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Steve Ballmer actually said "BING, BING, BING!!!"

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:19:42 PST

Throughout 2009, 1938media released via YouTube a series of clips of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's best, as a puppet. The clips feature the many successes (semi-mishaps?) of Microsoft over the last few years. We all know about his crazy ads on TV, screaming at audiences to get on your feet, and famous rants promoting, "DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS!", "ADVERTISING, ADVERTISING, ADVERTISING!" and "WINDOWS, WINDOWS, WINDOWS!" 1938media created a new one for Ballmer, "BING, BING, BING!"

Ballmer is a man who pretty much has everything. Some say he's nuts, some say he's brilliant. In any case, I discovered something that was truly amazing. Steve Ballmer actually said "BING, BING, BING!" during his Keynote speech at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas last month. I wonder if he saw the clips?

Anyways, enjoy!

The Word of the Day in the Urban Dictionary

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:30:11 PST

So it just happens that today's word in the urban dictionary is:

iPhone Effect

...shortly after one person in the group brings out their iPhone, the rest follow suit, ultimately ending all conversation and eye contact.

"Hey, what do you want to order for drinks?" "Not sure, let's see what Imbibe Magazine has for their best beer this month." First iPhone comes out of the pocket--enter Safari search. Next iPhone comes out--enter Facebook post. Third iPhone makes an entrance -- the iPhone effect has arrived.

Apple says, "Come see our latest creation."

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:26:00 PST

This morning Apple officially announced their January Special Event themed towards "mobility space" inviting key media representatives to "come see our latest creation." The event is scheduled for Wednesday, January 27, 2010, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The event is scheduled to start at 10:00 AM Pacific Time.

For the last two years there has been speculation on a tablet device that Apple is working on behind the scenes. It's supposed to change the way we read digital print and do many other things on the go. While some see it as a giant iPhone-like device, it is rumored that it will run iPhoneOS, similar to the iPod Touch, without the phone capabilities. Apple is expected to make a major product announcement at the event, which most believe will be its long-rumored tablet device. Last summer it was first reported that the multi-touch, 10-inch successor to the Newton would arrive in early 2010. In December, select iPhoneOS developers were asked to prepare full-screen demos of their software for a product unveiling. It has been suggested that developers are working with a new version of the iPhoneOS (version 4.0?) that allows software to be scaled to multiple screen sizes.

I've notice that Apple has not focused on much advertising lately. No "Get A Mac" or iPhone commercials. Joe Wilcox explains in his post, "Where have all the iPhone TV commercials gone?," that there have been plenty AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, BlackBerry, Droid, Palm, and "Windows 7 was my idea" advertisements flooding the scene lately. Apple typically is on a break in their advertising during this time. Apple could be saving their ad spending for space in the Winter Olympics, which opens February 12. "Apple pulled back iPhone advertisements to avoid getting caught in the mud slinging marketing battle between AT&T and Verizon over 3G coverage and 3G reliability," claimed industry analyst Stephen Baker. He also is claiming the following:

Apple is in a natural marketing break, preparing to launch a new iPhone advertising campaign ahead of Mobile World Congress, which commences February 15 and where will be competitor announcements.
Rumors are true that iPhone OS 4.0 release is imminent. Apple is strategically pulling back advertising to promote the new thing, assuming there are compelling to new features.
Most all the rumors are wrong about Apple's "latest creation" -- that it is as much mass-market telephony device as tablet, or something else -- and it's ready to launch soon.
Related: Unexpectedly, iPhone 3GS' successor is ready to announce, if not release, so Apple temporarily pulled back marketing to later promote the new smartphone.

Joe follows Baker's comments that "the Jan. 16th-22nd, 2010, of The Economist features a full-backpage advertisement for iPhone 3GS and the App Store. Page 28 of yesterday's Sunday The New York Times features the identical advertisement. Companies typically negotiate deals for ads print months in advance, purchasing them in bulk."

