Wiki this

Hey all,

Too long an absence makes for a rusty start. However, I'm still surfing & have rounded out my collection of my latest, favorite technology.

Here's a description from the source:

"Wiki is in Ward's original description: The simplest online database that could possibly work.

Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly."

The beauty of a combined websource is in it's diversity. My current favorites are the Wikinews site, Wikipedia & Wikiquote, but there's heaps more.

My favorite cartoon has a wiki of it's own, as well as the site with the php code I use to build my photo galleries. There are folks using wiki's for journals and folks building wiki's for their communities, for productivity sites and, of course, for niche interests. You can even make your own.

I watched a monster, time-lapsed movie about folks entering news on the London blasts, made by a guy who is pointing out the intersection of culture & media on the web. I remember being up that morning & marveling over the news announcing that a "power-surge" had stopped several trains in London. Shortly after, the bus in Tavistock blew and it was more obvious that it was a coordinated attack. The video isn't the coolest thing, but it is refreshing to have an option, media-wise, when all hell breaks loose.

Check out wiki's folks & do tell if you've made one.

Happy Software Story

Have you tried Total Recorder? Really, you should.

The standard version is an $11.95 download which went quickly, even on my elderly dial-up. Total Recorder will record whatever audio passes through the sound card of your computer.

I'm using it right now to record an old THIS AMERICAN LIFE from 1997. There's all sorts of great audio on the web, of course. The BBC, NPR. And music of course. Forget ordinary old file swapping, how about recording a chunk of YFM's streaming broadcast "Playing the best mix of original, Urban South African music and international artists." Amazing commercials and The Morning Zoo format from very far away.

Hate It Or Love It

I'm slowly returning to the wider world at the end of a school term and reviewing all the chunks of information I've emailed myself to look at later.

An interesting set of tips in the NYT regarding a set of guidelines for conducting an honest argument between two entrenched sides:

1. Hate something for its failings, not its successes.
Simple idea, tough for me to execute. What I take away from this is that it's okay to find fault with, say, Paris Hilton for being a vacuous twerp but not because she has a successful television show.

2. No condemning something until you've tried it.
I hate the city of Phoenix which is peculiar considering that I've never been, never come close to going, don't personally know of anything bad that happened in Phoenix to any of my loved ones, etc.

3. Execution Matters
See John Kerry. Bless his heart but there were so many apologists insisting that he was NOT chilly, distant, aloof, etc. etc. It's a losing battle to convince someone that her experience using a product or a service (I suppose a presidential candidate is both) is not frustrating but actually delightful.

skipping number four for a moment...

5. Consider that they may have a point
from the original: Neither side's members should be allowed to cover their ears and sing "Blah blah blah!" at the top of their lungs when they hear an argument that could rock their worldview. As long as the points are factual, fair and substantive, you should consider them.

I thought this was such a nice list of guidelines that I removed them from their original context which was a David Pogue essay that laid out the ground rules for Windows vs. Mac conversations (number four is "Don't make grandiose purchasing plans by guessing on technology's future"-sound advice, perhaps, but not quite as readily adaptable to other arguments.)

Consider Yourself

A few days ago, I'm talking to a person about doing some work for them. This person is well-off, white, has an expensive home with an expensive view in an expensive neighborhood. This person made their money in corporate America and then left to make a living in a more new age (do we still use that term?) focused pursuit. And, in conversation about this person's ideas, they said this: "I'm like Rosa Parks."

If you ever watched Sports Night, Aaron Sorkin's brilliantly written TV show that died way too soon, you might remember the scene where Issac says to Dan that "no well-to-do young white man will ever get anywhere with him by comparing himself to Rosa Parks."

To deal with my feelings about my interaction with this person, when I got home I decided to find out who else had compared themselves to the woman who refused to go to the back of the bus. Here's what I came up with:

Ted Nugent: Nugent wanted to legalize dove hunting in Michigan and called himself "Rosa Parks with a 12 gauge."

Terrell Owens: A football player who made a brouhaha because he wanted to work as a free agent.

Lars Larson: A conservative talk show host who thought the request by Southern Oregon University to leave his handgun at home while particpating in an on campus forum violated his civil rights.

