had a negative thing to say and used blogs to essentially blast the competition.

Very effective use of technology was key. It made the McCain campaign look weaker as they did not use the tools that many people of all ages use today to communicate. The next person to run for president is going to have to get their social media game on.

Oh and what both camps missed, political podcasters could have been running ads as well in their podcast as they could have had a new message each day.

FCC Opens "White Space"

As we had hoped, the FCC has approved opening the "white space" that was being reserved in the TV broadcast spectrum for the last fifty years. It has been a four-year process, and has finally come to the conclusion it should have all along.

This, despite protests from every broadcast entity in the country. So much for big business having all the say. Under the FCC's plan, white space spectrum will be unlicensed and free — like Wi-Fi — to anybody who wants to use it. In some markets, there's enough white space to fill a half dozen TV channels.

They have put in place safeguards that should allay any broadcasting fears that currently exist. "Safe zones" where the white space cannot be used, like around entertainment venues or near broadcast points for traditional television broadcasters. Other entities can ask for safe zone treatment from the FCC.

The opening of this broadcast space bodes well for innovation. Right now, devices to use the space are not available, but I expect to see rapid development in this area. Now, if we can just keep big business' hands off the space, we might get some cost-effective and use-effective growth in the area of wi-fi communications!

They Get All the Cool Techie Stuff

I was watching the races unfold tonight, as I have done in the past elections. The thing that I found just as interesting as the race itself was all the cool tech the news sources had to cover the election. The computing power in each news room was phenomenal.

First, there was CNN. They had the big screen behind with a map of the US color coding each state. In fact the map only covered half of the "Wall". I wonder how much that one cost.

Then there is the "Magic Wall" - a big touch screen in which John King would be able to pull up stats and charts. Four big buttons on the left to let him choose how to run the screen. A big yellow box with an "X" in it to close out any windows he had open. No minimize button or task bar though.

In NYC, Times Square had some pretty flashy tech. From the Big screens showing off the candidates, to the ticker marquee that wrapped around the overhang. It was all pretty impressive to see as the race unfolded.

I didn't see the projection of the US on the Rockefeller ice rink that NBC was going to do. I am still always impressed what we can do with tech nowadays.

The big question I have though is - what happens to that tech after today? Is it still going to be used in day-to-day news reporting, or will it go into the basement?

I can see this change the face of news itself. We have already seen changes in what meteorologists use to display the weather maps. Gone will be the day of a hand held clicker that moves from screen to screen. Not to mention the pull down maps they used to use in the 70's and 80's and definitely no magnetic icons of clouds blowing or smiling suns.

Now, you can touch a couple spots on the screen and move around without being tethered to a controller. Zoom in on areas, push it all to the left or right and call up important data. No more green screens, here.

If news stations started using that for the general news, there is no need for someone in the control room to flip though the pictures. Just a touch of the screen and we see a picture or a Google map or whatever the newscaster wants.

At any rate, if CNN is going to put the Magic Wall away, I have a great place in my living room in which they can store it. I just hope it comes with a remote control so I don't have to get up to touch the screen and change the channel. Of course, I could always train the dog to nuzzle the screen to do that...

GNC-2008-11-04 #421 Fun Event at End of Show

First off, Yes I know I got the date wrong.. Ok folks it's very important you listen to the whole show. I have a mission for everyone at the end of the podcast. This is about New Media invading Old Media it is gonna take all of you to make this happen ok... Link and Instructions are at end of Show Notes!

This shows full show notes with all article and listener links!

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United Airlines Introducing Co Pays on Mileage Upgrades

I received an email from United today introducing new Mileage Plus rules starting July 1^st 2009. Having flown 90,000 miles with United this year I am a very loyal customer. I will easily break a 100k miles before the year ends.

