Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Pics: Amarillo to Tyler. 

Today's song: "Two degrees in be-bop, a PhD in swing." 

Also: "When I get off of this mountain, you know where I want to go?" 

Every day I see dozens of billboards for hotels for travelers offering free high-speed Internet. In September, when I was driving east to west, it was often hard to find a hotel with Internet. There's been a big change in the last few months. It won't be much longer before Internet service will be taken for granted, like cable TV, or the little bottles of shampoo. I wonder how long it will be before they stop putting telephones in new hotels. I can't imagine many people use them, given that cell phones are so much cheaper. One other note, when I was driving east in March 2003, my Sprint cell phone was useless. (Also a few months ago, but that was mostly in Canada, a different country, of course.) On this trip, my AT&T phone has had almost complete coverage, including some of the emptiest parts of Arizona and New Mexico. I had an hour on the phone with Adam a couple of days ago, on a stretch of highway where rest areas were over 100 miles apart. Full cell coverage the whole way. Technology is getting a serious upgrade in the US.  

Boston Phoenix piece on podcasting. 

I had a really nice phone talk today with Tony Kahn of WGBH today, we talked about so many things, including science fiction. He told me about a great book he read many years ago, about a human who visits a neutron star, finds life forms whose lives are vastly accelerated because time on a neutron star flows so much faster. Problem is Tony forgot who wrote the book and what it's title is. I offered to ask Scripting News readers if they knew. If you do, please post a comment here. Thanks! 

Microsoft wants you to present at TechEd in Orlando. 

5:15PM: Arrived safely in Tyler, TX. 

Julie Leung, a Washingtonian: "Christmas does stink. I feel that there are often so many expectations heaped atop this holiday that it is doomed to fail." 

Brian Hampson reports that bloggers are not welcome at CES. 

It's cool, I'm getting a bunch of email today from Texans. Can't recall that I ever got email from Texans before. Most of it is the usual bluster about how tough they are. I decided to tilt south today to spend more time in Texas, a huge state. I should end my travels today in Paris, or thereabouts. We had family friends in Queens when I was growing up who were from Paris, Texas. They were nice people, btw, as I'm sure most Texans are, even if the myths about Texas aren't so nice and if they think the Alamo moved from San Antonio to lower Manhattan. 

Via email from Bill Brandon, a Texan: "There's no pussies left in Texas. We shipped 'em all off to DC." That's a good one. I'm laughing out loud and slappin my knee.  

Almost four years ago: "When I started talking with Adam Curry late last year, he wanted me to think about high quality video on the Internet, and I totally didn't want to hear about it. Like a lot of people, I had tried it, and found it unsatisfying and frankly, exhausting."