December 2006 Archives

But our national conscience must be pricked!

Christmas Day marks a sad and unnecessary point in time: Now, more Americans have been killed in Iraq (2,977) than were killed in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks (2,973), which had absolutely nothing to do with the unjustified war in Iraq.

I think Saddam Hussein was an evil man. George W. Bush is no better. We have no legal or moral imperative, no right and no justification, to make certain Hussein was killed along with nearly 60,000 Iraqi civilians that absolutely no one ever talks about. And now the Iraqi report reveals an estimated $1 trillion price tag to perpetrate this atrocity in our world.

I am ashamed of what George W. Bush has done! Deeply, deeply ashamed. What has his policy of preemptive attack accomplished?

This is the very face of immorality.

Technorati Tags: Iraq

I should resolve to do what I resolve to do every year and yet don't really do: work out regularly, eat more healthfully, slow down my pace at work, all so that I can live a little longer because I better managed my diabetes. Not this year!

Since the governor is going to eliminate my health insurance upon my retirement, I will not be able to afford to stay alive when I retire! Besides, I refuse to make the same hackneyed resolutions at which I feel doomed to fail! This year I demand fresh resolutions!

So I commit to cursing less and tagging more. The former is self explanatory: I have zero tolerance for technology when it fails to work properly, sending my blood pressure through the roof and my tongue into a tirade of the unspeakable spoken. The later, however, is a totally new commitment for me.

I have become completely convinced that the meaning of life is to be extricated from metafile data! Yes, there you have it. I have unearthed it for you! The meaning of life resides tucked away in those metafile tags!

I take many pictures, post many posts, and have rarely tagged anything. With new life in my del.icio.us account, my NetNewsWire feed aggregator and tag search engines in high gear, with over 15,000 photos, it's time to make some meaning of this world.

Tag baby, you're it!

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, netnewswire, resolutions, tag

Well, it's always a big event when the Christmas decorations go up. However, for me, it's a much bigger event when they come down. That task has now been accomplished. I'm presenting a few of the holiday decorations shots for your viewing pleasure: a couple of the tree on the main level, one of the teddy bear on the bannister, and one of the tree in the bedroom.

It's not that I don't like having the decorations up--nope, not that at all. Taking them down heralds a clean, open, fresh start to the new year. It feels like the close of one chapter and the opening of another.

Those that know me well say I have an uncanny sixth sense, that my premonitions are dead on. And usually, it's really true. I always feel that each new year will bring good things, and this year is no exception. But this year is different. I feel that 2007 will bring good things, but I also feel it will bring many, really significant, substantive changes.

Time will tell.

Happy New Year!

Unfortunately I didn't take my iPod with me as I was hiking around Point Lobos State Reserve. I would have been delighted to present a podcast of the fury of nature at that ocean-side spot. However, this podcast is a recording of the Pacific Ocean at Muir Beach. I recorded it while taking shots of the surfers in the ocean. As this was pre-storm surf, it is significantly more sedate.

Click above to listen

Sea lions are loud, boisterous creatures. You can hear them "barking", with a couple of sea gulls, in this podcast recorded early one morning on Pier 39 in San Francisco.

Click above to listen

I didn't know that the street cars in San Francisco run on 3 tracks. One, in the middle, seems to power the car in some way and makes a noise. This podcast is a recording of that center track and the street car as it arrives, unloads/loads and then departs down the street.

Click above to listen

Click on the picture taken in Muir Woods National Forest to hear the sound of one of the creeks as it flows into the nearby stream gently nestled among the enormous and ancient redwoods.

Click above to listen

This morning I was off to Carmel, California, a quaint little ocean-side city once "mayored" by Clint Eastwood--yes, for real. I began the day by visiting Ocean Street--a main business street that, as its name would suggest, dead-ends at the Pacific Ocean. The little specialty shops and inns were exceedingly well kept and intended for those with money--lots and lots of it! A few private homes also dotted the street. One quaint little home, nothing at all large or ostentatious, about the size of my Decatur house and a block from the ocean but with no ocean view, was for sale: the asking price was just under $6 million.

The Pacific Ocean beach front was really nice. The sun was out; the wind was blowing, and the surf was spectacular. The sand, a light brown color, was blowing rather intensely, creating brown haze about a foot thick just above the ground.

