December 2009 Archives

I'm glad I went to university when I did. I had some of the most amazing professors!

In 1960, 75 percent of college instructors were full-time tenured or tenure-track professors; today only 27 percent are. The rest are graduate students or adjunct and contingent faculty — instructors employed on a per-course or yearly contract basis, usually without benefits and earning a third or less of what their tenured colleagues make. The recession means their numbers are growing.

“When a tenure-track position is empty,” says Gwendolyn Bradley, director of communications at the American Association of University Professors, “institutions are choosing to hire three part-timers to save money.”

(Source: Strategy - Faculty - The Case of the Vanishing Full-Time Professor - NYTimes.com.)

I've whined before about my dislike for visual clutter and advertising trying to capture my attention on the web and in the news papers. Well, here's a nice little tool that won the New York Times Pogie Award for the Year's Best Tech Ideas: Readability.

Set your preferences: pick a style, select the font size, and select the width of the margin. Drag their little bookmarklet onto your browser's toolbar. Now, when you arrive at a webpage, click the bookmarklet to strip the page of everything except the text and related photographs in a plain, readable format without Times Square blaring in your face.

Nice.

Animals have the ability to sense natural disasters before they happen. I hope that's not why all of the sea lions inexplicably left Pier 39 in San Francisco.

I've been to Pier 39 and saw the smelly barking creatures. They were rather fascinating.

If you've been to the Fisherman's Wharf part of San Francisco in the past twenty years, chances are you've seen (and heard) the resident sea lions that call Pier 39 home.  I'd spend long stretches of time just observing them and their behavior patterns, and always found them neat.

Since about a month ago, when they collectively slipped into the bay and disappeared, the pier has been quiet and barren."

(Via: Where'd the Pier 39 Sea Lions Go? - Neatorama.)

So apparently, the wretched experience that is international travel just got even worse: no getting out of your seat for the last hour of flight, no electronics for the entire flight, and only one carry on bag, every passenger gets a full body pat down. Who the hell wants to put up with this! I'm sick of the hassle! It's time to stop international travel. Maybe that's what George W, I mean Orwell wanted all along.

What will the new restrictions be when someone does something else stupid?! Strap all passengers into straight jackets before boarding?? Traveling in the nude?? Body cavity search?? Where will it stop?!

Your eyes glow hot pink (because your blood glucose is too high), and your clothes shimmer brightly in the night (because the air pollution is too high).

Jin Zhang, a professor at the University of Western Ontario, is developing contact lenses that change color with the user’s blood sugar level. This could allow diabetics to monitor themselves without frequent blood samples. "

(Via: Contact Lenses That Change Color To Alert Diabetics of Glucose Levels – Neatorama< .)

The Danish design firm Diffus created a dress equipped with LED lights and a carbon dioxide detector that glows as the CO2 level rises. It’s called the Climate Dress:"

(Via Dress Reacts With Lights In Response To Air Quality – Neatorama .)

I'm visiting here in Arkansas. This community has its share of poverty, especially in these difficult economic times.

In addition to the poverty, this state has experienced torrential rains this year--exceeding all records since they began keeping them in the 1800's. Getting around has been even more challenging than when I visited Ireland this year. Many roads are flooded and closed. You can see the roofs of cars and trucks in the quick moving water.

On the way back to the hotel, along a river that had tripled in size, I passed a house. The river's water was literally lapping up against the house just below the front door.

The main door was opened. The glass door in front was closed. Standing behind the door was a middle-aged woman, in her housecoat, looking out the door with a worried expression on her face and her telephone to her ear as the sun was going down.

The houses and the house trailers all around her had already flooded out and been abandoned. It was 27º outside.

Last night I was blasting through the TV channels here at the hotel trying to find something of interest to watch. I stumbled upon a reality TV show playing the surveillance video from a convenience store where a bat-wielding thief came toward the man at the cashier demanding money and threatening to kill him.

The cashier reached down and pulled up a double barrel shotgun aimed directly at the thief, who immediately dropped the bat, dropped to his knees, and began pleading for his life. The would-be thief said he just needed food.

