Wide Rule

I don’t have cable television.

I figure I should get that out of the way first thing.  I got rid of cable a long time ago when I realize that I could see everything I wanted on Hulu or Netflix.  I actually watch less CBS (CSI?) because it’s only available on Netflix.

The Only Thing I Miss from Cable is Sports

I’m a big football fan and enjoy having a game on (even when I’m not interested in the teams).  The noise of fans, announcers and football helmets slamming into each other is almost soothing at this point in my life.

Occasionally seeing a game includes going down to a local bar and having a beer or watching at a friends house.  It’s not a huge inconvenience because most football games fit into my east coast time zone.

Sometimes watching a game includes finding someone streaming it illegally online.

I would Pay a Reasonable Price for Streaming Sports

The NFL has a package where its a ridiculous amount of money to see each game for the entire season.  I don’t want that – I don’t watch *every* football game.  I don’t think anyone should have watched the Bills/Lions abortion that happened this (2009) season.

I want content providers to have some sort of per-game price.  I would easy drop $25-$30 for a high quality stream of a specific football game.  Titans vs. Colts I could even pay more. I could even see myself getting a “team” package where I buy all the Titans’ games for the year at $15/game and get a lapel pin for that season. 

It’s not like I want to pirate things.  I want to pay for things as long as they’re a reasonable price and easy to use.

All I’ve Taken from the Olympics is that I Hate NBC More

You see that there is a market for streaming the Olympics, NBC.  You see it because you’ve been running around the internet shutting down every grainy Slovakian feed of Torah Bright and Johnny Weir. 

Why are you not capitalizing on this? Why are you not offering $15/event for each torrent?  It’s not like you aren’t putting the videos out the next day on nbcolympics,com, so you already have the ability to stream these things. 

Heck, Borris in the Czech Republic did a great job streaming the men’s figure skating championship last night.

Make Things Easy, Please

Just realize that not everyone in the world watches things on a television anymore.  There are a lot of us sitting in bed with laptops, unfettered from cable TV.  I know Hulu was a big step for you, NBC, lets see if you can do this too.

When I say you shouldn’t put your house on Foursquare, it looks like I wasn’t the only one thinking it.

Please Rob Me from TechCrunch.

I hear there was an Apple product revealed today.

I’m way too busy flitting around the galaxy right now.

Talk to me when I need the iPad to play Mass Effect.

I hate Apple keynote weeks.  I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I do not like the upswing towards Apple coverage.  Sure, I like seeing the new products and the ingenuity.

I just hate the baseless hype.

The thing that’s getting to me this time is what’s gotten to me every time since the iPhone’s release: will it come to Verizon.

Well, now there’s talk that Verizon also has a big product announcement tomorrow.

Stop. Playing. With. Me.

Stop toying with my emotions and acting like you’re actually going to produce an iPhone on Verizon’s network.  You have a dozen GSM iPhones on the market right now; are you suggesting that you’re going to put out another dozen CDMA/EVDO iPhone for the Verizon market?

Or is it Verizon playing with me this time?  Have you been secretly updating your cell phone system to magically allow for GSM on your network? Are you getting around to finally updating from an old technology that no one uses anymore? 

Has Verizon actually agreed to release a phone that they haven’t crippled with V-Cast?

I wish I was more cynical

I wish that you people didn’t make me wonder every time you have an announcement.  I wish I didn’t have dreams of taking my BlackBerry curve back to the HR director and setting up an iPhone with my company account.

Do I want this to happen? Yes. I would love to be able to use an iPhone on my network of choice.

Am I probably going to be disappointed on Thursday morning?

Yes.

But I have Mass Effect 2 to ease the pain.

I am again on a plane.

My travelling goes in spurts – I technically travel 25% of the time, but it regularly comes down to not travelling for 2 months and then travelling for an entire month.

I got to go to the top of Miller

That’s Miller Field in the background.  Did I mention this was a really cool trip?

The Ambassador Hotel; Random Trivia I will look up when I’m off the plane

Promise.

