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A favorite quote of mine from my favorite physicist, Richard Feynman, on the importance of play. Dr. Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was notorious for being multi-faceted, in both his personal hobbies and his grasp of science. He worked on the Manhattan Project with Einstein, was part of the panel that investigated the Challenger Disaster, and his work plays a major role in the modern understanding of quantum computing.
“Then I had another thought: Physics disgusts me a little bit now, but I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing - it didn’t have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with. When I was in high school, I’d see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. I didn’t have to do it; it wasn’t important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn’t make any difference. I’d invent things and play with things for my own entertainment.
So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out and I’ll never accomplish anything, I’ve got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I’m going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.
Within a week I was in the cafeteria and some guy, fooling around, throws a plate in the air. As the plate went up in the air I saw it wobble, and I noticed the red medallion of Cornell on the plate going around. It was pretty obvious to me that the medallion went around faster than the wobbling.
I had nothing to do, so I start to figure out the motion of the rotating plate. I discover that when the angle is very slight, the medallion rotates twice as fast as the wobble rate - two to one [Note: Feynman mis-remembers here---the factor of 2 is the other way]. It came out of a complicated equation! Then I thought, ‘Is there some way I can see in a more fundamental way, by looking at the forces or the dynamics, why it’s two to one?’
I don’t remember how I did it, but I ultimately worked out what the motion of the mass particles is, and how all the accelerations balance to make it come out two to one.
I still remember going to Hans Bethe and saying, ‘Hey, Hans! I noticed something interesting. Here the plate goes around so, and the reason it’s two to one is ...’ and I showed him the accelerations.
He says, ‘Feynman, that’s pretty interesting, but what’s the importance of it? Why are you doing it?’
‘Hah!’ I say. ‘There’s no importance whatsoever. I’m just doing it for the fun of it.’ His reaction didn’t discourage me; I had made up my mind I was going to enjoy physics and do whatever I liked.
I went on to work out equations of wobbles. Then I thought about how electron orbits start to move in relativity. Then there’s the Dirac Equation in electrodynamics. And then quantum electrodynamics. And before I knew it (it was a very short time) I was ‘playing’ - working, really - with the same old problem that I loved so much, that I had stopped working on when I went to Los Alamos: my thesis-type problems; all those old-fashioned, wonderful things.
It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. It was like uncorking a bottle: Everything flowed out effortlessly. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate.”
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A favorite quote of mine from my favorite physicist, Richard Feynman, on the importance of play. Dr. Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was notorious for being multi-faceted, in both his personal hobbies and his grasp of science. He worked on the Manhattan Project with Einstein, was part of the panel that investigated the Challenger Disaster, and his work plays a major role in the modern understanding of quantum computing.
“Then I had another thought: Physics disgusts me a little bit now, but I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing - it didn’t have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with. When I was in high school, I’d see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. I didn’t have to do it; it wasn’t important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn’t make any difference. I’d invent things and play with things for my own entertainment.
So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out and I’ll never accomplish anything, I’ve got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I’m going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.
Within a week I was in the cafeteria and some guy, fooling around, throws a plate in the air. As the plate went up in the air I saw it wobble, and I noticed the red medallion of Cornell on the plate going around. It was pretty obvious to me that the medallion went around faster than the wobbling.
I had nothing to do, so I start to figure out the motion of the rotating plate. I discover that when the angle is very slight, the medallion rotates twice as fast as the wobble rate - two to one [Note: Feynman mis-remembers here---the factor of 2 is the other way]. It came out of a complicated equation! Then I thought, ‘Is there some way I can see in a more fundamental way, by looking at the forces or the dynamics, why it’s two to one?’
I don’t remember how I did it, but I ultimately worked out what the motion of the mass particles is, and how all the accelerations balance to make it come out two to one.
I still remember going to Hans Bethe and saying, ‘Hey, Hans! I noticed something interesting. Here the plate goes around so, and the reason it’s two to one is ...’ and I showed him the accelerations.
