Category: technology

A trying Facebook day: Have we taken leave of our senses?

Has the world always been, largely, certifiably mad (as in insane) or is it just that Facebook has made us look that way?

I actually posted a nice note to my FB friends yesterday about how amazing a tool it is, by and large, to keep in touch with friends old and new.

Then, as if to smite me, we had a really bad crash in Redmond – and a few dozen of the folks who passed by and took photos of the pretty dramatic if not horrific (OK, the victims were gone by then) scene shared the photos, in public, within minutes, on our Facebook page – long before any family members were notified, much less identified to the public.

What were they thinking? Or not thinking?

I posted a fervent plea of “please don’t do this,” which at least sighting had over 500 likes. But while that’s something that can be appreciated and humbling, I’m not “like”-fishing – I’d rather not have something to prompt such a finger-wagging post, “liked” or not!

When folks have said over the years that our Website’s comments would be more civil if we required real names, not screen names, I automatically reply: “Have you seen what people post to Facebook with their real names attached?”

Then, in a 1-2 punch of “fun,” I post a rewrite of a news release on a Crook County crash of an ATV and SUV on a forest road that thankfully did not lead to any deaths, but involved two juveniles, so the sheriff’s office did not identify them, only the SUV driver.

Well, within an hour or less, that posting turned into what I call “trial by Facebook,” led by one of the ATV riders who made some serious allegations about the driver — who, deputies said, was not cited. (There were some, well, holes in the news release, which I have inquired in hopes of filling, but it seemed to be enough to get it out there.)

So again, I had to go in — if only over my extreme fear of litigation and related headaches — and remove dozens of back and forth comments over who what when where why that went way beyond what the sheriff’s office released.

Some consultants have told me/us, “don’t worry – it’s only Facebook.” Heck, there was a ruling last week that again absolved folks who oversee Facebook pages of some legal risk based on what folks say on them.

But we have Terms of Service for the comments on our Website – ones I get to make sometimes-tough judgment calls on 100s of times a week – and I really do try to hold to the same TOS on our Facebook page, when I can, however I can.

It feels at times like a lost, hopeless cause – that today, with everyone having the ability to say whatever they want, wherever they want, that “censorship gene” of civility, sensitivity, decorum, taste and all those old fuddy-duddy old-fashioned words that most of us used to abide by has just gone out the flippin’ window entirely – young or old, rich or poor, male or female, we just let it all fly, and if the folks reading it don’t like it, that’s their own tough luck!

It’s not just about fear of lawsuits – although there’s that. It’s a gnawing feeling that for the vast majority of us, we either engage in reckless word-tossing without fear or thought of consequences, or we silently endorse it by not objecting to it.

I’ve joked, sort of, before about wanting to create a “Nicebook,” where folks basically are told: Be civil, or be gone. Why this is necessary becomes more evident with each skirmish I find myself in, as I try to refereee the un-refereeable.

Am I making too much of this? Perhaps. But the old adage “think before you speak” seems to be going the way of the buggy whip and hoop skirt. And you don’t have to be a kumbaya Pollyanna to lament it, and fear where it’s all going to take us.

(Postscript: I am unhiding the photos of the crash on Facebook and using them on the story now, hours later, because police have released details and plan to use one of their own. Also, all the photos shared I’ve seen were after the car’s occupants were removed.

Like this one – by Edna Ibarra – note the officer in vest, the paint markings by the wheels; clearly some time had passed.)

Hwy 97 crash Edna Ibarra web 67

My year of Fitbit Flex, tasty flax brownies — and a fitter me

Oh boy, I gained a pound or so!

Huh?

Well, if you’re ever blessed to hear a doctor say “DON’T lose any more weight!” you know that it can be hard to change habits again and put the brakes on weight loss.

OK, that’s not something everyone can reach, I understand.

But having lost over 40 pounds since first putting a Fitbit Flex on my wrist – which now feels naked without it – one year ago today, I know it was just the right motivator (along with a $ motivator by my employer – a lower insurance premium!) at the right time to get me to a better place, diet-wise. My wonderful wife Deb has lost over twice that much in far less time, and it’s been a blast.

