First Generation Nerd

Wow. It has been a whirlwind week. From being in the newspaper three days in a row to being served a citation for PDA from the college I work for (just for fun :-), I certainly have been enjoying my 15 minutes of fame.

My viewing party has to be, bar none, the coolest viewing party in the history of WOF. My fiancee and two friends threw a party in the college chapel that was attended by more than 400 faculty, staff, and students. The Philadelphia ABC affiliate was there as well as a newspaper reporter and photographer. There were balloons everywhere, and they had a “Congratulations” cake made and dollar sign cookies.

I started off with a greeting, then picked three people to play a game on the big screens (the WOF “Plug it in and Play” game manned by my fiancee). After getting through the bonus round, it was time for the show to air! As soon as I showed up on the screen, the crowd ERUPTED in applause. When I mentioned the college or the town, more applause ensued. As gameplay commenced, they would boo the other contestants (sorry Kim and Courtney!), while cheering me on. During each commercial break, I went up on stage and explained what we were doing (getting makeup retouched, being prepped for the next round). When it came to the end, people were standing up and high-fiving each other as they realized that I would be going to the Bonus Round.

It was almost silent in the room when the Bonus puzzle was revealed, but when I said “Formal Gown,” everyone jumped up and cheered even louder than before. People ran up to the front to congratulate me, and I jumped back up on stage to field a few questions. Alicia and Amy came up on stage as well, and I had them talk about what they were thinking as I went to the Bonus Round. After a few more questions (”How much do you pay in taxes?” “What was up with your hair?” and “Can I have a loan?”), the cake was revealed which had the amount inscribed in icing.

What an incredible night. My sister in Massachusetts had a viewing party, as did my aunt, and before it struck 8:00pm, I had already received more than 50 text messages from my friends and family. I was also congratulated by Nona, Wednesday night’s winner, as she called later that night (we auditioned together and she called me her “good luck charm” as she played her round right before me). The story was at the end of 6ABC News at 11, and the celebration was captured in the paper the next day. My hometown (weekly) newspaper had a feature article on April 24, and is also running a recap this coming Thursday.

Thanks for all of your congratulations as well! It makes me happy that everyone left with at least something; the girls each received a trip and some cash, and we all had a great time overall. I’m making a DVD of the 5 shows this week, as well as the other show taped on March 28 that airs in June. HUGE thanks to Alicia, Amy, and Mary for THE BEST viewing party ever. For those of you wanting to read the official recap of the game, click here.

Tonight is the night!  We are all set for our big viewing party in the chapel at VFCC starting at 7:00pm.  If you’re in the area, please come out and watch with us.  On Monday, news of my appearance made it’s first public viewing, as I was featured on the famed “Greg the Barber’s” barbershop window. I’ll post pictures as soon as my mom sends them to me. Then yesterday I was interviewed by Dennis Wright of The Phoenix, Phoenixville’s local newspaper.  They are running a two-day series about my journey to Culver City, finishing with the viewing party tonight.

Check it out in today’s Phoenix!

Thanks to everyone who has either responded on Facebook, in this blog, or in person.  I’d also like to thank Alicia, Amy and Mary for their support and friendship and for planning the whole party for tonight.  Now we can all wait in anticipation for tonight. YEE HAW!

The Wall Street Journal ran an article today posing the question, “Is Faster Access to the Internet Needed?”, citing a recent announcement that Comcast has released a new higher speed broadband service to the metropolitan Minneapolis area (to the tune of $150 per month). The 50Mbps downstream speed (5Mbps upstream) is more than 10 times faster than Comcast’s current offerings, and it intends to expand both the speed and coverage in the near future.

The article goes on to describe how other vendors believe that money needed to enhance the backbones of their networks to accommodate higher speeds can be better spent on other projects, which would leave Time Warner Cable and AT&T subscribers at a standstill with their current bandwidth offerings. The author believes that “aside from a few niche applications like high-end videogaming, no real applications exist to allow users to take advantage of the higher speeds.”

So what?

I’m sure in 1996, WSJ writers touted 56k as “The Fastest Thing Since 4800 Baud!!!”, but without the innovation of broadband, we wouldn’t have the Internet that we have today. Are you happy with waiting 10 minutes to download a 100MB video podcast? Waiting 30 seconds for a video clip to buffer? Watching a tiny 320×240 postage stamp with pixel blocks the size of Tic Tacs?

Let’s take a look internationally.

Japan has the world’s fastest, cheapest Internet access. Western Europe has a faster growing broadband penetration than the US. A 75 year-old woman in Sweden has 40 GIGABIT speed to her home. Yeah, you’re right, 5 Megabits is way too fast. (And I won’t even mention Comcast’s wonderful habit of throttling bandwidth if they deem fit.)

So, is faster access to the Internet needed? In a word: YES. I’m sure it is financially beneficial for ISPs to sit on their laurels and rake in the cash while their networks remain stagnant, while people are content paying a minimum fee for minimum service. But when those “few niche applications” turn into money-making machines, they will be scrambling to catch up to the rest of the world.

Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave.

Okay, so he’s not dead, but if he’s ever uttered the words, “Over my dead body” about a cooperation with another company, he’s just as likely to preemptively roll in his proverbial grave. The wonderfully tight-lipped Mobility CEO of AT&T has announced that a 3G iPhone will be “coming in months.” He attempted to be a little sly by not mentioning the iPhone by name, but his cues were anything but ambiguous.

So what?

This little slip means that I am one step closer to my purchase of an iPhone! I am anticipating that the 3G iPhone will probably be a higher end model at the $599 price point, and I’m hoping that it will also be 32GB. That way, I’ll be able to ditch my old 30GB iPod and have one device for telephony and portable music. YEE HAW!