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What a cool template!

Looks like Blogger got some new templates. This one is called AWESOME.

Goes along with the fact that, like Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother, I'm from AWESOMETOWN. If I were applying to a new job, I would totally make a video resume just like this. Knowing how the world works, I'm sure it would actually do it's job!

I'm BACK

So this blog was originally created to show students how to use Blogger. Then I actually started posting things to it during the Spring of 2009 because my graduate course required me to.

Now I'm going to start posting on a regular basis (hopefully). If people enjoy reading then great, if they don't, well, there's like five jillion blogs they can read instead. :)

Stay tuned my friends!

iWeb - Hope this Helps You All

So this is it. My last blog post for the semester. We were supposed to do two blog posts a week and that is a total of thirty blog posts and this be my thirrr-tee-eth.


Thought maybe I'd close this partay out by giving some tips on Apple's iWeb program to those of you who are planning to start a news website (or any website for that manner). I know some of you already have web skills, but this is intended for those who don't.

iWeb is really cool because it is pretty much the only true WYSIWYG web-production program that is very intuitive. If you know how to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, or Adobe InDesign, then it's pretty easy to use iWeb to make websites.

By the way, WYSIWYG is computer lingo (pronounced "wizzy-wig") that stands for "What You See Is What You Get."

I recommend iWeb to all students I see at Annenberg who want to create a website and have no clue how to do HTML or Dreamweaver because the program is so easy. Even Dreamweaver is a pain to use if you're not a web expert. In case you didn't know, you automatically own iWeb if you're own a Mac user and if you bought it in 2006 or later.


Although I could have used a lot more sophisticated means to produce my web-based paper for a class (boy I sound pompous), I decided to do it in iWeb so I could educate myself about it as much as possible and really know what I'm talking about when I help students use it in the Annenberg Digital Lab. I've played with the program a lot before, but I wanted to actually create something for myself to see what roadblocks I'd hit, and then would know how to help students get around them.

It also allowed me to legitimately work on my paper at work because I was techinically doing software research. I love killing multiple birds with one stone. :)

So I got the stupid thing done on time, but I didn't bother to test it on multiple browsers because I was so eager to begin my weekend with my girlfriend. Unfortunately when we stopped by the Apple Store in Walnut Creek, I tested my online paper website on the computers there.

My paper looked F*&@D UP.

All the embedded YouTube videos, QuickTime movies, audio clips, and Comedy Central video clip players appeared ok, but they were misaligned and overlapping on top of the text. Goddammit.

I just finished fixing all the problems this morning before work. Yeah, it took me that long and I'm praying to the good Lord above that our esteemed professors David and Geoff don't consider my paper late because of this. Thankfully, now I know how to avoid this....

When creating a website in iWeb, be sure to do the following...

1. Don't cram too much stuff onto one page. I made the mistake of pasting my entire written paper onto one webpage and peppering the videos and stuff throughout. This is just too much crap for the a computer to handle when loading the page on the internet and probably causes problems when parsing all the YouTube videos and stuff into the page. It worked better for me to chunk up the paper into four separate webpages.

2. Break up your text boxes. In the case of my online paper, I originally had all the text in one giant text field and this apparently caused the layout of the page to goof up (hence all the videos and stuff appearing in the wrong place). My solution was to stop a text field where a video was supposed to appear and then begin a new text field to continue the written paper after the video.

3. Don't do the cool "reflection" effect on your images. I know, that template in iWeb with pictures that have the reflection on the bottom looks really cool, but that effect only works on the internet if you view the page on a Mac with the Safari web browser. So you're alienating all the PC users out there because when you look at the page in any other browser you get an ugly blank area where the reflection is supposed to be.

The funny thing is that a student that I recommended iWeb to didn't encounter these issues. She was creating a website for the Trojan Dance Force and she apparently managed to use the program more effectively than me (and I'm supposedly a web guy). Well sheeee-at.

Oh and BTW - it might be important that I was using iWeb '08 and they just released iWeb '09.

Good luck out there and it's been a pleasure.

Late.

A Modest Proposal 2009

I can't believe I'm going to write about this because it has to do with Octomom and the more we talk about her the more notoriety and attention she gets (and does not deserve, I believe).

But I'm watching KTLA news right now and saw yet another story about that crazy lady, just when we thought Swine Flu or the N1H1 virus of the piggy wiggy sicky or whatever the hell they're calling it now had wiped out all mention of Mommo Octo. I got a blog post idea.

Some lady is speaking out in protest of the Octomom getting her own reality TV show. I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying but I'm pretty sure I agree with her. I was too distracted by the lower-third C.G. that listed her as "Accuses Octomom of Exploiting Babies."

