It's a Digital Weekend!: As some of you who are regular lurkers to The Digital Life may know I am somewhat MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder). In my case it isn't as pronounced as some folks. I don't have multiple names for myself, and I don't all of the sudden change my voice. But, I do live at least two lives. One life is the work life where I put on the best clothes, travel all across this fair country trying to close a big deal. The second life is the farm boy within who wants nothing more than to till the soil or ride around on my new John Deere all day. Ah the smell of a fresh cut field! The final life is that of the digital dude who just loves to play with all things digital. Well, tomorrow is Saturday so the work will be placed on hold for 48 hours. The weather is calling for storms all day. That means that I get to stay indoors and play.

Making Mistakes, on Purpose: I have long been a great admirer of the American Entreprenureal Spirit - men who would challenge the status quo to try new things or sometimes just build a better mouse trap. I love the tenacity of Thomas Edison who just didn't quit. I love the take no prisoners attitude of Burt Rutan who built the first privately funded space ship, and it worked.

Sometimes the inventions are on a much smaller scale, but the spirit is the same. Guys who tinker in their garage on a new device, or code a program in a better way than anyone else. They here the crowds telling them it can't be done and they know in their hearts that it can, or they will keep trying until they prove to themselves that maybe it can't be done.

I am certainly no Rutan or Edison, but in my own way I am about to embark on a life long thought. I will not share it here because I don't want my inbox to be filled with A:) people telling me about other people who have tried and failed, B:) people telling me that I can't do it, or C:) people telling me that they had this idea and really gave it a lot of thought and here is what they learned. This is my own little project. I had the idea when I was in my first year of college (California for those who know me, not Lincoln or Cincinnati) and it festered in my mind for several months. I have recently started to think and plot again and think that I might be on to something. If I am wrong, I will have had a great time learning in the process. If I am right, well... you will have to wait and see what happens.

Foxmarks: From time to time I have to use a computer besides my beloved laptop. Granted, it isn't often. Usually one of those weird moments when Mary has taken control of it or I happen to be on the desktop because I am scanning something or burning a DVD. But, I have a neat little extension that I installed to Firefox today called "Foxmarks". The cool thing is that once you install it they export your current bookmarks to their secure server and then when I am on another computer I just go to MyFoxcloud and sign in to see all of my bookmarks. There are lots of other programs out there that do this, and I have used Delicious, but this one is just so simple and cool.

Why Blog?: The other day I was sitting in my bedroom reading something when one of the kids shouted that someone I know didn't know that I have a blog. Odd, I thought to myself. There is this little button on the front of TheDigitalLife that says "Blog". Then I realized that not everyone is totally computer literate and although the term "Blog" has been around for many years now it would probably be easier for some to call it something like "My online journal" or "the daily diary" or "Recent Ramblings from Rick". But, those phrases all mean the same thing: Blog.

Then I sat and considered why I blog if people I know don't know that I do. To be honest I don't do it every day. I tend to blog when the urge rises, when I have something specific that I want to get off my chest. And that is why I blog. It is my catharsis. My kids blog but they have this little comment/props thing that shows that people have read it. I hav eno such device. I don't know if 2000 people will read this or if no one will. I struggled in the beginning with wanting to write something of relevance, something relating to the digital world. I still tend to focus on those issues because they interest me, but there is so much more that interests me than digital technology.

I suppose that one of the reasons that I write now is for my grandkids. If you know me, you know that I don't have grandkids, don't even have kids old enough to marry (I consider that a rather important prerequisite to having children). But, I suppose that someday I will download all of this drivel and save it for them. They will read it, think I am a total nut, then understand why their parents are so warped.

So, this is my digtal online autobiography. I don't necessarily share things like "I was born in San Francisco to the parents of..." but kind of share my heart. That seems better.

The Death of Radio: I just completed a great article in The New York Times that shared that Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio station chain, is looking to start selling off their stations. The reason is that Abitron has just released the last ratings sweep and found a 14% drop in listeners over the previous year. The reasons were that people are getting their music elsewhere, primarily here on the Internet. The ubiquotous iPod also had some accounting for the drop. It seems to me that here in the office I can get great streaming jazz (currently streaming www.SKY.FM - absolutely smooth jazz), and at home I can slow the tempo even more with some mellow jazz or kick it up with some House Trance. If I am in the mood to listen to some great contemporary Christian music I can listen to WayFM online, because their signal drops in and out at home. But online they are terrific. I live in the country, so if I want to listen to news that is a little deeper than hog futures or the price of burley at the next auction I need to surf. So, I can listen to Rush or Sean Hannity for talk, WLS (Chicago) or WABC (New York) for some real news. Even in my commutes I am usually seen with ear buds listening to some MP3s or an audio book.

