Douglas Schumacher

The relaunch of Douglas Blogs is coming soon...now at the new domain DouglasSchumacher.com!

Hello blog readers- Douglas Blogs has been a graveyard of activity in the last few weeks, and if you are not following me on my YouTube channel, you have been missing all of my content.  The video above it is a quick recap vlog of my experiences in Nashville at the 2014 Future Business Leaders of America National Leadership Conference at the end of June.  It was a long bus trip but well-worth it to compete in Introduction to Information Technology.  Watch to the end to see how I did. I don't know what the future of this blog entails, so in the meantime, please follow me on YouTube .  Thanks.

Description:  I talk about the Amazon Press Event tomorrow, including analyzing the official preview video and making some predictions of my own.  The press event is happening at 12:30 CST on Wednesday, and afterwords I will have a quick summary video.  Also, the second episode of Douglas Broadcasts will be live on YouTube at 8pm CST that evening.

Description: Today's video is a blast to the past....to May 4, 2002.  Just days before my sister's birth, my Dad (meteorologist Tony Schumacher) and I gave a video tour of the WAOW studios in Wausau, WI. This video is a part of my home VHS digitization project this summer.  Enjoy...I'll have a new video right here on Monday.

Description:  In the inaugural Douglas Broadcasts podcast, recorded live on June 11, 2014, Douglas talks about this week's weather, and discusses with Wyatt, Micheal, and David about this weeks current tech headlines.  Topics included Minecraft, the Magic School Bus, and, yes, chatbots.  Douglas Broadcasts is streamed live every Wednesday at 8pm CST.  Visit http://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com for more info.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the 2014 edition of Douglas Blogs.  The video above is a trailer for some of what has happened and what is to come over on my YouTube Channel.   Anyway- here is the schedule for content creation this summer: Monday: New vlog on YouTube Tuesday: New blog post right here on Douglas Blogs Wednesday: Livestreamed podcast at 8pm CST Thursday: New blog post Friday: New vlog Every weekday from June 9th through August 29th! In addition, there will be special livestreams on severe weather days and a multitude of live content from the FBLA NLC in Nashville. Thank you for your continued support of Douglas Blogs and Vlogs.  I'll see you tomorrow for the weekly live podcast at 8pm on YouTube.

Welcome back to the 2014 edition of Douglas Blogs.  After about 9 months off, it is finally time to fire up the ol' Blogger for the fourth year.  Speaking of that, here are some tips that I have accumulated using Blogger: 1. Write a blog about something that you have a passion or interest in.  It makes it much easier...and you can always change the topic, as I did back in 2012. 2. Make your blog look sleek yet inviting.   You want a design that is clean and easy to read that still features your pictures and other multimedia. 3. Don't just use your blog....create a comprehensive online profile across many social networks.  I personally like Blogger's built-in Google+ and YouTube integration. 4.  Blogger's URL system isn't that great for readers to remember.  Try creating a shortened link. 5. Stick with it.  As I begin my fourth year blogging, I know that the road ahead could not be as fulfilling as I may want it to be, but that's okay. ...

Description: It's another (sped-up) retro video game...Gizmos & Gadgets!, a game that I first played in elementary school. Tomorrow I'll be summarizing the long-anticipated Moto X event over at http://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com.  See you there!

Description:   Since I'm in a rush today, here's a two-minute summary of what Google talked about at their press event today. This includes Android 4.3, the Nexus 7 2nd Generation, and the Chromecast. Those products can be bought via Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/devices... Watch the whole event:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsdrk... I'll be sharing my thoughts at  http://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com   soon. See you there!

44 years ago today, two American men were sitting inside a capsule landed on Earth's only natural satellite-the Moon.  I can only imagine how stressful that next 21 hours was as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of "The Eagle" just hours after landing, collecting samples and taking photos that amazed the world.  And did I mention they did this on THE MOON?  Apollo 11 was a true example of moonshot thinking.  It set records, allowed for more space research, effectively ended the Space Race, and inspired millions of people to pursue science. (I think I might still have a Neil Armstrong moonsuit I made for a speech about him in 3rd grade.)  We need to thank all the scientists, engineers, politicians, and, of course the three astronauts that spend 8 days on the journey.  They showed that hard work can help reach what may seem like an unobtainable goal. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

As the calendar has now made it into the second half of summer, my activities are starting to pick up again.  Most notably, Driver's Ed started Monday, and I've been having soccer practice twice a week for a couple of weeks.  And, oh yeah, 4-H projects for the county fair next week.  The deadline is kind of catching up to me to complete the 20 projects I signed up for.  So instead of me typing out a whole new post, I'll just share one of my completed projects. (If the document doesn't render correctly, open this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nfV9u5HNij03NJd0zCf-k4oxoUhCXYqbcH7jVnWX1h4 ) This project outlines my recreation of the village of Stetsonville, located in Wisconsin, in the new version of SimCity.  It is designed to inform the general public about using simulation games to represent real life. Thanks for reading today and I'll be posting a gaming video tomorrow on YouTube.   See you there!

