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
