As I type this I am in the Hotel room after we finished with the Tech Podcast Network coverage of the 2012 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. I’m beat up and tired. I’m looking forward to getting back to my normal sleep schedule. As tough as the schedule was, I’m very happy at how the coverage turned out. We shot over 250 product interviews both in our booth (also streamed live) and on the show floor with our 3 film crews.

The Experience of going to CES and going with such a diverse team was the highlight of my year so far (yeah, I know it’s only January). Meeting the people I’ve interacted with online for (in some cases) years and also re-meeting others that I’ve met before is a great honor and pleasure. It’s amazing to me that such a group can come together for a common goal and produce 40 plus hours of HD video content from all over a trade show that is the size of over 35 football fields.

I will talk a lot more about how all this came together and a bit of history about the Tech Podcast network’s coverage over the last 7 years on the next Geek Of The North which will be out on Tuesday Evening.

Till then, Catch me later!
-Mike

I’m trying out the new galaxy nexus phone using the WordPress app. Also doing this using voice dictation which seems to work reasonably well. Overall I’m really liking this phone so far. I will have a complete review over at geek news central in the next few days.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you!

-Mike

Today’s show is going out on all the audio feeds. It’s sort of an announcement.

After 18 years of employment with a company, I have become self-employed. It’s going to take me a month or so to get ramped up and ready for a full load of business but I’ve never felt more ready then I do right now. 2 days ago, I didn’t think I was ready but the hand of God slapped me up side the head and said ” Dummy, you are going the wrong way. Here, go this way”

Anyway, Catch me later!

-Mike

One of the best ads I’ve seen in a while.. I had to share it!

I’ve signed up with a new simple newsletter site called “TinyLetter.com” which is a project of a guy that used to have “F*cked Company” (the name didn’t have the * in it). Anyway, it’s a really cool newsletter creation site and list server. Please, sign up for the newsletter for Mike Dell’s World. I will not send you a bunch of stuff, just a once in a while update of what’s going on with me and my podcasts, blogs and websites. NO SPAM…

I’m going on Day 3 without internet at home. Day 5 of intermittent internet at home.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when we had the big Midwest hurricane (as they called it on the weather channel) where we had high winds and gales in the Great Lakes Area. At our house, we had no problems with power, internet or anything else. (other then the massive pile of leaves that got blown out of the trees). Apparently, charter’s lines in the area took some damage and some “noise” on them. This week, they started replacing lines and generally fixing things up. That’s all fine and dandy. I don’t mind it going in and out while they are actively working on things.

Then, on Tuesday morning, they were working in front of our house. Then the guy left. My internet was out at that time. I figured he just went to lunch and would be back to finish the job and get things going. I woke up Tuesday afternoon (Remember I work nights) and figured I would have to power cycle my modem and router. I did that and it didn’t come up. So, I called Charter to report the outage. When you call the support number, you get this automated “troubleshooter” which I’m sure works some of the time. The thing only told me to do what I just did. It took me 10 min. to get to talk to a real person. Then this real person (Likely in india or china) proceeded to treat me like an idiot and asked me to do everything the automated system did. (Very frustrating when you KNOW it’s something they were doing outside the house and not my modem.) I told the person that they were working outside when it went out for good and I’m sure it’s something out there. They said they would send someone out in the morning. The earliest appointment was between 11 and 1. Like I said above, I work nights so I try to get to bed by 11 but I said, ok, send someone.

At 1:15pm the guy still hadn’t shown up. I called the number again and got the automated thing. It took 3 calls to get ahold of a person again. They said the tech was 15 min. out.. (ARGH!!) Anyway the guy shows up and he’s a contractor for Charter and not a company employee. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but this guy also wouldn’t listen to me when I said everything worked until they were working on the lines outside the day before.. He didn’t care, he went by his little script and replaced the modem, all the lines and splitters in the house. (A complete waste of time and money). Then he decided that the modem was bad (!!!!WTF!!!!?). He had just replaced it. Then he calls his supervisor and they said that I needed to hook my computer up to the modem directly instead of though my router. Then, I asked why is the “ready” light flashing. The supervisor, over the phone, said, “ Gee, it’s not locking up, it must be something out at the tap”. JUST WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING FOR 2 DAYS!!!! So the tech left (without fixing anything) because he can’t get into the tap (or the lines out by the road) because he’s a contractor and not an employee.