In a brief note, DigiTimes points to a report [Google translation] from Taiwan's China Times claiming that Apple is preparing to launch a 22-inch touchscreen iMac in the second half of this year. Longtime manufacturing partner Quanta is among the companies expected to receive orders to build the new iMac.

Lastly, we may see a new release of iLife and iWork for 2010 that will feature touch functions on the Mac as well as iPhoneOS devices.

2010 will be a big year. I wonder what WWDC will have in store. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is speculated to be scheduled June 28 - July 2 according to Moscone Center's website. The event was briefly listed as a "Corporate Event" the blocked out Moscone West for the whole week. In the meantime, enjoy this from Joy Of Tech:

Should you dump Internet Explorer, NOW?

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:56:05 PST

Comment by: Brandin

2010 is going to be a big year. Companies are making big announcements about new products. Some will most likely change the way we live each day. On the other hand, those things we continue to use are starting to show their age and pose threats to what we take for granted. The maker shows no effort to fix it. I've started off the year following some comments from technical writers such as Walt Mossberg and Joe Wilcox. Here's a little something from Joe which caught my attention.

Blog Post:

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

D`oh, now there's a redundant question.

Yesterday, ZDNET blogger Ed Bott asserted that "it's time to stop using IE6." I s-o-o-o-o disagree. For many organizations and all consumers, it's time to stop using any version of Microsoft's browser -- IE6, IE7, IE8 and forget someday releasing IE9. Less than a week ago, the German government told its citizens to switch from Internet Explorer. This is good advice for you, too.

On Thursday (Jan 14), McAfee pegged a previously publicly unknown Internet Explorer exploit as one of the mechanisms used to invade computers or networks among more than 20 U.S. companies. On Tuesday (Jan. 12), Google disclosed the security breaches, which were traced back to China. McAfee dubbed the attacks "Operation Aurora." On Friday (Jan. 15), McAfee and Microsoft reported that code for the zero-day exploit was in the wild, potentially putting millions of Windows PCs at risk.

Bott singled out IE6, presumably because of Microsoft's cleverly worded Thursday blog post, security bulletin and statements to the press. From Thursday's blog post: "Microsoft has not seen widespread customer impact, rather only targeted and limited attacks exploiting IE 6 at this time." Bott writes: The entry point? According to Microsoft, it's IE6."

I found the IE6-only assertion puzzling since the early version of McAfee's blog post, credited to CTO George Kurtz, explains: "Our investigation has shown that Internet Explorer is vulnerable on all of Microsoft's most recent operating system releases, including Windows 7." McAfee later updated the post to say that to date the attacks targeted IE6. Nowhere did Kurtz say that only IE6 was vulnerable to the exploit.

Betanews' Scott Fulton made the right observations early Thursday evening: "One may reasonably ask, just who at Google -- the maker of Chrome, its own Web browser -- would be a potential target who also would happen to be running IE6 on Windows 7 -- a system which, by default, installs IE8?"

Yes, who at Google would run IE6 on Windows 7? Easy answer: A developer looking to ensure IE6 compatibility with new Google services. But even that's a stretch. More likely: IE7 and IE8 are vulnerable to to exploit. On Friday, Microsoft acknowledged this circumsatnce in yet another blog post, and Bott responsibly noted this in his ZDNet post. According to Microsoft: "Newer versions of Internet Explorer are affected by this vulnerability." Updated Microsoft Security Advisory 979352 qualifies the extent of vulnerability in IE7 and IE8 under "mitigating factors." Not everyone is safe, regardless of Internet Explorer version.

The Problem with Mitigating Factors

I've long accused Microsoft of conducting "security by PR" campaigns instead of clearly disclosing security risks. Security by PR seeks to minimize the real risk while disclosing information about a vulnerability. With respect to the Aurora exploit, Microsoft was quick to warn of the risk -- after there had been some disclosure by Google and later McAfee's release of the attack vector's schematics. Initially, Microsoft singled out IE6. In the second blog post and updated 979352 bulletin -- released after it was widely reported that other browser versions are vulnerable -- did Microsoft really come clean; that is creditworthy.

