November 2008 Archives

I received an email from United today introducing new Mileage Plus rules starting July 1^st 2009. Having flown 90,000 miles with United this year I am a very loyal customer. I will easily break a 100k miles before the year ends.

Based on the new mileage plus rules to start in July 2009, it’s time to start looking at American Airlines or Delta again. These idiots are gonna implement a Co Pay when you use your hard earned miles to upgrade a ticket. Generally from Hawaii it cost 15,000 miles to upgrade from Coach to first one way. Starting July 1^st not only will it cost you 15,000 miles you will also be required to pay a co pay based upon your class of ticket.

Not only that they are not going to refund miles on segments that are not approved when you request a upgrade.

I have choice of carriers when I fly, and I can guarantee you that these co-pays are going to have me look at other carriers. What a stupid idiotic thing to do. I have used mileage upgrades quite a bit this year.. But I am not going to pay a co-pay

United has for years had the worst first class cabin of all the Airlines that fly out of Hawaii. United considers Hawaii a domestic flight and the first class cabin is more like low end business. American and Delta beats them hands down when it comes to service and more importantly seats. I am not paying additional dollars when cashing in flight miles to sit in a seat that is marginally better than economy plus in regards to leg room.

I will vote with my wallet.. This is a great way to get rid of customers. Very dumb move United..

First off, Yes I know I got the date wrong.. Ok folks it's very important you listen to the whole show. I have a mission for everyone at the end of the podcast. This is about New Media invading Old Media it is gonna take all of you to make this happen ok... Link and Instructions are at end of Show Notes!

This shows full show notes with all article and listener links!

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Special Event. Go to this Link fill out info at Top of the Page, then in Local People section put "Todd Cochrane" "Best NewsCaster"" lets see if New Media can beat Old Media!

I was watching the races unfold tonight, as I have done in the past elections. The thing that I found just as interesting as the race itself was all the cool tech the news sources had to cover the election. The computing power in each news room was phenomenal.

First, there was CNN. They had the big screen behind with a map of the US color coding each state. In fact the map only covered half of the "Wall". I wonder how much that one cost.

Then there is the "Magic Wall" - a big touch screen in which John King would be able to pull up stats and charts. Four big buttons on the left to let him choose how to run the screen. A big yellow box with an "X" in it to close out any windows he had open. No minimize button or task bar though.

In NYC, Times Square had some pretty flashy tech. From the Big screens showing off the candidates, to the ticker marquee that wrapped around the overhang. It was all pretty impressive to see as the race unfolded.

I didn't see the projection of the US on the Rockefeller ice rink that NBC was going to do. I am still always impressed what we can do with tech nowadays.

The big question I have though is - what happens to that tech after today? Is it still going to be used in day-to-day news reporting, or will it go into the basement?

I can see this change the face of news itself. We have already seen changes in what meteorologists use to display the weather maps. Gone will be the day of a hand held clicker that moves from screen to screen. Not to mention the pull down maps they used to use in the 70's and 80's and definitely no magnetic icons of clouds blowing or smiling suns.

Now, you can touch a couple spots on the screen and move around without being tethered to a controller. Zoom in on areas, push it all to the left or right and call up important data. No more green screens, here.

If news stations started using that for the general news, there is no need for someone in the control room to flip though the pictures. Just a touch of the screen and we see a picture or a Google map or whatever the newscaster wants.

At any rate, if CNN is going to put the Magic Wall away, I have a great place in my living room in which they can store it. I just hope it comes with a remote control so I don't have to get up to touch the screen and change the channel. Of course, I could always train the dog to nuzzle the screen to do that...

As we had hoped, the FCC has approved opening the "white space" that was being reserved in the TV broadcast spectrum for the last fifty years. It has been a four-year process, and has finally come to the conclusion it should have all along.

This, despite protests from every broadcast entity in the country. So much for big business having all the say. Under the FCC's plan, white space spectrum will be unlicensed and free — like Wi-Fi — to anybody who wants to use it. In some markets, there's enough white space to fill a half dozen TV channels.

They have put in place safeguards that should allay any broadcasting fears that currently exist. "Safe zones" where the white space cannot be used, like around entertainment venues or near broadcast points for traditional television broadcasters. Other entities can ask for safe zone treatment from the FCC.

