Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Sunday, April 13, 2003

The Marvels of Satellite Television.

So, for most of my life I've been a cable customer. I grew up on Nickelodeon fed over an underground wire. Now, though, I've switched to DirecTV and I've just been addicted to it. Today I had my choice of 8 different baseball games, all on the local fox affiliate sports networks in their own jurisdictions. This weekend it was the Angels' broadcasters calling the game.
The quantity of technology in our lives is growing by the minute. Five years ago something like TiVo wasn't even on the horizon. Five years ago, the computers we're using now weren't even conceptualized. Five years ago, satellite television was a last resort, and painfully expensive.
What is just starting now that in five years will be everywhere and cheap? Will it be WiFi on the streets? I hope so. Downloadble albums? I hope so. Fibre to the curb? I hope so. But what am I missing? What else is there that we just can't see yet? In the past 20 years, we've rewritten business. In the past 20 years, we've rewritten personal entertainment. In the past 20 years, we've rewritten community. What's next?
9:39:50 PM  comment []

Reviews...

So, after several months of waiting, today I was reviewed by The Weblog Review. Read it if you like, vote if you like.
The Reviewer chose to take issue with my choice of subjects, asking me to split my technology stuff off from my mainstream blog, which has stuff about Baseball, and the war, and politics. Except that technology doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's intimately intertwined in many of these things, often affected by them in an irreparable fashion.
Thusly, I blog about those things because they affect me, a technologist, much as Doc Searls writes on technology, he also writes on life. That's what I do. I think my work on baseball has been some of my finest writing, complete with voice and detail, while my work on technology is more sparing in voice.
Anyhow, blogs rarely continue how they begin, so four months in, I'm happy where I am, and I think I will only get better. Look for an entry this week on the rumor community, frustrations with lawyers (sorry Mike) and technology and creativity, and some other goodies.
5:59:13 PM  comment []

Ahhhh Sunday afternoon baseball.

I am lounging on my couch, watching the A's/Angels game on the dish, enjoying an absolutely splendid Sunday afternoon. These are the pleasures in life, my friends. A little solitude, some nice weather, some baseball in the background and a clean house. It's been an incredibly productive day, getting five loads of laundry done, a round of dishes washed, my car cleaned from stem to stern, all courtesy of a beautiful day.
And now, off to fall asleep to the A's game.
5:02:40 PM  comment []

Cool, Swimming on Television.

So, those that know me from my college days know that there is one sport that I love as much as baseball, and that's swimming. Today on NBC, they're showing Duel in the Pool, a dual meet between the Aussies and the Americans. I'm so psyched they're showing swimming on TV! I officiated at the first National Championships to be televised on NBC, and back then the idea that a network might have real coverage was astounding.
It's amazing to see some names that are still known to me, though the last time I raced was in 1997, names like Tom Malchow. As I write this, he's taking the lead in the 200m Fly. There's so much that's just incredible about swimming, the body strength it takes, the coordination, the endurance.
I was never good at swimming. I was pretty tolerable, and I certainly couldn't hang when I got to college. But I know a metric assload about the sport due to three years managing at Denison, and being one of the youngest to ever walk the deck at Nationals as a certified official. I miss it, admittedly. But I don't want to be an official, and I'm afraid my competition days are long past.
So TV it is!
2:42:07 PM  comment []