Monday, July 30, 2007
The Internet is creating its own stars
The Internet as it matures as a media is spawning its own stars much like television in its early days. I have frequently mentioned the phenomenon of podcasting where audio and/or video shows are available for people to stream or download to their computers via the Internet.
You can subscribe to these podcasts from the creator’s Websites or through distribution sites like iTunes, and load them on a media player like an iPod. I subscribe to a number of technical podcasts and download a number of new shows each week.
These podcasts are my main source of information on what is new in the industry.
This new approach to information distribution has created careers for a number of people known primarily to people under 30. Many are of this young geek generation that first became widely known through to success of entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
Occasionally you will see one of these people when they appear as a talking head on some tech-oriented discussion on a cable channel. They will become more familiar to the general public as more people turn to the Internet as their information and entertainment source.
Some of these stars are refugees from the early days of the tech industry before the DotCom bubble burst in the 90’s. The now defunct Tech TV show saw several of its on-air personalities land on their feet in the tech industry with podcasts of their own. Kevin Rose of Digg, Leo Laporte of This Week In Tech (TWIT), Patrick Norton of DL.TV and Amber MacArthur of net@nite have become widely popular. They are joined by others like Cali Lewis, Veronica Belmont and Natali Del Conte who are rising young women stars in the field.
I’ve left out other important names in this growing media like John C. Dvorak and Jay Adelson, Robert Heron, Roger Chang, Tom Merritt and Molly Wood.
I’ve thrown out a number of names here. If you haven’t heard of them yet, you will. They are pioneers of this new media.
Another name that has risen via the Internet is Terra Naomi. Who is Terra Naomi? She is a struggling young musician who has zoomed into the spotlight after seven years of singing in coffee shops and bars. She wrote a song “Say It’s Possible” about global warming after seeing Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” She has her own MySpace page and uploaded a video of her performing the song on YouTube.
Her video has been viewed almost five and a half million times since it was posted a year ago. It came to Al Gore’s attention and one year after producing her video in what appears to be a little home studio, she appeared before thousands of people at Wembley Stadium in London during the Live Earth concert.
Check out her first performance at http://youtube.com/watch?v=ARHyRI9_NB4 then view her performance at Wembley at http://youtube.com/watch?v=rz09nw__FLs. It is quite a change in one year. It helps illustrate the growing power of the Internet.
The vast majority of you feel that drivers are less courteous than 10 years ago. The percentage has ranged from 88 to 90 percent in recent days. This week I’ve put up a new poll question. What is the first thing you look for when you come to the stardem.com Website? News? Sports? Obituaries? Classifieds? Opinion columns? Feature stories?
I’d be interested in your response. As always you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.
You can subscribe to these podcasts from the creator’s Websites or through distribution sites like iTunes, and load them on a media player like an iPod. I subscribe to a number of technical podcasts and download a number of new shows each week.
These podcasts are my main source of information on what is new in the industry.
This new approach to information distribution has created careers for a number of people known primarily to people under 30. Many are of this young geek generation that first became widely known through to success of entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
Occasionally you will see one of these people when they appear as a talking head on some tech-oriented discussion on a cable channel. They will become more familiar to the general public as more people turn to the Internet as their information and entertainment source.
Some of these stars are refugees from the early days of the tech industry before the DotCom bubble burst in the 90’s. The now defunct Tech TV show saw several of its on-air personalities land on their feet in the tech industry with podcasts of their own. Kevin Rose of Digg, Leo Laporte of This Week In Tech (TWIT), Patrick Norton of DL.TV and Amber MacArthur of net@nite have become widely popular. They are joined by others like Cali Lewis, Veronica Belmont and Natali Del Conte who are rising young women stars in the field.
I’ve left out other important names in this growing media like John C. Dvorak and Jay Adelson, Robert Heron, Roger Chang, Tom Merritt and Molly Wood.
I’ve thrown out a number of names here. If you haven’t heard of them yet, you will. They are pioneers of this new media.
Another name that has risen via the Internet is Terra Naomi. Who is Terra Naomi? She is a struggling young musician who has zoomed into the spotlight after seven years of singing in coffee shops and bars. She wrote a song “Say It’s Possible” about global warming after seeing Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” She has her own MySpace page and uploaded a video of her performing the song on YouTube.
