Daily Cup of Geek

No, seriously. It does.

I know. Any rational person would say, “But wait, Bron… wires and chips? How can they hate you? They can’t feel love or hate — they’re not out to get you.”

Lies. All lies.

A few weeks ago, I got TimeCapsule. I absolutely loved it. It took forever to run the initial back-up (160GB), but aside from that, things were dandy. I got my Airport Express to piggy-back off the network, so I had AirTunes up and running again fairly quickly (which is key… I can’t live without my tunes!). And more than anything, I was stoked to have 1TB of space to dump my digital collection of music, TV, and assortment of odds and ends (including some file back-ups from as early as 2000!).

The honeymoon was over pretty quick. I don’t blame TimeCapsule, exactly… but just technology in general.

A week or so later, after I moved to a new desk at work, my computer begin to suffer a massive failure. Whatever I did, I could only get a few network drives to work in the office. The VPN failed me. Email was hopeless (even webmail wouldn’t work, if I was “on the network” in the office). After struggling with it for 5 hours, I pinged one of our IT guys.

(Some quick specs:

I run a 15″ MacBook Pro w/ Leopard. We need Windows (XP, thank you very much) for several work apps, so I have Parallels 3.0 running that.)

After several more hours, file clean-ups, etc., we come to the conclusion that we are best off dumping my XP virtual machine. It has to be Windows causing this mayhem, right?

(Note: not actually my computer… but the feeling was very much the same.)

Unfortunately no. We’re stumped. IT guy has never seen anything like this. Hopeless. I’m on Day 2. No work is being done thanks to the drama and my computer-less existence.

By the end of Day 2, we conclude that wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Leopard is the way to go. After some missing disk drama and a painful trip to Best Buy, half way through Day 3 and I’m on my way back to being fully operational.

Except that TimeMachine back-up? Somehow it had been corrupted, and was useless.

The good news is that I thought ahead enough to back-up all of my files separately - but software, preferences, draft blog posts (I’m using ScribeFire), etc., were not lucky enough to survive the massacre and I have slowly been building my system back to where I was pre disaster.

I never thought I would be so happy to be able to work again!

That wasn’t the only technology drama. The VPN still won’t work for me; my home network crashed earlier this week; my Blackberry keeps throwing errors. I’m grateful my car isn’t more high-tech than it is (’03 Jetta), or I might be in trouble.

I joke that I’m really great at breaking stuff. Heck, that’s the main reason I bothered to sign-up with uTest. But I would call this over kill… wouldn’t you?

My friend and colleague, Wade Young, is participating in the AIDS/LifeCycle event this summer. The event itself is ambitious — cycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 7 days — with riders required to raise a minimum of $2,500 each for the event.

Both Wade and his partner, Mike Rizzo, are still working towards raising the $2,500 each required — and Wade is trying to go a step further, and raise a total of $5,000.

Please consider helping Wade and Mike out and donating on their behalf. What they are doing is remarkable, for a great cause, and is a win-win situation for everyone.

Originally I was going to participate as well, but unfortunately did not get signed up in time. However, I’m going to try to help out Wade, Mike, and the AIDS/LifeCycle event in my own way — using technology and media. Stay tuned for updates on that.

As I blow dust off the blog, and clear out the cobwebs, I must apologize — it has been way too long since I posted anything.

Rather than nothing going on, I’ve had the opposite problem. ScribeFire (Firefox extension for blog posting) has 10+ draft posts waiting to be finished. There have been many tech meet-ups, parties, and g33k dinner’s.

So, for now, as I clean up the place and try to get things rolling again, here’s a quick rundown of some of the highlights (past, present, and future):

• LA G33k Dinner - basically what you think. Geeks, dinner, drinks, awesomeness. Highly recommend it.
• BarCampLA - one of my last posts was actually from/about BarCampLA… if you are scratching your head, and saying “WTF is BarCamp?”, check out the BarCampWiki
• BarCampSD - this is coming up the first weekend in May! Be there, or be square…
• Twitter - yes, it’s the new black and apparently doubles as a business card as well. Frequently overheard at tech parties: “What’s your Twitter?”
• BrightKite - location updates (and yes, this can update Twitter for you)… in private beta, but I still have a few invites if you’re interested. Alternate name: StalkMe. Not sure how I feel about it quite yet…
• PicLens - really cool photo/image browsing capabilities… no, seriously, check it out
• The Flip - ridiculously inexpensive and awesome video camera. A friend just got one and is trying it out… I’m likely going to get one as well, especially if a video/blog project that I’m talking to some people about happens this summer. Come on, how cool is the Action Mount???
• I’m still living the cable free life and loving it - with everything else going on, I don’t have time for TV right now anyway

There’s more, but this will have to do for now. I will continue to dust the place off and try to get back into posting regularly. If all else fails, I may just set my Twitter updates to post on my behalf. What can I say… I am productively lazy. =)

If you haven’t yet, go vote now for your favorite Web 2.0 sites. I just did…

And now off to day 2 of BarCampLA 5! (Yes, sadly, there was no camping at this BarCamp… and even worse timing, the LA marathon is today so it may take longer than normal to get back over to the AOL campus. Wish me luck!)