Bott is a responsible journalist, who also knows his way under the hood of Microsoft operating systems. But he also is sometimes too much the Microsoft cheerleader (Whereas I am accused of being a Microsoft critic). In my reading of the updated bulletin, he overlooks like the broader IE risks. Bott writes: "Under the 'Mitigating Factors' heading, the Microsoft Security Response Center specifically notes that the exploit used in this case does not run under IE7 and IE8 in Windows Vista or Windows 7." Perhaps Bott didn't see the v1.1 of the 979352 bulletin before posting.

In the "affected software" section, Microsoft lists IE7 and IE8 running on Windows XP, Vista, 7, Windows Server 2003 and 2008. The "mitigating factors" is downright scary reading, so let's have a Sunday scare and go through them:

1. The MSRC bulletin observes that DEP, Data Execution Protection, is enabled on IE8 running on Windows Vista, XP and 7. Fine, but what about IE7? For December, according to Net Applications, IE 7 browser usage share was a seemingly meager 15.53 percent. IE6 and IE8 were neck and neck with usage share of 20.99 percent and 20.88 percent, respectively. IE usage share for all versions was 62.69 percent in December, meaning that the majority of people weren't automatically protected by DEP. The feature can be manually enabled in IE 7, but how many people will realistically do this? It's on by default in IE8 for a reason.

2. "Protected Mode in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems limits the impact of the vulnerability." Key word is "limits." Protected mode doesn't protect against the attack but only limits it.

3. "An attacker could host a Web site that contains a Web page that is used to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability." That's pretty damn self explanatory.

4. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user." The bulletin rightly observes that "users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less affected than users who operate with administrative user rights." Right, and with the majority of PC users running Windows XP, which default privilege is administrator, how many are likely running as something less? Many larger businesses will limit rights, but most consumers and small businesses won't know the difference. There's a reason why Microsoft lowered default privileges in Windows Vista and 7.

5. According to the MSRP bulletin, the default security setting for IE running on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 is "high." As it should be. But the better security measure is obvious: Never use a Web browser on a server behind the corporate firewall.

6. "By default, all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows Mail open HTML e-mail messages in the Restricted sites zone." It's a good feature and one that would greatly minimize risks posed by mitigating factor #3. Problem: People will stupidly change this setting because they want to see pretty e-mail and run scripts or ActiveX controls. Microsoft put in the right mechanism, it's too bad some users will create security risk by flipping the switch that allows remote images and scripts to load.

Update: In a blog posted about eight-and-a-half hours after this one, George Stathakopoulos, Microsoft's GM of Trustworthy Computing Security, writes: "The attacks that we have seen to date, including public proof-of-concept exploit code, are only effective against Internet Explorer 6. Based on a rigorous analysis of multiple sources, we are not aware of any successful attacks against IE7 and IE8 at this time."

Interesting, because McAfee has been quite deliberate in its general identification of Internet Explorer, which fits with the MSRC bulletin's identifying IE7 and IE8 as also being vulnerable. Yesterday, Kurtz blogged: "This attack is especially deadly on older systems that are running XP and Internet Explorer 6." He didn't write only affects IE6 or even insinuate it. In a follow-up post today, he writes: "Internet Explorer users currently face a real and present danger due to the public disclosure of the vulnerability and release of attack code, increasing the possibility of widespread attacks."

Is Microsoft unleashing another security by PR tactic to diminish the negative public relations effect? Or perhaps is McAfee over-emphasizing the threat to sell more security software? Those are questions best answered in a follow-up to this post. But if you've got an opinion, please share it in comments.

