Been working my way through the Steve Jobs biography the past week and I’ve been a bit surprised at what some have found to be “new” revelations from the book. Chief TWiT, Leo Laporte, was surprised at how much crying seems to have taken place around and including Steve Jobs. And while crying hasn’t been too common in my work experience, I have read about this phenomenon at Apple in other books before. So, it concerns me that tech pundits like Laporte, who actually met Jobs and Woz, might not have as strong a grasp on our tech heritage and history as we might assume.

I cringe when I hear that the movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley” is listed by some tech-personalities as their favorite geek movie about tech history (I’m talking about you, Cali Lewis). “Pirates” is as close to a historical depiction of the events depicted like “A Hard Day’s Night” was an accurate depiction of the Beatles’ experiences touring in the early years. Not so much. So, having spent far too much time reading and researching the subject it falls upon me to share these not so hidden sources of tech history.

Let’s start with “Pirates,” the movie was loosely based on the book, Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine. I found the original 1984 version when I was writing and researching for an article on IBM’s OS/2 initiative in 1987. I was happy when they issued a 2000-collectors edition, because it meant that I could buy my own copy, but the 1984 version was a better, “less hip” version.

For those of you who prefer to get your history in video form, one of the best is the three-part “Triumph of the Nerds” by Robert X. Cringley. The PBS produced mini-series was based on Cringely’s book Accidental Empires, which followed the PC evolution from it’s semi-conductor pre-history to IBM’s OS/2 debacle, the rise of the PC clones and fading of Apple in the early 1990s.

A follow-up mini-series “Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet,” also hosted by Cringley, was based on the Stephen Segaller book of the same name. This three-part series followed the 1960s DARPA beginning of what would become the Internet to the commercial emergence in the late 1990s. Oddly the video version has never been made available in DVD (or Bluray) and can only be purchased in VHS. Weird.

Most recently, the much promoted Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview, making it’s way across the country as a theater-only release, was culled from the Triumph of the Nerds interviews of Steve Jobs, unedited and 70-minutes long.

I read the following three books just after Jobs returned to Apple while I was building a Mac-centric network for my magnet school grant elementary school in Southern California. They filled in information on the lost years at Apple after Steve Job’s departure and before his return, how close Apple came to oblivion with bone-head decisions from the top and more revelations about all of the tears shed at Apple:

1. Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders by Jim Carlton
2. Apple Confidential by Owen Linzmayer (out of print)
3. Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company by  Owen Linzmayer

In 2005 Macintosh co-creator, Andy Hertzfeld, gave us an insider view with the book, Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made. The book had it’s origins in the folklore.org website that Hertzfeld setup in order to gather anecdotes going back to the beginning of the creation of the mac. Hertzfeld and friends supply illustrations and notes from the planning stages of the macintosh and, of course, a few more tales that involved crying.

Back on the video side of the story, two mac-centric documentaries were released around the time of the 2008 macworld expo that looked at the macintosh-phenomena from different angles. The first one, Macheads focused mostly on the mac community, a few fringe mac-personalities (call “mac-macs” by Your Mac Life‘s Shawn King), questioned the need for user-groups in the age of the Internet and the future of the mac community.
The second documentary, Welcome to Macintosh went back to the Apple I and Apple ][ with interviews of the third Apple Co-Founder, Ron Wayne, previously mentioned mac co-creator and folklorist, Andy Hertzfeld, mac-evangelist, Guy Kawasaki and a host of others. Steve Jobs did not grace either documentary with any on-camera comments or participation, something that comes up several times with Hertzfeld teasing the filmmakers saying, yeah, Steve was just here the other day.

This is list is neither definitive nor exhaustive (The Soul of A New Machine comes to mind), but before one wants to weigh in on the Issacson tome it might be good to be a bit more versed in our geek heritage and history. Don’t limit your geek-history knowledge to a made-for-TV movie that compressed the participants down to caricatures and decides that the whole story needed to rest on the competition between Jobs and Gates. Please. No.

