Blankbaby

I have 666 Twitter followers

Eeeeevil! I have 666 followers on Twitter at the moment. What does it all mean? Probably nothing.

I was on NPR

Lots of stuff is going on in my life at the moment (check this out for a taste, I'll write more about that later), but I wanted to point out that I was on NPR this morning for a few seconds. Cyrus Farivar spoke to me about Malware on OS X for the technology segment of Morning Edition.

Jetlagged logo brilliant

I'm not a graphic designer (I can hardly dress myself, which is very evident when I hang out with Philly's creative types. They all look together, and I look like... well, like me) but I know when I like things. The logo for the NY Time's blog Jet Lagged is awesome. I really, really like it. Fork You doesn't really have a logo as of yet, but I would like our logo to be in the same spirit as this one (though with less planes in it, probably).

I do not recommend this as a way to fix your iBook

I'm a geek, this we know. I also happen to be fairly well known on the Mac web (for whatever that's worth). This means that my friends, family, and random strangers often turn to me with computer troubles. I've helped people I hardly know recover data, replace harddrives, figure out what computers to buy, and how to fix any number of computer issues. When I was doing desktop support I often joked that people figured I supported anything that plugged into the wall, so my co-workers would ask me about the fax machine, the microwave, or the office fridge.

I say all this to establish the fact that I generally know what I am doing when it comes to troubleshooting technology in general. Marisa has just recently employed troubleshooting tactic that would never have even crossed my mind. And I quote:

Getting back into bed, I spent the next half hour sending good thoughts to my computer. I imagined a beam of light pouring over its pearly white case. I told it how much I appreciated it and how I just needed it to work for a few more weeks. I reminded it that its purpose in life was to compute and by not turning on, it was denying that which it had been born to do (I have never claimed to be normal).

That is a very Marisa thing to do, but not the way I would go. That being said, her iBook did start working again so what do I know? Henceforth I am just going to forward all computer questions I get to Marisa and I suggest you do the same.

Why all the Kindle hate?

I've been reading lots of negative thoughts about the Amazon Kindle (mostly via Daring Fireball) and I just don't get it. Sure, everyone loves physical books, but I sure as heck don't feel the need to own every single paperback I read for the rest of my life. Some books I want to keep forever and ever, some I just want to read and be done with. The Kindle is great for mass paperbacks. Oh, and did I mention it does newspapers and magazines as well (at the moment the content is limited, but do you think Amazon can't get more publishers on board?)?

I can understand that folks bristle when Jeff Bezos suggests that the Kindle is going to replace books. Bibliophiles will always want to collect books, feel books, smell books, and experience books. I count myself amongst that breed of people (I'm typing this post up in a room that contains at least 250 books, so believe me when I say that I like books). However, let's face facts: most people don't read. Most people don't care about books in the least, and that's why the Kindle (or something like it) is going to succeed in the long run.

A general lack of interest in reading doesn't seem to be a point in favor of the Kindle. The Kindle costs $400 and then, once you're plunked that down you have to pay even more to fill it up with books from Amazon (though in reality you don't, but that's another post). Why would a non-reader buy one of these devices? They won't, but you know who will? The bleeding edge techies like me that produce content, read books, and love tech. We'll be the first people to love these things (and I already love my Kindle) and the next generation of devices will be cheaper, look better, have more functionality, and appeal to the mass market. Imagine a $100 device that looks like a piece of paper, but which contains your entire morning paper, all your magazine subscriptions, and that book you really want to get around to reading. It can also be used to look things up on Wikipedia, and in a pinch to check your email. That's the promise of the Kindle, and it delivers on every point today other than price.

The Kindle isn't perfect, but is a still a very interesting piece of technology that only very foolish people would write off from the get go.

I'll be posting more about my thoughts on the Kindle and the PRS-505 in the coming days since I own both of them. If you have any questions for me about either device let me know in the comments and I'll try and answer them all!

Kindle sold out

Some of you might know that Amazon announced their new e-book reader called the Kindle on Monday. Following the announcement, the blogosphere said it was bound to failure (where have I heard that before?). As of 2:25am Wednesday, November 21st Amazon has sold out of its initial run of Kindles (they should be back in stock on the 29th).

There is no telling if this is a consequence of consumer demand exceeding Amazon's forecasts as to how many people would want this thing, or if Amazon is taking a page out of Nintendo's book and creating a little product scarcity to drum up business. All I know is I got mine in the mail today, and I'm already in love.

