My tweets
- @JoeyMcAllister Something bigger indeed. *WINK WINK* in reply to JoeyMcAllister 2 hrs ago
- Really dude? I saw you stare at the cart corral before you left your cart in the lot. It was only another 40 feet. Really? 4 hrs ago
- Took the Droid X to Verizon to gery checked out. We wiped it to be sure. Still waiting for backup assistant. Ugh. 5 hrs ago
- @megatronzinski Hey. Thanks. America. in reply to megatronzinski 19 hrs ago
- More updates...
Blog Archives
Blogroll
Archive for February, 2009
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What Am I Going To Do With These Things?
Posted on February 28, 2009 | View CommentsThis is a wooden block with a slit cut in it. I don’t mean to insult your intelligence, I simply want to be sure that you understand what we are dealing with here. I’ve got a large bag filled with around 150 of these little things, leftovers from a silent auction some years back (they held up description cards).
They measure 2.6″ x 2″ x 3/4″ and feature a slit running halfway into the block at a roughly 75-80 degree angle. At least I think it would be 75-80. They range a bit in color, since they were probably cut from junk wood, and a few have paint splashes on them, but they overall uniform.
I hate throwing them away, so if I can’t figure out good and craft-worthy plan, they’re heading to the local Freecycle list. So I ask you all: What on earth am I to do with these things?
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Because People Want To Know…
Posted on February 24, 2009 | View CommentsI happened upon an ABCNews story about Twitter that featured such luminaries as George Stephanopoulos and MC Hammer. I’ve got no idea how to post the damn thing in here, so I’ll just link out to it: John Berman catches up with MC Hammer about Twitter. John Berman (@abcdude) gave a pretty good rundown of Twitter, although I again got the feeling that microblogging was some sort of funny joke.Still, it got me to thinking. Mashable’s recent-ish article about Twitter’s growth is enough to make one’s head spin. 752%? That’s insance, but even with ~6 million users, the distinction between “user” and “USER” should be clear to anyone who has spent a few months tweeting. My curiosity is this: What is the “saturation point” for Twitter, i.e. when does it become normalized in much the same way that searching with Google or finding friends on Facebook has become blasé?
Is it going to be 15 million in the US? 40 million worldwide? When does Twitter use become so commonplace that we take it as a sine qua non of our online experience?
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Obsolescence
Posted on February 12, 2009 | View CommentsSo my boss came to me, very distressed, with a browser that had somehow started up minus all of its bookmarks and saved passwords. This was bad news. My boss asked me where they might be, so I sat down to take a look.I was staring into the gaping maw of Netscape; and not just any Netscape, but AOL Netscape! This is a browser that I haven’t used since 2002. That’s a long time. I poked around for a while, tried a few things, and eventually gave up. I simply didn’t know. Now I’m not entirely certain that I could have fixed the same problem on IE or Firefox, but I think I could have given it a better go (had I been dealing with a “pretty” GUI, that is).
It made me wonder why on earth my boss would use such old software. While I was thinking, I turned and looked at the office fax machine. This is a piece of technology that has existed, in one form or another, for 100 years. I thought of all the times that I’ve helped a customer send a fax as he or she stood transfixed by this ancient technology. Is antiquated ubiquity a problem for young people today? I think so.
Should we be counted upon to understand outmoded technologies? I would say yes. A healthy respect for where we’ve come from is important for sure. Still, I pray that my boss someday discards the horse-and-buggy for the Maserati.
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Stimator – How much is my blog worth?
Posted on February 4, 2009 | View Commentsline-height:14px”>$239
Kyrgyzstan and the United States
Posted on February 3, 2009 | View Comments
The BBC reports today that Kyrgyzstan will be shuttering the United States air base outside the capital city of Bishkek. This is pretty big news any direction that you cut it, but given our new “focus” on fixing things in Afghanistan, the closing of the Manas base is really, really, really important. You can check out my paper about Democratization in Kyrgyzstan on GoogleDocs; it has a few bits about the air base and its importance.
We’ve never really treated our Central Asian presence as seriously as I would have hoped for, and it shows. The turning down of American interests in Central Asia is to be expected, even in the face of President Obama’s hopes for changing the perception of America. Russia has come out ahead, largely because they have decided to pay the Kyrgyz for the privileges of hanging out.
This sucks, yes, and I don’t know how to recoup these losses. Between Manas and the Kharshi-Khanabad “issue” in 2005, the United States is being edged out of one of the most important places on earth.
The Pork Protest
Posted on February 3, 2009 | View Comments
It’s official – I’ve decided to protest pork in the upcoming stimulus bill. CNN has a nice list (compiled by House GOP folk) of some of the sillier bits:
• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.
Quick Responses and Warm Bodies
Posted on February 2, 2009 | View Comments
I’m helping to organize some malaria awareness events on campus this quarter and the next, and I had the bright idea to find a real anti-malarial anti-mosquito bednet. Not having any idea where I might find such a thing, I contacted my point-person at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, who promptly beeped someone at Malaria No More.
When I walked into my apartment this evening, there was a strangely-shaped package waiting for me. It was from the kind folks at Malaria No More. It has been exactly 4.5 days since I inquired as to where I might find a bednet. Note: It is Monday right now.
The package contained not only a real-life anti-malarial bednet (to use in demonstrations on campus), but also a full press/marketing package: postcards, toolkits, promotional materials, sample PRs and sign-ups, and a whole lot more. There was even a copy of last year’s annual report.
What a fantastic experience. It’s not like Malaria No More is working overtime to keep me as a “customer;” they lose nothing if I look for bednets elsewhere. They aren’t counting on me to write a lengthy blog post about how nice they are. They saw a need, a resource gap, and they rushed to fill it, not for personal gain, but to inspire and support an activist who wants to make a difference. I now have far greater capacity to plan for our upcoming events, and I know that I can count on these people.
Awesome.
Ephesus
Posted on February 1, 2009 | View Comments
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been inspired by old things. It seemed like, as a little kid, I was always imagining myself as some knight of the realm or old pioneer, striding across the valleys of the world to pitch a tent in some far off place. Somehow, the world of history was of more consequence than the world at hand. I felt more at home in the past.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel to some pretty old places. Two in particular stand out – London and Turkey (specifically, Ephesus). In London, I stood in the Tower of London and saw the places where some famous Brits were imprisoned or worse. Henry VIII’s giant codpiece was directly in front of me. I saw Roman walls and old Norman artifacts.
In Ephesus, I walked along streets that had once been filled with Greeks, speaking of the news of the day. I stood in the amphitheatre where Paul addressed the jeering crowds. I breathed in thousands of years of habitation and history, yet I was also acutely aware of the desolation of the place – it has not been lived in for some time.
I’m not sure why old things have such power over me, but I feel that humans are inclined in some way to remember bits and bobs outside of our experience. I’m troubled when people forget the past, sometimes angrily. It’s all part of learning…or something like that.