Sunday, November 27, 2005

The Grateful Dead and Archive.org

Disappointing to hear about the challenge that archive.org is having keeping Grateful Dead content online. Cory Doctorow had a post about it on Boing Boing. Indeed, the Dead were the most "Open Source" band that we have ever seen... maybe John Perry Barlow could get the EFF to fight the "good fight" with this.

After Jerry Garcia passed away, I noticed that there were suddenly a lot more Jerry Garcia ties in the stores... I always wondered what the deal was , and now I think that maybe his estate is a bit greedy and released a bunch of designs that he wouldn't have released had he survived.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Chickens to humans....



I love the day after Thanksgiving... it's like a gift -a totally free day on which we can suffer the indignities of the mall or spend time on things we would never otherwise do., like researching the chicken populations of the US and China.

While reading a blurb in Time Magazine, quoting Zhou Liwei, a provincial spokesman of Liaoning, China, I noticed that Time was saying that China has a chicken population of 5.2 billion. It struck me that - given the human population of China - this was not an extremely large number of chickens. So, I delved a bit into USDA data (2004 domestic US chicken and broiler production and global broiler statistics) and came up with some numbers that I think are pretty amazing...

Country People Chickens Ratio
China 1,300,000,000 5,843,394,740 4.49
US 296,000,000 8,934,000,000 30.18

This means that - in China - there are 4.49 chickens in every pot. In the US, there are 30.18 chickens in every pot (assuming that every man, woman and child has a pot)!

Puts a new perspective on things, doesn't it? I mean - abstract statistics about hunger and all of that are pretty boring... but when you think about the implications of each person in the US being represented by 30 chickens - versus only 4 in China - it is pretty mind-boggling.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Opening Day - Afternoon Sessions

Starting with the "Secrets of iTunes and the iPod" session. Paul Griffin (Griffin Technology), Chris Breen (Playlist), Leo Laporte and Dan Frakes.

Pretty interesting group.

Opening Day

Well, it has kicked off nicely here at the Portable Media Expo (aka Podcast Expo) today. Definitely crowded, but not so much that it's a problem.

Leo Laporte and the guy from enGadget did a good couple of keynotes this morning... basically the message was stay out of the infrastructure part of this business and do the content.

Two of the sessions this morning were so packed that if you were late - you were out of luck.

This is an amazing thing...



I had heard about the windmills east of LA... but nothing prepares you for the pure other-worldliness of it. It is like being on a science-fiction movie. These photos give you a small idea of the scale - there are hundreds, if not thousands of them. But, until you actually see them all turning at the same time in the incredibly strong wind that blows up the canyon from San Bernadino to Palm Springs, you can't truly "get it."

Portable Media Expo - Podcast Conference

Made it out here for the first Podcast expo - and what a kick-off night it was! It started kinda slow, with a few folks floating through the bar at the Marriott and having a little drink and maybe some sustenance before the show began.

Then, around 9PM, the show kicked off in a function room at the Marriott with some pretty decent music - Podsafe, I am sure.

A few digs at the big bad "traditional" radio biz, but for the most part a real upbeat time.

Adam Curry and friends showed up - with a special appearance by Madge Weinstein!!

Reminded me of the days of '70s progressive radio.

One of the coolest things was seeing the new celebrities, like Brian Ibbott, get their props. Quite nice.

On to the opening of the conference itself... tomorrow morning, bright and early!!