This project spawned from the need to have a news source that aggregates everything happening in Omaha without subjecting a user to seizure inducing page layouts, pop-up ads, and ridiculous peel down advertising (*cough* Omaha.com *cough*).

Here is a pic of Dusty presenting BetterOmaha.com:

What is BetterOmaha.com?

The site will scrape all Omaha news sites and aggregate the information in one convenient, well designed place. Users can setup profiles with custom RSS feeds that will deliver the news from the sources they specify. Users will also be able to search for local news via BetterOmaha.com and find archived stories that one might not be able to normally find (i.e. Omaha.com only allowing search on their site from the last 7 days of news). Think Google News but custom tailored to the exact needs of people looking for Omaha based news.

This blog is looking forward to checking out BetterOmaha.com and will post a more in depth review in the near future.

Congratulations to Dusty, Kevin and the rest of the team at Brightmix.

Editor Note: As of this writing BetterOmaha.com isn't live yet, might be due to DNS issues, but the site should be live soon. BetterOmaha.com is now live. Note that the service is still in private beta in which you'll need an invite code to use the site. Dusty handed out a bunch of beta codes after his presentation of which I grabbed a few and will be willing to send out some codes once the site is active.

I'll be writing a few blog posts throughout the day about topics I sit in on and will also be providing updates via twitter. You can follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/joeschmidt.

Also be sure to check out pictures from Barcamp Omaha on Flickr. Attendees will tag their photos with barcampomaha.

An essential part of any Tweetup is the name game, where everyone goes around and talks about who they are, what they do, and why they came to the Tweetup. Other parts of the evening revolved around discussing Omaha's first Barcamp and the creation of a new co-working space in Omaha, which are two exciting projects on the Omaha horizon.

So who attended the Tweetup? Here's a rundown of the 13 in attendance last night (in no particular order, of course)

Blaine Buxton - a software developer from Omaha who works for IBM but also runs the Omaha Dynamic Language User Group and also has a passion for creating music. You can read more about him at his blog blog.blainebuxton.com. Follow Blaine on twitter @bbuxton

John Christopher hailing from Bellevue, John too is a software developer currently working heavily in Javascript. He is a relative newcomer to the Omaha metro so he is looking for others to meet up with and work on projects. Follow John on twitter @jgchristopher

Matt "Java Pants" Secoske is also a software developer. He owns his own software consulting company called Nimblelogic, he blogs at blog.secosoft.net, and also created a website called tweight.com that will help you track your weight loss via Twitter. If that isn't enough, he is also organizing Omaha's first barcamp - barcampomaha.org. Follow Matt on Twitter @secos

Jeff Slobotski works by day for the United eWay but seemingly spends every other waking moment getting people in Omaha motivated about creating Omaha's first major co-working space. Jeff also runs Silicon Prairie News and a site called Packs of Promise which collects donations to buy homeless in the Omaha area backpacks with essential items that help them get through the long cold Omaha winters. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jjsnyc

Eric Downs is an Omaha Graphic Designer who is the Art Director for Metro community college. He is currently working on his new site - EricDownsDesign.com - and also organized tonight's Tweetup. Follow Eric on twitter @downsdesign

Dave Nelson runs a successful Omaha based design boutique called Secret Penguin. Dave told us the story of how he went from covering the skateboard scene, to becoming a designer, to starting his company who works with the likes of Mtv and the NFL. Dave's house took a major hit from last Friday's storm, so it was nice that he was able to make it out to the Tweetup. Follow Dave on Twitter @secretpenguin

Maren Hogan is a marketing professional for an Omaha company called HCI that recruits technology professionals. She also blogs at Big O Recruiting and contributes to FistfulOfTalent.com. Follow Maren on twitter @marenhogan

Sandie Law just started a business called MacaroniAndPeas.com which is devoted to showing families how they can integrate healthy eating into their busy lifestyles. You can follow her on twitter @sandielaw or @macpea