Based on the new mileage plus rules to start in July 2009, it’s time to start looking at American Airlines or Delta again. These idiots are gonna implement a Co Pay when you use your hard earned miles to upgrade a ticket. Generally from Hawaii it cost 15,000 miles to upgrade from Coach to first one way. Starting July 1^st not only will it cost you 15,000 miles you will also be required to pay a co pay based upon your class of ticket.

Not only that they are not going to refund miles on segments that are not approved when you request a upgrade.

I have choice of carriers when I fly, and I can guarantee you that these co-pays are going to have me look at other carriers. What a stupid idiotic thing to do. I have used mileage upgrades quite a bit this year.. But I am not going to pay a co-pay

United has for years had the worst first class cabin of all the Airlines that fly out of Hawaii. United considers Hawaii a domestic flight and the first class cabin is more like low end business. American and Delta beats them hands down when it comes to service and more importantly seats. I am not paying additional dollars when cashing in flight miles to sit in a seat that is marginally better than economy plus in regards to leg room.

I will vote with my wallet.. This is a great way to get rid of customers. Very dumb move United..

GNC-2008-10-31 #420 24hr Podcast Planning Underway

Fun Show tonight planning is underway for the 24Hr Podcast, CES 2009, in the pre-show I talk a little about the Podcast Awards, Taxes in Hawaii and me being stuck working on accounting all week.

Notice: Are you a Staunch Advocate of the Blubrry Podcast Community? We Need you! Send me a Email for Details!

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The great firewall of......Australia

My blood has passed boiling point this week with the Australian government planning to put a mandatory firewall between me and the Internet. While the comparison to the Chinese firewall will be denied I am sure, this is essentially the same thing. A firewall will block all sites and content that the government decides are not suitable for us poor feeble minded citizens.

The reason of course is to "combat child pronography and adult content", as if this measure has any hope at all of acheiving this. But then the lowest of acts are often wrapped in the noblest of reasons. Even before the legislation is even passed though, they are already talking of extending it to cover information on topics like anorexia. While they may think they are protecting us poor plebs, they are actually trying to restrict our access to information. Knowing something should not be a crime or restricted, only the actions we take. And in case you didn't know there is no legislated free speech in Australia, even though we are a generally liberal country.

The problems I have with this are:

- This will not block the actual wrong doers, only prevent innocent people from accessing the complete Internet. Just like DRM annoys customers and is ignored by pirates.
- There is zero chance that this will only block the content intended. I am sure that a couple of sites that teach young girls to cope with anorexia will get blocked.
- Unblocking improperly blocked sites is likely to involve tortuous trips through bureaucracy.
- I left home over 25 years ago and have not needed parents to protect me from nasty people for some time, and my sensibilities are not so delicate that I need my eyes to be protected from naughty pictures.
- There is no clear method described for how what is blocked will be decided and how these decisions can be challenged.
- When the government proposed this before the last election there was supposed to be an opt-out clause which they have now removed. My lack of surprise at being lied to does not reduce my annoyance.

Thankfully the Australian Senate seems to be gearing up to block the legislation.

I Guess It's Not My Data...

So today I got a client's new website up and running. They had a service that basically built their website for them, which really wasn't working for them. I ended up changing the whole service.

Before I did, I looked for a way to get all the photos off the old server. They had no FTP, no file manager and no way to get the photos off their servers. I emailed the support asking for a copy of all the pictures. What I got back really knocked my socks off:

Thanks for your message.

Unfortunately we don't have any more access to your images than you do.

If you don't have those images still on your own computer, the best way to download them might be to add them to a Photo Album, then view the album and download each image.

Sorry for any inconvenience!

Software Support Technician

Granted, the material on the site can be reproduced, but that means a little more work on my end. I was not too happy to hear someone couldn't give back the content that is not theirs.

It's not like this was a Geocities account. The company payed $20 a month to store data on. I can't believe they just said "no" like that.

I know not everyone wants to know how to build a website. It's not always the easiest thing to do. I'm just glad the site wasn't too complex. I would've had a field day with their tech.

Instead, I canceled the membership and put the site on a trusted server.

