It’s hard to imagine life without the Internet and the World Wide Web in particular. The Internet significantly changed my life when I was introduced to it in grad school in 1993. It turned out to be how I’ve made my living since then.

Happy Birthday WWW!!!

Big 12 Championship Game - Nebraska's in red, OU's in white.

I went back to Dallas to see the final Big 12 Championship Game. It was definitely worth it – got to see the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington and saw a very exciting game, not to mention getting some of my favorite local eats.

After going up 17-0 in the first half, #13 Nebraska loses a close one to #9 Oklahoma by a score of 23 – 20. This was the second straight year that Nebraska lost a close one in the Big 12 Championship Game. This is Nebraska’s final year in the Big 12. They move to the Big 10 starting next year.

There were about 80,000 people at the game. There seemed to be slightly more Nebraska fans. The place was really, really loud. I’ve never been to a football game with that much crowd noise. Though loud and passionate about their teams, everyone was well behaved. I was a little surprised by this. I was sitting in the lower level around a bunch of Nebraska fans. It was a great experience.

There are multiple rooms of various sizes. We had a group of 4 and paid $25/hour. The room was comfortable and had plenty of space for our group.

You could see the lyrics on screen easily from any location in the room. The sound system was good and loud, though this also meant you could hear sounds from other rooms if you didn’t have any music playing.

The selection of music in English was adequate. The background music for the songs wasn’t the best that I’ve heard, but it wasn’t the worst either. It definitely doesn’t sound as good as CD+Gs that you might buy yourself. Also, the songs were only listed by title. It would have been nice to have them cross-referenced by artist and genre.

They sell water, soft drinks, and beer at the front counter. It’s reasonably priced – water is $1. There’s no food.

The bathroom was clean.

You park on the street, so you might want to leave the big SUV at home.

The four biggest technological changes of the decade for me were:

1) Time-Shifting TV (TiVo and later generic DVRs)

2) Combo of Broadband, Wi-Fi, and Laptops

3) Mobile Voice, Internet, and Apps (iPhone)

4) NFL Sunday Ticket

The Internet was old news for me coming into 2001 having been online since 1993. I was primarily using a company-provided laptop with dial-up access to get online. I made calls using a landline and a Nokia cellphone. I was watching TV with basic cable and a DVD player.

The most significant change came a few years into the decade when I added digital cable and a TiVo. Watching TV has not been the same since. Other than sporting events, I no longer watch live TV. I also used the TiVo to connect to my server so I could navigate and listen to my MP3 collection using my entertainment system. It worked amazingly well for this purpose. In fact, it was better than the current version of Apple TV. Unfortunately TiVo dropped the ball by not partnering with the cable providers and not launching an HD version soon enough. I ended up using the HD DVRs that were provided by Comcast when I bought my first HDTV - a 34″ widescreen, CRT from Toshiba. I’m now using a DirecTV dual tuner HD DVR with a 65″ plasma HDTV from Panasonic.

Moving from CDs to MP3s wasn’t significan’t until I got my first iPhone. I had an early generation iPod but I didn’t take it with me everywhere. More on that later.

Netflix came along pretty early in the decade, but I’m not ready to say it changed the world very much for me. I dropped it after about a year. I later took up Blockbuster’s offer during a period of unemployment when they were giving 2 free in-store rentals, free swaps in-store, plus 3 movies out at a time. With this setup I was able to have as many as 8 DVDs at a time if I was willing to drive a mile to return my movies in store. It was worth it. Blockbuster clearly was not making any money on me. They’ve since repriced this option from about $16 to $35 a month and quit sending you new DVDs at the same time that you exchange one in store. Since moving from Dallas to Alameda, I’ve given Netflix another try. I’m unimpressed with their streaming content so I probably won’t remain a member past the start of football season in Fall 2010.

The second most significant change came in the form of DSL from SBC with a wireless router and a new laptop. No more dial-up. This was a MAJOR change for me. It was fast and portable. I could be online in any room in my house or even outside on the patio. My Internet usage skyrocketed with this change. Once you’ve had wireless broadband with a laptop, there is no going back.