We haven’t starved ourselves, by ANY means. We still go out to east – Applebee’s, Olive Garden and some local spots have worked on lower-calorie still-tasty items – but the No. 1 thing I’ve eaten over the past year? The sumptuous Flax4Life chocolate brownies at our new favorite food store, Natural Grocers. They are SO tasty, and satisfying in that chewy chocolatey way. You don’t need more than one!

Many a time I’ve walked or driven right past Burger King (yeah, I’ve had enough French fries for two lifetimes) to the Subway near the TV station, and I’ve also learned that every meal doesn’t have to be washed down by pop. Water is actually satisfying! (And without getting gross, eat one of those great brownies and have some water with it and it becomes… chocolate-flavored water! If you catch my drift;-)

I can’t say processed foods never make it past my lips – that’s not realistic for me, maybe it is for you. But while trendy Wendies may go for kale and edamame, I love returning to good ol’ romaine lettuce, lil tomatoes, low-fat yogurt-made dressing and also my favorite fruits — so now, blueberries with that banana on the Cheerios, grapes green and red, apples (yes, sliced in packs like the ones in lunchboxes for schoolkids who can’t handle a knife eet – so sue me;-)

But while my wife has been on the Medifast Take Shape for Life program, dietician-overseen at Bend Memorial Clinic — and loves that food, which you eat five times a day, along with one “lean and green” meal — we grocery-shop differently now. Sure, we still read for the calories and sugar and fat and sodium, etc. – but the crucial thing is … carb-protein balance. Check that out on the labels of your favorite foods – so many are WAY higher in carbs, and we’ve learned that’s the wrong way to do. So alas, a lot less bread and pasta – but again, not swearing off anything.

Atkins (and now Safeway, for example) have great low-carb, balanced frozen foods. I also like plenty of protein bars, which can be high-calorie and taste like a candy bar but are mostly balanced in that crucial carb-protein element.

Oh, and twice a day, I take a walk down, then back up the block in my neighborhood. It may only be about 10 minutes each, and the overgrown weed-infested lot near me (grrrr) still grates, as do the barking dogs behind the half-height fence that jump up and say, um, ‘hi’ – but through a year of walking, sometimes accompanied by music via Spotify (I didn’t realize how many of my favorite songs are so fast-tempoed!) – not by earbuds but my phone in my shirt pocket, volume just right to not blast the neighborhood but envelop my ears — I know I’ve found a good break, a lovely sight, sound and smells respite for a racing brain of a lifelong reporter who rides the tide of the daily news, often feels chained to the keyboard and is never, ever caught up.

The rhythm of the seasons is nice – from warm to cold to warm then hot again, the Big Dipper and the smoke (!) and the threatening storm clouds – it’s not exactly a wilderness area, but just getting outside regularly helps. You probably already knew that.

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention My Fitness Pal, the great free smartphone app we both use to track everything we at – food logs used to be such a chore, but these things have a huge database of recipes, prepared food and restaurant items. It syncs with the Fitbit, as many such apps do, and if you get more steps in, you can eat a bit more;-)I don’t hit 10,000 steps a day – the goal — all the time, but easily top 5,000 a day just doing typical stuff.

And if you don’t find a good match for your meal, you can always add the recipe’s or food item’s numbers in yourself. It has a bar-code scanner that lets you beep the box of the, say, frozen dinner, and if you have pretty much the same thing each day for breakfast, you can copy one day’s meal to the next and tweak it.

I have a feeling I’ll be logging my food for the rest of my life – if only to slow me down when eating and let the ol’ hypothalamus catch up with my mouth:-)

One of the most fun things for Deb and me has been “shopping in our closet” (okay, buying new clothes too) and fitting into smaller clothes – the smallest for me probably since high school. And to hear folks say we look great. And to feel better – sharper, more focused … (if not more caught up/less stressed:-)

And to have to buy a smaller belt!

