Houston.BloggersPub

Stop the presses. Now you don’t have to jump on Delicious to bookmark something then feed your result through a feed service to Twitter. Krumlr wants to do it all for you:

Krumlr, a social bookmarking site with a Twitter twist, will bookmark and then tweet to Twitter in one click.

Bookmarking and tweeting about a page is as easy as clicking on the Krumlr link in your browser’s toolbar. There is no cutting or pasting.

Krumlr automatically creates a tiny URL of your page krum and appends it to your tweet.

Krumlr does this with a Twitter-like interface where you can follow or be followed by any number of like-minded people. The page krums (bookmarks) you save are automatically shared with your followers. Krums from those you follow are automatically shared with you. READ MORE

This site is on to something because it has a funny name like Flickr.

Uncle Barky introduces us to Walt Maciborski and Amanda Salinas who are the new anchors at Dallas’ KDAF Dallas:

The malaprop-prone Maciborski looks as though he might be good for a few laughs. He also shows a willingness to laugh at his own brand of humor.

Salinas seemed mostly deferential for starters, but has a nice smile. It’s early, though, and both anchors are still feeling their way through an hour-long newscast that still mostly measures up to one of the CW-affililated station’s signature shows — Smallville.

On Monday’s newscast, departing reporter Norris Deajon’s piece on “Finding work through Facebook” was the top-billed attraction. That’s hardly surprising. Facebook stories have become ever-present on The 33, where the CW network’s prime-time target audience is 18-to-34-year-olds.

That puts new University of North Texas grad Pelpina Trip near the top of the pecking order with her nightly Web-cruising “Pelpina’s Picks” segments, during which she invariably touts a “Facebook application.” Maciborski gamely teased Monday’s dollop, but forgot a consonant in saying, “If you are ready to learn another language, you have a lot of option (sic) these days.” READ THE REST

I think I remember Walt Maciborski from Austin television news. Weekend anchor Jim Grimes used to be a reporter KPRC Channel 2 in Houston during the 90s.

Looking to ride Houston’s METRO? Check it out on Google:

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County has posted its routes on Google Transit’s online trip planning tool.

The free tool can generate an itinerary of maps, calculate walking distances and times for people using Metro transportation around Houston. READ MORE

If television networks really get a divorce from TV stations…it’s going to be messy.

- Countdown Begins on the Great Network-Affiliate Divorce
- WSJ: Long-Term Station Outlook Dire

When I was in college, I had a hard time going to sleep because I felt like I was going to miss something going on in the dorm. Twitter is the same way. So much to read, so little time.

Well, you can’t cheat sleep (I am no good on Ambien trust me) but you can kind of cheat Twitter with aggregators.

12 Twitter Stream Aggregators To Make You Smarter

One of my favorite Twitter account aggregators is @houstontwit.

(via Shay West)

Good news to report! abc13.com took first prize at the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Awards!

Not only that, sections I built and featured on this blog took top spots too!

Remember all of the Houston Texans cheerleader posts last Spring? My section for “You Pick the Cheerleader” took first place in the Best Online/Special Content category.

Then fast forward to the Fall when I built the abc13.com Houston High School football section. That section took second place in the Best Online/Special Content category!

WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas-Fort Worth took the Honorable Mention spot for English as Second Language. Congrats to them and all the other winners!

You might remember my interview with SnapStream CEO Rakesh Agrawal from last summer. We talked about the SnapStream Enterprise server. Now the Houston-based company is targeting the individual or smaller group that wants the same video searching power:

SnapStream Mini is a dual-channel TV search appliance that allows individuals or organizations to record 1000s of hours of television and then search within those television shows for whatever it is they might be looking for. A cross between a DVR and a search engine, the SnapStream Mini gives individuals and organizations the ability to record television, search within those recordings, create TV clips and then take those clips and email, store or burn them to DVD.

Political video blogger Jed Lewison, whose videos have logged more than 15 million views, uses SnapStream to find relevant TV content for his video blog posts. Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s Campaign team used SnapStream TV search to stay informed of campaign news and the media’s reaction to her campaign’s platform.

SnapStream Mini allows organizations to:

- Record 2 channels of traditional TV from regular cable, digital cable, or satellite
- Schedule recordings using a simple program guide
- Search by keyword within recordings
- Get email alerts notifying mentions of keywords on TV
- Create clips and download or email them
- Burn DVDs of full recordings or TV clips

The SnapStream Mini costs $2,000, includes 1 terabyte (TB) of storage (~1000 hours of recorded video) and is geared towards individuals and smaller organizations including bloggers, independent media, classrooms and small media monitoring companies. SnapStream expects to ship the first batch of Minis in the first quarter of 2009.