Next I went south on California Highway 1 for about a mile or so to Point Lobos State Reserve. I wondered if I should pay the $8 to visit the park or not. The map was an additional dollar. Having heard this park was worth seeing, I splurged. Dear god in heaven, I was not at all prepared for what I was about to experience.

If the value of my days were measured in pictures, and the most pictures I've ever taken on a single day was just over 600 (just a fews days ago on Christmas Day actually), would you think my taking 1,547 pictures today any indication of the stunning place Point Lobos is? Words are completely inadequate to describe what landscape artist Francis McComas said was "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world."

The Pacific Ocean was anything but pacified, having had a storm come ashore last night. The wind was cold and biting. I was glad to be wearing both my outdoor winter coat and my raincoat/windbreaker. The salt spray being blown up from the ocean was at times so intense it stung the skin, along with tiny flying pine needles. I left completely coated with salt spray. Several times I had to clean my glasses (fortunately I brought lens cleaner for my camera lenses) or I would have been completely unable to see. The car windshield was totally white with dried salt.

At times I was sheltered from the outrageous gusts of wind by the forest. But at one point, I decided not to cross a pass near a high and craggy ocean overlook as the wind was so intense I was unable to keep my balance. I feared I would lose my footing and plummet down the jagged headland to the turbulent and unforgiving ocean below. This reminded me of the peak at Dalsnibba, Norway, just worse.

The roar of wind through the trees combined with the raging surf crashing mercilessly against the irregular coastline were all but deafening--the handiwork of nature continuously fashioning new coves, islands, and caves. For a time, one of the coves was used for whaling in the 1800's. Apparently whales swim just a couple of miles offshore visible to the naked eye. Sea lions, birds, sea otters, seals, and deer are among the inhabitants of this area. I actually saw a sea lion and walked up onto a deer casually grazing in the forest. Interestingly, this state reserve was the first to protect all of the life within its boundaries, even in the sea, which is said to be the most spectacular diving area in the state, with enormous kelp and an abundance of other sea life.

But what I found most spectacular was the ocean violently exploding up against the rocky coast. Enormous waves, probably at least 30 feet in height, would rocket 100 feet skyward upon impact. I have never experienced anything more dramatic, mesmerizing, and powerful--sheer energy. A park ranger closed an area I was visiting. She said the tide was coming in and without warning giant waves would begin to actually breach the top of the rocks and drag anything on them back into the sea. I decided it was time for me to leave that area!

The Pacific Oceans loves me! It put on an extraordinarily spectacular display which can not be captured by any camera lens, but try I did, snapping over 1,500 pictures. This is the first time I've ever completely filled my 4 gig camera card and had to start on another. No California surfer dudes were riding any of these giants. I have no doubt that any such attempt here today would mean certain death.

Having grown up in Pensacola, Florida, on the Gulf coast, I have always loved the water. The Gulf of Mexico has always been a source of peace and strength to me. The Pacific Ocean here at Point Lobos is a tremendous display of power and significance, vastly surpassing that of the Gulf of Mexico. I hope it will be with me every day.

Toward the end of the day I hopped into the car and headed back up California Highway 1 to San Francisco. I have to catch an early morning flight back home. On the way I shot a few pictures of the sun setting over the Pacific near the lighthouse.

(Four of the pictures in this post have people in them and were chosen to show scale. Take the time to locate them so you can begin to get a sense of the scale of the waves and rocks.)

This morning I decided to hit a few city highlights before driving down the coast on California Route 1. The weather forecast was for a storm to come ashore from the Pacific, but I enjoyed a partly sunny morning as I drove up to Coit Tower. The views of the city from the tower were expansive and impressive, including the most crooked street in the world, the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, a beautiful cathedral, San Quentin, and the Transamerica Tower.

For whatever reasons, I love cathedrals. So off I went, to find it. It was fairly close to Coit Tower. In fact, I could have walked to it, but then I would have to had climbed back up the "mountain" to get to my car, so I drove instead. I found a street that only had two cars parked on it. Wondering if the street were closed to parking, I asked the police officer who was placing a ticket on one of the cars parked on the street. He said that street parking was available but to be sure to turn my front wheels into the curb or I would get a ticket. So, I did, but the wrong direction. As I was getting out of the car, he looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "No! The other way." I complied.