Resources:

After the premature obit-twitter post from What’s Trending a few weeks ago, I searched twitter and news-sites to make sure that this wasn’t another hoax. Sadly, it wasn’t. My girlfriend and I spent most of the rest of the night watching Leo Laporte‘s TWiT.TV Live coverage of the event. As much as I know that many outside of the tech field won’t give a moments pause over this, but watching Laporte and friends, it felt very much like a gathering of the tribe memorializing the passing of one of our best.

Image/Website by Boing Boing

Over the course of the past 18-hours I’ve seen a number of wonderful tributes, stories and creative works related to the life of Steve Jobs. Boing Boing skinned their website to look like an old Mac OS desktop. One of the more interesting posts was by Gizmodo’s Brian Lam who had been in the center of the stolen iPhone 4 controversy last year. His post, titled, Steve Jobs Was Always Kind To Me (Or, Regrets of An Asshole), began with his interaction with Jobs when Lam was new at Gizmodo and how Jobs expressed his fondness for Gizmodo’s geeky coverage of gadgets. The most telling part of the story was that even in the midst of the negotiations to get back the stolen iPhone, when it was apparent that fondness Jobs had for Gizmodo was going to end, as Jobs ended the phone conversation with Lam asking, “”What do you think of it [iPhone4 prototype]?”

Lam said, “It’s beautiful.”

Written tributes abound. Ars technica had it’s staff write about The first time I used an Apple computer was… It was interesting to see how many staffers when back to the Apple ][ and how many were from the macintosh or later iMac eras. The newly reborn BYTE website (formerly magazine) had it's editors and contributors share their memories of Jobs. In a separate BYTE article, Jerry Pournelle, the godfather of all tech-journalism, weighs in on Job's journey and vision that we got one step closer to with the iPhone and iPad. Finally, one of the more touching and insightful comments was posted by John Gruber in his Daring Fireball blog when he recalled the last time he saw Jobs, at last summer's WWDC, and noted new grass-stains on the heels of Job's famous grey New Balance 993 shoes and what that might have meant (Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot).

None-too-surprising, the visual tributes to the man who believed that technology was at it's best when it empowered our human need to explore and express ourselves through the arts, would find speak out loudly and passionately at Job's passing.

"Eternal Flame" by XKCD

"iSad" by Gregory Wadsworth

"ThankYou Steve" street art in Hollywood - photo posted by rob sheridan

"Thanks Steve" by Jonathan Mak

The Joy of Tech by Nitrozac & Snaggy

I was lucky enough to have attended the 2007 Macworld keynote when Jobs unveiled the iPhone and one in 2000 when Jobs had just returned to Apple, became iCEO and introduce OS X to the world. One thing that has stayed with me about the 2007 keynote, besides the energy in the room when the iPhone was revealed, but at one point when there was a technology glitch and Jobs had to riff a bit while the minions fixed whatever had fouled up behind the curtain. Jobs got to talk about how he and Woz would pull pranks in the old days and there was a definite sense of nostalgia in that moment with an equal sense that this was going to be another moment to be remembered for a long time. I won’t soon forget that I was there when the iPhone was introduced to the world.

I never met the man personally but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t felt the pressure wave from the dent he left in the universe. Gone too soon, but never to be forgotten, he will live on in the lives of millions who know that this thing is about something more important than a technological device or an American corporation. He believed in a place where Liberal Arts intersected with Science and Technology for the betterment of the human soul. Some thought that was just hype and marketing, a reality distortion field. I choose to believe that this little wedge in history, the Apple/Jobs Phenomenon, is an opportunity for us to remember and do the great things that humans can do when we get past our prejudices and fears. Steven Paul Jobs 1955-2011, thanks for leading the way. It’s our turn to live different(ly).

