Thursday, May 05, 2005

Grumpy Old Man Strong evidence today that I'm turning into a grumpy old man. I sent a letter to the editor. OK, it was actually an email in response to a blog post from Austin American-Statesman managing editor Fred Zipp. Still, my email was reprinted as part of his Rich & Fred blog on the Statesman. I believe that this, along with my frequent shoutouts from Sarah, makes me the most referred-to source in Statesman blogland. 4:06:46 PM    comment []

	Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Austin vs. Boston: Magazine Cover Smackdown Compare the covers of Texas Monthly's February issue with Boston magazine's May issue:    Coincidence? Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith doesn't think so. 10:22:06 AM    comment []

	Thursday, April 28, 2005

Podcasting Buzz. Plus, Is Blogging Over? In my very occasional spare time, I've been helping out with the Austin Podcasting Network, a local nonprofit group designed to support local podcasters by providing resources and information. The model is very similar to the Mac user groups that formed back in the 1980s. Even though it's still in its infancy, podcasting has gotten quite a bit of attention lately. It's been as big as this Wall Street Journal story that helliemae sent me today, and as small as an email I got today from a former co-worker asking what the Austin Podcasting Network was all about. It remains to be seen whether podcasting is any kind of a business, but it'll be interesting to watch its development. On a similar note, Business Week's cover story this week proclaims that blogging will change your business. The contrarians among us claim that being on the cover of Business Week is a signal that the trend is over. I still think there's room to grow. No technology trend is over until my mom starts using it. And she doesn't even have Tivo yet. 2:33:47 PM    comment []

	Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Mythbusters: Mr. Wizard Meets Wildboyz Over the weekend, I came across a great new show: "Mythbusters" on The Discovery Channel. On it, hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman use science to separate fact from fiction on various urban legends: Will your tattoo explode in an MRI machine? (No.) How long does it take to find a needle in a haystack? (About a day.) Part of the charm of the show comes from Adam and Jamie's on-screen chemistry, and part comes from their ability and willingness to blow stuff up and put themselves in the center of the action in order to demonstrate, rather than simply explain, why something is or isn't possible. Call it Mr. Wizard meets Wildboyz. Perhaps Mythbusters can engineer a crossover episode with The Office to answer Gareth's question: Will there ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark? 11:58:55 AM    comment []

	Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Blogging Nerdness: I Now Heart WordPress Over the past couple of years, I've tried blogs and blogging with nearly all of the major players. Call me fickle, but I've tried Blogger. I use Movable Type at work. This one is done in Radio Userland. Lately I've been flirting with another: WordPress. Created by Houston native Matt Mullenweg, WordPress is free and it's open source, which means that anyone can read and modify the program's basic source code. With an worldwide community of users working on the software, features can be added and tested more quickly than with many commercial programs. There are many more technical, geeky reasons why WordPress rocks, but its ease of use and horsepower are what drew me in. If you just want to post without worry, it can handle that. If you want to adjust the look and feel of your site or meddle with the code, you have the tools you need. And when you run into trouble (as I did a couple of times), all it takes is a few seconds of Google searching to find the answer. I set up Alexander von Koopa's new site, Koopa Korner, in a matter of minutes and taught him the basics of posting and updating last night. 5:10:48 PM    comment []

	Monday, April 25, 2005

Must Watch: Bruce Springsteen Storytellers on VH1 Saturday night was the premiere of the Bruce Springsteen episode of the VH1 series Storytellers. The format of the show is well-established: an artist plays some of his songs in front of a small audience, then talks about what he was thinking when he wrote it, or what the song means to him. The hour-long show highlighted songs both old and new, including a pair from his new Devils & Dust CD that comes out Tuesday. I've been a Bruce Springsteen fan for nearly 20 years, and this was one of the most riveting performances I can remember. The performance was almost entirely Bruce on his own, accompanying himself either on guitar or piano. Springsteen's wife, Patti Scialfa, came out to join him on "Brilliant Disguise", and it turned out to be one of the highlights. To me, "Brilliant Disguise" had always been about Bruce and his bad experience in marriage to Julianne Phillips. And at the time, it likely was. But he explained that songs can change over the years, depending on how they're sung and who you sing them with. What once had been a song about betrayal had changed into a song about questioning: Are you the man you should be? He closed with "Thunder Road", a song that has retained its power since it debuted nearly 30 years ago. Bruce called it an invitation: to the album, to his fans, to rock and roll. Consider this my invitation. Don't miss this show. To find out more, check out this account from Caryn Rose, who was at the performance a few weeks ago. 1:11:30 PM    comment []

	Friday, April 22, 2005

Two Longhorns in Top 10 Picks? Tomorrow is NFL draft day, where young men who have spent the last few years crashing into each other in college football games begin their careers as professional head-knockers. Two University of Texas players, running back Cedric Benson and linebacker Derrick Johnson, are expected to be among the first 10 players selected. Benson is a strong, tough runner who gained more than 1,000 yards in each of his four years at UT. With his dreadlocks and powerful style, he drew immediate comparisons to former Longhorn Ricky Williams. But after Williams' drug suspension and other personal problems, Benson lost the dreads and made a concerted "I'm not Ricky" effort to assure pro teams he wasn't a clone of his talented-but-troubled predecessor. Johnson is the consensus pick as the top linebacker available in the draft. The only nit-picky knock is that his style is more suited to chasing down the ballcarrier than standing at the line and stuffing the run. Therefore, he needs to be in the right defensive system, or at least supported by a run-stuffing LB to really thrive. Update: Benson was picked fourth overall by the Chicago Bears. He'll join his former Longhorn teammate Nathan Vasher on the Bears' roster. Johnson dropped a bit lower than expected, but was selected 15th overall by the Kansas City Chiefs. 9:28:50 AM    comment []