The Lewis Show

Thoughts on This Year's Super Bowl

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:50:00 PST

Basically I could care less. What a waste of a great football year.

A Brief History of Pirates, Piracy, and Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:42:00 PST

Many years ago, when Europeans discovered a new world, a golden age of commerce sprang up like never before seen. The Spaniards hit the gold mine, literally, the French found luxurious furs, and the British found their next cash crop, tobacco. With wealth growing at a fever pitch, a scourge began to grow within the seas. Pirates.

Pirates were a criminal element that used brains, muscle, and speed to find any weak link within the inter-sea commerce trade. They accomplished this by ripping off ships, ravaging port towns, and creating overall fear and havoc. With the passage of time, better technologies, and stiffer penalties, piracy as it was known in the 16th century slowly died out. It exists even to this day, but that is another topic for a different time.

My mention of these pirates in this context has to do with modern "piracy" or the theft of music, movies, and other media and then distributed freely over the internet. Over the years we have seen many vehicles for this piracy. We all remember Napster. Napster came along in a day when personal computers became more commonplace along with internet connections, hard drives for storage, and CD burning software. People would literally download songs and albums one song at a time, sometime taking hours per download.

With the inception of broadband, like DSL and cable internet, other peer to peer networks began to spring up including Kazaa, Limewire, WinMX, and more. Content providers then began a scorched earth policy, recruiting someone like Lars Ulrich of Metallica to decry the theft of their media. They also began to attempt to find these uploaders and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. The DMCA was passed in the 90s to make any copy of encrypted media illegal, even if for personal use. Their efforts to this day have not stopped pirates, but have only proven to inconvenience regular paying customers.

With further innovations such as fiber optic cable, DVD and Blu Ray decryption, Bit Torrents began to take off, allowing people to download large files. Content providers continued to seek court action against any torrenter an ISP would give up. The cycle continues even to this day. Direct HTTP, Bit Torrent, and Usenets still see instances of piracy among legitimate file sharing.

Today, with the help of willing Congress men and women, content providers have brought about new legislation that would give broader powers to the movie and music industry to block entire domains with little cause or recourse. This legislation has brought ripples through the internet community as they wake up to find out that with passage of this legislation, it will create one of the most dangerous side effects in the history of modern US legislation.

A Chinese style firewall. One that can and will be used by people of power that will not have our best interests at heart.

The movie and music industry will and should face stiff resistance from the internet community over this, but they will continue to persist to have SOPA/PIPA passed through Congress and signed by the President. I keep my political rants to a minimum, but I wanted to take time and this space to encourage everyone to locate their Congressmen and Senators and continue to put pressure on them to not kill free speech on the web. I have seen liberals and conservatives alike working together to stop this from passing.

The kicker is that pirates will continue to illegally pass around protected content even after this legislation passes. They would even continue to thrive and expand overseas. It is only us law abiding citizens of the web that will suffer. What's left of free speech as we know it now, could begin to die out. Do consider stepping up and helping fight the good fight. This is a big one, friends.

2011: A Year

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:52:00 PST

Part of me looks at the last day of the year as just another day of the year. I haven't been known to celebrate a new year by attending a party, or hanging out with friends, I just reflect and make sure I hold on to what I learned as best I can. This was a year of learning, not just for me, but for the world.

In January, while I was installing a new computer system and database at work, tides of revolution began to sweep through Africa and the Middle East. While I tried to find the thief of our garbage bin, the world rocked with heavy earthquakes. While trying to decide who would play me in the future untitled movie about me, we all got to know the bravery of Rep. Giffords after being shot by a deranged gunman in Arizona.

In February, while I was celebrating a Super Bowl win from my beloved Packers and relished at the Lombardi trophy returning to Green Bay, Sudan splits raising a democratic southern state from the ashes and years of strife. While I was travelling the state, and celebrating family birthdays, Borders Bookstores announce their closing, beginning a closing chapter on brick and mortar retail stores. While I enjoyed a massive phone upgrade, we denounce the leadership of Moammar Gadhafi and begin to help revolutionaries unseat him from power.

In March, while I celebrated a 37th year on earth, Shuttle Discovery takes its last flight. While bringing in the spring and cleaning the yard for summer, Japan is wrecked by a massive earthquake. As I begin to write for a new blog, revolution boils on the eastern hemisphere. March Madness over here puts two Richmond schools in position to win the NCAA Men's basketball championship.

