Austin Alarums

Up inadvertantly early. Henry's alarm went off at 6:38a. Which is weird because I'm sure it never goes off at all on school days.

Once again I'm not at South by Southwest. Every year I jealously read all the posts from Austin and wish I could be there. Seems like everyone I know, or would like to know, is there this week. But it's just too complicated to move the radio show and TWiT Live. I'd have to arrange studio time at an Austin radio station for The Tech Guy or set up a broadcast studio at SXSW.

We came very close to doing that last year but the logistics proved unmanageable and I had to cancel. Jason Calacanis's crazy idea of a rock and roll bus trip to Austin this year never materialized either. But it's good to know we can get a bus that sleeps 12 for around $1000/day. Maybe next year.

We have friends whose movie, My Suicide, is making its US Premiere today at SXSW. It won a Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The lead, Gabe Sunday, is a recent graduate of Petaluma High School (we're launching a new podcast with his dad, Michael Sunday, about the new way of work soon). Another friend, Eric Adams, wrote the screenplay. See it if you can.

Reading about all the trouble people are having with their iPhones down there makes me feel a little morose delectation, though. (Note to self: bring the G1 next year - or maybe the Palm Pre?)

Visit the TWiT Army - no #sxsw hash tags there. I'm going back to bed.

Movie Night with Mostly Lisa

We're trying something new tomorrow night. Join Lisa Bettany for an Oscar night party. Watch her and watch the Oscars, starting at 5p Pacific, only on TWiT Live!

Amber Has Her Baby!

Amber sent out this tweet this morning...

Hi! @chrisdick and I are thrilled to welcome our son Connor into the world this morn at 2:45am! We are all healthy and happy!

link: Twitter / ambermacarthur

I am resisting the urge to say "pictures or it didn't happen." Congratulations Amber and Chris!!!

BMUG Reunion

In the earliest days of personal computing users had to fend for themselves. Computer companies were too small, or too indifferent, to support individual users. So we huddled together, supporting each other through the trials and vicissitudes of PC ownership, in something called "user groups."

I remember traveling to Berkeley of a Thursday evening for meetings of one of the biggest, best, and most unruly of the user groups, BMUG: the Berkeley Macintosh User Group. I didn't go to every meeting, but I always enjoyed the unruly atmosphere, the feisty treatment of the company marketeers who dared address the group, and the Chinese dinners afterward. I even left them my Mac BBS, MacQueue, when I took it down in 1986.

BMUG hasn't met in years, but one of its stalwarts, Raines Cohen, is planning a reunion in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Mac's release. This is one party I wouldn't want to miss.

BMUGgers unite for one (last?) Thursday meeting, this Thursday at the Hillside Club in Berkeley. RSVP on Facebook or at upcoming.yahoo.com. I hope to see you there!

Facebook Connected

I've turned on Facebook Connect (yes it only took a week after Amber told me about it) with the Disqus commenting system we use here. Now you can post a comment on the blog using your Facebook account for credentials. Despite all the attention Twitter gets in our neck of the digital woods, it seems to me that Facebook is building overwhelming momentum in the social media space. With 150 million plus users the network effect is really starting to kick in. The success of Facebook also puts the lie to the widely accepted truism that Twitter competitor, FriendFeed, isn't growing because it's hard to use. I'd argue that Facebook is just as overwhelming to the new user but it rewards his or her initial struggle immediately and palpably due to the size of its network. Twitter succeeds for the same reason. It's not simplicity, it's simply the number of people who use the service.

Give our new Facebook Connect-powered commenting system a try and let me know what you think.