The maddening thing about it is not that the cable internet is out, but the employees, contractors and outsourced people at charter that won’t listen. I could have saved them lots of time and money. A couple of people at charter got in contact with me via twitter because I have been tweeting about it. They seem to be OK but it’s still out.

I’m very thankful that I have the Droid phone and am able to get online a little bit with it.

Another thing that Charter needs to know is that when a customer is having problem, it’s not the time to upsell them! Every time I got a real person on the phone they wanted me to sign up for Charter Telephone and HD TV. I told them if I were to sign up for that stuff, it would be out now too.. WTF???

So, until I get some connectivity, my podcasting will be slow. I can upload from the laptop or at work I suppose, but it makes it a lot harder to research and all that.

Anyway, I needed to vent a bit.

IF I had another way to get high speed internet at home, I would dump charter. The only alternative around here is AT&T DSL which is way slower then what I have when Charter works.

Enough of that..

-Mike

****UPDATE 11:30am 11/11/10…

After spending 2+ hours on the phone, I still don’t know if they will come over and check their lines.. Seems the tech from yesterday didn’t put the work order in and they wanted to start over by checking all the crap they checked yesterday. I think, but I’m not sure, they will check whatever they need to OUTSIDE my house today sometime. I’m calling AT&T to see if they have high enough speed DSL for me. VERY poor Customer service so far.

****UPDATE 11:17 11/12/10

They got it working by doing what I wanted them to do 3 days ago.. They fixed whatever it was out at the road that was wrong. So now I have internet at home again and all is well.. I still think that charter’s customer service is not what it should be. Lets hope it goes for another 5 years without problems like it did last time.

****UPDATE Midnight 11-13-10 Well, the internet is out again here. I talked with support and they said they would call me.. Well they never did. So now I’m out of internet. I guess (but don’t know because they didn’t call me) they are coming on Saturday. That sucks because I have (or had) plans for Saturday that involved internet.. I guess that’s on hold. ARGH!

****UPDATE 1800 11-13-10 It’s back on.. It seems that there was some noise on the line so they came and put a filter in the box out at the road. It was a very effective filter and filtered out the internet. So, instead of figuring out where the noise was coming from, they just did that. The guy tonight (who really does know his stuff) tracked down the noise to a loose connection in the box by the house. SO, now I hope they don’t put the filter back in. We will see..

So what did you do with your 25 hour day?

For most of the USA, today is our once-a-year 25 hour day. We have a 23 hour day in the spring to make up for it. It’s called Daylight Savings time or more accurately, daylight WASTING time. I wish (along with a lot of other people) that we would just go with one or the other and be done with it.

Arizona does this. They don’t observe daylight wasting time and all is well. Indiana only started with DST on 2006 and there was a study that concluded that is wasn’t a savings of energy, in fact it was much worse.

Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings.

President Obama had a campaign promise that he would end DST or at least look into it. OK, Now is the “Time” (no pun intended)

Better yet, why don’t we just go with a world time? What possible difference does it make if you get up at 22:00 or 10:00. So it would get dark at 14:00 (2pm for those who don’t understand the 24 hour clock) and the sun sun would rise at 01:00. We would adjust our “Day / Night” cycles to the time, not the other way around. That way, we wouldn’t have to worry about what time zone our clients are in when we setup online meetings. We wouldn’t have to reset our watches every time we fly East or West. People would still start their day at different times depending on when the sun rises in their area (which, admittedly would be a pain in the ass) but at least we wouldn’t have to worry that our watches were not on the right time zone.