I’m definitely thinner and somewhat fitter, but … we still have a ways to go in that regard. Nevertheless, I’m so glad my employer opened the door by providing us the Fitbits (and a financial incentive to use them), and that we’ve taken advantage of them to fix our “fuel mixture.” My doctor says all my numbers are better, and I sure can take the steps faster than I used to (there are benefits to a two-story house!;-)

You’ve probably heard many go “If I can do it, so can you!” And you can. It doesn’t take saying no to tasty food, or killing yourself with sit-ups — just adjusting the makeup of your food menu and finding new things to enjoy (tonight, a zucchini pizza casserole! Finding great recipes with more protein than carbs is fun!)

I often say there are 1,000s of ways to eat right, and 1,000s of ways to eat wrong – you just have to find what works for you on the right side of that line. And proof that God has a sense of humor is where I lost weight at first – the part of the body one sits on. So chairs aren’t as comfortable, as if to say “Get up! Get moving!”

I get the message…

Of Chromebooks, convenience and ecosystems

Even though my name is Barney, I’m not really Barney Google (younger folk – look it up – especially the song;-)

I use Google a lot, but I am not neck deep in the Google ecosystem (docs, plus – still trying to make that work for me in a great way – etc.) — but I have to admit, the Chromebook I just got on a deal for under $200 is quite an amazing little wonder.

It’s sort of like the old netbook I love but has gotten … old. Or more like a phone with a big screen and keyboard. Instant on, and no Windows – but hey, install the Chrome Remote Dekstop and you can use your main PC with little or no lag time.

It can do 99 percent of what my 3-times-the-price big laptop does – and has about 3 times the battery life (8 hours or even more). What’s not to like, even love?

I wish it was cell and not just wifi, but wifi is becoming pretty darn ubiquitous, and more offline apps are being added.

Of COURSE the one I wanted was sold out, got a bit more expensive one but it was still under $200, a Samsung – and the very next day, learned Acer (maker of the cheaper one) has fast, better ones coming — that’s a fact of tech life, though not always within 24 hours. There are larger Chromebooks, but I LIKE a 10-inch screen compared to larger – again for 99 percent of things, the convenience makes up for any lack of room on the screen.

But it is true nowadays that you don’t just buy a product – you invest in an ecosystem. I find an iPad to be fun, but … I’m so in the Windows/Android world (and now Google) that there are just so many platforms one can juggle successfully. Or as I often say, spread yourself too thin and anyone can see right through you.

But my wonderful wife knows my ulterior motive for a cheap laptop that works so well – 1/3 the price, I can upgrade 3 times as often!

Yeah right;-)

“Engage!” – and why trolls and flamers matter

Well, April Fool’s Day was another birthday – and thanks to my wonderful wife and brother, a chance to catch up on some new books I’ve wanted to read.

First up: “Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Culivate and Measure Success in the New Web,” by Brian Solis.

I love a book where there’s not only graphics, but the kerning (space between lines) is tight, as if he has so much to share, he can’t afford to waste a page on too much white space.

In the world where books feel sort of … old (have you ever sorted books, on any topic, by publisher date at Amazon? Books are being sold that don’t publish until 2011! Makes you realize how ‘old’ many books can be, compared to the Net)- it feels like you’re getting your money’s worth with densely packed pages.

It’s already, just a few pages in, resonating and reinforcing and making the points I try to make a lot.

Consider the headaches, hassles and potential legal woes of negative comments on our Website – or anywhere, for that matter. It seems abuse of anonymity is a constant, and sometimes feels that the bitter negativity overwhelms logical, thoughtful, rational discussion.

But let me type in just a bit from the section: “Conversations Happen With or Without You”:

“Even without your participation, negative commentary already exists. In most cases, you just aren’t encountering it. … ”

“Assuredly, every negative discussion is an opportunity to learn and also to participate in a way that may shift the discussion in a positive direction. If there’s nothing else that we accomplish by paritcipating, we at least acquire the ability to contribute toward a positive public perception.”

“The conversations that don’t kill you only make you stronger. And those negative threats that escalate in social networks will only accelerate without the involvement of inherent stakeholders.”

Bingo. Some, perhaps most of these nasty comments have been said about you, your product, service or brand forever. Big difference is, now you get to hear them, and weigh in on them.

