What did was the fact that this happened right around the same time time Avatar was released, specifically the Blu-ray (BD) version.

What’s the connection?  Shortly after getting Avatar from Best Buy, I received an email from them stating a firmware upgrade to my Blu-ray player may be necessary to watch the movie.

Sure enough, my Sharp BD-HP21 was one of many players needing an update.  Articles here, here, and here summarize.

Luckily I found a forum thread which included a link to an available firmware upgrade from Sharp Canada, which went smoothly and all was well.

So back to my mom. I realize this seems relatively easy for some of us, but not someone like her.  She wouldn’t search for an update, throw it on a flash drive, and upgrade her player.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the advantage of new features, and I actually appreciate that my Blu Ray player didn’t just become obsolete.  And the picture quality is no doubt, outstanding.

But are these firmware updates too much for regular consumers?  Could this be a reason that the Blu Ray format could fail?  Or will internet-connected devices solve some of these issues?  Or is physical media already dead, regardless?

I’m wondering if you’ve ever heard of DVRs?  You know, the device that nearly 1/3 of people are now using to record content and watch at their leisure?

I’m only asking because last night, Tuesday, April 7, 2009, I decided to record the Fringe episode, Inner Child, but evidently because American Idol ran way over on time, I missed the last part of the episode, even though my DVR records an extra few minutes just for this reason.

Yeah, I know I can go to the FOX website and watch the episode, but you want me to install a goofy player, and it doesn’t even work with Google Chrome.  I was, however, happy to see that you support Firefox, but why do I have to install anything in the first place?

I did check iTunes and found that I can purchase individual episodes for $2.99, but I was so frustrated at the end when the episode cutoff, and you have made it all too difficult through your website for me to really care.  You see, I’m not much of a TV viewer anymore, especially because I can’t stand all the commercials.  

I understand you have to pay the bills and production is expensive, but commercials are so out of date.  Which by the way, I hope you are looking for alternative marketing for the future (have you seen what is happening to the newspaper industry?). 

But I digress.  I realize Fringe is not even in the same viewership galaxy as American Idol, and that brings me to my final thought.  The real victim here is not me–I think it’s the writers, producers, and everyone else involved with Fringe.

For me, Fringe was probably the first series I’ve gotten excited about in quite a while.  But because American Idol ran long, and you don’t make your content easily accessible without having to jump through hoops, I probably won’t go out of my way to catch another episode of Fringe, and I think that is sad.

I wonder how American Idol fans who tried to DVR last night’s episode feel. Unless they recorded Fringe, they missed the end too.

Sincerely,

Non-Fringe Viewer

Meanwhile, I recorded some audio from the event, including Matt Mullenweg’s The State of the Word session, and this weekend I finally got around to processing it. 

Although John’s video from The State of the Word is the real deal, if you are interested, you can download the audio portion of the talk here, or you can play it below.

As for the specs, I recorded it using an iRiver iFP-890 (internal mic), sent it through Levelator, and exported it using Audacity. 

I wrote an article earlier this year about using WordPress as a digital scrapbook.  Although it has been a while, I finally put an example together based on my original thought. 

My son and I recently went camping, so I put some of the content from the trip together in a post.  The elements of the post included using an embedded Google map based on the GPS location I took at the campsite;  an information balloon within the map that contains information about the campsite, weather during the trip, and links to a Picasa album; scanned PDF of the campsite map; and a narrative of our trip and some highlights.

Below is the Google map and a link to the campsite map.  I used the Google Maps Quicktag by Daniel Denk, as I regularly use the Google My Maps and this plugin was the easiest to incorporate the embed link to display the map.

View Larger Map

Here’s a slideshow:

To take the digital scrapbook idea to another level, you could create a My Maps of a larger area (say the United States) with markers of event locations that would link to smaller focus maps.

By combining available content such as pictures, video, GPS coordinates, and Google maps within WordPress, you can easily create a digital scrapbook to capture life events in a format available to family and friends.

Below is a narrative of day one of the camping trip.
 

Carson and I went camping to Sequoia National Park on June 20, 2008

We had reservations at the Lodgepole Campground.  The park was quite full, and I knew it was going to be, as I had made the reservations online about three months before, and even then there were only a handful of spots left.  So although our campsite was nice, it was slim pickings. 

Carson fought a nap the whole way from Bakersfield and during the last 15 minutes of the trip he finally dozed off, which is about how long we had been in the forest.  He woke up after his catnap when we arrived at the park entrance and talked to the ranger.

The entire park and its staff remind you all of the time about the situation with food and bears, and they were very strict about not even leaving food out unless it’s only an arm-length away.

Day One:

Carson was very excited when we finally got to our campsite and was ready to explore, but I told him we needed to set up camp.  He had so many questions.  I had packed way more stuff then we probably needed (supplies and food), and it made for what seemed long a long and laborious camp setup.  We had a new larger tent and I was anxious to see how big it was.  I was happy with it and it did well the entire trip.

