It’s A Small Small World – Part V

by | Nov 5, 2006 | Podcast, Uncategorized


J. David Markham

Originally uploaded by cameronreilly.

I’ve had a number of wonderful coincidences on this trip. Lots of very strange coincidences which prove to me that either a) it’s a very small world or b) my network is getting way too large.

But today takes the cake.

Yesterday Ellisa Feinstein told me I should visit the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building on a Saturday, that there was some wonderful organic food, and some real French cheeses. So I strolled down there this afternoon with no real plans, just to take in the view and eat some healthy food. So I strolled around a bit, did some work (free wifi here for some reason) and then finally decided to stroll back. I happened to walk into a book store called “Book Passage” for a browse and noticed a big sign saying “Dummies Signings”. A number of the authors of Dummies guides were going to be there to sign books. One of them was J. David Markham, author of “Napoleon For Dummies” – and my co-host on the Napoleon podcast! He was due to be there at 2.30pm. I look at my watch – it’s 2.20pm.

Now David had told me a couple of weeks ago that he was doing a book signing in SF but I totally forget about it and didn’t even take notice of the place where it was happening. But somehow I managed to end up at exactly the right place at exactly the right time to meet him in the flesh for the first time. I should point out that David lives in Washington, several hours north of here.

GDAY WORLD #163 – The Future of Media with Josh Crandall

by | Nov 5, 2006 | Podcast

Today my guest is Josh Crandall from Media-Screen, who provides strategic market research services focusing on the online consumer. They’ve recently put out a research report called “Netpop | Portraits” which they call “The first segmentation analysis of U.S. broadband users aged 13 and over investigates the modern consumer online.” It contains some interesting ideas so I’m really pleased to have Josh on the show.

discuss on the forums

In other news…

  • Rooster and Knightwise from TPN’s GlobalGeek show bring GCALSYNC to my attention in their latest episode. GCalSync is an open source application that lets you do a two-way synchronization between Google Calendar and your phone’s built-in calendar. Sounds excellent. Anyone tested it on Windows Mobile? Let me know.
  • Thanks to Ellisa Feinstein, Josh’s PR consultant, for explaining to me that it is an unforgivable fauxpas to refer to San Francisco as either “San Fran” or “Frisco” while actually in San Francisco. One must refer to it as either “San Francisco” or “SF”.

Scorsese Screws Up “The Departed”

by | Nov 5, 2006 | Uncategorized

I went to see Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” Friday evening because I had heard such great reviews about it. I loved the original version (Wai Keung Lau’s 2002 Hong Kong film “Infernal Affairs” aka “Mou Gaan Dou”) and that usually makes me reluctant to see a Hollywood remake but hey! It’s Marty Scorsese! And the cast… Jack Nicholson, Leo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Vera Farmiga (who is easily the stand-out from the crowd, not a bad feat considering who she was playing against)… are pretty hard to ignore.

The film… is okay. In many ways it is very similar to the original, a few subtle changes to the plot devices, but pretty much faithful – until, that is, the end. And it was THE ENDING of the original that made the film so great! Unfortunately, either Scorsese or the studio (Warners) decided to go for the happy ass American ending, the hot melted fake butter on your popcorn ending, the John Wayne Isn’t Dead He’s Hiding In Argentina And Getting Ready For His Big Comeback ending.

What a way to blow a movie which could have otherwise been acceptable. Why bother copying a great HK flick, being so faithful to it for two-and-a-half hours and then screwing with the ending? Stoopid, Marty, stoopid.
At least Speilberg didn’t make the film in which case aliens would have appeared at the 120 minute mark and revealed to Frank Costello that he was really from the 4th dimension and had the power to heal enstranged father-son relationships.

What the hell happened to Scorsese? His last great film was Bringing Out The Dead in 1999.  Since then he’s misfired with The Aviator and Gangs Of New York. I’m blaming on the DiCaprio factor.  Unforunately, Leo is also attached to Marty’s next film The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt. Let’s face it – Marty need Bobby. Bring back Bobby. Leo just has this Titanic juju that he brings to each film. He’s like the Smelly Car. It doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll never get rid of that Titanic stench from a DiCaprio film.

How to become an aUStralian

by | Nov 3, 2006 | Uncategorized

Here I am finally in Soul Francisco. My mate Steve, who I stayed with in Carmel, loves to say how much he finds himself “noticing the little things”, like the hummingbirds in his backyard. Steve, his son Jack and I sat in the yard for 15 minutes the other day watching two hummingbirds trying to rip each other’s throats out. It was un-frakking-believable. I’ve never even seen a hummingbird before let alone seen two of them fighting like Yoda on speed.