The trick, of course, is not to let the nasties get to you, or make you feel like they are any larger than the small percentage they represent. But they are valuable feedback, if one can get beyond the emotional, defensive reaction. As I’ve said here before, Jim DeChant, our former GM, taught me a valuable lesson: Even the biggest jerk can have a point worth hearing and pondering.

It’s a test of patience and restraint not to fire back with guns blazing – this I know. But the important point is to realize for every flamer, troll – or fan, for that matter – there are hundreds, if not thousands who are not at those extremes, but are watching your conversation – perhaps very closely. You can never nail down the number who will be impressed by your willingness to wade in and offer your personal perspective. But they are out there, and likely more vital than the ones you are responding to.

Some might consider you wasting your time, or worse, for challenging the misperceptions or even lies being bandied about in an online forum. But I believe many more will give you more kudos for making your case, explaining why and how you do things and why.

Another paragraph: “Social media is about speaking with, not ‘at’ people. This means engaging in a way that works in a conversational medium, that is, serving the best interest of both parties, while not demaning any actions or insulting the intelligence of anyone involved.”

Agreed. And remember, the old “Well he started it!” matters as much now as it did in second grade.

Being an assignment editor is… challenging

And thanks to a Facebook friend, I’ve found a lady in Denver, Colorado, Misty J., who writes a wonderful, fascinating blog about what the joys and tears and challenges of what this job is like – as well about Twitter, which KTVZ now has a feed on (we also have a new Facebook page! Come check us out;-)
http://assignmenteditorminds.blogspot.com/ is it, and if you’re all curious about what we face on the phones, in the newsroom etc., I highly recommend it.
I plan to be a regular commenter there. It might even inspire more blogging by yours truly.

OK, I’m seriously addicted to Newsvine

For some reason, Newsvine didn’t grab me when I tried it last October, after its acquisition by MSNBC.

But now. Wow. I’m a posting, arguing, discussing, debating fool. Is it just as enlightening, yet aggravating as KTVZ.COM’s own article comments? Yep. But with a much wider circle of folks, who “seed” the site with articles from all over on every topic imaginable.

And then… you discuss. It’s that simple. They have wonderful tools to help track multiple article discussion threads. You get your own “column” page where all the comments you’ve posted, articles you’ve seeded etc. are collected.

And it’s a social network – like the comments someone made? Make them a friend, follow what they have to say around the site on other issues!

As I said, I’m hooked. Oy. It tops MSNBC’s article-comment forums, and USA Today’s, and … nah, it doesn’t top ours. But I’d love to use that way of blossoming the comments we do run!

It turns reading the news into a social experience like none other. I love it!

It’s like I read in one of my books recently – somebody took issue with the maxim that “Content is king.”

“Conversation is king,” they said. “Content is just something to talk about.”

Yeppers!;-)

Video, vexing and victorious: Olympics, CNN

Weren’t those Olympic opening ceremonies amazing? I sure thought so – YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). Got to watch on my sister-in-law Diane’s new flat/wide-screen TV and … that surely helped make them truly awesome, to use a much-overused term of the day.

And there’s a comfortable familiarity to the way our network, NBC, covers the games – the great John Williams music, Bob Costas at ease talking to President Bush or Bela Karolyi, etc.

Before I dive into the unfortunate part of this message, let me point to a nice new addition to our Website – CNN videos, a frequently updated selection available right below the video player, in what’s known as a ‘widget’ – something added to our and our sister stations’ Websites. Click one, and the screen darkens a bit and the pop-up viewer plays the piece in wide-screen format (something we intend to move to for our own online videos in coming months, by the way).

The best thing about the CNN video addition – at least, to my work-addled eyes – is that much like our wide variety of AP news, it’s automated, which means it’s fresh and up to date, 24 hours a day, days and nights and weekends. If we can get the same thing at some point from MSNBC, then the only manual posting I’ll need to do will be our local video content. Yay!

But, alas, things aren’t going quite so swimmingly for Central Oregonians wanting to watch live streaming video or other “enhanced” video coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

I’m going to try to word this carefully here, because I know just enough to be dangerous, but basically it boils down to the fact that NBC wants to partner (read: contract) with local “TV providers,” on providing not just all that extra online video – 2,000 hours worth at the Olympics – but also on-air via the cable systems, with Video on Demand, special Olympics channels, etc. And they want to extend those contracts through the 2012 Olympics.