Sources:

• image: Thanks Steve by Jonathan Mak, http://jmak.tumblr.com/post/9377189056 retrieved 10/5/2011.
• youtube video: Steve Jobs’ Think Different Tribute Video by Fuego7, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeN5TJxxX2E retrieved 10/5/2011.
• image: Steve Jobs has died by boing boing, http://boingboing.net/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-has-died.html retrieved on 10/6/2011.
• article: Steve Jobs Was Always Kind To Me (Or, Regrets of An Asshole) by Brian Lam, http://thewirecutter.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-was-always-kind-to-me-or-regrets-of-an-asshole/retrieved on 10/6/2011.
• article: The first time I used an Apple computer was… by ars technica, http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/10/the-first-time-i-used-an-apple-computer-was.ars retrieved on 10/6/2011.
• article: BYTE Remembers Steve Jobs by BTYE staff, http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/consumer-services/231900188 retrieved 10/6/2011.
• article: Steve Jobs: Jerry Pournelle Reflects by Jerry Pournelle, http://www.informationweek.com/byte/commentary/personal-tech/smart-phones/231600299 retrieved on 10/6/2011.
• article: Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot by John Gruber, http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/universe_dented_grass_underfoot retrieved on 10/6/2011.
• image: eternal flame by XKCD, http://xkcd.com/961/ retrieved 10/6/2011.
• image: iSad by Gregory Wadsworth, http://twitter.com/#!/aggregart/ retrieved on 10/6/2011
• image: “ThankYou Steve” street art in Hollywood – photo posted by rob sheridan, http://instagr.am/p/PcYQs retrieved 10/8/2011.
• image: The Joy of Tech by Nitrozac & Snaggy, http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1600.html, retrieved 10/10/2011.
• youtube video: Macworld keynote 2007: Introducing the new iPhone PART 1, posted by leocg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ftf4riVJyqw#! retrieved on 10/8/2011.
• article: MacWorld Bound – Hurry Up and Wait by Joe Bustillos, http://joebustillos.com/2007/01/08/macworld-bound-hurry-up-and-wait/ retrieved on 10/6/2011.
• article: MacWorld 2007 Debrief by Joe Bustillos, http://joebustillos.com/2007/01/28/macworld-debrief/ retrieved 10/6/2011.
• article: Steve Jobs Macworld 2008 Keynote in 60 Seconds by Joe Bustillos, http://joebustillos.com/2008/01/25/steve-jobs-macworld-2008-keynote-in-60-seconds/ retrieved on 10/6/2011.
• youtube video: To Steven Jobs on His Thirtieth Birthday, uploaded by technologizer, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d1uMcVl8NQ4 retrieved 10/10/2011.
• youtube video: TWiT Live Specials 95: Tribute And Remembrance Of Steve Jobs by twit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u_V9MIPBP0&feature=channel_video_title and http://twit.tv/show/twit-live-specials/95 retrieved 10/6/2011.
• Steve Jobs Documentary 2010 posted by computertwit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgiEG-NsAB0&NR=1 retrieved 10/17/2011.

To get a sense of how TWiT has grown please check out this first video meant to share the “over the top” podcasting set-up that Leo had in his post-Tech-TV studio:

Following is one of the better Behind-the-Scenes videos of the TWiT cottage (hosted by Mostly Lisa, Lisa Bentley certainly doesn’t hurt). In the TWiT Cottage era Leo’s studio operations expanded from the upstairs office to the whole building (including the original upstairs office):

So… now that TWiT is now a full-on “network” of over 20 podcasts, they’ve completely outgrown the cottage and are about to move into their own building…

Sources:

• Systm 4 – Inside TWiT Studio(s): The Upstair Version, http://youtu.be/cX74k1v2ZVU retrieved 7/7/2011
• Mostly Lisa’s Tour of the TWiT Cottage, http://youtu.be/k_Z-ybl0CtE retrieved 7/7/2011
• TWiT-TV Studios Tour Under Construction, http://youtu.be/TJlkXbaHGmk retrieved 7/7/2011
• How Leo Laporte Builds a Media Empire and a Tour of His Future Studio, http://youtu.be/vokM_qFpMTI retrieved 7/7/2011

Leo Laporte crowd surfing while live streaming @ Diggnation from Jeremy Johnstone on Vimeo.

