Pig Drivers Never Take a Holiday

Dear Mister Road Show:

I call them pig-drivers. These are the drivers who tail gate me when I am driving the speed limit in the right hand lane even on a four-lane road and they have plenty of room to pass. Pig-drivers can also be seen exiting freeways by cutting across multiple lanes to shoot off an exit at the last minute. In parking lots, pig-drivers often will grab two parking spaces by parking with the white line going down the middle of their vehicle, no matter how crowded the lot is.

Yesterday, I was hoping the pig drivers would take the day off, since it was drive the speed limit day. As I drove to work, heading north up the Almaden Expressway at the speed limit, the pig-drivers were there doing their normal pig-driver stuff. They were tailgaiting and others were zipping past me on the left just to cut in front of me then slam on their brakes right in front of me to make a right turn. On the way home it was the same thing. You only live once and the pig-drivers were as focused as ever on getting it over with as fast as possible.

In short, the pig-drivers did not take a holiday. They were still out there, driving like idiots, their cell phones still as firmly glued to the sides of their heads as ever. They are out there still.

Steve Sloan

Technorati Tags: Bad Drivers, Mister Roadshow, Gary Richards, San Jose, driving, ssloansjca

Recommended Listening: Gayl Murphy

Recommended listening: Interviewing Techniques
This podcast, from the Podcast Academy, is for all podcasters and applies equally well to broadcast journalists and even print journalists and journalism students. This audio podcast is by Gayl Murphy, the title is Killer Interviewing Tactics: Get The Most from Your Guests. This is from last year's Podcast and Portable Media Expo. According to the description of the show:

Murphy has the experience to back up what she says, having over 14,000 interviews to her credit. Most of these have been with celebrities from the entertainment world but the principles that make a good interview - and a good interviewer - are the same no matter who the subject may be.

Gayl Murphy is a veteran interviewer [bio] and author of the book, Interview Tactics! How To Survive The Media Without Getting Clobbered!

Technorati Tags: podcasts, Podcasting, J-School, Journalism, Web 2.0, Gayl Murphy, ssloansjca

The death of a good man

John Maky Died Last Night
John was a just general sweet guy. A fellow train geek he was passionate about trains and radio electronics. He was a regular part of the Winterail team and a friend. I do not know his age, but he was around Sue and my age. Reportedly he died in his sleep, cause is yet to be determined. I just learned of his death this morning. This news is very sad. They had a get together last week that John organized. Having just returned from my vacation we did not go, it seemed too much at the time. Now I really feel bad. It would have been good to have seen John one more time. None of us are promised tomorrow.

Scoble and workplace free speech

Thank God I am not an at-will employee
Today Scoble posted about an executive whom he talked to who got fired after talking to him. According to Scoble, "Most big companies, in their employment agreements, have in there that you aren’t allowed to talk with the press unless given permission by the PR departments." Then I thought about a conversation I had the other day with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. (He was doing a follow up interview on the status of Skype at San Jose State University.) I felt totally at-ease talking to him because here at San Jose State we have a union. I am not an at-will employee. Of course, there are other lesser ways to punish an employee rather than fire him/her. But, I think the right of free speech in the workplace is important and I am willing to pay the price to exercise it.

Would my blogging and podcasting have gotten me fired were we not a union shop?
I have no way of knowing for sure because that would have changed everything. I might never have even blogged. But then, I would likely have never even applied at SJSU, because when I did apply having a union and free speech was a primary consideration. But, if you asked me in my opinion, I think I would have been fired long ago. They have been furious at me more than once for things I have published, blogged and/or podcast. One persons free expression is another persons trouble making.

How un-Cluetrain of them!
Apple may make cool gear, but I hate their anti free speech policies. According to Scoble, "I’ve met some people I KNEW had an iPhone and they were so scared of retribution or consequences that they wouldn’t answer a single question." Sometimes I ask myself if freedom of speech is so important to my why do I keep buying Apple hardware? Apple's attitude makes me feel better about the new Treo I bought. Now, according to Scoble Apple-like policies may be spreading to Microsoft, "Have you noticed that no one has started talking about the next version of Windows? I have. That’s on purpose. They learned their lesson and realized that letting you see inside the meat factory is a little too messy for this new world of PR. Rather keep all that mess behind corporate walls and come out when something is actually finished."

Do we really have free speech in this country?
Do we really have free speech if a company is allowed to fire an employee for speaking to the press? We may not send folks to jail for exercising their rights of free speech, we just deprive them of their ability to provide for themselves and their families. Is that really free speech? In my opinion it is not. And again I say, Thank God I am not an at-will employee. And, thank God we have unions where I work. I wish more folks did.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Free Speech, Apple, Scoblizer, Cluetrain, Web 2.0, Scoble, ssloansjca

Jellyfish Lullaby

Last weekend we went to the aquarium
I was very impressed. I created this short movie that contains some of my impressions. It is available above in Quicktime format or it can be viewed here on YouTube.

