Tom Anthony Personal Blog

I found an interesting statistic in Website Magazine today. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 48 percent of Internet users have visited a video-sharing site like YouTube at least once to watch or post a video. That number is a giant leap from 33 percent in December 2006. They also state that 15 percent watch or post a video on a typical day, up from 8 percent last year.

A couple of interesting finds:

• Men are more likely to have used a video-sharing site – 53 percent, compared to 43 percent of women.
• 70 percent of users under 30 have used the sites, compared to just 16 percent of those 65 and over.
• About 25 percent of Americans have recorded video, and of those 14 percent have uploaded their videos – up from 4 percent in 2006.

Video production and uploading is getting easier every day. It has been a long time coming but speed (bandwidth) is finally not the huge hurdle it was when I first got into the Internet Business. Cool.

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Tom Walker, President of Web Teks asked me to write a column for the upcoming January 2008 company newsletter. I really like the way it came out so I wanted to share it with you here on my personal blog.

The Dream

When I woke up this morning I was still thinking – how did it get to be 2008 already? Yet here we are reflecting on the past year and ever refining our respective visualization of what lies ahead.

An observation of the immediate future is to report on a movement in the world of commerce toward a more interconnected technological infrastructure. Most of our clients, regardless of the size of their company, already understand how the business process itself now physically extends to the public network through email and the World Wide Web. In a word, eBusiness. O.K. – that is not new.

What may be new to you is how evolving shopping patterns at brick and mortar locations and the increased technological participation of many major distributors and manufacturers is changing the landscape. Hold on – we are not talking about a bunch of new technology here – and by no means are we saying technology itself is the path to increase business. Jim Collins, author of the Book “Good to Great” says it this way; “Technology cannot make or break a company’s level of greatness, but only serves as an accelerator of greatness or demise already in progress”.

What we want to point out is that the maturing process of gathering and sharing data online is having a profound effect on the kind of projects we are asked to engage. Here is a case in point:

An automotive site we designed and maintain starts with data from Arkona, Inc. a company which provides a well known computer program that tracks, maintains, and reports on vehicle inventory. With some help from Web Teks this program feeds another service by Chrome Systems, Inc which provides extensive Manufacturer New Vehicle Data. Now combine what is actually on the lot with how it’s equipped and how much it costs. Our programming goes to the next level and pulls out all the option and pricing logic needed to resolve option conflicts and package codes to manufacturer specifications and requirements.

Before your eyes glaze over – what you end up with is not the technology that makes it all work. Honestly – beside the guys who actually do the programming, who cares? What the customer gets in this case is their absolute dream car. They find exactly what they want – very quickly on the local car dealer’s website, and just as importantly, on the local car dealer’s lot, and all in real time. The result: an exponential increase in local sales from folks shopping on the internet. Like many of you, they know you don’t have to be an engineer to recognize that people shop on the internet before they visit your business location – no matter how many locations you have. So regardless of how it’s done, what the business owner can focus on is making the sale, not how the web site works.

That’s where Web Teks finds itself going in 2008. We don’t build web sites. We help our customers develop strategies to increase sales or decrease expenses. Then we build the technology to make it happen. We don’t make the dream car – we make it easier to have the dream.

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O’Reilly,
I have been following the local reaction to the senseless death of two local girls at the hands of a drunk illegal alien, and it is simply amazing. Instead of looking for justice for the families, our local press seems to engage in subterfuge, misdirecting citizens toward you and away from the facts. Here is a link to an unbelievable story that appears in today’s Virginian Pilot, followed by my editorial comments to the paper.

Respectfully,

Tom Anthony
Virginia Beach

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=122859&ran=181292

Unbelievably Irresponsible

If Mayor Meyera actually compared Bill O’Reilly to Adolph Hitler as directly as implied in this story she should be ashamed of herself. My first observation is that there is not actually a quote symbol (“quote”) around that specific comment connecting Bill O’Reilly to Nazis, so is this lovely sentiment injected by the story author Tony Germanotta?

My second observation asks why this relatively long piece appears in the life style section of the paper? Are two dead teen age girls a life style issue? Finally I would add an opinion that this story is subterfuge, misleading the reader to believe that Bill O’Reilly is hammering Mayor Meyera and Virginia Beach Police Chief Jake Jacocks Jr. personally. I believe O’Reilly is correctly pointing out that there are two dead teenagers in Virginia Beach as a direct result of a misguided and harmful city policy.

Isn’t it time we address the real issues here?

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Well being the software junkie I truly am I purchased some Virtual Reality software. Mainly it was to be used for a gig I still have not been awarded – here are some samples.

The first one is my absolute favorite. My Good Friend Jack Skinner sitting on his porch in my old neighborhood: Ghent in Norfolk.
Pretty cool huh ? (BTW – you need to drag your mouse over the picture to make it work

Download Large version (right click – save as)

This second one is called an Object – it’s a series of photos taken 360 degrees around a prosthetic bone graph sample. No it’s not a purple Lego.

Download Large version (right click – save as)

If I come up with any more cools ones – I’ll be sure to post them.

