Tommy McGahee's Weblog

Website update

tommymcgahee — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:33:08 +0000

I decided to use wordpress again to run my website, so I’ve spent the day designing a template from scratch in Photoshop. It’s looking good so far. Pics soon to come!

Podcasting and the new “Social Media”

tommymcgahee — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:56:41 +0000

While looking through my past blogs today, I found an article I had written over a year ago about social media. I’m reposting it here because I feel it is still more than relevant.

Podcasting and the new ”Social Media”

It has been a long while since I last posted on my blog, so I thought tonight was as good as any to finally update.

Since last September many things have happened in the wonderful world of Tommy as I’ve progressed through one more semester of college. I have become much more active in our on-campus radio station, and am now a member of its executive board of 12. Since it is a fully student run organization (apart from our grad and faculty advisors) we, well, run the place. It’s been an extremely worthwhile experience and is definitely something not many students or adults ever get the chance of doing. It’s also something that requires a high level of responsibility, which is what also makes it challenging. Each exec has a certain role and title at the station, as well as a staff of volunteers to help. Although I’m named Digital Archives Director, my main duty is media syndication for the station. At the moment, that’s entailed podcasting on a exponentially growing degree.

When I took on this authoritative role back in December I knew basically nothing about podcasting. I knew Audacity and how to edit music, but I had no idea what a podcast was beyond exporting the finished, edited copy of a show to a mp3. The Director before me would always take it from there. Now that I know what I do I’m amazed at the incredible following podcasting and the new “social media” have created. Josh Hallett of hyku.com spoke to my PR class last semester and explained how the world of blogging and personal digital media have really reshaped our cultural landscape. From simply sharing one’s thoughts to determining political elections, “social media” and its effects have really changed the way even the professional news look at the world. Every person or organization of importance has a blog now, especially political figures. Even personal profiling sites like facebook and myspace are being used as well with politicians having their own pages and mock elections. It’s an incredible new grass roots informational tool that puts a medium for expression of opinion in the hands of the average Joe. Even though the experts have predicted that the blog boom will begin to level off, I feel that it will continue to gain importance in the political landscape as the current tech savy generation begins to age. Any medium that promotes freedom of speech from those who normally would not be heard should be supported.

My main goal this semester with the radio station has been to increase the amount of our programming that is available online, either via podcasting or mp3 streams through out website. Its been amazing to watch the stats on podcasted shows rise each week. Talk shows that have aired for two semesters but have just recently been podcasted now get regular phone calls during their airing. Hits have increased three-fold, and will only increase as we continue to register our shows with itunes and continue our syndication. Any increase in our listernership is definitely fine by me.

- Tom

Syncing iCal, Gcal, and LG Dare

tommymcgahee — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:23:07 +0000

One of the concerns I had when choosing a new phone this past summer was whether it could sync with my ical calendar. I keep my daily schedule on my Mac, and wanted a way to view it on the go with my phone. While the following solution is not the best, it has worked successfully for me these last few months. While the actual option of syncing the LG Dare is still not available through Verizon (and probably never will be), there is an easy way to have your calendar cleanly displayed on your phone.

By using Google Calendar as an intermediary, I can now view everything while online with the Dare. I synced iCal and Gcal through CalDEV, and now get automatic updates between the calendars. As long as the computer that I edit iCal with has an internet connection, it will auto-update the Google Calendar with any changes online in seconds. If I edit the Google Calendar, iCal will auto-update when I get on my Mac. Changes made in any location, on any calendar, will appear updated in all locations in a matter of seconds.

To view this on the Dare, I have my Dare’s web browser’s homepage set to Google Calendar. With one click on the Dare’s internet button I can now see my entire day’s schedule in real-time. While the mobile version of Gcal only allows for updating of your primary calendar, you can still add quick updates which can be moved to the appropriate calendar when at a computer.

While it’s not the best solution, it has been more than appropriate for my needs. Once the initial setup is complete, the syncing remains rock solid. The only inconvenience is having to log into to Google Calendar once a month through the Dare when the saved password expires. That’s a small inconvenience when compared to not having any solution at all.

Also, you can have Google Calendar send you sms reminders before important events occur. While this may not be a cost effective solution, it’s convenient for those with large or unlimited sms plans. I am reminded of upcoming events through text and have found it quite reliable and effective.

Windows Vista Movie and DVD Makers

tommymcgahee — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:29:30 +0000

I hate Windows Movie and DVD Makers.