Astonishingly, the cashier, shotgun in hand, took $40 out of the cash register, got a gallon of milk and a box of cereal, plopped them on the counter and told the would-be thief he had better never see him again in his store. The would-be thief took the money, grabbed his bat, thanking the cashier many times, and fled.

I was rather astounded by this: One human being whose life was being threatened as he was being robbed, and instead of blowing the thief to bits, in kindness, gives him money and allows him to leave without calling the police.

I was reminded of my father who, back when I was a teenager, gave two men $10 when they asked him for $1 while standing on the sidewalk at an outdoor shopping center. I was so aggravated with my father, because we always had to be so frugal to live simply. I challenged him, saying that he had just wasted that money because the men were just going to go buy booze at one of the two liquor stores a few blocks away.

Without any hesitation, my father simply replied, "But, maybe not." That was enough for my father, who was always a kind-hearted soul.

My sister understands that space that occupied my father's heart more than I do. She came to visit me in Atlanta about 10 years ago. I'd grown accustomed to the homeless problem in that city, the beggars that litter the streets panhandling. My sister, from a much smaller community, came upon someone begging at the stop light. She lowered the car window and gave the man some money.

I was appalled. As we drove off, I challenged her, saying he was just going to buy drugs or alcohol with that money. She was quick to reply, "Even so, maybe that's all it will take to get him through today."

I have grown more sympathetic and understanding as I've aged. I've shed much of the insensitivity that is the judgmental hatefulness of the extremist rightwing religious agenda. I'm not sure I will ever reach the point of compassionate understanding in my heart that my sister has and father practiced.

Yesterday, some poor man who was out collecting for the Salvation Army was killed by two attackers who wanted the money people had given. Face to face charity is still a challenge to me.

Under the measure, advertisers and production houses would have one year to adopt technology that modulates and sets sound levels -- and apply it to TV commercials.

I received these in an email and had to share them...

I received these in an email and had to share them...

Who among us today, in the media, will die being remembered as "the most trusted name in news." Oh, I know: Glenn... what's his last name?! You know, the one that cries on TV.

The former CBS anchorman cared not just about the next story but about the future of reporting in a country where was known for the better part of a half century as 'the most trusted name in news.'

So it should come as little surprise that what worried Cronkite in the last years of his life was the collapse of journalistic quality and responsibility that came with the increasing dominance of newsgathering by a handful of media corporations.

'I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that,' Cronkite told me the last time we spoke about media issues.

The definitional American anchorman, who has died at age 92, recognized that Americans would always need diverse and competing media outlets, with the resources and the skills to examine issues from a variety of perspectives -- and to challenge entrenched power.
"

(Via Why Cronkite Fretted About Media's Future - CBS News.)

As technology radically changes journalism, with the "citizen journalist" movement lacking sufficient voice and resources, as Rupert wants more money, I worry that our future may be increasingly filled with unexposed corruption and undiscussed issues of the great import.

Politico has named its political lie of the year, a dubious distinction. And, of course, it would follow, this then names the liar of the year as well--the person espousing the lie of the year.

"Death Panels"

According to CNN, when confronted about her lie of the year, Sarah Palin acknowledged she knew her lie wasn't a true statement, stated she said it to get everyone's attention, and said she would do it again.

When will she ever just go away?!

This picture was shot of a rose picked from the garden yesterday. Only in California!

Ever wondered what keys to the castle actually look like? Well, here they are: full size scans of the key to the room at Ashford Castle and at Dromoland Castle.

Not exactly what I was thinking, either... Although the Ashford key is cool. And I do like "Distinction since 1543" on the Dromoland key.

In my online reading I recently came across a phrase that summarized for me this horrible decade:

the excesses of the boom and the hysteria of the bust"

Source: Current.com -- Dead Men Walking

Turn of the centuries have historically been "bad news." I'm looking forward to a fresh decade. Bring on twenty-ten!

We were never allowed to play with our food... Cute holiday gift for children.

Source: Shop Neatorama

Warning! Most Christians in the United States, and probably all conservative ones, will be deeply offended by this sign. I personally find it shocking. The thought that it was displayed by a Christian church astounds me.

Do not click the image to the right, which will open a picture of the sign that is large enough to see and read, if you are easily offended by those who may have different religious views from your own and express them in ways you may find incredibly offensive.

