Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Well, I still have not come across any live, online coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade except for Earthcam.  I was really hoping that CNN Live would cover it at the last minute, since they do not always list what they are going to cover until the time that the event starts.  Actually, sometimes they just show the video and don't actually list what the event is.  

Last night CNN Live listed that they would show the balloons being inflated at 5:00 pm ET.  It said next to the caption "in progress," but there was never a video showing the event.  Then at 6:00, they took down the event listing.  Of course, I had found a couple of websites with people asking where online they could watch the balloons being inflated, and I had said CNN Live.  Oops!  It has happened to me quite a few times with CNN Live where events that they list as coming up never actually are shown.  Pretty frustrating, but oh well.  They always have a lot of great videos, so I still love their site.  

Hmmmm, update!  I just checked back at CNN Live and now a caption says Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but it is next to a video of Space Shuttle Endeavor coverage.  I have also noticed that where the captions and the videos do not always match.  YEAH!!!!!!!  They just fixed it, so now they have parade coverage!!!!!!!!!!!  SUPER!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is coming!

Well, I have been getting ready for Thanksgiving over the past couple of days.  It seems like there are fewer events this week because of the holiday.  I guess that everybody will be eating of shopping on Thursday and Friday!  Well, hopefully people will still go shopping despite the economy.  I have been trying to find information on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but I haven't really found anything about a live webcast.  I did find this article from last year which notes that there are a lot of Americans living abroad who would probably be interested in watching the parade live. The Earthcam website will provide webcam coverage of parade. For lyvegyde though, we are not looking for webcam coverage - we are looking for actual event coverage.  Apparently last year, the camera lenses were blurred with raindrops.  Also, the webcam coverage would not provide the commentary provided by the parade announcers.  Anyways, hopefully next year there will be an actual webcast, or at least, maybe closer to Thanksgiving this year, CNN Live will provide a link...we'll see!

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, as every year, and I have been so saddened by the stories about Abraham Briggs.  Please take time to read the New York Times article about him.  It is a tragic waste of a human life and the most horrendous use of live online video that I can imagine.  I have been thinking about what to say about this, but all that I can say is that my thoughts are with his family and I hope that this never happens again.

Back to Normal

Thank goodness, Freecaster.tv is back up.  Universal Sports is still working.  Also, as a nice treat, C-SPAN's streaming video has been working on my computer for the last 2 days.  I have a MacBook and I was never able to use it to watch their streaming videos - I always had to use our HP laptop.  My brother had the same issue with his MacBook.  Anyways, for some reason, C-SPAN has worked on both of our laptops for the past 2 days.  Very nice!!  

I'm looking forward to a webcast that is starting in about 45 minutes.  It is a concert for a band called Liquid Souls from a website called FabChannel.  The website is based out of the Netherlands and they show live concerts from a concert hall called the Paradiso in Amsterdam.  I have listed their live concerts by Living Colour and The Levellers on lyvegyde.  I have been so impressed with these concerts (high quality performance, interesting music, good camera footage, etc...) that I am going to add more of these concerts.  Today's concert is a Dutch hip-hop/soul band that is popular in Europe.  Should be interesting!

Yeah!

Universal Sports is back up now, yeah!  Freecaster.tv is still down though.  What is going on?  

Universal Sports...what is going on???

OK, I am really starting to worry now about Universal Sports.  Their website has not been working (all that appears is a white page) since at least yesterday morning.  Please don't take this website away, I love it!!!  

Another sports website with live video webcasts that I really enjoy is Freecaster.tv.  (It is kind of ironic because I just went to their website at it says "sorry, our website is not available for the moment due to a technical maintenance." I am assuming that it will come back to life in a few minutes....I hope!!!)  Anyways, their focus is "action sports," such as BMX and skateboarding, which can be a ton of fun to watch.  Unfortunately, they do not give as many specifics about their webcasts in advance of the events, so it can be a little bit unclear what time events start and exactly what they will be showing.  They have some BMX and skateboarding events coming up on Saturday, but I will wait until then to add them to lyvegyde, just to make sure that the events are starting when I think that they are.  I did post one of their events for this Saturday which is a concert by The Offspring.  I am looking forward to that - it really takes me back to the '90s!  :)  

OK, Freecaster.tv is not back up yet....Where is it?  Come back!

Social Matchbox and Universal Sports...again!

I know that I just said that I love Universal Sports, but then I get this today..."we are currently experiencing technical difficulties with this site."  NOOOOOOOOO!  The site has been down for several hours now.  I hope that it comes back up very soon - I had a hockey webcast on my website!  Oh well.  :)

Well, I am glad that I went to Social Matchbox last night.  I was able to meet a few people and the presentations were interesting - some companies that were well established and others that were just getting started and some in between.  Maybe I should have given a presentation.  Maybe next time!  Back to lyvegyde now!

