Foiled At Every Turn

20 Sep 2007 •

So apparently there’s a very candid and telling interview with Michael DeAloia over on Meet the Bloggers being passed around by Cleveland Web Standards Association folks.

Apparently he talks very openly about the sorry state of the Cleveland technology scene, and according to Web Standards Superfriends Eric G. Wiley and Chris Miller it’s worth checking out.

Only I can’t get the damn thing to play past the 4:41 mark.

I tried streaming it through every broswer I have installed. No Dice.

I tried downloading the .mp3 directly, strike #2. Asked around, and it seems like others are having the same problem. Hmm.

I try subscribing to the Meet the Bloggers podcast through iTunes; but there’s nothing newer than August. Bleck.

Superfriend Brad Colbow finally was able to download it, and he was kind enough to zip it up and send it my way. But the unzipping stalls at 99%. Hooray.

Alright, let’s go to the source. I browse my way over to the Meet the Bloggers site, intending to shoot a quick email asking if they could help me out. Except they have no contact information posted.

But they do allow comments, so I leave a comment saying pretty much that some us are having problems listening to their podcast, and asked if there’s anything they can do.

So a few days pass and I have some time, I’ll check back and see if anyone’s responded. I’d quote my comment ver batim, except it’s not there anymore.

Thanks for deleting my comment guys! Problem solved, apparently.

Update 1:37 a.m. — Success!

We won’t go into how, but I was finally able to get my hands on the interview.

And before I go check this interview out I’d like to take this moment to remind Wordpress users to be sure they’ve upgraded to the latest stable release.

Just saying.

Update 2:06 p.m. —Bastards!

So my backdoor attempt failed, the file I got cuts out at the 48 minute mark and I just got an email telling me it’s about an hour and a half long.

But Brad was kind enough to shoot it my way again and it’s the full file. Finally. I’ll have this mirrored when I get home tonight if anyone wants to check it out and can’t get it from the source.

Update 11/13/2007 — Ticket Closed

Working link to the interview can be found in the comments, even though it took me over a month to notice.

On my own website.

Yea even I don’t read this stuff.

Comment

  1. I kind of wish when people posted videos or video podcasts they also included some type of transcript or summary text, because sometimes for whatever reason I’m unable to access the video, or I want to scan the text before I watch.

    → beth · 21/09/07 07:21 AM · #

  2. Glad you got it all figured out. Sounds like a pain, however. I didn’t have time to listen to it. Is it worth listening to?

    → Nate Klaiber · 21/09/07 07:25 AM · #

  3. @Beth— Totally, I’d actually prefer a transcript as I can’t sit still for too long listening to something I have to focus on, especially with the vast internet at my fingertips :)

    @Nate— It looks like I may have celebrated too soon, as the file I have abrubtly cuts out around the 48 minute mark. Gah…

    And it’s worth listening to (what I heard anyway), if you wanted to squash any hope you may have still had for Cleveland ever pulling its head out of its ass.

    ★ brendan · 21/09/07 11:45 AM · #

  4. I thought I hit submit…if this is a duplicate please delete one of them…

    I had to download it sev. times before I got the entire file. (~61MB)

    Some highlights – purposely vague because they’re from memory and I don’t want to botch any facts:

    * Cleveland is sitting right on top of the main trunk of the Internet – few other cities get that kind of access to the main artery. That fact, combined with the low rents and makes downtown Cleveland an excellent incubator for nascent tech companies.

    * Apple was/is interested in building a learning center downtown. Cleve political leaders did not think it was significant, Mike DeAloia did some communicating with them sans uppper level support. Current status, unknown (to me…).

    *Some tech companies are taking note of downtown Cleveland’s ideal creature comforts and have moved in.

    First half was, by request, about Michael’s background. Second half got more into the nitty gritty of Cleve’s tech industry status.

    → Eric Wiley · 24/09/07 11:43 AM · #

  5. Sorry it was such a PITA. I’m uploading it now to archive.org and will change the link. I’ll also be adding my contact info…

    → George Nemeth · 06/10/07 07:16 AM · #

  6. Try http://www.archive.org/details/MichaelDealoiaTechCzar

    → George Nemeth · 06/10/07 07:49 AM · #

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