WHERE HAVE I BEEN? PERSONAL UPDATE

Some of you may have been wondering where I have been lately.  Few Twitter updates.  And even fewer Plurk, Facebook, FriendFeed, Pounce or Jaiku updates.  I joined Identi.ca, but no updates there either.  No blog updates.  Hmmmm….Whats been going on?
Well here is the story.  I will have to start from the beginning.
Two years ago, I [...]

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CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Today I visited Neal Campbell’s blog and saw his post “The Geek Brief Apple Bias”.  This led me to Geek Brief #372 and all of the comments. 
First and foremost, let me say this.  It is never ok to resort to name calling to get your point across.  Calling Cali names because you disagree with her opinion or [...]

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WHO SHOULD YOU FOLLOW ON TWITTER?

If you are new to Twitter, you may be wondering “Who should I follow?”.  When I first joined, the first thing I did was follow all the big names.  After that, I just watched the public timeline.  I still do that from time to time.  I look for interesting Tweets.  Sometimes they are links to [...]

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EMERGING FROM THE CAVE

All About the Betas, Terrivus Comments (3)

You might notice that my last update was on July 9th, 2008.  That was 82 days ago.  Where have I been and what have I been doing?  Read on.

First, I packed all of my wife and I’s belongings, put them in a 26′ U-Haul and moved to Atlanta Georgia.  Then I unpacked all of those belongings.  Moving sucks.  But we are very happy to be back here.

Second, I had to create a place to work.  I took over an extra bedroom and it became, as my wife calls it, The Geek Cave.  I guess any room with a green screen, 4 monitors, 1 desktop computer, 1 laptop computer and about a mile of cables would qualify.

Next I began working on starting my own company.  I spent a lot of time thinking about what I really wanted to do with it and how I wanted to it to function.  And of course, I needed a name.  During this time, I attended the New Media Expo in Las Vegas.  This was a great event, and for me, the timing could not be more perfect.

As I thought about it, I decided I could divide new media into 3 categories.  Blogging/websites, Podcasting and live streaming.  I am sure there are lots of people who would disagree with me here, but this was how I saw it.  As I began to look for a name, I realized quickly that all of the names are taken.  If you don’t beieve me, try thinking of a name for a company then Google it.  Hundreds of thousands of hits later, you realize someone else already thought of it.  I must have tried hundreds of names myself.

Then I decided to step back and take a different approach.  I began to look through Greek and Latin dictionaries.  After countless hours. I finally decided on a name.  Terrivus.  This is actually two latin words I put together.  Ter translates roughly to three or three parts.  Rivus translates to stream.  Three Streams.

At this point, I had many things going on at one time.  I was having a logo designed, buying equipment to begin video production, researching content, designing websites etc.

The equipment buying was very time consuming because it seemed that everytime I purchased one thing, I had to purchase two other things to make it work correctly.  The Geek Brief website was very helpful here.  I followed many of their tips for podcasting and purchased several pieces of equipment based on their recommendations.

During this time, I had my logo designed for the new company.

I also decided on a name and subject for my first podcast.  I decided to start testing the video production system I had put together.  Editing, encoding and compressing high definition video is no joke.  This required an upgrade to my processor and video card.  It also requires a ton of patience.

While working out the video production bugs and collecting content, I had someone design my logo for the new podcast.  (You may be wondering why I had other people create my logos.  Two reasons.  One, I know my limitations and design is not something I am really that good at.  Two, I believe that by bringing other people in to work on things like this, you get designs you would have never thought of, so you don’t get boxed in to a single design type.)

The name of my first podcast is All About the Betas.  In it, I cover websites that are currently in beta.  I go from registration through use.  I test the site to see if it does what it says it will do.  The idea is this.  A viewer can watch my podcast and decide for themselves if a site is worth their time.  I don’t make judgements for people, I simply present the facts.  Hopefully, people will appreacite this and tune in.

All About the Betas is available on iTunes in three formats; high definition, high quality iPod and small file size for iPod.  The podcast can also be viewed on my website at allaboutthebetas.tv Each podcast is about 5 minutes in length and I plan on doing 2 per week for now.  As I get faster at editing the video and producing the show, I plan to do 3 per week.

I also have other projects in the works.  Several iPhone optimized websites and a live show that will air daily.  There are also other websites I am working on with some development teams and addition podcasts I will be doing with other people.  It is an exciting and exhausting time.

I would like to thank all of my friends who have been so supportive.  But I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my wife.  Without her, none of this would have been possible.

Tony C. Hall @ October 1, 2008