Good Morning everyone! Today I think I will engage in some armchair predictions of the tech world, just because I have the urge to splurge my thoughts out.

So I have been watching this little fun stuff with the update to OS X that has borked Hackintoshs, seems that support for the Atom chip has been removed from 10.6.2. Now I don’t have a hackintosh, but honestly it has been a big draw to me. It is something that is right up my alley of doing. I love that type of stuff and it would be actually fun for me.

But since I can armchair this one, I think there is actual reason behind this happening. I think Apple is going to release a line of netbook-like and/or tablet systems come January. Now I know people have been talking about this for what a year now? But I think this killing off of the Atom support shows that it is coming. Why?

Intel has a new line of Atoms coming out: http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/intels-next-generation-pineview-atom-cpus-to-be-released-in-late-december-2009119/

Nvidia CEO praising Apple: http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/intels-next-generation-pineview-atom-cpus-to-be-released-in-late-december-2009119/

Current Atom support being killed off: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/confirmed-snow-leopard-update-kills-atom-hackintoshes/

This shows it all that we will see a netbook-like system with the new Atoms and Nvidia Ion (or something that is a custom Ion) chipsets. Killing off the Hackintoshs of this subset (since non-atom based hackintoshs are still functional) is going to leave a void in the market that Apple will want to fill with its own creation. Apple doesn’t like competition. We have seen this with its reaction to Mac Clone builders. They are about control, be it for making things simple or be it for them to just “take their ball home.” Making this void now is going to leave people in the place that in the next 6 months they are going to want to upgrade and why not just buy the official Apple product. This seems to be SOP for Apple and those that purchase their equipment.
Now to really fly off in my ideas…. I think we will see a netbook device that will have about a 10 inch touchscreen that will be able to fold flat to the system so it will be able to run in a tablet mode. They will have these approx 1.5 GHz CPUs, 1 gig of ram, no optical, type N wireless, with the option of 3G wireless, 2 usb ports, a webcam and some custom uplink/charging port. The unit will be ultra thin when folded closed. We will see an update to iTunes that will allow the downloading of eBooks into this machine. Really, the eBook market is too big for Apple not to take a bite out of it.

So is my hump day armchair tech reporting.

Lets start with this: Congratulations to all the time and effort put into Ignite Lansing by the volunteers. It was a fun and wonderful night. It was so much better than I expected, as this was my first time to one of these Ignites. I look forward to the next event, and ideas have been mulling around in my head to even submit a speech idea or two next time.

But what about my question. Are we burning up? I don’t think so just yet, but it seems a good pyre has been assembled. What needs to be done? We need to break out of the echo chamber. Echo Chamber? Yes. It seems to be that people there are just patting one another on the back, and it seems that very little good information is escaping from the event into the general population. I have seen only the article from the LSJ about the event, nothing on twitter or Google. The presenters need feedback, so we can all grow to be more effective for the future and igniting that pyre. Read more…

So I thought I would test out recording my thoughts at the best time for me to think…..when driving.  Sorry for the quanity, I was an idiot and recorded at 8khz…..will fix that next time.

So here are my thoughts on the new Chrome OS.

 

 Communte Rant 001 [16:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Intro Music:  George Wood – Proteus

Outro Music: New Nobility Band – Better World

Talking with a friend today about Ed McMahon’s passing got me thinking how even though we’re not all talk show hosts we can use a sidekick.  I’ve always thought that Conan O’Brien was funnier with Andy Richter back in the day and now that the two are working together again I find myself watching late night television again.  Let’s not forget Paul Shaffer and David Letterman.  All these guys are stars in their own right and can be successful on their own but when they team up, the creative result is television ratings gold.  So why does my brian think that us little guys having a sidekick would be great? I know your thinking “If I wanted a middle aged man to sit at the end of my sofa and laugh at my jokes I would’ve let my unemployed brother in law move in” While that is a nice charitable act it’s not what I’m seeing in a sidekick.  Chances are you already have a sidekick or even multiple sidekicks be it your spouse, best friend, barber that kid who live in the apartment down the hall..  These people you see during your daily routines, you chat with them about this and that and through conversation ideas are generated, a new perspective is seen or the solution to a sticky problem is revealed. This is what makes having and also being a sidekick such an awesome cool thing. We take for granted that these people help us out all the time and don’t notice how hopeless our endeavors are without them.  Everyone want to be the hot shot star but it doesn’t matter what you do trying to do it alone is the recipe for mediocrity.  So let’s make room at the end of the sofa and get that conversation rolling who knows what greatness will come from it.