Choose Your Browser Wisely

Some Betanews readers will ask why the Aurora exploit should be reason to dump Internet Explorer? After all, there have been plenty of other exploits. Why now? Answer: The large number of exploits. The newest zero day exploit is yet just another reason to dump Microsoft's browser. Based on declining IE usage share, many Internet users clearly see IE as an anachronism, a browser which belongs to an aging PC-centric business model. According to Net Applications, IE usage share dropped from 69.23 percent to 62.69 percent between February and December. During the same time period, Firefox continued its steady climb, going from 22.58 percent to 24.61 percent. Meanwhile, Chrome soared from 1.54 percent to 4.63 percent usage share -- little more than a year after being released in beta.

There has been plenty of punditry about why Google developed its own browser. It's not rocket science: Internet Explorer. The company's business is all about the Web, where a modern, standards-based browser would be the better way to consume Google products or services. Something else: Internet Explorer 7 and 8 are too complex, offering all kinds of prompts and warnings -- the majority of which deal with privacy or security. By comparison, Chrome and Firefox use simpler, less-prompted approaches that hide security complexity from users. Generally, there only prompts when there is real risk, like trying to navigate to known malicious sites.

Some of that complexity makes IE7 and IE8 dangerous browsers to use. The complexity creates two flipside-of-coin problems:

1. Users become dumb to the prompts and develop click-thru behavior. Who really reads those security prompts or browser bar warnings? It's easy enough to click thru the security warning popup or browser bar prompt blocking some script, ActiveX control or file download. When end users develop the habit of clicking through, they can mindlessly click thru nefarious popups, thus downloading unwanted malware.

In fairness, IE7 and IE8 pack some nifty safety tricks, like "Protected Mode." But couldn't these work silently without other security features teaching users bad habits? The better approach would be to prompt only when there is high risk, so that people pay attention. Google and Mozilla take this more sensible approach.

2. IE7 and IE8 complexity lead to false senses of security. If there's no prompt or warning, then users can feel the Website is safe. The Aurora exploit demonstrates attack is still possible without warning. Users aren't safe. This is the flipside of Microsoft's problem of offering IE users too many prompts.

The point: Ed Bott is right to assert that "any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice." But should anyone run IE7 or IE8? I say absolutely not. Microsoft has hoisted big usability and ongoing security problems onto Internet Explorer users. Two reasons why:

Backwards compatibility is one of Microsoft's top design priorities
Microsoft has too much invested in legacy Internet Explorer to start over

But start over, with a WebKit based browser, is what I recommended in September. It's particularly sensible in the mobile device market, where between November and December, Web surfing from Android handsets rose 54 percent, according to Net Applications. Windows Mobile didn't even make the Top 5, which included Java ME.

I often have wondered why Microsoft hasn't produced a decent mobile browser, and plenty of other technophiles have voiced confusion about this matter, too. What if security is a major reason -- that Microsoft is finding it hard to release a decent mobile browser without all the desktop baggage? Surely, Microsoft's mobile leadership can't be that incompetent not to realize how important the mobile browsing market is becoming. There must be another reason why Microsoft can't release a decent mobile browser.

This long post ends with two simple questions: What is your primary Web browser? If the answer is some version of Internet Explorer, why? I switched to Chrome, after so expectantly hoping Microsoft would fix in IE8 the usability problems pervasive in IE7.

Brandin in the movie "MacHeads"

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:30:47 PST

I received notice today that I was spotted in the documentary, MacHeads. Most of the movie was filmed during MacWorld San Francisco 2007, which I attended through a developer group. This was the big event where the first iPhone was announced and demonstrated by the big man himself, Steve Jobs. Probably the greatest thing he did during the keynote was prank calling the Starbucks on Market & 4th and ordering 3000 coffees to go. That was a big day. I was dropped off in Burlingame in the early morning hours and traveled via BART to Moscone West. I remember seeing a TON of cameras circling the stage, more than Apple typically allows during these events. I do remember that camera guy sweeping by me. Now I know what it was for.

My appearance here wasn't as big as the interview I was in at Apple's 2009 Worldwide Developers Conference. MacHeads is currently on Hulu available for you to watch. You can skip to 43:01 to see the part. The film can be watched on iTunes as well.