A church, St. Matthew's Church in Auckland, New Zealand, put this sign up "intended to challenge stereotypes about the conception of Jesus." It has sparked enormous levels of anger and outrage on both sides of the controversy.

"We would see a billboard like that being used by an anti-Christian group to actually poke fun at the divinity of Christ," Freer told National Radio.

Christ's conception was a profound theological question and the billboard would not "give rise to any intelligent discussion on the birth of Jesus," she said.

Many messages on the church Web site attacked the image, while others defended it.

"This billboard and your 'sermon' is a sacrilege," one visitor, identified as Karen, posted.

Another, identified as Andrew M, wrote: "I for one think this is an excellent billboard. Challenging and thought-provoking. Just what it was intended to be."

Via: NPR -- Billboard Depicting Joseph, Mary In Bed Sparks Row

Those who follow my blog know how I love 360º panoramas. They are such fun (and challenging) to shoot and build. Jeffery Martin, one of the founders at 360Cities is Mr. Pano. I can't imagine how difficult this pano was to create and am confident that his brief set of answers below belies the difficulty and challenge of his accomplishment! (I certainly couldn't have done such a thing, even with a robotic arm.)

You've got to check it out. The level of detail in this image goes way beyond astounding. Click the photo above and zoom in and around. Check out the people sitting in the distant park. Apparently Jeffery will have a treasure hunt related to the pano, with a $1,000 prize, and started releasing a clue a day for 30 days.

How did you create this panorama? I used a Canon 5d mark 2 and a 70-200mm lens, set to 200mm. The camera was mounted on a robotic device which turned the camera in tiny, precise increments, in every direction. All together, 40 gigabytes of images were shot. These images were then stitched together using PTGui. The resulting panorama was adjusted for color, contrast, sharpness, etc. in Photoshop. Afterwards, the image was cut into lots of ‘tiles’ and uploaded to our server. When you view the image online, you only load a few of these ‘tiles’ at one time.

How long did you spend stitching this panorama? Between loading the initial raw files into the computer, and having the panorama stitched, it took about a week. It took 3 additional weeks to fine-tune the image.

What kind of computer did you use? I used a four year-old windows PC with two single-core 3ghz xeon processors and 8GB of RAM. After a week of frustration, I also bought an SSD, which helped to speed up some tasks a bit. If I will make this image again, I will buy a new computer.

What is dimension of this panorama, and size it takes on disk? The final image exists as a 120 gigabyte photoshop large (PSB) file. It cannot exist as a TIFF or JPEG file because of their size constraints. The panorama online exists as a few hundred thousand small tiles (in JPEG format), and they take up about 1 gigabyte of disk space.

Link to the panorama

(Via Prague 18 Gigapixels – How was it made? «360 Cities Official Blog.)

but not for this man whom I consider less than a charlatan. Oral Roberts needs to rest in shame as far as I am concerned. He created an entire generation of religious leaders who cared more about money than they do helping people--the sheer nonsense and evil of "the prosperity gospel": give me enough of your money and God will bless you. His influence, in my humble opinion, has had a deleterious impact on this nation beyond measure, substantially empowering the extremist religious right to have enough cash to wield its divisive and hostile influence. Evil!

He lied to people, millions of them. He took millions of dollars from good people who did without (I happen to have known some of them!) to live life large.

He supposedly healed the sick. Yet, when organizations publicized giving $1,000 to anyone who could provide medical evidence they had truly been healed by Oral Roberts, not a single person in the whole world came forward to receive the money.

He was the patriarch of the "prosperity gospel," a theology that promotes the idea that Christians who pray and donate with sufficient fervency will be rewarded with health, wealth and happiness. Mr. Roberts trained and mentored several generations of younger prosperity gospel preachers who now have television and multimedia empires of their own. Mr. Roberts was as politically conservative as his contemporaries in what became known as the "religious right," but he was known more for his religious style than for his political pronouncements. He was widely lampooned after he proclaimed on his television program in 1987 that God would "call him home" if he did not raise millions.

Source: The New York Times

I can think of nothing worse than to use people in the name of God for your own selfish, greedy gain. Therefore, I find Oral Roberts loathsome and detestable.