Anyhoo, I checked into my broom-closet-sized room in SF this arvo (after catching a ride up from Santa Clara with Aussie journo, blogger and all-round good bloke Brad Howarth) and opened up my laptop to take advantage of the hotel’s free wireless. I flicked on my iPod and guess what track came up on shuffle? “Soul Francisco” by Tony Joe White. What are the odds? I have 3310 tracks on my iPod and this one comes on the moment I arrive in SF. Come ON???!

This morning I chatted with a dude called Adam that Richard from Austrade put me onto about the process to get an E3 Visa which allows Aussies to work in the USA. By the way, I’ve decided that an Aussie who works over here should be called an aUStralian. Get it? And if Australia moves any closer to becoming another satellite state of the US we should just change the gaddam name of the country to aUStralia and get it over with. As they say, stick a fork in our ass and turn us over, we’re done. David Lawson, the Consul General, was telling me over a Corona last night that there are 10,000 of these E3 visas available to Aussies wanting to become aUSsies every year, one of the few good things to drop out of the recent Free Trade Agreement, and there are plenty to go around. Spouses of E3 recipients are allowed to work as well.

Went out to dinner last night with about 25 folks from the ANZA Tech conference to a place called the Lion and Compass. David Evans from In The Chair was spreading the rumour that our waitress was in fact the daughter of the guys who created “Lara Croft : Tomb Raider” and that the restaurant is owned by the family. I didn’t confirm it with her though. If anyone can confirm or deny that let me know.

Just a quick shout out to my peeps Nik and Chris from Touchstone who upgraded their hotel room at ANZA so I could get a pull-out sofa to sleep on. I gave them a lot of shit over the last few days but they knew I was joking. Right? Right??? Anyway, you should check out the latest build of their application. It’s very cool and the boys are going to end up filthy rich out of it.
Okay gotta go record today’s showBUZZ. You listening? And have you subscribed to Today In Music History yet?

GDAY WORLD #162 – ANZA Tech 2006

by | Nov 2, 2006 | Podcast

[Discuss this show in the forums]

Today I’m recording from the ANZA Tech Conference 2006 in Sunnyvale, CA.

My guests on the show include:

  • Richard Geasey, District Manager – Seattle Washington, Austrade, talking about how Austrade helps Aussies do business in the good ol’ USA
  • Dr Tim van Gelder, Austhink Software, creators of critical thinking software Rationaleâ„¢, talking about how their product helps you make better decisions
  • David Evans, CEO, In The Chair, a music technology company, talking about how his product helps kids learn to play music and also about being an entrepreneur. David is presenting his company at O’Reilly’s Web2.0 next week, so he’s rocking.

I just had a pleasant chat with David Lawson who is the Australian Consul-General for the Pacific Northwest and he’s promised to help me out if I end up in Guantanamo Bay which was awfully nice of him.

TPN & News Corp bring you showBUZZ

by | Oct 31, 2006 | Podcast, Uncategorized

I’m excited to announce the first episode of showBUZZ, a thrice-weekly (that’s three times a week) celebrity gossip podcast that I’m producing and co-hosting for News.com.au. My co-host Justine Parker, Deputy Entertainment Editor for News.com.au, and I dissect the top celebrity gossip stories of the day in a 15-minute show. Check it out here!  At this stage we’re thinking of it as a pilot and hopefully it’ll be hugely successful and will turn into a regular show.

US Newspaper Circulation In Massive Decline

by | Oct 31, 2006 | Uncategorized

I’ve enjoyed an interesting day at ANZA Tech in Santa Clara. We’ve spent the day being coached by Dan Sapp on presentation style. I’ve always been pretty skeptical about the need for such training for someone like myself who has presented a lot over the years. I thought it would ruin my natural style, the same way singing lessons often ruin a previously natural voice. But lately I’ve realized that it isn’t enough to just get up and talk to a room full of people – unless you change their behaviour in the way you intended, it’s a wasted opportunity. So I learned some great tips today and feel like I’m coming out of it a better presenter.

Anyhoo… The New York Times has an article today about the increasing decline of newspaper circulation in the USA. And before Rob Irwin starts writing his rebuttal about how their web numbers are up, the NYT has already anticipated him:

Revenues from Web sites are rising quickly as well, but they account for only a small portion of overall revenues, and it could be decades before Internet revenues exceed those from the printed editions of major newspapers.

This has always been my point. As readers (and listeners and viewers) move to the web, the underlying economic viability of the old media is increasingly under threat. Why? One reason is that they have a LOT more competition online. Most old media companies suddenly move from competing with a handful of local companies in their own region, to competing with a globe full of companies and, increasingly, citizen media, for the attention of their audience.

What happens to these old media companies when the audience minutes they own declines? Revenues decline. And then? Layoffs. Cutbacks. And then? Some of the people they layoff, writers, editors, camera operators, directors, producers, etc, start their own online company, creating even more competitin.

Stir, repeat.

For us lowly start-ups, it’s all growth, all upside. For the old media, it’s all downside.