Once walking up the block to the cathedral, I was greeted by a man walking through the park located directly in front of the church. He was singing "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood" as he walked by and said "good morning." Obviously he was having a great day.

As the morning grew increasingly overcast, I headed out to find the ever well-known row houses of San Francisco. I love the interesting architecture that abounds in this city. All of the buildings seem to have personality and flair. After taking several pictures of the Victorian-styled houses, I heading up to Twin Peaks, two side-by-side hills that overlook the entire bay area--an even more expansive view than can be seen from Coit Tower.

Just as the rain started, I drove out of San Francisco, down the coast on CA Route 1. The rain didn't stop me from snapping several pictures of the beautiful rugged coastline. I leisurely drove the 120 miles in about 5 hours. The roadside views were spectacular in the storm. I took pictures of the lighthouse for mom, who is a great fan of them ever since the TV series, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Don't worry, no one else remembers it either.

I started the day with a trip to the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge for turned out to be some spectacular pictures. I'm only posting a few now, but many will follow in the photo albums upon my return. The fog made for some dramatic shots, but I am not presenting any of those here!

Next I was off to the Muir Beach Overlook, an area, recommended by JoAnne, of intense geological action where 2 geological plates meet and are actively moving. This point was just a bit north of the beach where I took some wonderful shots of the sunset yesterday. One area jutted out from the mainland and was closed to the public. I was in a bold mood and dared to cross over the fence to get some astounding shots--again, they will appear in the photo albums later. I was then off to the beach again where I found my new calling in life: living in California shooting the surfer dudes. As I am too old and out of shape to even think of living this life of leisure and thrill-seeking, at least I can live the surfer dude life vicariously--sort of like the coach potato football fans. These shots were all taken at a great distance with my 200mm and the 2x extender, my first use of that combo.

Then I was off to San Francisco to see the city, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, the beach along CA Highway 1, the architecture, well... just everything I could see before it got dark at 5:00pm.

Finally, the day ended with some shots for mom: an enormous Christmas village in the hotel lobby and the ice skating rink just outside. And on a final note: today I took a record number of pictures for one day: 632! I'm seriously out of control!!

This morning I was off to the Golden Gate Bridge. Fortunately I decided to drive instead of walk! It was further than I thought. I parked near the bridge but down by the shoreline as I had seen a building I knew was here in San Francisco but couldn't recall its name: The Palace of Fine Arts. I walked over to it and took many photos of it in the rising morning sun.

Then I was off to Battery Park at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. This entire area is very picturesque. The waves came crashing up along the walkway. Runners and cyclist frequented the area. Each would run to the very end of the embankment and touch a plaque of two hands: "Hoppers Hands," a man who is now famous as he has rescued many people from jumping of off the Golden Gate Bridge to commit suicide. I had to ask a cyclist heading for the hands before I recalled an NPR report last year about this guy.

While leaving the fort, I stopped at a mens' room. Upon exiting it two police cars came speeding up. An officer asked me if a man was acting strangely inside. "Well, no, the strange dude was at the fort [a few hundred feet back]. He had asked me if I was a russian spy." The cars, then joined by a third, went speeding back to the fort. The poor guy had seemed mentally handicapped and probably homeless. In just a few seconds I could see the officers talking to him.

I tell you about this because the next events were what were of interest. A woman, JoAnne, was walking by the restrooms when the officer asked me about the strange-acting man. She inquired further about him as the officers left. As we talked on the walk back, I learned that she was an officer for the forestry service who was off for the day and enjoying the walk. She suggested, among other things, that I go to Muir Woods National Forest.

She was delightful. We had a conversation about the human race not needing to race but just "be" more as human "beings." She said the redwood forest was old woods with fresh aromatic air and near a beautiful beach. She also recommended the Muir Beach Overlook.

I got my car, drove up to the East Battery parking lot, and walked across the bridge and back: about 4 miles. From the bridge one can see that the waters below are engulfed in strong currents. The wind was very strong in areas, unnerving me a bit. A fence prevents jumping to your death near the ends of the bridge, but does not extend out very far at all in either direction. The bridge appears to have reversible lanes in the center. The walk was very intense in the beginning as the bridge is so high in the air, but I got used to it. The return walk was not as scary.