Erica Tesla is finishing up her degree in Physics from UNO and also works for the Department of Defense. She could have told us more, but then she would have had to kill us all. Follow her on Twitter @etesla

Sam Tesla, husband of Erica, is another software developer who works for a Ruby-on-Rails hosting company called EngineYard.com. He also writes at blog.alieniloquent.com/. Follow him on Twitter @stesla

Roby Fitzhenry was our long distance traveler who came to us from Bryan,TX. He is currently collaborating with Eric Downs on a few projects and just happened to be in town for tonight's Tweetup. He gave the group some valuable insight on the creation of co-working spaces, Barcamps, and Refresh events he has helped to organize. He blogs at robyfitzhenry.com and runs a brand and web development company called Always Creative. Follow Roby on Twitter @robyfitzhenry

Zach Origitano is a designer and web developer for an Omaha agency called Envoy Inc. He also blogs at NE Creative Follow Zach on twitter @zorigitano

All in all it was a great night of discussion and I look forward to more Tweetups in the future. If you couldn't make last night's talk be sure to check out the Omaha Tweetup Invite page or follow @OmahaTweetup on Twitter.

Thanks to all for a great night.

Emergency workers in Cedar Rapids, IA happen upon an unlikely sight, a working traffic light in 8-10 feet of flood waters. Good to know people swimming across crosswalks have a means to stop boat traffic in the event of heavy flooding.

Today is March 14th, known in geek circles as Pi day. If you're wondering why today is Pi day, I suggest you start by looking here.

Two years ago I celebrated by eating a cherry pie. I haven't had one in two years, so I might go grab one today.

I grabbed the above image from ytmnd.com, if you click on that link you will hear an extremely annoying pi day song. But that's the point of ytmnd.com.

Also, big shout out to Albert Einstein as today he would have been 129 years young. It's all relative I guess.

As you are probably aware, two and a half weeks ago the WGA and the soul stealing, blood sucking studio heads finally came to an agreement ending the 100 day writer's strike of '07-'08. Since the strike wiped out many of the shows I watch, I thought this would be the perfect time to lend my feeble support to the plight of writers, many whom are the genius behind some of the most popular shows on TV. So here is a little tale of how my strike beard came to be.

The Back Story

Back in early December I happened across this post over on latenightunderground.com (a blog maintained by the writers of Late Night with Conan O'Brien) where I learned that Conan and others were growing beards in support of the writer's strike. Not being a professional writer or a member of the WGA, I threw caution to the wind and thought this would be the perfect excuse to grow a Grizzly Adams-esque beard of epic proportions, oh, and to also support the striking writers.

I decided to wait until the day after Christmas to begin my quest as I didn't want the beard to be recorded in any holiday pictures. If I hadn't waited, years from now people would have looked back on those pictures and wondered who invited the homeless guy over for Christmas dinner. Plus, I took some time off over the holidays and this would allow me to get a decent start on my growth without having to face potential early-stage beard growing ridicule from cow-orkers.

Which is a good point to mention that when growing a beard, the first obstacle one must overcome is that awkward 2-3 week phase when the beard is first coming in.

As the weeks went by I received many compliments on my beard, many from the ladies whom mostly agreed that the beard looked good. It was at this moment that I realized most women like facial hair on men, just not ones they are dating/married to. But as more time went by I was facing a dilemma, one which I thought an early end to the strike would help me avoid. What I was facing is known as becoming creepy beard-trimming guy. At home I didn't have the proper utensils to maintain the look of my beard and didn't want to spend any money on those custom shavers with the little shaving extensions. So I forged on, letting the beard grow as it may.

February 12th, 2008 was a greatly anticipated day for this blog as the writer's voted on whether to ratify the agreement between the WGA and AMPTP. Late that night many news sites were calling an end to the strike as most writer's were voting for returning back to work. So the next day I drug my unshaven self and the head of legal to our local "fill-in-any-adjective-for-awesome" Cuts to get shorn, hoping that the "stylist" would agree to give me a haircut and shave off my scruff at the same time.

