Ok. This post is going to get me in big trouble with Greg Lewis. I still owe him a piece of art from like 2 years ago. Yet Cali Lewis (no relation to Greg) asks me if I could cut the GeekBrief logo out on the PlasmaCAM for her and I do it in like 48 hours. Well Greg, I only have one thing to say… when you’re as hot as Cali, I’ll finish your art in 48 hours too!

All kidding aside though, Cali and Neal have been waiting patiently for months since they first saw my machine sitting in the garage, and I finally got off my lazy butt and decided to cut the GeekBrief.TV logo out in celebration of their 500th show! So, if any of you would like to watch a little video about cutting things out of steel with a giant robot, here you go.
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Oh, my. Cali Lewis, everyone’s favorite video podcaster, stopped by Layered Tech to learn about our top secret project (code named Astro) a couple of weeks ago – even though we made her keep it under wraps until yesterday!

Anyway, Cali interviewed LT’s Director of Software Development, Josh Bosquez, in part one and learned all about whats been under development for like a year. In part two I give a mini-tour of the data center and you get to learn a few things about it. The data center tour was more extensive, but some of the video had to be taken out for security reasons. Still, it’s pretty cool!
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Here is a special treat for you guys. Last week I got the opportunity to take Cali and Neal from GeekBrief.TV to visit the old Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Dallas, they brought their cameras so everyone could tag along. Why were we there, you may ask? Well, the Layered Tech datacenter in Dallas is located in the very building that was the old Federal Reserve Bank, which is now designated as a City of Dallas historic landmark.

The seven-story building was originally completed in 1921 to house the United States Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Beaux Arts-style limestone building established Dallas as a center for economic development in the Southwest prior to World War I. The Bank significantly expanded and modernized the property in 1959. Its distinctive architectural style and detailing led the city of Dallas to designate the building a historic landmark in 1979.
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This little post goes out to Neal and Cali, the biggest bacon fans I know. Yes Greg, even bigger than you.

So, you’re sitting around one Saturday afternoon, when suddenly your stomach begins rumbling. But you know that it’s no ordinary rumble. It’s the kind that can only be cured with a massive bacon fix! Not a problem.

Here is what you’re gonna do. First, you’re gonna get a muffin pan and turn it upside down and line it with aluminum foil. Or for those of you in the UK, you can use al-u-MIN-ium foil.

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Last Sunday Elie, Jad, my wife and I joined Cali Lewis, Neal Campbell, Dave and Kat Curlee, and a bunch of other folks at the State Fair of Texas for a GeekBrief.TV filled day of goofing off.

The weather was very nice, with a nice breeze and a perfectly blue sky (even though it rained the very next day). In addition to munching down on every sort of State Fair food you can imagine, we also watched concerts, checked out the auto show, saw a home technology exhibit at the Women’s pavilion and much, much more.

It was fun making some new friends, and hanging out with the gang for a nice day of absolutely no responsibility (I don’t get those very often right now). So here are about a hundred photos I took during the day. Enjoy!
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This is pretty cool. I’ve really got no idea who or what this site is, but there was an article published called “NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers” and three of my friends, Cali Lewis, Liz Strauss and Lorelle VanFossen, were included.

I’m proud of all of them, and would encourage everyone to pay close attention to these ladies – each of which clearly matter far more than me, so what the heck are you doing still reading this?
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For those of you who were unable to watch the live show when Cali interviewed me at the John P. Hacienda, here you go! Cali was able to get the recording up, and even though I’m boring as hell, Cali is definitely worth watching!!!

If there is any problem with the embedded version you can also see it on Cali Live.

Hey gang, slight modification. We’ll be doing this live interview on Saturday at 2pm Texas time instead of the 3pm time I previously reported in error. Sorry about that!

So, if you want to join us, either click on Cali’s gorgeous picture above, or go here for all the details! Gee, that’s a hard choice huh…

Hey folks, on Saturday June 7, 2008 at 3pm Central time in the U.S. (-5 GMT) Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell will be coming by to live stream an interview with your’s truly. We’ll be chatting about chicken nuggets, quantum string theory, plasma torches and bikini waxes.

Well, maybe not. I actually have no idea what we are going to discuss! But what I do know is, if you stop by http://www.ustream.tv/calilewis/ you’ll be able to watch live, and if you click “Go to Show Details and chat”, you can choose a username (no password necessary) and join in the conversation.

I’ll be taking questions from anyone and everyone on religion, politics, abortion, war, famine, disease, and Michael Jackson. I might not answer any of those questions… but I’ll certainly take them! Otherwise, I imagine we’ll probably talk a little about Woopra, Layered Tech, OMB and other geeky stuff. So mark your calendar and come on by!

Has anyone noticed that although I’ve been online since almost the beginning of the Web, there are almost no photos of me, anywhere? Go ahead, search. I’ll wait…

The reason for this is simple. No photographer has been brave enough to put me in front of a camera! Why, well… first of all, I’m not a good looking man. Second of all, I’m unpredictable!
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Among the wonderful presenters we had lined up for WordCamp 2008 in Dallas were Neal Campbell and his wife Cali Lewis, the stars of GeekBrief.TV. They gave some interesting tips on how they use WordPress on their 7 Websites, and they demonstrated how they live stream video using their Nokia cell phone and Qik – the streaming video site.

The thing that I found most captivating was the way that Cali and Neal worked together like a team. You can tell that not only are they comfortable with one another, but they are old pros at putting themselves out there on stage. Very nice flow to their presentation, and something I hope one day to be able to emulate personally.
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Wow. After the introduction of Woopra to the WordCamp attendees yesterday, and a short interview with Cali Lewis of GeekBrief, Woopra has been all over the news today.

Elie Khoury, Jad Younan (the real geniuses behind the application) and I are all stunned and absolutely delighted that so many people are excited about the feature / functionality of the application. And we’re currently working very hard to figure out how we can rapidly make it available to a much wider audience.

• TechCrunch: Stats Junkies Get Another Fix: Woopra
• Mashable: Woopra: Free Java-based Site Analytics Application Launches At WordCamp
• Tech News Source: Woopra Live Website Tracking and Analytics Site
• Lorelle: Whooping Woopra Blog Statistics Program
• TechAU.TV: AWstats be scared.. be very scared!
• TechMeme
• And many, many more…

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