Hello. As some of you may already know that Christian Tackett and I have a podcast called iGeekable. It’s a Technology Podcast. We discuss the latest news, tips & tricks, etc related to technology and consumer electronics. Our podcast is still very new. Our latest episode is “Ep 4. Windows 8 Thoughts, IE 10 Flash dies, Facebook catches up and more” which talks about what we think of Windows 8 after playing with it. So go check it out please! Subscribe to it on iTunes, follow it on Twitter and Like it on Facebook!
On another note NewHills my social networking project started back in 2009 is basically dead. Let me give you the full story for people who don’t know.
About late 2007 or 2008 a guy I knew who did web hosting named Patrick had a list of domains he had and didn’t want anymore. I glanced at it and seen “NewHills.com” on it. I thought that’s a cool name. I was going to try to turn it in to a radio station, virtual world, social network or maybe a mix of all. Well for a radio station you have royalties and other expenses. At this time I was a young kid and I still don’t think its something to do. I heard it’s really expensive and found one record label that wanted 5,000 dollars each quarter. So I knew that wasn’t going to happen and I still have interests in starting a radio station on the internet and maybe even XM Satellite Radio but something to put on my shelf for later. Then I wanted to build a virtual world but didn’t have a lot of powerful servers and all the code I needed. In about 2009 I started learning PHP and MySQL using tables building it. Then mid 2010 I got in to JavaScript and CSS more than before. I learnt a lot trying to build a social network so not like it was a big waste.
Recently after Google+ came out I was thinking “I want to do a social network, but now it’s almost impossible. I’m going to need like 500 to 5,000 people working nonstop on it and still it might not get popular. People will stick to where all their friends are.”. So me building a social network was a really high risk project 99% likely to fail. I needed to move on.
I’m a Google+ user but I only get on for the hangout feature which I love. I follow @WilsonTech1, hes this AWESOME youtuber(check him out)! So WilsonTech1 aka Lamarr started doing Google+ hangouts. He tweets when he starts one which is slightly ironically. I been to two or three already. He Tweets outs he’s in a hangout late at night about around 11 or 10PM eastern time. I go to it as I wasn’t really busy.
I go in we chat for a while. Then I notice this guy with a nice fancy professional microphone setup who looks like George Watsky aka Pale white kid who raps fast and I was like “Am I in the same hangout as gwatsky!?!??”. So I asked the guy and he said no. I didn’t really believe him seen his name as Christian Tackett so thought he might be using a cover name. He kinda looked like a geeky guy. He had the mic. He seemed cool. I have wanted to do a podcast for a while. Recently a day or so before I was listening to one of Leo Laporte’s podcasts in the car and was thinking “Doing a podcast would be so cool.”. I wasn’t looking for someone yet and was not sure when I would anyways or if I would but I gave it a shot and asked him “Would you want to do a tech podcast” he said yes and we exchanged contact details to talk more in private. I guess that’s the Law of Attraction? Oh and I know he’s not George now also and plus I was sleepy so maybe I didn’t have the best judgment.
So we talked to each other that Aug 8 2011 night for a while. Then over the next few weeks we talked about the show, worked on the website, etc. I also ordered me a better more professional Microphone The Blue Yeti which is AWESOME. We did more talking and working to get the show ready. On the Aug 29 we recorded our first episode and posted it the next day for iGeekable. I was happy and was like “This Begins and a new exciting chapter in our lives!”.
I thought the podcast was off on to a good start and I had NewHills and asked Chris for advice. He agreed we don’t need another social network and eventually we came up with the idea for the NewHills Network a network of different podcasts and maybe more as we expand. So I’ve been working on the coding and still have lots of work on that. I’m hoping it will be ready in a month or two maybe three but I want to get it done.
So that’s a little update. We already had some ups and downs but I guess every project is like that. We’re bound to run in to more ups and downs but we have to really focus on this to be successful. We’re both in school also and have other things in life to focus on also. I really believe if we stick together even in the hard times on this we can really create something awesome. In the future we plan to have more podcasts with both Chris, me and other people.
So both of us are new to the podcasting world. I’m shy at times so I’m working on coming out of my shell and getting better at podcasting. I did feel nervous in the beginning but I’m starting to get less and less nervous it feels. I still consider my self a noob but we we’re all noob’s at first. I truly believe if there is something you want to do and its reasonable then do what Nike says and “Just do it”. So if its programming, video editing, etc and if you really want it. Start doing it. You might do bad at first but if you keep trying you have a really high chance of getting better. If your stuck, ask for advice. I have no issue asking for advice or giving advice. So try your best and stick to at anything you want to accomplish even if you don’t see immediate success.
So if anyone who reads this has any ideas or feedback for the NewHills Network let me know. Comment or if you want to keep it private shoot me an email via my contact form.