A New Kind Of Comment Spam

I and others have been noticing a new kind of blog spam. Essentially relevant comments, being written by real people but linking to spam sites. I have noticed an increased number of these types of comments.

It is apparent that the battle on the comment spam front is starting to use real people. It is very apparent when you load the linked URL, they either try to link it from their contact info or are trying to hide a hyperlink in a period or single word so that it is not so obvious when you view the comment thread.

They are being pretty smart about it because a recent spammer I caught had left 10 comments without any external links. I assume this was to build trust within the system before he startrf to drop external links.

Bots are relative easy to beat but if spammers are using real people to leave relevant comments linking to their spam sites this will be a bigger challenge.

Talking with other bloggers with higher page ranks they are seeing similar tactics. I am at the point where I will ban any external URL’s from being posted by commenters.

The problem with TV advertising

It is too sexy!

When you look at the output on your television they are annoying and intrusive. To a marketing manager, or an executive though, the process of creating the ad is like living a little slice of Hollywood magic. It is sexy, and it is fun, and it can make you feel like a movie executive.

Additionally, if your senior management think marketing and advertising are the same thing (and most of them do), TV advertising seems safe to them as they have experienced it. Their experience is that they notice the ads on TV, and that TV ads can be so appealing that entire shows are dedicated to showing the best ads. The reality is that the attention they receive does not mean that they are effective, but this matters less than you would think. The mental perception that TV advertising works is hard to counter even with logic and data.

The reality for marketing managers is that a marketing campaign can be easier to sell to executives if it includes TV. "If we take this TV package with NBC you will get to appear on the Apprentice and talk to Donald Trump about our company." is a very compelling pitch to a CEO. Stroking the pride of an executive in this way can also be a very good way to get advancement in a company regardless of any measurable outcome.

All this is why the downturn economy might cause some companies (the less smart ones) to focus more on TV than other advertising mediums. The question for them is not about the dollar cost, but rather the risk in the investment. Rightly or wrongly TV is often seen as low risk advertising spend. It is human nature to be more comfortable with things that are familiar to us, and things that our peers are doing.

Todd's post earlier today on his discussion with an F500 marketer was brilliant. It was great to see an example of a marketing manager that takes their job seriously and looks for ways to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns. These people are not as rare as my earlier comments might suggest, but it is still good to see them in action. It was also a perfect example of how the podcasting space needs to sell itself to media buyers, clearly and concisely laying out the benefits of the media and then backing it up with hard, defendable data.

If you are a marketing manager that wants to include podcasting in your proposals, what can you do? There is nothing that you can do to replicate the glamour factor of TV, but you can change the executives perception of the risk. As I said earlier, part of the internal risk calculation people make is their familiarity. If you can get your executives actually listening to podcasts they will quickly become comfortable with them and the advertising will be easier to propose.

Here are a selection of podcasts that have great business content that will really appeal to your executives as a starting point. There are so many more as well that I have not had time to listen to myself.

Manager tools - EVERY manager should listen to this podcast [iTunes Subscribe]
The Economist which also has an audio word for word subscription of the magazine [RSS Subscribe]
Slate Big Money A newcomer that shows some promise [iTunes Subscribe]
WSJ Your Money Matters Every exec has a stock portfolio they are worried about [iTunes Subscribe]
TimesOnline Business Ideas Examines how other exec's have changed markets [iTunes Subscribe]

If they are at all interested in tech make sure they add GNC as well. :)

Psystar Still At it - Now With Notebooks

Six months ago, Psystar entered the Desktop arena with a PC for $600 that could get your choice of Windows, Linux or Mac OSX. Of course Apple responded with a Lawsuit and Psystar countered. Every time we speculated Psystar is going down - Yet, they seem to continue on.