The opening of this broadcast space bodes well for innovation. Right now, devices to use the space are not available, but I expect to see rapid development in this area. Now, if we can just keep big business' hands off the space, we might get some cost-effective and use-effective growth in the area of wi-fi communications!

One thing you have to hand to the Obama campaign they knew how to use Social Media effectively during the campaign. The Republicans can learn some lessons from this and so can some companies.

Many of the things the Obama camp did cost them nothing but one of their staffers time to make sure they were engaged. One instance was the utilization of Ustream.tv

As many of you know I have been using Ustream for the live portion of my podcast and while I draw small crowd in the middle of the night. The Obama team would put a live Ustream Channel at ever speaking event he went to and thousands would tune in.

This is just the tip of  the iceberg, they used blog commenters and bloggers effectively to neutralize negative commentary. With a dedicated group of staffers watching blogs they would pounce on sites almost instantly when someone had a negative thing to say and used blogs to essentially blast the competition.

Very effective use of technology was key. It made the McCain campaign look weaker as they did not use the tools that many people of all ages use today to communicate. The next person to run for president is going to have to get their social media game on.

Oh and what both camps missed, political podcasters could have been running ads as well in their podcast as they could have had a new message each day.

Gary had a great response to some things Howard Stern has to say about social media. For those of you that have been holding back from jumping into new media you should listen to this.

On a side note you all know that I have said since 2004 that the new media evolution will continue to force those in the traditional media space to change or become irrelevant.

Check out Gary's site today.

Info on the Podcast Awards Winner Announcement also big thanks to the folks at Blue Mics for stepping up with prizes. Check out the latest Round Table at TechPodcasts.com.

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Special Event. Go to this Link fill out info at Top of the Page, then in Local People section put "Todd Cochrane" "Best NewsCaster"" lets see if New Media can beat Old Media!

Check out this Video interview I did with the team at the DV Show. I talk about the Tech Podcast Network along with some of the cool things we are doing at RawVoice. The DV Show

Thanks to the Team over there for the opportunity to talk about the network.

In my daily routine, I download a lot of podcasts. I figure it's part of my job - I podcast, therefore I should listen to other podcasters. For Instance, I am listening to a new cast (for me) called the Geek Rodeo Cast. Geek News Central, SDR News, Totally Cool Tech Podcast, Caffination Podcast, TWIT and many others.

And yes, I listen to my podcast, too (Geekazine). I figure if I cannot get through my own podcast, how would I expect others to? In listening, I can also catch any issues. I just heard another podcast that started, but was only 2 minutes in length, when it should have been 30.

So I was downloading Todd's podcast today when I noticed it was taking a lot longer. The other shows had completed, so I just figured it was a connection issue. As I always say: The Internet is always as fast as it's slowest connection.

When I started to listen to the show, I noticed the quality. Now I know that Todd had issues with his mixing board and went to get a new one. But this was different than a new board. Don't get me wrong - it most likely helped, but what made me notice even more was the fact the show was in 128 Kbps.

For those that don't know - most podcasts are produced in 64 Kilobits per second, or kbps. Basically, it's like listening to a talk show on the radio. And for most talk, that is all that's needed. In comparison, MP3's are usually at 128 kbps. Audiophiles usually have their music at higher bit rates, like 256 or more. That would be overkill for talk shows.

Hearing Geek News Central in 128 kbps was not only different, it made me open my eyes as to the quality of podcasts. The sound was clearer and made the show sound more professional.

There are downsides, though. The size of the show pretty much doubled. The download time also increased. nonetheless - the pros really outweigh the cons.

Now I haven't talked with Todd about this. I am not sure if he did this on purpose. But I'll bet I am not the only one who notices the difference. Makes me think if my shows will sound better at a higher rate.

If it wasn't planned, I say "Keep it up". It really makes a difference. If you haven't heard the show yet, you should really download it and listen. You will be pleasantly surprised.

On Sunday November 9th at 4pm PST / 7pm EST or 1am GMT I will announce the 2008 People's Choice Podcast Awards Category Winners. This will be a live streamed event from the PodcastAwards.com.

Within the next week we will announce the date for the Awards Ceremony where we will announce the People's Choice and Best Produced category winners. During the awards ceremony you will get to hear from each of the 22 category winners through a interactive online event.