In April we watch as VCU falls just short of that championship, reaching the Final Four. While we begin to bail out Greece and Portugal, beginning a long year for European countries, we struggle over here with over 14 trillion dollars in debt, While enjoying a quiet month and warmer weather, we're also treated to a Presidential birth certificate. Thank goodness that mess is over.

In May, while celebrating the release of Portal 2, we find and kill the head of the snake responsible for the events on September 11, 2001. While fixing my lawnmower, churches in Egypt burn, highlighting the real fear I had with this 'Arab Spring', a rise of intolerant, extreme religious aggression. While getting to see Picasso's work at the art museum, May 21st comes and goes, proving Harold Camping, a so called man of God predicting the end of the world, to be wrong. Again.

In June, while I celebrate the Miami Heat not winning an NBA championship, we all unfortunately get to see too much Weiner. Anthony Weiner that is. While I'm in New Orleans with Janine, touring probably one of the most fascinating places in the US if not the world, the world comes together to stave Greece from bankruptcy, potentially saving the Euro. All the while wondering if they will come to our aid when our now 15 trillion dollar debt becomes too cumbersome.

In July, Janine and I concluded a decade long journey, watching the last Harry Potter movie. While I was playing with turntable.fm, we got to see the final launch of the Space Shuttle program. While watching the US Women's Soccer team lose to an inspired Japan team, we lose an inspirational lady, Betty Ford. I'm reminded that most all of us deal with addiction, with ourselves and with our families.

In August, we were hit with a 5.5 magnitude earthquake. Virginia and its residents were not accustomed or prepared for such a thing. For days we all were mindful of the ground beneath us as we were hit by days of aftershocks. The Midwest was rocked by strong tornadoes, we survived Hurricane Irene losing only one branch, and the longest week ever began. A week where our house was without power. One does not realize the comforts given to us by electricity. Once that luxury is gone, life suddenly became too simple and too frustrating. August will be remembered as one of the craziest months ever.

In September, while thankful to make it through summer, we head to South Carolina again for our annual vacation. Young people in the United States began to 'Occupy Wall Street'. I did well to avoid opinion on either side during these protests. I've always worked for what I've obtained in life and rely on self determination and wise choices to make me a better person in a better society. While welcoming the beginning of Autumn, I defend Netflix in their decision to spin off their DVD service. I still feel that they may have been early with their move, eventually physical media will lose out. I also learned some valuable lessons after my first car accident. I never talked about it in the blog, but I learned to be prepared for anything and that sure enough, more and more people are not paying attention to their driving.

In October we see more earthquakes, more revolutions, democracy blooming, more concerns for the Euro. We in the tech community lose a great leader, Steve Jobs. He had stepped down a couple months prior because of his poor health and fighting pancreatic cancer. We reflected on his drive to innovate and we all hope that his star will shine forever. In October, 2011, Gadhafi is no more.

In November, while Janine and I celebrate yet another phone upgrade and her birthday, we remember Andy Rooney and reflect on a style of old media that many of us may never see again. Sure, as we get older, curmudgeonly commentary will continue, but an era is passed in our society, one of true journalism. We have become accustomed to our 24 hour up to the second news cycle, but I hope we can return to a day of thorough, unbiased reporting.

Lastly, this December as winter approaches, we celebrate Christmas with our families. Our troops leave Iraq per their insistence with hopefully enough work done to make our struggle their the past six years worthwhile. North Korean dictator, Kim Jung Il, dies, and we all wonder how we could top this crazy, wonderful act in 2012.

I don't even have too many thoughts on the past year. I hold out confidence that all of us will see better days ahead. I also illustrated the simplicity and ease of my own life while contrasting it to the difficulties experience around the world. After all of this, I only have one prediction for the new year - the Mayans were terribly wrong about next year being the end of world. Embarrassingly and terribly wrong.

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:09:00 PST

Enjoy the Season.

Back With Rants

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:53:00 PST

I looked at my poor blog and realized that I haven't posted anything in a month. This year has gone entirely too fast. How about some rants?

My latest distraction from regular posts at my blog has been regular posts at my other blog, Android Activist and Google Plus. I have formed and found such a great community of people, photographers, engaging and interesting people, and a variety of view points and world views. I have really enjoyed keeping up with people there and have completely neglected my site here, Twitter, and all the other internet stuff that now just seems so unimportant. I'm ready to consolidate my digital life to one place and devote more and more of my waking time with waking real people.

