Tag: npr

  • De-clutterer

    Photo by Laura Skelding, Austin American-Statesman

    The series of blog posts I mentioned before under the label “Project 2011 Tech-Awesome YOU!” (eh, maybe that name needed a little work) resurfaced as an article in the Life & Arts section of the Statesman on Sunday. It had a reworked lead and was tightened up quite a bit, but was probably more digestible than the three-part blog opus of last week.

    The advice on de-cluttering comes just as my wife and I are in the process or reorganizing our house, starting with our upstairs home office. Over my vacation, I spent two days (OK, maybe just a few hours spread over two days) getting rid of cardboard boxes that were littering the office, organizing review products to send back and putting together a stack of stuff to take to Goodwill and to donate to a local family organization. After it was all over, the office was much improved (we could actually walk around in it, not like before) even if I didn’t get to the CDs, books, software and other items that need sorting.

    We’re buying new desks and, possibly, a new computer since we find ourselves both working at home at the same time some weeks and I can’t spend a whole work day on a little laptop. Buying desks, it turns out, is way more complicated than buying a new computer. I’m learning a lot about what kind of workspace I’d like. Feel free to offer suggestions because I’m absolutely lost.

    The other piece that ran in the paper this week of mine was a reverse-published interview with the head of Austin’s Sony Online Entertainment studio about the launch of DC Universe Online.

    I’ve also been writing up a storm of iPad chlidren’s iPad reviews for Kirkus. In two weeks I will have written 50 of them, which I honestly didn’t think was possible when I started on them in November.

    And after months of uncertainty, I might have some good news to share on the NPR front soon. Here’s hoping.

  • Foreword

    I Foreword

    A few months ago, I wrote a foreword for a book by two men I don’t know. As people I don’t know go, they’ve been great to deal with. They wrote a book about a frankly fascinating topic (what happens to all your digital schtuff after you shuffle off this analog coil) and, based on the premise alone (and a sample chapter or two), I was thrilled to contribute. It was all done over e-mail and couldn’t have been a more pleasant experience, especially for something so firmly rooted in the discussion of death.

    The book is out and you can find it here and here, among other places. In fact, on Amazon, you can read the entire two-page foreword in their book preview. But if you go and do that, you owe it to the hardworking authors to at least buy the book, so please do if you can.

  • Stories and glories

    It’s been a really busy two weeks, at work and at home.

    Off stage, out of sight, we were dealing with a family medical issue that had us feeling worried and vulnerable all of a sudden. Then we got some good news that made things not-so-scary, but we’re still reeling from having even dealt with the problem in the first place. It’s something I really hope to write about soon, but I promised I’d hold off until we had some kind of resolution and we’re just getting there.

    Even with some of the sick time I had to take off, things actually seemed to speed up at work. As the holidays approach, our deadlines are getting tighter and I seem to be just writing and writing and writing.

    The biggest surprise and bright spot recently was that CNN.com approved of a crazy, weird column idea I had months ago about Facebook theology. I pitched it tentatively, sure it would be a strange and unwelcome fit, but the editor I work with over there took a chance on it and ended up liking the result. The piece ran on the site today and this time at least I was prepared for abusive comments and ridicule. (Sample comment: “No disrespect to the author, but this is the dumbest idea for a news article I have ever read.” Right. No disrespect.) It actually hasn’t been as bad as I was expecting and the article has been shared more times on Facebook already than the previous two columns I wrote over the summer. And how adorable is that illustration up there? I really like it.

    The CNN thing made up for having to try to explain to people why I’m not on NPR every week anymore (short answer: I don’t actually know and am afraid to ask). After a rough couple of weeks, it was a nice boost I really needed.

    On the Statesman front, I had a story on the front page today about Gowalla’s big parks deal with Disney, did a story recently about Texas State professor Cindy Royal’s online war of words with Wired over a recent boobalicious magazine cover, a review of the Xbox 360 Kinect that ran in Tech Monday (longer, more exhaustive blog version here) and a Tech Monday column about next week’s Austin intellectual property summit.

    As of this writing, I have another A1 story scheduled for Saturday (fingers crossed), tech gift guides running Sunday in the Statesman and later on Television Without Pity, a profile of Epic Mickey game designer Warren Spector and a Season for Caring story about an amazing Austin family I am lucky to have met. Shit got really busy lately, I’m telling you.

