Fire-Wired Blog

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Dear President Obama, With the Iowa Caucus nearing, and political drama starting to consume the news cycle, I'm sure you've heard the rumblings for a federal holiday on election day. Considering only half of eligible voters cast a ballot in 2012, think how big the voting pool would grow if people didn't have to work. Not being a political activist I have zero idea if this has any chance of happening, but it seems to make sense when you take into account people who work multiple jobs, extended hours, or overnight shifts. However this letter isn't about the election, it's about tech. I’d like to propose a different holiday. Mr. Obama, please consider a federal holiday for Apple’s annual new iPhone announcement. Now before you toss this letter in the recycling and cast it off as trivial consider that more people own iPhones in America than vote in the Presidential election. Approximately 130 million voters pulle...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Virtually every medium of media has its zealots. The most well known group is audiophiles; music or sound lovers pursuing the cleanest audio sound possible. These fanatics will espouse the virtues of five-figure sound systems that deliver frequencies the human ear can’t hear but are nevertheless important because of the subconcious way your brain reacts to said tones. I don’t mean to disparage audiophiles, or any other media zealot for that matter, but to simply identify the protagonist in a digital age crusade against the most alarming of foes; compression. As long as the ability to record sight and sound have been available, compression has existed. Whether we’re talking the phonograph, daguerreotype, or kinetoscope all forms of media started with compressed quality. Simply put, compression is any manner of compacting information as to reduce file size in effort to allow for easy delivery; i.e. degrading sound and image qual...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com The National Football League –America’s most popular sport– loves to tout its $10 billion revenue value. Between dominant TV ratings and local teams stoking the flames of fandom the NFL has nearly a perpetual motion of cash creation. $10 billion is impressive, but interestingly enough it’s puny in comparison to the king of American entertainment, videogame playing. Companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, EA, Rovio, and Sega politely smile and let out a chuckle when they click by a football game on TV, because while millions of raving football lunatics are generating $10 billion for the NFL, billions of videogame playing zombies are shoveling $21 billion in U.S. revenue and nearly $100 billion worldwide. When you really start to think about how football obsessed our culture is, it’s preposterous to think that button mashing gamers in basements across the nation are fueling the economy more than football loving meatheads cramm...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Children across the country are told this everyday when they say something hurtful. The problem is this expression is also used when people say something negative. Criticism and negativity aren’t inherently evil. They are the building blocks of better art, music, research, politics, and sometimes they even improve parenting efforts. For this reason alone Facebook needs a dislike button, and thankfully the site has been internally testing the feature for winter release. Since Facebook unveiled the Like button in 2009, a sizeable amount of users have been asking for a dislike button. In fact it's the number one requested Facebook feature for six years running. Opponents of "dislike" point to the bottomless pit of negativity the internet appears to be. Between snarky comments, trolling, flame wars, and outright bigotry, do we really need to slap a...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com To the uninspired, greed-fueled the modern web must be secretly infuriating. Parroting a phrase I heard time again in the photography showcase at the state fair, the internet inspires a lot of “I could do that.” From food blogs to silly YouTube video producers, it seems thousands of talentless hacks are raking in cash with little to no effort. The worst offender? Buzzfeed. Making matters worse, the new media giant was recently valued at a cool $1.5 billion. First things first, I don't believe any of what you just read. Creating audience garnering content on the web is not easy. It takes constant brainstorming, blitzkrieg creativity, excellent imagery and writing, and a unique voice. Anyone can run over to Wordpress and start a blog, but making a living off it takes dedication and serious work. Second, if you find yourself scoffing at a $1.5 billion Buzzfeed you don’t understand the world of today’s web. Web journalism has as...

Covering the 2015 Iowa State Fair for Iowa Public Television made me eat my words. For the last half of my life I have been down on the fair, never understanding why so many people came to Des Moines to mill around a fried food-fueled, tractor-filled, expensive fairgrounds. Well after 10 trips to the fair this year I fully get it. There are hundreds of awesome event, contests, booths, and just general things to do at the fair. The Iowa State Fair is a HUGE deal to Iowa Public Television . IPTV's been covering the fair for 45 years and every year the entire production staff, dedicates 11 days in August to running around the fairgrounds with cameras. Of my 10 state fair odysseys, seven were for work and 3 were personal trips with family. Every time I've gone to the fair in years past whether with friends or family, I've left underwhelmed. Before the Fair got underway this year I was worried it was going to be more of the same except worse because I would subjected to ...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com The internet can be the most downright ugly place in the world. Anonymous online posting is the number one plague of the 21st century. The list of horrible things people can do on the internet reads like a wrap sheet for aliens to exterminate our species; hacking, child pornography, revenge-porn, hate speech, gamergate, outright racism and sexism, and personally my least favorite of all, doxxing. Before we get too far down the rabbit hole of despicable web behavior, let’s clear something up; the internet is not all bad. It allows us to communicate in ways that were unimaginable just 25 years ago. The internet has changed the way people learn such as online college degrees and free, in-depth tutorials ranging topics from programming to quilting. The internet has enlightened people across the globe to causes and issues that are completely disconnected from their everyday lives. The list of good uses and things on the internet is...