The Muir Woods National Forest was only about 20 minutes north. And though the drive was at times frightening, intensely twisted roadway with no guardrail, the trip was indeed worth it. The trees are very old, many are over 1,000 years old! The rushing water and fresh air made this an extraordinary place! The air smelled a lot like the Smoky Mountains, but much sweeter, at times with a burst of a "Christmas" smell.

As I left, I decided to drive back a different way, hoping it would take me by the beach. I was lucky! I got to the beach just as the sun was setting. Enjoy the beauty of this Pacific Ocean sunset.

I arrived this afternoon in the Bay City after about an hour's flight delay: an "O" ring in the hydraulic system had to be replaced. I'm staying right on the water, by Pier 1, at the Hyatt. You can see a picture of the lobby. After getting settled in I took a long walk along the bay front. This is a beautiful city, and the bay front is probably the only flat land in the whole city!

Camera in tow, I was off to the bay front: sea lions "barking" and lots of people walking, oh, and the ice skating rink outside the hotel...tis the season! The daylight is very short here on the west coast! I guess I must be more north than Atlanta!

Time for another series of things about which to think: paradox. Maybe one of the quotations in this series will give you some food for thought, even if it's only dessert.

• Everett Dirksen: "I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times."
• Disraeli: "No government can be long secure without formidable opposition."
• Katherine Mansfield: "If you wish to live, you must first attend your own funeral."
• Seneca: The hour which gives us life begins to take it away."
• St. Francis: "It is in giving that we receive, it in pardoning that we are pardoned."

Normally one thinks of the Last Supper as related to Easter. This year it is related to Christmas. Tonight I had my last supper at The Silver Grill. I have already posted, twice actually, about this little mom and pop shop closing on December 22, 2006, tomorrow. I decided to make my final appearance tonight.

I arrived just before 7:00PM and was the last person they let into the restaurant. They locked the door behind me. Normally open until 9:00PM, Kevin turned away a large number of folks as they ran out of food. The restaurant only seats about 50 people. It was packed. They ran out of food at lunch and had to restock up. They ran out again tonight.

I stood at the door for about 15 minutes. Once seated I ordered the last fried chicken in the house. People would come in just to say goodbye, pass hugs all around, and take pictures since they were out of food.

I bought a Silver Grill T-shirt when I left, and Kevin gave me one of the old "classic" red menus, which will eventually find its way scanned and posted to my blog. I'm sure the Silver Grill will be a madhouse tomorrow. I've heard tales of kegs of beer... So I'm glad I had my final dinner, my last supper, tonight.

An Atlanta institution comes to an end.

Dear god in heaven, another Nation At Risk report! As my readers know, I have only used profanity on my blog once. Well, I'm so angry, I'm totally tempted to fill this post with it! However, I will let this one sentence suffice: the Tough Choices Or Tough Times report from the National Center on Education and the Economy isn't sham poo, it's real poo!

When executives from Lucent Technologies (who participated in authoring the report) can get their own company out of the toilet, then they can ponder having the audacity to tell me what is wrong with America's public education system. Oh, but I forgot, according to them the reason Lucent Technologies is in the toilet is because of America's sorry public school systems.

I adamantly disagree! I will not quietly sit back and yet once again tolerate the public school bashing that started in 1983 with the Nation at Risk report.

Two weeks ago Georgia's governor, Sunny Purdue, publicly announced (after he was re-elected) he is considering abolishing medical benefits from the state employees' retirement plan. I wondered where on earth he got such a hair-brain idea! One doesn't attract the brightest and best into the field of education by taking such an ill-advised step. Well, his idea comes directly from this very report!

The report proposes to pay for these changes by phasing out today's lavish teacher retirement packages and moving toward benefits that more closely match those in private industry."

Let me tell you about the benefits in private industry: lower co-pays with more coverage for less money than I get as a public servant! I know this first hand. And to add insult to injury, William McGuire, the CEO for United HealthCare, the plan to which governor Sunny Purdue moved all state employees one year ago, earned $1.6 billion in stock options?! Yes, that's supposed to be a "b" as in billion!

Our new health plan with United HealthCare covers less and charges more. I have teachers on my staff that can't afford their medications, who do some of the most important work in our country, and William McGuire made what?!

This is immoral. It is wrong. This is the worst form of corporate greed and corruption!

And the governor wants to now eliminate medical benefits from all state employees' retirement plans?

You will hear a lot from me over the next few weeks about the Tough Choices Or Tough Times report. Bottom line: destroying America's public schools will destroy America, and that's exactly what these fools are up to!