    And on top of all that I’m working on an iPad-related writing project with an Austin company that I’ll tell you more about soon. Busy times, but it’s not all work. I’m watching tons of TV after Lilly and Carolina go to bed at night, trying to finish Franzen’s book Freedom (50 more pages!), listening to great podcasts on my way to and from work and trying to enjoy life right now. I looked back on the summer and realized I was really having a hard time adjusting to our new reality (having a toddler and an infant in the house) and was really crabby a lot of the time.

    Given the recent things that have happened, I’m letting myself enjoy the situation a little more and trying not to stress out so much. I know that if I don’t relax and enjoy it, I’m going to regret missing out on some really wonderful times with my girls.

  • In which Robot Companions are discussed on national radio

    On Monday, I was on NPR talking about seniors and new technologies that allow them to live at home longer and (in theory) more independently.

    Or as independently as you can live with a house full of sensors and tracking monitors recording your every move. But then, that’s part of the whole discussion.

    The blog post includes the embedded audio and links to some resources. You can find a link to the audio segment (and a transcript soon, I think) of the discussion here and a separate lead-in story that contains some of the more interesting reader/listener comments.

    As in a segment we did last year about the elderly and tech, the subject of robots came up again. I’m not sure if my use of the phrase “Robot companions” seemed reassuring or extremely perverted. Both, I hope!

  • Bar tab apps and e-mail in the cloud

    Rick Orr, co-founder of the company behind the 'TabbedOut' app. Photo by Ralph Barrera, Austin American-Statesman.

    A feature we started in the Statesman to feature mobile app creators in Austin appeared again in Monday’s paper. This one was about ATX Innovation, Inc., which makes an app called “TabbedOut” that allows you to open and pay off a bar or restaurant tab from your phone. Neat!

    Also on Monday, I did my first NPR All Tech Considered segment in a while. It was about companies like Google and Microsoft racing to offer cloud-based e-mail and other services to government agencies and city governments like Los Angeles.

    Here’s the blog post with the audio embedded and the page for the segment itself from All Things Considered.

    More stories coming in the next few days! It’s been a strange few weeks and things are starting to feel like they’re going back to normal.

  • Programming notes

    There honestly hasn’t been a lot to alert you to lately and I’ve been so busy with some work and outside-of-work things lately that there’s not even be time to post anything fun and goofy.

    What’s new:

    • I haven’t done NPR in a few weeks and honestly have no idea when I’ll be on again. It’s been very quiet. People have been on vacation, my producer was assigned to a major blog project and I just haven’t heard much. I’ve been enjoying the summer time off and am still posting an occasional blog entry on All Tech, but there’s been no parting of ways or anything like that (that I know of).
    • Ditto with CNN. They originally asked me to write just two pieces and that was that. I’m still waiting on my first check to clear through their large corporate structure and arrive before I ask if they’ve got any more assignments.
    • The famous tech podcast Glark and I did that was never famous, Age of Lasers, has transformed into a Tumblr blog at AgeOfLasers.com. It’s much more random and requires a lot less coordinating to post on. So far, so fun.
    • The contract Pablo and I have for Trailers Without Pity hits the two-year mark in October and we’re in the process of deciding whether we want to continue. We’ve been told there’s no money for raises, so it’s kind of up to us whether we want to keep doing what we’re doing at the current rate, propose a different project that would be simpler to produce, or just stop.  They’re still fun videos to do and it’s very nice to get paid to do fun work, but it’s very time-consuming and we’ve been doing it with very few breaks for two straight years. I’m inclined to say we had fun, said what we wanted to say, and are ready to move on, but that decision is not set in stone yet.
    • Where I’ve been spending a ton of energy lately is at work where I’ve been wrapping up a story scheduled to run on the front page (fingers crossed) Sunday. It was a very tough story to put together — it’s a profile and when it comes to telling one person’s life, especially a person you’ve been wanting to tell people abou for a long time — it’s a lot of pressure. I’ll be very glad when it’s completely finished.
    • Lastly, my mom was in the hospital recently for surgery and just got out today. It wasn’t nearly as bad as when she was in the hospital a few years ago and everything seemed to be going wrong, but it was still scary and draining (much more for her than for us).  We’re very glad this whole experience is over.

    And that’s what’s going on.  Lilly and Carolina are doing great. I think Lilly has just discovered that if she plays with Carolina, Carolina will respond and play back and it’s a wonderful thing to watch. Lilly has a birthday coming up. The summer already feels like it’s almost over.  I’m trying to enjoy it before it’s gone with trips to Schlitterbahn, walks in the evenings and trying not to take on too many projects, at least for now.