The rapid growth in the Interactive Festival demands some changes from SXSW.

(I started this post before I saw this one, by Jolie O’Dell – but I agree also with most of what she says.)

I’ll take each area individually.

SXSW -

This is no longer a little conference.  It is one of the major “tech” conferences in the world now – and while well run and well managed, there is always room for improvement.  SXSWi could start by defining what “interactive” means to them today and who the target market is.  Interactive could certainly include the “Social Media Gurus” that others have complained have taken over the stage.  Interactive could also refer to the proliferation of real-time data exchange applications that now exist and the real geeks that are building off of them.  Like apps built on the Twitter API, etc.  I don’t think it can be both.  Perhaps you need to add another block.

Let me pay an extra ten dollars and have my badge and shit mailed to me – the cattle-chutes are untenable.

And for the love of what makes sense – get the city to close East 4th Street between Red River and Neches, at least.  The Hilton is “Convention Center Two” even for those not staying there and the number of people trying to cross 4th to get to the convention center, along with the bikes, bike-cabs, and autos is just begging for trouble/gridlock.

Austin  -

See above on the street closure.  GET MORE CABS OUT LATE AT NIGHT/EARLY IN THE MORNING.  Borrow some from San Antonio if you must.  But the cabs are all focused on what seems to be a ten block area downtown.

Attendees -

Know what you are getting in for – don’t carry huge backpacks around with you – you block sidewalks and hallways.  Austin is a walking city – plan to walk!  Travel light. Don’t have your own mini-convention in the middle of hallways and crosswalks.  You are NOT that important – move to the side!

Stop spitting on the street, pissing in the bushes, throwing your trash anywhere you damn well please and otherwise acting like a moronic twelve year old with a doting mother.  Be a decent human being (even if just for a few days).

Remember the people who live in Austin were there before you, and will be there after you.  Respect them and their property.  I saw three arrests in Austin this past week.  I probably saw two dozen more that should have been arrests.  And I am not talking minor things, or even drug related things – I mean property damage, assaults and basic ass-hat-isms.

Venues (bars) -

Please learn to say “NO”.  You do NOT need to get everyone in every event drunk.  Really.  Tell them they have had enough – BEFORE you send them out into the streets to get into trouble.  I can’t believe how much over-serving of alcohol I saw.  People who could not stand or walk were getting served.  I know the party sponsor is paying for the booze – but the venue is responsible for serving.  Act responsibly.

Don’t pretend you hold 500 people when only 300 can fit. (Oh – this should also be under the notes for the City of Austin – re-examine your “maximum occupancy” codes – they are fucked up).

Oh – and at least have SOME plan for rain.  Like mats you can put on slippery spots where stairs meet wet concrete.  An dwhile you are at it – spray some of that adhesive grip stuff on your staircases.  You make a fortune during SXSWi – spend a little of it preventing that one lawsuit that will reverse your fortunes.

Venues (Hotels) -

Our hotels cost a LOT during SXSW – and honestly, my hotel is my sanctuary.  I would prefer that my hotel limited admission to the hotel bar and restaurant to hotel guests and their guests.  Yep – sorry, but I said that out loud, and I mean it.  Not being able to get breakfast in my own hotel because it is full of people from other hotels sucks.  Why pay so much to stay in downtown Austin if I don’t have any advantages?

There are more, and I could go on – but I’ll see what if anything you do with this simple list.

I would love to “Keep Austin Weird” – but you also need to “Keep SXSW Useful” and “Keep SXSW Safe”.

This fake human was in a hurry, on her cell phone, and evidently far too important to be kept waiting – and she SHOVED an elderly woman!

When I helped the woman regain her balance (and yelled at the fake human) the nice old lady looked at me and smiled, and said, “That’s ok, son.  Sometimes people are just no damn good”.  While it startled me to hear it come from her – I also realized it was a truism.  We see it in athletes, TV personalities, and many others.