I’m at BarCampLA 5 right now in Beverly Hills at the AOL campus.

The sessions I’ve been to so far are:

• Digital storage (Elephantdrive.com, CJ Little)
• Twiddla.com (online collaboration / whiteboard space)

But the session generating the most buzz so far is Digital Lifeforms with Travis Savo (which I sadly missed).

While I’m not doing a presentation this time (but I am participating!), I’m already thinking about a couple for the next BarCampLA (including research and social media). :)

And now I also have been convinced that I totally want to go to Burning Man!

On Friday, I moved to a new desk at work. After a year and a half at my old desk (we move desks a lot, normally), I have acquired a lot of toys (every office needs Star Wars action figures and Nerf guns), magazines (WIRED, Game Informer, and Portfolio), and books. Mostly too many books.

Here’s what my bookshelf looks like:

Additionally, I have the Head First HTML book, How to Rule the World (”graduation” gift from a friend) and The Daily Drucker (gift from my awesome boss), and will soon have copies of Managing Humans (original site found here) and The Search.

I’ll admit… I should probably get a Kindle and save some trees.

I haven’t blogged recently on my cable-free lifestyle, but I have checked out a lot. I’ll try to do a quick run-down of what’s good, what’s OK, and what’s left for me to try.

Joost

The Good: According to their site, they offer up “more than 20,000 shows, with more added daily.” Joost has something for everyone.

The Bad: You have to install Yet More Software, and while it has something for everyone, that something is not in HD.

Everything Else: Don’t try this on an older computer. I’m sure it has improved from its initial days in beta, but you definitely need a solid new computer to get the most out of Joost, in addition to a steady broadband connection. But it’s free.

iTunes Store

The Good: Great selection of TV shows and movies, super easy to buy and download, fantastic video quality.

The Bad: The biggest pitfall here is the cost. Movie rentals are great, but the price of a TV series for a season rivals that of the DVD boxset (without the pretty packaging) — you’d be better off paying for cable if you want more than a series or two.

Everything Else: Super easy to put on your iPod or iPhone… but if you’re a Zune user, you’re out of luck.

ABC’s Full Episode Player

The Good: HD quality streaming if your connection speed is good enough — Lost looks better on my computer than on my TV!

The Bad: Restricted to ABC shows and you have to sit through 25 second long ads at every standard act break.

Everything Else: By far my favorite official way to get TV. The quality is absolutely stunning, and even though it is ad supported, the ads are usually pretty good and only 25 seconds long.

FOX On Demand

The Good: Very similar to ABC’s Full Episode Player, but for FOX shows (including Sarah Connor Chronicles, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and American Dad).

The Bad: It takes a few days for episodes to become available.

Everything Else: Again, I am astonished at the quality. You have the option of three different video sizes when watching a show (the largest is not full screen, but close). And there are (from my experience so far) no ads during the episodes. I just hope they serve up the next season of 24 this way!

Hulu

The Good: Huge variety of shows, with the ability to grab RSS feeds for any of them.
The Bad: Not totally keen on the navigation.

Everything Else: I need to play around with Hulu more to do it justice — the navigation quirks have turned me off in the past. Yes, when you take the time to get used to sorting out clips and episodes, it’s great… I just haven’t taken the time to do that. I think that the UI and search functionality could be improved, but it’s a great start.

What’s Next?

With 3 days to go, I still have Miro and the world of torrents to explore. The past month without cable has flown by — I don’t think I’ll be getting cable again anytime soon, even with end of the writer’s strike on the horizon, and I would definitely encourage everyone to try 30 days without cable. You would be amazed at how easy it is these days.

I’ve been in a bad mood this week, and have been having a hard time shaking it. Normally, when I can’t fix something myself (or I know there just has to be a better way to do what I’m trying to do), I look for a piece of software. I found Taskbar Shuffle 2.0, for example, when I was frustrated with the inability to change the order of my taskbar items (this seems small, but can make a big difference!).

Unfortunately, there’s no software to get me out of a bad mood. Short of turning to cybernetic implants and performing a reboot, I have to rely on myself to fix the problem. Of course, that’s easier said than done. When you’re frustrated and in a bad mood, it makes fixing the fact that you’re frustrated and in a bad mood that much more difficult.