Edit: I lied.

The Ambassador Hotel: My stay

The hotel had a lot of things I liked: In room environmental controls (electronic!), real TV (not awful hotel TV) and a very nice bed.

 The whole place had this air of being older than the fixtures.  The floors creaked and you could hear the building continuously settling around you.  It was a comforting place to spend a few evenings.

 After spending all day at the Brewery, I wanted to spend a quiet night in the room instead of wandering around Milwaukee, so I ordered room service.  I don’t normally order room service because I can normally get better food from carry out (or the hotel simply doesn’t offer it).  I ordered the Ham and Brie sandwich and was pleasantly surprised.

 I actually told the gentleman who came to my room to pick a local, favorite beer for me.  He came back with SOMETHING SOMETHING COW.  The whole meal was wonderful and endeared me more to the hotel.

You know what didn’t endear me to the hotel?  This:

 That’s just creepy.  I know you’re trying to be all “we’re here for you.” But I know how easy it is to put that on a screen.  Seeing my name every time I turn on the TV is creepy, hotel. CREEPY.

Note: The TV was designed for devices to be plugged into it.  You can’t see it in that photo, but the bottom right has an input box including RGB, HDMI and S-Video.  This is something EVERY hotel should have and tell you about on their website.  Had I know, I would have brought my PS3.

Final Thoughts on the Trip

This is honestly one of the more entertaining trips that I have ever been on. I wish I could have taken pictures inside the brewery to share, but all you get is the view from the top.  The hotel was amazing by NIMBLY standards (where, yes, Hotel 8s can get four star ratings).

Now I am on a plane, I smell like beer (I was sprayed with Milwaukee’s Best and this is the only hoodie I have!). I have tomorrow off from work (so don’t expect a post until Monday).

NIMBLY:  Not In My BackYard

I work for a company that develops software and specialized PLCs for continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) for environmental compliance reporting.  The easiest way to explain my job is to say I’m a control systems engineer with regulatory experience.  I have a lot of knowledge of air quality regulations and will probably be branching into water the next couple of years. 

One of the more entertaining parts of my job is that I am required to be onsite for things like power plant startups, equipment change-outs, and other general maintenance.  I travel all over the continental US (normally to the middle of no where) and see places that not many others travel.

I’m going to do small updates about where I am and what I’m doing without going into too much detail. I will not include pictures inside any of the facilities that I visit, so please don’t ask.

MillerCoors Brewing Company

I said I normally travel to the middle of nowhere – my first trip seems much more spectacular than it should.  This trip is to the MillerCoors Brewery in Milwaukee, WI.  I am staying in a historic hotel right next to Marquette University and I will probably talk all day tomorrow about the hotel.

Today was just a neat day. 

I got onsite at eight central and met my contact.  I worked until noon and let me tell you, the inside of that building is a maze.  Even being shadowed by an employee, I felt like I could take a wrong turn and end up in a vat of citric acid.  It was all old, beautiful buildings, one on top of each other so that the most production could be put into each square foot.

Lunch was at the Harley Davidson Museum.

After lunch I somehow ended up at a car crash test facility.  Please don’t ask me how that happened, I was offered the ability to go, I went.  The test they were setting up for was a head on collision with a pole.  I did not get to see the actual crash, but I was privy to the results of previous crashes.

Back to the facility where I did more work and then was taken on the “hardhat” tour. 

Today I got to see beer being brewed, kegs being cleaned and filled, MGD and Miller Light being bottled and THE BEAST being canned.

This was one of my more interesting trips

Tomorrow I head back to Knoxville, spending most the day flying.  I’ll probably spend that time working up the post for tomorrow about my hotel, which is a really interesting place and deserves a post of it’s own.

I hate most sites/programs that auto-update twitter or Facebook.

I mentioned this briefly in my foursquare rules post, but seriously.  If I want to know about what game you’re playing or if you’ve gone to lunch, I will check in at Raptr or foursquare.  I am following you on twitter because I want to hear your commentary, not which videos you love on youtube.