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Google Earth

I believe I was one of the first to create video clips for commercial web sites using the geospatial data visualization application Google Earth – in fact when I purchased the software Google had not even acquired it yet – at that time it was called Keyhole. I did pretty simplistic clips – mainly for real estate web sites like the one I did for The Sanctuary in Sandbridge Beach Virginia – see http://www.falsecape.com/phaseI/aerial_tour.asp which features a clip I produced with Paul Sanders. Well not long after that I took over the CEO seat at Pinnacle Wireless and had no available time to dabble in Video production. Things are different today – I am in the middle of a project producing virtual tours for a company that has 12 locations from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale, and for part of that project I am using Google Earth. Holy Cow. Google has gone 3D.

Not only has Google made 3D models of many areas, now anyone can create a 3D model of any building and upload it for viewing in Google Earth. For example some guy in Virginia Beach made a model of his house and called it simply “ My House “. It is very simplistic – but that’s my point. On the other hand Someone made really impressive models of Nauticus (The National Maritime Center ) – also Kirn Memorial Library is very well done.

I guess the point here is that the same phenomena that made YouTube such a powerful force is creating some engaging content in Google Earth. Content is being created by the consumer. That is the evolution of the Internet in a nutshell.

BTW – The public version of Google Earth is free, and that’s what you use to view the same type presentation in real time on your computer. The Authoring tool necessary to create video clips costs $400 a year to license (Google Earth Pro)

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Go Google Yourself

I’m not sure if it’s ADD or boredom – but sometimes in those fleeting seconds waiting for a file to open or a program to close I Google myself. I admit it. Today i found myself quoted in an electronic newsletter from the 20th century. Weird http://www.rtnda.org/resources/radioupdate/fall1999/index.html

the quote is :

Paperless and Tapeless
“In the context of not looking at the world through rose-colored glasses … the reality of the situation is that every broadcast facility in the country, and not long after, the world, will be digital,” says Tom Anthony, national radio consultant and president of his own interactive media enterprise, TomAnthony.com. “If you don’t know the concept of ‘point-and-click’ and ‘cut-and-paste’, you will become a living, breathing dinosaur.”

and BTW I was right <wink>

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Television Commercials featuring Chevy’s Belair Café, an icon of the New York Metro area Club scene in the 80’s and early 90’s. See a much Younger Tom Anthony from about 1987 or so

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Here is an article (to be) printed in the April 2007 National Parkinson Report. The Author Linda Cooper-O’Leary is a remarkable woman I met though the work of my wife and her Daughter Traci who run the Melvin Weinstein Parkinson’s Foundation.

Eight People I met along the Way…

How eight people changed my attitude toward this uninvited visitor who has taken up residence within my body…

Parkinson disease has created changes in me that are, at times, intolerable… the mood swings, the lack of focus, the depression, the pain. I take a different path now than the one I started on. One unintended benefit is that it has brought people so wonderful into my life that I just cannot imagine an existence without them. Let me tell you about eight of them…

A delightful woman whose late father had Parkinson manages a family foundation along with her daughter. Its mission is to assist those with Parkinson Disease to have a richer quality of life. The Foundation, as was her father, is named Melvin Weinstein. I have seen with my own eyes Marsha sit at her desk for hours and patiently listen to the plight of people… Marsha Anthony, you are an angel.

Dedication, Drive… I never quite understood what it must take to be a professional athlete. Cherie Zaun, a LPGA golf Professional and Parkinson Patient, has taught me to understand this. To watch her play is to experience the woman and the love of her game. Watching her arm become stiff and somewhat rigid breaks my heart. But she plays on. And she has taught me to play on as well…

Play on, Cherie Zaun!

My next inspiration is a woman from the same small town in Washington State as I had been. She does not have Parkinson; her husband is a Movement Disorders Specialist. Her personal mission is to raise money for Parkinson Disease and have a fabulous time in the process! Watching her tirelessly go through the details of a fundraiser makes me exhausted! The Arizona Chapter of the National Parkinson Foundation is fortunate to have her as a fund raiser. I am fortunate to count her as a friend. Thanks, Rhaye Mosley!

Parkinson Disease can make one’s feeling of balance and peace just go south! Theresa May, a Massage Therapist, has focused her practice on relieving the physical and mental symptoms of people living with Parkinson. She even gives her Parkinson patients half price massages! She is also a dear friend. Theresa, you have helped me more than you will know.. Thank you!

The very first person who helped me, while I was still living in rural Northwest Oregon and working full time is the Director of the Parkinson Resource Center of Oregon, Holly Chaimov. Holly responded to my first frantic emails immediately and was there in those early weeks and months, even driving a distance to visit me on my lunch break from work. She was the first helping face to Parkinson that I met. Thanks Holly, for giving a first kind face to Parkinson Disease!

The most influential person in my life was my mother who passed away in April of 2005 with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease. My extended family has several individuals with Parkinson’s (it is as if the lifeguard took a lunch break when our gene pool was assembled) Mom lost both of her other children to disease. Watching her endure the unspeakable heartbreak of losing two children was almost more than I could bear.