I, like most have been doing a steady eye roll since the Christmas shopping season starts around Halloween now. Part of me understands the desperation of retail and car companies to move inventory in these challenging times, but the holiday burn out is only going to get worse and worse and without enthusiasm, there really isn't any joyous spending to do. Just lots of endless complaining, ie this post.

Pro Football has been enjoyable for me this year. I don't want to say a lot and throw out the traditional jinx, but my team is still undefeated. What's great is that there is little talk about this in the sports press. This time 4 years ago when the Patriots were undefeated, there was constant talk about that team being the best ever in the NFL. No such talk this year. I also haven't watched near as much sports media, because, let's face it, it's pretty terrible and I could occupy my mind with better things.

Speaking of occupying. No, I won't say much about the Occupy Wall Street movement. I get their cause, but when we all wake up tomorrow morning or tomorrow morning 10 years from now, greedy people will still be greedy and some will never think the rich are paying enough. So in my humble opinion, this movement solves nothing unless we were looking for solutions to creating mountains of human feces. Job well done, kids. Politics has me so entirely jaded lately, I just tune out.

I'm all about lifestyles and lifestyle changes. Many are done for our bodies, some are done for our souls, I have no problem with lifestyle changes. I have grown pretty tired of some that blast with loud musical instruments and fanfare their changes. Especially when it comes to diet changes. Good for you all who make better food decisions, but it can be just as annoying as a loud, in your face street preacher. I don't smoke anymore. I do not go into great dissertation that I'm living on a smoke free diet. I think there's a fine line and I guess I'm too sensitive to widen that fine line. Why do I have to be a vegetarian or pescatarian? Why can't I decide what days I want to eat meats and what days I don't? Why do I need to confine myself? Why do I then feel the urge to push these decisions on others? That is not the meaning of life, people!

I could throw in a traffic rant, but, really, why? It does seem the volume is getting much worse around Richmond, but I think last summer/autumn road construction projects are the ~~problem~~ cure.

Janine and I got our phone upgrades. She's using the Epic Touch 4G, which is Sprint's take on the Samsung Galaxy S II and I got tired of waiting for the Galaxy Nexus and purchased the Nexus S 4G. I like the pure Google experience and I wanted to give Janine a big screen so she can enjoy games, Netflix, etc. I wanted to upgrade her to the latest Blackberry, but I've heard there have been serious hardware issues, so onward and upward we went.

Rants done. Thank you for reading. I'll post more, I promise.

Full on iPhone? Dessert is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:32:00 PDT

Are you tired of the constant, endless, non stop, relentless, now repetitive iPhone talk? Has the fanboy enthusiasm become utterly nauseating? Google and Samsung will be unveiling the next Nexus phone, providing the purest Android experience. Along with the hardware announcement, Google will debut Ice Cream Sandwich, its delicious next operating system for the Android headset. This all happens Tuesday night, around 9PM Eastern time.

I will be watching and talking about it with other enthusiasts at Radio Android/Android and Me's combined live post announcement discussion. The blog that I write for will be there as well to talk about these exciting releases. You can find Android Activist here. If you want to see the future of smart phones and even see what Apple will be announcing in 2012 with their next device, you're going to want to tune in.

The live announcement will be broadcast on Youtube. Check your local listings!

Jumping

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 10:22:00 PDT

1982. The last time the Milwaukee Brewers won a playoff series. So I was jumping last night too when they did something they haven't done since I was eight years old. They go on to face the Cardinals for the NL Pennant. Go Brew Crew, I say.

[photo credit Milwaukee Brewers]

Netflix and Qwikster - My Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:17:00 PDT

I awoke to a day of rage. It wasn't even about anything political or remotely serious. It was concerning Netflix and their recent changes to their streaming and DVD models. I wanted to express a few thoughts about this and pose a few rhetorical questions, just like I do for every post. I will give the short of this post though, I think splitting streaming with physical media is a good idea and more forward thinking than we realize.

Last night around midnight I received an email from the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings. In his email he apologized for his arrogance and lack of communication about the state of his company. After skimming through all of that mundane and unnecessary banter, I found the real meat of this email now residing in millions of inboxes. He wants to split his company into two parts.