After setting up camp, we went down to the river, which was located about 30 yards south of the campsite.  Carson and I threw rocks for a little bit, and then he wanted to put his feet in the water.  We took our shoes off and put our feet in the water and it was extremely cold.  No doubt you could tell this was recent snow pack melt.  Both of us could not keep our feet in the water for longer than a few minutes.

After checking out the river, we had some snacks and then headed over to the Lodgepole market to get some firewood and snacks.  After that we stopped by the visitor’s center, but it was already closed as by now it was getting to be late afternoon.  Carson wanted to explore some more but I wasn’t sure when it would get dark and I wanted to be prepared to make dinner and make a fire.  As we headed back, we used a payphone to call mommy and left her a message letting her know we made it okay.

After heading back to camp, Carson wanted to go back to the river.  We went and threw more rocks and did a little more  exploring.  He was curious about the rainbow trout we could see in the river, the rocks, plants, etc.  He wanted to even try and go out in the river but it was running way too fast, and especially with how cold the water was.

We headed back to the campsite and next Carson and I took a quick bike ride.  I didn’t bring my bike so I walked while Carson rode.  The campsite was completely sold out and there were a lot of families and kids around doing the same, riding bikes and taking walks.

On the eastern end of the campground loop we were located on, we could see people coming back from a hike on the Tokopah Falls trail.  Carson asked where they were coming from and I did my best to explain what they were doing.  This greatly intrigued Carson and he told my straightaway that he wanted to go on a hike.  I told him it was too late this day but that maybe tomorrow we could go hiking.

We headed back to the campsite and started getting ready for the evening.  For dinner I made spaghetti and Carson was quite hungry and ate two big bowls. 

I forgot how much work was involved with cooking and cleaning while camping, especially trying to keep Carson busy as I was flying solo.  I remembered that I had brought the older Sony cybershot digital camera for him so I let him go to it.  Many of the pictures in the album were taken by Carson.

After dinner I started the fire.  Even though it was starting to get dark, Carson was having a hard time not doing anything for any of amount of time.  As twig light arrived, a huge amount of bats came out to snack on the larger insects flying around.  It was quickly getting dark and Carson had no other choice but to rest.  As soon as the sun dropped it started getting cold.  I wondered if being near the river would make it even colder at night, and it turned out it sure seemed like it did.

I had brought stuff to make s’mores and I was hoping Carson would be excited about this.  He had fun cooking his own marshmallows but he really didn’t care for them, nor the graham crackers, which was surprising because he eats them at home.  So it turned out the chocolate was the only thing he ate.

With all the excitement, Carson had not taken his usual nap.  He was so tired that pretty much after s’mores we got ready for bed.  By now it was so dark you could really see the stars.  Carson was pretty amazed and how many you could see. I got the portable DVD player out of the car, and set it up in the tent.  Carson wanted to watch the Cat and the Hat movie.  The funny thing about that was the next morning, when Carson told me that after I turned on the movie, he fell asleep before the cat made an appearance in the movie–he was so tired.  That was it for day one.

If you didn’t have a chance to check out the app when it was still available, iNASCAR provided users with a plethora of information about upcoming NASCAR races in a well laid out form.

It included information such as the date, time, and TV network of upcoming races; pictures of tracks; and an upcoming race schedule. It even included facts about the racetrack, and you could also click on your favorite driver to get a bio.

So why I am I criticizing NASCAR? Because instead of embracing the iPhone app and trying to work something out, they sent Michael Stambaugh a cease and desist notice and made him pull the application.

Why? I’m guessing they either felt like they were losing visitors to their own website to get the same information, or they were extremely jealous of how well his app was created.

Okay sure, the app may have used some photos from their website, but what is it with organizations and companies when it comes to using information and data in a unique way? Why not throw some money to developers and “buy out” these apps, or find ways to incorporate them into their own advertising instead of being the bully on the information highway.

Let me tell you what this does for me as a NASCAR fan. It gives me a less-favorable view of the NASCAR organization as a whole, and it certainly does not make me want to visit their over-cluttered and unusable website to get the same information.

Instead, it has caused me to forget when upcoming races will be on TV and the network they are on, which in turn does not help NASCAR or its advertisers.

I understand the need to protect intellectual property, but do a google web or image search on NASCAR tracks or NASCAR-related information and you will find there are a whole lot more sinister sites out there than what the iNASCAR app was providing.

And just to make sure NASCAR does not think they can come and bully criticism, NASCAR is a registered trademark of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and the views expressed in this website are not affiliated, associated, or approved by NASCAR in any way.

