Will this be a stand-up fight or another bug hunt?

It was a bug hunt.

Daily Press goes (more) digital

Last week, the Daily Press formally launched its new digital version. For now, this full digital version of the paper is free, but at some point in the future, it’ll require a subscription, as I understand it.

I’m curious as to how the public responds to this. I don’t think it’s a great secret that Internet advertising isn’t turning in a great profit for anyone. As newspapers move towards a future where news-on-paper isn’t their main way of reaching readers, a more viable model than the current systems has to be found. Advertising on give-it-all-away Web sites isn’t working, and people are disinclined to register for newspaper sites (those ads pay more, since advertisers actually know who’s looking at them) and that leaves the industry to find new alternatives.

And that brings us to the Daily Press’ ePaper. If it’s successful, you can look for a Hesperia Star ePaper to follow.

Reading Across Topaz Elementary

I’ve been invited to take part in Read Across America Day this Wednesday, March 1. I’ll be reading … something to third graders at Topaz Elementary School here in Hesperia.

(The national day is March 2, coinciding with Dr. Seuss’ birthday. I’m not sure why Hesperia is doing it on Wednesday instead.)

Winter Olympics

Judging by the ratings, I was the only one watching the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin Torino. I guess it’s just me, but I find skiing events (which seem to make up half of the Olympics) a lot more compelling than 99 percent of the summer games.

One of my favorites is the biathlon, which grew out of real-world concerns (“Hey, Ingmar, the family’s hungry and we’re snowed in. Go shoot us some food and do it before dark!”) instead of dubious events like Aerobic Dance and 99,000 different gymnastics events. Cross-country skiing, for those who haven’t done it, only looks easy: In reality, it’s exhausting and hard. Combine that with precision shooting — five bullets, five targets, and a lap around the penalty loop for every miss — and you’ve got a race where the sub-events actually make the other one harder. Trying to shoot steady after racing through the snow for 30 minutes ain’t easy. (In comparison, the triathlon, while certainly a demanding event, is three cardiovascular events that are mostly complimentary.) Great stuff.

And while the summer games have been marred in recent years by an obsession with Americans-only in the TV coverage, in the winter games, since the Americans didn’t have a chance in many of the events, they just went with the folks who were contenders. It was great seeing Estonia win their first winter games medals ever and watching the travails of Norway and Austria, two powerhouses having rough years. (Even though I haven’t been to Austria in decades, I find myself rooting for them in the winter games.) Maybe the lack of American focus hurt the ratings — I’m sure some TV executive is saying they should have spent all their time on #14 or whatever, medals be damned — but I’d like to think there are more people like myself, Jenn and Peter who actually enjoy seeing the smaller countries (without tour buses for individual athletes) excel.

TiVo was practically a must-have for the games, with some events only running in the middle of the night, but often being nearly uncut if so.

Now I have to start counting down the days to Vancouver in 2010.