Author: Michael

Two different hotel rooms in the past month.

My Hotel Room in Hesperia from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

The Motel 6 in Hesperia, California

My Hotel Room in Las Vegas from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

The Ravella in Lake Las Vegas, Nevada

I love reading and I love books.
This is a picture of some of the books Michele and I have accumulated. This is after we have donated yearly to the local library.

Recently, my friend Kirill asked, “Wonder how much time America wastes in line at Starbucks“. Interesting question, I thought. Let’s do the math.
According the Starbucks 10K filing in 2010, there were 11,131 stores in the US.
According to this analysis by Trefis, there are an average of 449 visits per store daily.
Doing the math: 11,131 stores * 449 visits per store = 4,997,819 visits per day by Americans.
If we estimate that the process averages 5 minutes per visit to go from entering the store to have the coffee in hand is five minutes, we get these numbers.
The time wasted in line at Starbucks by Americans, per day is:
24,989,095 minutes = 416,485 hours = 17,354 days = 48 years
Obviously these are just rough estimates, but the time is significant. Also, some might argue that time at Starbucks is not wasted, as you do get your drink or food. Everyone’s views on the value of Starbucks will vary.
Personally, I don’t mind going to Starbucks, but prefer a lighter roast coffee made from better beans.

It’s September. That means that once again I am a NFL Widower.
The Superbowl is Feb. 5, 2012, so there are 5+ months of football ahead. My wife is thrilled.
I like sports. I watch football, baseball, cycling, hockey, and pretty much anything else. Sports are always better than police procedurals, medical dramas, music/dance competitions, and reality voyeur shows.
But my wife, she LOVES football.

Ten years ago I was awaken by a call from my mother-in-law asking “Did you see? Did you see?”.
Ten years ago I was driving to work, to send everyone home, when I heard on the radio that the Twin Towers had fallen.
In those ten years, I have seen the best and worst of America.
I have seen honest debate about the future of our country, and I have seen citizens call each other traitors simply because they don’t share the same politics.
I have seen America unite in joy and in grief together regardless of race, gender, or politics, and yet at other times question the foundational concept of America that “All men are created equal.”
America, we are a better country than this.
Our forefathers deserve a better legacy that an era of personal name calling and character assassination.
Our descendants deserve a better future than an era focused on fear.

Recently, DC Comics rebooted their entire line of stories. I hadn’t read comics in a year or two, but I was intrigued. I stopped by the local comic store and picked up the new books. The price of the new issues was $3.99 a copy.

Recently, I’ve been playing the the Replay editor in Team Fortress 2. It allows you to edit a video together from a round in a game of TF2. Not only can you see the round from your perspective, you can switch between the views of any player or go with a free view camera. once you’ve edited the video, you can render it out several different ways. The editor even allows you to upload the video directly to Youtube from within the game.
The most interesting part is the transition of gaming from simply playing to playing and then taking the gameplay and then remixing it into new content.
Valve, makers of TF2, held a contest called the Saxxy Awards, for the top videos in 20 different categories. Winners of the Saxxy received an actual golden statue in game for use. This blending of gameplay and community is exemplary.

We’ve played around with making Cookie Inceptions a bit, but I never really wrote it up.
Today, Mira and I made Cupcake Inceptions. And they turned out great.

While I disagree with his views on Pluto, Mr. Tyson is pitch perfect on this:

SxSW starts March 11th in Austin. This is my NINTH year and these are my helpful tips for the novice. I’ve tried to revise the info over the years as things change.

ABC – Always Be Charging – If you bring a laptop, you need to be charging it every single chance you get. No battery lasts long enough. Try to sit near an outlet in the session rooms. Share power outlets with others. Phone coverage is hard, meaning it will be in ‘Searching…’ mode often. This drains batteries, so you might consider a specialty phone charger. My friend Brad says “throw a simple 3×1 plug adapter or short multi-outlet extension cord in your laptop bag, you can use this to cadge access from people who are already using outlets.”

Secure connections – Wifi traffic is in the clear and people are sniffing packets all the time. Arrange for secure email, FTP, and if possible, secure browsing while at SXSW. HTTPS: should be in the browser bar of any site you are perusing that utilizes a login. It’s unlikely that a malicious hacker is gunna do bad things, but it’s best to be prepared.