Psystar has announced in a Press Release they will be putting in Blue-Ray Players and NVidia 9800GT Graphics Cards into their lines of machines. Further, AppleInsider notes a Psystar representative has acknowledged:

Although there is no mobile open computer at the moment, I can tell you that it is something that is in development

How can this be? You would think that if there is a lawsuit under way that Psystar wouldn't buck the system. Granted, the notebook can easily have Microsoft of Linux on it, but to jump into the pile of leaves like that is interesting and maybe even reckless. Could it indicate that Psystar may have the advantage in the lawsuit or are they just doing "Business as planned"?

One thing is for sure - If Psystar comes out with a $600 notebook (and one with Firewire I might add), Apple will definitely have to look at their practices with customers. Even though they are a debt-free company doesn't mean they could fall into bankruptcy due to lack of sales.

BTW - For those that don't know, Rainer Brockerhoff explains why Firewire on the Macbooks was not feesable with the new design.

Monetization for the Small Blogger

I'm an admittedly small blogger. I have a thousand or so readers of my daily livejournal blog, a kind of a personal look at my life that includes stories about my job, my kids, and my own stupidity. I have a hundred readers of a writing blog I maintain, and a couple hundred readers of a circus blog I started several years ago. I'm the definition of a small blogger.

I'd love to make a little (okay, a lot of) money on my blogging, but up until now, that really hasn't been an option. I tried the usual adsense track, but that earned me about thirteen cents in a year, so that's not a way to go.

But by next year, small bloggers like me just may have a way to monetize our blogs (small podcasters too). Larry Genkin, the founder and editor of Blogger and Podcaster Magazine, has opened a new site intended to help small bloggers turn their hobby into a more lucrative business. I'm skeptical but interested, and signed up. The site is accepting signups, but will not go live until early 2009. The site is the Blogger and Podcaster Network.

Another Publication Moves to the Web

Yesterday, the Christian Science Monitor announced that it would be going to web-only publication. That isn't exactly true, as they will continue to produce a weekly news magazine in printed form. But the fact is, the majority of their work will now be done online.

Of course, the transferring of periodicals to the web has been happening for quite some time; there was a day when newspapers and magazines could be cutting edge on their news. Now, they are days or weeks behind the information we can get at a snap on the Internet. In addition, the costs of producing a print publication are skyrocketing; publishing on the web is certainly more cost-effective.

I think there's still a place for print periodicals to exist, certainly. I read several hard-copy newspapers each week and will continue to do so. I also subscribe to a handful of magazines whose information is useful to me. I do think that if a periodical does not fill a needed niche, then it is destined to die. It goes back to the "scarce goods" concept.

But how do these periodicals monetize their web content, and continue to be able to pay staff and overhead costs? That becomes the question. Several recent studies indicate that web readers are easily able to ignore web advertising, and some browsers even provide plug-ins that block ads for readers.

But studies also show that readers of the web prefer short reads of 3-4 paragraphs, and do not tend to read in-depth articles the way they do in a print publication. So, if you move to the web, do you run the risk of making your information much more shallow to appeal to the "quick read" audience that the web provides?

Big questions with no answers, at this point.

Consumer Electronics Show 2009 Preperations!

It’s hard to believe that in about 70 days the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show will be upon us. I also cannot believe I am going to have to shell out nearly $2500 bucks which is the going rate for a hotel room during the event.

Vegas really rips people off during a show like CES. Anyway planning is underway, and based on our coverage the last three years you all must be licking your chops waiting for the pile of interviews and content that comes from us during and after CES.

Our daily wrap up shows in 2008 reached over 750,000 viewers! The 120 plus interviews posted after the event reached millions.

The event is really a killer physically/mentally because you go a whole week with almost no sleep, and your on your feet for hours. Last year I lost 13 pounds during the show. A great way to burn off Holiday over eating.

Andy McCaskey and I are on the sponsor hunt in a big way. The exposure for our sponsors is as always huge. Our videos content last year reached millions of viewers, and resulted in literally 100’s of thousands of customer referrals to the companies we interviewed.