Jack Kevorkian: The infamous Dr. Death who portrays himelf as fighting for a cause - legalized euthanasia.

Ahmed Omar Abul Ali: The Virginia Muslim charged with conspiring to assassinate President Bush.

Edward Forchian: A guy who's says that US marijuana laws are unconstitutional.

I thought it was interesting that all the people I found comparing themselves to Rosa Parks were men. The women I found had been compared to Rosa Parks by their peers or by an outside group; they hadn't drawn the comparison themselves.

I find the whole thing very presumptuous. I thought that history decided who was a leader and who was a prophet. But I have been wrong before. At this point, I want to issue a broad disclaimer about what a flawed human I am. I also want to veer off in to a tirade about humility and the lack thereof in our current society and government. Because I'm just like Al Franken. But also, I'm like a Trappist nun, so I'll shut up now.

Literary Fortunes

Here: Click it!

and here is my favorite:
Diplomacy is saying 'Nice doggy'
until you can find a rock.
Lucky # 1,9,20,29,40,43
Will Rogers

Management Training, Anyone?

(Following Lillian's format)

I've been looking around for work for the past few weeks. Now that I'm done (I found a nice meaty project where I can walk to the main office, only have to cross the bridge for meetings, and will work primarily at home) I wanted to share five unbelievable things that people said to me as I sat in their guest chairs while they scribbled notes on my resume.

5. Oh, I never meet my deadlines. I'm always totally scrambling at the last minute. (Way to set an example, team lead!)

4. Our team never completes anything on time. Seems like they always move the target right at the end and we're tied up until Thanksgiving. (Your upper management rules!)

3. This is the worst building I've ever worked in. We all say that the feng shui here is totally messed up. Look at it, it's all pointy and slanty and bad. (I can hardly wait to spend 8 hours a day here!)

2. I like to do spot checks on my employee's work so I can see what they're up to. Also, I like to keep them close where I can see them. (It's nice that we're all grown-up professionals that trust each other to do their jobs, isn't it?)

And the #1 interview busting remark:

1. I can't promise I won't micromanage you. (Wow. I'm speechless!)

As an aside, I understand that you might not have a lot of time to read my resume, and also, that many resumes do not tell you what that person has done. Mine, however, is quite specific on what I've done and what I know how to do. If you point to my resume and ask "Tell me about what you did at XYZ Co.", that is an excellent indicator that you have not read my resume. In which case, why are you interviewing me?

Also, can anyone please elaborate on the thinking behind those "Tell me about a time..." and "How do you respond to..." and "Give me three words that describe..." questions. Because during my entire working life, I have never, ever, ever been asked to do any of those things.

I didn't used to hate looking for work.

AFA tells me this...

Just got this from the virulant American Family Association. It's a list of liberal agenda items - I've added some context to their list:

Here is the agenda the liberals want to achieve. They want Senators to filibuster any judicial nominee who will not support this agenda.

1. Approval of homosexual marriage (or just not killing or wounding or discriminating against homosexuals)
2. Legalizing euthanasia (or just letting folks determine whether or not they want to be kept alive with medical intervention)
3. Banning prayer in school (or being non-demoninational about it, recognize other religions, etc.)
4. Banning the public display of the Ten Commandments (or adding displays for other religions in the U.S.)
5. Banning the Pledge of Allegiancen (I didn't sign up for this...)
6. Basing our laws on the laws of other nations (didn't sign up for this)
7. Maintaining abortion on demand (yup, got me there)
8. Forcing the Boy Scouts and similar organizations (including churches) to place homosexuals in positions of leadership (dear lord)
9. Complete protection for all kinds of pornography (um...)
10. Creating hate crimes laws to punish those who believe homosexuality is wrong (if they kill people)
11. Denigrating Christianity to a secondary status (that there is a perspective issue)
12. Making secularism the only legitimate religion (that's an ox, you moron)

Anybody got anything to add?

I only want to see you praying in the papal reign/Papal reign, papal reign

I don't mean to sneer at catholicism or the pontiff but rather at the media coverage.

"Is the mood any different in St. Peter's Square?" Yeah, everybody was sad but now they're doing The Wave.

"We're going to continue looking at the pope, particularly his relationship to the Catholic church." As opposed to what, his relationship to General Motors?

