Silverlight Rocks on .NET Rocks

In December, I had the privilege of spending an hour or so with Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell on .NET Rocks. We talked about Silverlight and R/C aircraft. (Turns out Richard is an R/C guy, too.) You can listen to the program here.

I haven't listened to the program yet. I probably never will, because I can't stand to hear (or see) myself speak. I'm always thinking "gee, I wish I had said it this way instead" or "boy, did that sound stupid." I often get DVDs from conferences I've spoken at with videos of the presentations. Occasionally I watch presenters do other sessions, but I never watch my own.

Maybe the problem is that when I listen to my own presentations, I don't learn anything new. Go figure...

On an unrelated subject, sometimes I wonder if I'm becoming a liberal. People that know me know I'm a pretty conservative person. But I'm shopping for a new family vehicle right now--my wife's ready to replace our van--and I am appalled at the lack of choice. I want something that comfortably fits five people (or an airplane or jet, of course), looks good, and gets decent mileage. I won't buy a huge SUV as a matter of principle. I'm very interested in hybrids and desperately want to do my part to reduce America's oil dependency. I'm not so much concerned about the price of gas as I am the fact that we send billions of dollars overseas to people who want to kill us, and who could wreck our economy by shutting off the oil. But just try finding a vehicle that can hold a family and gets decent mileage. We've actually gone backwards mileage-wise from when we bought the van we currently own in 2001. Hello! While consumers were drunk on cheap gas this decade, did none of the automakers have enough vision to realize that it wouldn't last forever? Do we have to wait years for technology that reduces (or eliminates) our dependency on fossil fuels? I want America to undertake a Manhattan Project-style program to roll out hydrogen vehicles. We performed a miracle in World War II and we could do the same again.

To make matters worse, you can't even get an AUX jack in a Honda Pilot so you can plug in your iPod. In a BMW X5, you can plug your iPod into a USB port and select songs from the console of the car. Honda is so far behind the times.

On Jan 10 2008 2:19 AMBy jprosise
With 6 Comments

Comments (6)

  1. Charles Petzold

    > I'm always thinking "gee, I wish I had said it this way instead" or "boy, did that sound stupid."

    I feel the same way, and that's a big reason why I much prefer writing. When writing I can actually pause for several minutes in the middle of a sentence, and then entirely start over if I can't think of a way to end it. I get to go back and refine the text, and move things around until it's logical and coherent.

    The only times I'm even the slightest bit pleased with my public speaking is when I write out the talk beforehand and basically read it back -- trying my best to make it sound spontaneous, of course!

  2. Dilip

    > To make matters worse, you can't even get an AUX jack in a Honda
    > Pilot so you can plug in your iPod. In a BMW X5, you can plug your
    > iPod into a USB port and select songs from the console of the car.
    > Honda is so far behind the times.

    Why are you comparing a BMW with a Honda? One belongs to the luxury segment and the other doesn't. A better comparison would be check out if these are present in the Acura models.

  3. Mark Kovalcson

    It looks like 2009-2010 will be the soonest that something will be available.

    The GM will have a full sized plug in electric hybrid that can seat 5, so you can commute around town without burning any gas, but still take a road trip if you feel the need, Mitsubishi and Subaru will be introducing full electrics that will seat 4, and hopefully Tesla will introduce their full electric 5 seater (code named) WhiteStar with a expected range of 400 miles. In addition Toyota is going to have a full Prius brand for all of their hybrids and they should have plug in hybrid options by then.

  5. Mark Kovalcson

    Of course Ford has the new MS Sync interface to control digital devices by voice including the iPod...

    http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS7260424457.html

    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12760_7-9672096-5.html

  6. j.f.

    Not to sound too political, but congress could have legislated direct drive internal combustion engines away along time ago, but we the people didn't seem to think it was necessary to get on their collective backsides about it. I myself am becoming more conservative as I get older, and no I still won't buy an Urban Assault Vehicle. Although I was heartbroken I couldn't afford a Hybrid when I need to replace my 88 Dodge Omni, it still comes down to what you can afford when you can afford it.

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