Podcasting

Yeah, I know, you would think a geek like me would have had a podcast a long time ago. Well I didn't until a few days ago. The links are on the right side of the page. If you have questions shoot me an email. I'm open to suggestions about what to talk about and right now there is only one download for my podcast. Enjoy!

The Feeling

I know this doesn't just happen to me. I'm sitting at my parents house watching Grill It on Food Network and I can't help but think that there was something I was going to blog about today. Of course its only about the 15th time I've said, I should blog about that in the past few days. I've got to start carrying around a notebook or palm pilot again. Maybe that's another case for me to get an iPhone (if Shelly sees this her eye's will roll again). But come on, I would really like to only carry around one thing, instead of my current 3 (laptop and 2 cell phones). If I had an iPhone I could just carry that and leave my laptop at home...ok, I'll quit. Now if I could just remember what I actually wanted to blog about...I guess it's back to a reporters notepad or a palm pilot. Later.

Impending DOOM!!! Or Not

Many of you are already aware of the fact that in the United States television broadcasts are going all digital in February of 2009 (February 17 to be exact). Yet, this Friday (July 19th) a full 6 months before the transition is going to take place a local Portland, OR TV station is going to "'pull the plug' to help viewers find out if their TV is ready for the conversion to Digital TV." Found here or by clicking on the title of this blog you can find out what KGW Channel 8 in Portland is planning on doing. My question for KGW is simple, what do they hope to prove by running this so called "test"?

Let me explain why I ask that question. I'm not ready for the digital switch, why those of you who know me might ask, it's strictly a money thing. I'm waiting as long as a can to buy a new TV so I can enjoy digital in all its High Definition glory. Sure I know I can request a rebate from the federal government to buy a analog to digital signal converter but why do that when I can have a new tuner built into my new TV. I would imagine that there are a few million other Americans who are thinking along the same wavelength as me. KGW's idea of turning off an analog transmitter to tell me something I already know is completely dumb. While it's only a 10 second test, let me give you a possible scenario of what could happen.
The news starts as normal. The reporter in the field gets ready to do is DTV report. The reporter turns off the analog transmitter on cue. 10 seconds later he trys to turn it back on. Nothing happens, he re-flips the switch, still nothing. Now he's wasting his time and my time in trying to prove that we need to get ready for the switch. Why should I have to watch 10 seconds of static so some TV station can prove something I already know.

I'll be ready for the switch to digital/HD TV in February of 2009, NOT July of 2008. Get a clue KGW, you're just going to wind up offending and/or panicking a large portion of your viewing audience.

By the way if you want to know more about the switch to digital here are some links you can check out:
DTVanswers.com

TV Converter Box Coupon Program

Wikipedia's DTV page.

You can also shoot me an email sharpeonair at yahoo dot com (obviously put that into email format at = @ dot = .). Thank you for reading!

Twitter

It's the latest and greatest thing out there...Ok, maybe not but it is pretty cool to me. But hey, I'm a geek right. It's called Twitter. You go to Twitter.com and just sign up. From there you answer the question "What are you doing?" It doesn't matter how much or how little you "tweet." In my case I update from Outlook using a program called OutTwit or online at Twitter.com. If you have a Mac you can use a program called Twitterific among others. While Twitterific isn't available for PC there are other programs out there that work fairly well. If you have Vista you can also get a sidebar plugin that may work for you. You can also recieve "tweets" on your cell phone via text messages or using mobile web through sites like hahlo.com. Oh, and if you want to add me on your twitter page, it's ve6erc. Enjoy!

Need to Post

I know, I haven't put anything up in several months. I haven't had a whole lot to write about. Maybe I will get some inspiration in the next couple of weeks. Anyhow, if you want to message me or follow me on twitter or whatever, there are links on the right side of the page. Thanks for visiting!

A Book

So I stayed up way to late last night reading a wonderful book. The author is William P. Young. Born in Alberta, Canada and raised in New Guinea. The book he wrote? It's simply called "The Shack." I have never read anything quite like this book. My mom handed it to me and said, "Read this, I'm not going to explain it, just read it." So when I picked it up last night at about 11:30, I figured I'd read it for a few minutes and put it down and go to sleep. Maybe it was the cold room I was in, maybe it was the authors writing style but something kept me reading until about 2 this morning. Yes, I read it cover to cover. What a story! I would highly reccommend reading it for yourself. You can find out more about the author and book at www.theshackbook.com. The authors' blog, which I would say wait until after you have read the book to read that is www.windrumors.com (some of what is written here won't make sense even if you do read it before the book). If you are having trouble with something in your life, even if it is the smallest thing in the world, this is a book that will help you. I know it will help me. If you have already read it, give it to someone else to read, if you haven't go get it, it's worth the 3 plus hours to read it. Tell me what you think by either commenting or emailing or myspacing me. Yes, I know this post is a bit cryptic, it is intentional. I don't want to give away any part of the book. Like I said read it, then go to the authors blog and the book website.