But there’s this big umbrella cable-operators organization that wants to instead negotiate a deal for everyone. So while NBC-Universal has been trying to work out deals with individual cable operators, some want to wait for the big package, national agreement. And those, alas, at this time include our very own BendBroadband.

I learned that the eve of the Olympics, as I wrote my Friday piece, fired up the fancy Microsoft Silverlight-powered NBC Olympics player, and hit… a message, asking for my ZIP code and which “TV provider” I have. I said BendBroadband, and it said, “We’re sorry,” and explained basically what I just explained above.

I got, um, a bit upset. Fired off some notes, both to NBC folks I know and on Websites like Lost Remote, asking what the heck was going on? I heard today – on a Sunday! – from an NBC-Universal VP who explained what I’ve said and agreed it wouldn’t hurt for folks to make their cable provider aware of their… dissatisfaction with paying for that great speedy cable-modem service, and then being unable to view one of the most unprecedented offerings of Web content ever seen, because of a contract squabble.

He said they are continuing to negotiate, and hope to get the issue resolved beore the Olympics ends.

I sure hope so. In the meantime, I’m not sure that fibbing about your “TV provider” works – I have gingerly tried, and given up. There’s still lots of NBCOlympics.com material to enjoy, including some video, if a bit… delayed. But the four-screen window of live events, etc. has to wait for the negotiators to negotiate.

(By the way, we’re not alone in this mess – I was told today the uncovered areas include about 3 MILLION customers, and MediaWeek has reported on Cablevision folks in the Northeast stuck in the same boat we are.)

Just wanted you to know it’s not KTVZ’s doing or fault, any more than the 15-hour delay to prime time of certain marquee sports coverage (and the Opening/Closing Ceremonies, etc.) I can understand NBC driving folks to the TV, even in these Net-enabled times, because… hey, they spent quite a bundle on the TV rights, and then charged quite a bundle for the commercials, so… like I always say, “Information wants to be free, but I want a raise.”

But to promote these 2,000 hours of online streaming video, and then throw a caveat/asterisk/roadblock in like this is, well, more than a bit bothersome.

I won’t put BendBroadband’s link/phone number here, but chances are, you know them already. Maybe you can help convince their powers that be that we want and deserve that live streaming video, and we do promise to watch the TV too. I believe the two are complementary, not robbing each other of viewers.

UPDATE: I should have known, my pal Jake over at UtterlyBoring wrote about the Olympics video issue back on Thursday and suggested the work-around of using another ZIP code and provider to see the stuff. Why we should have to fib to see the added video, sigh…

Two Internet tools – or is one really a weapon?

Remember the old college theme-paper directive: “Compare and contrast”?

The Net is full of interesting comparisons and contrasts. Take two Websites, one neat one I’ve known about for months, the other new to me – and quite worrisome.

First there’s www.caringbridge.org. It’s a place where the critically ill or those caring for them or about them can create free Websites to keep everyone far and wide up to date on their conditions. Take, for example, the page created for Bend concrete finisher J.R. Litehiser, citically burned in a SE Portland house explosion in late July. I’ve never met the man, and signed up for purely professional reasons (as we told people about his injuries weeks ago), but getting the daily updates, reading of his daily struggles, his will to survive and the support of his loving wife come through loud and clear.

What a neat service – and totally free. Something we can point out to some of those who call us at the station, asking (or pleading with) us to do a story on someone with a rare disease, etc. Granted, our on-air audience is different, but this is another way to reach out to folks (and let them know of fund-raising efforts as well), and not have to wait for the media to do its thing.

Now, the yin to my yang. A New York Times article today pointed me to www.criminalsearches.com – a fairly self-explanatory name for a Website that lets you plug in ANYONE’s name, and come back with their bare-bones criminal history. (It really helps if you know their birthdate, especially if the name is very common at all.)