How did I spend my extra hour? Sleeping. Just like when we have our 23 hour day in the spring. I loose that hour in my sleep time.

Some interesting reading: standardtime.com

-Mike

Kathy and I are heading down state to watch MSU play the Golden Gophers of Minnesota in football at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing Michigan.

Normally I wouldn’t go to an MSU game as I am a U of M fan but the tickets were free and I haven’t been to MSU since 1983 when I played Tuba in the Marching band for the MSU vs. Purdue game.

I’m looking forward to the game and if you want to watch it, it’s on the big ten network at 12pm Eastern Time. Look for us in the nose bleed seats around the 40 yard line.

Have Fun and GO BLUE (not for this game but wherever Michigan is playing)

This is the first time I’ve read that dreaded 4 letter word in a forecast this season. I better get the snow tires on the car and the snowblower on the tractor before too long. As you can see, later on next week, the snow will melt and I will have time.

Still, I’m not ready for this!!

Weather Underground Email Service for Traverse City, MI
NWS Forecast as of 4:24 am EDT on November 4, 2010

Today
Rain showers likely early…then numerous rain showers or
snow showers in the afternoon. No snow accumulation. Highs in the
lower 40s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around
30 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.
================================================================

Tonight
Numerous snow showers. Total nighttime snow accumulation up
to 2 inches. Lows around 30. North winds 5 to 15 mph. Chance of
snow 70 percent.
================================================================

Friday
Mostly cloudy. Chance of snow showers early…then numerous
snow showers in the afternoon. Total daytime snow accumulation
up to 1 inch. Highs in the upper 30s. Northwest winds 10 to 15
mph with gusts to around 30 mph. Chance of snow 60 percent.
================================================================

Friday Night
Numerous snow showers. Lows in the upper 20s. Northwest winds
up to 10 mph. Chance of snow 60 percent.
================================================================

Saturday
Mostly cloudy. A 30 percent chance of snow showers early.
Highs around 40. Northwest winds 5 to 15 mph.
================================================================

Saturday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows around 30.
================================================================

Sunday
Partly cloudy. Highs around 50.
================================================================

Sunday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
================================================================

Monday
Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s.
================================================================

Monday Night
Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 30s.
================================================================

Tuesday
Mostly sunny. Highs in the lower 60s.
================================================================

Tuesday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 40s.
================================================================

Wednesday
Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain showers. Highs
in the lower 60s.

After watching last night’s coverage of the elections, I have a few observations that are interesting.

I flipped back and forth between 5 or 6 channels. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NBC Broadcast, Fox Broadcast and a few others.

On Fox News and Fox Broadcast I noticed that when they listed a race, the winner or winning person’s name was on top and the looser was on bottom. On CNN, the Democrat was on Top no matter weather they were winning or not. and On NBC and MSNBC they were listed side by side with the Democrat on the left and the Republican on the right (Makes sense to me I guess). I also noticed that on FOX (both) and CNN the reporters seemed upbeat and didn’t show much bias. The political commentators on both networks of course did spin things their way (also makes sense) and both CNN and Fox had a more or less equal number of Dems and Republicans on there.

On NBC and MSNBC they seemed sad and twisted everything left. They made REAL big deals about democrats that were winning and played down the republican winners.

I also noticed that ABC and CBS had very little coverage (from 10-11pm in my area) and the little bit I looked at seemed just like NBC’s coverage.

I found it strange that none of them covered Michigan other then a name going by on the scroll once in a while. Michigan’s 1st house district should have been covered more because that is the one that gave us the Health care bill. Bart Stupak (d) is the rep up there. He was the last hold out democrat that wouldn’t vote for the bill unless it didn’t cover abortion. He made a deal and ended up voting for it. That cost him his seat (he is retiring because he couldn’t win after that) The republican won that district last night. Fox mentioned it once that I saw and nobody else did.

The take away I have on the coverage is this: The Broadcast Networks (NBC, CBS and ABC) as far as news sources go are Biased hard left. With the internet, cable and Satellite networks, the broadcast TV networks are going to be less important over the next few years and might just go away totally.