It's Too Early

It's 5:21 as I start writing this blog on SuperBowl Sunday 2008. I'm not sure what to write about. I have the day off, first one I have taken since Christmas (other than a couple weeks ago when I was sick). That means that I really shouldn't be up this early. I should be in bed asleep, but I just can't. No, it's not becuase I'm excited about the game, or any other plans I have for today (Go Patriots). I just can't sleep. Maybe I'm still recovering from taking the LSAT yesterday. Yeah, that's right a month plus of studying leads to me finally getting the right to pay $125 to torture myself for 4 hours by taking a test in logic. Before you ask, I have no clue how well or badly I did, all I know is I had way to many analytical reasoning sections (that's not Logic games) for my tastes. BTW if you want to take the test in the Portland market, Corban College isn't a bad location. Of course it would have been nice to not have had to drive for 120 miles to get there and back but hey, I can't win them all. So, the LSAT's done, I've got my BA in Public Affairs. Now what? Hmmm....that's a really, really good question. I'm going to be applying to Law School for the fall (I should really get on that, the deadline is in like 4 weeks). If I don't get in, well it's more hours at the station, getting up at 3-4 AM somedays, but hey it's money. Well, I think I may go crawl back into bed for a few hours, maybe I'll actually sleep this time...good morning/afternoon/night...Oh and enjoy the game!

RIAA Strikes Again

Ok, so copying music is bad, illegal in fact. A woman was just ordered to $220,000 for sharing 24 songs online (yes that's a little over $9,000 a song). In an article today (thanks Kim Komando), I'm finding out that I may be able to be sued as well. Not because of illegal music (which I will neither confirm or deny) but because I have ripped CD's to my computer. Yes, that's right, ripping CD's may be considered illegal, at least if the RIAA lawyers have their way. Is it just me or is this going to far? I mean come on $10,000 a song for sharing it? Saying that I can't convert my files from the CD into something that will go on my iPod. Let's follow this logic just briefly shall we.
I am no longer able to rip CD's. I get a CD from someone as a gift. I now have to return that CD, go to the iTunes music store and download it, oh and pay for it myself. What if I return it to the store and all I get is store credit? Now I'm out the 12-15 bucks because I'm no longer able to rip CD's. I agree that the RIAA has the right to enforce it's rules, but come on! I mean for years I've been told that copying music from one format to another (CD to .mp3 or .aac or .wav or whatever) is completely and totally fine. Now the RIAA says it's not, do they want to sell any CD's anymore? I mean isn't there still something about getting a CD and putting in your CD player to play it and then putting it in your computer to rip it? Maybe it's just me. You can read the article here. You can find out more about Kim Komando here. Thank you for reading.

Skype

I love the news media, really I do. I love how there are 10 million opinions for a single story. I am a Skype user (great chat/telephony program Skype.com. I'm reading Google News this afternoon to do some last minute prep for the weekend shows I produce and a tech story catches my eye. Apparenetly in the past 24 hours Skype has been having a lot of difficulty with a large volume of users in mostly Asia and Europe (mine hasn't had any problems). In the past 24 hours (where Skype on their blog has promised that it would be resolved in that period) the critics have come out with articles entitled "Skype outage: An unprecedented wake-up call" or "Skype Experiences Growing Pains." Heaven forbid that a company have a problem. The articles complain about how the businesses were stranded and that there was no customer support complaint system with skype. Give me a break! It's an online internet chat program. You don't see tons of articles about AIM when it goes down for long periods of time. The sentiment I seem to be reading from the critics is that Skype should have known better and that because of this glitch there are tons of problems coming their way. Like competition, right because Yahoo! Messanger and AIM are not already established and have introduced and failed with voice? People just don't think. RRRRR....I like Skype, I would be a little frustrated if it went down but I think I could probably get over it, even if I had a business I would probably be ok, I mean there is still oh, email, other messaging programs, cell phones, landlines...ummm..fill in the _________ with some other piece of technology that communicates. Just one persons opinion

Strange!!!!

Ok, so I listen to too much radio. Today I was out and about listening to 105.1 The Buzz in Portland (KRSK 1051thebuzz.com) and Daria, Mitch and Producer Ted discuss spanking when they got one of those calls that you wonder why on earth A: they did the thing they did, B: they are willing to admit it. So this woman calls up and has a story to tell about her wedding day...and how she received a spanking from her father. It turns out that she was drunk after her bachelorette party and threw up all over his brand new car that was sitting in the driveway. The obvious question from Mitch was something akin to asking if she had been spanked on the wedding night as well as the wedding day. Her response was that she didn't remember that. OK, this makes no sense. The first time she was drunk I can kind of understand, although I'm really not sure what the draw to drinking so much alcohol that you can't remember what happened, but I digress. The second thing I don't get...WHY WOULD YOU GET DRUNK AT YOUR WEDDING? It's kind of an important event if you ask me. Just my opinion, or lack of understanding, take your pick.