I realize that these folks are having to make-do on an ad-lib basis...they are going live and they have to fill that air with something, anything. But they babble on and on and people get annoyed and then journalists wonder, yet again "why aren't we appreciated???"

In more important news, go Illinois!

Surrender to the Pod

So I found out this morning that one of my favorite public radio stations (KCRW) is podcasting a show by one of my favorite people (Harry Shearer). I've got a MP3 player because, duh, I'm a walking cliche of my demographic - I don't eat red meat, I work in technology, I'm blue state, blah blah blah. Anyway, here's what I'm wondering and here's what I think you at Hard to Get know:

What software should I download to start carrying Harry Shearer around with me on my neighborhood walk?

Also, if This American Life starts podcasting, I will just die of joy.

Finding your totem animal

context: totem animals are a fanciful concept, chosen to reflect some part of ourselves we must project to see. One of my favorite, personal totems is the octopus. Intelligent, covert, capable of fading at will to virtual invisibility, this insanely vulnerable invertibrate pulses through the sea. The paradox of the apparant power of the larger of these beasts & the obvious vulnerability are often the focus of meditations I do.

So, here's a story: Jason comes home the other night & excitedly tells me about a date he wants to set up with me. He's been talking to a co-worker, who recommended scuba diving, in the Puget Sound. I'm a bit shocked, having a fear of water, however temporary & certainly a fear of sealife. He's dying to tell me more & starts talking about the octopi in the Puget Sound & how we can see giant octopi, but should probably go at night, there will be sharks, the water is murky, etc...

He's always very excited to go to the very limits to get me to what my heart's desire. Which scares the hell out of me. Generally, I figure out a way to join him, his ideas are typically spot on. He also takes offense if I reject his cool ideas for reasons of safety, assuming I have some kind of trust issue.

It's likely that I'll go scuba diving, but I'll prep first. The moral of the story is contained in the joke below (My husband is from North Carolina):

What are a redneck's last words?
"Hey Y'all, watch this"

En Espanol, Por Favor

Hot on the heels of Sinical's Hip-Hop list comes my addition to the Pam's Europop Picks: Miguel Bose's Velvetina. There are a few video clips but I can't seem to find any MP3 downloads. This could be for one of two reasons:

1. I can't locate the link.
2. The lable is Time Warner and the tracks are locked down.

Still, I love the heavy beats and sweet sound of this stuff. I find it, well, sexy is the word that comes to mind.

So what?

You know what's getting on my nerves lately? I'm gonna tell you. It's this: The flap about the "Bush Tapes." You know what I have to say about the Bush Tapes? Big fucking deal.

So W. might have smoked a little weed. Is this at ALL surprising from a Skull and Bones mediocre frat boy who was already known for doing blow and getting hammered and going for a drive?

So W. made some vaguely disparaging remarks about homosexuals. Once again, like this is a surprise from a guy who wanted to amend the Constitution to outlaw gay marriage?

There's just not enough here to grab on to. Is this because I'm already so outraged about the things that have come out of the "President's" mouth in the present that I don't give one good goddam about what he might have said in the past? I've heard excerpts from the Johnson tapes and the Nixon tapes, now there was some nasty stuff. But anything I've come across from the W. tapes just leaves me apathetic.

The media I'm seeing is really hyping this release of information like it's full of shocking surprises. But as far as I've seen, there's no there there. My inner paranoid freak makes me wonder if this administration isn't a player in this. "We gotta give them something so it looks like there's still a shred of independent reporting out there."

Naming conventions

So, I missed the autocomplete when I typed in "hardto" & came up with a search result. This one caught my eye, a Rick James tune with the same name, you know, of the blog here.

The name for this blog here, was Drew's idea. When I asked for the reason, he said that he liked the idea of being "hard to get" and it's multiple connotations. Jump in if I'm wrong here, Drew. Not sure what other connotations folks get, if you know what I mean.

Having Rick James in the mix kinda warms my heart. It reminds me of sweaty Forestville nights dancing The Freak to P-Funk, Rick James and the Commodores (think, Brick House). Those were some of the most confusing, murky years of my life, but dancing is the blessing I got from it all. Not being afraid or unable to dance to me is more lifesaving than knowing how to swim, for example.