Even in bloggers – ESPECIALLY in bloggers.

A recent case is when a mother lost a two year old child to drowning and reached out to her friends – her network.  Her support structure.  Those friends happened to be on Twitter, and this grieving mother was chastised and second-guessed by people that are “just no damned good”.  At a time this woman needed friends and support more than ever a small army of (mostly, from what I can tell), “I am a better mommy blogger than you are” fake humans attacked her and accused her of horrendous things.  Like causing her child’s death because she was on Twitter and not watching the child.

I’m sorry.  You can stick your “better than me” attitude right up your (choose an orifice).

A mother lost a child.  And “better” mothers were mean, and cruel and uncaring.

Sometimes people are just no damned good.

And shame on them for it.

The reason, it turns out is stupid – I was a single parent raising two young “teens”.

“That creeped me out”!

Really? In 2002 a father raising his kids creeped you out?  You must be going totally bat-shit now then – there are SO many of us compared to then.

Guess what?

You creep me out.

Deal with it.

Finally I told her, “Look, let’s just get me over this current shit, and we’ll work on some of your other concerns, OK?”

Her response? “You are lying to me – you won’t come back until the next time you are miserable”.

BINGO! You win the grand prize, Lady Doctor! Because you are absolutely, positively 100% correct!

Why? Because your goal is to FIND SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME. If I have flaws that AREN’T bothering me, then honestly, I prefer keeping it that way for as long as I can. When they start bothering me TOO much, I’ll come see you. Perhaps in time – perhaps not. But shouldn’t that be MY call?

I guess not, since I just got a call from her office telling me she had set an appointment for me tomorrow. Oh, it was a computer that called, which sucked. It isn’t very satisfying telling a machine to shove itself up its own ass! (I DID try though). I won;t be seeing you tomorrow, Lady Doctor.

So, Dear Doctor Lady – let’s make a deal. I promise to come visit you whenever it is the lesser evil between seeing you, and the the pain/discomfort/odd growth/whatever that drives me there. But in between you need to leave me alone and instead anticipate with joy that the next time you see me I will be ABSOLUTELY miserable, and you can say, “I told you so”. And should I grow a large brain tumor in that period you can really gloat about it. Deal?

One more thing – don’t remind me that smoking is bad for me. I know that. I knew it before you were born

Work with me here!

Gads, I hate Doctors

Neither are “people serving” – and both are “self-serving”.

I don’t know why this was received with such fanfair – especially by my ex-fellow panelists on NewsGang Live, a show I was “dis-invited” from tonight – simply because I stated that NOT voting is an option that might be realistic for people to consider – for MONTHS I have stated that I am a libertarian (with a small “L” – NOT a member of the party).  Actually, I was asked not to come on and talk about NOT voting.  Since it is prety much a political show (and Obama Rally) now, that basically means, “don’t show up”.

But why the hate?  Because I decided NOT to support Obama?  Sorry – that is MY decision – and I have as much right to Tweet about it as I do anything else, and as much of a right as anyone else has to Tweet in favor of their candidate.

But I did NOT accuse John McCain of being a traitor on Twitter today, and I did NOT call Palin a “bitch” on Twitter today – others did.  “Friends” of mine did.  I didn’t bash them.  I didn’t ban them from a show or suggest they have no business Twittering their opinions.  I didn’t even unfollow them. I DID react to them though – they made me realize that if you vote in this election based on HATE, you fail.  If you get others to vote based on HATE, you fail.

They just helped me decide that I didn’t like how politics works – and even, to some extent, how they are working politics.

So I won’t be on NewsGang Live anymore – which is fine.  I haven’t been on much lately anyway, and the last dozen times were just about politics – I enjoyed it more when it had a broader audience/subject matter.  I DID have a lot of fun on NGL though.

I’m really disappointed in the American political system, and how powerless we Americans feel to fix it.