What do you think?

-Mike

November 2nd is the general mid-term elections in the USA.

I’m a bit strange when I won’t tell everyone to go vote. In fact, I prefer that you don’t if are not up on what’s going on and who’s running. If you just choose not to vote, that’s your business too.

I did vote. It took me 3 minutes not counting the drive to the polling place and back. I voted for who I thought would do the best job in the office they were running for and it was as simple as that.

I tend to be conservative but I lean towards libertarianism BUT, even though I think the Republicans are going to have some big wins today, I hope they don’t gloat. This election isn’t about giving the GOP the win. It’s more about giving the democrats a loss. They need to loose today to show what happens when they don’t listen to us normal people. They think they know better then we do. I just want to make sure the Republicans that are put in office today DO listen to us. Otherwise, they are going home in 2 years.

Anyway, vote if you want, don’t if you don’t want to. It’s your right not to vote!

Have FUN!
-Mike

I heard on Tech News Today that November was also “Blogvember” which is supposed to mean you are supposed to blog every day in November.

I suppose I will give it a try

That is all!

-Mike

The Summer of Podcasts II contest is rolling along. I don’t have a code for you this week but the shows listed below do. There are a BUNCH of cool prizes you can win just by listening to each of the shows below that are produced during the week of June 28 – July 7.

Go check out these shows and listen for the promo code.

TPN Weekly Podcast
Midwest Wasteland
Totally Cool Tech Podcast
Meet The Talkers
The CaffiNation Podcast
Video Game News Radio
SDRNews
Tech TalkSvenska!
Kevin’s Oblast Radio

Once you have a code, go over to podcastmadness.com and put in the code for another chance to win.

I will have a code word soon. So keep listening to Mike Dell’s World for yet another chance to win!

-Mike

This is for those of you that get Mike Dell Unplugged via the RSS feed. I have combined the feeds of Unplugged and Ipdadio phone updates into one feed. This if you want to get the podcasts in iTunes or other podcatchers (such as Google Listen, Google Reader or any other)

The feed for both combined is now: http://mikedell.com/mdunplugged This will take you to a really long address that you need to cut an paste into your podcatcher of choice. (or just type in the link above)

One thing you will notice in the feed and on the website is that there will be two different counts.. Ipdadio phonecasts are up to 25 now and MDW Unplugged from the studio is up to 5. The numbering will stay the same.. So when I do my next studio unplugged it will be #6 and the next Ipadio Phonecast will be 26. Not much else I can do with that as Ipadio numbers the phonecasts and doesn’t know anything about anything else in the feed Oh well. anyway…..

You can still continue to listen to the podcasts here on the website as normal. Also, if you are subscribed to the rss on Ipadio for the phone updates and Mike Dell Unplugged feed here on the site, they will still work. You will only get the episodes on the feed you are subscribed to so if you want both, you should re-subscribe to the new feed or subscribe to both feeds.

Either way, I will be updating these podcasts (now just known as Mike Dell unplugged) as I have things to say. No schedule.

Speaking of schedules, I will be updating the Main Mike Dell’s World podcast soon.. I have some recorded from the car and will put it together in the next few days!

I’m also going to start doing some video podcasting soon. Watch for an announcement about that soon.. I won’t put video in my audio feeds but you can watch the video here on the site an/or subscribe to an all new RSS feed called Mike Dell’s World Video (or MDWV) These will be short (under 10 min. ) Videos of things I find interesting or just me ranting into the camera I look forward to playing with that.

Thanks for Reading / Listening / Watching!

-Mike

Well really, I got home on Sunday.

The trip started in Traverse City a week ago (Tuesday 1 June). I few out of TVC Airport to Chicago, Then Chicago to Dallas and Dallas to McAllen, Texas. I spent the Night in Donna Texas at my In-Laws house. On Wednesday we loaded up the Motorhome and headed for Grand Haven Michigan.