If you watch the whole film, I want you to know that in no way do I class myself as a "FanBoy" nor am I a "SteveFanatic" obsessed about Steve Jobs. I admire Steve's drive that brought the company to where they are today. That attitude goes for anybody in my world. I do support the claim that I am a loyal customer of Apple and am a member of Apple Developer Connection. I support the company for the great quality products that they create, their drive to challenge the cutting-edge, and their philosophy about making things that work without hassle.

With that said, enjoy!

Links:

MacHeads Website
MacHeads Feature Film on Hulu
KQED Interview

Here it comes! (with more to come)

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:10:42 PST

Here it comes, my last six months in Long Beach and the whole collegiate experience. I spent the first week of the new decade in the mile-high town of Idyllwild with some friends. I took a three week vacation for the holidays. No school, no work, no crew. Just me. This was definitely some time to reflect what this last decade brought me. Amazing... in fact, I have some things that will be posted within the month. It's now or never so check back soon. By the way, you like to new navigator (at the top)? In the month of March I will approach a trail junction with four directions. That direction I choose will be hard to turn back on. I have to choose one wisely. ~B

When Employers Want to See Your Social Networking Profile

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:37:27 PDT

Would you hand over your login and password?

By Anthony Balderrama, CareerBuilder.com writer

Last June, the city of Bozeman, Mont., became notorious when it implemented a policy that required anyone applying to a city job to hand over logins and passwords for any social networking sites they used. We're not just talking about Facebook and MySpace, either. They wanted access to chat rooms and forums frequented by applicants. After people made a fuss about the invasive policy, Bozeman officials backed down and decided to adjust their application requirements.

That type of interview requirement doesn't seem to have caught on with other employers. Then again, Victory Christian School in North Augusta, S.C., recently announced it wants its students to hand over the same information if they might be acting in a way not in line with the school's policies.

Perhaps job seekers should expect to experience these demands sooner than later. Naturally, questions arise: Is this legal? What if I don't hand over my information? What's the point to all this?

How do employers feel about this?

Employers have been looking at job seekers' online personas for years now. A simple query in a search engine can reveal plenty of information about you. Go to any networking site and type in your e-mail address or name and see what information is available to the public, because employers are already doing that. But if you let someone log in to your account, your privacy settings won't matter. It will all be on display. But should you be panicking just yet?

"As an employer at a PR firm, social networking is a crucial part of our business; hence, it's important our employees are well-versed," says Tyler Barnett, CEO of Tyler Barnett PR. "That being said, we always check the public information [candidates] have out, but would never ask for logins and passwords, or access to [such] a very private arena." For Barnett, it's important for both sides to draw a line.

"I can't even believe employers would do that, and I find it even harder to believe an employee would give that information up," he says. "What's next, granting access to your sock drawer?"

Obviously some companies, unlike Barnett's, do want access. What are they looking for?

What digital dirt do they want?

Objectionable online content isn't all that different from the usual skeletons that employers want to find before making an offer. Some things employers are looking for are:

Offensive statements, language and behavior
Unprofessional images of yourself
Illegal behavior
Examples of you bad-mouthing your employer

These are the kinds of activities employers have objected to for years, only now the Internet makes them easier to find.

Can they do that?

Jon Yarbrough, a partner at national employment-law firm Constangy, Brooks & Smith says it's absolutely legal to ask for the information. Beyond that, it's your call.

"I've seen a generational gap: The younger employees say employers are invading their privacy, but really they have little to no privacy rights in that way," he says.

Of course, where you live and what you've done make the issue a little murkier.

"In some states, there are statutes that address an employee's ability to engage in lawful activities during off-duty hours," Yarbrough says. "You couldn't penalize someone for something they have written in their blog or MySpace or such. And blogging is lawful. Twittering is lawful. You can't fire them just for that. But if a potential employee had 'this company stinks,' or damaged the company's reputation, then of course they can choose not to hire them."