To digress from my usual subject matter, one of my favorite blogs — and it has been for some time now — is Chief Happiness Officer by Alexander Kjerulf. Alex is also the author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5, a book on happiness at work (which I luckily won a copy of, and highly recommend). The basic idea behind the site, the book, and Alex in general, if that everyone should be happy — not just satisfied — at work. And I totally agree.

I talked to several friends about some of the contributing factors to my bad mood and got great advice from them, but implementing it has been the hard part. I also decided to check out Alex’s blog and see what he had to say on the subject. I came across three articles which I wanted to share — they cover a lot of what my friends said, but sometimes it helps hearing it from another source, you know?

• How to turn around a bad day
• How not to let annoying people annoy you
• How to deal with anger at work

Great points made in all three of these articles. I’ve already accepted that I’m having a bad week, so now I’m going with “this too shall pass” and trying to be more positive.

I’m hopeful that a weekend unplugged, with my friends advice and Alex’s advice, will lend to a better week next week. And if not, maybe we can replace everyone with robots… that would solve it, right? =)

Before the robots take over, be sure to check out Alex’s blog. He’s on vacation right now (snowboarding! I’m so jealous), but has a guest blogger while he’s out. And anyway, how awesome is the title Chief Happiness Officer? I want that title (or even one of the cool titles they have at Quicken Loans now).

I have a stack of half-finished blog posts I keep meaning to finish (no, really, I do!), but I think this one deserves priority because of the “wow” factor. =)

What is Sprout? It’s essentially an online WYSIWYG editor for flash that allows anyone to quickly create flash widgets (or as they call them, “sprouts”). Currently in private beta, I managed to snag one of the TechCrunch spots (check out their post on Sprout to see if there are any invites left), and have spent the last two hours playing around with it.

Here’s a “sprout” (also known as a widget) I put together in 5 minutes for one of my favorite bands, The Frames:

I’m lacking imagination at the moment, but not bad for 5 minutes and next to zero flash skillz, right? (As an aside, be sure to play the song embedded in my sprout… it’s called Finally and is brilliant.)

One of the really cool things about Sprout is that once you publish a “sprout”, your users, fans, etc., can share it and post it elsewhere. But wait, need to make a change? Just log-in to your account and update your sprout… it updates across the board instantly.

Ridiculously easy to use, this and other online apps like Zoho Creator and CogHead are leading the way in putting control over applications and content into everyday users hands. It’s like what YouTube and Blogger (and others) did a few years ago.

If you can’t snag a private invite to Sprout right now, be sure to sign-up for when they open to the public.

It’s day 4 without cable, and honestly, without even turning my TV on once.

Before I dig into Netflix — which is really not a replacement for TV like everything else, but still an avenue I wanted to explore (afterall, they do have The Office and Sleeper Cell available for streaming, though they’re on DVD now) — a quick follow-up on Amazon Unbox.

I heard back from customer service a day or two after I emailed them.

I apologize for the trouble you have had using Amazon Unbox. The issue you are encountering is not associated with the normal operation of Amazon Unbox but suggests an issue with your installation of Windows Media Player.

Honestly? I can’t be bothered to try to troubleshoot it at this point (I’ve never had issues with my installation of WMP before), and I’m just glad I downloaded free content, and didn’t shell out $5 for an episode of something that won’t work.

The final verdict on Unbox? Box it up, send it back, and on to the next one…

Within the last week or two Netflix lifted the limits on their “instant” movie viewing. This came immediately before Apple’s announcement about iTunes movie rentals. The Netflix and Apple video services both have their pros and cons, but more interestingly, actually target different audiences.

That said… my experience with Netflix was instantly 100x better than Unbox. It requires Windows Media Player (again, Mac users are left in the cold) and you do have to install the “Netflix player” which runs in Internet Explorer, but because the service is streaming, I didn’t have to give up a couple of gigs of valuable hard drive space to watch something. Additionally, the service appears to adjust the quality of the video according to the speed of your connection. I have a blazingly fast connection at home, so the quality of my videos went up. =)

Hooked up to my widescreen HD monitor at home, it isn’t DVD quality, but it is surprisingly good with zero buffering. The fact that my experience is pretty much flawless, even with running it in Windows via Parallels is huge.

And I will confess, I actually have a movie running on my HD monitor in fullscreen while I am typing this on the same computer. There is the occasional stutter from running as many apps as I am, but for the most part there has been no impact on my movie. Brilliant!

Of course, the downside to Netflix streaming service is the aforementioned Windows only compatibility, as well as the limited number of movies / TV shows they have available and the fact that most of them are pretty old (they have A Boy and His Dog!). Overall, though, a thumbs up.

I am not limited to YouTube tonight! =)