We made it about 150 miles and blew a tire. After waiting in the 90 degree heat for 2 hours, AAA came and fixed the tire and we were on our way.

We made it to Mount Pleasant Texas. The next day we made it to Sikeston, Mo with no other problems. On Friday, we drove to Terre Haute, IN for a short visit with my Mother-in-law’s Sister. and made it back to Grand Haven by 8pm. (a long day!)

Once we got to Grand Haven, My wife picked me up at her folks place and we stayed in town at a friend’s place until Sunday morning.

It was a very long and hard week due to a lot of other factors but all in all it went well and I’m glad I could help.

It’s taken me a couple of days to get back to almost normal.

I do know one thing… It’s much nicer up here in the woods at 60 degrees then it is almost anywhere else at 90 degrees.

Thanks for following along and I will have more to say about the trip and things I noticed along the way, in Mike Dell’s World #161 which I will record this week.

Have Fun!
-Mike

Today I talk about our trip to Las Vegas for the Blogworld and New Media Expo.

GotoMeeting Hold your meetings online for just $49/mo. Try GoToMeeting FREE for 30 days.

I play a song from Vic Trip and a couple of songs from the String Cheese Incident. I also play one from the Ragbirds.

I will catch you in a week or less with MDW141. CU Then!

click here to download

We just got done taking the booth down and getting things packed out for shipping out. Had a great time with the Blubrry and Rawvoice crew! I look forward to the next time we can get together!

Met a lot of new people and hooked up with a lot of other friends from past years of the New Media Expo. One of the highlights was meeting Mike James and his wife Jeanne at the show and at the Rawvoice Party.

There were some interesting moments. Rob Blatt finished second in the Fat Burger XXX Challenge by eating a 1.5lb hamburger. Tech Podcast member Jeffery Powers also finished 2nd in his heat by eating the same size burger.

I would like to thank the Rawvoice Team for letting me be a part of such a great company and it was really great to have the whole team in the same place for once!

All in all, it’s been a great trip so far. Now for some Vegas Play Time! Kathy and I will be sticking around until Monday and then we will fly home to the Cold cold real world of Northern Michigan!

Heading out today for Vegas! Going to be at the Blogworld and New Media Expo at the Las Vegas Convention center. Look for me at the Blubrry / RawVoice booth on the show floor. I would love to meet you if you are coming out. Otherwise, I will try to put out a podcast while there. No Guarantees, but I will try to get some recordings.

I play music I can’t play on the Radio.

GotoMeeting Hold your meetings online for just $49/mo. Try GoToMeeting FREE for 30 days.
Yogi Bear – The Kahn Man
I’ll Walk you Home – The Restophonics
Mike James (no not that Mike James) – Self Righteous North Idaho Bitch
The Two Man Gentlemen Band – When you play my Kazoo

See you in Vegas. I will be at the Blubrry / Rawvoice Booth most of the time. Stop by so we can meet up and get some swag!

Catch me later!

click here to download

Today I go for a walk in the woods for the most part. Just an update.

Also got a new sponsor for the podcast.

GotoMeeting Hold your meetings online for just $49/mo. Try GoToMeeting FREE for 30 days.

Hope you enjoy this show and See ya in Vegas for Blogworld Expo!

click here to download

Back about a year ago, my wife and I decided to get rid of our land line phone. The cost was more then we wanted to pay for a phone we didn’t use much. I also figured it would make life much more simple because we would just have one phone number each.

Fast forward to now. I have since signed up with Google Voice (my main voicemail line at the right hand side of the page). On top of that I have a Skype-in number and just today, I picked up a “Say Now” number (www.saynow.com) So now, there are 4 numbers for me and 2 for my wife. I guess that’s ok, and the way it’s setup, it won’t bother us if people call (other then my cell phone when I’m sleeping).

I also picked up a Skype to POTS adapter which lets me plug in a normal phone to a computer running skype. So now, I can have my cordless phone working again and use it with the Skype in or Skype out or even normal Skype calls. It’s really handy! I just got that thing installed this morning and had a chance to talk to my friend Jeff Forester (aka Trucker Two Times) while he was driving his big truck around Nashville. IT worked perfectly.