That seems fairly clear-cut, but when you're not hired for something the employer saw, can you prove that was the reason? Can the employer prove that wasn't the reason?

"The issue becomes what do you do with it and what you see," Yarbrough explains. "In most states, you can refuse to hire that person, except for an unlawful reason. If you saw that I was married to an African-American woman and said 'next,' then that's Title 7 discrimination."

That's difficult to prove, but it's an obvious decision that everyone knows would be wrong to make.

"If you saw me on Facebook doing beer bongs, and I'm 'Mr. Party Animal,' you'd probably shy away and not want to hire me. That would probably be a legal decision to make," he says. "But keep in mind you have five or six states right now that have laws that say individuals can engage in lawful activities in nonwork time. Now I am not sure those laws are broad enough to cover applicants to jobs, but they might be."

So what you've got here is uncharted territory, but you can be certain it will be explored in the coming years. In the meantime, the best you can do is clean up your profiles so what's on display to the public won't cost you a job. Also, decide what you'll do if confronted with this situation. Or maybe everyone will just create two profiles for each site: one for employers and one for fun.

Anthony Balderrama is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. He researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues. Follow him on Twitter @abalderrama.

WebKit adding support for GPU-accelerated 3D via WebGL

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:50:34 PDT

By Prince McLean, AppleInsider

WebKit developers are adding support for WebGL, a new API designed to deliver hardware accelerated 3D graphics within the web browser without the use of a separate plugin.

According to a report posted by a developer on the Wolfire Blog, WebGL provides HTML5's Canvas with hardware accelerated 3D rendering features by adding a JavaScript binding for OpenGL ES 2.0, enabling web developers to present 3D scenes and models that tap the full native processing power of the client's graphics hardware.

The open, royalty-free WebGL specification is administered by the Khronos Group, the same organization that manages OpenGL and the new OpenCL API for cross-platform and GPU vender-neutral general purpose computing on GPU hardware.

Being able to render rich 3D content on the web without a proprietary, opaque binary runtime plugin such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft's Silverlight means that any standards-based device can be targeted by web games developers, from a desktop web browser to a mobile device like the iPhone. The technology can also be used to animate complex navigation and data visualizations.

Earlier this summer, WebKit added support for CSS 3D transforms, which allow web developers to position page elements in a 3D space. Apple rapidly added support for that feature in iPhone 2.0 and Safari 4.0.

Support for WebGL's hardware accelerated 3D rendering is likely to be similarly exposed within desktop and mobile versions of Safari over the next few months, opening up new potential for increasingly sophisticated web apps and rich media content. A public release of WebGL is scheduled for the first half of 2010.

Google, Mozilla, Opera and various GPU hardware vendors have joined in on the industry consensus to deliver advanced 3D web graphics using open standards, building support behind the Khronos portfolio of technology specifications.

Forever Rowing Upstream

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:48:30 PDT

By Skip Rozen
Wall Street Journal

Unbeknownst to even the most rabid sports fans, one of America's oldest and most storied athletic disciplines is pursued daily on a nearby river, lake or bay. Thousands of people power racing shells, narrow boats 26 feet to 60 feet long (depending on the number of rowers, from one to eight). Some row slowly and methodically; others push themselves to their physical limit, the long heavy oars hitting the water up to 45 times a minute, their muscles tortured and their lungs burning.

It's understandable if you haven't noticed: Rowers frequently start at 5:30 a.m., before most of us leave for work. What's surprising is how ignorant we are of big-time regattas.

Even for a non-Olympic year, this was a busy season. Last weekend in Lucerne, Switzerland, U.S. rowers finished fourth among 37 countries competing at the third of three World Cup regattas. On the last Saturday of June, 21 titles were awarded at the 138th U.S. Rowing National Championships on Mercer Lake in New Jersey. Earlier that month, the University of Washington men took first at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships in early June; Stanford University women won the NCAA championships in May.

