What to know about SXSW Interactive

The SXSW conference starts next week. This will be my third trip, so I thought I would share a bit of my experience with others that have not been before.
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.
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 oulet in the session rooms. Share power outlets with others.
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.
Shiner Bock – Shiner Bock is a local Texas beer that you find everywhere. Often referred to as simply ‘Shiner’.
Sharpeners – There are no pencil sharpeners at SXSW. People think writing on a pad of paper with a wooden pencil is a bit strange.
The Backchannel – Be aware that there is a backchannel of real-time IRC discussion going on. Probably on irc.freenode.net, probably on #sxsw. The trick is to not make the backchannel into the front channel for you. It can distract you from listening to the speaker/session that you paid to see…
Comment Cards – At the end of sessions, people walk though and hand out comment cards you are supposed to fill out regarding the session you just sat through. It’s strange the first time you see it. It’s not mandatory, so don’t weird out if you don’t fill them out.
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. It’s unlikely that a malicious hacker is gunna do bad things, but it’s best to be prepared.
Street Signs – For some reason, downtown Austin has few street signs. Get a map and study it before venturing out.
Hotels – Stay at a hotel in easy walking distance of the convention center. You don ‘t want to drive anywhere after a long night of partying. The word was that the Hampton was the best place to stay due to proximity and internet access. But since the Hampton lacks a bar, there is debate if ‘The Hampton‘ is ‘the new Omni ‘.
Night Events – The best night events are the Fray Cafe, 20×2, and Bruce Sterling ‘s party. Make time for these events. Update: Matt says there is no Fray Cafe this year. Dang that sucks.
Fray Cafe – If you are going to perform, practice beforehand.
Food – Eat food. Austin has a great bar scene. You will be drinking. Don‘t drink on an empty stomach.
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.
Sound People – The people who run sound for the sessions won ‘t leave the sound alone. They love to walk up while people are speaking, twiddle with knobs, and make the room go silent.
Clothing – Bring casual stuff, especially your witty t-shirts, but remember it can get cold and rainy in Austin this time of year. Make sure warm clothes and a good jacket are in your luggage, ready to wear. Last year we got hit with a massive thunderstorm and many SXSWians were soaked to the bone in their wet witty t-shirts.
Update: I forgot to mention that the Annual Kickball Game is on for Saturday morning at 10:30 AM. It’s a lot of fun and you will me lots of good people.

Five short years

Well, I’ve never been one that remembers dates well, and it took me almost a month to remember this one.
A little over five years ago, in January 2000, I first started blogging. At the time I was using NewsPro a proto-blogging tool designed for news sites more than personal sites. I don’t think people called them weblogs back then.
In any case, I’ve enjoyed writing these entries and hope to keep entertaining you, the loyal Cruft reader, for several more years.

What you need to know about flashlights

Of particular interest to tech-oriented people are the newer high end flashlights now available at lower and lower prices. But how to know what features are good and which are worthless?
Have now fear, my co-worker from the past, Richard Hess, can help you out. Richard has written THE definitive page on flashlights. Now, Richard takes his admiration of prtable a lighting a bit farther than I would, but the resource is great for anyone considering a high-end flashlight.
Richard is the guy that taught me about voltage-matched audio and proper grounding systems when I was a new TV engineer just out of college. Those two lessons have served me well throughout my career.
The voltage-matched audio is pure broadcast geekery at it’s finest, and usually only appreciated by other TV engineers. Grounding systems are common to almost all technical professions and usually widely ignored in areas like IT until sparks start shooting off of racks.
Some of my most vehement professional arguements have been over grounding with ignorant blockheads who think that placing racks on wooden blocks is a sound method. There’s a guy up at the CBC that had me ready to fly up there with a copper grounding bar and bash some sense into him.

Miles Update

Previously, I encouraged you to go check out Miles Mosley. I had downloaded his music and found that the ID3 tags were incomplete and didn’t appear correctly on my MP3 player.
I fixed up the MP3 files with correct ID3 tags and even added an image. I’ve sent the files back to Miles for hopefully inclusion onto his site.
Until then, you can download a zip of the songs with full ID3 info.
Take a few minutes to listen to the music, I think you’ll like it.

Lucky Puffs

You see them at the convience stores and you can’t help but wonder about what they really are. Yes, I’m talking about Hostess Sno Balls, the normally bright pink, coconut covered treats found next to the Twinkies.
Yesterday I was at 7-Eleven and saw that there were not one, but TWO, variations on the normal Sno Ball.


I took it upon myself to investigate. Here we have the green colored Lucky Puffs and the purple colored Easter Sno Balls. With St. Patrick’s Day and Easter on the horizon, Hostess is wasitng no effort to make customers happy with new products.

I unwrapped the items and got a clear look at what I was dealing with here. They looked absolutely identical, except in color. They were spongy to the touch and had absolutely no aroma. If I didn’t know otherwise, I could have confused it as a child’s stuffed animal.

I carefully sliced the treats in half and saw that they had the same insides, the difference appeared to be only the color of the coconut on the outside.

This is a close-up of the Lucky Puff. The chocolate cake and creme filling are the usual tasty Hostess stuff you’ll find in a Ding Dong or Cupcake.
The marshmellow stuff is kinda nasty. It’s not like a traditional marshmellow, with an extremely artifical texture and flavor. I can only imagine is being concocted in a lab somewhere by people in white coats from chemicals and not actual food products.
Myself, I like coconut in all forms, so the best part was sucking the colored coconut off the marshmellow to partake in the fibery goodess of the tropical fruit.
I’ve eaten 1/2 of one of the 4 Sno Balls/Lucky Puffs. I’ve got 3 1/2 left if anyone wants some, I’m sure they’ll last several weeks/months without ill effect.

What’s Crackin’ ?

Last night the Scarymommy and I headed out to the rock show, as the missus calls it. The main attraction was the Uptown Lights, a new band from Greg Dulli, the front man behind the Afgan Whigs and the Twilight Singers. Michele’s all about seeing Greg Dulli play. Back in the day, she was a bartender back in Cincinnati he used to play at the laundromat/bar (no lie).
The tickets didn’t mention an opening band, but a group took the stage at 10 and start to play. The lead picked up the stand-up bass and began to rock the house. The band is Miles Mosley, and they play some good jazz. I’m not talking about that crappy shit that Kenny G plays, I’m talking about the good shit that you want to hear when hanging with your friends or out for a night on the town with your baby.
Take a listen to What’s Crackin’. Go ahead, take a listen, I’ll wait…
Now, ain’t that some good stuff? This junk mellow jazz that is floating around sucks, and it had me thinking I didn’t like jazz. Well, I do like jazz, at least I like the Brothel Jazz as Miles plays it.
I stopped after the show and told him how much I like the music. He handed me a book to sign up for his mailing list and I was happy to oblige. He was grinning ear to ear after playing to a packed house and getting a good response from the crowd who was there to see someone else.
So, do yourself a favor and head over to the Miles Mosley site and check it out. We’ll be seeing his next show, whenever that is.
And for you social software types, note that he’s using Livejournal as the tool behind his web site. At first I was ‘Wha? LJ for a site?’ then I realized what a smart move it was. With LJ, fans can easily keep track of what Miles is up to by adding him as a friend. I doubt most LJers use aggregators and rely on their friends list to keep them up to date. By using Livejournal, Miles is going to be able to develop a fan community around him simply and organicly. The only thing I’d do is make the LJ access a little more obvious so there was a call to action for people that know what LJ is in the same place where you can sign up for the email list.