Question: What could be more fun than walking into a room and shouting the names of a bunch of strangers?

Answer: A video fight!

Quite a few people on Twitter do this thing called followfriday and I’m not going to bash them for it since it’s the way they like to play Candyland.  Being the daredevil I am, I’m going to try playing a bit different.  Youtube music video fights, it’s more fun than a monkey knife fight.. except there are no knives and monkeys. The rules are simple @ reply someone with a video from youtube and they will do the same while trying to use the song to have a wacky conversation, double points if you can break their brain in the process.

Yes it is one of those Fridays, every one has been wound too tight lately and something snapped, I’ll see all you normal people on Monday…

So in Michigan it is being debated again in the state government about a ban on public smoking, mainly a ban in businesses (ie work place including bars and restaurants.)  I have the stance that any formal public decree on the banning of something is usually a very bad thing or at very least will set a bad precedent.

Now, I hate going to a bar for a night and the next morning I can still taste the smoke in the back of my throat.  It is disgusting and all.  But I don’t think my opinion in this has enough right to stand and overtake the desires of others.   And having the Government coming in and controlling what you can and cannot do is equally improper.  So I ask “Whatever happened to asking nicely?”

What do I mean?  Well, why aren’t you walking up to the owner, manager or other head of your favorite bar or place to frequant and ask them to make the place non-smoking?  Why aren’t you asking them to place notice on the door if they are friendly to smoking or not?  If enough people took their time to ask nicely, I bet many places would go non-smoking without the need of the Government.  If you make your voice heard to the people that can actually make the change, I bet all would be happier in the end.  If it is stated what a business has chose, then I can make the decision if my time there is worth smelling like an ashtray.

Why am I so vocal on this one, because I worry what would be next.  If we can banning smoking, currently a legal substance, what is next?  Will some small very vocal group come along in the name of public safety ban alcohol again?  What about the practice of other non-safe activities say skydiving?  Life is filled with dangerous activities including visiting a bar……killing of the liver anyone?

So I say, get off your bums and ask nicely and see what happens.

These days it seems most people are looking for a shortcut, that product or service they can buy that will make it so they don’t have to work and be the next big celebrity.  The fallout from this sort of pie in the sky dreaming of your big break being just around the corner is that you allow yourself to fall into a trap of inefficiency.  You tell yourself “If I only work a few more hours this week I can pay enough off my credit card so I can buy this new designer product” How is working hard inefficient? Most of the time it’s not, but when your always looking for a shortcut longer hours aren’t always productive hours plus it’s made worse when your not passionate about what you are doing.  Now some jobs are all about hanging around waiting for something to happen but office work is not. Everyone has that person in there office who spends more time telling everyone how much work they have to do and how much of there personal life they have to give up for the good of the company than time actually working. This very same person will also be the one who wishes they could afford this or that object. I’ve even seen this person given the opportunity to shift their work schedule and have more of that personal time they said they so desperately needed, guess what happened? Thats right they fought it because what they saw was not a way to become more efficient but a loss of overtime pay.  As a member of the marketing machine I feel as though we have done a disservice to the workforce of our country. We  produce the dreams that everyone is bombarded with everywhere, we tell them buy this and you too will be one of the beautiful people.  The Media is telling us that there is a shortcut to riches and we can find it if we just spend more.  The big secret though is you don’t have to work endless hours and have huge mountains of debt to have a comfortable life.  The other part of this secret is, yes you do have to work hard, there is no magic piece of software of gadget that’ll do the hard bits for you.  But working hard doe not correlate to working long hours, sure you may have the occasion when you need that 60 hour week but it’s the exception not the rule.  Also it’s not about big paychecks, it’s about how you manage the resources you have access too.  Of course all this stuff is easier when your an entrepreneur and not working for the man.  Managers who think anything other than you chained to your desk 40+ hours a week are rare but when your calling the shots and decided that today is the day your going to work from the local coffee shop who is going to tell you no?