Results made few newspapers and rated nary a second of ESPN coverage.

"That's a problem for us," conceded Glenn Merry, head of U.S. Rowing, the sport's national governing body, in a phone interview. "Right now we have maybe 150,000 who regularly participate in a sport out of a population of 300 million. To most Americans, we're just not relevant."

This is sad for a sport with a rich heritage. Rowing was the first American collegiate sport, predating football in 1852 by 17 years. College teams won gold medals in eight consecutive Olympics from 1920 through 1956 in the men's eight, the most prominent event.

That early success, hard won by crews from such schools as the Naval Academy and Yale, earned rowing a wholesome image. But today's multibillion-dollar sports machines are driven by stars, money and violence. A team sport with no professional league, rowing has been ignored by television-the fan's conduit to sports. Yet U.S. Rowing estimates that 85,000 people now row competitively, up from 32,000 in 1986; an additional 65,000 row recreationally. Occasionally races draw crowds: Boston's Head of the Charles regatta claims an attendance of 300,000 over its two days each October.

While high schools and colleges form rowing's core, the new growth is aided by community rowing clubs. They are everywhere where there's water: Boulder, Colo. and Alexandria, Va.; New York City, Chicago, Oklahoma City and throughout Canada.

One of the busiest is Community Rowing Inc. on Boston's Charles River, a nonprofit organization that helps its 1,560 youth and adult participants row at introductory and competitive levels. CRI began in 1985, when Harvard coach Harry Parker opened his facilities to new rowers. It offers classes for a fee to anyone and community outreach free to more than 200 teenage girls from the Boston area-"a third black, a third white, and a third from all over," according to CRI.

"Once the sport realized that the perception was the only way to get into the water was to attend an elite college, people worked really hard to change that," said director Bruce Smith from the new CRI boathouse. "Community rowing exists because a bunch of those elite people said we've got to open the doors of this sport." Rowing's image as a sport for the wealthy and white troubled U.S. Rowing enough to create a new position, inclusion manager, and hire Richard Butler in May. His exact duties are as yet undefined, but he might start by examining the work of CRI.

At 5:30 on a recent Friday morning, dozens of boats propelled by a diverse group of rowers left the CRI dock: women in the four-oared shells with coxswain-a nonrowing on-board coach who steers the boat-and men in their four, each rower with a single oar, all members of the competitive groups; women just learning in their eight-person shells, and lots and lots of scullers, singles and doubles and quads-boats with one, two or four rowers, each with two oars. They glided up river and down river, under the bridges of Boston, nearly silent except for the occasional correction of a coach from an accompanying motor launch.

Other Boston boathouses offer learner programs, part of a nationwide effort to popularize rowing. But increased numbers have not translated into Olympic success. Rowing is our third-largest Olympic team, behind track-and-field and swimming, but it produced only three medals in 2008, compared with 31 for swimming and 23 for track and field. The U.S. Olympic Committee blames an emphasis on big boats, reasoning that eight rowers could conceivably win medals in three or more smaller boats.

"They asked what it will take to move the other events forward," according to Mr. Merry, making it clear that the USOC uses funding for leverage. "If we weren't willing to make more of an effort in the other events, they would have to put more money into another sport, like sailing. We're working on that."

But U.S. Olympic problems are not limited to a division of effort. Because rowers traditionally start in high school or college, even the best don't reach an elite level until their late 20s. This pushes the strenuous training of advanced rowing up against studies and career, causing many to quit. The dropout rate for freshman rowers is as high as 90%.

Collin Buesser, with high-school experience and a family tradition of rowing, left Northeastern's crew after his freshman year in 2008. "We trained two, three hours every morning starting at 5:45 and then another two to three hours in the afternoon," he said. "I just couldn't balance all that with nine hours of homework."

Plenty do manage, however. They put in their hours at college and clubs dedicated to rowing. One of the oldest is the Riverside Boat Club, just down the Charles from CRI. Its 210 members pay $550 a year and often row 11 times a week, training to compete against other clubs and some of the nation's best at national championships.