Today my August copy of  +PCWorld  arrived...with a cover saying: While this is certainly not the first publication to go all digital, it is the first one that I've been subscribed to that is doing it.  This is how my initial experience was. So I went on and activated my Digital Pass, and attempted to get my subscription for my computer though Zinio.  I typed in my email to activate my subscription...and received an error.  I wasn't too surprised by this just because I figured that tons of people were doing the same thing I was.  The page prompted me to call PCWorld support-but the LINE WAS BUSY!  I have never heard of a support line being busy and not being able to connect at all.  So as I type this...I haven't seen the digital PCWorld yet.  And I really want to. I would consider myself a fan of digital printing.  With so many mobile devices and computers, why not save the massive amounts of paper and time spend delivering i...

Description:  I play SimEarth today (at 2x the normal speed, of course) and I start to terraform Mars...if the planet doesn't freeze over first!  Be sure to check out Monday's vlog about my trip and yesterday's Live Tile post over at h ttp://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com .  I'll see you back over there tomorrow for a new post!

When Windows Phone 7 was released late in the fall of 2010, it showed a new direction of Microsoft's core design strategy.  A major part of this was live tiles.  They now appear in Windows 8, WP8, and Xbox Start Screens.  Back at its announcement, dynamically updating boxes on a screen showing you the latest data available to the app seemed like a whole new idea...but was it? Many might point to Android's widget ability, included by Google since version 1.0, two years prior in 2008.   Even though I don't see this a direct descendant to the Live Tiles, there is a software platform that included updating tiles on a homescreen since 2006.  There is a good chance you even own one of these devices: The Nintendo Wii. Yes, that's right.  During my research on this topic, the Wii's main screen was the first mainstream use of a "live tile."  The Forecast, News, Nintendo, and Everyone Votes channels all are not only animated, but pulled data though WiiCo...

Description: After taking last week off, I am proud to present my trip to SoCal for the FBLA National Leadership Conference. If you want to view different parts of the video, click on the numbers below: 0:00  Intro 0:17  Traveling to California 1:41  Thursday Afternoon (Opening Ceremony) 2:33  Friday (Disneyland) 3:07  Saturday (LA Tour) 4:15  Sunday (Beach & Awards Ceremony) 6:47  Monday (Traveling back to Wisconsin) 7:39  Final Thoughts I am aware that not all my pictures matched up when I was talking about them...and there are not very many videos because I wanted my memory to the video of the trip. I hope you enjoyed this! If you have any questions, please ask! I'll see you tomorrow at Douglas Blogs ( http://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com ) with a new blog post!

Description:  A vlog about a "User's Manual" translation fail as I'm on my way back home.  Talk to you tomorrow at http://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com!

Description:  As I'm in California, enjoy this gaming video of me playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted at TWO TIMES normal speed!  I'm horrible on this first stage... Read this week's posts at: http://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com Inspired by Hank Green's CLOP 2X Video!

Just a quick reminder that I'm hanging out on Google+ at 11am CST this morning.  Come to discuss random stuff and have some fun.  You can circle me here ...and talk to you then.  If not...I'm off, but scheduled posts are still coming everyday following Operation Storm as I'm gone.

As I was browsing though the FBLA NLC master schedule yesterday, finalizing my plans, I noticed that all the testing events had the word "ONLINE" printed next to them, including mine- Introduction to Business.  I could only assume this means that I will be traveling all the way to California, essentially, to take a multiple choice test on a computer sitting somewhere in the Anaheim Convention Center.  Huh? It is certainly not my favorite activity to travel.  For me, it is the actual transportation part that bothers me.  For every voyage I've taken, you have to sit there and basically do nothing either on the ground or up in the air six miles and try to relax for one, two, five hours at a time.  You can try to be distracted by technology, or a book, or the world around you-but nothing can take your mind off the topic of "Why am I doing this?" As much as traveling has been a part of humanity, why do we still have to feel this way?  Or more importantly,...

Description:  All about what is going to happen this week with Operation Storm.  It is boring! See you tomorrow at http://dougaschublogs.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's SimCity video is also up on my YouTube channel.