May he rest in the shame he deserves!

Go ahead, check out the new footer at the bottom of my blog. I've completely redone it. What do you think?

Special thanks to the Creative Pony for letting novice users like myself use some cool code! She calls it Sliding Tabs. It is similar to cover view in iTunes that many readers here are probably familiar with.

Tim likes!

"Former South Dakota State Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt -- presently serving time for raping his two foster daughters -- is sending bizarre 'copyright notices' from prison to news agencies and outlets that use his name in print or online, claiming a 'common law copyright' on his name and demanding $500,000 for any unauthorized use."

(Via: Rapist ex-lawmaker claims copyright on his name, threatens legal action against anyone who uses it without permission Boing Boing".)

The Fake Steve Jobs, Dan Lyons, has responded to AT&T's claim that his proposed Operation Chokehold is "an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog."

Lyons’ responded, noting that the company has made over $10 billion in profit over the last nine months, and has seen wireless data revenues soar 80% over the last eight quarters, while dropping its capital expenditures by 30% over the same period"

(Via: Spat between Lyons, AT&T poses iPhone outage threat | iLounge News".)

Is this true? Are revenues and the user base at AT&T soaring because of their monopoly on the iPhone which is creating greater demands on their network while capitol investment in that same network is substantially dropping as a result of their maximized profit-taking? If so, this is a problem for AT&T--and a big one. It smacks of that whole corporate greed thing again which caused the banking sector to spiral out of control.

When the public perceives a company has a consistent and unfair imbalance between what they charge and what the customer gets for that fee (value), that company has a real problem. Then for the company to threaten to charge even more? AT&T would be better served if they stopped blaming customers who want to get what they are paying a premium to have and provided more customer value with less corporate profit taking.

This is a clever idea that would have been cool 15 years ago when I had a Palm PDA. In fact, I wished back in the day that someone made one. Instead, I had to buy one of those tiny fold up keyboards like the one you see at the bottom of this post. I'm not too sure a laser keyboard will be a hit today with glowing touchscreen keyboards becoming so prevalent.

The Virtual Laser Keyboard (VKB) is a revolutionary accessory (The only keyboard that operates in total darkness - see the picture below) for Blackberry, Smartphone, PDA, MAC & Tablet PC. The VKB comes with an elegant leather jacket, making it the perfect business / Christmas gift (and just what you want to take out of your inner suit pocket in front of your amazed business colleagues...:-)

In the size of a Zipo lighter and in an outer spaced 'enterprise' style, it uses a laser beam to generate a full-size perfectly OPERATING laser keyboard that smoothly connects to MAC's, Smart Phones, the new Blackberry (8100,8300,8800),Nokia N95 (Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition) and Any kind of PC and Most of the handheld devices (PDA's, tablet PC's)."

(Via I-Tech's Virtual Keyboard - A laser projected full-sized virtual QWERTY keyboard.)

Photo credit: Katsushi

Wouldn't he have walked into a tree when he was sending it to and from Twitter? But for just a buck, why did half the people who rated it go off the deep end?! Jeeze, people. Calm down already!

The Silicon Alley Insider posted an article, 21 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade. These are some of the things from their list that I won't miss:

• Glad to see the stylus go. The finger is so superior!
• Since I lived by Emory University in Decatur, I was able to get rid of dial up in the mid 90's! It's hard to remember those days. The sound alone was so annoying.
• Developing film: I would never, ever have developed the over 35,000 pictures I've shot since 2003! Ever!!
• I can't believe using a paper map inside a moving car was ever even legal!
• I ditched the landline back in the Decatur days as well. Remember paying a premium for all of those "features" just to get caller ID and call waiting. God I hate AT&T. And then there was/is the constant spamming sales/solicitation calling. Pay more to block it. Spammers, you can pay even more to get through the block... Evil!
• VHS tapes! I was always afraid my VCR would eat them, though I don't recall it ever did.
• Phone books, dictionaries, encyclopedias... I'm getting a cold and had 2 prescriptions here at the house: one was a decongestant, the other an antibiotic. But which was which? I don't recall. So just tonight I had to look it up on the internet. I wondered to myself, "How did I live before search engines?!"
• I hated paying for 411! What a ripoff!! And then I would be driving and not be able to remember the stupid number to dial while driving the car!! I don't remember the last time I used 411. God, the iPhone is so awesome! Search, phone numbers, maps, touch to call...
• I hated buying whole CDs (for insane amounts of money: $14.95 - 24.95.and that was 10 - 15 years ago!) when all I wanted was that one track!
• Backing up your data on floppies or CDs? I adore BackBlaze--affordable, automatic, off offsite backups! Never worry. Just click "restore" in any browser, anywhere, anytime.
• Paying paper bills? Does anyone still use a stamp for those?? I hated paying bills!!!

