Still (and even more) a believer

I've been watching with GREAT interest - the upcoming release of the iPhone from Apple. It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I'm an Apple evangelist. I believe completely in the company's philosophy on how things work. It's like I tell my P.C. friends: A Mac user LOVES his computer. A P.C. user Tolerates his computer. That difference alone should speak volumes to anyone who is paying attention.

So as the release of the iPhone (which was announced back in January) has gotten closer, I've read quite a bit of opinion by 'naysayers' of how it won't be successful. I guess it's just the job of people to write and many people just don't like the fact that Apple is so successful lately (last 5 years).

One of the things I read (and hear) to support the opinion that the iPhone will be a commercial failure is it's price. $499 or $599 depending on the amount of memory you get. One thing that these naysayers have either forgotten or simply chosen not to remember is the Motorola Razr which came out around 2 years ago. It was $499 as well and it went on to be the best selling model of mobile phones in the world AND it was little more than a phone - and to be honest - a pretty crappy phone at that. It was mostly stylish - which itself was enough to make people select it over other options. I possessed one of these Razr's for a day - when my own phone crapped out and I had to get a loaner - and it had about the worst possible audio imaginable.

Then, I read in todays paper - an article which again pointed out how expensive the iPhone is and then went on to tell about the competition entering the market against the iPhone - so called "iPhone killers". It listed the HTC TOUCH - at $666, the Nokia N95 - at $749, and the LG PRADA at $800. None of these phones do some of the cool stuff that the iPhone does BUT they cost more.

It's funny to read this stuff when I'm so confident that Apple has a commercial success of epic proportions that's about to be released on friday. There are 23 patents on the iPhone. Apple has made it so user friendly - that I think it may be hard for some 'non-mac' users to get used to it at first. The use of this product is going to be such a 'natural' feel - that the workflow will come without thought. If you have a few minutes - check out this video - showing the use of the iPhone. This really does change everything.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/guidedtour.html

Currently, I'm trying really hard to NOT go and buy one when they come out on friday. It's very hard to resist - when it epitomizes exactly what I want in a mobile device EXCEPT one thing. It currently only uses EDGE technology for transmission of data. Edge is a fast data transmission system BUT it's not REALLY fast. I feel like Apple will release a version with 3G technology (REALLY FAST) around Christmas time and I think I'd rather wait for it. There's a couple of other small things that I don't think are optimal in the product (no user replaceable battery) and small stuff like that. Still, Jan has said that if I want to get one now, she'll take it when I want to replace it with a 'higher tech' model. That may just be all the excuse I need to get one sooner than later.

Really, if you wonder what all of this excitement is about - watch the video and THEN if you still wonder - then GOOD for you!! Be glad you don't have the tech- gadget addiction that I have.

Catching up - again

I'm a bit behind on my blogging, so I'll catch up on what's been happening since my last post a week ago or so.

I headed home on monday - leaving Detroit around 8 am and getting into Daytona Beach around noon. With a connection in Atlanta - that's about as efficient as flying commercially can get. I had a 30 minute layover in ATL - which is almost too short for normal changing of planes in Atlanta, but it just so happened that the connecting flight was in the same concourse as the arriving flight, so when I got to the gate - they were boarding. Peachy.

In the Detroit Airport, I took this photo below of the water fountain in front of a parked 747. I thought it was more artistic than it turned out to be, but I was quite tired and not feeling well, so my judgement may have been off:


The underground tunnels that connect the concourses in Detroit are pretty weird. They have a colorful lightshow that's always changing with very 'futuristic' music playing. A photo doesn't do it justice, but here's one anyway.


Back at home, I'm getting into the groove of not working for a few weeks. I've actually been slightly sick with a cough and various other flu-like symptoms since I got home, so I haven't been doing much. My engine mechanic was supposed to have an oil leak on my boat fixed when I got back home (a leak that he has been working on since late January). I was very unhappy when I got back and realized he hadn't even touched it yet. I was hoping to take the boat out, but now it looks like it will be late this week before he is finished.