Her video has been viewed almost five and a half million times since it was posted a year ago. It came to Al Gore’s attention and one year after producing her video in what appears to be a little home studio, she appeared before thousands of people at Wembley Stadium in London during the Live Earth concert.
Check out her first performance at http://youtube.com/watch?v=ARHyRI9_NB4 then view her performance at Wembley at http://youtube.com/watch?v=rz09nw__FLs. It is quite a change in one year. It helps illustrate the growing power of the Internet.
The vast majority of you feel that drivers are less courteous than 10 years ago. The percentage has ranged from 88 to 90 percent in recent days. This week I’ve put up a new poll question. What is the first thing you look for when you come to the stardem.com Website? News? Sports? Obituaries? Classifieds? Opinion columns? Feature stories?
I’d be interested in your response. As always you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.
Democratization of politics by way of the Web
The Internet continues to grow in use and influence. CNN is now making use of the cultural phenomenon known as YouTube to enable average citizens to ask questions of candidates. The first use came last week with the Democrats. The next test will come with the Republican candidates in early September.
The cable news network sent out a call for people to create video questions and post them on a special area in YouTube. You know about YouTube, the home of such celebrities as Lonely Girl 15 and Nora the piano-playing cat?
Some of the questions were about such pressing topics as space aliens but most were legit with questions on topics from the Iraq war to health care to education. The network ended up with several thousand video questions to review.
Some argued that the review process imposed a top-down review of the questions. Network reps insisted that was not the case. The volume of questions on a particular subject helped determine what questions would be asked. They also felt the need to review the videos to guard against a campaign from trying to stack the questions by flooding the process with their own videos.
The whole process generally follows along the increasing democratization of the election process. Just as we are entering the age of the citizen journalist, we are entering the age of people politics. One person can stand on their relatively inexpensive electronic soap box and share their opinions with thousands if not millions of people on the Web.
The savvy politician has learned to take advantage of modern technology. They all seem to have MySpace and FaceBook pages. They know that the Internet is the way to engage the modern young person. Some of these sites didn’t even exist as recently as 2000. By 2012, we will likely have the majority of our interaction with candidates through some form of Internet social network.
The concept of the video questions placed to candidates the average citizen may be passé by 2012.
Please notice that we have added “Serving the Shore” to the stardem.com Web site. This is a list of volunteer organizations that help the community that has been compiled by our print paper’s community news department. If you want to have your volunteer organization included, drop me an e-mail. It will be listed at the end of this column.
We continue to show increases in visitors and Web page views. From 2005 to 2006, the average number of unique visitors a day increase by 25 percent. That figure increased to 29 percent when comparing totals for 2006 and 2007 current. The average number of page views increased 16 percent from 2005 to 2006 while they increased 24 percent from 2006 to 2007.
Our total page views in 2005 was 5.6 million. That total increased to 6.8 million in 2006. At the current rate we should have 8.9 million page views in 2007 when the year is complete. That total hits for the site in 2007 should be over 50.8 million by Dec. 31.
I left our question on driving courtesy up this week. Drivers continue to get low marks. A solid 88 percent of you feel drivers are less courteous than they were 10 years ago. Based on my own recent experiences on the road, I can’t disagree with the majority. Hardly a day goes by without some driver trying to ride up over my bumper because I have the audacity to try to stay at the speed limit. This most often happens during those pre-dawn hours of the morning while I am traveling to work. Stop signs are yield signs. Parking lots are there to cut through to avoid a red signal light.
A double yellow line means you have to pass faster.
It is no wonder the poll results are what they are.
As always, you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Web Notes
From George Orwell to Webcasters
Britain used a license plate recognition system originally started to combat the terrorist threats from the Irish Republican Army. The system is used to check license plates of vehicles driving in London to determine if they have paid the access fee to the metro area. The fee was imposed to combat traffic congestion. The system can process up to 50 million license plates a day.
With the equivalent of an all points bulletin out on a doctor whose phone number was found on one of the cell phones found in the cars planted with bombs, the system discovered the car on the road. The police were able to stop the vehicle and detain the suspect.