More here

This interview is from 2002 and I also posted it last year, but if you like Willie Nelson, what do you care?

I conducted the interview on Willie’s bus right after his last performance for the Houston rodeo at the Astrodome. [Insert tear]

WATCH IT

By the way, Houston rodeo news is on Twitter @rodeonews .

(Flickr image courtesy of user Pix Gremlin)

Paulie’s is was a well-known restaurant on Houston’s Holcombe Boulevard,. Not anymore reports the Houston Business Journal.

Michael Garfield (aka The High-Tech Texan) will start a new weekday radio show March 2nd at 9am on 950 KPRC.  To find out more I emailed him some questions and he kindly responded.

Mike McGuff:   What will be the topics on your new show?

Michael Garfield: My M-F show will be issue-driven like most daily talk shows - but oh so different. We begin at 9am which is when most people arrive at their offices so business, economy and financial news will certainly be covered. “Local” will always lead so the current Stanford Financial Group news would be an example of Topic A. We’ll also keep an eye on the stock market throughout the show (depending if the market itself is in positive numbers by our start date, March 2!).

MM: What about technology?

MG: I am not abandoning technology topics though the discussions will be on larger stories like the recent Facebook flap and how the digital TV conversion is effecting and confusing so many people. I provide analysis to media outlets across the country on tech-related subjects so this venue gives me a chance to really open up and discuss with listeners.

MM: What kind of guests do you plan to bring on?

MG: I really enjoying having guests call-in or come in studio - that’s less callers I need to take. But seriously, because of our media outlet we have a unique opportunity to have experts, officials, witnesses and others talk to us with their views and insight. That is something that can rarely be done by any one person via phone call or face-to-face. These people know we have large audiences and we reach out to them to get them on-air and online to start our own local discussions.

We have a team of people that will be scouring headlines and contacting guests across the country to chat with us each morning. I personally have the cell numbers, emails and direct office lines to many Houston city officials and business leaders. If we need them on the show I will quickly work the phones to get them on.

I am also a fanboy of pop culture; you can tell that from my show opening theme to my bump music. Sports, entertainment, lifestyle and music will find its way into the daily show mix. T-Mac’s story is hot right now so I’d be al over that but talk about it from an angle of how his $23 million salary next year could have a ripple effect on ticket prices and local economic factors.

MM: If you got a magic wish to book anyone in the world you wanted as a guest, who would it be?

MG:  My magic wish book of guests would one day hopefully lead me to interview some of my idols who steered me to this business. Dick Clark is an icon in the media industry. I grew listening and imitating Casey Kasem, hoping to one day countdown songs on the radio. But just because I personally want to talk to certain people does not mean it would be interesting to my listeners. President Obama would be a “get” as he literally has the burden of our economy and foreseeable future on his shoulders. How is he dealing with that pressure as a man himself? And W isn’t doing much these days. Maybe I’ll hop up to my hometown of Dallas and do a remote with him one day.

MM: Will you still have a Saturday show? If so, is it changing?

MG: As of now I will still be doing my live 3 hour show on Saturday. That was my request to station management as we discussed the new daily show. We still have many partners and sponsors who want to reach a niche audience plus this show is a staple of The 9-5-0, not unlike my friend Randy Lemmon’s GardenLine program on KTRH. The weekend gig allows me to open up and cock around a bit more.

I am proud of the brand and following I began almost ten years ago with The High-Tech Texan®. Technology is my sweet spot and I think I do it differently than anyone else, mostly using my personality and ease of discussion. Not many people want to hear terms like megabytes and Hertz, they want simple answers. I began this “schtick” on Channel 2 back in 2000 and migrated to radio and print using a bit of humor while trying to give smart advice. It is a classic entrepreneur story that more and more people seem to want to hear more nowadays as they are trying to create opportunities for themselves.

Speaking of the increasing jobless rate, we understand more people are out of work and will be tuning in from home or driving to/from interviews. I am creating a special program/project for listeners looking for jobs that I will cover daily on my show. It involves job searches and opportunities that may not be found elsewhere as we will work with some local employment firms for insight, tips and openings. And, of course, I have some fun ideas to hold gatherings, live breakfast remote shows and more.

One very unique thing I will continue to do on the weekday show is utilize my live videoconferencing technology. For over 3 years on my Saturday show I have brought a webcam in studio but use a service for listeners around the world to listen online and use their own webcams to log in. It has been interesting to SEE my listeners and chat with them during breaks. More of my call-in guests are using this so we can see and hear them, too. This technology will continue to grow as more people listen online at their computers and more people don’t want to travel.

You can read my interview with Michael Garfield on his past and marketing tips here.