Social Matchbox DC

I'm signed up now to go to Social Matchbox DC tomorrow night at American University.  I am going as a "socializer" - apparently different types of attendees receive different color name badges.  It sounds like there will be lots of product demos and presentations by internet and technology entrepreneurs.  I figured that it is definitely worth checking out at least once (they hold the event every quarter) to see what it is like.  

On another note, I added a link to the website today with the first post-election Senate session.  I was hoping that it would be pretty exciting, but there are such HUGE gaps in time between all of the "action," I just don't know that I will add any more Senate sessions...

Universal Sports

Well, I'm watching another live webcast of ice speed skating now.  I am really impressed with the live webcasts that Universal Sports offers...  

First, they archive almost all of their events.  They usually have an archive of the entire event as well as archives of various highlights from the event.  (Ouch!  One of the skaters just crashed!  I hope that he is ok!).  They also usually post the archived events pretty soon after the event has ended.  

Second, the webcasts have a very high production quality.  They provide great commentary and graphics with scores, and different camera angles - it is clear that they put a lot of effort into the broadcast.  True, they do also have a tv channel where they show a lot of the broadcasts, but still, a lot of sports events on other tv channels are not shown live online. Also, on the Universal Sports website, they are able to show more than one live event at a time, even though they can only show one at a time on their television channel.  

Third, the website is very easy to navigate.  They make it clear exactly what events are coming up, when the event will take place, and where to click to watch the webcast.  It is surprising how difficult it can be to find detailed information like that on other sites.  Sometimes a website lists that they will have a live event coming up soon, but it is unclear how to navigate to the actual webcast or sometimes even what time the webcast will begin! 

Well, I guess that I should go now since the event just ended!

Today's Webcasts

Well, today I especially enjoyed watching some of the webcasts listed on lyvegyde.  The space shuttle Endeavor just launched and that was really cool to watch as it happened.  Earlier in the day, there was also some ice speed skating that was pretty enjoyable.  I also like following the political type events such as hearings and speeches.  There were a couple of those today that were pretty interesting.  I just don't think that I can add any more events tonight though.  There is always so much stuff going on, that it really is difficult to keep up with all of it!  I find most of the events for now while we are building up our user base.  We have had some user submitted events though that we have just loved!  I guess if instantly finding users were easy though, there wouldn't be a market for things like GirlInYourShirt.

Ok, on an unrelated note.  Why would Boston Market ever take stuffing off of their menu?  I went there recently and it had been removed from their menu, they had not just run out of it.  It had also been removed several years ago for a little bit of time.  Of course because Thanksgiving is coming, it is back now, but please....don't ever take it off again!  I am a huge side item sampler fan...stuffing, mashed potatoes, and another side with lots of carbohydrates!

CNN Live

I'm a pretty big fan of CNN Live webcasts, even though I don't think that everything they show is live.  It seems like quite a few things that they show are actually pre-recorded news tidbits.  They do stream a lot of live events (hearings, speeches, conferences, breaking news, etc...) though.  I just wish that they kept archives of everything that they show.  Anyways, they have a new contest where you can submit a picture of yourself watching CNN Live on your laptop in an unusual location.  

The website for the contest is www.wheredoyouwatchlive.com.  The grand prize is a Slingbox Pro which is a device that lets you watch your video sources such as DVR or DVDs on your laptop or cell phone.  If only I ever had the chance to watch live webcasts on a mountaintop and not on my couch!

Right now I'm on my couch watching a webcast that is listed on my site www.lyvegyde.com about how exercise affects the brain.  I'm trying not to feel too guilty about not exercising more!  My husband and I love to run, but we have not been as consistent about running lately as it is getting colder and we have some aches and pains.  We did go for a 2 mile jog last night, but I was pretty slow!  Oh well, I guess that it is better than nothing!  

Welcome to lyvegyde!

Hi everybody!  Welcome to lyvegyde - my blog about the world of live webcasts and life as a newbie entrepreneur.  I'm Mary Stevens and I'm the co-founder of a new website (www.lyvegyde.com), a guide to live online events. The other co-founder is my brother Will Byrd.   He did most of the programming for the site (I helped out as much as I could along the way...learning some Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, etc.).  My focus is more on finding links to interesting events.  We also LOVE to have users submit events that we haven't come across yet.  

Together, we created the site as a central place to find links to interesting live webcasts, web chats, and other events that are broadcast live on the internet.  We have listed links to all kinds of great events since we launched about a month ago, and we have links to some really cool events that are coming up in the future.  Will had the idea for the site after finding that there were some really interesting events happening live online, but also finding that it was sometimes difficult to find information about them.  

Anyways, I'll be writing more about the things I discover in the world of live webcasts as well as my day-to-day life running a website!