This system has come under criticism from the public in the past. When it results in the rapid capture of a suspect, there are few voices heard in protest.
This is another case of reality exceeding the vision of George Orwell when he created the classic novel “1984.” We can only hope that such intrusive technology will always be in the hands of responsible public officials. At the very least, it should serve notice that the public must be even more vigilant than ever. We cannot sit back and assume our elected officials will always do the right thing.
The Internet continues to display growing pains as a medium of information distribution. It is obvious that it is reaching into areas formerly restricted to other media.
You now can get text, audio and video piped into your home via the Internet. New hardware makes it possible to download and view television shows and full-length movies into your home media centers.
This explosion of possibilities is causing ripples throughout a wide variety of industries who previously had a lock on the distribution of various forms of entertainment. Copyright protection of material from songs to movies is causing headaches for many.
In recent years online radio stations have become popular. They could be an online version of an existing station or a station unique to the Web. Earlier this year the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board ruled that Webcasters (as Internet-based radio stations are called) must pay fees based on the number of listeners for use of copyrighted material. On top of that it was ruled they should pay some of the fees retro through last year.
Webcasters argued that would put most of them out of business.
The new rate structure was set to go into effect last week. There was a hastily scheduled hearing set in Washington. SoundExchange, which is the royalty collection body for the recording industry, blinked. They suspended imposition of the new fees for the time being.
We hope that some solution can be made that will allow for compensation to creators of copyrighted material without destroying the distribution system (Webcasters).
There will be more growing pains as the use of the Internet further evolves.
We have a new poll question up. I’m interested to know what you think about driver courtesy. I ask the question “Do you feel that drivers are more or less courteous than they were 10 years ago?”
So far drivers are getting low marks.
What do you think?
With the equivalent of an all points bulletin out on a doctor whose phone number was found on one of the cell phones found in the cars planted with bombs, the system discovered the car on the road. The police were able to stop the vehicle and detain the suspect.
This system has come under criticism from the public in the past. When it results in the rapid capture of a suspect, there are few voices heard in protest.
This is another case of reality exceeding the vision of George Orwell when he created the classic novel “1984.” We can only hope that such intrusive technology will always be in the hands of responsible public officials. At the very least, it should serve notice that the public must be even more vigilant than ever. We cannot sit back and assume our elected officials will always do the right thing.
The Internet continues to display growing pains as a medium of information distribution. It is obvious that it is reaching into areas formerly restricted to other media.
You now can get text, audio and video piped into your home via the Internet. New hardware makes it possible to download and view television shows and full-length movies into your home media centers.
This explosion of possibilities is causing ripples throughout a wide variety of industries who previously had a lock on the distribution of various forms of entertainment. Copyright protection of material from songs to movies is causing headaches for many.
In recent years online radio stations have become popular. They could be an online version of an existing station or a station unique to the Web. Earlier this year the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board ruled that Webcasters (as Internet-based radio stations are called) must pay fees based on the number of listeners for use of copyrighted material. On top of that it was ruled they should pay some of the fees retro through last year.
Webcasters argued that would put most of them out of business.
The new rate structure was set to go into effect last week. There was a hastily scheduled hearing set in Washington. SoundExchange, which is the royalty collection body for the recording industry, blinked. They suspended imposition of the new fees for the time being.
We hope that some solution can be made that will allow for compensation to creators of copyrighted material without destroying the distribution system (Webcasters).
There will be more growing pains as the use of the Internet further evolves.
We have a new poll question up. I’m interested to know what you think about driver courtesy. I ask the question “Do you feel that drivers are more or less courteous than they were 10 years ago?”
So far drivers are getting low marks.
What do you think?
Web Notes
From telephones to Web site comments
From telephones to comments on the Website.
The iPhone has arrived. Our impartial reader poll think it will not change the face of the cell phone industry — at least 60 percent of you feel that way.
The elegant phone/media player arrived right on time at 6 p.m. Friday, June 29. Why 6 p.m.? Many feel that way the first day sales would not have an impact on stock prices until after the weekend. If the initial reports had gone badly, Apple stocks could have taken a nose-dive.
