Tech
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
by Mark Carras
Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel review
Marriott Chef delivering bun
So another weekend of Gnomedex and another weekend at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel. This may have been the last year of Gnomedex but another tech conference had it’s first year at the exact same conference center. For some reason they thought PII was a good name despite everyone already pronouncing it like Pee. So even though I won’t be going up for Gnomedex next year, I do hope to go up for Seattle Geek week and Pee…er, I mean Pii. So I figured why not review this years stay at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel?
The staff as always was great. I’ve never seen a group of people work so hard to make little ol’ me feel as comfortable as possible. It was nice to see Nicole (I’m starting to learn names, how sad is that?) at the front desk again. She has a pleasant laugh and a relaxing smile. Even though I know she is paid to have that laugh and smile she does it so well I am led to believe there is some sincerity to it. I’m as cynical as it gets, but she seems to actually give a crap and have fun with her job.
The chef made me laugh this year though. Last year Ciabatta buns were all the rage, so I understood why they had one of those nasty things on the burger I ordered. This year however it was a freakin’ pancake! No joke. I was told it was some sort of flat bread, but if it looked like a pancake, smelled like a pancake, and sure as heck tasted like a pancake, I think it is safe to say that was a damn pancake! It reminded me of those images of a rabbit with a pancake on it’s head. “I have no idea what you are saying so here’s a bunny with a pancake on it’s head.” So I felt like the chef was telling me, “I have no idea what you are saying, so here’s a burger with a pancake on it’s head.” To be clear, the burger tasted great otherwise. It would have been better with a real (traditional) bun, but the pancake made me laugh more than anything. It was more goofy and silly than anything that would have ruined the meal. The omelet I had on Sunday morning was way better than the one I had on the Sunday morning last year. Not sure why. Maybe it was cooked more thoroughly? Maybe I ordered different ingredients? Maybe they changed cooks, methods, recipes, equipment, or something else. All I know is that It was pretty packed with awesome.
The maid service was great of course. I think the maids got used to me leaving at 8 am for the conference. So when I slept in until about ten and was still getting stuff ready for check out at 11:00 a very polite and apologetic lady came in to change the bed sheets. If I was forced to find one complaint it would be that they kept moving the program schedule and remote to the tv. Who needs it there? I need it on the nightstand! But if that is the biggest complaint I can think of, that is some awesome work! Let me also say the guys out in front are always jumping on any excuse they can to serve you. It kind of threw a guy like me for a loop to be honest. I’m just not used to that sort of thing. I heard that the hotel was packed all weekend, but yet it just didn’t seem like it. Everything was nice and quiet. Sure there was people, but it still maintained a very relaxing vibe to me. I have heard about hotels that are about half the price just a block or two up the street, but the staff at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel treat me so well that I am afraid to try anywhere else next year. Now everyone, let me hear you scream, “Pee, Pee, Pee, Pee, Pee!” Oh, right. It’s Pii. Sorry, I keep forgetting.
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
by Mark Carras
My Aunt sells women’s shoes & she’s more tech savvy than your record label!
Saturday I was downtown and was reminded that I hadn’t talked to my aunt in years. I heard she was having some minor tech issues with her business, so I figured I would stop by and see if I could help her. Well, we started talking and I was shocked to find out that she was picking this stuff up faster than most high school kids! I was thrilled to find out that there wasn’t a ton I could teach her. She had recently went to some tech conference and had that moment where the magic light bulb goes off. As she is telling me about this conference, the only thing I could think of was how much I wish every music industry contact I work with could go to this conference.
The music industry seems to take three steps forward, two steps back, and four steps to the left somehow. It makes me want to jump for joy that they are trying, but then land on their head when doing stupid things with these great tools they have finally opened up to. Now I will almost never name names on this blog, because I love the people I deal with in the industry. They are great people who are just making mistakes. So when about a year ago a worldwide label announced that they would no longer work with online publications my head just about exploded! Let me make it clear that I love this label, love the band’s they have, and think very highly of my contact for said label. My contact has zero to do with this decision, so this is not about the person I work with. That being said, why would a label cut off online publications at a time where print magazines are dying quicker then the cd sales they try to blame on downloading?
So recently this honestly outstanding label leaps into the truly wise decision to stop sending physical promos. This can make life more simple for not only the label, but also for writers. They even have it set up so I can just toss it into an RSS feed so it downloads their new releases without me even thinking. So what’s the problem? They tell me that my writers can’t get separate accounts, can’t log in with my account, and I can’t give them files I download. Instead they have some system where for each release (and each writer) I have to specifically request a 24 hour account. The writer has 24 hours to download the file or we have to start all over again. Can you see how they took this great tool and crippled it?
