On This First Day of Spring...Breathe

Here is one of the books I'm currently reading. Ultra Longevity by Mark Liponis.

Which includes... 1. Breathe: Proper breathing is the way to access the automatic functions of your body and send a peaceful message to your immune system.

Which leads you to wonder how clean your outdoor air is. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality & AirNow

And also leads us to clean up our indoor air. Kamal Meattle breaks it down what you need to do in his brief TED lecture.

Which should get us to make changes to adopt these behaviors;

• Exercise outdoors in the morning when the air is cleaner.


• Purchase and maintain more indoor plants.


• Monitor the air when spending a length of time outdoors. Did you know on this beautiful first day of spring in Austin that the forecast calls for moderate levels of Ozone today?


• Make sure you select the Air Recirculate button on your car's AC system when in traffic so you're not breathing the exhaust from the car in front of you.

Going Through SXSW Withdrawals

The withdrawal syndrome immediately following the final panel presentation of SXSSW Interactive creates an immediate abstinence. Physical symptoms of this early stage seem to depend on the activity of a part of the brainstem called the locus coeruleus. SXSW has been known to depress this area and it would therefore be expected to become hyperactive during withdrawal. Constant Twittering before boarding planes or immediately upon arrival keeps the area semi-stimulated. The sufferer constantly looks down at a small electronic device (most likely an iPhone) while walking in small circles or wavy forward paths. Increased agitation will increase and swearing similar to Turrets syndrome patients may occur and this may be due to sporadic wireless connectivity. The locus coeruleus is an important center in the brain's fear-alarm system, and such hyperactivity would be consistent with the marked anxiety and agitation withdrawing addicts report. Unfortunately for withdrawing addicts, other conferences beside the SXSW can't stimulate this region with the same intencity. True replication of the feelings can only occur once a year in March.

Detoxification is usually accomplished by giving decreasing doses of Twitter sessions followed by rituals of standing in long lines for free beer.

The author goes on to say, "the duration of early abstinence depends on the conference's rate of elimination and in the case of SXSW most major symptoms should be gone within seven to ten days."

SXSW talk by Gary Vaynerchuk

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/86998558/gary-vaynerchuks-sxsw-keynote

Clearly the best friggin' presentation I saw at SXSW this year and it's on the net.

SXSW 2009 Behind Me

SXSW 2009 is over. Here are a few observations and tips I hope to follow next year at SXSWi.

1. Buy more laptop batteries. It's worth it not to have to look for power outlets and then be tethered.
2. The bigger the room for the speaker does not always mean they're a better speaker. Sometimes SXSW scheduling messes up. Suckage can occur in a BIG room. Witness Mark Zuckerberg/ Sarah Lacy Interview From SXSW 2008. Also, the Hilton was used as spillover for a reason. ;)
3. There's a lot to say about taking just an iPod Touch or iPhone and a notebook and a phone. Accessing the sxsw.mobi worked well to look at the schedule. Checking email is overrated. It can wait until the evening. Otherwise, if emergency, there's always someone's laptop or a community laptop.
4. Take a phone with Internet apps as the wireless is questionable. Sprint worked better than AT&T every day of the conference. In defense I think that was the largest concentration of iPhones ever within a two block area.
5. Try to do more small discussions with others at a pub like on Monday night. Sitting around drinking beer and talking about code, design, writing works better than struggling for free beer underneath tents where hookups or introductions are rarely made.
6. Take advantage of the free yoga as that was the best improvement to SXSW this year. It set me up for the rest of the day.
7. Getting to the Convention Center early each day for yoga allowed me to find reasonably close FREE parking.
8. Do the homework on the speakers. I spent one night reading the profiles and session descriptions but I needed to look in more detail. Maybe even their last year's rating if available. Maybe even ask through Twitter or blog other's recommendations.
9. Taking my own aluminum water bottle worked great. Do it again.

SXSW: Some Tweets I found

techupdate: Lifehacker: Get 6GB of Free Music from SXSW '09 [Deals] : Looking for a whole lot of new, free music?.. http://tinyurl.com/c77ptq (expand)

mattbeckman: RT: Joomla beats out Drupal + Wordpress in the #sxsw showdown: #cmssmackdown #drupal #joomla #wordpress http://tr.im/huay

upicksRT @murnahan: 99 Essential #Twitter Tools And Applications http://is.gd/nHFw (WOW this list is amazingly long)

brianoberkirch RT @monstro So So we went a little (ok, a LOT) over our bar budget last night. Any chance you can help us out? http://32bit.chipin.com/

SXSW: Tuesday Keynote: Chris Anderson / Guy Kawasaki Conversation

Updates
2:44 Micropayments. Why they won't work is that there's a big difference between 0.00 and 0.01 (1 cent). It's not the money, it's the flag that goes up when there's any cost that causes an evaluation of the value.
2:42 Copyright and lack of it in China. "China is the future of free" If you don't make your product free the pirates will make it free for you. Give it away, create celebrity and then figure a way to monetize the celebrity.
2:40 Game space model is interesting like Club Penguin. Where 95% free versus 5% paid is where companies can make a profit. Ex. 37 Signals.
2:30 discussing freemium model. Quicktime versus QuickTime Pro is a good example of the freemium model.
2:15 discussing Quid Pro Quo. A twitter follow in exchange for a PDF of a book.
2:00 Chris: Paper still matters. Books still matter. Digital forms of content should be free or close to it as the costs are near $0. Physical books should have a cost as they cost $ to produce or be subsidized by ads or sponsors. Twitter stream for this panel is #sxswfree

Room A
Tuesday, March 17th

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

In 2006, Chris Anderson introduced the concept of the Long Tail. His soon-to-be released book will talk about the power of free. Will his theories stand up to the tough questions of venture Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki?

Chris Anderson Wired Magazine

Guy Kawasaki CEO, Alltop

SXSW: UR Blog Sux and Print is Dead

Updates
12:00 Heather says she never gets a break. Blog is always there and always needs to be attended to.
11:57 Lander had a good experience with the publisher and process.
11:55 Miller is self proclaimed ADD.
11:50 Heather (Dooce) has a short attention span movies 1:40 or less, doesn't read books, likes magazines and sees herself more like a sprinter than a marathoner. The book was difficult. Doesn't want to do it again. Definite blogger.
11:43 Lander doesn't engage with haters. Huh and Miller respond. Dooce has received scary email.
11:40 the base level of personality on the Web is deuche bag (Ben Huh)
11:37 Lander's site grew very fast and it was all based on a joke.
11:33 Dealing with haters. Anonymizer is good with regards to domain registration.
11:30 This one is going to be wild. They've all received death threats, suspicious packages at odd times of the night.

Room 18BCD

Tuesday, March 17th

11:30 am - 12:30 pm

How to make the most of your blog's "overnight success" (get a book deal! quit your day job!) without letting anonymous commenters make you hate yourself in the process.

Ben Huh CEO, I Can Has Cheezburger?

Christian Lander Writer, Stuff White People Like

Kerry Miller passiveaggressivenotes.com

Heather Armstrong Pres, Blurbodoocery Inc

Ana Marie Cox Natl Correspondent, Air America