Midnight Cheese

This weekend I’ll be driving down to Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans event. Seeing some great cars and races aside, the secondary goal is to regularly post photos and updates to this blog and Twitter.

We’ll be camping without access to the power grid, so I’m working on a solar setup to charge batteries and maybe power a small electrical device or two. We’ve got a 100 watt solar panel tied to a cigarette/car outlet for plugging in DC devices. I have a 100 watt DC to AC inverter that will be tested. So far, the solar panel will power the inverter, but with a lack of sun this past week, I haven’t been able to draw enough energy to power an AC device off the inverter. With the way the weather forecast looks, we may not see any sun while we’re down there.

Last year, with several thousand people at the track, AT&T’s data network was very spotty. So updates are all dependent on AT&T having gotten their network together. But weather and crappy networks aside, the race will be lots of fun!

More to come with pics of our setup once we get to Road Atlanta.

The addition of the ‘Prev’ and ‘Next’ buttons in Google Reader is welcomed brilliance.

No more trying to scroll through long posts riddled with photos only to have my favorite browser buckle under the load.

Last week the New York Times ran an article featuring AT&T’s wireless coverage problems. Several times I’ve written about the AT&T coverage problems experienced at my house.

The NY Times article basically blames the AT&T network. It’s just not robust enough to transfer larger amounts of data demanded by iPhone and other smartphone users. The release of the iPhone has largely exposed this vulnerability.

In my experience, at certain events where several thousand people are amassed all at once, AT&T data service becomes almost non-existent. I noticed this a couple times last year, once at the Petit Le Mans event near Atlanta, and again at the Concours d’Elegance near Jacksonville. Voice calls worked well, but data connections were not happening at all. So get a couple thousand people around a single AT&T cell tower, and you’ve got serious data fail.

It all seems to come down to bandwidth. With a lack of bandwidth it’s obvious why AT&T is delaying MMS and tethering options for the iPhone.

Although my issues at home are due to a weak signal, I’m still plagued by lack of a data connection and dropped calls.

It’s probably time for another call to AT&T customer service.

Dog mounting and Scoble impressions are just two of the oddball antics that start up TWiST #13 this week. As a Graphic Designer I was interested to hear what Matt Mickiewicz, founder of 99designs and champion of spec work, had to say about his site.

If you’re a fan of Jason Calacanis(Mahalo & Weblogs, Inc. founder) you’ll instantly be lured in with his Vaynerchuk up-frontess yet invaluable industry insight which all comes out in engaging stories and personal examples. Everything any tech junky could ask for. This Week in Startups has some great segments, but this podcast is balls long.

Brutally Long
The only blaring downside to TWiST is its length. It’s brutally long. Weighing in at almost 2 and a half hours, TWiST is ridiculously lengthy. It’s really four shows mashed together. They’re kick ass shows, but it’s like a Halo marathon… eventually you have to get up and take a break.

Where My Pitches at?
The first show is pitch hour where people call in and literally pitch their ideas to Jason, which is awesome. These guys get some honest feedback about their ideas and pitch methods. Jason will call your methods donkey.

Guest Hour
During the second show we finally get to the guest, Matt Mickiewicz, who explains his success with hosting a forum for Graphic Design spec work.

The Obligatory Anti-Spec Rant
A large portion of the Design community sees services like Mickiewicz’s degrading the value of professional Graphic Design. I agree completely, but the AIGA can explain that issue much better than I can.

I’ll just say you get what you pay for with services like 99Designs. If nothing else, it groups the 80% of the 80/20 rule clients into one nicely avoidable area.

With that said, Mickiewicz is a smart guy with several successful startups under his belt. One of which includes SitePiont which he started when he was only 15. And Jason Calacanis did a good job of looking at both sides of the spec issue.

News Segment
Show four, the news segment, brings out a lot of Jason’s insight into why he is the master of marketing. In one segment he can unmercifully bash the Apple fan boys and then magically turn around and sell you on an Apple Computer all in about a 2 minute span. Andrew Warner is a bit stiff. It would be interesting to see someone as loose as Jason delivering the news.

Giri
The final of the four shows actually runs at the beginning of the podcast as 20 minutes of sponsors and Mahalo promos. This is fine and we all love Audible and the others. In fact, the sponsorship level of the show in just 13 episodes is rather impressive.

In the End
TWiST hits on about 7 of 8 cylinders in terms of concept and content. It’s classic Calacanis with his money knot and marketing mastery. He’ll call you out but keep you reeled in just enough to keep you on the line. A few more episodes under their belts and trimming out a bit of excess fat should make This Week in Startups a truly must-listen podcast for any tech fiend.