This years event has run very smoothly, if it had not been from the 46 volunteers from my podcast this event would never have been possible so huge Mahalo to them. I hope that you take the time and check out all of the podcast that were nominated, they all have highly engaged audiences whose host are podcasters that have found the magic to grow significant audiences.

Through our Sponsors support they have allowed us to buy the cool prizes that makes this event different. Literally thousands of dollars in prizes will be given away during the awards ceremony next month.

The 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards Winner announcement happens today at 4pm Pacific / 7 PM Eastern / 1AM GMT. Watch here or join chat at live event at www.podcastawards.com 

For the second year in a row, I am planning to do a 24hr Podcast. Last years event www.24hrpodcast.com was a huge success. We raised a significant amount of money and was able to contribute 5 OLPC laptops to needy children around the world.

This year I will be raising money for disabled veterans with the goal of raising $3000.00. Pledging is starting today! You can pledge now, and pay later by sending a email to geeknews@gmail.com and pledge the amount you feel you can afford we will send payment info later.

I had hoped to do this event in December but my schedule is such that I am going to shoot for doing the event the weekend of November 22nd & 23rd. I have to get the schedule together quickly within the next 10 days.

If you have a compelling story and it surrounds the new media space, technology or science.  I would love to get you on the schedule for the event. Being I have a continuous 24hrs to schedule you into the program there is room for a lot of people to participate. If you want to be considered for a slot drop me a not and tell me what you want to talk about. geeknews@gmail.com

The 24 Hour Podcast will be November 22nd and 23rd. If you want to be on the show or know of someone that should be on the event I need your help in filling the 24 hours with great content.

To See Full Show Notes Click Here

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Special Event. Go to this Link fill out info at Top of the Page, then in Local People section put "Todd Cochrane" "Best NewsCaster"" lets see if New Media can beat Old Media!

Then you should come to them!

That's Sears' stand, anyway. After a terribly failed attempt last year to get people to join their online community, which was just a glorified way to spread their advertising, they have found a new tactic.

Users of Facebook can now "become a fan" of Sears, and get a $5 gift card for their trouble. Considering you can't buy a single thing at Sears for $5, this is a thinly disguised attempt to get people into the store, or onto their online site, to spend money. If they can't get you to come to them, then it's easy to just come on over to a place that already exists and get potential customers' attention there.

I'm a Facebook user, but I won't be becoming a fan of Sears any time soon. These kinds of questionable sales tactics always turn me off. Even less reason now for me to shop at Sears, although I wasn't a huge fan before.

I'm starting to put my list together for Santa for the holidays. Yes, Geeks can have dreams too!

Starting off, I've already purchased some things for the kids, including Sansa 8 gb MP3 players. These sweet little units are as powerful as the iPod without the costly risk of replacement when they get banged around too much. While I would love to get them all iPods, I don't think they'd survive the hustle and bustle of my teens.

I, myself, am looking at the new HD-capable Flip camera. Sweet at $229 and I could have so much fun with such a thing. I mean, I could do so much important work with this thing. Yeah, that's the ticket. The Flip Mino HD looks just like earlier versions of the Flip, only it films in HD. It shoots video in 1280x720 720p resolution, wider than the previous 640x480 size, and touts one-click uploads to websites like YouTube, MySpace and AOL Video. You can also upload to Vimeo and bleep.tv, which will actually upload your video in its original HD format. It also comes with cables to hook up directly to your television! How cool is that?

We don't do video games, so I'm not looking at anything for the Wii or XBox, but I am looking for some great deals on LCD televisions. If I can get a decent one for a decent price, that may also be on the Geeky Santa List this year.

What are you looking at for the holidays?

The government is levelling fines from three LCD producers, including the venerated LG. Apparently, LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa all conspired to fix prices on their LCD products, including televisions, computer monitors, and cell phone screens. The fines total $585 million.

What's disappointing in these types of anti-trust and anti-competitive charges and pleadings, is that the people that were overcharged (that would be you and me) will not reap any of the benefits. That money goes to the government, right into the general revenue fund.

If this had been a class action suit, we might have all gotten $20 in discounts or credits or something. But we're not getting anything out of this deal.

Still, I'm glad that anti-competitive legislation is in place, and that those policies are enforced. At least companies can't get away with conspiratorial price fixing without some oversight. But I know in the end, we the customers will be paying for the judgment these companies agreed to.