He wants to keep Netflix, the native company streaming only. After some price changes last month, I had gotten the hint pretty quick that they want to push customers into watching instantly, vs using the mail and costing the company postage and cost for DVD's and Blu Ray discs. I got that. The DVD/Blu Ray division will be known as Qwikster, which has a poor title, but the premise is simple enough, DVD's by mail, no streaming.

With this split, they can take advantage of the people that still want to rent physical media and for those who want to stream movies and television instantly. I can't say I agree with the angst, anger, and hem-hawing about this change. The tech community has let me down yet again by showing their fickle side.

In 2005, all of my tech friends that are still my tech friends were all about MySpace. They all joined, wrote on each others' profiles, and told their friends about the service. Sometime late in 2006, I noticed a quick turn away from MySpace and towards other services like Facebook or Twitter. These same people who were singing the praises of MySpace could now suddenly not say enough bad about the service. As a result, people sheepishly followed others to services and MySpace is alive only by stubborn determination.

I fast forward to today and the once powerful, recommended, and constantly talked about Netflix is starting to suffer this fate. A few alpha males and females in these tech circles have started to express dissatisfaction and in lock step, people are once again sheepishly dishing out complaints. I want to ask for a moment of sanity.

The alternate to Netflix right now are few and far between including Blockbuster and your cable provider. By cancelling in groves, we are hurting this company's ability to garner partnerships with content providers to bring more streaming content to us. This only benefits big cable, people. We need to give Netflix this time and chance for them to show us what they have up their sleeves before needlessly casting judgement on the company and giving up.

I'm not giving this one to big cable. Jumping to outrage now will play right into their hands and stop any attempt at innovation that may be coming from them down the road. This gnashing out only hurts us as content consumers. I don't mind people standing on their principles, but let's not be fickle.

Janine and I have been having a pretty good laugh at current account holder for @Qwikster on Twitter. Netflix is not without a great amount of fault and lack of thought here, but they're still the good guys. Just look at their competition.

The Wacky Week That Was

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:04:00 PDT

You know, sometimes I might hint that my life is fairly uneventful. Not that I complain, I just like living a simple, boring life with the exception of my vacations and adventures with Janine. This last week has seen quite a bit of action. Let's see if I can recap with pictures.

Dexter seemed unfazed by the
earthquake

Last Tuesday, the 23rd, in the early afternoon hours, the ground began to shake. At first it sounded as if someone in the floor above decided to drop a file cabinet, which happens quite a bit up there. They are lawyers. Not long after my initial reaction, did I realize I was in a classic California style earthquake. The ground was swaying with the building. I could feel the ripples that comes with a shallow earthquake, and I began to calmly walk from the building.

I can't recall the last time I had been in an earthquake. I remember one about a 5.5 magnitude in Los Angeles at one time, but this one felt serious enough to leave the building. Come to find out, this earthquake was measured at 5.8 and there was slight damage at the epicenter near Mineral, Virginia and some damage in Washington DC. The earthquake could be felt as far north as Canada and as far south as Florida. Luckily this was only a mild earthquake, but one can imagine the furor that came from the locals after experiencing such an event. I would have to say this will be most memorable to most in the region.

Also, Janine and I had planned a weekend trip with her mother to Myrtle Beach. This is my time to finally unwind after a hectic summer at work. We get holiday hours in the summer, but my work does not go away in the summer. In fact, with limited hours, my work always seems to double. So this is my time to stare at the ocean and clear my head. This was not meant to be.

We hit Irene on the way to
Lynchburg

Almost immediately after the earthquake, forecasters began to speculate that Hurricane Irene would take a Carolina turn. This would behoove us to cancel our weekend trip, there's no way I was going to stay in a camper in the middle of a hurricane. We decided instead to go to Lynchburg. We had not been up in a while to see Sam and Jessi's new house, so we swapped our September trip and headed west.

It was great seeing the new house. I'm proud of our friends for taking the plunge and putting their roots down in a great neighborhood in a great location and the house is very pretty. It was the perfect place to wait out Irene, get caught up on recent events, and hang out with their cats. While I was there, I purchased a Logitech Revue, which is a Google TV set top box. I'll post more on that later.