Audio Listener Feedback – My original thought was that getting a toll-free number would open the floodgates for listeners to call in and leave feedback, but it turns out that is a lot easier said than done.  Even though the call was free, it was tough to get listeners to call in and leave feedback.  At the time (at least for this podcast), we found people were much more willing to leave feedback using email vs. calling in.  I even personally found this to be true when one time I left audio feedback for the Daily Source Code podcast.  FYI–I used Kall8 as our toll-free provider, and the service was excellent.

Consistency – Based on NASCAR news, we found that Tuesday evening was the best day for Stockcarzone to be released.  However, on the one or two occasions that the show came out later than usual, we noticed a drop in downloads of that episode.  Listeners expect to be able to download and listen to the show on a consistent basis, and this will maximize the number of listeners.  However, see the next paragraph for the exact opposite type of listener.

Listener Catchup – We found that some podcast listeners are extremely loyal, in that there were those who would go back and catchup on episodes they missed.  We mainly knew this by looking at downloads of shows which were one or more weeks old.  We also know this phenomenon to be true because listeners would leave feedback about an older episode consistently tell us that they were catching up.

Hosting Content – We used Libsyn to host our podcast, and it was worth every penny we spent.  The uptime was generally rock solid, and when a new episode was released, it would always handle the load.  Even when the podcast was highlighted by websites like Yahoo and we got a huge spike in listeners, Libsyn never hiccuped.  I would fully recommend the service.

iTunes Presence – I cannot stress how important it is to have a podcast presence on iTunes.  Throughout the 2+ years of Stockcarzone, listeners always averaged at least 60% (and usually more like 70%) of our total subscribers.  I don’t think We would have ever lasted as long as we did if we did not have the podcast on iTunes.  I realize there are other options besides iTunes for podcasts, but it’s obviously a preferred method for many listeners.

Overall the Stockcarzone podcast was a great project, although not profitable.  Corey and I both learned a lot about independently created content, and we met a bunch of great listeners and NASCAR fans.  Hopefully the information in this article will help if you are interested in podcasting and creating your own content.

I thought it would be no big deal to call-in and leave a message, especially as that is what we promote on the Stockcarzone podcast, listener feedback. Boy was I wrong.  Leaving feedback via voicemail is easier said than done.  I definitely have a new appreciation for all the Stockcarzone listeners, and anyone else who puts themselves out there and leaves feedback.  Not only did I feel rigid when I called-in, I ended up sounding rigid.

I was so nervous.  So much so, that Adam had a little fun with my call.  So to highlight my 15 seconds of DSC fame, at the bottom of this post you can listen to the clip from DSC episode #530.

Prior to the rollout, I was curious about what kind of portable media players I would find in employees’ workstations.  Instead, I saw nothing but CD-based listening systems, almost like it was taboo to have any music in digital format.

There were several in-house copy rooms where CDs were pressed with warnings about how the CD could not be played in a computer; however, I did not find one portable media player or charger hooked up in anyone’s cubicle.  And unless it was an office, most employees appeared to use portable CD players at their desks.

As to the floors in the buildings, no doubt, top floors are for top dogs.  Elevators are all based on security clearance.  You cannot go up unless you have access.  The bottom levels contained some record executives, but most were promotion and creative types.  The mid-floors seem to house more record execs, but the furniture and sizes of the offices were much nicer and bigger.  The layouts mainly had a receptionist outside of each office, and this same pattern went around the entire floor. 

Many of the executive offices had the world time zone clocks in their offices, wall-mounted plasma TV with a killer sound system, and signed memorabilia and gold records on the walls.  Some even had their own stocked refrigerators.

Above that floor were legal and large corner offices.  During these installs, we were strictly monitored and let into each office individually by a security guard.  The top floor was completely off-limits and we were told it was going to be completed by the in-house IT employees.  

As to marketing, the record business definitely has a lot of creative ideas, that was not lacking, bad or good. One promotional idea I kept seeing on multiple desks were for mobile advertisements.  If you have not seen them, they are like billboards on wheels.  They cruise around specific areas as a form of advertising. I noticed several quotes for these mobile advertisements for several artists’ promotional packages.  I also noticed a unique mockup in another marketing office which was a door-hanger CD.  This idea may seem antiquated, but these days with geo-strategic data available, this might work in targeted areas.  I would almost call it urban geo-strategic advertising.

Finally, a common theme I found among desks were contest agreements related to radio stations giving away free concert tickets.  These agreements stated that the record companies would provide the concert tickets, whereas if needed, the radio stations provided the transportation and/or hotel stay for contest winners. 

Overall, it was an install I will never forget.  It was definitely surreal to see gold records mounted on office walls, fan mail laying on executives’ tables, and speed dial numbers of artists and stars.  The record industry marketing machine may be in full swing, but at the same time, there was this stale feeling that they are way behind the curve when it comes to technology and digital music.