Flop? I think not.

Happy 1st birthday, Fork You!

Click To Play

It has been exactly 1 year since we posted the very first episode of Fork You. The first episode, embedded above, took about 3 months to produce from start to finish. We've managed to get that turn around time down to about 3 days from filming to posting (though most of the time it takes longer than that, darned real life work!).

I'll be honest with you, I thought Fork You would be fun to do but I never really thought I could convince anyone else to work with me on it, or that anyone would watch it, or that we would continue to do it week after week (for the most part, though we've missed a few weeks here and there). 32 episodes, and over 110K views later it turns out I was wrong on all parts.

Now, that 100,000 sounds much more impressive than it actually is. Keep in mind that is the sum total of all our episode's numbers, and anyone in the online video biz will tell you that those numbers are pretty meaningless. We don't know if people simply loaded the video, if they watched it, if they watched it all the way through, or what. That being said, for a silly little podcast in Philadelphia with no backing that ain't bad at all.

Fork You has been much more of a success than I ever thought possible, and a year later I'm still having lots of fun doing it (though I can't speak for anyone else involved. I'm a bit of a bastard to work with). What more can a guy ask for?

I would like to thank Marisa, Thad, and Angie for thinking this silly idea was worthwhile and being involved from the start (Thad and Angie helped us film the very first episode, and have helped with almost every episode since!). I should also thank all my Philly peeps that are too numerous to mention (actually, I am too lazy to list them, but you know who you are) who help us make Fork You a reality. People seem to be excited about the podcast and that's pretty darned cool. I mean, even my mom likes it (Marisa's mom likes it too, but she only watches it because she has a crush on me)!

What does the future hold for Fork You? I have no idea, but we'll continue to refine the show, have fun, and see where life takes us.

If you have any ideas on how we can make Fork You ever more awesomer let me know in the comments!

Here's to another year of Fork You!

Fork You: Brine! Fire! Turkey!

Another Fork You is available for your viewing pleasure. The good folk at Orion were kind enough to send us one of their cookers and produced the best damn turkey I have every had. Seriously, if you have an outdoor space you need one of these cookers.

This episode is the first in a 3 part series about Thanksgiving, so stay tuned for the second installment on Tuesday.

New Fork You, and announcing In the Kitchen with Slashfood

I've been a busy, cranky man of late. I've been staying up way past my bedtime for the last few days cranking out video podcast after video podcast.

Last week we posted not one new episode of Fork You, but two (meatloaf, and the one that proves I have better taste than Marisa). Today comes two more new episodes of foodie goodness, but only one of them is a Fork You.

First, the Fork You crew paid a visit to The Spring Gardens a few months back, and we have finally had time in our production schedule to get the episode up. This one really showcases our great new camera. Doesn't that footage just make you long for a garden of your own? Thanks to Stephan for taking time out of his schedule to talk to us:

The other video Marisa and I posted today was over at Slashfood, Weblogs' food blog. Some of you might know that I'm the head honcho over at TUAW, a Weblogs Inc blog that covers all things Apple, and Marisa is a Slashfoodie. It would seem that Brad Hill, the big Man at WIN (that's what the cool kids call Weblogs, Inc) had caught wind of Fork You (mostly from my Tweeting I would imagine) and he liked what he saw. Thus began a very long discussion about Marisa and I making Fork You for Slashfood with a couple of key differences:

• It wouldn't be called Fork You


• We would get paid for it (instead of it costing us money

We were hesitant for a few reasons, but it mostly boiled down to the fact that we like having complete creative control over Fork You. We can say or do whatever the hell we want, and we don't have to ask anyone (as long as we both agree, that is). Brad suggested we do 2 episodes of Slashfood in the Kitchen (that's the name of the podcast) and we figured what the heck. And so I give you the first episode of Slashfood in the Kitchen:

At the moment it is only available via AOL's video sharing site, Uncut. I hope to get the QuickTime file up soon so that it will be an actual podcast.

Oh, and the picture up above has nothing to do with either of these episodes, but I think it is a good picture of me.

Fork You 13: Bart's Bag of Mystery

Another Fork You is online for your enjoyment! This one took a while for me to finally get finished, but we're hoping to post an episode a week for the next two months (which might kill me, though it was my idea so I shouldn't complain).

Oh, and we're working on some other things to keep the ball rolling.