Know the enemy: by clicking the icon at the bottom of this post you can read the executive summary of the Tough Choices Or Tough Times report if you can stomach it. If you want to read the entire report, you have to buy it! HAH!! I will do nothing to fund the dismantling of one of America's most important and effective institutions: our public education system.

I normally do not inject emotionality into my writing about professional matters, but right now I am profoundly offended and deeply enraged!

If the governor wants Georgia's schools to be the best in the nation, or just to improve a wee little bit, then he needs to put the money where his mouth is! One never gets something for nothing. America's public school teachers need to be compensated well and her schools more than adequately funded! Neither is the case. Instead business "leaders" and politicians bash our educators and deny them the resources needed to do their work.

This must stop.

Technorati Tags: education, reform, TCOTT

Dr. Seymour Papert, while attending a conference in Vietnam, was hit by a motorcycle and is in stable but critical condition after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot that had formed in his brain. I have greatly admired Dr. Papert's work over the years. He is a brilliant mathematician, computer scientist, and a leading thinker in education.

Snap Preview is way cool. I have installed the code on my site, which is now Snap Preview enabled.

What is it you ask? If you hold you mouse over any link on my blog, Snap will provide you with a little preview window of the actual site to which the link...well, um, links.

Give it a try. Now you can check out the link preview to see if you really want to click or not!

Technorati Tags: tool, webware

Well, I'm stunned, and shocked! I just had no idea!! Yes, I'm blushing. Time Magazine's Person of the Year Award goes to me! Well, OK, me and the millions of other users of what is annoyingly being marketed as Web 2.0: the Read/Write web. And this is my little neck of those woods.

I decided not to link to the Time article, because I suspect that part of Time's marketing strategy was to get a huge surge in web traffic from all of the links to their article in the blogosphere--clever ploy there editors at Time.

At any rate, this award captures the pulse of a nation whose people are obsessed with themselves, the Generation Me, the whole Broadcast Yourself notion. All of that to say, I humbly accept! :o)

Well, my first little TiVo, Shiela, was sick! The front display panel didn't work. I wondered if this was because the two cable TV cards had not yet been installed; so, I waited until that was done to see if the display needed some digital signal that was supplied by one or both of those cards. Nope.

So today I went to pick up an exchanged TiVo series III: Shiela II. Her front panel display works. I can now see the time and what the TiVo unit is actually doing at any point in time. Yeah!

Time for another series of things about which to think: paradox. Maybe one of the quotations in this series will give you some food for thought, even if it's only dessert.

• Eden Philpotts: "The people sensibile enough to give good advice are usually sensible to give none."
• Mill: "Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so."
• Degas: "Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do."
• Orville Mars: "The little I know I owe to my ignorance."
• Alan Kay: "Any company large enough to have a research lab is too large to listen to it."

He sits on my desk at home. (Click for the monster version.)

Technorati Tags: photo, holiday

I saw this today and had a good laugh...

"Boycott sham poo;
Demand real poo!"

Technorati Tags: quotation

I just watched this little video clip of Bob Metcalfe, filmed at the opening reception for the Emerging Technologies Conference back in September. He is speaking about the impact of video on the internet and offers these interesting observations:

• The internet started as only upper case text, then added lower case, then added a red and black ribbon; gradually advancing over the past 30 years
• Video is now the next step but requires new technologies (bandwidth pipes, protocols, etc.) which we are in the middle of developing
• The world needs to substitute communication for transportation: an answer to the rising costs of transportation is more pervasive and better communication technologies
• Chris Anderson's notion of The Long Tail is an important component of this emerging technology as well: the costs associated with TV required audiences of millions, but the costs associated with the internet are minimal, affording this medium the opportunity to supply more and more sophisticated multimedia content for just 1, 5 or 10 people in "the long tail"
• We had a now "old notion" that professionals would never sit in front of keyboard and type
• Another truism about to be reversed is that face-to-face communication is essential to the marketplace
• Online video communication will at some point in the future replace face-to-face "pressing the flesh"

I suspect he's right! And I for one can't wait. The internet has without doubt begun a radical restructuring of our concept of "broadcast." I think this fundamental democratization of the world has significant implications for cultural, political, and ethical cohesiveness. Aggregation becomes a fundamentally essential skill: sifting and reshifting--creating a new balance between a broad spectrum of (and even intense display of) diversity and the transcending ideas that diversity represents. The war over ideas is only going to grow more complex and more intense.

