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Episode #13 | The Wealth Nation Bloopers – Volume 1!

John P. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:35:03 +0000

As I wrote over on the WealthNation.FM blog…

Well, I guess they were bound to catch up to us sooner or later. Our supreme editor, Dave Moyer, has compiled the first ever set of Wealth Nation bloopers for your listening enjoyment. Now you can get a real listen “behind the scenes” to see what he has to deal with when he’s cleaning up the episodes.

This will teach us not to be taking extended periods of time off from the show in the future!

Just select the play button below and you can listen to the show right here. You can also visit iTunes and subscribe, follow Wealth Nation on Twitter, or join our Wealth Nation group on Facebook!
Listen to the Show

Lightning Storm Over Frisco, Texas

John P. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:28:14 +0000

Tonight we had another massive lightning storm. We got a lot of these here in Texas, and I was workin it with my camera this evening. I stayed out capturing these photos until the lightning was within about a mile or two of me. The sound was deafening! I literally had to put ear plugs in because it was painful. My wife thought I was crazy too. ;-)

The full sized versions of these photos can be found on my Flickr account, or a smaller album is also on Facebook depending on your preference.

And here is a 2 minute video of the actual storm that these photos came from.

WordCamp Dallas 2009: Dave Curlee – How To Add Video To Your WordPress Site

John P. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:16:45 +0000

Oh good lord. You guys are in for a treat that I will never live down. You get to see me in my full on Pimp outfit from the brief appearance at WordCamp Dallas 2009. I can’t believe that Dave left that in the video. Oh, who am I kidding. I can believe he left it in there! Anyway, here is Dave Curlee lecturing on How To Add Video To Your WordPress Site.

Of course, all of these WordCamp videos were produced and edited by Dave Curlee. So, when it comes to this video he had to give the lecture, oversee himself being filmed, and edit and post it. Whew! That’s a lot of work!

Photos and Videos from the Sir Paul McCartney Concert in Dallas

John P. — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:57:07 +0000

Yesterday Cali and Neal took us to see Paul McCartney, because they are so nice! And it was a fantastic show. Sir Paul did a great job, and his band was excellent too. It’s amazing that a guy in his late 60’s has the energy to get up there and rock for a few hours. Though I’m sure he was making a MINT to do so! hehehe

Anyway, what we have here are a bunch of photos captured yet again with my little pocket Panasonic DMC-LX3 camera. It performed fantastically given that we were in row 39 and the lighting was very difficult for any camera, much less one I smuggled in my a pocket.

The Paul McCartney Concert Videos

Here are a couple of songs that Cali recorded on her Nokia N97 phone using the live streaming service Qik. She was uploading them during the concert when I turned off her phone accidentally. Luckily they were not lost!

Songs: Give Peace a Chance, Let It Be

Songs: Live and Let Die, Hey Jude

After she got those, she grabbed a couple with my Casio EX-FC100 in higher resolution.

Day Tripper and Lady Madonna

And in case you want to see what Lady Madonna used to look like when he performed it three decades ago here goes:

The Photographs

Well, here you go. A bunch of photos – despite the camera Nazis at the concert who kept telling people to stop taking pictures. Question: When in the hell are concert promoters going to stop this bullshit and start letting people take their big cameras and actually use them? If I were a singer I would WANT a billion high quality pictures of me flooding Flickr and the Internet tubes. Dumbasses. Anyway, on to the pics!

Full sized versions of these photos are, yet again, in one of my Flickr sets. Enjoy.

WordCamp San Francisco 2009: Matt Cutts’ Lecture – Straight From Google, What You Need To Know

John P. — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:00:52 +0000

Matt Cutt’s previous lecture on whitehat SEO techniques for bloggers has been very popular since I posted it, so now I’m happy to present an updated video from WordCamp San Fran in which Matt brings us “Straight From Google, What You Need To Know”.

In this lecture Matt addresses questions about Google PageRank, backlinks, SEO, keywords, niches, URL structures, Titles, post frequency, and Katamari philosophy (you’re going to have to watch it to see what that means).

Once again, the WordCamp San Francisco 2009 videos were filmed and edited by myself and Dave Curlee.

Giovanni Gallucci on Extreme Social Media Hacks

John P. — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:00:05 +0000

This lecture was recorded at the Dallas WordPress User Group meet-up on Saturday, July 25, 2009. Social Media Expert Giovanni Gallucci gives a stirring lecture on ways to make the most of online promotion using Social Media as a backbone.

This lecture is an hour and a half long, so go get your popcorn and a drink because you’re not going to want to miss a minute of it. I’d say that Gio packed about 100 tips on Social Media into this presentation, so I don’t care who you are – there is plenty of stuff to try out once you’re finished here.