With that out of the way, let me explain why. First, don’t think I’m slamming Vista. I use Vista’s Media Center as an entertainment center in my room. I watch TV on it, record my favorite shows off cable and even play my music as well. I also use the IR adapter and Windows remote – I really am that much of a dork. The point is, Vista works for me, and I’ve been pretty happy with the overall experience. I’ve also accepted its limitations (I bought a Macbook this past Christmas for redemption), and have even overlooked the ridiculous UAC popups (I disabled them after a few days of purchase). The 20 fps loss in gaming was upsetting, but at least Microsoft tried to fix that. They, (thanks to outrage by the worldwide gaming community), get a reprieve there.

So, what’s the problem with Vista’s integrated multimedia editing software?

This may take awhile.

Movie Maker’s storyboard doesn’t support basic keyboard strokes. I use Audacity on nearly a daily basis, and have become accustomed to the “Home” button jumping to the beginning of an audio file. ”End” should go to the end, and “Shift” + arrow keys should highlight portions of your track. Oh, and the arrow keys should move the cursor right and left, respectively. You know, common sense commands that every other Windows program invented in the past decade have seemed to utilize. Apparently Microsoft doesn’t deem these commands necessary while editing content. The weird thing is, these are almost all I use in Audacity, and they help me save time and edit music in minutes.

Go figure. I must be doing something odd.

Movie Maker wasn’t stable either when editing my project. Because I was at a conference all day Saturday, I recorded the UGA football game through Media Center so I could view it later. This morning, I dumped it into Movie Maker to delete the commercials with the intention of making a dvd to add to my personal collection. After slowly dragging the cursor through the video and splicing out commercials, Movie Maker stopped responding. The play button worked, but the videos quit displaying, which completely put a damper on the editing process. Two restarts later and everything began working again. Kind of. For the most part. Until it did it twice more.

At this point I learned to save often.

Once completed, I exported the file to DVD and had it auto-open in DVD Maker. Now, I have a fairly decent desktop: A 2 ghz C2D Allendale processor, 2 gigs of ram and an 8600 GT video card; not the best setup for gaming, but adequate for basic video editing. I’ve definitely done much more intensive work on a lesser computer, and had fewer issues in professional programs like Adobe Premiere Pro. So, when the dvd menu creation screen took a full minute to render a 10 second preview, I was ready to punch my LCD screen. But that was only after getting the video to actually load correctly. That unto itself was a whole other issue.

Setting a video to appear as the menu screen’s background was like trying to move a building with my bare hands. The browse option is there (actually besides changing the font and layout style, foreground and background videos were the only other options for you to customize), so for neither to work right was pretty amazing. How did Microsoft overlooked such a failure?

This is how it’s supposed to work:

1) Browse to the video (I sliced Moreno’s amazing touchdown dive and saved it).

2) Select said video.

3) Click save changes.

That’s it. Easy, right? Well, it supposedly loads your video, but the first time I tried it refused to play it at all. It took random clips from the movie and played those instead. Rinse and repeat and I saw my movie, but with different auto-generated clips interspersed throughout. At this point I quit the project, grabbed some tylenol and came back for another round. I chose another style, reloaded Moreno as the foreground video, (the background option was greyed out on this style), and was treated to extremely choppy video playback of only half my video. At least it was only showing my sliced video this time, so I settled for a compromise and gave up.

I exported to DVD, and have been waiting for it to complete for the last hour and a half.

Thanks Microsoft! You’ve now assured me that your integrated editing software is horrible, and I will continue using iMovie for my basic video projects.

eBay the next internet bust?

tommymcgahee — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:52:37 +0000

With all the economic mess from the past two weeks, it looks like Sillicon Valley may be the next victim to feel the wrath of a crumbling market. With Lehman Bros. collapsing and an $85 billion government loan to A.I.G., computer giant Hewlett Packard has begun laying off employees, while eBay has been rumored to start whacking 10% of its 15,000 person workforce.

According to the NYTimes.com article “Silicon Valley Layoff Watch: Is eBay Next?”, Brad Stone writes that many internet companies have measured their employment rates on a projected 50% yearly increase due to rapid, historical grow. Now, with the economy’s eventual slowdown, eBay and similar internet companies are finding themselves facing a reality of being under-production and overstaffed.

EBay’s situation is unique due to the past year’s outrage by its buyers and sellers. Increased seller fees and other various policy changes have forced many sellers to venture to competitor auction websites to conduct business, leaving eBay a shell of its former self. With a tumbling market and possible eBay reconstruction on the horizon, the former online auction house giant may find itself in very unfamiliar waters.

Working on a new website

tommymcgahee — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:46:57 +0000

While I love wordpress and all its options, I’ve finally made myself begin work on a new website. I’ve completed the template in Dreamweaver / Photoshop through the tried and true method of tables (yes, I’m kind of stuck in the past), and am now in the process of moving all of my data over from this site. Its been a great learning experience so far, and has convinced me to purchase a book on CSS later this week. After having to return to Photoshop time and again to manipulate images for the tables, a CSS stylesheet is looking more like an intelligent decision.