The wait was unbelievably short for a typical "fill-in-any-adjective-for-awesome" Cuts visit. The little sign in sheet only had one name on it so we could expect to get served promptly. The "stylist" I was paired with was a bit taken aback by the beard as she was concerned about how to meld the shortness of my haircut with the mange of my beard. I eased her calm by letting her know that I wanted the beard removed and explained to her my reasons for growing the beard. To my utter astonishment, she wasn't even aware of the writer's strike let alone it's impact on TV. Bascially, this text-enabled-cell-phone-wielding-twenty-something had no clue what I was talking about. Which at the point I didn't care as long as she saved me an hours worth of painful scissor/razor work on my face.

With the beard now laying on the floor, I ventured out into the harsh Nebraska winter facially "naked" for the first time in months. It's interesting to note how cold the wind feels on your face when you go from Sasquatch one minute to bald as a baby's ass the next. Also it is worth mentioning that the head of marketing wouldn't go near me sans beard. It seemed that she had grown accustomed to her hairball father and took a few days to become reacquainted with the new me. Which makes sense, she is only a year old.

As I reflect on the experience as a whole, I can say that I would defintely do it again and would recommend any guy out there to try growing a beard at least once your life.

Missed Opportunity

Had I thought out my beard shaving in advance, I would have held some kind of poll of charitable proportions allowing you, the faithful readers of JoeSchmidt.com, to vote on a particular style of beard to shave before I made the final cut. I thought I could list 4-5 styles and have people donate some money in order to vote on which style they would want me to where for a specific amount of time. So maybe next year, with proper support in place, I might consider re-growing a beard and let you pick which style I should wear. The length of time I would bear that chosen style would greatly depend on how much money was raised. I've done a little research and here are my potential choices. Feel free to add yours in the comments below.

The Teutul

The Lincoln

The Geraldo

The Loveless

The Dodgeballer

Maybe next year in honor of the one year anniversary of the strike being over we'll give it ago.

So in case you're just tuning into JoeSchmidt.com for the first time, here is what you've missed so far:

• Added a new member to the Joeschmidt.com team.
• Accumulated approximately $182 in Google adsense revenue. Here is my first $100 check.
• Successfully hosted the first annual JoeSchmidt.com blogathon raising $1000 for the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation.
• Switched web hosts from fatcow to MediaTemple.
• Bought a Dyson.
• Blogged about the evil that is Nascar.
• Am currently 3 and a half years Wal-mart free.
• Made a complete mockery of the gadget of the week. (the Bakers Edge pan has been up there for 21 months)
• Rode my bike to work.
• Participated in a meme
• Hit a hole-in-one
• Made the front page of Digg with my article on How much do you Google in one year?
• Went to the Masters in Augusta Georgia. Did not eat at a Waffle House.

As Steve Jobs would say, "Isn't that great?"

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Wow, what a stellar list of accomplishments." For a more complete compendium of articles, feel free to drop by the JoeSchmidt.com Archive page.

While I would love to promise an increase in posting in '08, lower taxes, a new gadget of the week, a new graphical update to JoeSchmidt.com, or to end the war in Iraq, I would be a fool to do such. One thing I have learned in the past 3 years is that blogging ain't easy and there are only 168 hours in a week. So expect nothing more than JoeSchmidt.com being your consistently sporadic source of news and entertainment.

To close things out, I would like to wish a Happy 34 to my wife, a happy 10 to our niece, and a happy 33 to me.

Makes sense doesn't it?

While it is nice that the poor guy finally found his calling, I still loathe his existence every time he knocks over our trash cans, spewing diapers and empty 12 packs of Coke across the yard.

Oh, and don't tell Bill O'Reilly that the wind is french as he may reinstate his boycott on French made products. I can only imagine the bedlam that would befall the Kite industry should Mr. O'Reilly choose to boycott the French-backed wind.

Sacrebleu.