They say the use of paper is on life support. I'm not so sure about that one. I've seen too many printers and copy machines about to burst into flames from over use. Maybe they are referring to newspapers, magazines, books: as a corporate business model, yes, probably. But I suspect we are making up for that decline in paper use on a personal level.

Photo credit: René Elhardt

Recently, the Fake Steve Jobs blog proposed AT&T customers engage in "Operation Chokehold" to attempt to send AT&T a clear message since AT&T is threatening to end the unlimited data plan for iPhone user who actually use it (a lot).

Subject: Operation Chokehold

On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. THe idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!"

(Via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : Operation Chokehold.)

AT&T seems to blame their lackluster network performance on these iPHone users who are using what they are paying a premium to have.

Naturally AT&T, in its inimitable style of making bad become worse, responds stupidly.

Cult of Mac reached out to AT&T for comment on the proposed action, and the wireless carrier unsurprisingly noted that it was unimpressed with the tactic, calling it 'totally irresponsible'.

We understand that fakesteve.net is primarily a satirical forum, but there is nothing amusing about advocating that customers attempt to deliberately degrade service on a network that provides critical communications services for more than 80 million customers. We know that the vast majority of customers will see this action for what it is: an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog."

(Via AT&T Unimpressed With 'Operation Chokehold' Proposal to Strain Cellular Network - Mac Rumors".)

This isn't about a blog. This is about a company with some serious issues.

Apparently, a lot of people despise AT&T. I just don't think they get the whole customer service thing. They only seem to want "reach out, reach out and" (remember that tune from the giant monopoly?) take more money from their customers so they can pay some PR firm to attempt to make everyone thank them for doing it.

We are entering a new age of cool! Apple's iPhone is a game changer!

The bike wheel contains all you need so that no sensors or additional electronics need to be added to the frame and an existing bike can be retrofitted with the blink of an eye. ...

By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user's iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle's speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider's friends. ...

The Copenhagen Wheel is part of a more general trend: that of inserting intelligence in our everyday objects and of creating a smart support infrastructure around ourselves for everyday life... The Wheel has a smart lock: if somebody tries to steal it, it goes into a mode where the brake regenerates the maximum amount of power, and sends you a text message. So in the worst case scenario the thief will have charged your batteries before you get back your bike."

(Via MIT’s big wheel in Copenhagen.)

If you want to actually do this, and interact with the 3D augmented reality as you see here, just check out this link. You will need to print out the page in step one. Go to the web address. And then hold the printout in front of your web camera.

It's actually rather amazing!

Yesterday I listened to a presenter at Emory who reminded me of something I read years ago when he said it, "The opposite of love isn't hate. It's fear."

We live in such fearful times. And I don't think all fear is unhealthy at all. But this free hugs movement, started by Juan Mann a few years back, points us in a positive direction marked by kindness and acceptance. Check out pictures of huggers from around the world.

He started a movement that has spread around the world. I'm including this clip from Scotland, though there are many videos on YouTube about Free Hugs.

When it gives people the opportunity to create and share (over 1.5 million views of this video) beyond the grip of corporate ownership.

In sheer horror, I did the math. My waistline is only 12% larger now than it was when I was 18 years old. And I feel fat! If I had jumped 400%, I would wear size WHAT???!!!

The average waistline of people in the developed world has increased 400% in 25 years, with three-quarters of adults now overweight or obese. For the first time in history, there are literally more people overweight than there are starving."

(Via David Rock: Are Our Minds Going The Way Of Our Waists?)