Neither candidate is for “change” – they both just want “their version of change”.  Real change is drastic, and would destroy our two party ssytem – so they have no reason to “change” anything.

So I checked out of the ugly political debate, and I will check out of the election.  Sorry.  I have a right to.  And I have no obigation to vote for a candidate I cannot support, and in this election, I find little to like.

And don’t tell me I “have a duty” – I have served on Active Duty for this country and I have AT LEAST earned the right to not fucking vote for people I don’t fucking like – don’t you fucking think?

So be it. Hate me for not voting.  Hate your ass off.  I won’t hate you for it

But I was also accused of “voter suppression” which firstly, I think is a felony and thus a dangerous “McCarthyism-like accusation”, and second, is just *rude* to suggest.  I am NOT going to manipulate others into not voting, prevent people to attend the poles, etc, etc.  Just going to share my opinion that voting for a bad canditate isn’t any better for not voting for one at all.

Deciding NOT to vote, and even encouraging others NOT to vote is NOT voter suppression.  And I was persnally offended at the suggestion.  Especially since a “friend” suggested it.

Something a computer does that MY computer doesn’t do.

That could be computing, or storage, or application execution, web hosting – doesn’t matter – it just isn’t done by MY computer.

SaaS is the cloud as much as web hiosting is the cloud.  The cloud is what is online, from photos to backups.   Soon enough the cloud will have standards, just s WiFi has them.  And I saw how WiFi grew.  I rode that pony. The cloud is bigger.

But it needs standards.  Soon.  At least in nomenclature.

Rob

To say our state Dept of Transportation has an image problem is a huge understatement.  What they have is an EGO problem. 

They think we work for them. They think my money is their money.  They think I (and any other concerned taxpayer) am an idiot.

You can’t even sue them when their projects destroy your property – so I guess they actually ARE above the law. 

Perhaps that causes the arrogance they exude at every opportunity. So maybe it isn’t really their fault at all.

No, scratch that – they an are arrogant, power-corrupt operation that needs reeled in.  And that is exactly what I will be looking for in the next candidate for Governor  I vote for.  And I’ll be looking for the same “Tame TxDOT” quality in ANY state representatives I vote for – be they Congressman or Judges.

So I was quite pleased to see I am not alone in my displeasure with TxDOT.

The confidence of the Legislature and the public are very important to us," says Lippincott. "We still have work to do, but we are confident that our ongoing efforts to improve the transparency and accessibility of TxDOT are making a positive impact. We look forward to our continued work with the members and staff of the Sunset Commission.

Commission releases scathing report on TxDOT – Austin Business Journal:

Which makes it apparent that what Bexar Appraisal District (BAD) is doing is absolutely the latter part of that definition.  They are not offering an "expert valuation", just an "official valuation".

To offer an expert valuation one must actually a) have knowledge in the subject matter and b) examine the subject.

So let’s look at how Bexar Appraisal District set the new valuation for my house. 

First, we must understand the Texas Property Tax Code, which states (in my words):

The  maximum increase in a homeowner’s assessed value is 10% per year times the number of years since the property was last appraised.

What that means is that if you did not get a property tax increase in 2007 (and you did not appeal), they can increase it 20% in 2008.  If your last increase was in 2004 (and you did not appeal any of those years between), they can increase your taxes 40% in 2008.  This is what our government calls a "cap".  I call it bull-cap.

Before I continue, and to make sure this post has more value then just a rant – if you pay personal property taxes in Texas, you must appeal your tax assessment every year – even if it did NOT increase.  If you appeal, and lose, then the next year the maximum increase is 10%.  If you do not appeal, your maximum next year increase is double that!

Plus, if everyone appeals every year we will break the system – they will be forced to fix it.  I know the cure might be worse than the problem, but I honestly don’t think that is very likely (or even possible).