WordCamp Dallas 2009: Giovanni Gallucci – Top 10 Extreme Social Media Hacks

John P. — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:05:56 +0000

Giovanni Gallucci gave a fantastic lecture at WordCamp Dallas 2009 on the Top 10 Extreme Social Media Hacks. It was an action packed 45 minutes with more suggestions coming at the attendees than most could take notes for.

Luckily we’ve got the whole thing captured on video, so we can catch up on everything missed. Oh, and if you didn’t get the chance to see this live, well you’re in for a real treat! Here are the slides in case you need them separately.

BTW, this video was shot, edited and produced by Dave Curlee.

Dallas Cowboys Stadium – A Complete Photo and Video Review

John P. — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:52:11 +0000

Thanks to my brother-in-law Jason, I had the opportunity to go over to the new Cowboy’s Stadium in Arlington, TX for the season ticket holder’s open house.

For those of you who don’t know, the 3 million-square-foot stadium has an approximate capacity of up to 100,000 fans. As the largest NFL venue ever built, the new stadium boasts the most spectacular column-free room in the world, stretching a quarter-mile in length.

While I was there, I took the opportunity to take a whole boatload of photographs, and even some video – which they would never let you get away with normally. In addition, Cali and Neal came with me and put together the following show on GeekBrief.TV with some of the video segments.

The Video

The Photos

Full resolution versions of all of these photos are available in my Cowboys Stadium Flickr set as well.

Building Facts and Features

Designed to be open or closed, depending on weather conditions, the expansive retractable roof is the largest of its kind in the world and measures approximately 660,800 square feet. When closed, the roof encompasses 104 million cubic feet of volume, making it the largest enclosed NFL stadium in the world. The retractable roof is designed specifically to emulate the
current Texas Stadium opening which is recognized around the world and allow views inward and outward. Each panel can open or close in 12 minutes. From directly above, the entire playing ﬁeld can be seen and the opening itself is visible from an elevation of ﬁve miles.

The stadium features two monumental arches, soaring 292 feet above the playing ﬁeld, which support a retract- able roof. As the longest single span roof structure in the world, each boxed arch is 35 feet deep by 17 feet wide. Weighing 3,255 tons each, these impressive structures span 1,225 feet in length. The arches form a striking silhouette on the Arlington landscape as sunlight reﬂects against the metallic surface during the day and a tailored lighting system reﬂects the form at night.

The stadium features the largest retractable end zone doors in the world. Each has a ﬁve- leaf, clear, retractable opening measuring 120 feet high by 180 feet wide. The ﬁve 38-foot panels take only 18 minutes to open or close. By using clear glass for the door panels, spectators experience panoramic views from within the seating bowl and when circulating
through the stadium concourses. Moreover, the operability provides air circulation during game-day and non-game-day events.

One of the most compelling architectural features of the stadium design is the canted glass exterior wall. The 86-foot-high glass, curtain-wall surface slopes outwardly at a 14-degree angle to create a luminescent glow, day or night. A fritted glass system transitions up the elevation to create a dynamic, ever-changing aesthetic depending on the time of day. At night,
a series of internal lights gently wash the glass wall to create a glow across the façade.

Within the seating bowl, Cowboys fans will be provided with a one-of-a-kind feature, a center-hung video board. Hanging approximately 90 feet above the ﬁeld from the roof structure, the innovative video center spans between the 20-yard lines and features four individual boards – two facing the sidelines and two facing the end zones. The sideline boards measure 72 feet tall by 160 feet wide, while those facing the end zones measure 27 feet tall by 48 feet wide. All four boards are angled toward the stands for optimal viewing. The stunning combination of these boards will immerse spectators with video imagery, creating a premium on upper level seats and presenting the game in a way never before experienced. Streaming across the interior seating facade is a vivid 360 degree matrix board, which offer advertisers “moments in time” during the game.

Quick Facts:

The Cowboys Stadium site covers 73 total acres; the overall site encompasses 140 total acres
The stadium is 3 million square feet containing 104 million cubic feet of volume
Stadium length – 900 feet from one end zone retractable wall to the opposite end zone retractable wall
Top of steel at the highpoint of the main arched trusses is 292 feet above the playing field, and each is fabricated from special high-strength grade 65 steel imported from Luxembourg and are the heaviest shape rolled in the world.
The 180-foot-wide by 120-foot-high operable glass doors, located at each end of the stadium, are the largest operable glass doors in the world and take 18 minutes to open or close
At 660,800 square feet, the stadium’s roof is one of the largest domed sports structures in the world , opening 410 feet long by 256 feet wide with each panel weighing 1.68 million pounds
Each roof panel is 215 feet long consists of 14,100 tons of structural steel and opens or closes in 12 minutes

The Map

Zoom in and look at the satellite image via Google Maps.