Funny guy. How dare he slap people in the face with their own hypocrisy. He supposedly was going to interview people in front of WalMart about defending traditional marriage and then, when they blubbered on about their support, ask them to sign his petition banning divorce. He says he's confident they will support his bill because it's not about taking their rights away. It's about defending traditional marriage. Hysterical. I wonder how things are going.

Rob Cockerham interviewed John Marcotte, a Sacramento man who filed a petition with the California Secretary of State to get a voter's initiative onto the 2010 ballot in California that would make it ban divorce"

(Via Interview with John Marcotte, author of bill to ban divorce - Boing Boing.)

Of the 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010, this last one most interests me. I'll be curious to see where this takes us.

Finally: Real, Cool and Very Bizarre Online-Offline Integration Virtual worlds, games and avatars were just the beginning of the online-offline integration. In 2010 we'll see a greater push on this front as distance and physical walls will matter even less. Augmented reality -- already integrated into Yelp's latest geo-tagging enabled application -- will allow users to find relevant information and people depending on their location; Twitter360 will help people find each other, connect and see updates by location all while on the go through their mobile device. People will be able to scan products on shelves but process the sale online; you'll never need to ask for a business card again at events -- and you may actually get promotions and discounts that match your interests."

(Via 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010.)

I want to be able to aggregate my own information into the augmented reality space. I wonder when that will be possible.

President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Speech in Wordle shows the words he used more as larger words. Now, if I recall, the buffoon that previously occupied the same office filled his speeches with "Terrorists," "Security," "Freedom," "Amer'ca," and "Fear." He was such an ass.

Click to Enlarge

Food art:

Yes, it's a huge cake!

Source: Delicious-Looking Edible Chocolate Couch

We all know shoplifting is illegal. But what about shopdropping?

In shoplifting, the thief takes something from the marketplace without paying for it. In shopdropping, the person, in this case an artist, places items in the store inventory for people to purchase and makes no money from the sale.

On Black Friday, an artist, Michele Pred, did this very thing at IKEA. She took 10 of her paintings into the store with IKEA with "IKEA price tags" and placed them on the sales rack. They all sold that weekend.

The painting itself is a barcode that reads, "You are what you buy."

Funny!

This bumper sticker was seen by Sandi Patty, who then tweeted it.

In one of life's supreme ironies, AT&T today posted an iPhone app that allows you to report substandard service. That's right folks. Got a dropped call? No reception? AT&T Marks the Spot [iTunes link] is designed to get that info to your favorite cell company so they can act on it.

Let's see... I don't have any reception, so I pull out my new AT&T app to notify them of the problem. Doh! No reception to do that. And the app even nicely brings up a GPS map showing where I am. The GPS signal is much more reliable of course.

(Via: TUAW post--AT&T offers app so you can report crappy service. Huh?

I think I'll pass on this app, unless, of course, they put me on their payroll. I get tired of beta testing apps and now being asked to troubleshoot networks!

This was fascinating. I had no idea!

"This week a story at NPR discusses the extent to which Norman Rockwell used photography to capture images of models; he then traced these photographs onto canvas as an early step in the creation of his famous paintings.

Rockwell used photos, taken by a rotating cast of photographers, to make his illustrations… Rockwell never kept it a secret, but for some reason this little fact has been neglected in recent decades. Although he may not have clicked the shutter, Rockwell directed every facet of every composition.

A newly published book, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera (Little, Brown and Company, 2009), and an exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum provide further insight into this process and offer acknowledgement to the photographers involved in the process.

Those who feel the lack of freehand drawing somehow diminishes Rockwell’s status as an artist should be reminded that painters as famous as Vermeer and Caravaggio are thought to have used the camera obscura to compose their works.

NPR link, via Photo District News, via (ovo).  Photo credit Norman Rockwell Museum."

(Via: Neatorama)

A tag or word cloud is a collection of tags or words (or both) that are most commonly used in a speech, on a blog, in an article, etc. Below is a current word cloud for my blog. It refreshes automatically twice a day; so, it will change as the content of my blog changes. If you click on an word in the cloud, you should be taken to the Google search results for that word.

The tag cloud in my sidebar is different. It is restricted to tags only and not all of the words on my blog. Clicking on a word in the tag cloud in the sidebar of my blog will take you to all of the posts that use that tag.