Hmmmm. Exploiting Babies.

Anyone ever read "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift in 1729? I think Tom Sparks talked about it in our presentation on satire --- I'm not sure though I wasn't paying attention. Haha :)

Well from what I recall from High School Advanced Composition class, Swift wrote a hauntingly believable idea to help the economic problems of 18th Century Ireland by suggesting that everyone eat their own children. While he noted himself that he had no intention of executing this horrific plan, his essay did a frighteningly good job at proving that it would work.

Hence all the times you might see some people joke about "eating babies" as one of their hobbies listed on Facebook.

Now if Mr. Swift were alive today, maybe he'd have this suggestion for our society today to help our economy (or, for our purposes, the newspaper industry).

It would not be eating babies. It would be exploiting babies.

Newspapers who are struggling to make the shift to online publications would financially could exploit babies to help money. Newspapers could adopt a bunch of babies and put them all in a warehouse, swearing that they will take good care of them. Then, one of the TV networks dying for new reality TV show material would pay the newspapers to make a show about a newspaper organization

Think about it. It would take all these orphaned babies out of orphanages hands and then people who were anti-abortion could put their babies up for adoption by a newspaper company. Now if you're wondering, "Well only one newspaper company would benefit from one reality TV show." But then the answer is a competition reality show where all the newspaper companies show how well they can take care of the babies. It would be like American Idol. The weird thing is, people would TOTALLY watch it. If people are going to watch A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila they will definitely watch Be My Babies hosted by Dan Rather. Hey, it seems to working for Mommo Octo.

Oh my god, did I really just write all this? I think I need sleep.

Oh sweet Friends is on!

Letterman hates Twitter

I don't know if we're still supposed to be blogging or if David and Geoff will grade us down if we don't even though we're in the heat of presentation/take-home-quiz/paper/final-exam crunch time. But just in case they are, here's a tidbit for you who missed Letterman tearing Twitter a new one.



I guess I don't really hate Twitter as much as Letterman does (even though I said "F*)& Twitter" in a previous blog post, I was just being humorously snarky). But I would agree that I just don't see the point and do not want to spend the energy to let everyone know that I'm eating a smoked turkey sandwich (a la the Jimmy Kimmell clip we showed in our class presentation). Anytime I Tweet it's just a reiteration of how much I don't want to Tweet.

What I like about this clip is that Letterman believes that Twitter is the first step in the downfall of our civilization. I recall joking the same thing about Facebook in that the Facbebook servers know everything about everyone on the planet and could amass so much knowledge it will acheive consciousness of itself and take over the world as Skynet did in the Terminator franchise.

The big difference is that I don't hate Facebook. Not sure if that's good news or not.

The rant I told you about

Just in case anyone is curious to read the article I mentioned in class:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/08/who-the-hell-is-enrolling-in-journalism-school-right-now/

The PROOF

Here's the picture I told you about of me in front of the San Francisco chronicle. So now you know I was not lying. Ha.

Saving Newspapers - THE MUSICAL

This is pretty stupid, but if it puts you in a good mood, more power to it. Enjoy!

Dude, seriously...

I fell for another one. Seems that April Fools day is causing as much of a twitter craze as all bleeping politicians and journalists out there. If it weren't for the fact that this was a joke I would be tearing my hair out.



Saw this on KTLA this morning.

F#$k twitter.

The TWAPERS are coming

A newspaper in Asheville, North Carolina has seized all printing operations and now will use Twitter exclusively to put out the news, thereby becoming the nations first "Twaper."

I found this on the "E&P Pub," which is another feed from the "Editor & Publisher" website that we follow as a class.



After I saw this I thought about the future and how life will be with "twapering."

"So honey, have you seen the morning twaper this morning?" I would say.

"Yeah, there was a really funny cartoon in the twunnys," my wife would say.

"Aren't they called the funnys?"

"No, they are now called the "twunnys." You need to get with the twimes.

"Well where is the twaper?"

"It's on the twable under the tweacups."

This sounds like someone's idea of HELL to me. I don't want it to happen.

Then I re-read the entry and saw that the whole announcement was April Fool's joke.

Thank god.

Oh, so THAT'S Carl Nolte

Speaking of the San Francisco Chronicle (see previous blog post), I told my girlfriend's grandmother Joann about how Carl Nolte's writing bothered me and how I theorized that the Chronicle needs to axe bad writers to stay alive.

She responded with something like, "Oh I love Carl Nolte! He's been a landmark staple of the Chronicle forever and everyone loves him!"

Shame on me. As I predicted.