So if you need or want to get a message to me via the phone. You can call my Google Voice # at 231-715-1366. If you just want to leave a note for the podcast, you can call my new Say Now # at 231 803-4069.

Hope your week is going good!

-Mike

I’m convinced that I’m addicted to WordPress. For my job, I am in the process of moving 2 websites over to WordPress from another CMS. I didn’t realize that WP could be used like a CMS. It works great!

I already loved WordPress before I figured this out. I have 9 websites that run on WordPress and I have 2 more that I’m converting over to WordPress (not counting the ones for work).

It seems now that whenever I think of a good idea for a site, I hit Godaddy and buy the domain, install WordPress, and I have another. I’m going to have to quit this!

But not cold turkey! I’ve installed another wordpress site, but this one should reduce my urge to install more of my own. It’s www.boonadello.com. This is my consulting site. Now I will consult others on how to blog, podcast and use social websites and the best part is I will get to setup some of their WORDPRESS sites! It’s a win-win for everyone!

I think this may stem my desire to populate my servers with 200 installs!

If you would like me to help you with your blogging, podcasting or whatever, just go visit boonadello.com and see what I’m talking about.

In other news, Geek Of The North has launched. I did the first real show yesterday. I would put it in the MDW feed, but I want to keep them somewhat separate. If you would like to hear more of me podcasting, go check out that site at www.geekofthenorth.com (yes, another WordPress site) I do plan on putting out a Mike Dell’s World podcast in the morning (Wednesday) so stay tuned.

Now back to configuring WordPress!

-Mike

*** If you get a good idea for a site, I can get you $7.49 .com domain names. Use the promo code podname85 at checkout. (/shameless plug) ***

From the National Weather Service today:

Record Report
Statement as of 8:40 PM EDT on July 18, 2009

…Record low maximum temperatures set across the area…

The temperature at the Gaylord regional Airport only reached 57
degrees on Saturday…July 18…establishing a new record low
maximum temperature for the date. The previous record was 63 degrees
set exactly 100 years ago in 1909. In addition…the high of 57
degrees was the 4th coldest high temperature reading ever recorded
in the month of July (coldest is 54 degrees). Records in Gaylord
date back to 1893.

At the Cadillac Airport…the high temperature on Saturday only
reached 59 degrees. This reading establishes a new record low
maximum temperature for the date…smashing the old record of 66
degrees set back in 1924. The high of 59 degrees was the fifth
coldest high temperature reading ever recorded in the month of July
(coldest is 55 degrees). Records in Cadillac date back to 1909.

Finally…at the Pellston Airport…the high temperature of 59
degrees on Saturday established a new record low maximum for the
date…breaking the old record of 61 degrees set in 2000. This value
was the 4th coldest high temperature reading ever recorded in the
month of July (coldest is 55 degrees). Records in Pellston date back
to 1948.

I have the pleasure of bringing you the Juiced Penguin #22 in beautiful Ogg Vorbis format.

Randy “TheNose100″ Noseworthy asked if I would do an Episode of his Oggcast “The Juiced Penguin”. I jumped at the chance and here is a link to it:

http://juicedpenguin.com/ (You can listen in your browser if you click HERE)

In case you have never heard of Ogg Vorbis, it’s an open source audio format much like Mp3 but it’s free and open. (and some say sounds better) To play this file, you will need something like VLC player or go check out Randys page about ogg: http://juicedpenguin.com/wordpress/?page_id=159

Anyway, hope you enjoy the show and be sure to Visit Randy’s site www.juicedpenguin.com

Kathy and I are heading out of town for the weekend on our first camping trip of the year. We are going to an Undisclosed location for 3 nights. Nothing of note on the schedule other then relaxing, reading, writing and just hanging out.

I hope to come back nice and refreshed and ready for the 2nd half of the year.

I will likely post here once in a while from my blackberry.