View Larger Map

A Visit to the Boudin Bakery in San Francisco

John P. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:32:18 +0000

Today I went down to the Boudin Bakery on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco to get some fresh baked sourdough and some of their delicious clam chowder.

When I arrived, there was a group of people huddled around the window where they are usually making the bread. Only this time, a nice young lady was actually talking to the crowd through her wireless microphone system, and taking questions as well.

I was carrying my camera, so I flipped on the video mode and captured the following video. In it, you’ll see how she makes a special bread loaf in the shape of a teddy bear. Very cute, and extremely tasty! Enjoy.

WordCamp Dallas 2009: Cali Lewis – Building A Vibrant Community

John P. — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:17:35 +0000

The second of our WordCamp Dallas videos to be released features Cali Lewis discussing her “Seven Rules For Building a Vibrant Community”. And if there is anyone who knows how to do that, its her!

With millions of downloads each month, GeekBrief.TV has become one of the most trusted brands in tech news, both online and off. And Cali’s incredible and passionate community of viewers have made her one of the most followed people on Twitter and supported her run for Australia’s Best Job in the World.

This video was filmed and edited by Dave Curlee

WordCamp San Francisco 2009: John Lilly – Lessons From Mozilla

John P. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:00:18 +0000

Another of the videos from WordCamp San Francisco 2009, this is John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, presenting on Open Source, lessons learned from Mozilla, and the role of community. Especially useful are his 7 insights, 2 problems and some thoughts for 2009.

Is anyone starting to catch a theme here yet? Social Media… community… The world is fundamentally changing and if you want to be part of it you’re going to have to learn how to build and embrace communities.

The video work was done by Dave Curlee and myself, with post-production by Michael Pick

WordCamp San Francisco 2009: Chris Pirillo – Community WebVisions

John P. — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:00:41 +0000

Dave Curley, Michael Pick and I recorded and edited the videos from WordCamp San Francisco 2009, and here’s the lecture that Chris Pirillo gave on building and maintaining Web Communities.

By the way, everyone be sure to contact Chris and tell him to use Woopra! We had a nice long discussion about it, but he doesn’t see the benefit of “real time” Web Analytics. So, someone other than me is going to have to explain to him how it makes a difference in your life!

WordCamp Dallas 2009: The WordCamp Panel Discussion

John P. — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:32:29 +0000

Many thanks to Dave Curlee for recording and editing all of the upcoming WordCamp Dallas videos. Seriously folks, please show him some love for the hundred or so hours he has spent recording, editing and posting these for us.

This is the first of the videos filmed at WordCamp Dallas 2009 a few weeks ago and it’s a panel discussion consisting of: Cali Lewis, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins, Dave Moyer, Matt Mullenweg, Andy Skelton, Liz Strauss, Giovanni Gallucci and moderated by myself.

Topics covered during the discussion included blogging tips, advertising, mistakes and lessons learned, blogging equipment, themes, plugins and much more. I can’t believe how lucky we were to have all of these experts assembled in one place to take questions from the group.

Part 1

Part 2

By the way, now that you watched them, how cool is it that we have the sign language overlaid in the corner? Awesome.

If you’d like to embed the videos in your blog, just click on the little icon in the bottom right corner that looks like a sideways “V” and you can grab the code. We’re also working on some other uploads that would allow for a single video and even higher quality, so when we get them up we’ll let you know as well.

Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word: WordCamp San Francisco 2009

John P. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:14:12 +0000

For those of you who didn’t see them I’m going to begin posting the WordCamp San Francisco 2009 videos here on the blog. I went to WordCamp again this year to film the speakers and as usual a great time was had by all.

This first video is Matt Mullenweg’s traditional State of the Word presentation in which he covered all the latest official updates regarding WordPress including a little history, the current status, and even future plans. It’s a “do not miss” video for anyone using WordPress.

This video was filmed by Dave Curlee and myself, and the genius editing was done by Michael Pick.

Texas Tornadoes Come on FAST!

John P. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:30:34 +0000

Last night seemed like any other normal quiet evening. Well, up until the tornado sirens started going off throughout the city!

Below is a simple little video I threw together illustrating the speed with which Tornadoes pop up in Texas. Luckily, in Frisco we have an early warning system to notify people when a serious storm is approaching. This system is truly a lifesaver, and if you ever hear it going off it’s time to get the heck inside a building!

