Ericast.com Podcast - DWEEB THOUGHTS

Click here to listen to this week's episode! There's quite a meandering path to this week's final topic, from the now-gone Island Station in St. Paul to Mill Ruins of Southeast Minnesota (that link will take you to the exact trip that I took the girls on last week) to yesterday's visit to Dells Mill in Augusta, Wisconsin (which is famous in the " photos of mills " world). There's also a random ref...

Click here to listen to this week's episode Oh, my goodness, does time fly!  Two tasks for you this week:  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a 206-339-ERIC) and let me know that you're still out there listening, and check out the YouTube videos of the PGI 2014 convention (like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFAA7wf5BNs ) to get an idea of what was going on during my road-trips to Iowa. (Favorite "I...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! Last week I gave a presentation at the 2014 MiNiT symposium, entitled " Developing Faculty Enthusiasm for Technology ".  What did I say?  What did I sound like?  What audio would accompany the slide deck?  Here it is! Faculty Enthusiasm for Technology from Eric Larson Technical notes:  This was recorded on an old Olympus WS-320M...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! This week, I'm reflecting on our recent vacation to Breezy Point, Minnesota.  I talk about ferns .  It then drifts a bit into the "meaning of life" realm, so share your own thoughts and comments by calling 206-339-3742 a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC or email me (eric) at ericast.com

Click here to listen to this week's episode! It's listener feedback week!  And that comes on the heels of my going to the Social Media Breakfast last week (for the first time in a really long time) to hear " Minnesota Headhunter " Paul DeBettignies talk about Personal Branding . So, so many fun topics in this week's episode.  You'll just have to listen for yourself and find out what fell...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! What's a half-mile deep and made of solid rock?  Sounds like the start of a poorly-conceived joke, but it's actually " The Soudan Underground Mine State Park in Northern Minnesota's Iron Range ".  Which is where we went when we took our annual Spring vacation to Duluth this year.  Other interesting (albeit obscure) sights on that trip wer...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! This week it was my privilege to have "interviewed" musician Michael Monroe... but "interviewed" is set off on quotation marks here because the method of interviewing wasn't exactly traditional.  And I think there are some fun opportunities that come from this idea. The question at hand? “Do you consider yourself a musician who sees technology as a...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! ... Breathe in. ... Call. 206-339-3742 (206-339-ERIC) ... Breathe out. ... Share your thoughts.

Click here to listen to this week's episode! Over the years you've heard me refer GusDay, the local higher-ed IT technology conference (originally created/sponsored by Gustavus Adolphus College ).  This year, the organizers invited former presenters to return and give a repeat/revised version of a previous talk. So I polled my colleagues about my past offerings and the one mentioned most ofte...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! "Rather than trying to get people to see their mental incongruity... and we didn't quite flesh this out." How's that for a teaser quote? Yes, we need your help to fill in the gaps of this week's Ericast.  Call 206-339-ERIC (a.k.a. 206-339-3742) with your thoughts and contributions.

Click here to listen to this week's episode! "Back in the day," computer users built a community -- or, built multiple communities depending on their platform of choice.  Today, we can carry on the tradition by reminiscing about those computers and the communities they fostered.  It's circular, but in a totally good way! Today, TRS-80 and Commodore lovers can live in harmony.  I lov...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! What better way to celebrate the coming of Christmas than by watching a train-based concert in the cold?  Well, actually, I suppose there are lots of different ways and some of them might be better (or, at least, more theologically relevant to the season) but nonetheless we had a spectacular time in Hastings, Minnesota watching The Claytones perfor...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! Got any old 1980s-vintage classic 8-bit computing memories of your own to share?  Call the listener feedback line (206-339-ERIC) or drop a note to me (eric) at ericast.com -- or via any number of other social media channels that 30 years ago we couldn't have dreamed would exist in the future.  We live in amazing times; let's take advantage of...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! No, we're not talking about a beer commercial from 20 years ago.  Instead, after a long-winded summary of the past couple months of daily life in the Ericast world, we question whether it's helpful to ask "why" a technological problem happened. No, we don't ask "Why do people do that?!?" ...Because that would be hypocritical, right? Insights? Call...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! What happens when there are no show notes? Let's find out. Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com and let me know if you noticed.

Click here to listen to this week's episode! After last week's Listener Feedback episode I got serious (again) about talking about audio compression.  So, that's really all that this week's episode is about. For those that are curious, this episode's Audacity settings are: Threshold: -12 dB Noise Floor: -70 dB Ratio: 6:1 Attack Time: 0.2 secs Decay Time: 1.0 secs (As outlined by billw58 in a...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! Making a mess of the editing experience thanks to my return to Adobe Audition and my circa 2004 PC (which, for some reason, I thought would make things easier; I really need to get my compression options in Audacity figured out a.s.a.p.!) to the point where my ancient computer is actually dropping out entire words, here's our Listener Feedback Week If I...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! This episode recaps my surprisingly busy week last week with a couple highlights from MinneDemo 2013 :  A nonprofit/church community management site called FreshVine.co and Jerry Belich's Choosatron storytelling gadget. I also touch on Sorin's Bluff in Red Wing, Minnesota , Lark Toys in Kellogg, Minnesota , buying peaches at the Pepin (Wisconsin) c...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! A walk in the woods provides the background to this week's episode, where I talk about an awkwardly bad customer service interaction I witnessed at the Home Depot Kids Workshop (which has pretty much always been a fun experience for us... but not for the poor dad I saw last Saturday...), contrasted with an outstanding Tweet-driven interaction with Enom....

Click here to listen to this week's episode! What was this past week's adventure?  A road trip down to Mankato, Minnesota to watch two 12-story dorms known as Gage Hall be imploded . Pretty cool.  Way totally pretty cool. And on that trip, I had live and personal "listener feedback" from Listener Mike.  We didn't record our conversation, but I re-live it on this podcast. By the way,...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! If you know me and my background at all, you know that I spent my "formative teen years" in Cornucopia, Wisconsin -- "Wisconsin's Northernmost Village" up on the South Shore of Lake Superior. So when we were vacationing in Duluth and drove out there this June, along Highway 13 that I know so well... The first sign was that Port Wing's two prominent chur...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! This week, I had planned to do a big, deep episode about my return to Cornucopia, Wisconsin (where I spent my formative teen years)... but that'll have to wait until I have a bit more emotional bandwidth.  In the meantime, here's a rollicking chat about a Drobo RAID device that I'm trying to keep from absorbing all my time right now. Questions, ide...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! This week I had the privilege of interviewing Daniel Buhr, a.k.a. Cybuhr (also at twitter.com/Cybuhr if you prefer short snippets to full websites)... and you have the privilege of hearing his insights on leadership.  Be sure to check out his website and the Be-Do Model for starters. And remember, you're supposed to tell a friend (or two?) about th...

Click here to listen to this week's episode! You know what? I want to break from form and just let this episode stand on its own. So, here are some minimal notes: Ignite Minneapolis 2013 lineup Review of Ignite 2013 from Andrew Koch Bonus unmentioned book: Pharisectomy by Peter Haas Contact: 206-339-ERIC (206-339-3742) or @emlarson

Click here to listen to this week's episode! It's the end of the month, and that means listener feedback... and that means that we get to hear from a very special new listener to the Ericast:  Kyle Kesterson, CEO of Freak'n Genius, the folks behind the YAKiT app (and the not-quite-real Endors.ly site that we talked about in Ericast 218 - Endorsly vs. Fanshout ). Kyle was nice enough to includ...