Facebook has dealt with this issue in an intelligent, if not clunky, fashion.  If there is an application that is spamming your friends feed, you simply hide it.  The other person doesn’t need to know that you’ve hidden the princess look-a-like test and you don’t have to see it.  The only annoying part is that you have to hide every single program that appears instead of having a global “don’t show me applications,” but at least I can hide Farmville and Mafia Wars (I do play both of these, but I don’t want the updates cluttering up my pages).

There is no way to block these things on twitter.

I have decided that it is time to review how annoying auto-updating twitter can be.

Scientific Method Time!

Since this is an experiment, I figure I’ll throw back to the old eight step process (Wikipedia):

1. Define the question
2. Gather information and resources (observe)
3. Form hypothesis
4. Perform experiment and collect data
5. Analyze data
6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
7. Publish results
8. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

Define the Question:

What is the highest post per day I can get from just auto-updating services?

Gather Information and Resources:

This is a call to arms – I’m trying to find any service that I can use that will auto-update twitter.  I use a BlackBerry, not an iPhone, so that limits me in some regard.  I’ve already switched over my foursquare and raptr accounts and will be digging through to find other services.

Hypothesis:

Auto-updating services can outpost me any day of the week.  I also believe that I will be followed by a ridiculous amount of  twitter spammers.

And beyond

This is just the beginning of the experimentation phase.  I plan on having a detailed list of all of the service that I’m using as well as my post per day.  I am actually excited about this in a very silly way.

It has been five years since I wrote a true application for anything.

The program was a mathematical model based loosely on Defense of the Ancients.  The model would make predictions on play type and upgrade choice per player.  It was written in C++ and ran only on the command line.

I actually really miss mathematical modeling.

I have written code since that point, but it’s all been quick fixes and edits to programs.  I do a lot of SQL queries on the fly and I’m reasonably good at monkeying around with CSS.

I want to get back into development, but I have absolutely no idea where to start

I love video games, but there are a few reasons I’m wary about that area. 

The first is it seems like everyone wants to program video games, so why take a girl who hasn’t written a program in years? 

Second, every time I hear about an indie game, it’s always for the iPhone/iPod touch.  I do not have an iPhone – I have a blackberry.  I understand this makes me a second class citizen, but I don’t feel like shelling out $200 to develop for a new platform.  I also worry that the moment I buy an iPod Touch, I’m going to be in a situation where I can buy an iPhone.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to get more familiar with Obj-C or CocoaTouch, but I feel like I’d be half-committed to something I couldn’t test.

The other game option is programming for Xbox Live – I’m still considering that.  I need to come up with a concise, simple game to get into it so I don’t get overwhelmed.

I guess this is more of a question instead of an opinion blog

Where do I start? Do I futz around with open source projects?  Do I use this as my excuse to buy an iPod touch?  Do I look into building something useful for my blackberry?

Hell, I don’t even know what language to think about at this point.

Come on, over opinionated internet, point me in a direction.

I think it’s time to go a little Amy Vanderbilt on Foursquare.

I know that a service has hit the big time the moment that any application that could be construed as social or fun is available on my blackberry.  Having an iPhone or Droid app means your trendy – having a BlackBerry app says you mean business.

Don’t be public if you don’t want company

Romantic dinners are not the time to update your foursquare friends as to your whereabouts. 

I will reiterate this because it is important.

Do not tell your geolocation friends where you and the person possibly sleeping with you are having an evening alone. 

If you need to get your points for a location, just set your foursquare update to be hidden from friends. It isn’t hard.

If you tell people you’re at bar/restaurant, expect your friends to want to join you.  You are saying “hey, I’m here, you can come play with me!”  Friends want to come play with you and if they’re close by, they probably will!

If they don’t want to join you, you might just be a jerk.

Situations to set your status to hidden:

• dates
• job interviews
• family dinners
• drinking alone

Spamming twitter/Facebook is annoying

This is true for everything that has the ability to auto-update your feeds.