The 2008 coverage is still racking up views, its content that keeps on giving back all year long. We are in such high demand that companies exhibiting at CES are already calling to setup interviews! In response to this we are ramping up this year to have more teams on the ground, no one is guaranteed a interview, but we know where to find the most innovative and cool products CES has to offer.

If your interested in working with the most sought out team at CES you need to act now. If you are interested in sponsoring us this year drop me a email or call me today at 808–741–4923. I have a sponsorship and information packets ready we have three sponsorship slots available.

No one covers CES like Andy and I. As a added bonus for our viewers we will have more back channel content this year than last. We will also be streaming some of our content live. Contact me for interview information or a sponsorship kit for our 2009 CES Coverage ceo@rawvoice.com

Podcasting Advertising - Smart Choice in Crappy Economy

I spent about a hour on the phone today with a media buyer who is exploring the podcasting advertising space for the first time. She represents a well known Fortune 500 company.

As we talked I asked her why it had taken them so long for them to look into advertising in podcast. Her reply was “we have to get smarter in a crappy economy”.

Overall the conversation was a very good one and I hope to introduce the company in Quarter 1 2009.

The most amazing part of the conversation was when we talked budgets when I laid out dollar amounts she got pretty excited. In essence she said you mean I can reach XX,XXX,XXX number of people in my exact demographic for X number of dollars and spend less for 90 days of advertising reaching who I want to reach, that what I spend in one week on TV which has no such guarantees.

When my answer was of course followed by we back it up with proven metrics she was stunned.

Podcast Advertising is a Smart Choice in a Crappy Economy!

Want to know more about advertising in Podcast in a Crappy economy contact me at ceo@rawvoice.com

Apple - Podcast - App Store & Rest of Story

Apple really upset the developer community last month when it rejected several podcasting applications from being approved to the iPhone App Store. With the upcoming 2.2 iPhone software the real reason may now be known!

It appears that Apple has added stand alone downloading of podcast directly to your iPhone without the need of using iTunes in version 2.2.

If indeed this is what they have done, it proves that Apple was Anti-Competitive in denying the applications that were made for this same purpose. Their heave handed actions was to get rid of the competition before they added their own functionality.

I remain committed to only building Android Applications due to this apparent anti-competitive nature that Apple has.  Thanks JW for the Tip

Not So Bright

Sometimes I'm not so bright. I don't always use my toys/tools to their best advantage. Oh, I'm using them, just not to the full extent they should be used.

I've had my iPod for going on 3 years. GNC was the first podcast I ever listened to, and I have been around since before episode 200. All this time I've owned my iPod, I've done nothing more than a download a few audio books, transferred all of my CD's to the iTunes library, and set up play lists, as well as getting a pretty good collection of regular podcasts I listen to. When it came to iTunes, I never used it for more than just keeping my library and adding or removing podcasts. I figure if my iPod ever bites the dust and I replace it, it'll be pretty easy to restore everything to a new device.

The other day I walked into a colleague's office and he had some great jazz music playing. He was fixing my non-updating Dell laptop (apparently the network settings on our domain were not allowing auto updates to non-campus-resident equipment) so I was in there for a while while he got it to update and fixed the settings so it would auto-update in the future. I finally asked him what station he was listening to.

"It's iTunes."

You mean music you've downloaded?

"No, iTunes radio."

ITunes has radio? I'll be durned. He showed me where it was and I stared at that directory, "Radio," realizing that it had been there all along on my iTunes but I'd never bothered to notice it, much less check it out.

This is music nirvana! There is pretty much every type of music you can imagine, streaming like a radio station, the majority without ads or commercials of any kind. I had no idea it was there, and I've been using iTunes for at least 3 years. I've spent the better part of the last two days surfing around finding stations I like and memorizing their names so I can find them again. I've been unsuccessful in bookmarking them in any way so I can quickly go back to them. I may be missing something, and I'm going to keep playing with it.

Now I'm just going to hope I'm not the only one who never noticed the radio directory on iTunes, or I'm going to feel really dumb.