Apple didn’t need to worry. Estimates are that half a million sold the first weekend and now — again dealing with estimates — more than a million have been purchased. The device has been analyzed, dropped, taken apart with great interest by the tech industry.
So far, it appears to be living up to the hype. The word elegant is most often used by new adopters when referring to their $600 phones. They love the touch, the video, the sound.
They are willing to overlook some of its shortcomings partly because it is such a jewel in their hands, and partly because they know that Apple will improve upon the device in subsequent releases.
I must say I am apart of the minority that believe the Apple phone will change our perceptions of the cell phone. We will no longer be satisfied with a simple communications device. It will have to be an all-purpose communications and entertainment tool. The average cell phone user is becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of communications devices. There is no going back.
It is like the evolution of the automobile. There once was a time when the typical car was simply a transportation device. Now, it provides all the amenities of home from onboard DVD players, air conditioning, power steering, push-button windows and a million cup holders. There are even now cup holders that can either heat or cool your beverage. Why? People demand these features in their automobiles. So many people do so, that most of these features are now standard.
We’ve received several heart-warming comments from soldiers in Iraq in recent days regarding an article that ran on the Website on April 15. It was a story by Trisha McGee of our sister paper The Kent News about a family in Worton who are providing care packages for soldiers in Iraq. Lorris and Buddy Bramble know first-hand what the soldiers go through when they are deployed. Their own son Lance Cpl. Jeff Bramble is a part of an elite Marine team that can be sent anywhere without notice to perform security missions.
You can read the whole story on the Website. I’ve refilled it in the news area. It will remain active and free for anyone to read until the end of the month.
The efforts of the Brambles and their care packages have been much appreciated by the soldiers.
“I am a U.S. Army soldier, who is currently deployed in Iraq,” one writes. “I can speak first hand of the Bramble family’s actions, because I recently received a care package from them. I think what they are doing is so outstanding and that goes for everyone involved in helping out deployed servicemen and women. It really does mean a lot when you receive a package from someone who doesn’t know you on a personal level, but still insist on helping you out. I know that getting those packages keeps our morale high, and is a constant reminder that we are loved and supported.”
This was soon followed by another soldier’s comment: “I am one of those Soldiers who receives boxes from the Brambles regularly. I can’t begin to express the appreciation I have for this family. Lorri found my unit through anysoldier.com. I was the only one from my section from Maryland so I wrote her back. This was about three months ago. Since then we have exchanged many emails and I have received many wonderful gifts, including some Old Bay that only us Marylanders could fully appreciate. We have become friends.”
I’m glad we can provide a way for the soldiers to express their gratitude.
Until next week, you can reach me — from anywhere in the world — at rpolke@chespub.com.
The iPhone has arrived. Our impartial reader poll think it will not change the face of the cell phone industry — at least 60 percent of you feel that way.
The elegant phone/media player arrived right on time at 6 p.m. Friday, June 29. Why 6 p.m.? Many feel that way the first day sales would not have an impact on stock prices until after the weekend. If the initial reports had gone badly, Apple stocks could have taken a nose-dive.
Apple didn’t need to worry. Estimates are that half a million sold the first weekend and now — again dealing with estimates — more than a million have been purchased. The device has been analyzed, dropped, taken apart with great interest by the tech industry.
So far, it appears to be living up to the hype. The word elegant is most often used by new adopters when referring to their $600 phones. They love the touch, the video, the sound.
They are willing to overlook some of its shortcomings partly because it is such a jewel in their hands, and partly because they know that Apple will improve upon the device in subsequent releases.
I must say I am apart of the minority that believe the Apple phone will change our perceptions of the cell phone. We will no longer be satisfied with a simple communications device. It will have to be an all-purpose communications and entertainment tool. The average cell phone user is becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of communications devices. There is no going back.
It is like the evolution of the automobile. There once was a time when the typical car was simply a transportation device. Now, it provides all the amenities of home from onboard DVD players, air conditioning, power steering, push-button windows and a million cup holders. There are even now cup holders that can either heat or cool your beverage. Why? People demand these features in their automobiles. So many people do so, that most of these features are now standard.