Ah, Forestville. Drew's been there with me. We even stayed at my childhood home. It felt like I was walking him through one of my paintings... through veiled memories and tangible presence. It's just a government suburb, outside of DC, but no one's childhood is limited by geography these days... take a look at where I grew up, I circled the shool I attended through 6th grade:



I walked over a bridge to get to school, you can see the little path near the bottom left of the circle. Before I went, I think I was four, my brother & I were walking around & playing in the creek. I remember feeling impatient to go to school. There were a few mornings I spent, catching minnows and frogs, near the bridge - while kids ambled across in school clothes, with books in hand. I thought they were so fancy!

In elementary school, we were more likely to dance to Baby Come Back then anything as rowdy as RJ - Hard to get, hmmm?

Under My Thumb

The folks at 43 Folders had a clever idea-Google "rules of thumb" and see what comes up.

They found rules of thumb for flirting, evaluating a pet store, building a church (balconies? not hot) and selling remote controls.

We all have personal rules of thumb, of course. For instance:

-If Ice Cube is in it, I won't be renting it
-Brown clothes in my wardrobe are too much hassle
-Buy the canned tomatoes; the ones in the produce section will just break your heart.

These are fine but they aren't a system, they're just ad hoc ideas. But I know within me, there are rules, rules I follow, some I've developed and some I've borrowed and many of them make systems.

Between the time I started typing this post and now, I went back to the posting at 43 folders. There are many comments from readers including this helpful hint:

If a helicopter is bigger than your thumb held at arm's length, you can bring it down with ground fire.

For any of you who are too distracted by the concept of "the rule of thumb" because you are busy thinking about how the phrase "rule of thumb" refers to an old law requiring men to restrict themselves to beating women with a rod no greater in diameter to their own thumbs, this site claims that story is bogus. The site goes on to say that, per the O.E.D., "rule of thumb" has been used at least 300 years to refer to any method of measurement or technique of estimation derived from experience rather than science.

Y tu?

The truth about love

Happy Valentine's day everybody!

I have spent the day putting hearts on all my powerpoints & finding out what folks are doing for their celebrations. We hope to do some decorating. I'm getting stencils of hearts & spray paint. We're bringing cameras.

Some thoughts on love:

My father-in-law loaned us a book on Shackleton, early in our relationship - along with the admonishment that "marriage is hard"...

Here's from Rumi:
Bouyancy

Love has taken away my practices
and filled me with poetry.

I had to clap and sing.
I used to be a respectable and chaste and stable,
but who can stand in this strong wind
and remember those things?

A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself.
That's how I hold your voice.

I am scrap wood thrown in your fire,
and quickly reduced to smoke.

Here's a Neruda thing:
The Table

"...The World
is a table
engulfed in honey and smoke,
smothered by apples and blood.
The table is already set,
and we know the truth
as soon as we are called:
whether we're called to war or to dinner
we will have to choose sides,
have to know
how we'll dress
to sit at the long table,
whether we'll wear the pants of hate
or the shirt of love, freshly laundered.
It's time to decide.
they're calling:
boys and girls,
let's eat!"

How's Your News?

Journalists spend a lot of time worrying about the decline of print journalism. What this really means, of course, is that print is evolving, not dying. In a world where the act of knitting can become hot, hot, hot, it seems premature to declare the death of journalism that you read yourself rather than having someone else read it to you.

One piece of the evolution is the end of objectivity. Chris Anderson describes objectivity as a product of scarcity. If a community has very few sources of information (a paper, a few television channels, a radio station or two) then those sources are obliged to be objective, if only from a business standpoint. In contrast to the U.S., English newspapers have always been national, not local. Papers distinguish themselves by taking sides.

Since news is now a commodity, Anderson suggests that aggregators differentiate themselves in the marketplace not just via opinion and partisanship but through sensibility and worldview. He breaks down the difference like this..."sensibility" would be The New Yorker, Maxim and MTV-if you are this kind of person, you'll like this kind of information. "Worldview" is more like a lens for viewing the world, often expressed as an "-ism"...enviromentalism, libertarianism, etc.