So is it a bad thing that radio is about to die? Not really, and it may not have to be terminal. We wouldn't have XM, MP3s, or streaming music if radio had not laid the foundation. But in business you have to remain relevant and radio hasn't really done a good job with that. Pretty soon someone is going to figure a way to turn radio around again and then all of those smart guys who bought up the Clear Channel castoffs are going to be rich.

When did innovation die?: I love new stuff. I am a geek at heart and love gadgets of every kind. I almost didn't buy a new lawn mower recently because I read that some guy was developing an electric riding mower. That would be cool! In some areas I am an early adopter, in other areas I like to sit back and see what is going to happen. In doing so I recognize that I miss the boat in some cool stuff, but that is the price that I pay. When I bought my digital camera a year ago (3,000 images ago!) I had no doubt that I was buying the best camera on the market at the time and that I would have little problems. The camera was from one of the most respected manufacturers, and they had a long history of turning out great stuff. I was saving for one model and the newest version was released right when I was ready to buy. It was a no brainer.

But, it took me 5 years to get an iPod, and I never really got one, I got one for my beloved. I knew that after 5 years that they had a solid following and recognized any bugs that they might have had were long since fixed. We got a 30gb model so that we could add some movies if we wanted to. We haven't, but we think we could with a little tinkering (I know, I know, I already have the software, we just haven't messed with it yet).

Now we are about to see Microsoft launch Zune, and I have been reading a lot of stuff on the new device. Pictures have been leaked, and it looks amazingly similar to the iPod. In fact, it plays music, podcasts, and videos. It doesn't do anything else. That pretty much sounds like an iPod. It is $100 more than an iPod, so I am sure that it will do SOMETHING better. But for reasons that I can't comprehend they aren't talking about it. There was a rumor that it was going to have some sort of game port to play Xbox games, but they have now said that isn't going to happen. I sit here scratching my head. This is the largest technology company in the world, they just can't crank out anything exciting anymore. Thousands of people, you would think that someone could come up with something so exciting that people would quickly trash their iPods in favor of the Zune. But, I know that the good folks at Redmond are up to their eyeballs getting ready for the November, oops, December, oops, January launch of Vista. What great innovations that one has!

Older and Wiser: The older I get the more I am able to recognize those special moments that I know that my brain is going to catalog for later reference. Those things never occured to me. A moment with my father when he is teaching me to use a camera, who would have realized that moment would be so etched into my gray matter. Mom watching a movie with me, my sister stabbing me in the head.

But I have realized over the past few years that certain moments are just going to stick with me. I suppose that someday I will be sitting in a chair unable to remember my name, but these moments, I believe, will be the ones that keep coming back.

Yesterday I had one of those moments. I was sitting on the porch just enjoying the peace and quiet when Tori decided to join me. She said, "Daddy, when you make enough money can we move to the city?" I stopped and said, "Tori, listen. What do you hear? A bunch of song birds in the meadow, crickets, the sounds of nature. It is so quiet here that I can hear the airconditioner running in that house 100 yards away." She stopped rocking in her chair and listened. A slight smile came across her face as she listened. I was right. "Okay," she continued, "can we get a house in the city and keep on here?" There is no arguing with a teenage daughter who suffers terribly from being too far from the mall.

Traffic Problems: This morning on my regular commute (which is 40 minutes and includes 4 traffic lights) I had a difficult time with some traffic congestion. As I was driving through the national park a rather large flock of turkeys decided to take their time crossing the road. I actually had to come to a complete stop! Then, just when I was getting up to speed again a deer was grazing at the side of the road and I wasn't sure which way she was going to go so I had to slow, again! These traffic delays are really beginning to become a problem.

Later in the afternoon I was listening to WLS (Chicago) and heard that the traffic from O'Hare to the city was estimated at 45 minutes. This is a distance of only 17 miles! My son walks this distance for fun (granted, he is kind of odd in that). I sure don't miss city life!