The larger the word, the more often it appears on my blog at that moment.

This tag cloud is provided by Tagul.

Normally I print up the holiday newsletter on an inkjet printer. It's a horrid affair as the newsletter is always two-sided. Running an inkjet printed page back through the printer, even after its had a full 24 hours to dry, is always problematic: jams, crooked pages, wrinkled pages, out of ink... Not this year!

I purchased a Xerox Phaser 6180 laser printer with a duplexer. It worked like a charm, printing both sides in a single pass. The only problem: as you can see from the thumbnail of the newsletter on the side, it is graphics intense (complete with a graphic of a coffee stain!), and, as a result, I spent 3 days printing out all of the copies for the mailing. The printer had to think about each newsletter for several minutes before printing it.

So I decided to increase the RAM in the printer, hoping that will improve print speed. The printer comes with 128MB of RAM, and it will hold 1.1GB of RAM. But the 1GB RAM card from Xerox is insanely expensive.

I read in a review of the printer, when I bought it, that a guy had purchased a 1GB 200 pin DDR2 SODIMM 128MX64 PC2-5300 module for $12 instead of spending the $400 Xerox was charging for the RAM upgrade. So, I tried the same thing. For less than $20 (shipping included) I'm up and running with 1.1GB of RAM in the printer.

I really like the printer. It does a very nice job. And, all of the newsletters are now in the mail.

At least the house cleaners got the place all clean today. The Octane dude got the elliptical issue resolved. The decorations are all up.

And I'm tired!

I have blogged in the past about how much I hate the AppleTVs here at the house. Let me add to the tirade.

With the latest upgrades, neither AppleTV (upstairs or downstairs) will play the photos from iPhoto on any computer in the house.

Ready to work out, watch photos, listen to music... Well, No. Of course not. I've spent the last 2 hours on the phone with Apple.

The calls were a nightmare, beginning with wasting 20 minutes talking about AppleCare registration issues--AGAIN! I pay money for this hassle! Finally I said, "Let me give you a different computer's serial number. AppleTV doesn't work with any of them. I don't want to spend my time today trying to troubleshoot your AppleCare registration issues." I got disconnected.

Then, on the second call, the automated answering system that "can understand complete sentences" sent me to the Mail group when I clearly said I was having issues with AppleTV. Obviously it can't understand even short phrases.

Then the girl in the Mail group sent me to the Wireless group. She worked on the issue a while before escalating the issue up to a higher level of troubleshooting.

She then sent me an application via email that uploaded system information for the engineers so they can see what the problem is within 3 or 4 days.

The next time I hear anyone tell me that Apple's hardware "just works" or says, "it's just that easy," I'm going to burst out laughing in his/her face.

AppleTV doesn't work. It rarely has ever worked for me without some time consuming, frustrating issue.

Quite frankly, I hate the AppleTV.

Two hours completely wasted. Apple should put me on payroll for beta testing their AppleTV product!

A banker reminded me recently that capitalism creates more wealth than any other economic system. It just creates it very unevenly.

I think that it also treats disenfranchised people with little to no kindness at all--harkening back to that whole notion of "survival of the fittest." And as jobs have been outsourced abroad to those willing to work for wages well below what a typical American can sustain in the average American market, wage earning capacity is dropping to precipitous levels. I suspect that, rather than passing along cost savings to consumers, corporate execs have enhanced their own wealth aggregation with corporate jets, fat pensions and bonuses, etc.

I worry that the capitalist machinery of this nation has lost its moral compass, and the situation will only get worse. As markets explode in Asia, the fact that they are drying up here in the USA is of little concern to corporate America who sees a new cow fat for the slaughter house. Is it possible that, in time, America will in fact become the largest third world nation on earth as people lose their homes, their jobs, their spirit, their influence on democratic government, their voice, their access to news and critical information...

While in Ireland I noticed local villages took a very dim view of corporate ownership. "Buy local!" the signs read.

When you know the face of the wo/man who made/purchased the product or provided the service, it's more difficult to take advantage of her/him. You have an ancient social contract with them, as old as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Corporations have mastered the art of hiding their faces, have become inaccessible and unaccountable for their egregious conduct, are perpetuating a growing divide between those who have more than they will ever need and those who need just to survive.