Instead, Jan and I have decided to take a trip up north (of here). We're going to head to Columbia SC to visit my ailing brother-in-law, then to Winston-Salem to see family and for Jan to visit her ailing Aunt - then we're going to head over to the Outer Banks for few days of vacation-like hanging with our friends.

We closed on the California City spec house on Monday. It was nice to get that behind us. We have used or plan soon to use all of that money in very a judicious manner. Currently, we owe no one (have no debt) other than our house. I'm paying down that a bit this week and "re-casting" the loan on our house. This simply means that they will take the new - lower amount we owe on the house and refigure the payment structure with the same repayment period and same rate - to come up with a new and lower monthly payment.

We really like this house and have had mixed feelings about putting it on the market. It's not selling right now anyway, so we're just going to enjoy living here while we do and then move on to the next "chapter" in our life (whatever that is) when it does sell.

Here's a photo taken from our pool area. Everything is very vibrant and green back here -especially in the evenings.

Michigan Raceway - Happy Fathers Day Dad

Prerace flyover after the National Anthem




Happy Father's Day to my Dad

My last day of a 3 week stint and I'll be glad to go home.

The race is about to start, so this will be brief.

This track is the farthest from the Southern Roots of Nascar that I've worked, but I think the red necks are more red-necky here than anywhere I've been. It's a strange group of fans here. Incredibly obese women and men that dress like they just walked out the back door of their trailer home to pee.

Another thing is the way they camp at the track. Very trashy - not seeming to be concerned whether they're living in garbage or not. It's just strange. Each week, I have to drive through the middle of the infield where they camp and this is certainly the trashiest camp ground yet.


I get on a plane at 8 am in the morning and will be in Daytona a little after noon.

Here's the cooking pit at the Mongolian Barbeque Restaurant in Ann Arbor

A little door in the side of the wall of the sidewalk. For no apparent reason

Do you see Johnny?

So, we all remember the jokes about "little Johnny" and his antics in school. Can you find Johnny in this photo?

Michigan

Thursday again. I'm in Ypsilanti Michigan. That's pronounced yip' suh lan ti. It's about 8 miles outside of Ann Arbor - all of which is about a half hour west of Detroit. Michigan is a much nicer place than I had pictured in my mind, but I want to go home and so nothing much is great here.


Luckily while on these jobs, I'm hanging with guys that have worked these places before so they know all the good restaurants and such. We've eaten at downtown Ann Arbor a couple of times. I had Indian food one night and then we ate a local micro brewery another night. Last night we ate at a place that's voted top 10 burger in the U.S. by GQ magazine. It was good indeed. After dinner we walked around the small 'town' that we were in. There's a "Hudson" museum there that has many of the Hudson cars on display including the Hudson Hawk. Pretty cool. None of the guys I'm working with had ever heard of 'three on the tree" (referring to the 3 speed cars with the shifter on the column). None of them had ever seen a car with either that or with 'push button' transmission. Made me feel pretty old.

We walked by a haunted mansion and several of us took photos. Jason's photo had a person looking out the window. It was pretty spookey.href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZH5sTRnn2Tn82o7_YOYtMyEYaNu8DaZj9KDKtvs4JjmmqSZ9zJRBKukGJYJVSNb4ewZXbMBlCSK7rEKlacxHYUS25Bl29ejwi6VpJc-tyqm-oix7vhXHo9VeqJf0e90-uBAx/s1600-h/DSC00045.JPG">
I get to go home on monday (as long as it doesn't rain sunday). Can't wait - I've been home for one day out of the last month.

Jan got a new job and will have a couple of weeks off with me. Should be fun

One Long and Tiring Week

The military is always on schedule - even when it rains. For the last 2 weeks, we've been either cancelled or delayed due to rain, but the military will do it's flyover on time. Last week we had no flyover on the actual race day - because they flew over exactly on time the day before. This week, they flew over - on time - but 3 hours before the actual National Anthem - because of the rain delay.


I'm now sitting in the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania airport waiting on my plane. It was an incredibly long week in Pocono. Since Nascar Cup racing switched over to TNT broadcasting from Fox for the following 6 weeks we had to make all of our gadgets and services talk to all of theirs. This is no small feat. In fact, in Daytona (during the first race of the year), we allow for 3 weeks for everything to get all worked out. In this case, we allowed only the normal amount of time between races.