So imagine all the uses, or abuses, beyond the likely ones by prospective employers, parents checking on their children’s teachers, etc. – it boggles the mind. A freaky parlor game, for one. And it’s clear the records linger there for more than a decade, at least.

Its easy to say criminal records should be public records – but what if they’re wrong, for example? I can only imagine the hassle of trying to get a court clerk somewhere to correct a long-ago record.

But it also allows you see what’s on file about you – and isn’t that a good thing? I sure can see both sides of this argument – small businesses that in the past couldn’t afford to spend much time/$ looking into a job applicant now can do so easily – and if they find something of concern, track it back to the court of record.

So what do you think – Big Brother run amok, or “find a need and fill it” free enterprise at its best?

That darn Internet – every time you find a great new tool, you also find a worrisome new weapon. Only nature, I suppose.

Leave it to wonderful WALL-E to make many points, robotically

Leave it to that potently professional combination of Pixar and Disney to tell, in wonderful, enjoyable fashion the tale of a cute little, lonely solar-powered futuristic robot, to make tons of points about today’s society, the dangers we face (rampant consumerism, trashing our planet, etc.) and to do so with many references to the classic movies of the past, from Poseidon Adventure to 2001’s Hal to… well, let’s just say it all goes so swimmingly that I tried to applaud. Just darn few joined me.

A friend who was anxiously looking forward to the movie told me she felt a bit let down about the none-too-subtle save-the-planet messages. But truly, the saga of Wall-E (they sent full-size replicas to the theaters, as shown above) and his love of Eve is a throwback in every good sense of the word to the best movies of the past. (It features a whole lot of 1969’s “Hello Dolly,” which makes nobody’s best of lists but makes for a convenient touchstone.)

And the movie literally toys with the issue I and many others discuss and ponder all the time – will technology save us, or kill us? You could say that in this movie, it does both, sort of.

I mean, it takes one super-flabby starship captain with backbone to buck the company (Buy N’ Large, BNL apparently supplants the world’s governments – and Fred Willard is the presidential CEO! Classic! And the Bare Naked Ladies have those initials, too) HAL-ish autopilot and get those fellow flabby never-walk folks back to Earth, where mankind must clean up the trash, start planting and start all over again. In a sense, it’s teamwork of man and machine that saves the day – and I happen to think that’s a pretty neat point to make, and pretty darn rare.

But the question then arises – if all that were to happen, if we were to survive despite ourselves, would mankind make the same mistakes again? We are who we are, and even if we learn one very painful lesson over centuries as refugees, it seems we can stumble into a whole bunch of others once back home, all too easily – it’s what we do best. 😉

So this movie works on many levels – a love story, a fable, just a fun time. I’m sure some mega-conservatives will call it brainwashing of our children. Balderdash and poppycock. (Oh, and if you have the option, be sure to see it at Regal’s DLP screen, as we did Ratatouille – my eyes don’t like 3-D at all, but this technology makes everything so vivid and bright, it’s like Dolby for the eyes – wowzers!)

All this plot-reflecting will make more sense once you’ve seen the movie, which I, BARN-E (Biological Animated Rushed Nerd-Energetic) highly recommends.

Top easy tech tips (works, oh, half the time at least)

Here’s a familiar set of directions; Lather, rinse, repeat. (Do you repeat? Is it necessary, or a clever way to get you to buy more shampoo?)

If I could be the one to place directions on the side of most PCs, they’d say: “BEFORE CALLING CUSTOMER SUPPORT OR A TECH: Clear your cache (temporary Internet files) and cookies, reboot and see if that solves the problem.”

I bet, half the time at least, it does.

It feels like a temporary Band-Aid of a fix, and sometimes, it is. But I believe these boxes we depend on so much sometimes just need the digital equivalent of clearing one’s throat.

I wonder how much dough the Geek Squads of the world make for “fixing” problems that boil down to trying these simple steps. Sure, things can get hideously messed up tech-wise, but it never hurts to do these simple steps first. (You might have to remember some passwords, even if you don’t tell Internet Explorer, for example, to delete them – but that’s a small price to pay to, in my most recent case, stop your hard drive from thrashing.)

There. I feel better. 😉