Happy 4th of July!

-Mike

Today’s show, I talk about the upcoming unplugged camping trip and a bunch more. It’s raining here in Traverse City so I play some rain songs.

Still working on my new audio setup. I think I got this one ok.. Let me know what you think.

click here to download

I’m testing out a new home studio setup. PLEASE let me know, good or bad, how you think it sounds..

Yes, I know the clips were louder then my voice.. I will get that worked out before the next recording.

Have a great day!

Happy first full day of Summer!!

-Mike

click here to download

I talk about Podcamp Ohio and some other stuff from a Motel in Columbus.

I also talk about the Geek Of the North.

I play a tune from Frostbitten Grass.

I’m on my way home this morning (Sunday). Happy Father’s day to all that it applies to!

-Mike

click here to download
#pco09

I’m leaving the wilds of Northern Michigan to speak at and attend Podcamp Ohio 2 this weekend. I will be doing a session on how to consume podcasts for people that haven’t been listening to or watching podcasts for long. There are a lot of ways to consume the content that podcasters produce. If you happen to be within striking distance of Columbus Ohio come on over and check it out. Best of all, the price is right… FREE!

Hope to see you there!
-Mike

About Podcamp Ohio 2:
PodCamp Ohio is the media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, social networks, podcasting and new media to learn, share, and grow their new media skills. Whether you’re just interested in new media or an experienced veteran, PodCamp Ohio is for you!

PodCamp Ohio is structured with everyone in mind. Each session time segment provides 5-7 concurrent sessions for guests to pick from. There are a number of sessions that will be organized as ‘tracks’ for those who are new to blogging and podcasting.
Event Information

PodCamp Ohio 2 will be held at The Ohio State University Mendenhall Laboratory on Saturday, June 20, 2009 from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (6/9/09) – Four thousand flying hours is an acknowledged milestone in any aviator’s career, however 4,000 hours in one aircraft is truly an accomplishment.

Lt. Col. Reed Drake of the Montana Air National Guard recently became the fourth pilot in the world to accomplish that feat.

Congrats to Col. Drake!

Read the full story here

Leo Laporte has finally caused me to unsubscribe from his podcasts. Over the years, I’ve been a fan of Leo. I’ve heard some stuff from people that say he’s not the best guy to work with but I discount that as sour grapes by someone who isn’t as successful.

A few months ago, I heard him say on his live stream, that Cali Lewis wasn’t welcome on his shows anymore because she voted for John McCain and Sara Palin. His said he can’t stand “those” types of people and that anyone who would vote for them was mentally ill (or something close to that)

It’s well known that he’s very left leaning but if you listened to his shows, almost none of that came though and his tech info and delivery is top-notch! But that kind of stuff in uncalled for. Cali and Neal are also great people and have a good tech show that is delivered well. Their political beliefs are not part of their show.

The last TWIT (This week in Tech) that I listened to, Leo made it clear that he’s a liberal and that he thinks that conservatives belong in an insane asylum. That’s fine that he believes that and if he was doing a political show, it would be great that he says that, but I think it’s just plain stupid that he would put that in his tech programming. He’s going to alienate half of his audience.

If he’s biased about that on his show, then, what else is he biased about?

How about products he endorses? If say a large domain name and hosting company doesn’t advertise with him, what would he say about them?

The answer:

The last straw happened on a recent “Tech Guy” show which is one of his podcasts along with being his Radio Show on Premiere Networks (the same people that pay Rush Limbaugh ironically). At the beginning of his show, he started ranting about Godaddy.com and Godaddy founder Bob Parsons. His problem (get this) was that there were too many hot women on godaddy’s site and in their ads. HUH? Mr. Liberal doesn’t like to see girls on websites or in TV ads? WTF? He thinks that godaddy is exploiting women.
Well, I can tell you, if he didn’t do it, these women would go find someone else to “exploit” them. Mr. Parsons pays these women very well and they seem very willing to work for Godaddy.