To re-enforce why I believe this, let’s look at the "magic math" that my "assessors" performed when re-evaluating the annual taxes on my property (property they have not actually visited in at least 6 years):

"What would we have to assess this property at to make damn sure we get every penny of the ten percent increase we are allowed to charge?  $49,060?  Cool.  Assessment complete."

I DO NOT believe that was the intent of the "cap" passed by the Texas Government, and I do not believe that a "Tax Assessor" should be allowed this reckless, negligent, blatantly self-serving and morally criminal behavior.  Using the maximum value you can find to extract the absolute maximum amount of taxes is not performing an assessment. 

It is performing a theft.

It is also clear that no professional assessments are being done whatsoever.  Computer software is calculating how much the Government can take from you.  And then they take it.

The more I learn about our Property Tax system the more embarrassed I am that we have such a fundamentally misnamed, and morally bankrupt Government Agency.

Finally, I am actually talking to an Attorney about this – my thought is that the Bexar Appraisal District is not performing it’s stated function, which is:

Within this site you will find general information about the District and the ad valorem property tax system in Texas, as well as information regarding specific properties within the district.

Bexar Appraisal District is responsible for appraising all real and business personal property within Bexar County. The district appraises property according to the Texas Property Tax Code and the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP).

Bexar Appraisal District is responsible for the fair market appraisal of properties within each of the following taxing entities:

Instead, all they are doing is employing computer software to calculate the maximum possible revenue extraction from the tax-payers which fall under its jurisdiction.  This argument will be part of my appeal to BAD.  I will challenge them to demonstrate any mechanisms employed to "assess" my property.  I will also file a Freedom of Information Act request to see the internal workings of the computer software being utilized by BAD to set, monitor, adjust, analyze, or report on any aspect of the property valuations BAD has set for my residence.

You think I am being harsh?

My appraisal went up $49,060.  On a house valued at less than $200K! In one year!  That is a 26% increase year over year.

And yes, I can and will go fight this.  But I shouldn’t have to.  I will waste days preparing for the meeting, and hours waiting around for my "appointment".

Food, gas, housing – everything is costing more, yet our taxing authorities continue to take more, and more.

Bexar Appraisal District.  Even their acronym is BAD.

How much of this do these people think we can take before we pour the tea into the harbor again? 

I’m all for boarding that boat now.

"No Quarter!"

I love almost everything about my XBOX Live experience except for their support, which completely sucks, and is without doubt, the worse I have ever experienced from a large company.

Yes – worse than my mortgage company, my water company, whatever.

XBOX Live is a great service – but they do not offer great service.

Once your credit card is expired, and Microsoft attempts to bill it and it fails, then that number is locked out – seemingly forever, according to the live “help desk”.

Then you start getting random email messages, like the one I got today:

This mail is confirmation that your subscription to Xbox Live 12 mo. Gold Membership has been cancelled on Thursday, April 03, 2008.

If you have questions about this cancellation, or if you want to reactivate your subscription, please go to www.xbox.com/support or call Xbox Customer Support at 1 (800) 4MY-XBOX.

Canceled? WHICH account? I have several. Canceled? I canceled nothing.

I have NO CLUE what this email refers to.

Microsoft has no clue how to resolve credit card issues in XBOX Live – really – do a Google Search for it (30,800 hits).

I don’t have credit cards. I have one ATM card that works like a credit card. For me to change that number I need to change bank account numbers. Microsoft – why should I change bank account numbers, get a new ATM card, AND order new checks just because your software and/or operators cannot figure this shit out!

Credit Cards expire. So do debit cards. Deal with it, already. Really – just fucking deal with it. Work with me.

Search this blog, or the XBOX Live forums – you will see how long I have been fighting this idiocy.

And. I. Am. Just. About. To. Stop. Fighting.

And as an owner of three XBOX systems I think I am a customer worth keeping. But Microsoft has to do the work now. I’m tired of working to make sure I can give them money.

That’s just unacceptable.