He says, ‘Feynman, that’s pretty interesting, but what’s the importance of it? Why are you doing it?’
‘Hah!’ I say. ‘There’s no importance whatsoever. I’m just doing it for the fun of it.’ His reaction didn’t discourage me; I had made up my mind I was going to enjoy physics and do whatever I liked.
I went on to work out equations of wobbles. Then I thought about how electron orbits start to move in relativity. Then there’s the Dirac Equation in electrodynamics. And then quantum electrodynamics. And before I knew it (it was a very short time) I was ‘playing’ - working, really - with the same old problem that I loved so much, that I had stopped working on when I went to Los Alamos: my thesis-type problems; all those old-fashioned, wonderful things.
It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. It was like uncorking a bottle: Everything flowed out effortlessly. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate.”
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A favorite quote of mine from my favorite physicist, Richard Feynman, on the importance of play. Dr. Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was notorious for being multi-faceted, in both his personal hobbies and his grasp of science. He worked on the Manhattan Project with Einstein, was part of the panel that investigated the Challenger Disaster, and his work plays a major role in the modern understanding of quantum computing.
“Then I had another thought: Physics disgusts me a little bit now, but I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing - it didn’t have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with. When I was in high school, I’d see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. I didn’t have to do it; it wasn’t important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn’t make any difference. I’d invent things and play with things for my own entertainment.
So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out and I’ll never accomplish anything, I’ve got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I’m going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.
Within a week I was in the cafeteria and some guy, fooling around, throws a plate in the air. As the plate went up in the air I saw it wobble, and I noticed the red medallion of Cornell on the plate going around. It was pretty obvious to me that the medallion went around faster than the wobbling.
I had nothing to do, so I start to figure out the motion of the rotating plate. I discover that when the angle is very slight, the medallion rotates twice as fast as the wobble rate - two to one [Note: Feynman mis-remembers here---the factor of 2 is the other way]. It came out of a complicated equation! Then I thought, ‘Is there some way I can see in a more fundamental way, by looking at the forces or the dynamics, why it’s two to one?’
I don’t remember how I did it, but I ultimately worked out what the motion of the mass particles is, and how all the accelerations balance to make it come out two to one.
I still remember going to Hans Bethe and saying, ‘Hey, Hans! I noticed something interesting. Here the plate goes around so, and the reason it’s two to one is ...’ and I showed him the accelerations.
He says, ‘Feynman, that’s pretty interesting, but what’s the importance of it? Why are you doing it?’
‘Hah!’ I say. ‘There’s no importance whatsoever. I’m just doing it for the fun of it.’ His reaction didn’t discourage me; I had made up my mind I was going to enjoy physics and do whatever I liked.
I went on to work out equations of wobbles. Then I thought about how electron orbits start to move in relativity. Then there’s the Dirac Equation in electrodynamics. And then quantum electrodynamics. And before I knew it (it was a very short time) I was ‘playing’ - working, really - with the same old problem that I loved so much, that I had stopped working on when I went to Los Alamos: my thesis-type problems; all those old-fashioned, wonderful things.
It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. It was like uncorking a bottle: Everything flowed out effortlessly. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate.”
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A favorite quote of mine from my favorite physicist, Richard Feynman, on the importance of play. Dr. Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was notorious for being multi-faceted, in both his personal hobbies and his grasp of science. He worked on the Manhattan Project with Einstein, was part of the panel that investigated the Challenger Disaster, and his work plays a major role in the modern understanding of quantum computing.
“Then I had another thought: Physics disgusts me a little bit now, but I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing - it didn’t have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with. When I was in high school, I’d see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. I didn’t have to do it; it wasn’t important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn’t make any difference. I’d invent things and play with things for my own entertainment.
So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out and I’ll never accomplish anything, I’ve got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I’m going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.