We’ve received several heart-warming comments from soldiers in Iraq in recent days regarding an article that ran on the Website on April 15. It was a story by Trisha McGee of our sister paper The Kent News about a family in Worton who are providing care packages for soldiers in Iraq. Lorris and Buddy Bramble know first-hand what the soldiers go through when they are deployed. Their own son Lance Cpl. Jeff Bramble is a part of an elite Marine team that can be sent anywhere without notice to perform security missions.
You can read the whole story on the Website. I’ve refilled it in the news area. It will remain active and free for anyone to read until the end of the month.
The efforts of the Brambles and their care packages have been much appreciated by the soldiers.
“I am a U.S. Army soldier, who is currently deployed in Iraq,” one writes. “I can speak first hand of the Bramble family’s actions, because I recently received a care package from them. I think what they are doing is so outstanding and that goes for everyone involved in helping out deployed servicemen and women. It really does mean a lot when you receive a package from someone who doesn’t know you on a personal level, but still insist on helping you out. I know that getting those packages keeps our morale high, and is a constant reminder that we are loved and supported.”
This was soon followed by another soldier’s comment: “I am one of those Soldiers who receives boxes from the Brambles regularly. I can’t begin to express the appreciation I have for this family. Lorri found my unit through anysoldier.com. I was the only one from my section from Maryland so I wrote her back. This was about three months ago. Since then we have exchanged many emails and I have received many wonderful gifts, including some Old Bay that only us Marylanders could fully appreciate. We have become friends.”
I’m glad we can provide a way for the soldiers to express their gratitude.
Until next week, you can reach me — from anywhere in the world — at rpolke@chespub.com.
Web Notes
A review of The Star’s online layout
First, my sympathies to all of you who connect to our Web page via a dialup modem. I had to use an old, slow modem while checking out the quality of the sand in North Carolina. It took patience.
I didn’t even try the PDF version. I probably should have. But, more on that in a minute.
The computer setup I took with me had about as slow a modem as you can feasibly have in a current Internet connection. It has a 3,600 BOD rate. I know. I could have walked the distance faster, but it was what I had at the time.
I was able to keep tabs on events back here on the Mid-Shore by reading the stories in the Web version. The pictures took a couple of seconds to materialize. I didn’t find the wait to be inconvenient.
Because of my slow connection speed, it took me a couple of days to find we were having problems with the upload of our PDF version. I join you in the frustration when they don’t work. A few behind-the-scenes phone calls and they were working again.
I occasionally get e-mails from people searching for stories on the Web site. Some ask why we don’t run this or that regular feature found in the print paper. Some syndicated columns require a separate Internet contact that we don’t have. Other missing story issues are more puzzling.
I first must say I post almost all the stories that appear in the online version of the paper. That gives me an inside track when seeking out an article. If it isn’t where I know it should be, it is because I put it in the wrong place. When that happens, I refile the story in the appropriate location.
The Web site is not an exact replication of the print paper. It has more generalized sections. Areas that are separate in the print paper may be grouped together online.
Our primary sections consist of News, Opinion, Sports, Obituaries, Life, Community, Weekend, Classifieds, and Business/Real Estate.
News encompasses material from the regional pages of the print paper, groupings of the regional briefs for each day and some stories from the front page that I don’t put on the online version’s home page.
Opinion is the editorial portion of the paper. It includes the editorials, columnists and letters to the editor. Sometimes a guest comment appears in another portion of the print paper. I move it to the opinion area.
Sports includes all local sports, local scoreboard material, sports briefs and columns by our local sports writers.
Obituaries are the daily compilation of the death notices and obituaries that appear in the paper that day.
Life is the section where the front page of the Wednesday and Sunday life sections are placed. It is also the area where engagements, weddings, births and anniversaries are located. Featured columns by noted local writers like Anne Stinson, Janice K. Colvin and yours truly can also be found there.
The community area is for other material in the C-sections and the daily Eastern Shore Today section of the print paper. This is one area where almost all of the stories are open for all to read. A subscription is not required.
Weekend is where the material from our special section “It’s the Weekend” is located. It includes information about local entertainment and events happening on the Mid-Shore.
Classifieds are just that, the daily upload of our classifieds that are also found in the print paper.
Business/Real Estate is where the local business and real estate news can be found.