Here’s the version taken from leo’s streaming camera:

Not to be out-done by Laporte, Diggnation hosts Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht also crowd-surfed the audience with Rose jumping face first.

Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht crowd surfing from Jeremy Johnstone on Vimeo.

Sources:
Vimeo: Leo Laporte crowd surfing while live streaming @ Diggnation by Jeremy Johnston. http://www.vimeo.com/10150010 retrieved on 3/15/2010.

YouTube: Leo Laporte Crowd Surfing at Diggnation SXSW 2010 by TWiT. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODDxiTExRRg retrieved on 3/15/2010.

Vimeo: Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht crowd surfing by Jeremy Johnston. http://www.vimeo.com/10162147 retrieved on 3/15/2010.

Then there’s this excellent example of the tech news analysis by Tom Merritt and Rafe Needleman in CNET’s “Real Deal” podcast. The two put the iPad announcement into the historical context, looking at many of the previous, mostly failed, attempts to popularize the tablet/handheld class of computer. Make sure to visit the podcast website, these guys have excellent show notes and links to all of the gadgets mentioned in the video/podcast.

Then there’s this speculative editorial that wants to pass itself off as news reporting. Molly Wood is a smart, funny journalist, but she’s definitely from the media personality school of thought where snarky strong opinions are pushed to the front, generating huge positive or negative responses. I can’t watch this video without getting pissed-off. Ack. Moving on.

Discounting the noise being made by those who flat out hate all things Apple, iPhone or Steve Jobs, I’ve noted at least two trends between the fanboys and the haters. The first trend seems to be that pretty much none of the haters have actually touched the device and are making their vitriolic pronouncements based on the videos and the device spec sheet. This leads to the second observation: all of the haters are freaking out about all of the things the device doesn’t have. Oh my god, it doesn’t have a walk-in closet! Perhaps you missed that opening slide in the keynote where Jobs placed the device between a smart phone and a laptop. The idea is that the device will have things missing in the smart phone and won’t have things found on the laptop, like a three-car garage (crap, now I’m sounding like Molly Wood). Moving on.

In the Real Deal podcast, Needleman said that the Newton failed because it tried to do too much given the technology limitations of the time, whereas the Palm succeeded because it focused on a few things that needed to get done: contact list, calendar, notes and successfully syncing the three with one’s PC. Years later the iPhone successfully followed that path by focusing on being a great phone, being a great media player and being a great internet device. AND they had the wisdom to NOT try to boot-strap the Windows/OSX mouse/keyboard based user-interface to the thing. They broke with the past and focused on what needed to get done (a la Palm). Conversely, Microsoft had already been churning away in the smartphone space for years when the iPhone was introduced, but all they kept doing was trying to cram the Windows desktop (that was meant for big desktop LCD screens) onto tiny 2-inch screens and it did not take hold because Window-Mobile required seven-menu choices to do anything. Anyone remember this video from a few years ago on what it might have been like if Microsoft had produced the first iPod box?

Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Time Columnist, said it best in his initial reflection on the device, writing that the device is not something that can easily be assessed by a feature list or an illustration. I think the reason that the iPad is more than a dumbed-down tablet or giant-iTouch is that it’s not meant to be a stand-alone do-everything desktop computer replacement. In fact, it’s greatest feature might be something that has nothing to do with it’s beautiful design or the list of things it doesn’t have. The revolution that the iPhone started, of having useful Internet connectivity in the palm of your hand… maybe the iPad represents the next step as far as having an even better experience playing ones media, a more immersive experience interacting with “print” journalism in a way that books, newspapers and magazine could never deliver, and in a form-factor that’s much more natural than a keyboard and mouse. It’s not the thing, it’s what the thing connects you to. The word Portal comes to mind.