Sunday, we drove back home, full of fear and dread. We were fairly certain with the multitude of trees that we have we would have some kind of damage. We were sure also that there would be long term power outages and potentially a water outage. We decided to stop in Appomattox and stock up on water and supplies. Fifteen gallons of water later, we made our way back home to see the damage.

Huge branch is asking to
be chainsawed

We lucked out. So many homes in our area were damaged or destroyed! I feel terrible for those who have lost so much this past weekend in our neighborhood. We only had one large branch fall and piles of leaves that were yanked from our trees. Our thoughts are we may not always be this lucky, so we're going to look into further emergency planning and potentially some tree removal down the road.

As I write this, we are still without power. We've made the most of it though. We've gone out a few nights and tried to take life as easy as we could while roughing it in our own house. We've even been making s'mores with our new propane stove. It's amazing how many little luxuries we take for granted every day. We both agree, though, that we'll remember this week for the rest of our lives.

My Twitter Commandments

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 14:07:00 PDT

While it seems elitist to tell others how to use Twitter, I've come to believe over the past four years of use, that some people do not realize when they are becoming more a pest than a friend. So I made a short list, fifteen points to consider when composing those precious tweets. Please feel free, Twitter users, to use as many as possible.

Thou shalt consider the person reading your tweets before posting all tweets as you would prefer to be tweeted to.
Thou shalt not Twittascope.
Thou must use check in tools smartly and sparingly. Again, sparingly. One does not benefit from knowing about that quick check in to pick up toilet paper.
Thou shalt not live tweet everything. One or two tweets will do. Seventeen tweets will not do. This includes sporting events.
Thou shalt not retweet more than once an hour or three times a day lest your privilege to retweet are quickly taken away from you.
Thou shalt not post a link without at least a word or two of description.
Thou shalt not repeatedly prompt people to your Facebook page.
Thou shalt also be wary of what services are posting to your Twitter. Flooding people with uStream, Tumblr, and other tweets can become the height of annoyance.
Thou shalt not truncate tweets or abuse the use of services like Twitlonger. It looks utterly ridicu....
Thou shalt not tweet ads. Ever.
Thou shalt not solely tweet links to content. Thou must say something once in a while.
Thou shalt not only talk about what one is eating when one does say something.
Thou shalt remember a tweet will not alter one's political views, nor will a hundred, nor will a thousand. It has never happened before in the history of man nor will it ever happen.
Thou shalt not make vague references to people or events. No one understands while everyone becomes instantly confused and turned away. It is a no win.
Thou shalt not cross post your generic tweets to other social networks. Cross posting real content is acceptable with discretion.

Feel free to share more. Who says we can't have an additional fifteen commandments?

Geek's Perception

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:18:00 PDT

The platform wars in a funny little nutshell.

Era Ended Mischief Managed

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:46:00 PDT

It was decided months, probably years ago that Janine and I would catch the last Harry Potter flick with the devoted on the Thursday evening of its release. Without disappointment we were treated with a grand finale. My strongest feeling centers around this being the close for another chapter with new and exciting chapters beginning now.

I'm sure there will be other flicks that inspire people to wear robes and carry carved sticks, but the feeling for me isn't around the pomp, it's about the two lifetimes that I have lived since I started following the series.

In 2005 I started to reluctantly watch the series after heaps of mocking by accidentally watching the third movie on DVD. I was quickly able to pick up on the hype and quickly became a part of it myself. I'm left with many great memories in Lynchburg and here in Richmond of meeting with friends and watching this movie. It's not the movie, it's the events wrapped around it that stick out to me.

It's almost like an old song. One that carries a memory that may or may not have anything to do with the song. Oasis comes to mind. Their major release in the 90's came while I was in college and anytime I hear something from them, I think of college.

The Potter movies have done that for me as well. They have encapsulated tiny moments of time that will help me cherish them forever. I'll never forget the great night Janine and I had waiting for the last book to come out at the bookstore. We watched eager crowds stand in line for hours until finally we all got in and grabbed a coveted copy. We used to smoke at the time. It's small things like that which will stay embedded in my memory for a lifetime. It's the little details that help those memories become more sweet.

So this is not so much a ringing endorsement of the movie or series, though both have been very enjoyable, it's a look back over ten years. It's amazing how so much has changed and how much we all have grown. I'm pleased to have been a piece of this personal history. I sat among teenagers last night who's first theater experience with Harry Potter were alongside their parents. It was bittersweet to see them all independent enough to go to the movies on their own but sitting with them were their parents. These movies captured and linked many generations.