"It's almost like it's this closet subculture," said Riverside trustee Kate Sullivan one recent morning as early rowers took to the water. "On the one hand, it's too bad. Then again, it isn't."

For some rowers, anonymity is part of their bond.

-Mr. Rozin writes about sports for the Journal.-

The end of an era: A Message to the Fans of Beach Crew

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:04:59 PDT

Dear Athletes, Coaches, Alumni, Parents, and Friends of Beach Crew,

The time has come to say my parting from a year-long journey and the end of an era for myself, at least from the stance of locking the oar in place. The efforts we saw this last year were nothing short of a resurgence. This year was truly a milestone. It made us "think outside of the box" and get back to what mattered most for this team, the support from our fans. We are glad that you were a part of this movement with us.

I would like to thank all of my officers for their hard work this last season, jumping through the hoops, finding every empty slot in their busy schedules, getting the job done. We've all realized that being a part of this organization comes with a cost. While we're all here to be on the water and condition ourselves, we also realized that we have a responsibility. We must keep the wheels turning, pursue a vision that we can share and strive to achieve, and preserve the legacy that was laid before us. Back in September, I challenged the Beach Crew Board of Officers and Captains to "share the vision." It's a vision that would bring back the legacy, the people, the community, and leadership that will keep us moving forward.

The team just finished electing their new officers for this next season. I am pleased to announce that I have no doubt they will continue forward with this vision. There's still a long way to go, but with these eight officers, the possibilities are endless. We are lucky to have a program that has such a long history at this institution, a history that surpasses many others. Not many organizations get to have this distinction. All of you are a part of this community and always will be. Try counting how many mornings you woke up to run down to the Pete Archer Boathouse. All of you sacrificed so much to be here, possibly having to give up the simple pleasures in life and deal with reality at the same time, let alone being academically responsible. I don't know who came up with this quote and how it was proved, but I keep hearing that, "Rowers will do more before 8:00 AM before most people will do in an entire day." I can say that the efforts I've seen this past year surpass what most of the athletes at CSULB possess.

I am about to become one of many who I like to classify as "the iron men who once rowed in wooden shells." I have one challenge for those of you who fall under that category. You are a part of this vision we're striving to achieve. This Fall, all of you will have the opportunity to elect your first round of board members of the newly-formed Beach Crew Alumni Association. Our advisory panel has worked hard this past year with the CSULB Foundation to get things off the ground. This time, we mean it. I want to challenge each one of you to be a part of this movement, whether you can lend a helping hand with the alumni association, the rowers, or even showing up on a morning, we need your help to show these new rowers who we are, what they're about to experience, and the rich legacy that they're about to be a part of. This cannot be done without you. We are proud of the fact that we are a family. Your involvement and support is the life-blood of Beach Crew. Our traditions are strong and meaningful not only to alumni, but also to the current athletes and their families.

Many of you have heard me refer to this quote several times. Former CSULB President, Robert C. Maxon, who we have a boat named after, once said, "If all you ever do is attend classes, you're not getting a full college education." I have no doubt that many of us fulfilled that once-in-a-lifetime experience he described after we completed a season with this team.

Never underestimate the potential that all of you have. Many people on campus see us as the extraordinary, committed, individuals that not only strive for the betterment of ourselves, but also follow the university's mission: "to promote intellectual and personal development and to prepare students for life-long learning as well as prepare them to succeed in a variety of professional endeavors and to function as informed, contributing members of the community." Over the past year, I met many who had once taken a stroke in a boat and am happy to say that many of them are leaders that are successful with what they do. The high-moral citizens that spring out of this program is unforeseen and often overlooked.

Keep the faith, the legacy, and the traditions alive. Never forget where you came from. It was an honor serving all of you in this 50-year-old program. I look forward to the many functions that this team has ahead of them.

Yours in Service (GO BEACH!),

Brandin J. Grams