I was interviewed on November 19th of last year by John Blue for the Indiana University Informatics Alumni Association’s “Bits of Informatics” podcast, and I’m pleased to say it’s now online for your listening pleasure. Over lunch at Aesop’s Tables on a cloudy, wintry day, John and I chatted about my telecommunications and new media experiences at the Bloomington and IUPUI campuses; surround-sound production and my 2-song Capstone presentation; how I met my wife in ballroom-dancing class; and List-en up, the Angie’s List podcast, which was in its infancy last fall.
Though my first name’s spelled incorrectly (I’m sure John will fix it soon), I got a kick out of listening to the podcast episode. It’s quite strange to hear my voice in a context outside of List-en up, but it was exciting to be the interviewee rather than be the interviewer. It was a bit nerve-wracking, as well — can you tell?
With the global economy’s increasing interconnectedness, it’s easier to find more consumer products at cheaper prices. But are some companies sacrificing quality for a low, low price? And do we really need all the things big-box stores stock that are supposed to make our life easier? People are concerned with the financial cost of all the things money can buy, but what about the environmental cost? Not to mention the growth our economy could see if we brought some good ol’ fashioned Made in America production back to “the homeland” (I use that term even though it gives me the creeps.) Continue reading ‘High-quality consumer products are hard to find’
Everyone’s been talking the past year or so about global warming, going green, etc. In terms of housing, green construction standards (such as the US Green Building Council’s LEED) have been a hot topic in the U.S. and in other parts of the world (India’s wealthiest resident is building a 60-story “green” home in Mumbai). It’s all well and good that wealthy people like Al Gore are going green with their mansions, but what about the estimated 1/3 of the population that will be living in slums by 2030?
Architect Cameron Sinclair might tell you with a straight face that those people will make decent homes out of wealthier people’s “green” refuse. Sinclair, winner of 2006’s TED prize, started the Open Architecture Network to spread affordable housing throughout the world — a rather impressive goal. The projects in the network are rather interesting, to say the least. According to Sinclair, “Someone’s working on a $700 house. The Now House is a World War II retrofitted home that’s carbon-neutral… There’s a spinach-powered house, there’s a grow-your-own clinic, a clinic you eat. All of these projects have to be sustainable.” So even though the gap between rich and poor isn’t shrinking, it’s good to know that people like Cameron Sinclair are planning a future that’s better for everyone.
I figured I should follow up to the wave of responses I got about yesterday’s post, in which I dared suggest that blogs are a waste of time (I actually didn’t get any responses… Surprise!)
I do realize that blogs serve some terrific purposes: they’re great for podcasting, marketing, and SEO (search engine optimization) (that last link actually has some great reasons to blog). But when every other link in a typical Google Search results in a blog post (seemingly half of which are useless), the very idea of blogs can become quite frustrating.
It also seems that with so many blogs (175,000 created a day, or 2 per second!), the internet will one day implode under the sheer weight of them all, like a black hole. But until that technological armageddon, I’ll gladly keep adding my two cents and hope someone decides to pick ‘em up.
According to ComputerMajors.com’s “10 Hot Computer-Driven Careers,” I’ll (*fingers crossed*) have a secure career for awhile. Their list, partially based on the BLS Top 30 fastest growing careers and on interviews with computer professionals, includes several jobs I’ve done, am doing, or am planning to do. From their list:
- Digital Film Production Assistant and Technician
Thanks to Internet TV software such as Joost and Babelgum, many dozens of video sharing sites, and of course the traditional film and TV industry - including Pay Per View and Cable - demand for video content will simply grow. While actual reel film might have its advantages and still be in use, post production-wise the trend is digital - both for movies and TV - using sophisticated computer systems that require a specialized training to use. Add to this the pending widespread use of HDTV (High-Def) broadcasting, and the distribution of content online, and additional technical careers will no doubt be available to be filled.
- Website Network Manager / Administrator.
Magazine writers don’t have to know the technical details of keeping a print publication afloat. So why should writers in an online publishing network be expected to know all the admin and technical details of managing a site, even if it is CMS? With the growing number of website and blog networks, the need for people with technical skills to maintain the networks will grow as well.The ideal person will understand how to install CMS platforms such as WordPress and Drupal, maintain domain registrations, manage the content databases and backups, monitor hosting, and move servers if necessary. They might also need to know how to tweak website themes, create plugins, etc. Management skills might also be a requirement.
- Visual and Audio Content Producers.
The greatest growth in online content over the next decade will be in Video and Audio. From viral video production to visual tutorial content producers, the major differentiating factor for online businesses is going to be their ability to create compelling visual and audio content. Familiarity with high-level codes like Action Script and the ability to use video screen capture software such as Camtasia Studio and web-based embeddable video distribution services such as Splashcast, will be very marketable. In addition, the ability to storyboard tutorials and write text content increases your career opportunities, so don’t neglect those English & Literature classes!
I can verify that last point: at the Stanford Publishing on the Web workshop I attended a few weeks ago, numerous tech industry heavyweights and visionaries including Kevin McKean (Consumers Union), Sean Nolan (Men’s Health.com), Molly Wood (CNET), Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), and Robert Scoble (scobleizer.com) all shared the opinion that video will be an integral part of the web in years to come.
Thanks for the sunny forecast, ComputerMajors.com and Bureau of Labor Statistics!!!
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser has taught me that patience is a virtue I’m severely in need of. I spent much of my Thanksgiving break (probably almost a full workday) trying to figure out why the heck Internet Explorer was making the sidebar menu navigation on this site and List-en up! look like crap. I had no idea how horrific and unprofessional it all looked until I test-drove the sites on my mother-in-law’s computer, running IE 6.0. The sites looked wonderful (in my humble opinion) in the Firefox and Safari browsers that I’d been testing on, but for some still-unknown reason, IE piled every single part of the sidebar on top of itself like so many layers of two-week old digital lasagna, as if the navigation didn’t matter at all. (I guess it didn’t matter if no one was visiting the sites.) If you’re reading this, though, and hadn’t visited the sites until now, you won’t have a clue how bad it all looked, thankfully.
Anyway, after tweaking and testing nearly everything I could think of on the sites, I decided to reinstall the display theme (K2), and voila! Everything was in its right place. So now I can sit down for some leftover pie, without worrying that millions of strangers (or none) are laughing what used to be my pile of worthless sidebar doo-doo.
(Thanks to my wife and in-laws for tolerating both my absence from cooking duties and my obsession with fixing this wonderful CSS problem.)
Mission accomplished!