And I also think our concept of what an aggregator is will change. Rupert Murdoch was probably brilliant to purchase MySpace: the ultimate aggregator of the younger generation's thinking becomes the ultimate marketing tool?!

Technorati Tags: ideaFactory, communication

Hopefully you have noticed that I added image rotation to the banner of this main blog page. The javascript, Flash Image Rotator, by Jeroen Wijering, provided for distribution with a Creative Commons license, rotates through a folder of pictures on the server. The script has a number of variables that can be adjusted: transition (currently set to random) and interval (currently set to 20 seconds) as well as others.

I think people willingly sharing their work is awesome! Hope you enjoy.

The voice in the back seat got me hooked on Foxtrot on October 20th, 2006, when I returned from Japan. I loved it so much, I posted that comic. I've read it daily ever since!

“After spending close to half of my life writing and drawing FoxTrot cartoons, I think it’s time I got out of the house and tried some new things,” said Amend. “After spending close to half of my life writing and drawing FoxTrot cartoons, I think it’s time I got out of the house and tried some new things,” said Amend. [Source: Universal Press Syndicate]

The Sunday-only publication schedule begins on Dec. 31, 2006. The last daily will be Saturday, Dec. 30. Reruns of dailies will be available for Web usage.

I am sad!

I can't jump up and down nor can I scream loudly enough how much I hate the Windows operating system and Bill's unending desire to keep good quality off of most computer desktops! Many Windows machines have needless issues with QuickTime movies playing on them--never mind the fact that QuickTime uses compression codecs that are infinitely superior to Window's MediaPlayer compression algorithms.

Often, on Windows machines using IE, QuickTime movies will not play without an enormous amount of needless incantations which mere mortals are unwilling to go through. Yes, you win, Bill, and the rest of the world loses. The defacto work-around these days seems to be to use an embedded Flash player. So I went through all of the effort to try one--which you can see at the end of this post.

The problem: recompressing your basic mpg file, which doesn't even use Apple QuickTime's gorgeous H.264 compression codec, to the .flv file format compression required to play the movie through the embedded Flash player, results in dramatically lower visual quality! Below are two side-by-side picture comparisons.

In the original mpg picture (on the top) you can see the water drops on the actor's back. In the .flv picture from the Flash player (on the bottom) the image is disgnificantly degraded. Pity! And YouTube uses this format?! Why? Because the crappy Windows operating system sits on most computer desktops. As I have said many times, you Windows users are in an abusive relationship and don't even know it.

mpg screen shot from QuickTime Player above
swf screen shot from Flash Player below

You can watch the flash version through the embedded flash player below. If you want a comparison, compare the flash video file at the bottom of this post to the original post of the same movie using QuickTime's mpg codec. The lack of clarity is absolutely noticeable even to the untrained eye.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Time for another series of things about which to think: paradox. Maybe one of the quotations in this series will give you some food for thought, even if it's only dessert.

• Goethe: "Where there is a great deal of light, the shadows are deeper."
• N.F. Simpson: "We can't leave the haphazard to chance."
• Confucius: "Real knowledge is knowing the extent of one's ignorance."
• Martial: "The only wealth which will give you pleasure is the wealth you give away."
• Ionesco: "Only the ephemeral is of lasting value."

Time for another series of things about which to think: paradox. Maybe one of the quotations in this series will give you some food for thought, even if it's only dessert.

• Everett Dirksen: "I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times."
• Disraeli: "No government can be long secure without formidable opposition."
• Katherine Mansfield: "If you wish to live, you must first attend your own funeral."
• Seneca: The hour which gives us life begins to take it away."
• St. Francis: "It is in giving that we receive, it in pardoning that we are pardoned."

Here are some things I picked out of the 50 Things Everyone Should Know list!

• The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words.
• "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
• Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
• Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it.
• More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes.
• It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a church in Nebraska, USA.

Source: 50 THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW

The digital revolution was just beginning when I started the doctoral program at the University of Illinois. I decided to purchase a computer to replace my grandmother's old Underwood manual typewriter (pictured on the splash screen on my site), which I had been using to do all of my school papers. I made that purchase 25 years ago this holiday season! Twenty-five years ago I entered the digital revolution with one practical goal, be able to create and revise school papers more easily.