This seems intuitively correct. A mass media produces "Happy Days" while narrowcasting can produce "Straight Eye for the Queer Guy"; why should news be any different? Make a liberal FOX News, an enviromental Rush Limbaugh, etc.

This is a long-ass post but I have one other idea to pass along. Cass Sunstein thinks that all this fragmentation is a bad idea. "For democracy to work, people must be exposed to topics and ideas they would not have chosen in advance." says Sunstein.

The essay is, like everything he writes, sharp and well-reasoned. He ends it with this sentence:

The task for the future is to find ways to ensure that the Internet reduces, and does not increase, the risk of social fragmentation.

Fragmentation: hot or not?

The Cabinet National Library

I love this. I can't stop looking at it. I really can't.

Turner

You're gonna dig this.

Nazis. I hate those guys.

It's the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and here in central Europe, feelings are running very high. There's a thoughtful commentary in the Times on the recent scandalous walk-out by Saxon members of the National Party of Germany (NPD) during a moment of silence for the victims of the Holocaust.

There's no denying that Dresden was a bloodbath and that many innocent people lost their lives. I can't do the whole moral equivalency thing where you equate the bombing of Dresden with the millions of lost lives in Europe, Jewish and otherwise. They're all lost lives, ruined by Nazism.

What sticks in my throat and infuriates me nearly beyond words is the blantant racism and sheer stupid insensivity of the NPD. I'm pretty sure no one stopping the NPD - or anyone else for that matter - from commemorating the bombing of Dresden. Hell, we all learned about Dresden in history class and I don't remember being taught that it was an event that glorified the allies and downplayed the loss of human lives. It was a firebombing. There was death and destruction everywhere. Yet the SPD can't acknowledge that Auschwitz, too, was a tragedy beyond description.

Neo-Nazism is on the rise in former Eastern Germany. In Saxony, the SPD got just over 9 percent of the vote. You could conclude that one in ten people you'd meet when walking the streets of modern Dresden supports the SPDs racist platform. This is terrifying. Combine this with the rhetoric coming out of Iran these days about the Zionist agenda (thank you Dick Cheney) and you end up with the world looking pretty scarey for this latke eating member of the tribe.

W.W.Chuck Klosterman.D?

I felt both a little bit spanked and intrigued when I read this in Esquire, excerpted below. An interesting counter to some of my feelings of late about the election, swearing in, etc.

Do you want to be happy? I suspect that you do. Well, here's the first step to happiness: Don't get pissed off that people who aren't you happen to think Paris Hilton is interesting and deserves to be on TV every other day; the fame surrounding Paris Hilton is not a reflection on your life (unless you want it to be). Don't get pissed off because the Yeah Yeah Yeahs aren't on the radio enough; you can buy the goddamn record and play "Maps" all goddamn day (if that's what you want). Don't get pissed off because people didn't vote the way you voted. You knew that the country was polarized, and you knew that half of America is more upset by gay people getting married than it is about starting a war under false pretenses. You always knew that many Americans worry more about God than they worry about the economy, and you always knew those same Americans assume you're insane for feeling otherwise (just as you find them insane for supporting a theocracy). You knew this was a democracy when you agreed to participate, so you knew this was how things might work out. So don't get pissed off over the fact that the way you feel about culture isn't some kind of universal consensus. Because if you do, you will end up feeling betrayed. And it will be your own fault. You will feel bad, and you will deserve it.

Now, it's quite possible you disagree with me on this issue. And if you do, I know what your argument is: You're thinking, But I'm idealistic. This is what people who want to inflict their values on other people always think; they think that there is some kind of romantic, respectable aura that insulates the inflexible, and that their disappointment with culture proves that they're trapped by their own intellect and good taste. Somehow they think their sense of betrayal gives them integrity. It does not. If you really have integrity—if you truly live by your ideals, and those ideals dictate how you engage with the world at large—you will never feel betrayed by culture. You will simply enjoy culture more. You won't necessarily start watching syndicated episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond , but you will find it interesting that certain people do. You won't suddenly agree that Amelie was a more emotive movie than Friday Night Lights , but you won't feel alienated and offended if every film critic you read tells you that it is. You will care, but you won't care.

You're not wrong, but neither is the rest of the world. And you need to accept that those two things aren't really connected.

Insightful or just bullying?