That and the 43 million they made last night alone is a stunning achievement. One I'm glad to have been a part of. One many more will enjoy years into the future.

Turntable FM

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:49:00 PDT

Innovation is a great thing. It helps us move from our comfort zones and it helps us to learn new things. The web is a great example of seeing good ideas put to work. I recently discovered one of the biggest innovations I think I have ever seen on the net.

Turntable.fm is a music discovery site remixed and remastered. The premise comes from Pandora's internet radio stations. Instead of having an algorithm play songs that align with your preferences, there are endless rooms ready to take on anyone's genre and tastes. The twist is the ability for five people to spin records, if you will, DJ'ing to their audience. The audience then has the power to vote each song up or down by clicking on Lame or Awesome. Over time the DJ's amass points that allow them to unlock new avatars or characters.

This is why the internet was made. This is a site dedicated to maintaining the strong winds of social networking, mixing in great music, and allowing people to discover new artists and learn from people from many different backgrounds. I see endless potential here and I hope they continue to grow.

There are some challenges. It does take a Facebook account to log in. Furthermore you'd have to be friends with someone already invited to get in. That will open up more in time. Also the site has had to limit accessibility to American users. This is how the music industry continues to shoot itself in the foot. It squashes innovation at almost every turn and hopefully they will fix licenses and allow the world to join back in.

Do check it out, find a room, take to the DJ stand, and have fun. This to me is by far the best service introduced this year by far. I'm often in one of the few metal channels so come find me.

New Orleans: Photo Post

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:57:00 PDT

The view of New Orleans from the sky.

The city is rich in history be it French, Spanish, Creole, American.

New Orleans is probably one of the more photogenic towns I've seen.

The culture and vivid colors came as advertised.

A city where tragedy is ingrained in its DNA.

They know and celebrate life and even death. This is truly a unique place!

Thank You, @genecoxnbc12

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:45:00 PDT

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit choked up watching this evening's local news. Anchor Gene Cox had his last broadcast tonight before heading to retirement. Of course reporters got to leave short messages for him and poke some fun at him one more time before going off the air.

Thinking back and growing up in Warsaw, I remember watching Gene do the evening and I think at one point the morning broadcasts. I used to have a tiny portable TV that I kept by my bed growing up and it would work as my alarm in the morning. I can remember the TV would come on every morning with this God awful Tuffy (repair shop) commercial. On the commercial a mechanic turned into the devil and laugh maniacally at overcharging some poor woman to fix her car. It used to scare me every morning. But despite the terrible local commercials, I spent the first part of every weekday keeping up with local and world events thanks to Gene's professionalism and tact.

I think in this new digital age, we don't look to newscasts the way we did, but there will always be those special memories. Thank you, Gene. May you get the most out of your new life ventures. With all this new media, I'm sure we'll keep hearing from him.

Summer = Mobile Photography

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 12:20:00 PDT

Many of us have stopped carrying cameras with us anymore. With pretty decent cameras on our smart phones, the need just isn't there anymore, not for basic point and shoot photography. While I am no major enthusiast, I do suggest that everyone have a basic photo app with filters and a decent photo editor. Blackberry has Photo Editor and others, Windows Phone 7 has Thumba and others, and of course iPhone has Instagram which has achieved unimaginable hype. There are many good apps out there for every platform.

I did a post before actually that highlights some great apps here. Being an avid Android user, here's what I use: Picplz and Posterous for social networks, PicSay Pro for photo editing and Retro Camera + for on the spot filtered photography. What does that mean you ask? Here are a few shots I took in the back yard using different camera types with the Retro Camera app. You can see the differences in colors, borders, etc. This comes in handy on the go when it's not convenient to try to figure out how to shoot things that we see.

It's easy to see the drastic changes with each type of filter. That is how the cool kids take their pictures these days. So get out there and take pictures, the world is getting smaller, but don't think for a second people of the world wouldn't be interested in different perspectives. Especially with this now booming social web.

Getting Biblical (For A Second)

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 21 May 2011 17:15:00 PDT

Most of my readers may know this about me, but at one point I did take religious studies. My knack for teaching lead me to take these studies to help others. I've long since shelved that part of my life, but this week has seen a lifetime's shared in religious discussion locally and on the social networks. I thought I'd put in a quick word from The Word.

