Announcing LocalOnlineNews.TV
April 28, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Today I am excited to announce the launch of a project that has been in the works for the last few months. It’s called LocalOnlineNews.TV.
The concept is simple: Experienced, professional video journalists report on issues and events that impact local communities. Our reporters will focus on a single community and file reports every day or two on hard news and other events taking place around town.
Each story consists of a 2-3 minute “package” (similar to the evening news), as well as ‘extended content’ with complete, uncut interviews with local officials and newsmakers.
This week we officially kicked off coverage in West Hartford with reporter Anna Stonestreet. She’s filed four reports already with more on the way. Content is posted at http://www.localonlinenews.tv as well as every major video hosting provider. We’re on Facebook and Twitter too.
We’ll be expanding coverage over the next several weeks with additional reporters that you’ll be hearing about soon.
While I work to build a viable business model, the editorial component will be developed by my co-founder, former WTNH reporter/anchor Anna Sava. Anna is an Emmy Award winning television journalist who brings a tremendous amount of expertise to this effort.
The idea for this endeavor came to life earlier this year after my hometown lost three of its four news sources. For many towns in Connecticut these losses are especially troubling because by law important public policy matters (like school and municipal budgets) are voted on in public town hall meetings and/or referendums.
There is a real need (and demand) for timely and objective information on important local issues. The question will be how new forms of local media will fill the gap being vacated by traditional sources. I believe the time (and technology) is right for professionally produced online video at the “hyperlocal” level.
I look forward to your input as we develop this new business!
2009-04-26 Weekly Twitter Update
April 26, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- Watching “Kings,” pretty cool show. #
- Just installed Tweetie on the Mac. Great Twitter client. #
- Will be cheering on my sister-in-law today as she runs the Boston marathon! Track your favorite runners at http://bit.ly/jG43O #
- Board of Ed budget presentation went well. Now it’s time for bed. #
- Hopes that you can come to the University of Hartford tomorrow for a great discussion on the youth vote. http://bit.ly/uLtOu #
- Come learn about how young people are reshaping the electorate at the Univ. Of Hartford tomorrow night. More info here: http://bit.ly/LxDjs #
- Tonight: Hear from Rock The Vote about how young people on both sides of the aisle are voting in record numbers. http://bit.ly/LxDjs #
- RT: LG Chem Has Begun Battery Plant Construction for Chevy Volt Cells http://tinyurl.com/cgld9c (via @GMVolt) #
- I think it’s safe to say now that spring has arrived. Finally. #
- RT @darthvader’s Earth Day message: “Just be glad I don’t celebrate Earth Day the way I celebrated Alderaan Day.” (via @darthvader) #
- Tonight’s a great night to cook on the grill. #
- Is there some kind of a baseball game going on tonight or something? #
- Almost done with the inventory system conversion at the office. At least we’ll still have nice weather tomorrow! #
- What an absolutely splendid, beautiful day!! Hope you all get a chance to enjoy it. #
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EVENT: Examining the Importance of the Youth Vote
April 21, 2009 by admin · View Comments
I have been team teaching a class this spring as part of the University of Hartford‘s new Political Practitioner in Residence program. It’s been great to return to my alma mater twice a week this semester to help build this new program.
Tonight (Wednesday, April 22nd) I am hosting a roundtable discussion at the University to talk about how young voters are becoming increasingly more influential in elections at all levels of government. We have a great panel and I hope you can join us for this interesting conversation.
Here are the details:
WHAT ― Political experts will examine the impact of the youth vote on the 2008 Presidential election during a panel discussion at the University of Hartford. They will also look into the trend of more young people participating in the political process.
Panelists include 100th District State Rep. Matthew Lesser (D, Middletown), Mary McClelland, deputy political director of Rock the Vote, and Matt Blocker, director of the University’s Center for Community Service. Bilal Sekou, an associate professor of political science at the University, will moderate the discussion.
WHEN ― Wednesday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE ― Suisman Lounge, Gengras Student Union, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford
2009-04-19 Weekly Twitter Update
April 19, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- Somali pirates: Don’t mess with the U.S. of A. #
- The consumable cost on my Jawbone bluetooth headset is nearing that of my laser printer.. It works great, but high TCO. #
- Congrats to the @marsrovers, still going strong after five years. The batteries were made right here in Connecticut. #
- Owning a kitchen trash compactor is like having your own WALL-E robot. #
- Time to watch LOST. #
- If sales of disposable gloves are any indication, the economy is rebounding. #
- is augmenting reality. Film at 11. #
- Check out GE’s amazing augmented reality web ad: http://bit.ly/sQL2 #
- Beautiful day in Connecticut! #
- RT: We Enthusiasts Rally Around the Volt http://tinyurl.com/dgcuhl (via @GMVolt) #
- Putting together the Board of Education budget presentation for tomorrow night’s public hearing. #
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GE’s Augmented Reality Ad
April 16, 2009 by admin · View Comments
This has got to be one of the coolest web ad campaigns I’ve seen to date. GE is promoting their new “Smartgrid” initiative using an innovative augmented reality application. Just print out a PDF from the website, hold it up to your web cam, and instantly an animated three dimensional scene appears on screen. And if that wasn’t cool enough, the image is actually ‘attached’ to the paper onscreen allowing the viewer to change perspective by moving the paper. Check out the video above to see it in action.
Augmented reality is nothing new, but this is the first time I’ve seen it integrated into a simple flash application that did not require any additional software. I’m sure we’ll see a bunch of ads like this one soon.
Kudos to GE for an awesome web 2.0 ad campaign. And if that wasn’t cool enough they even provide a link to the source code used to create the application.