OLPC-meet-Taco-Beach by Joe Bustillos

Who needs it? asks all of the haters and most of the pundits. It’s not for the PC hardware tweakers or the hardcore gamers. Leo Laporte says it’s not for content creators, but I think that depends on what kind of content one is creating. I have begun blog entries and other correspondence on my iPhone. The idea that I can have the same access anywhere at any time and have more screen space to work with (and I can choose to use a real keyboard!), I’m in. I wrote a few weeks ago about the difference it would make having a smaller footprint than my 15′ laptop while enjoying those long afternoons cheering on my teams in my local pubs while grading papers and/or writing my blog. In fact, not long after I got my OLPC-XO netbook-sized $100 I took it to my local pub to enjoy the evening. I loved the size but the machine was just too underpowered and UI was too weird to be useful. That’s one of the things that’s kept me from buying one of the cheap netbooks, the prospect that it’d be too underpowered to do the things that I want to do. I watched the videos from CES of IdeaPad U1 hybrid, and when they used the touch and swipe gestures, the device lagged behind the finger. Two Processors and still underpowered. Boo! the The other thing that stopped me was that I wanted always-connected G3 service without having to dish out another $60 a month. I want to be able to grab my small device and write or play with my blogs while out and about. When I need to break-out the Final Cut Pro or need to spread my Dreamweaver layouts across three large monitors I have my macbook pro or my 27″ iMac to get the job down. But lately I’ve been choosing to compose and edit work while on my treadmill or on the couch. So, I guess I must be one of those “no ones” that Molly Wood was talking about (did she actually predict that there’s a market of only 2800 people for this thing? Maybe she confused this for the Palm Pre or her beloved Droid…[snark]).

You know who else this device might be for? My mom. She does email and loves getting photos of her grandchildren. I gave her a mac mini a few years ago but the combination of me living too far away to help her when the Internet breaks and the fact that she uses the computer just infrequently enough to never be very good at it makes me wonder if something like the iPad might work for her. Besides being a simplified device that’s always connected (saving her probably $30 a month to drop her DSL service!), she can use the thing anywhere she wants to, making the “computer” something that she doesn’t have to go to a special room (their spare bedroom) to do and maybe she’ll do it frequently enough to enjoy it more. Only downside (besides the price) is that I’d worry that if it fell off the couch she or dad would step on it and break it. Damn. Having a camera for video-chat would be great too (the OLPC-XO had that!). My siblings and I just bought mom a new 19″ LCD because the old CRT was … old. I think she need to break out of that room and grab the Internet with both hands, but I’m probably the only one who thinks that.

The device might not be meant for content creators, except for us text-jockeys and bloggers who like to roam when we write. But content creators, especially the vanishing “print” media, better be paying attention because this might open up a real platform to re-imagine what they could be producing and marketing. It could completely blur the lines between what used to be called Print and Audio and Video. Add social networking and citizen journalism and you have something completely different. I already have a plug-in that make my blog more iPhone-friendly, I’d love to see a WordPress plug-in that would retain more of my magazine-style blog layout. Then there’s the problem that I like posting flash videos in my posts and Adobe and Apple aren’t getting along. Damn. If they don’t fix it, then someone will because we want our videos and we’re not going to wait for h.264 Quicktime downloads. Well, Time, Inc. understands the potential. Question is whether they’ll join up or try to lash-up their own walled garden. I wonder if this might help Mad Magazine go back to being a monthly instead of a quarterly. I’d subscribe to Mad Magazine on my iPad. Too bad only 2800 posers will be buying this thing ’cause it doesn’t include a fire-alarm or any self-sealing stem bolts. Damn.