Technorati Tags: jellyfish, video, ssloansjca, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Waiting for iPhone 3.0

Why my next phone will NOT be an iPhone
Why I am about to buy a Treo!
My next phone will not be an iPhone, but the one after that might be. For me a phone is a tool, not geek bling. Version 1.0 of anything should be considered with great caution and only adopted in dire need. No matter how much a product is tested in the lab, the best way to learn about and improve a product is to put it in the hands of real users. This is true of everything from cars to computers. When purchasing a new car I always try to avoid any new models or new body styles. With computers, how many times have you heard about new models of laptops having problems like batteries catching fire? Version 2.0 is better, version 3.0 is even better of almost anything.

I also have some possible performance considerations with the new iPhone. Right now I have an aging cell phone (if you consider over two years aging) and several newer model iPods. When my batteries die on an iPod it does not affect my phone. My phone allows the use of multiple batteries. No matter how good the iPhone is, I want a model that I can easily put a replacement battery in. I can do that with my current phone. I cannot do that with most of my iPods. That is their Achillies heel. I don't want that problem with a phone!

I have a Treo at work and really like it. A lot of what I use a portable device for in the field is for taking notes. I can do two finger text input with my Treo. Text input is more important to me than is watching YouTube when I am away from my computer. I want to be able to take content from the field back to my computer as well as take content from my computer into the field. For me, the former is more important than the latter. Easy text input for IM, Mobblogging and Email is an important consideration for me. I am not convinced the iPhone will be a good platform for that.

Great web browsing is an important plus with the iPhone. But, I want to be sure I can subscribe to RSS feeds and podcasts without having to go back and dock to the mother ship. I also want to be able to have multiple batteries so I can take them with me on long trips and have one charging while I am using the other one. I also want to be able to know the thing is time tested and proved to be durable. In other words, I am waiting for iPhone 3.0 or better. Perhaps that is the phone I will buy in a couple of years to replace the time tested and proved Treo I am am about to purchase now. But, only if Apple addresses my issues.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, Treo, ssloansjca, Apple

Two great students at the Help Desk

Help Desk Leads Are Irreplaceable
These two inspired, intelligent and dedicated young student employees are critical to, and dedicated to, the functioning of the Help Desk at SJSU. They are the student leads at the Help Desk. I have no idea what I would do without them. Aditi and Pranav are from India. They and the other Help Desk students from India have taught me so much about their country I have never been to. They make me want to go.

I am so proud of Pranav and Aditi and the other help desk staff, like they are my own family. The Help Desk has become so big and our mission has expanded greatly since we moved to Clark Hall. I am thankful that these students work at SJSU and appreciate them so much. Their parents have much to proud of. They must be great people to have such fine kids.  Knowing them is a real pleasure.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, Campus Life, sjsuhelpdesk, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Help Desk Pizza Day

Help Desk Friday
On some Fridays we have a pizza party at the help desk. Last week was my first week back after my vacation and we did training all that week. It was a busy week, despite the summer break. Also, while the traffic levels at the help desk have been nothing like we have seen during the semester we have had a surprisingly high level of student use of the labs. The staff we have here has been doing a great job!

We are on shorter hours over the summer and I have seen folks come by the entrance to the Academic Success Center in Clark Hall, where our help desk is located, both before we open and after we close wanting to use the lab. This is a popular place.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, Campus Life, Camera Phones, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Fun weekend with family and friends

A fun weekend!
On Saturday Susie and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with son's Jeff and Ken, Jeff's wife Nicole and Jeff and Nicole's daughter Madison. We had a great time and even had dinner at Bubba Gumps. It was my first time at the aquarium and it exceeded my expectations. Then on Sunday we had a get together with a bunch of Sue and my friends in the bike club. These are the folks we are doing the trip with this fall. We had a great time both days. Family and good friends are the best!

In this photo we see Madison at dinner with her tongue turned blue from eating blue Jello.

Converting from Adobe PDF to Word

Luanne Fose, Ph.D. an Instructional Technology Consultant for The Center for Teaching & Learning, at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo has a blog post that is pretty cool. She shows step by step how to take a PDF file and convert it to editable Microsoft Word format. This is done using Adobe Acrobat Pro. This is one to remember. I would think this would only work in documents where the text is created and saved as text and NOT where a document is scanned as an image and then turned into a PDF as in the latter case the text would actually be a picture of the letters and not letters with associated font information.