In my quest for global live streaming dominance, I took a break for a quick interview on Fox:

Headed to Houston to watch the Shinedown live chat we are doing with Atlantic Records.  My wife and I will be also staying to watch the concert! Make sure to tune in!

I read a article today about Japan’s need and thus dedication to the advancement of robotics. Japan has an aging population with more than 20% of their population over 65. Because of this, it’s in their national interest to advance robotics to replace their workforce over the coming years. That got me thinking…

Over the next 50 years, robots will become increasingly more common. Obviously that isn’t anything most people haven’t said before. I think we would all agree the number of robots will continue to climb. But have we really thought about it? I know I hadn’t thought much about it, especially the social implications. Should we worry about robots taking over a increasingly bigger part of our lives?

I don’t think so. In fact, I’m excited about the upcoming robotic boom that is starting in Japan and will eventually sweep the world. The Japanese are FAR MORE accepting of rise of robots in the world. As the article notes:

Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundaries between the animate and inanimate, experts say.To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robot with feelings doesn’t feel as creepy — or as threatening — as it might do in other cultures.

Still, Japan faces a vast challenge in making the leap — commercially and culturally — from toys, gimmicks and the experimental robots churned out by labs like Takeno’s to full-blown human replacements that ordinary people can afford and use safely.

“People are still asking whether people really want robots running around their homes, and folding their clothes,” said Damian Thong, senior technology analyst at Macquarie Bank in Tokyo.“But then again, Japan’s the only country in the world where everyone has an electric toilet,” he said. “We could be looking at a robotics revolution.”

Whether you are excited or afraid Robots will eventually take over the world, the reality is Robots will begin to enter our lives even more than the already do. So rather than fear, why not put more time to thinking about how to improve the success of the next technological boom…

How can you not be excited when this is coming! (watch the guy in the orange shirt)

To my love April,

It has been 5 great years. We have lived around the country, had two beautiful kids (Addy and Hayden), started a internet company, had ups, and had downs. But I knew the first time I met you that I loved you at our High School dance.

Happy Anniversary my dear! I look forward to another 60! I love you..

It seems the recent buzz word in the advertising world has become “engagement”. The likes of Techcrunch and Mashable have each recently posted several articles about the emerging trend of advertisers only paying for customer engagement in their ads, rather than the traditional CPM method. As the founder of a live, interactive broadcast site, I certainly welcome this type of model as I believe my company is well positioned to capitalize on such changes. But I digress..All this talk about customer engagement got me thinking about something else. Two nights ago, Digg Founder Kevin Rose and CEO Jay Adelson, conducted their first ever Digg Townhall. The week prior, Digg users were encouraged to submit questions that Kevin and Jay then answered openly, honestly, and live on Ustream. You can watch the full event here. To me, it was a tremendous example of a major company directly engaging with their customers. It made me wonder why more companies don’t do this?

What are the benefits of directly engaging your customer? Are there risks to doing this?My thoughts to these questions are below:

1. Engaging directly with your customer is not only beneficial, it is critical. The benefits FAR out weigh the risks.

2. Engaging directly with your customer builds loyalty and “customer connection” to you and your brand. Remember, humans are social beings and thus make decisions partly on relationships and connection. I guarantee Digg users feel “closer” to Kevin Rose than before the townhall. They also feel “closer” to the Digg brand I bet.

3. Engaging directly with your customer provides insight, understanding, and perspective. Its easy to get caught in the microcosms of our companies and the group think mentality that inherently can happen at any company (we are guilty of it as well at mine). However, directly engaging with a core group of your customers or open dialogue like the town halls, provides tremendous understanding of your customer’s needs and the general pulse of the customer psyche (something that can be difficult to understand).

4. Risks? What you say something stupid? You dodge a question incorrectly? You get asked tough questions? Look, even if your open engagement with your customer doesn’t go perfect, you will still be better off had you not engaged. Customers can be tough, difficult, and challenging. But in my experience, it is the tough customers that push you harder, force you to find solutions, and generally get people off their butt.

Engagement may be the buzz word of 2008 and I suggest that engagement be multidirectional.

How cool would it be to BBQ at your house with friends watching your favorite College Football game with this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5faoLw9Xyg

I remember the early days of portable computers when my dad purchased the state of the art Radio Shack TRS-80. As a young kid, the concept of having a computer you could carry by hand was amazing to me. The TRS-80 my dad purchased did not have a hard drive, but booted from the 5 1/4″ disks. I distinctly remember the cracking and gurgling as it booted up. The fant green glow of the text on the monitor. When put together, the entire computer weighed approximately 15-20 pounds. ahh…those were the days.

This weekend, my wife and I cruised into the local Apple store here in Dallas. I had seen the commercials on the new MacBook Air and I didn’t think much about it.

I was blown away, this computer is SUPER thin. The amount of technology crammed in that thin of a computer is amazing. My immediate question was how durable it was which the Apple employee responded “Very!”. Hmm.

Regardless, Apple continues to impress me on all fronts and push the technological envelope…

My how far we have come..

UPDATE: Here was my first computer, the Vic20!

So I finally made the leap and started my own blog. My plan is to use this to express my own personal views on a variety of topics from technology to life, from business to sports. Feel free to disagree and I hope we can have some good debates.

Special thanks to my good friend Sean (BlueFox) for the sweet design work and helping me get it set up.