Such a quintessential example of the battle between the old and the new, or the old and the young. Us young folk just want to kill newspapers with our iPhones and bludger old timer newspaper columnists with our immature wit.

...and eat babies.

Anyway, I explained to Joann that I wasn't trying to be evil, it was just that his writing was too embellished and reminded me of Pepperidge Farm cookie packages (and I'm supposed to be losing weight, so that doesn't help me at all).

Joann responded with something like, "Yeah, he does write that way. But we love him."

Fine. He can stay.

How I Spent St. Patrick's Day - I swear

My St. Patrick's Day didn't involve as much debauchery as it has in the past, but I did do a lot of walking. My travels on foot in San Francisco on St. Paddy's day took me past none other than the building at 901 Mission Street. Can you guess what is at that address?

Yeah, it's the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle.

I swear I was not drunk (I only had a beer and a half by that point), but I thought it would be so cool to take a picture of myself in front of the Chronicle offices doing a Trojan victory sign and put it on my class blog. Consider it my way of pumping the hurting Chronicle full of Trojan spirit to help them through these tough times (take THAT Cal and Stanford!!!).

But, woe as me, I forgot to transfer the damned picture off my girlfriend's camera and her internet is down so she can't e-mail it to me.

But I swear the picture exists.

I don't have it here right now but I swear it exists.

I swear.

Am I swearing enough?

Then I thought it would be really funny to get drunk at the bar we were heading to and then bang on the door of the Chronicle offices and yell, "Hang in there guys!!!" But I actually wound up not drinking much more that night --- probably for the best because I'm sure it would have gotten me thrashed by the Chronicle's front desk security guard. He looked really big when I peaked in through the glass door.

I also thought it would be cool to do the same thing to the Las Vegas newspaper (whatever the Las Vegas newspaper is called) once I went to Las Vegas, but I forgot.

This compelling blog post is brought to you by lethargy.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship I want to see!

I think our esteemed professor David Westphal needs to duke it out. His opponent would be Sree Sreenivasan from Columbia University.

In class, David has said that lack of readership is not necessarily the reason why newspapers are dying, but rather the lack of advertising revenue from classifieds (i.e. Craigslist kills newspapers more than online news sources).

Well, KCBS 740 AM in San Francisco was talking about the Chronicle's troubles on Saturday. They interviewed this Sreenivasan guy from Columbia. He's the Dean of Student Affairs and Journalism Professor there.



Here's a link to the interview:

http://www.kcbs.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3556800

To make a long story short, Sreenivasan says this to anyone blaming the demise of newspapers on Craigslist:

"That'd be like the train companies complaining that these new fangled things called airplanes came along and people stopped taking trains... I don't like it when people just blame Newmark (sp?) and Craiglist."

Woah! Those are fighting words! You gonna take that sittin down, David? Time to FIGHT!!!

This actually was just an excuse to paste David's head on a boxer's body. :)

Happy Early St. Patrick's Day!

So I guess I've been living under a rock for the past three years because I first saw this tonight...



Very relevant to my blog posting for this week because (1) it's a news report, (2) it's another example of Tom Sparks' theme of serious news being silly, and (3) IT'S ALMOST SPRING BREAK AND ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

I refuse to be depressed about the pending demise of newspapers (even the San Francisco Chronicle) because I am f&*^ing stoked about Spring Break and St. Patty's day. I'm goin to the Bay Area, Tahoe, and then back to LA for a bit to work, then to Vegas. What you all doin?

And don't say, "Nothing because newspapers are dying and the economy sucks and I have to save my money."

Get tanked for god's sake. PBR is cheap and good. :)

Thank you.

Who is Carl Nolte?

I need help from the class. Who is Carl Nolte?

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and will always have a huge place in my heart for that wonderful city.

But I pretty much never read the SF Chronicle because my family never subscribed to it. I grew up 40 miles north of San Fran, but feel free to blame it's pending demise on us.

This Carl Nolte wrote the following about the North Beach district of San Fran:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/01/BADS166I36.DTL&hw=north+beach&sn=001&sc=1000


I decided to share it with my friends who live in North Beach because his writing reminds me of the over-embellished writing on the packages of Pepperidge Farm cookies (which we were laughing at hysterically). This is how the Facebook conversation went:

-------------
Billy: Looks like the Pepperidge Farm guy wrote something about your neighborhood in the SF Chronicle...

North Beach exemplifies S.F.'s dreams, history

Source: www.sfgate.com
A drizzly night on the edge of spring at the Caffe Trieste on upper Grant Avenue. Not many people inside: a man in a dark suit and tie, maybe a lawyer, sitting by himself, a tall young woman writing the ...