The entire paper can be found each day in the PDF version available by clicking on the main navigation bar on top of the home page. That is were national, international and state news that was not in the regional area can be found. Since it is a representation of the print paper, it is also where you can find some of those syndicated columns that are not in the web area.
Next week some thoughts on the iPhone now that it has been released.
I would be interested to receive your thoughts on how we have the Web site arranged. What features would you like us to incorporate? As always, you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.
I didn’t even try the PDF version. I probably should have. But, more on that in a minute.
The computer setup I took with me had about as slow a modem as you can feasibly have in a current Internet connection. It has a 3,600 BOD rate. I know. I could have walked the distance faster, but it was what I had at the time.
I was able to keep tabs on events back here on the Mid-Shore by reading the stories in the Web version. The pictures took a couple of seconds to materialize. I didn’t find the wait to be inconvenient.
Because of my slow connection speed, it took me a couple of days to find we were having problems with the upload of our PDF version. I join you in the frustration when they don’t work. A few behind-the-scenes phone calls and they were working again.
I occasionally get e-mails from people searching for stories on the Web site. Some ask why we don’t run this or that regular feature found in the print paper. Some syndicated columns require a separate Internet contact that we don’t have. Other missing story issues are more puzzling.
I first must say I post almost all the stories that appear in the online version of the paper. That gives me an inside track when seeking out an article. If it isn’t where I know it should be, it is because I put it in the wrong place. When that happens, I refile the story in the appropriate location.
The Web site is not an exact replication of the print paper. It has more generalized sections. Areas that are separate in the print paper may be grouped together online.
Our primary sections consist of News, Opinion, Sports, Obituaries, Life, Community, Weekend, Classifieds, and Business/Real Estate.
News encompasses material from the regional pages of the print paper, groupings of the regional briefs for each day and some stories from the front page that I don’t put on the online version’s home page.
Opinion is the editorial portion of the paper. It includes the editorials, columnists and letters to the editor. Sometimes a guest comment appears in another portion of the print paper. I move it to the opinion area.
Sports includes all local sports, local scoreboard material, sports briefs and columns by our local sports writers.
Obituaries are the daily compilation of the death notices and obituaries that appear in the paper that day.
Life is the section where the front page of the Wednesday and Sunday life sections are placed. It is also the area where engagements, weddings, births and anniversaries are located. Featured columns by noted local writers like Anne Stinson, Janice K. Colvin and yours truly can also be found there.
The community area is for other material in the C-sections and the daily Eastern Shore Today section of the print paper. This is one area where almost all of the stories are open for all to read. A subscription is not required.
Weekend is where the material from our special section “It’s the Weekend” is located. It includes information about local entertainment and events happening on the Mid-Shore.
Classifieds are just that, the daily upload of our classifieds that are also found in the print paper.
Business/Real Estate is where the local business and real estate news can be found.
The entire paper can be found each day in the PDF version available by clicking on the main navigation bar on top of the home page. That is were national, international and state news that was not in the regional area can be found. Since it is a representation of the print paper, it is also where you can find some of those syndicated columns that are not in the web area.
Next week some thoughts on the iPhone now that it has been released.
I would be interested to receive your thoughts on how we have the Web site arranged. What features would you like us to incorporate? As always, you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Serving as a test user again
Once again I’m using myself as a “guinea” pig. I’ve forced myself to leave the cool confines of my office nestled behind the sports department at The Star Democrat to relocate temporarily to the hot, sun-infested beaches of North Carolina.
From our cottage, I’m able to occasionally link to the outside world via an old-fashioned dialup internet connection. Life is tough, but I persevere. I know it is ironic to leave one area that many consider a vacation location to travel 300 miles to another vacation location. The sand is always whiter on the other beach, I guess.
I enjoy reading the local newspaper whenever I am away from home. It is always interesting to compare the issues they cover with those of our own. One headline in the North Carolina section of The Virginia Pilot specially drew my attention: “N.C. 168 to get more rumble strips.” N.C. 168 is one of the main access roads to the Outer Banks beaches. It has been suffering a rash of fatal traffic accidents. In one accident, four people were killed when a car crossed the center line and caused a head-on collision.