I'm paying far more attention to my own purchasing habits. I want to "buy local" more than I want to support big box impersonal corporations whose first allegiance is to the bottom line. Doing so generally costs me a little more, but is this the price for taking better care of people, of attending to community?

I kept forgetting as I traveled that my Canon 5d Mark II will shoot HD video! However, at a few dramatic moments, I remembered. You will see that the 75mph wind gusts were just impossible, I couldn't hold the camera steady, even when it was affixed to an immovable surface!

The video, though short, is presented almost in HD and may therefore take a few moments to load depending on your connection speed. Duration: 2m:42s

I like this. It's creative, informative, and just plane cool.

Would you be tempted to gun it?

Source: Yanko Design: A Better Understanding of Stoplights

If the US has 8,000,000 criminals using just Sprint as their cell phone provider, then it's time for me to leave this place!

Call me crazy, but our government is out of control!

"Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its customers' (GPS) location information over 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009. This massive disclosure of sensitive customer information was made possible due to the roll-out by Sprint of a new, special web portal for law enforcement officers. "

(Via slight paranoia: 8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight.)

After hemorrhaging bad PR and making a no-win situation as bad as it could possibly be, AT&T dropped the lawsuit, which they were destined to lose, against Verizon. Verizon, in a gesture of kindness, dropped their countersuit against what I consider to be the big, bad, mean, money grubbing machine: AT&T.

AT&T succeeded in making the Verizon "There's a Map for That" advertising campaign a larger than life success!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I don't know what I did to cause this pano to be so blurry when viewed full screen on a large monitor, but it is what it is.

Every photo is it's own challenge, and this one had many! Just as I was almost set up in front of the ocean for the pano shots, the weather degenerated quickly into an all out down pour with no end in sight. I started packing it up while getting drenched. Half way back to the car, it stopped. I hesitated. Back I trod.

Now, while shooting, people and a dog come into the scene. O well, as I said, it is what it is. Then the ocean surf became particularly aggressive, coming up to the camera/tripod.

I just started shooting the pano as quickly as possible. (I don't think I even thought about focus at all!) Next I noticed one of the tripod legs had sunk into the sand and the careful balance needed for the perfect pano was to be hopeless.

I doubted the stitching software would even be able to generate the pano file. Amazingly, it did it and extremely fast!!

But the scene was too gorgeous not to share. So even though the pano lacks sharp focus, enjoy it!

I am shocked! [Said tongue in cheek!]

The annual survey of wireless customer satisfaction from Consumer Reports hits the streets this week and it doesn't have much good to say about AT&T. In a canvass of more than 50,000 readers spanning 26 U.S. cities, the organization found the carrier had the lowest customer-satisfaction rating in 19 cities surveyed; Verizon ranked highest

link: Consumer Reports: AT&T Cellphone Service Last in Customer Satisfaction | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

OK, so this post is only being written for 2 people... :o)

Most people who only quasi-know me, mistakenly assume I'm a just a liberal. In some ways I am. But most mistake my strong libertarian views for liberalism. And on most social issues, I tend to be very libertarian and sometimes liberal as well--and proud of it too might I add. However, I have a few notable exceptions.

On crime and punishment I tend to be rather conservative. I'm all for compassion and mercy, but when I hit the wall, I hit it hard.

When Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister then serving as governor of Arkansas, granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons nine years ago, he cited his age: Mr. Clemmons was 16 when he began the crime spree for which he was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison.

link: Old Clemency May Be Issue for Huckabee - NYTimes.com

From where I sit, if a 16 year old is sentenced to over 100 years in prison, I suspect the little @*&! should never see the light of day again. Period. His/her only redemption is to remain in prison. Period.

Huckabee's clemency wasn't just a lapse of good judgement. 

In my humble opinion, anytime an official grants clemency or parole to a convicted criminal who then goes on to commit further crimes, s/he isn't just exercising bad judgement, s/he is complicit in their criminal conduct and should be treated as such. In so doing, we would have fewer horrible decisions made for political gain, financial reasons, and social ruin.

Huckabee has the blood of 4 officers on his hands. He too is responsible for this act.