Jonathan Ogan: interesting article, doesnt really end up saying much though

Billy: Indeed. Just like the pepperidge farm boxes.
-----------

Are we going to hell for criticizing this Carl Nolte? Or is he a writer they may need to axe to save money?

Just wondering.


Oh, and if you're curious, here's a delicious sample of the writing on the Milano packages:

-------------------
You've chosen a classic. Simple. Elegant. The perfect balance of two exquisite cookies embracing a layer of luxuriously rich, dark chocolate. A true masterpiece.

There's a whole world of Pepperidge Farm cookie temptations out there - reward all your senses. Lacey-thin crsip mint Brussells, sweet strawberry Verona, Geneva, with chocolate and crunchy pecans... Try them all and expand your horizons!
-------------------

Two thoughts: This sounds like Nolte's writing. Also, it makes you hungry don't it?

Just to let you know...

From this point on, if David and Geoff don't mind, I will no longer post anything on this blog related to my group project/paper topic. I don't want to spoil any surprises!!!

Thank you. :)

WRKC in Cincinatti and the Current Economic Times

So this one came from Joel McHale's "The Soup" blog...

Just watch it. It needs no introduction...



I see what Tom Sparks means when he talks about the pressure for "serious" news media to take on the guide of more entertaining forms.

Personally, I think I'm part of the problem. I'd rather watch this then listen to All Things Considered.

Shame on me.

I is a smart graduate student

Sorry for the shameless self promotion but I'm just stoked for reading the following blog post on Poynter:

----------------------------
"Zorn suggest news orgs adopt the cable TV model"
Chicago Tribune | Blog Maverick

Columnist Eric Zorn says news organizations that generate significant original content should band together and and sell group subscription packages for unlimited access to their stories, photos, videos, archives and other offerings. "For, say, $10 a month, a subscriber would have a choice of, say, 50 participating local, regional and national newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. Another $5 might buy an additional 50 outlets, and so on." || Mark Cuban: How cable and satellite can save the newspaper business.
---------------------------

Who suggested that in class last week? ME, baby, ME.

And check out the title of the actual article that the blog references...

Rescuing print journalism: Does Cable TV have the right idea?

It's a rhetorical question in the title! Whoohoo!

Ok shut up, Billy. Whaddya want, a f***ing parade?

Adam Carolla's last show AND FREE FM's last day is tomorrow

After hearing so much from our class relaying their fears about the pending demise of newspapers, it is now my turn to be sad. CBS has apparently pulled the plug on FREE FM (97.1 KLSX in Los Angeles) and therefore, starting next week, I won't be able to listen to Adam Carolla live on the radio in my car on the way to work.

Luckily he will still do a podcast.

Here is the link to his website if you want to check out his show and podcast.



I'm guessing that no one else in class really cares because I didn't get the feeling that anyone else listened to Adam but me, but today he spent a great deal talking about the future of radio and that is relevant to our class. If you have the time to check it out that's awesome. If not, here's some of my highlights...

1. The jist I got is that FREE FM's demise has been on the horizon for a while. According to my best friend Sebastian (he got me into the show and is more of a Daily Show junkie than I ever will be), this demise of FREE FM may or may not have to do with the current economic situation. Apparently the FREE FM affiliate in San Francisco went belly up after only being on the air for about a year.

2. A caller told Adam that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (co-creators of the original The Office show in Britain) were on the radio. They then moved to doing a podcast that was free and but after building an audience, they started charging for it and made enough money that they don't have to work anymore. So, I guess it is possible that a business model for podcasting could be developed.

3. Adam's not sure what's going to happen, but he and his co-host Teresa think podcasting MIGHT be the way of the future for radio and that someday everyone will have internet in their cars so they can stream podcasts while driving. But, similar to the idea of newspapers going online, a business model has to be determined so that the people doing the podcasts will make money. No one is absolutely sure what that model will be. As for Adam, he's going to get it off the ground and see what happens. Luckily for Adam, he's rich and he has the freedom to experiment. However, he feels terrible for the hard-working radio guys at FREE FM that are now unemployed.

4. Teresa Strasser (Adam's co-host who reads the news headlines on the show everyday) says that the sound of human voices talking (or in my words, RADIO) will always be compelling to people. We always want something to listen to while working or driving in the car. How we get those voices in the future is the question.

Let's see what happens. Is the silly, ranting Adam Carolla correct? Will podcasting be the radio of the future?

Am I asking rhetorical questions again? I am ashamed of myself. :)

I'm really feeling that Broadcast TV and Radio will always exist. But the technological method that will bring the medium to us will probably be the internet. Again, let's see what happens.