Microsoft, you HAVE to know about this problem – I’ve talked to you about it for a year. Just fix it! Don’t just teach your Indian Tech Support to just tell me to “get a cash credit card at the grocery store”. That is bullshit. Teach your call center employees to help me.

Or lose me forever. You are on the brink. And right now, you are disappointing me.

And many others, if you believe in search results.

My number is right up there in the about box – call me. But only if you can fix your systems to use my completely valid debit card. The same one I can still use to buy Microsoft Points via the XBOX. I just can’t buy XBOX Live with it. Really. Your systems are that broken.

If you work at or for Microsoft and you can fix this, then please call me. PLEASE!

You feel sleazy.

I just received a marketing call – from a local company I have supported for years.

The company is GlobeScape. We once shared a wall in an office complex.

Now I don’t know if this was really GlobeScape or if the caller was just trying to scam me.

But either way, it hurts the GlobeScape brand.

I’ve used their CuteFTP Pro product for a very long time, and I even promoted it on Twitter over the last couple of days.

But tonight I was “randomly selected” as a “winner” to “celebrate” GlobeScape’s move to their new building.

I “won” a round trip ticket and two night hotel stay anywhere in the US.

Until I answered the “are you married” question.

I said, “No”. The guy (with poor English) then said, “Mr. Rob, do you have a live in girlfriend or partner?”

Nope, just me and my kids, I explained.

“I’m sorry sir”, he said. “This promotion is only for couples.”

And my “prize” went away. My “randomly” selected name meant nothing.

PLEASE – someone from GlobeScape tell me this wasn’t really you running this. If it was, it is dirty. The only reason you would limit it to couples only is if you are trying to sell me something.

And I am already your customer.

One you can only lose if you are actually involved in this.

I have about 30 HD channels.  I could have more, but I don’t watch Premium Channels – so I don’t pay for them.  I have a bunch of interactive TV stuff – some of it I use often (Start Over is very cool).

I have hundreds of TV channels to choose from.

And that is all very cool.

I also have a digital phone that lets me call anywhere I want to call for a flat fee.  I don’t have to think twice about calling that customer in New York.  It is “free”.  All I can eat for $39.95 a month.

And that is all very cool.

But I also get Road Runner High Speed Internet.  I think I pay $50/month for this.

And Road Runner lets me work from my home.  It lets me consume on average 10 GB a month of content – blogs, music, movies, news, etc.

It also lets me create a lot of content in a lot of ways.  I can blog, upload videos, do podcasts and even talk to my developers overseas all via the Internet.

But mostly Time Warner lets me work from home.  The money I am saving on gas more than pays for my Internet.  And my cable.  And my phone.

So now that TW has all the bugs worked out with my house (in an older neighborhood that required some upgrades) I don’t cringe when looking at my cable bill.

In fact, I have a > $300 CREDIT right now.  Because I am over-paying.  Because I don’t want to underpay.  I don’t want my life-feed to be cut off.

I don’t want to have to go to an office.  It has really been about 7 years since I *had* to go to an office.

So I will continue to bitch if my Time Warner service fails.  But I think I am over bitching about how much it costs me.  When I consider that every dime I make comes through my cable modem, either through a phone call or an Internet connection.

And then I meet the most wonderful people.

So yes – my Time Warner connection is worth every penny I pay.  I wish it cost less.  But I won’t bitch about it any more.

Unless it breaks.

I find their actions repulsive.  And I am pleased I live in an area they do not service.

How big are the stakes in the so-called network neutrality debate now raging before Congress and federal regulators?

Consider this: One side in the debate actually went to the trouble of hiring people off the street to pack a Federal Communications Commission meeting yesterday—and effectively keep some of its opponents out of the room.

Broadband giant Comcast—the subject of the F.C.C. hearing on network neutrality at the Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts—acknowledged that it did exactly that.

Comcast F.C.C. Hearing Strategy – Portfolio.com