Go play at Kick – Kick is a game of kickball for SxSW attendees on Saturday morning at 10AM. It’s a ton of fun and a great way to meet people. Thanks to Anil Dash, the event is once again sponsored by SB Nation and their will be food & coffee!

Don’t hog bandwidth – There is good wifi, but a limited amount of bandwidth at SxSW and everyone there is highly connected. That means don’t be a bandwidth hog. Don’t run bittorrent, for anything, at any time. Don’t download large operating system patches at the conference. Don’t try to live broadcast anything. Don’t upload all your photos from your 10MB DSLR camera during sessions. Don’t update your podcast downloads. Don’t download fresh builds of linux distros. Do not backup your laptop to Amazon S3 at the conference. Am I getting through here? Your actions can affect the experience for others. Nothing you are doing is that important that it is worth preventing others from having net access. Beat the hell out the hotel broadband in the evening, but do everyone a favor and show some restraint so everyone can do simple web surfing, IM, and email at the convention center.

Introduce Yourself – People are at SXSW because they want to meet people and see new things. Strangely, many of the blogger types that go are introverted types that are a bit shy. Do yourself a favor and say “Hello, I’m So-and-so” to that person you are sitting next to. (Don’t say So-and-so, use your name…) I guarantee that they will be happy to talk to you.

Personal cards – Make up business cards with your name, email, and website info on them to hand out. Bring your regular business cards if you want, but what people really want is a card that ties you to your online persona so they can find you after SxSW.

When asking a question in a session, don’t make a sales pitch – From time to time, people use the question time during sessions to pitch their own projects. No one cares. You look stupid if you do. Ask questions that the rest of the audience might care about. If you make a sales pitch during question time and I’m in the room, I will throw a brick at your head.

Session Info – When you arrive on Friday go to the Convention Center and pick up your badge. They will give you a large canvas bag of swag. You don’t want to haul this around, so you need to figure a way to drop this off at your hotel before a long night of partying. In the bag are two crucial items. First is the program which has detailed session descriptions. Second is a small pocket card with the session schedule on it. You want these to be in your daily walk around bag, not in your hotel room.

Don’t sleep in – Many of you are not parents (meaning not used to getting up at the crack of dawn), but sleeping in past Noon means you are missing plenty of good stuff you paid a lot to see. Get up so you can grab breakfast and be at the 10AM sessions. If it’s more important to you to stay up till dawn and sleep in until 2PM, you probably shouldn’t be coming to Austin. You can do that at home.

Shiner Bock – Shiner Bock is a local Texas beer that you find everywhere. Often referred to as simply ‘Shiner’.

Badge Surf – Badge surfing is a perfectly acceptable behavior at SxSW, but don’t use it to fake knowing someone. If you want to talk to someone, say “I see from your badge…”. Don’t make them think that they should know you or that you’ve met previously.

Fray Cafe – Go to the Fray Cafe on Sunday night. Fray is people telling truthful stories about their life. It’s one of the best things about SxSW. Kevin Smokler is the host and is longtime SxSW veteran. Get there early for a good seat, otherwise you will be standing for the whole thing.

Stay Warm – It can get cold and rain in Austin this time of year. Bring a good jacket or coat just in case.

Sharpeners – There are no pencil sharpeners at SXSW. People think writing on a pad of paper with a wooden pencil is a bit strange.

Street Signs – For some reason, downtown Austin has few street signs. Get a map and study it before venturing out.

Food – Eat food. Austin has a great bar scene. You will be drinking. Don’t drink on an empty stomach. It also would be a good idea to keep a couple energy bars in your bag during sessions.

Drink – Drink smart. If you start drinking early in the day, be sure to employ the “full glass of water between drinks method” to avoid overindulgence and a hangover. Or consider not drinking at all.

Texas BBQ – IMHO, Texas BBQ pales in comparison to BBQ in other areas like Kansas City and Carolina. That chopped beef sandwich stuff just doesn’t cut it, but people will want to eat it for lunch. That said, Stubbs makes a great brisket.

Say Hello to Me – I would love to meet Loyal Cruft Readers. On Twitter I’m @cruftbox or email me or IM at pusateri AT gmail.com and I promise to respond.

Any questions?