You may wonder why it's taken so long for me to update you on our new "hire". Well my interweb friends, the "new addition" to our staff has required us to refocus our efforts and create a new approach to the development of JoeSchmidt.com. You see, Olivia's vision made us re-think the direction in which this blog is heading, and because of her insight, we have developed a strategic plan to take this blog to new heights never before seen. Many late night "meetings" between her, myself, and our CEO/Head of Culinary Arts have taken place over the past 6 months, and I am here to report that our efforts are beginning to pay off. We couldn't be more happy with her progress and look forward to her contributions for many years to come.

So clear out the internet tubes, twitter your friends, send out MySpace bulletins, or whatever your wacky interwebians do, because JoeSchmidt.com is back in action.

Below are some pictures of Olivia in action:

The first meeting between Marketing and Legal

Dreaming up new ways to better monetize with Google Adsense

Olivia networking with one of her LinkedIn buddies.

Olivia and myself.

We just got done watching office space. Those TPS reports really crack her up.

Yeaaah... we're going to have to discuss this.

Olivia in her thinking chair.

Marketing and Legal, up to no good I'm sure.

Welcome Olivia!

Ed. Note: I'm thinking that our next "hire" will probably be a V.P. of Human resources. Reason being is that Olivia listed "extensive Microsoft Office Skills" and "development of Web 2.0 sites", but because of a lack of resources I wasn't able to determine if that was entirely true. Quite frankly, I don't think she even knows what Microsoft Office is let a lone does she even know how to operate a computer. Something we will have to work on in the future, I guess.

1. My FTP server went on strike demanding more pay and better benefits. Al Sharpton was called in to negotiate on it's behalf. Now it gets 25% more money, Thursdays and Fridays off, and I can no longer refer to it as an FTP server but an FTP Facilitator.

2. My dog ate all my bandwidth.

3. I was on a self-imposed blogging boycott until Sanjaya got kicked off American Idol ¹

4. We finally got Tivo. Need I say more?

5. I forgot the login password to this blog. I thought it was ******** but actually it was ********. Duh.

6. Al Gore called. He wanted his Internet back. How inconvenient.

7. My RSS feed was cannibalizing itself.

8. My GTD just got up and left.

9. My Internet tubes were full of delicious spam.

10. The new staff addition here at JoeSchmidt.com requires a bit more "managing" than initially thought. More on that topic to follow.

1. For the record, this blog does not watch American Idol. Though we felt we must jump on the Sanjaya bashing bandwagon for no other reason than he cries too much. #

This game seems a bit like a Nebraska home game as Husker fan outnumbers Sooner fan 10 to 1. Should make for an interesting game.

If you happen to be watching on TV be sure to look for me. Our seats are about 30 rows up from the 50 yard line. I'll be the one wearing red. I may post pictues later but don't hold your breath.

Ed. note: Mad props go out to good friend of this blog Terry and his wife Heather for scoring us amazng seats.

Before: Family time was spent watching TV or playing board games together.

After: Family time is spent in separate corners of the house, each on their own computer instant messaging one another.

Before: People could properly spell and used decent grammar.

After: Now thx 2 IM and SMS, they spel lik dis. LOL!!!!!!

Before: We wrote letters to friends and loved ones far away, and maybe even the occasional Pen Pal.

After: Now we just forward joke e-mails and Internet hoaxes to loved ones and friends while not even bothering to remove the hundreds of forwarded addresses contained within the message. By the way, what's a Pen Pal?

Before: Door-to-door Encyclopedia salesmen.

After: Wikipedia donations.

Before: Recording industry execs making fat profits all-the-while complaining about the bootlegging of their music.

After: Recording industry execs making fat profits all-the-while complaining about illegal downloading via p2p networks.

Before: We used the Dewey Decimal System and Microfilm to find information at local Libraries.

After: Google

Before: Phone books

After: Search engines

Before: Teen lines

After: Cell phones, IM, SMS, email, Skype, etc...

Before: Floating checks to avoid overdrafting your checking account.

After: Immediately bouncing checks (or maybe you're asking yourself what is a Check?)