Researchers from my own city (St. Louis University) have discovered a particular hormone that, when manipulated, can allow disease relief directly into the brain. One of the biggest roadblocks to recovering from brain injuries is the blood-brain barrier, a sort of “gatekeeper” that keeps injurious chemicals out of the brain. Its unique construction also blocks out drugs that might be able to help in the case of brain injuries.

The researchers describe the blood brain barrier as a sort of bouncer at an exclusive nightclub. While the bouncer welcome those on the approved guest list, it looks for trouble-makers trying to crash the party, refuses to let them in and evicts them if they do get in. The researchers were able to identify the particular bouncer responsible for keeping out the hormone PACAP27, which regulates general admission. By altering a molecule, the blood brain barrier was then able to let in PACAP27. The entrance of this hormone allowed repair of damage from Alzheimer's and strokes. Read that sentence again. They key word is repair. That means a reversal of symptoms and damage.

Right now the research is fixed on mouse brains, but the same principles will likely apply to the human brain. This research could lead to incredible advances in repairing central nervous system injuries.

As most of you know, I'm a rather passionate advocate of alternative sources of energy, most notably solar. A new development from scientists from the Future Chips Constellation (FCC) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have created the coating using nanotechnology - engineering at the molecular level, to create a boost to traditional solar panel captures.

A non-reflective coating, comprised of seven extremely thin layers, each about 50 to 100 nanometers in height, is made of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide nanorods positioned at an oblique angle. This non-reflective ability, and the angle, allow solar energy to be captured even at non-optimal angles. This means that during the course of a day, more actual energy-grabbing hours can be effectively used than with traditional single-layer panels. In addition, the layers do not have to meet exacting standards of thickness, removing much of the tedious manufacturing that must currently be completed to create solar panels.

I am encouraged that research into solar technology continues. As each new process and method is developed, we come closer and closer to a real solution that we can all use. Solar is ultimately renewable, free to capture, and generally non-harmful to the environment in the manufacture of the panels themselves. Now we just have to get the costs down to something reasonable.

Nearly two week ago I received a set of glasses from Gunnar Optiks that are being touted by the company as being digital performance eyewear. Which as you use them is supposed to relieve a lot of the effects many of us get by sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time.

Testing eyewear can be a very subjective thing so I wanted to really see if I could determine if the glasses were having a positive effect on my eyes over the course of two weeks. My strategy included wearing them for three days straight while sitting at the computer then not wear them for three days.

I kept a log of typical things that happen to me after a day of sitting at the computer. Primarily headaches, dry eyes etc. What I have concluded in my not so super scientific manner is that I had fewer headaches and that my eyes seemed to not be as dry and itchy.

I did notice that while glasses were tinted, that the things seemed just a fraction sharper which was the thing that surprised me the most. The eyewear retails between $90.00 and $190.00 and while I may have been skeptical in the beginning I do think today that this company is on to something. The team behind the product come from the sports eyewear industry.

Here is my advice, if you are suffering from headaches and eye fatigue from setting in front of a PC all day this is a product at least worth checking out. I look forward to hearing others experience with this product.

Please note that I am not making any medical claims, I am only relaying my perspective from wearing these glasses a total of about 7 days over a two week period.

Just about 30 minutes ago the UPS driver dropped me a Flip Mino HD. I pulled it out of its case turned it towards me and recorded this video. I then plugged the camera into my USB port and used the FlipShare application that resides on the camera and added a couple of titles to the video and pushed it to YouTube.

Total time to when it arrived to when the video was uploaded to YouTube was just about 15 minutes. More after the video!

Please note that the Video that on my hard drive before YouTube encoding is really nice. Amazing quality for such a small camera. The encoding from YouTube really did not do the video or the audio any justice

The next video is the same exact clip but what I did this time was load the original file up in a video conversion program reduced the size from 450 megs to 32 megs and uploaded that file to Blip.TV who then encoded it in Flash. I think the Blip video looks a lot better.

The new camera is going to retail at $229.00 it can shoot in 720p which is 1280x720 in 16:9 cinematic wide screen. The new Flipshare application seems to do a much better job and even has some basic titling capability.