Leo says he will never buy anything at Godaddy.com and he urged his audience not to as well.

Could it be, he used the exploiting women thing as an excuse to blast godaddy.com because they won’t advertise with him? He said they have wanted to advertise and he refused. Maybe so but maybe not. You decide.

I just know that it would be very hard for me to take anything he said about something as unbiased truth about a product, service or anything else after hearing the godaddy thing.

Ever notice no matter what he’s talking about, it’s the best thing ever? His Windows weekly show, he praises Microsoft for about everything. Then on his MacBreak Weekly show he slams Microsoft. On his open source show, he loves linux and puts down commercial software.

In my opinion, the wolf’s sheepskin is developing large tears and I will no longer be a fan. Too bad, because I liked Leo for a long time and will miss his co-hosts. Any suggestions on who to listen to now?

-Mike

Rawvoice Inc. has released the newest update to BluBrry Powerpress podcasting plugin for WordPress. I’ve been using the beta for a few days and I have to say it’s a great update!

Some of the new features from the blog post below:

The 1st new feature added is a podcast statistics summary to your WordPress dashboard that gives you a quick look at your podcast statistics.

The 2nd new Feature allows our hosting customers to have their ID3 Tags written to their media file automatically during the publishing of their media.

The 3rd new Feature allows podcasters to Category Cast, podcasters can now setup categories as independent podcast feeds

The 4th and final update which is the most important is our new 3 Step Podcast Publishing Process as demonstrated in a video.

Check out the full announcement and the Video on the Blubrry blog

This morning, my wife is dropping me off at the barn and I get to ride my 1983 V65 Magna home. It’s a red letter day!

Normally, by now, I would have the motorcycles home from storage out at the farm. This year, we have been blessed with cold weather most of the spring and we have been very busy with other things.

A little history: When I was in High School in 1983 the Honda V65 Magna was introduced to the world and it was every motorcycle loving 17 year old’s dream bike. I was no exception. Although at the time, I had now way of affording a brand new motorcycle. I was still riding my 1973 Yamaha RD 200 Electric and my Dad’s Honda CB450. Over the years I have had a few other bikes such as a Yamaha 400 Special, Yamaha 650 Special and a couple of dirt bikes. Flash forward to 2004. A friend of mine was buying a Honda VTX 1800C and needed to get rid of his “old bike”. I asked him what kind of bike was it ( I never saw him ride a motorcycle before that ). He said it was an Old Honda Magna and he wanted $xxxx for it. I said I would take a look at it. When I pulled into his driveway I about S*** my pants! It was my dream bike. At that point it was 21 years old and had 25,000 miles on it. It had been layed down but was repaired and ran good. I bought it on the spot.

Since then, I have put about 6000 miles on it and added a few things. A windsheild, an old fart’s backrest and GPS. This year I’m going to add a camera mount so I can do some videos using my flip camera.

Here is a 1983 TV AD for this bike:

The V65 Magna was the fastest production motorcycle from 1983-1986 when they quit making them. It has 120hp and only weighs like 450lbs. They say the top speed is somewhere in the 150mph range. I’ve never had the guts to go that fast.. Maybe someday on a track, but I doubt it. The acceleration is incredible. 0-55 can be done in about 35 feet and 3 seconds. It’s CRAZY fast.. All while getting 45mpg! I’m kind of a slow rider so I never get crazy on it, but it’s nice to know the power is there when needed (or wanted)

This is my motorcycle last fall.

So, I look forward to putting a few miles on it today and then get it cleaned up and ready for the motorcycle season here in Michigan (however short it is)

“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

Quote by Adrian Rogers, 1931

Since I put up this new wordpress theme I’ve found it harder to do quick updates.. So from now on, to see my latest updates look in the Center column for “Quick Updates” and that’s where you will find my quickie posts. I will try to update this area more then the main categories. I’m also experimenting with another theme on another blog an if it works out, I may switch this site to the other theme and use this theme on another website I’m working on. Stay tuned for more updates!

-Mike