Before: Getting caught looking at your Father's Playboy.

After: Catching your Dad looking at Internet porn because he forgot to clear his browser history.

Before: Kids would hang out at Video Arcades, Malls, Roller Rinks, and pizza places.

After: Kids hang out at MySpace.com

Speaking of MySpace...

Before: I have a friend named Tom.

After: Everyone has a friend named Tom and no one realizes they can easily get rid of him.

Before: People went on blind dates or met people at the bar to find romance.

After: Now we sit at home alone and surf Match.com to find romance.

Before: We scoured the neighborhoods for Garage Sales with the best junk to buy.

After: eBay and Craigslist.

Before: VCRs and TV Guide

After: Tivo

Before: Walking billboards, bumper stickers and print advertising.

After: Viral videos and forehead advertising.

Before: Gossiping about a friend, neighbor, family member, or cow-orker.

After: We google people to get dirt on them.

Before: Shopping the day after Thanksgiving not quite sure of the deals you will find.

After: Planning your Black Friday assault in October thanks to web sites like BlackFridayAds.com.

Before: Newspapers, Radio, and TV.

After: Social news sites, Podcasts, and YouTube.

Before: Commuting to work by car, bus or train.

After: Telecommuting to work in your underwear.

Before: We got our news from the likes of Rather, Jennings and Brokaw.

After: We get our news from the likes of Stewart, Colbert, and Drudge.

Before: Children wrote letters to Santa Claus and mailed them to the North Pole.

After: Children send email to Santa Claus at northpole.com and track his progress Christmas Eve via satellites on NoradSanta.org

Before: Dear Diary, ....

After: Don't you read my blog?

If you have anything you'd like to add to the list, feel free to leave your contribution in the comments below.

Like this Post? Digg it here:

I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and play with line rider much in the past month since it's debut, but I did have some time over the weekend to test my line riding skills. Let me warn you, it is very easy to lose yourself within Line Rider's clutches, so give yourself ample time to play with it.

Though let me give you a few helpful hints for the Line Riding newbie within you. The trick with line rider is keeping the rider on the sled. Our little buddy is very sensitive to small bumps at high speeds so it's imperative that all transitions, jumps and loops be perfectly choreographed.

Line Rider doesn't have any editing features, (i.e. no undo or erase). If you screw up half way through and the rider gets ditched, the only hope you have is that you saved your progress up until that point so you can revert back to a previous change (I didn't figure this out until about half way through my creation). You also can't project where the rider is going to go when he jumps, you have to kind of pan over and draw a line (which can take a long time to perfect). One last warning, if you have a sweet creation and for some reason you refresh you browser or it crashes you can kiss it goodbye as your saves are only good for your current viewing session.

Though it's because of these limitations which make creating the greatest ride all that more sweet.

Music in the following clip is performed by one of the best bands to come out of Omaha called Criteria. They rock hard so check them out when you get a chance.

With that being said, I proudly give to you "The Greatest Ride". Enjoy.

Unable to see the video? Click here to view the clip on YouTube.

Tools used to create this clip are listed as follows:

Firefox - browser to display the flash app
Camtasia Studio - provides the screen capturing goodness.
iMovie - brought everything together.

ed. note: If you're wondering how long it took me to make this, I'll just say that it took about 1 hour for each 20 seconds of line riding beauty you see in the clip. I'll let you do the math.

The site lists reviews of the haunt along with directions so you can evaluate whether the event is worth your time and money. They also allow you to submit your own event to be listed in their search results as well.

Though being a bit disappointed with the results GooGhoul gave for my local area (5 events in a 50 mile radius), it almost inspires to me to create the "JoeSchmidt.com Experience" as my very own Halloween event. You know, charge $5 a "head" to have people run around my darkened backyard as I chase them with a chainsaw (chainless of course). Maybe for $10 and a signed waiver (prepared by my legal department) I'd do it with the chain on. But... I'm guessing that might not fly to well with the neighbors.