Sources:

YouTube video: Jobs Unveils “iPad” by CBSNewsOnline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poaUbmdUcCY retrieved on 2/15/2010

Real Deal Podcast 195: Tablet computers. http://www.cnet.com/8301-17920_1-10443889-84.html retrieved on 2/15/2010

YouTube video: CNET Buzz Report: Special iPad Edition by CNETTV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggww65cg2FM retrieved on 2/15/2010

YouTube video: Microsoft iPod by romph. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0 retrieved on 2/15/2010

Apple gives every other reader reason to be nervous with iPad by By ANDY IHNATKO, Sun-Times Columnist. http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/2015552,ihnatko-ipad-apple-launch-jobs-012710.article retrieved on 2/15/2010

image: OLPC Goes to Taco Beach by Joe Bustillos. http://joebustillos.com/2008/03/29/olpc-goes-to-taco-beach/ retrieved on 2/15/2010

IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Hands-On: Meet Voltron. He Could Be Amazing by Brian Barrett. http://gizmodo.com/5440922/ideapad-u1-hybrid-hands+on-meet-voltron-he-could-be-amazing retrieved on 2/15/2010

YouTube video: Sports Illustrated – Tablet Demo 1.5 by thewonderfactoryny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntyXvLnxyXk retrieved on 2/15/2010

info: self-sealing stem bolts. http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Self-sealing_stem_bolt retrieved on STARDATE -313125.89 (2/15/2010)

I’ve been watching Leo since the early ZD-TV days. It feels like it was early Internet, but it really wasn’t. Here was a guy and a show that was part of this tech world that I was a part of, that no one else understood. So for their last podcast for 2009, TWiT 228, they got a bit nostalgic (and funny). Good times. This was not the case several weeks ago when Leo and John C. Dvorak made fun of the NASA Tweet-up and totally forgot about what Twitter really means. Basically they took the low road and made jokes about what the hell are you going to say in 140 characters except, “I just peed in my diaper.” Twitter isn’t about the 140 characters or what one has for lunch. It’s about the community and connections that happen over time. So, sometime Leo gets it, and other times he goes for the cheap shot. Surprise, he’s human.

It is a bit strange to feel a connection with an Internet personality (who was a Cable-TV personality from a small network before that) and then discover that there’s a whole community of weirdos like me who work in tech. Following is a short documentary featuring Leo talking about the moment we’re at right now where it’s possible for a small media company can compete with giant corporations and get their message out without all the filters imposed in the past. It’s about the individual and the community and the message. It’s not about 140-characters.

Bonus video: Here’s a video circa 1996 during which Leo Laporte predicts the future. Given next week’s Apple announcement, Leo’s talk about the power of the Newton in 1996 might be all the more interesting:

Sources:
* YouTube video: TWiT 228: The TWiT Of The Decade posted by TWiT. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaq_FoA8jmo retrieved on 1/19/2010
* The Spark Series, Part 3: OPEN by Michael Sean Wright and Marc Ostrick. http://www.eguiders.com/exclusive/the-spark-series-part-3-open retrieved on 1/19/2010
* Of Mouse and Man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzIV8BxlaQs retrieved on 1/19/2010

Digication Revisited

In between large-scale enterprise level learning management systems imposed upon educators and roll-your-own systems like moodle are many smaller online options such as Digication (http://digication.com/). I heard about Digication from an interview of one of the founders, Jeffrey Yan, on Leo Laporte’s “Inside the Net“ podcast. Digication’s founders recognized the need for something more than just another place to post content, something that would cater to educators’ special needs that aren’t being addressed by overly-generalized web-portals, and at the same time be as simple to manage as an email account. Following is a Behind-the-Scenes tour of Digication and the “Inside the Net” interview of Digication founder, Jeffrey Yan (NOTE: the interview is a bit long…). Please review these items before our wimba session.