I always say before doing any study in religion or philosophy with anyone, do not go by the words of any man or teacher, study and learn life and meaning for yourself. I never attempt to impose my beliefs on anyone, so take anything said with a grain of salt, so to speak. For those that do believe, we only have ourselves to answer for one day. For those that don't, that's the beauty of free will.

With that said, recently, false prophet Harold Camping made an educated guess as to when the clock would begin for the end of the world. Using calendars and tomfoolery, he predicted that the rapture of Christians would begin around 6PM on May 21st with events beginning around an earthquake in New Zealand. I know little else about his predictions, because I wasted enough time knowing what I already know of it.

So what does the Bible say? Fortunately, all of this rapture prediction garbage is put aside with two passages which I will put below. It speaks for itself, it's the words of Christ, and I need say no more than what's written. I would only need to add if anyone gives a date for any so called end of time events while calling themselves a Christian, turn the channel or laugh it off, he or she is only wrong and asking for public ridicule.

Matthew 24: 23-26, 36
²³Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
²⁴For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
²⁵Behold, I have told you before.
²⁶Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

³⁶But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Getting Cultured

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 14 May 2011 14:50:00 PDT

Last night, Janine and I took advantage of a rare chance to catch some prolific artwork. The Picasso exhibit came to Richmond earlier this year and this weekend it is concluding to sold out crowds. I'm glad we went. Picasso's art is thought provoking, it makes statements towards the time the works were done, and we get to see his perspective on humanity and the world.

We in fact were so thrilled with the work that the Va Museum of Fine Arts is bringing to Richmond, that we became members. Between this exhibit, the Tiffany exhibit last year, and Faberge coming up later on this year, it made sense to become a part of this, and we think it's important to support local venues that work hard to bring the world to our town. There's a lot of change and growth in the city and I'm becoming more and more proud to call Richmond home.

It was announced this morning that there will be a cultural exchange with China. Two hundred items from the Beijing Palace will be sent here to Richmond in 2014. We will in turn send art to the Chinese Palace Museum, one of the largest museums in the world. That's a pretty big deal. It's okay to be excited.

Source: Richmond Times Dispatch
Links: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Picasso

Portal 2 Awesome-ness

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:55:00 PDT

I admit to being a part time gamer. I don't play near as much as I did in high school, but there are some games and some series that I will always try to play and stay up to date. I downloaded Portal free from Steam a year ago and was hooked on that story line ever since.

With the release and instant success of Portal 2 a couple weeks ago, cool fan art is starting to emerge just as with any other staples of pop culture. Below is a mock 70's movie poster for the long anticipated Portal sequel.

I'm just leaving it here for it's indescribable coolness. Some potential spoilers in the poster, so be aware.

link to article

link to Steam

Social Media Wins Again

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Mon, 02 May 2011 08:54:00 PDT

Last night while mindlessly watching last week's Kitchen Nitemares, I thought I'd see what was going on with my twitter stream. I didn't expect to see the explosion of tweets and news that Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda mastermind had been killed. My timeline erupted in cheers, gratitude for our troops, and speculation about what happened.

News today is more instant than the internet itself regardless of the weight of each story, but it was sure good to see people and firefighters (above) taking to the streets in New York and DC after hearing such sweeping and greatly overdo story. But I will say even after hearing the news on Twitter, probably like most, I turned on the TV to catch the never ending cycle of reporting that is cable news.

I think that's what most do these days, get instant news from social streams, then turn on their televisions for that visual fix, then to blogs and newspapers for in depth analysis. I think all sources of media like this can work together, but organically, media outlets should be careful not to force us into walled gardens for this kind of content.

Thoughts to all still in service, people in the world still hate freedom and will not hesitate to hurt innocent civilians to advance their cause. Here's hoping for some peace though, finally.

Obligatory Mike Is Still Around Post

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:20:00 PDT

Where have I been you ask?

I've been working...at work.

And I've been working...at home (with a lot of help).

My Other Other Blog

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:08:00 PDT

So I've gone a couple weeks back into the grind after my mini vacation earlier this month. The weather started to get warm and then right when spring hit, back to winter. That's okay though, warm weather will prevail and my struggle against the yard will continue again.