Well, I was at home last night when that sucker started going off! And within a few minutes I began recording the clips that are assembled here. Now, there is no dramatic tornado footage, but once you understand the speed with which they appear, destroy and leave, you can understand what makes them so dangerous.

And if you didn’t have the early warning sirens, just imagine getting caught outside in this while jogging or walking the dog. You’ve got a real problem!

By the way, these were the same sort of conditions that produced the hail that I posted a video of previously.

Woopra Adds Webcam Functionality

John P. — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:02:38 +0000

From the Woopra blog…

I wanted to take a moment to share our latest press announcement with you guys. The entire Woopra team has been hard at work building this exciting new feature for months. Finally, all that hard work has paid off and as we ready the next release of Woopra we wanted to give you a sneak peak at things to come.

Woopra to Launch World’s First Webcam Spy Feature for Web Sites

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Woopra, the world’s fastest growing Web Analytics provider, today announced that the next version of its wildly popular real-time Website monitoring application will allow users to remotely activate and view Website visitor’s built-in Webcams.

The company’s chief scientist, Dr. Lirpa Sloof, said, “Woopra already provides the most robust, feature rich and easy to use Web analytics available. Today we extend our market lead by integrating our latest patent-pending technology to give Webmasters more information about their visitors than ever before.”

Combined with Woopra’s unique abilities to display individual Web site visitors in real time and track them by name, this new technology levels the playing field by enabling companies and individuals alike to gain unprecedented visibility into user demographics and preferences.

According to John P., iFusion Labs CEO, “Governments have been using this technology for over a decade. What we’ve done is simply made it available to the general public.”

The new feature is due to be released in the next version of the Woopra desktop application. For more information or to sign up for a free account, visit http://woopra.com.

Since it can be difficult to imagine what this new feature can do, I put together a short demonstration video. On behalf of the entire team, we hope that you guys enjoy the new functionality!

Wealth Nation is Coming Soon…

John P. — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:11:12 +0000

Folks, I’ve been working on a top secret (not that secret actually) project with Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell for about a month or two called Wealth Nation Radio.

Wealth Nation is a show about making the most of your personal and professional life, with a particular focus on business and financial issues. It’s not all about money though, it’s about achieving that balance in life which truly makes you feel “wealthy”.

Ultimately, what I believe we’re going to do is record the podcasts on a certain fixed day and time of the week (give or take an hour or so) and stream them live so that people who want to watch the unedited, raw, and blooper filled show on video can do so. But for the rest of you, we’re going to have the audio only podcast available for subscription on iTunes.

Of course, we’re also going to have an RSS feed on our Web site WealthNation.FM (get it? Like an FM radio…), which is heavily under construction at the moment, and we’ll have Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and all those other social media things to share with you guys soon too.

By the way, the format of the show will be to address a common theme at the beginning and then take callers live for questions for the second half of the show and try to help people with real personal, professional and business issues. So if you have a topic you’d like to see us address, send it to any of us and we’ll add it to the list. (Or drop a comment below.)

I haven’t decided yet, but I’m thinking that I’ll likely cross post the podcasts here on my blog each week, so the folks who are looking for all my miscellaneous junk can follow along. Or maybe I’ll embed the live videos here, and let you grab the audio feed if you want from iTunes. A little feedback about what you guys would like to see would be helpful here.

The following video is basically the second half of a show we recorded yesterday. We were well into the Q&A section…

I’m hoping that you guys like the concept. Please share your honest feedback.

John P. Makes an Appearance on WHIR tv

John P. — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:25:01 +0000

Here is a little interview snippet with Larissa, from The Web Host Industry Review, which we did while at the Parallels conference in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Enjoy…

LayeredTech TV Episodes 3 and 4… Where I Embarrass Myself Publicly

John P. — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:49:47 +0000

Uugh. So bad. So bad….

Well, here are the latest episodes of our award winning Layered Tech TV. If by award winning you mean we might win an award for my really bad acting. In these episodes we see part 1 and 2 from the Parallel’s conference in Las Vegas where I got the opportunity to sit down and interview a few folks on stuff that is pertinent to the hosting industry.

So, sit back and grab some popcorn. You’re going to need some real entertainment while you watch this!

Layered Tech TV: Episode 2 – Server Security

John P. — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:45:40 +0000

For those of you who are keeping up with every little piece of bad film I appear in, here is the second episode of Layered Tech TV. In this episode, we talk about security and the actions you can take to ensure that your server is not compromised.

My guest on the show is Layered Tech’s resident security expert Terry Perkins. With a special appearance by some bears. Enjoy!