2005 February

After a very long short night (leaving Seattle at Midnight for a five-hour transcontinental trip), we landed at JFK just shy of 8AM. JetBlue was a great experience, despite the jet lag. The television in front of every seat kept everybody entertained the whole way. I tried to sleep, but the middle seat is not the most comfortable one in the world with nothing or nobody to lean against. I'd have to wait until Ponzi turned over, then I would attempt to use her back as a pillow. It worked, but I'm definitely feeling much better in my warm bed tonight. Oh yes, we're probably in for the long haul here – as it's streaming sheets of snow outside right now. We were lucky enough to land before Mother Nature reared her snowy head. Time to make a street snowman!
Ponzi took a stroll down the street in the early afternoon, but I crashed immediately after having a bagel (with some schmear) and very bland oatmeal. Crashing, of course, in our hotel room – not in the Greeky restaurant. I'm somewhat more awake now, catching up on a day's worth of work in a city that's getting set for a Snow Day. Not that I'd want to sled down 42nd Street or anything, but I'd much rather have spent this time walking around a bit and seeing some of the sights before the conference gets into full swing tomorrow at 7AM – a very stupid time to get started with a conference that has attendees from the West coast. We're certainly going to be too busy to notice what's going on outside… so long as the $10-a-day Wi-Fi stops being so flaky here at the New York Hilton. I'm dreaming of a White Tuesday…

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As Robert so eloquently put it, this thing is amazing. We heard about NASA's free World Wind application tonight on .NET Rocks. The sucker weighs in at ~180MB, but it's worth every byte (and then some) – completely putting Google's Keyhole to shame. Imagine having the ultimate 3D mapping system sitting on your desktop… and then see it.” World Wind allows any user to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging high resolution LandSat imagery and SRTM elevation data to experience Earth in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there.” I know that Ponzi will appreciate the topographical features, as that's what she's been wanting in a consumer-oriented mapping system for some time. I use Google Maps because it's quick, Microsoft Streets & Trips when I want to explore local resources, and… World Wind for a bird's eye view of the globe. You don't need to be into GIS or anything – this digital mapping system is quite accessible. Topo maps, satellite photos, free download – what's not to like?

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Did any of you catch “UFOs: Seeing is Believing” with Peter Jennings last night? I'm surprised it hasn't shown up on any Torrent sites yet. For the most part, it was everything we've seen before – inflated with a lot more production. I've never had an alien encounter, but I do believe we're not alone in the universe. Guy Malone, someone we met at a “UFO conference” last year, had this to say in an email blast to his friends this morning (with a 'Please forward freely' attribution):

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Lots of upset celebrities were forced to change their mobile phone numbers this week when hotel heiress Paris Hilton’s T-Mobile sidekick II was hacked. An attacker was some how able to login to T-Mobile’s Web-based portal and download all of her camera phone pictures, notes and her address book. And then, they were published to the Web. This humorous snafu has spurred the production of a new t-shirt which reads, “Paris made me change my number.” � Available from Glarkware.com.

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Geoffrey Kleinman founded DVDTalk six years ago as a place for movie geeks to gather and discuss their passion. Thousands of movie reviews later, DVDTalk is one of the most popular places to find DVD information. We caught up with Geoffrey to talk about his favorite DVDs, where to find great foreign films on DVD, the merits of Gone With the Wind, and the debut of DVDTalk Radio.

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By day, Sean Alexander is a Group Product Manager at Microsoft. At night, Sean is a digital media junkie, geeking out in front of his HDTV as he watches shows he scheduled remotely using MSN Remote Record for Windows Media Center. Chris talks to Sean about life at Microsoft, Flickr and MCE, and other digital media diversions.

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Steve Gillmor is a human inforouter. Tracking the flow of conversation is his vision put into being as attention.xml. Steve explains the complexities of attention as it relates to the blogosphere and podosphere as Chris catches up with him via the newly added VoIP lines.

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Tom Pohl runs a wireless ISP based in Iowa along with several other ventures. Tom is instrumental in getting the phone system running for The Chris Pirillo Show. In his spare time, he posts his comments to Tom’s World. This week, we talk with Tom about wireless, the open source Asterisk PBX and life as a geek in Iowa.

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I submitted my serial number a few days ago, to get the Xbox Replacement Cord. Why is a new Xbox power cord needed? According to Xbox, “the replacement power cords are designed to protect consumers and their Xbox consoles from rare electrical component failures that can pose a fire hazard.” Has anybody really been burned yet?

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In a few days, we'll be flying cross-country to New York City. It'll mark my first time in New York – ever. I'm not sure what to expect, so any tips would be appreciated. It's business this time around, so sightseeing probably won't happen. I hope to at least catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and the Empire State Building before leaving NYC, but just being in the vicinity is cool enough for now. I'd also love to catch a live taping of the Daily Show (which they do in New York), but that's probably not going to happen, either. New York City is one of those cities that I should have experienced long before now. I've only heard things about NY and its citizens, though. We're going to New York to cover Search Engine Strategies for The Chris Pirillo Show (with our conference sponsor, MSN Search). I'm going to be a part of it – New York, New York!

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No word on how my auto insurance will be impacted after the accident. I had the opportunity to contest the ticket that the officer decided to write me (even though, on the scene, he said he wouldn't issue a citation). I've been happy with AllState for a few years now; even in California, my auto insurance premiums were quite managable. Yes, I still have to get into the DMV to get a Washington driver's license before too long. In reading Dan's recent post in Technobabble on ,Auto Insurance Shopping, Lockergnomie Terry Wambaugh sent this piece of feedback:

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