In my free time though, I have been focusing some of my attention to a new gig. I decided a long time ago that putting Android stuff in my blog is great, but making it a regular habit makes this less a journal and more of some kind of semi tech blog that's not a tech blog. So to keep things cohesive, I'm starting to write now at a small blog called Android Activist. I'm writing with a great bunch of writers and pundits. I just hope I can keep up. I feel this will help get me out of several ruts and I can go back to being creative.

Android Activist was started by an evangelist to the platform, Scott Brown, host at the Radio Android network that he started. I feel I can fit into place with his blog by writing an app review and an opinion piece a week about my favorite mobile platform.So now my endless ramblings about my phone will be there, and not here. So come here, but also go there.

Here I can go back to my real joy and passion, baby otters!

Gotten Away

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:06:00 PDT

No, nothing has gotten away from me. Janine and I decided to get away ourselves for a couple days. We loaded up the Mom car (my Ford Escape), and we headed to Virginia Beach to listen to the ocean for a couple days. There's something about that sound alone that can really recharge me.

I'm 37 now for those trying to keep count. I figure it's time for me to stop trying to count and rely on the kindness of strangers to do the math for me. I feel great though. Going to the gym and being motivated have made me very content overall. Now for pictures:

Making a run for the Mom Car on Tuesday afternoon

Immediately kicked my feet up

Soaked in the view. I love this time of year at the beach. No people!

Did I mention I got a Nook? Thanks, Janine! I've also already hacked it.

Twitter Apps?

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:09:00 PST

I'm reading through my timeline the other day and I thought of an interesting course of action Twitter could take to grant them more of a foothold in people's digital lives.

Google has brilliantly created an apps platform to keep their users within their environment. I can start a typical day loading Gmail, then Maps, Docs, Voice, Reader, and so on. I can do all of this on their cloud based operating system or I can do this on my desktop. There's so much rich integration, I'm hard pressed to go outside of that space because so much of my cloud life lives at Google.

In Twitter now there are events, location check ins, photo/video sharing, and so on. People don't just post what they're watching or eating anymore. But those tweets just kind of float into my timeline for a second and then they're gone. It's not just a space where people banter on endlessly anymore (unless you're Charlie Sheen). I would have to star every other tweet of importance or time sensitive information to prevent anything from vanishing into thin air with the passage of time.

This is where Twitter can take a page from Google's play book. One can go into Twitter, as we do now, read their friends posts, and be on their way. Then again, we could also go over to Twitter Calendar and check certain users or starred items that are happening locally or open Twitter mail to handle direct messaging. They can then use Twitter Maps to find those locations and even check in.

I can see a local venue benefiting from this for example. If I'm subscribed to a local club's calendar, or I see a band is coming to town, I can star that tweet and it's on my calender. Twitter can then feed this information to Google, Microsoft's, or Facebook's environment allowing them to push out these items to mobiles/smart phones and not require extra development.

I know the purpose of Twitter is to be a simple platform where people post messages and friends share in conversation, but since people have expanded the practicality of the service by turning it into a conversation destination or platform for political reform, it would benefit this powerful new start up to continue to expand and become even more of a destination.

Despite the numbers, that destination won't just be Facebook forever. I'm already starting to see the MySpace cycle beginning to happen with them as well. This is Twitter's time to take that valuable real estate. I can really see them change the digital word, 140 characters at a time.

New Phone Old State

noreply@blogger.com (The Lewis Show) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 08:17:00 PST

I really have not been up to much at all. As winter fades into spring, the hibernating Mike will begin to emerge from his cave.

I did get a new phone. It's new to me anyways. I was able to get a hold of a used Nexus One. This was Google's first phone branded specifically as their own. All Android phones are Google phones, but this is the first one made by Google via HTC. It was a much needed upgrade and I got a great deal. I'll be posting more app suggestions down the road now that I have a phone that can keep up with new apps.

I did have a nice long weekend recently too. I was able to visit Sam and Jessi in Lynchburg then attend a birthday party for Janine's cousin. It's always refreshing to see the state. In all my travels, Virginia is most unique and it's always rewarding to see its history on display.

All in all things are going well, I am rested, we're going to the gym with more regularity, and I'm ready to take on the year. Wait, it's almost March? Already? Someone needs to slow this thing down.

Pics you ask? Here they are:

Janine's Aunt and Uncle's house near Charlottesville

Some of the countryside out there. In a word: Quiet

I could get used to this