I want to hear what you think, not what game you’re playing or song you like.  If I wanted to know these things, I would follow those feeds directly.  I follow you on twitter or Facebook because I’m interested in your thoughts, hopes, dreams and bitching.  If I have to deal with your auto-update, I feel like I’m dating someone where all I get is their answering machine.

I think it’s fun if you post about when you’re a Mayor – that’s part of the game.  It also allows me to make fun of people who are Mayors of their job or home.

Don’t check-in at your place of employment

You have to go to work.  You should be there everyday. Being Mayor of where you work isn’t cool.

Unless you are a prostitute, your home should not be a check-in

Are you really checking in at home every night? Did you really put your address on foursquare as a place where everyone can check-in?

This is a bad idea for a lot of personal reasons.

Geolocation apps are a meet-up tools. Do you want random people meeting up for your family dinner?

This is connected to you. You post about video games, gadgets, life style choices – you have a PS3? Well someone is going to check-in at your house and steal your stuff.

Foursquare is a “where am I patronizing” application – that’s why there is a Mayor and Tip system.  Unless you are selling (or giving away) something out of your house then you do not have patrons.  As much as I’m sure you’d like to see who the Mayor of your house is when you’re out of town, but that’s between you and your wife/husband/dog.

If you are a prostitute, this still might not be a good idea.

August 2001: I arrive at the University of Tennessee with one plastic tub of CDs and another of paperback books.  I lived in half a shoebox and struggled to find places where I could easily access my media.  I began ripping my CDs onto my computer for easy access, even from my phone tech support job.

I became an IRC pirate due to meager banks accounts and lack of space. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a pirate

I steal music.  I steal movies.  I steal audio-books and pdfs of novels.

The difference is that I will pay for two things.

1. Good Art
2. Digital Libraries

If an artist does something that I think deserves money, I will buy their work.  The most recent example is Lady Gaga – I like Lady Gaga because I believe she’s trolling the pop world. 

Digital libraries make all the difference in the world to me.

I’m a mess.  I’m hard on things, I lose things, I accidently let my cats eat things.  I end up with bruises and have no idea when they happened. I’ve set two toasters on fire while cooking.  I do not have physical possessions that are in mint or even sell-able condition.

I will pay for someone to organize my life

One of the reasons I have a Kindle is because I only have to take care of one device to have access to my entire library.  I can buy something, sort it into my Kindle library when I’m done, and I can retrieve it whenever I would like to read it again.  I don’t want to have a book sitting around on a shelf, taking up space, and waiting for me to have the urge to read it again. 

I buy PC games on Steam because they keep track of the games I own.  I have bought and lost the CDs to Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 twice each (now that Battle.net is keeping track of CD keys, I will probably buy them again).   I want to be able to install and uninstall games without the fear of having to go digging through boxes and crates to find a CD that I obviously lost in a move.

I love PSN and Xbox 360 Games on Demand and wish that they would release full games on the service instead of me having to go to the mall every time I wanted to preorder a game.  Mass Effect 2 comes out soon – why can’t you offer preorder deals on XBL instead of GameStop?  Heavy Rain is on the way, and trust me, I really don’t want the box art that is being sold in North America – how about you just let me download that to my 250 gig hard drive?

I live on Netflix instant Queue streamed to my consoles.  As much as I love the TV shows I watch (most the way through Farscape now), I have never had a desire to own them.  I would prefer that Netflix never send me an actual DVD – a “streaming only” package would be perfect for my needs. (I have had a copy of Babel for two years now).

I pay for things because I’m lazy

I pay for these services because they not only offer a product I am interested in, they also offer me a way to simplify my life.  It has reduced the size of my backup because I’m only backing up files that I cannot retrieve from one of these services – tax documents, family photos, random writing.  These are things that I really cannot replace, not a copy of the latest Harry Potter movie.

This is what I want in a digital media service – reasonable pricing, ease of use, and a digital library service incase I fry yet another hard drive.

The less things I have to dust, the better.