2009-04-12 Weekly Twitter Update
April 12, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- Ever wonder how much George Lucas made off the Star Wars franchise. The answer? Over $22 billion (as of 2007)! http://bit.ly/nNihY #
- Ever wonder how much George Lucas made off the Star Wars franchise? Over $22 billion (as of 2007)! http://bit.ly/nNihY #
- You know they do say that April showers bring May flowers right? #
- Obama makes a surprise stop in Baghdad: http://bit.ly/w2Df #
- I sense a great disturbance in the force.. Facebook is down! #
- Watching Uconn destroy Louisville. #
- It would be fun to see the Louisville coach get ejected. #
- Louisville went from playing to win to now trying to prevent a record blowout. #
- Congrats to Uconn!! #
- Snow flurries in Killingworth! #
- Cooking a mini Passover dinner for Melissa #
- Please don’t tax my coca-cola. #
- Skype for iPhone is incredible. Just talked to a friend in China, sounded like he was in the next room. #
- Wow the Westbrook dairy queen has been renovated! #
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Niche Player Tesla Motors Bashes Volt and Range Extension
April 6, 2009 by admin · View Comments
I like the Tesla electric vehicles a lot, but I don’t have much faith in the company’s ability to find more than just a niche audience for their vehicles. That belief was reinforced by an article today on the GM-Volt blog.
In the GM-Volt.com post, Tesla’s CEO and former Paypal founder Elon Musk was critical of range extension technologies found in GM’s upcoming Chevy Volt. Sadly Tesla is making nearly every mistake GM made ten years ago with the EV1.
Before we go any further, don’t even think about buying a Tesla unless you live in California. Tesla’s dealer infrastructure is slowly building (Chicago and New York dealerships are opening this summer), but right now you can’t buy a car unless you live reasonably close to one of their two California locations. They won’t even sell it to you if there’s no dealer nearby.
It’s probably with good reason. If the car runs out of juice you’re stuck for a very long time. Because of the massive amount of battery power the car needs to operate, you’re likely waiting for eight or ten hours (or more) just to limp home. 110 charging from a standard wall outlet on the Tesla is just not a feasible means of fast fueling. This same reason is exactly why the EV1 failed: people are not going to buy a car that has the potential to leave them stranded when the battery runs out.
And then of course is the hardware. Part of the Tesla package is for an electrician to come out and install a hefty charging station in the garage. It’s the only way to get enough juice in the vehicle to make it remotely feasible for daily use.
I really do want Tesla to succeed. But they are making every one of the mistakes GM made with the EV1 and assuming the market will go along with it this time. They’re even down on Shai Agassi‘s plan for a hot swappable battery infrastructure (something that would actually make the Tesla vehicles practical). They were so eager to criticize Agassi that their PR people logged into this low traffic blog to comment when I wrote about it a few months ago.
People simply won’t buy an electric car that can’t be quickly refueled. End of story. Anything else is going to be a toy for wealthy buyers who will drive it short distances as a secondary vehicle. Hopefully Tesla will wake up and develop a practical vehicle that will keep their innovative company operating.
2009-04-05 Weekly Twitter Update
April 5, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- Going to bed early! #
- Hey that’s cool, the White House is streaming activities live on their website. Auto industry statement at 11: http://bit.ly/cgYyE #
- Google always owns April Fool’s day
http://bit.ly/ESv3 # - Senator Dodd to answer questions via live video blog today beginning at 11:30 a.m. EDT: http://bit.ly/fvvO9 #
- Looking at editgrid.com, possibly exposing my Safety Zone co-workers to more cloud based computing. Better than Google spreadsheets. #
- Now that Melissa has relinquished control of the television I am ready to get LOST! #
- Stupid Comcast dvr.. Hate it. #
- Looks like I was too quick to blame the Comcast DVR. My wife inadvertently deleted LOST! Scandalous. #
- South Carolina Gov Mark Sanford needs to go.. He’s driving public schools into the ground at the expense of kids – http://bit.ly/Ya5J #
- Two enormous bureaucracies do not interface well. #
- Latte time. #
- Yikes! Internet and cable down
. # - Tough night for me, have to go low bandwidth with the Verizon card until Comcast restores service. Big storm came through earlier. #
- Full speed ahead! The Comcast guy in the bucket truck restored service in the rain. Good work. #
- It figures the only Uconn game I watched this year was tonight’s. Sorry guys. #
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New Macbooks Are Impressive
April 4, 2009 by admin · View Comments
I switched to Mac about three years ago after they went to Intel processors. I was initially attracted to the platform by Apple’s Keynote presentation software, but Apple’s change to Intel processors (with their ability to seamlessly run Windows apps) was what finally brought me into the church of Steve.
The build quality of Apple’s notebooks have always been a notch above commodity Windows machines, but the new ‘unibody’ Macbooks seriously raise the bar. I am setting up a new 13.3″ Macbook for a friend and I am very reluctant to turn it back.
First there’s very little plastic on this thing, with the exception of the keyboard. Everything else is either metal or glass. Most of it is crafted out of a solid block of aluminum, with absolutely no seams or other imperfections that flex or feel ‘cheap.’ The result is a computer that’s extremely light weight, thin, and very sturdy.
You can read elsewhere for performance benchmarks (which are impressive), but the real standout for me is just how cheap everything else feels after working on this Macbook for an evening.
Stuff I find interesting- Does the iPhone 4 hate the AT&T MicroCell? August 8, 2010
- FCC calls off net neutrality negotiations August 5, 2010
- The Nightmare Scenario August 4, 2010
- Long lived new windows June 10, 2010
- Vintage Apple II Sites June 10, 2010
