Grant Robertson · new media superhero

We just released Squadcast #3. This one took forever to edit, and I really hope it shows. Enjoy.

bloggingheroes, by Grant_Robertson.

Although I feel Blogging Heroes tagline is total hyperbole, “Interviews with 30 of the world’s top bloggers”, it’s prudent to point out that it’ll be available on December 10th. How I ended up on that list, I have no idea.

I’m definitely looking forward to reading the interviews with Gina Trapani, Mark Fraudenfelder, Chris Anderson and Mary Jo Foley.

Oh, and having seen the draft of my interview already, I’m going to go ahead and apologize to Ray Beckerman. I mentioned you correctly, but they misspelled your name. Hey, at least they got your link correct.

The book’s publisher, Wiley, has been incredibly cool in allowing each blogger featured to freely share a pdf of their chapter. Here’s mine.

The first of many Squadcasts to come from the fine folks at Download Squad. Big thanks to Christina Warren for co-hosting with me, and to Brad Linder for agreeing to do the speakerphone interview at the last minute. Super big thanks go to Victor Agreda for sticking by this project in the darkest days, when it seemed like we’d never, ever get an episode out the door.

Download Squad getting a facelift, by Grant_Robertson.

It’s finally coming! Download Squad is getting a facelift and the first fledgling signs are starting to go live.

Big thanks to all the hardworking mad geniuses working behind the scenes at Weblogs, Inc who’re making this happen.

Update: Scratch that. We’re not getting a full redesign just yet, only some feature updates which are still greatly appreciated.

If you ever need to be reminded that it’s all about the hustle, follow the Pirillo. I’m not going to pretend I’m not jealous of his amazing new 30″ x2 array of screen real estate but, the bottom line is; Chris hustles for every sponsor he gets. When I say hustle, I don’t mean it in the grifter sense, but in the “work hard and keep moving, things will come” sense of the words.

If anyone rocks it hard, it’s Chris. Loren Feldman was totally on point when he said the A-list is the A-list because they work harder than you. When I think I’m cranking the turnstyle hard enough, I look at Pirillo, and Calacanis, and Corey, and Scoble, and Lorelle and Xeni, and Arrington, et al.. and I remember that my hardest needs to be just a little harder.

Speaking of totally rockin’ it, check out Scott McNulty’s Fork You. If you look at the resources you have and wonder if you can make great web TV, Scott should serve as a stark reminder that you can, and you only don’t because you’re lazy.

bridge-hdr-full, by Grant_Robertson.

Got a request from the Bridges and Tunnels group at flickr to add this picture. How cool. I’m officially flickr addicted.

Spent Saturday and most of Sunday in Moncton. Crazy keg party at Mark’s place, Blueberry keg from the Pump House. I learned Blueberry beer is a lot better than it sounds. Skipped church to sleep off more of my sinus nightmare.

Spent 20 minutes today digging out the sidewalk and car at Mum’s place. I never guessed I’d see 2 foot snow drifts on Easter Sunday, I guessed wrong.

Project MythTV continues. Added two 320GB SATA2 drives tonight, in the process of building the most massive array I’ve ever dealt with. It’s only kind of frightening that it’s my own. Hi, my name is Grant and, I’m a media on demand addict.

Download Squad broke into the top 100 blogs on Technorati’s popular list this week. Huge thanks to everyone who’s helped make that a reality. Two and a half years ago I sat in my condo in Atlanta reading the New York Times Magazine with Ann Marie Cox on the cover and told X via phone I really wished I could be a ranking pro-blogger; Bravado and hard work pays off, who knew?

Ryan Block reports that content filter maker Barracuda has been blocking traffic from Weblogs, Inc.

I just got off the phone with Barracuda, makers of an incredibly popular line of corporate firewall / proxy / spam filter appliances. After weeks of emailing into a black hole from whence no replies emerge, I’ve finally confirmed what many Engadget readers have been reporting for the last couple of months: somehow Barracuda added Engadget (namely, our backend / hosting facilities at www.blogsmithmedia.com) to their blacklist as spam. Not inappropriate (read: time-wasting) content… spam.

He says someone is on the hunt to fix it at Barracuda but, how does something like this happen in the first place? Beware that sometimes, when you install an internet filter, you’re blocking more than just nasties. In the case of Download Squad, you’d be blocking some awesome productivity tips, tricks and tutorials.

Jordan Running, our awesome Lead Blogger from Download Squad has decided to jump ship and go write for Tucows. Apparently they made him some sort of offer he couldn’t refuse (I think they found his 7th grade year book photo). We’ll miss Jordan lots, but everyone at Download Squad and Weblogs Inc wishes him the best at his new home. Jordan’s been excellent to work with, and I’ve learned a lot from him over the last year.

The other side of that coin is, Download Squad needed a replacement Lead Blogger. I’m happy ( and little overwhelmed) to say that, as of last Friday, that new lead Blogger is none other than me. I’ll be serving up hot and fresh tech news and software scuttlebutt as well as laying down the grammar and content law for Engadget’s little baby brother.

I put this together for Download Squad, and it was incredibly fun to “research”: and write. I’d completely forgotten about the PS/2 ad with all the MASH actors, I’d never seen Shatner pitching the Vic-20 and, who can deny the kitch factor of early Atari marketing?

With around half a billion Dollars being spent on Windows Vista’s marketing launch, I started thinking, “What about the marketing of the computers from our past?” Remember when home computers promised, as Atari once put it, “A World Beyond Your Wildest Dreams?” These 14 videos show how much has changed in 30 years.

read more | digg story

I produced another video for The Digital Music Weblog. I’ve still got a long way to go but, I’m getting better at the whole write/perform/edit/compress process. It still took way-too-long to make but, it took less way-too-long than the last video. I guess that’s progress.

So, enjoy the sneak peek… tomorrow it’ll be on The Digital Music Weblog.