IT In The D – Episode 51: Public Relations, Graphic Novels and Makers

IT in the D, Episode 51.

Another week, another great episode out into the ether.

From our opening banter about the usual rounds of chaos to talking managing clients, damage control and all about the world of Public Relations with CKC Agency, then into the world of comic books, graphic novels, charity events and more with the creator of Mess Bucket Comics and finally out into the some might say crazy realm of makers, fighting robots, flames and cannons with one of our friends from i3Detroitsuch a wide variety of topics and great content.

photo 5Our first segment, as per usual, was a round up of news and stories that have caught our eye during the past week.  The 45th anniversary of the moon landing, Revenge of the Nerds turns 30 years old, the movie Ender’s Game, a device you can build for $35 that will take over any Chromecast enabled system, and all sorts of other fun.

For our second segment, we dove in with Carolyn Krieger-Cohen, the owner of CKC Agency, a Public Relations firm in Farmington Hills.  From trying to figure out what she was going to do after graduating from MSU to running her own agency, she has a lot of great insights to share.  We chatted about what Public Relations actually is, what PR firms really do, the evolution of PR with the rise of social media, advice for those thinking about getting into the field and tons more.

IMG_20140516_114049_501Segment three’s conversation focused on Dom Riggio from Mess Bucket Comics…and a whole lot of other things, as it turns out.  His stories feature that fun guy over there to the right, and the first two books are out with a third on the way.  But that’s not all he’s doing, because he also owns and runs Penelope’s Venue in Southgate, a charitable organization that gets kids on the ice on an ice rink that somehow none of us even knew existed.  And that just scratches the surface of everything he’s got going on, so listen in and check out his various endeavors.

Maker_Faire_Detroit_2011_02Our fourth and final segment pulled in Matt Switlik from i3Detroit to talk about makers, making things, all of the fun tools and toys at i3Detroit to this weekend’s Maker Faire Detroit event.  If you’re not familiar with what a “maker” is, what “maker spaces” are, or all of the fun stuff you can see going on at Henry Ford this weekend, then this is definitely the segment for you.  His particular area of interest in creating fighting robots – the hardware, the software, and everything about them – but there’s a whole world of cool stuff waiting for you inside i3Detroit whenever you stop by and at Maker Faire this weekend.

And that brings us to the end of another fun episode of IT in The D that could have gone on for another hour or two if we didn’t have jobs and lives to deal with…sigh…

So listen in, and check out the links below to check out everything our guests have going on.

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CKC Agency can be found at http://ckcagency.com/

Mess Bucket Comics can be found at http://messbucketcomics.com/, Penelope’s Venue and all of the upcoming events there can be found at http://penelopesvenue.com/, and the Frozen Fish Fiasco can be found at http://frozenfishfiasco.com/

i3Detroit can be found at http://www.i3detroit.org/ and information about Maker Faire Detroit can be found at http://www.makerfairedetroit.com/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup
http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ 
On LinkedIn: 
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763 
On Facebook: 
http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: 
http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 
On Soundcloud: 
https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 

– This device, the “Rickmote”, can hack any Chromecast and Rickroll you.  http://www.businessinsider.com/rickmote-gadget-hijacks-google-chromecast-2014-7

– Wait…you mean rolling out 20,000 ipads to students causes bandwidth issues? http://www.citeworld.com/article/2453290/mobile-byod/coachella-school-districts-20000-ipads-are-head-of-the-class.html

– Why does iOS have several functions that do nothing but bypass your encryption and share your stuff?  https://threatpost.com/researcher-identifies-hidden-data-acquisition-services-in-ios/107335
– Toyota’s new minivan helps you yell at your kids: http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/10286840/Toyota-wants-to-help-you-scream-at-your-unruly-kids
– Dungeons and Dragons turns 40, and here’s all the awesome influence it has had: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/dungeons-dragons-saved-my-life …and continues to have: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/books/dungeons-dragons-has-influenced-a-generation-of-writers.html?ref=books&_r=1
– A senator with a clue?  Microsoft called out for laying off 18,000 while demanding more H1Bs: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9249837/U.S._Senator_blasts_Microsoft_s_H_1B_push_as_it_lays_off_18_000_workers
– Red ticket traffic cam in Chicago is screwed, sends out at least 13,000 bad tickets: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/faulty-red-light-cameras-produced-thousands-of-bogus-traffic-tickets/
– Dell accepts Bitcoin now… http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2014/07/18/we-re-now-accepting-bitcoin-on-dell-com.aspx
– Remember last week when we talked about used phones?  Guy pays $200 for point of sale system on eBay, finds SSNs, databases, all sorts of fun: http://www.itworld.com/data-protection/427671/aloha-point-sale-terminal-sold-ebay-yields-security-surprises