Inside the Net 35: Digication (http://www.twit.tv/itn35)

Click here to play episode in separate window: Inside the Net 35: Digication

One of the things that attracted me to Digication was that it had all of the features of a full CMS but didn’t require that I code it myself or try to get the assistance/permission from my district IT. Only limitation for the free account was that there couldn’t be more than 1,000 users at my school. I’ve written about my experiences with Digication a few times on my blog:
* Digication Gets My Vote
* Classroom Website on Digication

* Utudu & You: You should be well into creating your Udutu course/unit. Make sure that you make your way through the Udutu tutorials at http://udutu.com/tutorials.html. Please come to our Wimba session ready to share your progress, frustrations and victories. Remember, you want to have your Udutu course set-up quickly enough so that your fellow students have time to visit and comment on your Udutu course (during week 4). The following examples of Udutu units are offered as an inspiration and encouragement (the first one was created by the President of Udutu!). Enjoy:

All About Web 2.0 and Udutu Genesis by Roger Mundell

Introduction to 20th Century Art by Liz Perry

Introduction to Technology Accessibility by Emily Wray

Sources:

* featured image: Study by hermes. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hermes-/421203877/ retrieved on 12/9/2009

* audio podcast: Inside the Net 35: Digication by Leo Laporte and Megan Morrone with Guest: Jeffrey Yan of Digication. http://www.twit.tv/itn35 retrieved on 12/7/2009

* videos: LMO Moments: Behind the Scenes Tour: Digication by Joe Bustillos – emdt/FSO. http://www.viddler.com/explore/joebeebee/videos/22/ retrieved on 12/7/2009

* Udutu units: All About Web 2.0 and Udutu Genesis by Roger Mundell. http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launch/1612/Course15573/Launch.html?redirect=true retrieved on 12/7/2009

* Udutu units: Introduction to 20th Century Art by Liz Perry. http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launch/12441/Course21598/Launch.html?redirect=true retrieved on 12/7/2009

* Udutu units: Introduction to Technology Accessibility by Emily Wray. http://lms.myudutu.com/LMSGadget/courses/lms/12244/Course21696/881/v2009_8_24_18_23_39/course/Course21696.html?redirect=true retrieved on 12/7/2009

image by scion cho (cc) 2008

As with all things web, one can subscribe to Leo’s AudioBoos through iTunes, RSS and at his profile page. A much simpler “unproduced” audio podcast tool? Something worth looking into, I’m sure.

Here’s several AudioBoos from Laporte’s trip:

image by leo laporte

image by leo laporte

image by leo laporte

image by leo laporte

image by leo laporte

Sources:
images: moshi moshi by scion cho, http://www.flickr.com/photos/scion02b/2832751376/ retrieved on 7/8/2009

images: travel images from Asia by leo laporte, http://audioboo.fm/profile/leolaporte retrieved on 7/9/2009

image by Caroline McCarthy/CNET

Year-Two in NYC w/ Dan, correspondent for Leo Laporte’s TWIT network:

Year-One in NYC w/ Shawn King from Your Mac Life:

For blow-by-blow, multi-city reporting on iPhone Launch Day, version 3 check out CNET’s Live blog: iPhone 3G S launch day coverage. Also check out CNET’s Photos: iPhone 3G S launch day

Last year I’d switched from three separate blogs to a single “magazine” themed blog with multiple categories/embedded blogs (love the Revolution Media-Pro theme by Brian Gardner). But, much like the problems mentioned by Sarah Lane, I found that because I wasn’t writing for all of the categories consistently that there were sections that grew more stale and what I was working on only pointed out the sections that were more neglected (I’m talking about you “sex & the single brain cell”!). So I went back to Gardner’s new theme operation, Studio Press, to upgrade the visual look. At the same time, I started looking at re-organizing certain sections so that what appears on the front page is more flexible to highlight what I’m working on without forcing me to write articles just to keep some sections from looking old. I also need to continue working on making it so that there’s a little different feel for the different sub-blog/category pages. Onward and upward.