I purchased a Texas Instruments computer with two 5.25 inch floppy disk drives and a color monitor. The computer was huge and heavy. The CPU cabinet was actually made out of metal! I could not afford the hard drive, called a Winchester Drive, because it alone cost $7,000! The word processing program disk went in one drive and the document was saved to the disk in the other drive. I had a loud but fast Epson dot matrix printer.

My computer came with Basic, a programming language. One of my high school students at the time, Williams Byrd, was interested in computers. His father was a programmer at IBM in Research Triangle.

One Saturday morning I had a knock on my apartment door. When I opened it, there stood William. I was shocked beyond belief: how did he find out where I lived, how did he get here (quickly answered as he was holding his bike beside him: no short ride, a good 20 minutes by car), and why was he at my door?! I was not happy.

He said his parents said he could come over to see my new computer. What?! I just knew he was not being honest, so I immediately called his parents. Dear god! It was true! I look back at this in complete shock. How times have changed. Probably because I was young and stupid, I let William in and we began learning to write computer programs.

With his father's help we actually wrote a program that would pick the music for the church at which I worked. The program would randomly pick all of the hymns in each category, for example: the "Call to Worship" category, before it would repeat a hymn. I learned about strange things like strings and 2 and 3 dimensional arrays. Probably the most important thing I was learning was logical thinking and problem solving through abstract thinking.

So almost immediately the computer went beyond word processing. I wanted to use it to create something other than printed communication.

I will cover several things in the remaining posts about "My 25th Anniversary"

• Part III will focus on "It's All About Speed: MIDI, Music, and Photos"
• Part IV will focus on "The Broadcast Yourself Generation"
• Part V will touch on "Where Is This All Going?"

I spent several hours yesterday introducing Sheila to the home network. Sheila is the new 300 hour Series 3 High Definition THX certified TiVo that finally arrived last week after several weeks of great anticipation. Connecting her to the network wasn't really all that difficult. The most complex part, which took about 3 hours of trial and error without the correct equipment) was identifying and then plugging that correct port into the router.

When I downloaded the 68 page set of directions I thought I would probably never be able to get this to work. Well, 64 of the 68 pages were about all of the horror Windows users have to experience, but, delightfully also included an entire chapter on troubleshooting. As a Mac user, I had to only do the following:

• download the software
• do a basic Mac software install (just a few clicks to "agree" and then enter your password)
• Launch System Preferences and click on TiVo
• Click to launch the streaming server and enable iPhoto pictures and iTunes music to be shared with the TiVo

It was really easy!

I've never had a TiVo, or for that matter any kind of digital media recorder for television before, and I love this thing. It's like Google for TV! The user interface is really user-friendly, like my mac. So here are some things I've already discovered that it does that I love:

• search the TV shows from my cable subscription for keywords, actors, etc. and record them automatically
• find all instances of a particular program (no matter what channels or times) and record them (what they call Season Pass)
• make recommendations to me based on my viewing habits (limited though they are)
• play my photos (in my iPhoto library) and my music (from my iTunes library and playlists) on the TV over the home network
• allow me to schedule recording via the internet

Now I need a high definition flat panel TV with which to use this, but the really good ones seem so needlessly expensive! And now, as usual, I have already logged onto the TiVo website and made lots of suggestions for features for the next generation TiVo!

The press is suggesting this news has huge implications for Apple: billions in revenue! Since so much money will be involved, I'm sure that matter (litigation) is just beginning.

A recent out-of-court settlement between Apple Computer and a Vermont-based inventor has landed Apple the rights to a prestigious software design patent that may allow the company to seek royalties on a broad spectrum of digital downloads.

Michael Starkweather, a lawyer and author of the 10-year old patent, issued a statement on Thursday calling it a "billion dollar patent" that will have affects on the future of the "cell phone, iPod and PDA" industries.

"I believe that, with this patent in hand, Apple will eventually be after every phone company, film maker, computer maker and video producer to pay royalties on every download of not just music but also movies and videos," he said.

Source: AppleInsider | Apple gains control of critical digital download patent

Something must be deeply wrong!

WASHINGTON - A record 7 million people — or one in every 32 American adults — were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday.

Source: 1 in 32 Americans in jails, on parole - Yahoo! News