Well, I’m finally back from my mini-vacation. And after sorting through the 400 e-mails in my inbox (which actually isn’t bad considering how many days I was gone), I remembered that I had something special to share on the blog.

I’m used to working on Christmas, because, as I’ve said many times, the news never takes a vacation. But, it was a difficult holiday for my younger sister. Our parents are back in Africa and she didn’t feel much like celebrating.

But, as soon as I rolled into town, we plugged in the webcam and had a family Christmas via Skype. Dad read the traditional Christmas story. We opened our presents and showed them off via the webcam. That was a bit tricky because if you wave it around too much it’s a big blur. Plus the fact that my parent’s Internet connection is barely above dial-up and frequently goes out for hours or days at a time.

But, we managed to hang out long enough that I had them give a little shout-out to my blog readers.

So here it is, all the way from Tanzania to eastern Iowa.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

-jj

Posted under Holiday

Tonight was our second DTV test in our quest to make sure Iowa is ready for the switch to digital on Feb. 17.

When we did the first test in November, I was actually somewhat fascinated to see how it would all work. I remember walking around during the 90 second test and checking all the TV’s in the newsroom to see which are still on analog and which are digital.

Tonight’s test was longer – 3 minutes – and leading up to it was an entire newscast of special reports on the big switch.

In case you missed it, here’s how the test works. We had a countdown clock on the screen and when it hit zero, anyone watching on digital would still be able to see us fine, but anyone watching an analog signal would still hear us, but would see a graphic telling them they are not DTV ready and giving a number they could call for help.

We had a phone bank that included two engineers and Chris Hussey, one of our resident DTV experts. (He’s the one pointing.)

It seemed like we received fewer calls than the first test, so hopefully that means people have fewer questions.

I even stepped in to help during the test. Chris Carter was anchoring the special coverage, and I joined him to talk about our online resources.

It was strange, but also strangely familiar, to put on my TV makeup and put the IFB in my ear. I had no trouble filling my 30-40 seconds talking about our DTV Answers page. Aside from the IFB box poofing out the back of my jacket (a superficial complaint), I think the whole test went well and I hope we helped answer a lot of questions.

-jj

Posted under Web/Tech