I had the honor to be with her as she left this world I wrote the following in a journal the night before she died:

“I sit in the quiet of the Hospice room, my mother dying of the disease that is also robbing me of my independence, clarity of thought and physical abilities. To see her struggle with every breath, muscles paralyzed while her limbs shake uncontrollably seems too cruel a way to die.

I look into the very first set of eyes that met me as I entered this world. The very eyes that have never made me feel a failure or shame but have only encouraged me and loved me. The very same eyes that have seen both her sons laid to rest.

I am planning to donate her brain to study of Parkinson’s disease. To discuss the details at this time seem cruel and morbid. Yet we both would stop at nothing to find the cure to this insidious curse. I touch her head and hope that science appreciates the gift that she is giving them.

My blessing is she has never known of my diagnosis. I could spare her that.

Mom I miss you more than I can say, I love you more than you will ever know, and I still admire you more each day.

Dr Donna Redman who serves as a Gerontologist and Assistant Professor at Arizona State University has taught me so much about aging adult and care giving. Donna’s humorous and informative presentations are of Saturday Night Live quality in humor and Face the Nation in accuracy. This lady knows her stuff! Donna, thanks for teaching me what I thought I already knew.

Parkinson changes lives, relationships and families…. I thank my children Tyson, Linnea and Brent Cooper for attempting to understand this complicated disease, and to understand and love me.

Through living with Parkinson, I have met many people, but one person who dug deep into my heart was my husband, Michael Meeting him I was instantly drawn to his passion for others, his good looks and his attitude on his disease and life.

I wanted some of that easy going nature to rub off on me. He made me feel like the most beautiful person in the world and understands my disease, as he has Parkinson’s disease himself and is the only I could ever want or need. I love you, Michael.

Thank you; Holly, Marsha, Mom, Rhaye, Theresa, Cheri, Donna and Michael. You have taught me by example the attributes of generosity, patience, motivation, hospitality, joy, and above all love. I join with all of you in hating this awful disease…. but I shutter to think what my life would be like had you all not been on this path with me…

Linda Cooper-O’Leary

12-23-06

Linda can be reached by requesting her email address here – just add a comment or email tom “at” tomanthony.com

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I hate computers.

All I wanted to do was upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Pro 8. For some reason I got a permissions error. Then I tried to manually change the operating system registry. Big Mistake. That caused other programs – INCLUDING restore point – to not work. In other words I was not only hosed, I could not even revert back to an earlier ‘working’ version of windows. That was about 1:00 O’clock Yesterday Afternoon. At 2:00 AM this morning I finally had moved the necessary files, saved what I could and was prepared to start over.

After checking, and re-checking I determined that I was going to loose some software because I just could not find the serial number or receipts. $cha-ching. I also found out I had accidentally installed a “cracked” version of one of the main software titles I use. That means I had to upgrade the most recent version I did have serial numbers for to the current version. $cha-ching. Oh and not counting the operating system (Windows XP Pro) and Windows Updates – I counted 66 programs that needed to be reinstalled. I kid you not.

AdAware
Adobe Audition 1.5
Adobe Audition 2.0
Adobe Bridge
Adobe Captivate 2
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator CS
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0
AllWebMenuPro v4.2
Atomic email hunter
Atomic email logger
Atomic email verifier
Avant Go
Business plan pro
Divix browser plug in
DVD Ripper Platinum 4
FlashCapture v1.5
FlashMenu
Goldmine
Google Earth
Htttrack
Macromedia Contribute 3.11
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8
Macromedia Extension Manager
Macromedia Fireworks 8
Macromedia Flash 8
Macromedia Flash 8 Video Encoder
Macromedia FlashPaper 2
Macromedia FreeHand MXa
Macromedia HomeSite+
Magic Bullet Movie Looks
Marketing plan pro
Microsoft MapPoint North America 2004
Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003
Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003
Omni Page Pro
palo alto software manager
PaperPort
plaxo tool bar
Quickbooks pro 2005
ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 14.0
Site Map Pro 2.2
SiteMap Pro
Sonic
Sonic Sonic MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite
Sorenson Squeeze
Sorenson Squeeze 4.5
Stuff It
Swift 3D v4,50
SWiSHmax
Textpad
ThumbsPlus 6.0
ThumbsPlus 7.0
Timeslips
Transcriber CE
Tweak UI
WebPosition 4 Pro Upgrade (from WP4 Std)
Windows Media Encoder
Windows Powertoy
Windows XP
WinHTTrack Website Copier 3.40-2
WinRar
WinTasks Pro

See – that’s why i hate computers

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Out of the blue is a phrase I have used more than once concerning Polk County Florida reaching forward to grab me back in time. The day after President Ford Passed Away (December 27, 2006) I received voice mail from Diane Nichols a reporter for the Winter Haven Florida News Chief. She noticed in my online bio that I had once interview Ford while working at a local (Lakeland Florida) radio station – now a quarter century later I was returning a call to speak with Ms Nichols about the experience. Here is a link to that story, and here is a link to the full text as it appeared in the paper in case the News Chief has some time limit on displaying archived stories from their web site.

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