Music: C’mon C’mon from the “C’mon C’mon“ CD by Sheryl Crow

Source:
history of my blogging by Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid.com retrieved on 6/6/2009

In the ISTE Keynote address that I heard Negroponte introduce the XO-1 he quipped that they must be doing something right to have raised the ire of Intel and Bill Gates. Alas, maybe the joke in the end was on Negroponte when Intel promised to play fair but couldn’t resist the temptation to undercut Negroponte’s “humanitarian cause” and sell their competing kid-size ultra-light laptop, the Classmate, to the same countries Negroponte was trying to reach. So the Gospel according to Negroponte fell on deaf ears because the Win/Tel hegemony couldn’t hear the words for the vastness, opportunities and profits presented in possibility of harvesting the Third World educational/government technology nickel.

This holiday season the OLPC foundation is repeating their give one/get one campaign that I participated in last year to get my own XO-1, only this time they’re working with Amazon.com to get the word out and do the distribution. The commercials are very cute. My own XO-1 sits on a top shelf in my bedroom, part of my shrine to sentimental technology I’ve previously invested in (I really wish I had kept one of my old Kaypros to put in the shrine). I hate to think that Dvorak and the others might have been right after all.

The humanitarian cause and hardware rational was sound. But I was hoping to use my XO-1 as some kind of netbook or ultra-light laptop. After a year I found the Sugar interface confusing and the hardware just too underpowered. Click, wait, find a webpage, click, wait, how the hell do I switch back and forth between pages? Seriously. Right size, great battery life, indestructible, a little weak with the tiny keyboard (kid-sized, right?). I really wish Apple would come out with a netbook/ultra-portable jbb

Leo’s Kids – A TWiT Charitable Effort from Nick S on Vimeo.

Leo’s own ad for the 24-hour coverage:

I’m thinking that I’ll probably swing by the local Apple Store sometime over the weekend. And the hype continues. jbb

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Several weeks before, after one of his weekend radio shows Laporte was speaking to his assistant and his chat-room audience and he criticized Revision3 for not going far enough in their shows and for just duplicating the TV-esque formula that they had all worked on when they all worked together at Tech-TV.

Check out my next article when I’ll share more on why Laporte thinks Revision3 is blowing it and his plan to be the Internet (TWIT) King. jbb

Music: Divine Intervention from the album “Girlfriend” by Matthew Sweet

Click here for more on Geoff Smith, also check out his other videos at http://youtube.com/user/ringtonefeeder

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Music/Podcast: MacBreak Weekly 88: Drobotized from the album “MacBreak Weekly” by Leo Laporte, Scott Bourne, Merlin Mann, Andy Ihnatko, and Alex Lindsay

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Leo Laporte is creating an around-the-clock video studio and I’m all jazzed about the new blog theme, called Revolution by Brian Gardiner. One of the things that I started to think about as I was working with the theme was that because of the theme’s “magazine” type layout, I am thinking of moving all my blogs to the one. Yeah, I’m dreaming big. Funny thing is, after writing all about ads on the blog, I seem to have lost all of them on the main page. But I have to remember that no matter how pretty i make the site or how much time I spend on it, none of this matters if no one reads it. So, while Greg is sometimes jealous of my site’s designs, I need to be much more like him and spend time developing relationships with other bloggers and be much more net-social. Amen. jbb

Click here to view more details on Revolution WP themes

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To that end, I just saw this video on Cali Lewis‘ Geek Brief podcasts and she said that when she showed it to some family members they suddenly understood it and started to Twitter. If only …. The following is from the folks at the CommonCraft show at www.commoncraft.com.

BTW, I’m jbb on twitter and you can catch my little 140 character witticisms at http://twitter.com/jbb

Music: If It Makes You Happy (Featuring Chrissie Hynde) from the album “Live From Central Park” by Sheryl Crow

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