Over time, I used my landline less and less. When I moved from Arlington to Dallas in 2007, I had a landline that I seldom used. The ringer wasn’t turned on and I didn’t give the number to anyone. I stuck mostly with my Nokia semi-smart phone running an early version of the Symbian mobile OS. Now that I’m in California, I’m without a landline.

In late 2007 I added my third most signifcant change in the form of an iPhone. I was devastated when my Nokia died. It was my 3rd Nokia and I loved it. I tried the latest Nokia smart phone, but I hated it so I gave the iPhone a shot. The iPhone was GREAT with a nice web browser and decent web-based apps (this was pre App Store). I soon forgot all about my Nokia. I’ve since upgraded to an iPhone 3GS. I love having music, Internet, games, and e-mail (personal and work) all in one small device. Having all my music as MP3s is great now that I have my iPhone with me at all times.

My fourth most significant change came in the form of DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket (I know, I was a late adopter). I spent my first year in California not being able to watch Dallas Cowboys games and frequently being limited to just 2 afternoon games dedpending upon the Raiders’ and 49ers’ schedules. I did not want to watch the local teams. I dropped cable for DirecTV prior to football season in 2009. It is GREAT! Of course if your local market team is your favorite team, then there’s really not much reason to get the Sunday Ticket or DirecTV. DirecTV is over-priced.

Gretta in September 2008 on our first day in California.

I call BS on this. I worked for the other evil empire – Verizon – for 7 years. We used to get e-mails from our government affairs group every so often presenting the company’s position on various issues and encouraging us to write our representatives in support of these views. These e-mails were from “corporate”, not from our business unit. Never once did anyone from our business unit nor in our chain of command ever bring up one of these e-mails. No one cared. There was no pressure. I find it very hard to believe that it would be much different at a very similar AT&T.

I have 2 games recording and I’m watching the RedZone real-time highlight channel on my iPhone. RedZone is great!

Maybe I’ll stop complaining about how much this costs.

I’ve been to Stillwater twice to watch OSU play (both times Texas came away with a win on the road). It’s a nice college town, has a great stadium, and has very good fans. I wish OSU the best of luck this year. That is until they play Texas. Hook ‘em Horns!

I still don’t get Twitter.

]]> http://randyweber.com/blog/2009/08/09/who-uses-twitter/feed/ 0 http://randyweber.com/blog/2009/08/08/are-you-ready-for-some-football/ http://randyweber.com/blog/2009/08/08/are-you-ready-for-some-football/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:21:31 +0000 Randy Weber http://randyweber.com/blog/2009/08/08/are-you-ready-for-some-football/ Football season is fast approaching. My first football season in SF was TERRIBLE. 6 out of 17 weeks during the NFL season saw only 2 games aired Sunday afternoon, robbing me of the 3rd game that the rest of the country typically gets to see. But worse, those 2 games were the 49ers and the Raiders. So not only was I getting robbed of a game. The games I was left with were crap. And don’t get me started about not being able to see hardly any Cowboy games.

The college season was even worse for me. I ended up having to listen to most of the early season Longhorn games on Yahoo Sports Radio at a ridiculous price. And I did say listen, no picture. It took me 2 months to try to figure out how to cancel the service once the season was over. When I did figure it out, it was on the phone. Listening to all the things that Yahoo has subscriptions for was incredible. That company is solid, though perhaps a bit unfocused. But I digress.

So I swore this season will be different. I ordered DirecTV last night with a Wednesday install. No more drama about whether or not the NFL Network will be part of my cable package on Comcast. The NFL Sunday Ticket will insure that I can see my Cowboys play. And ESPN College Game Plan should at least help to alleviate missed Longhorn games. At least Texas has a great pre-season ranking, so they should be a national game most weeks they play.

Back to satellite TV. I’m nervous about this. Besides the crazy price and long commitment for all of this, I found cable to be pretty reliable. More reliable than most of my friends’ satellite services. I’ll let you know how it goes.

But check this out. With the NFL Sunday Ticket SuperFan package you can watch games on your iPhone! How cool is that?

All-in-all, I’m expecting an improved, if not more expensive, football experience this season.