| Monday, 29 June 2009, 7:55 am Tags: China, Geek Cruises, Travel |
I’m off for China on Thursday with my son, Henry. As you’ve probably figured out by now I love to travel. Last year I was lucky enough to visit Egypt, Australia, and France, but going to Asia has been a lifelong dream. I was a Chinese Studies major in college and yet I’ve never been closer to China than a one week trip to Singapore a decade ago.
I began planning for this trip last year when Neil Bauman of Insight Cruises asked me to go on MacMania 9. I love these Geek Cruises but I’ve been so busy building up TWiT that I haven’t had a chance to take one since 2006. When Neil told me the itinerary included China, Korea, and Japan I knew I couldn’t miss this one.
I’ve been working on four lectures for this cruise: 60 iPhone Apps in 60 Minutes, 60 Freeware Apps in 60 Minutes, Using a Mac mini as a Home Theater PC, and Using Social Media for Fun and Profit. They’re far from done but that’s what trans-Pacific flights are for, right?
The cruise itself is pretty quick and we only get one day each in Cheju, Korea, and Fukuoka and Nagasaki, Japan, so I opted for a one week land tour of China in the week before the trip. There’s no way I was getting that close to China and spending only one day there. Eight days is not nearly enough to see the vast Middle Kingdom, but Don McAllister of Screencasts Online, Henry, a half-dozen other intrepid Mac fans and I will get to hit the highlights: Beijing, Xi’An, and Guilin.
I’ve posted my full itinerary on Tripit.com – what a cool site. You can forward your confirmation emails to them and they automatically build your itinerary, plus there’s an API so a number of third party programs can also use the data.
There’s a free Tripit app for the iPhone but I’m using Travel Assistant Pro instead. It updates flight information and helps you store checklists and notes. Plus there’s a cool presentation mode you can use for check-in at hotels and airports. Friends can view my itinerary on Tripit, too – and I can share details with other members.
I hope to post regularly from Asia. I’m buying an International Data Plan from AT&T for my iPhone and the hotel has broadband. I expect to be using the full social media toolkit including Brightkite, Twitter, Facebook, Smugmug, and Flickr. All of it pipes right into Friendfeed so that’s probably the best place to follow my trip.
Dom’t worry, TWiT will continue mostly intact while I’m gone. There won’t be much live video, but we pre-recorded all The Tech Guy, Security Now, and Daily Giz Wiz podcasts. Additional shows were recorded for FLOSS Weekly, net@night, and Windows Weekly, too. John C. Dvorak will host TWiT on July 5 (tune in early at 5p Eastern/2p Pacific for a special wine Q&A with John). I’m not sure yet who will host on 7/12.
There will also be some special events on TWiT Live. July 15 Chris Marquardt will take over the studio with a full day of photography interviews and information. I hate to miss that! And Alex Lindsay will be in (new baby willing) on many other days to host shows.
I’ll be back live July 19. See you then!
UPDATE: Don McAllister has one-upped me with a lovely iWeb page he’ll be using to post from the trip.
Loading ...| Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 6:03 pm Tags: TWiT Live |
Thanks so much to Graphics Point Engineering LLC for writing an amazing Windows app for watching TWiT Live. You can choose from the Bit Gravity, Ustream, and Stickam feeds, chat in the IRC or Ustream chat rooms, visit other TWiT sites, and even listen to Geoff Smith’s anthemic “I’m A TWiT” song.
Download a copy for any version of Windows here.
For Peter Elst’s Adobe AIR app that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, read on!
(12 votes, average: 4.58 out of 5)| Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 3:55 pm Tags: adobe air, Software, TWiT Live |
The great Peter Elst has done it again.
The TWiT Live Desktop 2.0 is out. It’s written in Adobe AIR so it will work on Windows or OS X…
If you don’t have AIR already installed the installer will download and install it first, then install the app.
A couple of things you need to know about using it. Double-click on the video to go full-screen. Right-click (or control-click) on the window to get the pop-up menu. From there you can open the Interactive window which has links to chat, the Army, the calendar, and more.
A really nice, minimum screen real estate, maximum functionality app from Peter. Thanks!!!!
(10 votes, average: 4.10 out of 5)| Sunday, 15 March 2009, 5:46 am Tags: SXSW |
Up inadvertantly early. Henry’s alarm went off at 6:38a. Which is weird because I’m sure it never goes off at all on school days.
Once again I’m not at South by Southwest. Every year I jealously read all the posts from Austin and wish I could be there. Seems like everyone I know, or would like to know, is there this week. But it’s just too complicated to move the radio show and TWiT Live. I’d have to arrange studio time at an Austin radio station for The Tech Guy or set up a broadcast studio at SXSW.