Organizing your workday based on tasks instead of time is a huge part in living a better personal life.  Life at least to me is about celebrating your victories, doubly so on the small ones.  When your workday is task based it’s so easy to say “I got that project done so tonight I’m going to celebrate by grilling a steak and opening that bottle of wine I bought last week for a special occasion”.  When your office is time based, well every evening is “whew! I made it through another day, let’s hope tomorrow doesn’t suck as bad”.  It can make all the difference between how successful you feel which in turn actually helps you be more successful and we all know people like to be on the winning team and when your winning you work better so you’ll keep winning.   The second part of the puzzle is to not run off promising things to your customers that even under optimal conditions would be difficult.  Yes you want to be the hero and deliver what everyone said can’t be done, but you need to honestly accept your limitations.  The surefire way to destroy your productivity is if your spending all your time cleaning up the mess because you could not make a deadline or shipped a shoddy product.  All too often making a promise that wasn’t followed through on is the biggest killer in a company I’ve seen it first hand damage customer confidence which then destroyed employee morale and with it productivity.  When your task based it becomes easier to know what you can do and allows you to set realistic goals and deliver the quality product your customers want.

It’s a hard sell but the accepted practice of working a 40 hour work week is a bad idea.  Even harder is selling the point that letting employees set their own hours gets better results and makes for a happier employee.  When I have to punch the time clock, I lose incentive to work on problems after 5 because of the delineation between “my time” and “company time”  I’ve found that if one can do their work anywhere and are allowed to do so they will complete more tasks than if they are coming into the office everyday.  It’s where things need to go if people want to have happy full lives.

Thursday evening the hopefully final test run and shakedown of the systems will be performed.  With a skeleton crew of hosts we’re going to record something. Will it be a pilot episode? Will it cause the machines to burst into flames sending small children running and screaming? We’ll just have to wait and find out, odds are things will fall somewhere in between.

Keep tuned Batfans for when more information arives on this BatStation…

I’m not sure how the decision was made or that a decision was needing to be made for that matter.   I’m not even sure what events happened that lead us to having the idea that for the core products at Rust Media having the recording be as portable as possible it the route to go.  So with portability in mind we set about to run some audio tests.    We’re still looking at what the final hardware is going to be but using our notebooks we tried our a few different headset mics, two USB and one straight analog.  The clear winner was the Plantronics 645 USB headset it gave the best sound and performance of the headsets we tested and at about $30-$40 is reasonably priced.  The analog only headset we tried gave a good sound but using the onboard audio hardware of the laptops gave us poor response time and would occasionally garble the audio stream.  The last USB only headset while performance response being good the sound quality from the mic just wasn’t there.

The tests were ran by two of us getting on Skype and making a call the calls were recorded using Total Recorder which produces an mp3 and a raw wave file out that we then checked to see how things sounded, not very indepth I know but it did the job we needed.  The sound quality coming through Skype is more than acceptable and we see little post processing needed to output a final show.

We’ve still to settle on what additional hardware we’re going to need as well as the software to post process and package the final product but we now know how to input our content so to speak. There is still a lot of behind the scenes boring tedious work to go but things are progressing and I can declare this weekend’s tests a success.

Currently we’re working on assembling the equipment we need to begin producing audio podcasts.  Why only audio? well video was discussed but it was decided that due to cost and the fact nobody really would want to see our ugly mugs that audio is the best place to begin.   I know that you can read all over the web that all you need to make a podcast is a computer and a microphone, while thats trueusing that setup the quality is less than.. well it pretty crappy.  Over the years there has been too many podcasts that have shown great promise to me that we’re simply unlistenable due to poor production quality.  Since our startup funds are pretty sllim and we still have day jobs I think spending the extra time to research and assemble the right equpment our budget can handle is the smart choice.

I’ve recieved a few recomendations on equipment and am always open to more. That also goes for show ideas, things you want to hear about. Rust Media is going to be a more social media company we want our fans to be invested in content we produce.