July 2006 Archives
I've been hooked on "the juice" since I was a young boy. It's what all the cool kids were doing, so it just seemed natural to follow suit. It started as an occasional thing, but by the end of high school, I was drinking regularly and within the first few years of college, it was starting to catch up to me. No longer was I able to slug back a six pack without seeing it's effects on my system. College life had me hitting the books and spending untold hours in the practice room (I majored in Trumpet Performance), so I wasn't as active as I once was and all that drinking starting packing on weight. That's when I made the switch to Diet Coke. Yes, I've been talking about Diet Coke! What did you think I was talking about? ;)
I gave up Diet Coke a week ago Thursday and I went cold turkey. Why the sudden change? Well, Patty, a co-worker of Holly's, said that aspartame can mess with your brain chemistry. When mixed with MSG, which is found in more food than you'd imagine, can really do some freaky stuff to your head. I knew that Diet Coke wasn't a health drink, due to the aspartame sweeter, but hearing that it could monkey with my brain chemistry was the final push I needed to give it up.
Tonight I'll be co-hosting the Computer Outlook Radio Show for their monthly "Palm Lifestyles" show. Our guest will be none other than Palm OS Legend Kenny West. The show airs live at 7pm CST/CDT on AM radio stations around the US.
If you're like me and don't live in an area where the show is broadcast, you can listen live via the Internet at this link. Simply choose your preferred stream and you should be good to go. If you miss the live broadcast, there will be a podcast available in a few days and I'll make a new post when it becomes available.
About Kenny West
Kenny West first rose to the attention of Palm Users when he started PalmGear, the first online Palm OS e-tailer. From it's humble beginnings, to the juggernaut it has become, Kenny created the premier online retailer for Palm OS software. To this day, PalmGear is the market leader for mobile software.
Earlier this year, Kenny left PalmGear to take the helm of Get Mobile Solutions which, through a partnership with GoTreoSoftware, has breathed new life into the very popular launcher application LauncherX -- which has users VERY excited.
In addition to LauncherX, Get Mobile Solutions has a bevy of other Treo utilities that enable users to maximize and harness the power in their Palm OS devices. Applications include VolumeCare Pro, PowerLink, and ProfileCare, just to name a few.
So if you're interested the history of the Palm OS space, where it's at now, or it's future lies, be sure to tune into tonight's episode.
It's been quite a while since we've had cable television in the Ashby household. Most of my TV has come from either rabbit ears, or BitTorrent, so when we sit down to watch the boob tube it's a bit of a challenge. Either the picture is fuzzy and peppered with artifacts, or I have to boot the laptop and find the show I want to watch. If it's not downloaded already, then I get to watch it the next day. :s
Feeling as if Holly had suffered too long from being about to watch CMT and GAC, I finally broke down and ordered it for her. Comcast came out this week to install digital cable and I'm happy to report that it went without a hitch. Wanting to "test the system," I bounced around a few channels and explored the online guide. Since it's digital cable, there's a programming guide that shows you what's coming up. Scanning the channels, I came across my much beloved, and sorely missed station -- channel 72, OLN.
Last week, on Thursday night, I went with Kerry Woo to an event WKRN News 2 was throwing for Nashville Is Talking. I wrote a little bit about it before hand, but I didn't write much because I didn't really didn't know what to expect.
Kerry picked me up at the house and we drove to Wolfy's Den together, arriving at the perfect time, 15 minutes after the start of the party. As we arrived on the 3rd floor, I scanned the room and confirmed my expectations -- I didn't know a single person there. Of course that didn't stop me. :P I made my way to the bar, ordered up a Yazoo Hefeweizen and started making the rounds.
As I introduced myself, I found that there was a pretty diverse group there. It wasn't just "geeks", but professional writers, WKRN video journalists, mobile content distributors, and bloggers of every type. Kerry was a huge help, because if I found myself in a lull, I could make my way to where Kerry was standing and he'd make an introduction to get me jump started again.
Tonight I'll be heading downtown to Wolfy's for a shindig that WRKN's Nashville Is Talking is putting together. I'll be going with Kerry Woo, so I know I'll have a good time because he and I never have a shortage of things to talk about.
I've just been doing my own thing and not really paying attention to what's been happening with "Nashville Is Talking", so I'm a bit clueless about the whole "scene". According to Kerry, "this will be the first all-encompassing blog meet-up sponsored by News 2 in over a year." He's been pretty plugged in to the blogging scene here in Nashville, so I'm interested to see what it's all about. From the sound of things, it appears that there's a fairly vast community that's connected to one another.
Wolfy's bar is not open to the public, so it will be open just for this private affair. News 2 will be picking up the tab for appetizers, and there will be a full bar, albeit not an open bar, but that's probably for the best. Nothing pretty about a pack of tipsy bloggers. ;)
Anyway, if you're downtown tonight, be sure to stop by Wolfy's and say "hey!"
The podcast from June 21st with Blue Nomad's founder Alexis Hinds has been posted on the Computer Outlook web site.
I've been a big fan of just about every one of Blue Nomad's products, such as WordSmith and BackupBuddy. Alexis was a great guest and blended technical skills with plain talk that made it easy to learn what each of her products do. I was really surprised at how BackupBuddy.net worked -- especially the trickle backup feature.
You can download the podcast at this link. Show notes can be found at this link.
We saw Superman Returns at the Stardust Drive-in last night and I loved it. Instead of waxing poetic on the whys and what nots, I think the following review sums it up perfectly -- PVP Online.
Every now and then I come across a little utility application or web site that blows me away and makes me wonder how I lived without this new handy tool. The latest of these little gems is the web site DeepQuote and oh me oh my, does it rock.
Often times when I send links to people via e-mail, or when I include them in an article such as this, all I can do is take the person to the page. Beyond that, it's up to the individual to find the information that is included in the page. Links to a product page are pretty simple and easy, but sometimes the information that you what your recipient to read may be buried in copy and hard to find. I found it frustrating to send those types of links to people, but it never dawned on me that there could be a better way -- enter DeepQuote.
DeepQuote allows you to build a unique URL or link that includes not only the link to the page that you want, but also highlighted text on the specific information you wanted to convey with the link. Here's how it works.
Last night, Holly and I were watching TV and there wasn't much on, so when we came across the 20/20 Special "State Of The Union: A Country Divided", we watched the introduction to the show. As George Stephanopoulos gave an overview of what was to come and showed clips of what we would be seeing, I was startled to see one of my clients being interviewed! Nothing else had our attention, so we stayed tuned to watch more.
The basic premise of the show was that the United States is more divided than ever, polarized if you will, between liberal (blue state) and conservative (red state). So George showed the small town of Montclair, New Jersey to illustrate a blue state community and then Franklin, Tennessee as a red state community. That's where my client came in. H. Leonard Issacs is a reverend for a church in Franklin, among other faith based endeavors, and he leads a mens prayer group in Darryl Waltrip's home.