We came very close to doing that last year but the logistics proved unmanageable and I had to cancel. Jason Calacanis’s crazy idea of a rock and roll bus trip to Austin this year never materialized either. But it’s good to know we can get a bus that sleeps 12 for around $1000/day. Maybe next year.
We have friends whose movie, My Suicide, is making its US Premiere today at SXSW. It won a Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The lead, Gabe Sunday, is a recent graduate of Petaluma High School (we’re launching a new podcast with his dad, Michael Sunday, about the new way of work soon). Another friend, Eric Adams, wrote the screenplay. See it if you can.
Reading about all the trouble people are having with their iPhones down there makes me feel a little morose delectation, though. (Note to self: bring the G1 next year – or maybe the Palm Pre?)
Visit the TWiT Army – no #sxsw hash tags there. I’m going back to bed.
| Saturday, 21 February 2009, 4:35 pm Tags: TWiT Live |
We’re trying something new tomorrow night. Join Lisa Bettany for an Oscar night party. Watch her and watch the Oscars, starting at 5p Pacific, only on TWiT Live!
| Sunday, 8 February 2009, 9:59 am Tags: |
Amber sent out this tweet this morning…
Hi! @chrisdick and I are thrilled to welcome our son Connor into the world this morn at 2:45am! We are all healthy and happy!
link: Twitter / ambermacarthur
I am resisting the urge to say “pictures or it didn’t happen.” Congratulations Amber and Chris!!!
| Monday, 26 January 2009, 10:56 pm Tags: BMUG, Macintosh |
In the earliest days of personal computing users had to fend for themselves. Computer companies were too small, or too indifferent, to support individual users. So we huddled together, supporting each other through the trials and vicissitudes of PC ownership, in something called “user groups.”
I remember traveling to Berkeley of a Thursday evening for meetings of one of the biggest, best, and most unruly of the user groups, BMUG: the Berkeley Macintosh User Group. I didn’t go to every meeting, but I always enjoyed the unruly atmosphere, the feisty treatment of the company marketeers who dared address the group, and the Chinese dinners afterward. I even left them my Mac BBS, MacQueue, when I took it down in 1986.
BMUG hasn’t met in years, but one of its stalwarts, Raines Cohen, is planning a reunion in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Mac’s release. This is one party I wouldn’t want to miss.
BMUGgers unite for one (last?) Thursday meeting, this Thursday at the Hillside Club in Berkeley. RSVP on Facebook or at upcoming.yahoo.com. I hope to see you there!
| Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 7:29 am Tags: Facebook, facebook connect, Leoville |
I’ve turned on Facebook Connect (yes it only took a week after Amber told me about it) with the Disqus commenting system we use here. Now you can post a comment on the blog using your Facebook account for credentials. Despite all the attention Twitter gets in our neck of the digital woods, it seems to me that Facebook is building overwhelming momentum in the social media space. With 150 million plus users the network effect is really starting to kick in.
The success of Facebook also puts the lie to the widely accepted truism that Twitter competitor, FriendFeed, isn’t growing because it’s hard to use. I’d argue that Facebook is just as overwhelming to the new user but it rewards his or her initial struggle immediately and palpably due to the size of its network. Twitter succeeds for the same reason. It’s not simplicity, it’s simply the number of people who use the service.
Give our new Facebook Connect-powered commenting system a try and let me know what you think.
| Tuesday, 30 December 2008, 6:44 am Tags: TWiT Live |
I’m back from vacation – I had a wonderful time – and back to work. Thanks to Alex Lindsay, Sarah Lane, Martin Sargent, Tony Wang, and Dane Golden for holding down the fort while I was gone. I hope you caught This Week in Fun with Sarah and Marty (and I hope they’ll keep sneaking into the studio to do it!). We’ll be producing shows on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day so tune in on TWiT Live and TWiT.am. And happy 2009!
| Tuesday, 4 November 2008, 10:02 am Tags: election, TWiT Live |
We’ll be streaming live election coverage beginning right after net@night tonight at 7p Eastern/4p Pacific/2400 UTC on TWiT Live.
Our joint coverage with social|median will feature founder and former White House staffer, Jason Goldberg. Our special focus: tech and the election.
Scheduled guests include Jim Brady, Managing Editor, WashingtonPost.com, Brian Reich, Author: MediaRules, Terri MacMillan, Modern Media Japan.com, with an overseas perspective, Alan Silberberg, CEO, You2Gov, Julius Genachowski live from the Obama party in Chicago.
Leo's Photos
Swag