N.C. 168 is a four-lane highway with a center left-turn lane in most areas. Even with the multiple lanes, the high volume of beach traffic on the roads still leave traffic officials with the need to seek more safety measures. The rumble strips are one solution.
You know what rumble strips are. They were added to many high-congestion roads in Maryland in recent years. They were added to state Route 404 following a particularly bad spell of fatal accidents. They have become a feature on many roadways.
In another local paper on the Outer Banks, residents were complaining about recent episodes of flooding on the only access road to their area. Recently, with certain combinations of high tide and wind directions, they would experience overwash of the roadway. This would affect local residents and their main industry — tourism.
The Outer Banks barely is above sea level during normal conditions. The islands likely will be one of the first areas to be affected by rising sea levels if the ice cap melts as predicted. Are we seeing early signs of that?
On the technology front, by the time you read this the iPhone will have been released. Apple has had an impact on whatever area of technology it has touched. When the Apple computers came out with their mouse and use of graphics, they made the rest of the computer industry follow. When Apple got into the personal media device (iPod), they changed the way people interacted with their media player. The same will be true of the iPhone. You can find most of the features on the phone on other high-end cell phones.
The buzz around the phone has made everyone look at their cell phone and want more.
The cell phone will no longer be a simple communications device. The public will demand that the features on the high-end phone be available on average phones.
It may take several generations of the iPhone to perfect the product. It was only after three generations that the iPod really took off. The iPhone will achieve its own share of the market and be a standard for others to follow.
Oh, and regarding my “guinea” pig status this week. I have several issues I will be taking back to the office to discuss. I have been frustrated with myself with some issues about the site. I will share some of the concerns and some of the concerns I have received via email from some of you in similar circumstances.
As always, you can reach at that email address rpolk@ chespub.com.
From our cottage, I’m able to occasionally link to the outside world via an old-fashioned dialup internet connection. Life is tough, but I persevere. I know it is ironic to leave one area that many consider a vacation location to travel 300 miles to another vacation location. The sand is always whiter on the other beach, I guess.
I enjoy reading the local newspaper whenever I am away from home. It is always interesting to compare the issues they cover with those of our own. One headline in the North Carolina section of The Virginia Pilot specially drew my attention: “N.C. 168 to get more rumble strips.” N.C. 168 is one of the main access roads to the Outer Banks beaches. It has been suffering a rash of fatal traffic accidents. In one accident, four people were killed when a car crossed the center line and caused a head-on collision.
N.C. 168 is a four-lane highway with a center left-turn lane in most areas. Even with the multiple lanes, the high volume of beach traffic on the roads still leave traffic officials with the need to seek more safety measures. The rumble strips are one solution.
You know what rumble strips are. They were added to many high-congestion roads in Maryland in recent years. They were added to state Route 404 following a particularly bad spell of fatal accidents. They have become a feature on many roadways.
In another local paper on the Outer Banks, residents were complaining about recent episodes of flooding on the only access road to their area. Recently, with certain combinations of high tide and wind directions, they would experience overwash of the roadway. This would affect local residents and their main industry — tourism.
The Outer Banks barely is above sea level during normal conditions. The islands likely will be one of the first areas to be affected by rising sea levels if the ice cap melts as predicted. Are we seeing early signs of that?
On the technology front, by the time you read this the iPhone will have been released. Apple has had an impact on whatever area of technology it has touched. When the Apple computers came out with their mouse and use of graphics, they made the rest of the computer industry follow. When Apple got into the personal media device (iPod), they changed the way people interacted with their media player. The same will be true of the iPhone. You can find most of the features on the phone on other high-end cell phones.
The buzz around the phone has made everyone look at their cell phone and want more.
The cell phone will no longer be a simple communications device. The public will demand that the features on the high-end phone be available on average phones.
It may take several generations of the iPhone to perfect the product. It was only after three generations that the iPod really took off. The iPhone will achieve its own share of the market and be a standard for others to follow.
Oh, and regarding my “guinea” pig status this week. I have several issues I will be taking back to the office to discuss. I have been frustrated with myself with some issues about the site. I will share some of the concerns and some of the concerns I have received via email from some of you in similar circumstances.
As always, you can reach at that email address rpolk@ chespub.com.