There is 4gb of onboard memory (wish there was more) and it will record about 60 minutes of Video. Overall Flip continues to hit home runs with these products. While the price point for the HD version has went up. I cannot even imagine this type of quality 4 years ago from a camera that is smaller then my cell phone.

If you want to be on the 24 hour podcast formally in a time slot let me know now. Also we will have time slots of open talk story time that will not be structured so it should be a fun event. Lot's of Science in the show tonight!

Link to Complete Show Notes

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Special Event. Go to this Link fill out info at Top of the Page, then in Local People section put "Todd Cochrane" "Best NewsCaster"" lets see if New Media can beat Old Media!

For the second year in a row, I will be hosting the 24hr Podcast which is a non stop event that will cover podcasting, technology, new media, podcast advertising and a host of other topics.

This years event kicks off on Saturday Dec 20^th at 11am EST and finishes up 24hrs later! This years event is to raise money for disabled veterans. We have a goal to raise $3000.00 this year. Last years event was highly successful

During the 24hr Podcast, I have a number of slots open for podcasters to come in share their stories and talk about their podcasts. Last year nearly 30 segments were recorded that have been downloaded and listened to over 600,000 times.

If you would like to be considered for a segment on the 24hr Podcast where you will join Todd for the event drop him a email at geeknews@gmail.com with the subject 24Hr Podcast and tell him about yourself and your show.

Members of Blubrry, Tech Podcasts and Podcaster News always get priority placement. Be aware spots are filling up fast.

The 24hr Podcast has been postponed. This afternoon my grandfather of 99 years passed away. I will be traveling to Michigan to attend the funeral. While I understand the disappointment of not being able to do the event this Saturday and Sunday I am sure you all understand.

My plan is to do the event the weekend of December 20 and 21st which will match the exact weekend we did the event last year.

Todd Cochrane

TiVo and Domino's have joined forces to get you your favorite pie without picking up the phone. You will be able to access your TiVo and like a website - order your pizza, soda and sides to be delivered in 30 minutes.

This is not a good move, it's an interesting one. Services through your media box might just spawn some new ideas. Just like Grand Theft Auto - if you like a song, you can get it from Amazon.com. What if you were watching a movie on your Apple TV or VooDoo box and before you order the movie, you get a special on Pizza, Chicken or whatever. Maybe even your movie purchase could mean a coupon waiting at your favorite store.

Yep, the days of the Yellow Pages seem to be numbered. Then again, you might just see THAT on your TiVo or Apple TV.

Andy McCaskey one of the team members going to CES 2009 representing Tech Podcast has put up a informational page on how companies can work with us to get great exposure during the 2009 event.

As we get closer to the event we will be populating the page with data on what our planned schedule is and introduce the additional team members.

Our Team Coverage begins on January 6^th 2009 Live from Las Vegas www.tpnces.com

Back in the saddle tonight after taking the night off last night more details on the show. The 24hr Podcast has been postponed till December 20-21 but until then the show goes on.

Link to complete Show Notes!

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Special Event. Go to this Link fill out info at Top of the Page, then in Local People section put "Todd Cochrane" "Best NewsCaster"" lets see if New Media can beat Old Media!

Well for some unknown reason in the middle of my live recording tonight my Tricaster died. Will be calling tech support in the morning to find out what the procedure is.

I can only shudder to think if this had happened during the 24hr Podcast or the Podcast Awards. I am not a happy camper at the moment.

Update RMA Issued by Newtek and the box is Fedex Overnight to San Antonio. The folks there have been nice enough to do a rush repair. Hopefully it is back in my hands next week.

I remember scanning though the uStream channels one night. A young girl, head wrapped in a veil but exposing her breasts to the ustream public. I also remember other issues of questionable content online or even on TV.

Apparently on Justin.tv, a broadcaster was pushed by his viewers to take a high dose of pills. He did so and died. The 19 year old was pronounced by the Broward County medical examiner.

While this is a travesty, it also sounded like this kid tried to do this before. Whether he was looking for a way out via video or not is hard to say. The end result though is all too real.

Hopefully this will not impede on Justin.tv, ustream, Seasmic or any of the other sites out there. Unfortunate as this may be, it was also bound to happen. Hundreds of feeds out there and some of them are not being viewed by anyone.

There should be a way for these companies to monitor what is out the