All of my sites, including this one, were down for a few hours this afternoon. I called my web host, 1&1 Internet, and they said that “there was maintenance on my server, and it is rebooting”. I asked if they knew when I could expect my sites to be back, since it had already been a couple of hours, and they would only say “it’s rebooting”. An hour or so later, everything seemed to have come back up OK. I also asked if there was any way I could get some kind of notification when something like this happens, but alas, they couldn’t offer any help.
Sorry for the unexpected downtime - hope everything’s back to normal now!
Brian and I managed to record a full TinyPodcast yesterday, but between being in Seattle this weekend visiting family, and some upload problems, I haven’t posted it yet. But know that it’s coming soon. It’s a pretty good show - we had a lot of geeky stuff to catch up on.
In the mean time, if you want to see something cool that I’ve started playing with, and play with it a little yourself, head over here for a sneak preview of something I’ll be adding to the site soon. Comments, problems, and suggestions are welcome here or there.
I got back a little while ago from a presentation I was asked to do on podcasting for The Oregonian - the biggest newspaper in Oregon. Mike Francis, the paper’s military/international reporter (did I get that right, Mike?) came to the last Portland Podcasting meetup, where I did a demo of how I record and publish TinyPodcast. He emailed me a few days later, asking if I’d be interested in coming down and delivering the same demo to The Oregonian, and after a millisecond or two of consideration, I agreed. 
Mike and the folks at the Oregonian were great - gracious, smart, and interested in podcasting, and how they can dive into this new medium. I talked for about 30 minutes, about the basics of podcasting, and answered the excellent questions that came from the group (there were probably 25-30 people in the conference room). Then, I spent the rest of the time doing the demo - recording and posting a short episode of TinyPodcast. Afterwards, Mike gave me a tour around the newsroom, which I caught on video, and will be posting soon.
I want to thank Mike for a great time and a great opportunity. Let’s stay in touch - I’m more than happy to help or answer any questions. I love this stuff! Can’t wait to see what kind of podcasts start appearing out of the folks who attended.
Here’s a special demo podcast recorded at The Oregonian newspaper in downtown Portland. You can download the MP3 file directly (right-click, save as), or subscribe to the TinyPodcast RSS feed in your favorite podcast aggregator to get the show delivered automatically to your computer and MP3 player. This show is about 1 MB, 1 minute long.
Thanks for listening, and stay subscribed!
My boss, Kevin, recently got an iCarrier Speaker System for his new iPod Color 30GB. He’s got some photos of it up on Flickr in this set.
Kevin is a serious audiophile, and says that he’s very pleased with the speakers so far, for what they are (not hi-fi), but they’re a good match sonically for the iPod. I consider that pretty high praise. There are other iPod speaker systems that sound better, but they’re either way more expensive, or much more clunky to move around.
Maybe we can get Kevin to do a short video review for TinyScreenfuls?
There are a few of us Intel folk working on getting some good corporate blogging guidelines in place. I plan to really start evangelizing blogging inside Intel in earnest once these are in place (you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! :-).
We’ve got some proposed guidelines up, and the basics are:
- Follow the existing corporate public communication rules on privacy, confidentiality, etc.
- Respect other people
- Be passionate and interesting - write on what you’re excited about
- etc…
So, now that the blogosphere is catching on to the fact that Intel is doing this, let’s have some discussion. Remember, I don’t officially represent Intel’s position on any of this. I’m just an employee that’s excited about blogging, and who wants to see Intel join the conversation, and do it right.
What should Intel consider when creating the rules for internal and external blogging? What mistakes or pitfalls can we avoid? What has worked really well at your company? Post a comment, or email me, if you prefer.
MAKE: Blog: Shotgun shell flower vase…
A day late, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
Smartphone Thoughts - Smart411 is Now a Native Smartphone Application
Sweet. Berry411 was hands down the most useful app on my Blackberry, and it’s the only app I really missed now that I’ve switched back to the Windows Mobile Smartphone platform.
I liked the app so much I asked the author, Phil Bogle, if he’d mind if I tried to port it Windows Mobile. He was all for it, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Sorry, Phil. *sheepish grin*
Someone ported it to a MIDP app, so it would run on any device that had a Java runtime environment, including some Windows Mobile Smartphones.
Now, it’s a full-fledged Windows Mobile native application. I just downloaded it, and I can’t wait to try it out!
What does it do? Smart411/Berry411 makes it super simple to perform searches from your phone device. Simply enter your search term, then select the type of search you want to do (white pages, movies, wikipedia, maps, etc.). It integrates with your address book to let you specify your current location (Home, Work, or Other) so you don’t have to type in your address/location all the time. It sounds pretty basic, but it makes searches SO much easier than other methods, including mobile web interfaces.
Someone (jlukephoto) posted this shot from the Friday night party in the Seattle Public Library during Gnomedex 5.0.
Phillip Torrone and I were chatting about gadgets, and I was playing with and drooling over all the cool toys he brought to show off.
Found on the top edge of a Phillips Brilliance LCD monitor. The arrow is pointing toward the front/screen side of the LCD. My coworkers and I are trying to figure out just what exactly the symbol means, and why it’s there…
I gave the Ars Hive Mind a crack at figuring it out, too. Entertaining results so far.
TinyScreenfuls Feed (this blog)
Seriously, though, sorry if I caused you any heartburn…