He’s Baaaaaaaaaaaaaack…………And this time, with a Mac!

I’ve largely neglected my blog in the last several months. In fact, I haven’t posted since March, 2011!

I’ve decided to get back into the swing of things w/ my blog – all three of you who read this thing deserve nothing less… 

So here’s 9 months of missed life updates in 9 bullet points (in no particular order):

1. Still working as a geek, though now, I have the title of “Platform Manager” tacked onto the existing title – (I had hoped Miraculum Laborat would be a nice compromise from my suggested “Tech God”, but I was given some nonsensical argument about how others might feel compelled to bow in my presence – phooey is you ask me, and yes, I just used “phooey” in a sentence)
2. I got out onto my kayak no less than 15 times! Even rigged the boat into a pretty decent fishing platform, complete w/ the obligatory milk crate and bungee cords…
3. My kids still ROCK – Those who are Facebook friends already know how I gush over them – They both have a firm command over the word “NO” it seems, but fortunately for them – and me – I adore them, so it’s all good.
4. My wife still ROCKS – I mean, she puts up with me after all, right?
5. We went to Cape Cod for vacation, loved it! The kids learned the lyrics to “Knee Deep In The Water”, we splashed in waves, and had fun w/ the cousins from Texas!
6. What’s on tap for Kimball Vaca 2012? The decision has been made, and it’s a GO for DISNEY!!!! Hopefully, with friends!
7. I have officially extended the “Daddy/Daughter Date” concept to now include a “Dude Day” for just the Kimball boys, we even rode on a fire truck together recently!!
8. I decided to drop my PC and go w/ a Mac…………………….yeah, you read that correctly……..

 

So I hear once you go Mac, you never go back. We shall see…….

Oh, and I promise to get better about the updates on a more regular basis

 

Samson Go Mic + EMS Today = Podcast Goodness?

I leave for Baltimore in the morning, to attend EMS Today.

Let me clarify, I am leaving sometime between “I should really go to bed” and “the sun isn’t even up yet??!!!??!!??” to head to Baltimore.

You see, EMS Today is back in town and I’m going to the show to assist our sales force with techno-geek stuff. It’s actually a really good time, spent with good colleagues/friends.

This year though, the Geek Gods are also smiling on me…

In addition to getting to see a few good friends, I’m going to record a few podcasts with our authors and customers. Pretty sweet huh?

I have my trusty Sony voice recorder, but since I’ll have a place to set up my laptop I really want to record direct to my external hard drive through Audacity with a quick post edit in Levelator. For that, I’d need a mic to record with, and let’s face it – my on board mic from Dell sucks.

I picked up the Samson “Go Mic” for just about $60 at Best Buy. It’s a micro condenser that’s USB-powered and packaged in a well thought out clip that attaches neatly to a laptop.  With a choice of cardioid, -10db, or omni polars it’s got a lot of promise packed into its svelte casing.

I’ve only done a few quick tests with it, but the quality is shockingly clear. I am having a hard time noticing a difference between this and the $150 Marshal MXL model I had used previously.

Stay tuned as I’ll post updates on my field testing this weekend.

Kayak Saves The Day!

I never quite “got” Kayak.com before. Sure, it aggregates travel deals, sure it searches multiple providers, and sure it has a pretty cool name…

But I was never a fan of how their site launches a bajillion pop-ups when providing comparative searches…Feels so 1990′s.

I wasn’t expecting much when I downloaded the Kayak iPhone app. I thought maybe it might help me compare flight costs if I ever found myself in a position where I’d otherwise be stranded. Cause when you fly only the finest airline company, Southwest, you will NEVER run the risk of being stranded, ever…

Anyway, there I was at Hobby Houston Airport when the rather snarky (Woot! I just confidently worked “snarky” into a sentence and do not feel compelled to surrender my man card!) Southwest person came on the PA and announced that my plane was going to be delayed, scratch that, that my plane was broken. Worse, that because it was already at the terminal (close to all the tools, parts, and mechanics) it could not be fixed.

Umm, what?

So my plane is broken, there’s a traffic jam impeding their ability to move the thing, and I’m less than enthused at the prospect of sleeping at Midway(there was no way I was making my connection)

The Southwest ticket Nazi, seemingly excited about pissing off 100+ people announced that our plane would not be coming for us after all. Basically, we were screwed, but we were welcome to wait around and see if the plane magically fixed itself…

Enter, Kayak for iPhone. Since Hobby is stuck in 1970, without any WiFi to speak of, I was pleasantly surprised to see AT&T’s 3G working just fine – I launched Kayak, and between the dead simple navigational interface (the iPad version is even more awesome!) and fast connection, within 45 seconds I had uber cheap tickets on US Air out of Bush Intercontinental.

Getting to Bush is another story for another post…

Thank you, Kayak.com!!