One More Reason I Don't Like Analog Radio

This morning I pile into my truck like I normally do - need a cup of coffee bad. Need my podcasts bad. Start the car and I normally listen to some Classic Rock music - Maybe Zepplin or Pink Floyd. Forigner, Styx, Journey and I suppose a little AC/DC.

But as I turned on the radio, I heard the song "Whatever You Like", one of the newer songs by TI (and already parodied by Weird Al I must add).I figured I must've hit a button and accidentally went to the Hip-Hop station. As I looked at the dial, I realized - it's on my station.

I was floored. I couldn't believe after all this time of listening they just close the doors like that. I remember when they opened the doors - For 2 weeks they played old radio jingles. Then the Classic Rock started. That was 6 1/2 years ago and I've been listening until this morning.

Now it's a Hip-Hop station. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's more that Hip-Hop stations have jumped across the dial - Basically a radio station switches format and a couple months later it either switches again or stops broadcasting altogether.

It makes me think more about finally getting a stereo with WiFi access so I can just download music or Podcasts to listen to in the car. I had a rental car a couple weeks back where it contained not only Sirius, but also had a USB port where I could plug in a flash drive and listen to my favorite stuff.

I suppose I could just get a HD radio and get more stations. I won't be able to get that radio station though - for it's been disbanded. It also doesn't change the issue - Big corporation can always change the format or disband the station.

What really gets me is the station decided to make the switch without notice. Now on their website we have a small news article saying it's closed, but doesn't say why. It doesn't really matter. I think I am going to find alternatives to getting music.

GNC-2008-10-28 #419 Sorry about Missing a Show

Big Apologies for missing the last show, explanation contained in Podcast. Thanks for all the notes of concern. No worries everything here is good. Thanks to all the Ohana that called and sent notes.

Full Show Show Notes Click Here!

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Is That Username Taken?

Whenever I go to a new site that requires a signup and use of a username, I usually try to use the same name I use everywhere else. It cuts down on confusion for me, as when I go to a site and need to login, if I always use the same username, I should be just fine.

Unfortunately for me, there is apparently another Susabelle out there (perish the thought). So sometimes I have to resort to a secondary username, smkelmer.

A new service has been launched to tell you if many of the web 2.0 sites you visit already have you listed as a user, or someone with your username, at any rate. Usernamecheck will run through a list of popular (and common) 2.0 sites to see if your name is taken or available. I found out my doppleganger already has registered a twitter account with my usual username. It's a good thing I didn't want to have a twitter account.

Now, if I an just keep all my passwords straight, I'd be in good shape. I have yet to find a system that works for me, and I've tried quite a few.

Spirit of Podcamp Hawaii Expressed by Lorelle VanFossen

I had the chance to interview Lorelle who is the ultimate Wordpress champion at Podcamp Hawaii. During our Interview she really summed up what was so special about Podcamp Hawaii and the experience she had at the event.

Podcamp Hawaii Wrap Up

I am sitting here this morning in the beautiful Wyland Waikiki the day after Podcamp Hawaii reflecting on the past two days.. Roxanne Darling event organizer let me know last night that we had 339 people attend the event.

When we started talking about Podcamp Hawaii, I said if we were able to get 300 people to the event it would be a huge success. The sponsors that stepped up to support the event have my heart filled gratitude we would not be have been able to pull this event off.

I will some amazing video that I will be sharing with all of you soon. Because of Podcamp Hawaii I have officially decided to make the switch to Wordpress I have contemplated this in the past but based on what Matt shared with us about the upcoming version Wordpress 2.7 it has pushed me over the edge.

Over the next several weeks we are going to see a whole new breed of podcasters and bloggers starting to create content here in Hawaii. I welcome them to the party.

The three sessions I held were well attended and I hope that I was able to leave those that attended with some thoughts on what to do next.

I will be working on the Videos today and hope to share them with you soon.

Todd…