This is how the music industry adopts technology. It’s like paying to hire a top model and putting her in a potato sack and a pigs mask. It’s like taking an amazing ice skater and whacking her in the knees. It’s like having Yo-Yo Ma play your inauguration ceremony and having him lip sync to a tape. I could go on, but you get the idea. It’s like they want to use technology to bring things forward, but instead of listening to the people who know about such things, they are getting their info from their spam folder. Why do they keep falling for scams and listening to the wrong advice? How can we get them to use technology more efficiently? I’m serious. Please someone tell me! My aunt can grasp this stuff to sell womens’ shoes I think they can…right?
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
by Mark Carras
In a band everyone has a job to do
No, I’m not talking about the bassist playing bass. Sure that is important, but your bass player needs to get up off his lazy butt and do a little more if he wants to play that bass for a job. There are many social networking tools I have featured in this blog. Way too many for one person to really use to there fullest extent. So if a band is really hungry they need to work together on this. You people are a small army and you need to look at this like a war. Don’t be the private that just sits back in the barracks eating up the rations. Have each band member can take on one or two social networking tasks. Then you can focus on it and push it to it’s limits. You can even make it an inner band competition. These social networks are ranked. Each user is ranked by either the site themselves or by an outside service that crawls the data. So which band member can climb the highest on the chart for the social networking site they took on. It will soon be very clear if the bassist is actually the laziest band member or if it’s that drummer.
Now most bands have that one band member that really knows their way around a computer and that band member always ends up being the one to take on all these promotional tools. Instead have that one band member be in charge of teaching all the other band members how to use these tools. This way the band as a whole can work together to take over the world. Each band member already has their specialty, so why not get the most out of that knowledge? These social networking tools like Twitter, Plurk, and FriendFeed are just waiting to be used to get your band’s music out to more people. So why not use them, abuse them, and suck them dry of their venture capitol while the money is still there. And of course make sure and add me to all of them. I tend to work really hard to give away cool stuff.
Monday, February 16th, 2009
by Mark Carras
How the power of Leo Laporte can help your band!
Ok, so maybe not Leo Laporte specifically, but getting plugs from higher profile people on the internet can help drive traffic to your band’s website. Now that you are all hooked up with Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, FriendFeed, and your band’s official blog, you need to drive traffic to it. However, be very careful on how you do this. It can hurt your reputation if you are too pushy or make yourself look like a spammer.
Now many of you may know that my wife does a blog about really cheesy b grade movies called QueenOfCheese.com. Well, she has been having a heck of a time trying to get her Webalizer stats to line up with her Google Analytics stats. It was driving us both nuts that Google was saying she had half the traffic that the internal server stats were claiming. We have called Leo’s live show The Tech Guy twice and both times we were able to narrow down the problem a little more. We now are pretty sure that no matter what anyone tells you, Google Analytics should be taken with a massively huge grain of salt. Always trust the internal server stats more. Keep both, but don’t be discouraged by what Google Analytics claims. It’s pretty buggy. Now let me make this very clear, the main goal was to get a question answered. However, we had a bonus prize. When the website was mentioned my wife had hundreds of extra visitors that day. On a weekend no less, which is normally one of the slowest days of the week!
Now the key thing to remember is that no matter if you are going on a tech show like The Tech Guy, a metal show like Talking Metal, or a morning talk show like The Howard Stern Show, don’t be a massive plug machine. You better not come off like the plug is the main reason you are there or you might not be invited back. It also might make people not take the bait if they think you are just a low life spammer. You must respect the goal of the show and what their listeners expect to hear. When I call Leo Laporte I take weeks to make sure my question is something that will help tons of his listeners. My wife’s site uses a CMS called Word Press. It is one of the most popular content management systems available. So I am pretty sure that my question was able to help, inform, and entertain hundreds of other people. So Leo shouldn’t block me next time I come on. That’s the goal at least to show him and his fans the respect they deserve.
How to get on these shows? Well, Leo is a call in show. So you just call in like anyone else. It’s a long wait and will take up several hours of your Saturday or Sunday. Talking Metal is on Twitter, they have email, and even have forums. Try them all, but make sure and include links where they can find your music easy. Those two don’t have a ton of time these days. Most morning talk shows have call in segments all the time and there is nothing like a local band giving a plug on a local morning talk show. If done right this can be a major help to your band. Again, respect their show and the show will respect you.
I hope to get my live show back on the air again soon too. If you ever want to come on my show please by all means contact me! I am all about helping others. That’s the whole point. Isn’t it?