As can be imagined, it didn't go smoothly and we all had to put in some long days to make it happen. For the most part, the viewer at home wouldn't notice the difference, but there was much scrambling behind the scenes to make it happen. Hopefully, this coming week's race will be smoother.

The broadcast booth for TNT


For my part, I've been running the 3D application for the last 3 weeks (now called Raceview with TNT). It continues to be a mixed blessing. It's really cool to be on the development team of a new product like this, but the funding for development of hte program has been cut off, so we're working with a 'not quite finished' application that I compare to digging a deep hole with a spoon - you can do it - but there are cetainly easier ways.

During this week's show, I made air 3 or 4 times. I made a segment from last year's race for the pregame show. I didn't see the segment on air, but was told it came out well. During the race delay, the director had me 'fly' around the entire track. This is not an easy thing to do on air. It's not that hard to mess it up, but the director had the idea at the last minute and just 'called' for it, so I did it and it came out well. I also did a replay of a wreck that I'm sure looked a little bad to the viewer. The director called for the replay (which I had built during the commercial) and so I started "rolling' it. He then told the TD (technical director ) to "dissolve" to 3D and the TD didn't. He kept callingfor it and by the time the TD disssolved to 3D, the clip was half over and so I restarted it. The restart showed up on live TV, for which the director really got mad at the TD, but told us (me) we did a good job.

With the rain delay of 3 hours, we had to break down all of our equipment in the dark with headlamps on. This track in Pocono is ancient and hasn't been upgraded to keep up with the modern times. It has NO lights whatsoever and it is located in the middle of the woods. There is nothing but forest around and so when it gets dark - it really gets dark. We all are hoping we didn't leave some thousand dollar piece of equipment laying out in the woods.
We usually work in teams of 2 when heading out into the field. Here is a photo of Clyde 'registering' camera 5. We alternate back and forth between the 2 of us as to who climbs the tower and regges the camera.


This coming week is a race in Michigan. I don't know much about it - except that I get to go home next monday. I can't wait for that!!

4 races in a row and I have only been home for 1 day in the last 3 weeks.

Rain Delay (again!!)

So, we're currently 2 and 1/2 hours into a rain delay. I hope we get the race in - these extra work days get old when you're on the road for 3 weeks in a row. Add to that the fact that we've had a challenging week here at Pocono and worked some very long days and nobody wants this race to be held over til tomorrow.

While I'm waiting, I'm updating the blog with a cool Will Ferrell video that many of you may have seen. It's really cool:

Short update

I can't believe it's friday already. It's been a long and busy week. We worked hard all day on monday and still drove the 3+ hours to Pocono after breaking down the equipment after the race.

We're staying at a resort in the Pocono Mountains in NE Pennsylvania. This race is a changeover race where we're changing from FOX for Nextel Cup races - to Turner Broadcasting for the next 6 weeks. Then we'll change to ESPN. Freaky how it works.

Changing the truck compound over is a real job and we've had a real challenge all week to make it happen. It's friday afternoon and we're still not there - but we're very close.

I'm staying in a "villa" in the resort. It's basically a condo that was built sometime in the early 80's (I guess). It's got 2 bedrooms downstairs with a whirlpool tub and sauna. Upstairs is a living room complete with gas log fireplace and full kitchen. A back deck overlooks the golf course. The drawback is that there's no internet connection except for 'dial-up' and so I don't spend any time in the evenings/mornings updating the blog. I expect to have time in the next couple of days.

From here it will be onto the Michigan race which is about 90 minutes west of Detroit. From there I'll go back home (the first time in 3 weeks).

Rain Out

It's only 9:45am, but the rain is here and the 'word' is that they'll call the race off at noon after all the fans get here and buy some beer and trinkets. We'll be staying over until tomorrow and try to get the race in on monday

Helicopters

Here's a photo from the flyover just now as the Busch race was about to start





I don't think I've seen this very many times. It's a helicopter towing a banner. Seems like that would be a very expensive way to tow a banner