BTW, did you know that after slicing your images and selecting “Save to Web and Mobile”, clicking “Images and HTML” in the drop-down menu of Photoshop automatically creates a page and saves your slices within tables? Yeah, that would have been even more awesome 3 hours ago when I first began work on the site.

Stay tuned with more updates on the new site!

Tech Toys

tommymcgahee — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:55:43 +0000

I feel behind the times with this post. After having watched my friends tune their radios and listen to their ipods, I broke down and bought myself a fm tuner Friday. Now, the only problem is I don’t own an ipod. I’ve actually never owned an ipod, and I probably don’t plan on picking one up anytime soon. So, why would I need a fancy transmitter for my car?

My cell phone.

As technology converges and every type of gizmo is crammed into one device, I finally felt the technology had matured enough to warrant picking up a new phone last summer. For my birthday I grabbed a LG Dare, which combines internet, bluetooth and a camera into a touch screen, iPhone-like package. Truth be told, I wanted an iPhone, but the pain of switching carriers and the additional cost for less features kept me with Verizon. Despite that, I have been very satisfied with the Dare, even though the internet experience isn’t as nifty as its Safari competition.

So, back to the fm transmitter. With the hype of the ipod and a brief look at current transmitter products, one could assume Apple was the technology’s only audience. Thankfully, some time online and three stores later, I found that not to be the case.

Bring in itrip, a nifty little fm transmitter that plugs directly into the headset jack of your cell phone. The other end is a car adapter that plugs right into your charger and includes a usb port built into the back. Since the Dare charges via micro usb, I’m even able to plug the phone right up and charge as I go. Now that’s cool.

The audio sounds extremely clear as well, no matter what songs I play. From Blues Traveler to the Beatles, everything was as crisp and clean as could be over the radio. The best thing about it is that it just worked right out of the box, with absolutely no hassle to think of. it truly was plug-and-play.

So, it looks like as far as music in the car is concerned, I’m as technologically caught up as possible…until I buy a radio with AUX-in and an internal hard drive. But, until I get another car, we’ll have to save that for another day.

Tipping My Hat To Technology

tommymcgahee — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:50:31 +0000

I wanted to say something about my Macbook, and to an extent, technology in general. I’m not an Apple convert by any means, but I would like to share an experience that has made me appreciate my purchase.

I charged my laptop last night, popped it into my fabric zip cover and took it to campus. I used it between classes for nearly 2 1/2 hours straight, then closed it and headed to my last lecture. There, I opened it back up and used it for another 20 – 30 minutes to browse the internet and chat with a friend, closed it and left for home. I put it on the backporch and streamed radio while moving furniture and hitting some tennis balls for another hour or longer. I then took it inside and still had battery life left for anything that I wanted to do.

This scenario isn’t unique to today, but has become a repeating pattern in my day-to-day life.

I know any laptop can do this, but I’ve just found it so simple with the Macbook that it’s beginning to change how I do things. It comes back to life so quickly (literally 1 1/2 seconds) that I can pull it out to check something instead of having to find a computer or wait until later. I take it downtown and can check my email anywhere with wifi (which it connects to automatically), and can keep in touch with friends and professionals nearly instantly.

One of the programs I’m involved with at my university focuses on the impact of technology and its effect on the way we do things on a daily basis, in both our professional and personal lives. It’s really amazing to watch cell phones shift from strictly voice to the emerging mobile internet device (MIDs), smaller contraptions that allow a computer’s streamlined functionality in a device the size of a pack of cigarettes. And yes, they have voice too.

I plan on upgrading my current phone to an iphone when they come down in price to keep in contact even faster. Right now it’s difficult to justify spending that much money plus a contract to do the same thing I can with my Macbook. Google’s Android looks promising as well, so I may hold off simply to see what will happen.

So, back to Apple. Are the company’s products the “end all” of computers? Do they “simply work” as Steve Jobs claims? I would say the answer is a definitive no. I’m still reliant on my vista desktop and XP campus computers for certain tasks, especially when I run into compatibility issues on my Mac. I yell at my class iMac on a daily basis for being slow and stupid. I still threaten to abuse my laptop when Safari won’t display certain pages correctly, or load media when it’s supposed to. There’re still a number of things that bug me and make me scratch my head in frustration. I still have issues. I still become mad.

With that said, I realized today that I had only turned my desktop on roughly three times this entire month. The Macbook? I never turn it off; I simply close it and charge, open it and use.

It doesn’t get much easier than that.