Within a week I was in the cafeteria and some guy, fooling around, throws a plate in the air. As the plate went up in the air I saw it wobble, and I noticed the red medallion of Cornell on the plate going around. It was pretty obvious to me that the medallion went around faster than the wobbling.
I had nothing to do, so I start to figure out the motion of the rotating plate. I discover that when the angle is very slight, the medallion rotates twice as fast as the wobble rate - two to one [Note: Feynman mis-remembers here---the factor of 2 is the other way]. It came out of a complicated equation! Then I thought, ‘Is there some way I can see in a more fundamental way, by looking at the forces or the dynamics, why it’s two to one?’
I don’t remember how I did it, but I ultimately worked out what the motion of the mass particles is, and how all the accelerations balance to make it come out two to one.
I still remember going to Hans Bethe and saying, ‘Hey, Hans! I noticed something interesting. Here the plate goes around so, and the reason it’s two to one is ...’ and I showed him the accelerations.
He says, ‘Feynman, that’s pretty interesting, but what’s the importance of it? Why are you doing it?’
‘Hah!’ I say. ‘There’s no importance whatsoever. I’m just doing it for the fun of it.’ His reaction didn’t discourage me; I had made up my mind I was going to enjoy physics and do whatever I liked.
I went on to work out equations of wobbles. Then I thought about how electron orbits start to move in relativity. Then there’s the Dirac Equation in electrodynamics. And then quantum electrodynamics. And before I knew it (it was a very short time) I was ‘playing’ - working, really - with the same old problem that I loved so much, that I had stopped working on when I went to Los Alamos: my thesis-type problems; all those old-fashioned, wonderful things.
It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. It was like uncorking a bottle: Everything flowed out effortlessly. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate.”
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As many of you know, a lot of my best friends came from an online hobby called "online roleplaying". One of the more popular forms is a type of collaborative fiction called "play by post", in which the participants alternate writing sections of the story. More succinctly; I started a roleplaying site of my own in 2005 called RolePlayGateway to give people the same opportunity I had when I was younger.
I wanted to take a moment and go over some of my favorites, for those who are reading.
RolePlayGateway: an obvious favorite. It takes a little while to find your place (if you're a more 'advanced' roleplayer), but our strength is the wide range of people that play here. Oh, and we have an awesome chat built specifically for roleplaying!
Roleplayer Guild: Run by Dan Neumann, Roleplayer Guild is as close to a sister site of RolePlayGateway as it gets. They've got a slightly different format from RolePlayGateway, letting you browse roleplays based on their "quality" level (e.g., Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). A great place to go if you're looking to start a nice tight-knit group!
Althanas: Althanas is one of the only other large sites dedicated completely to play-by-post roleplay. I've roleplayed here for a couple years (as an anonymous account!) and they're a great group. The "Guides" sections is irreplaceable, so if you're looking to learn, this is the place to be.
Up and coming!
These sites are new or are just getting off the ground, so they're not as established as the above listings.
Roleplaygetaway: launched as a refuge from the insanity that RolePlayGateway provides, RolePlayGetaway (albeit, a confusing name) is showing a lot of promise. With a brand new roleplaying system built to track your roleplays, it is taking the same route that RolePlayGateway's fabled roleplay tab is taking. It's being run by several of my staff members and close friends, and I can attest that they know what they are doing. I hope to see more sites like this!
Fallen off my list...
These sites used to show some promise, but for some reason or another have fallen by the wayside. As such, I'm rel="nofollow"'ing their links.
AnimeLeague: AnimeLeague appears to have gone the way of AnimeMetro; that is, it has begun to focus more on Anime and conventions instead of roleplay. Sadface!
Gaia Online: Gaia Online used to be a fairly decent place for play-by-post roleplay, but then it got uber popular. It too is now expanding beyond play-by-post, and the focus has been lost.
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Between work, my social life, and training, I play a game called EVE Online. It's the first game I've ever shelled out a monthly fee for, and it's well worth it. I came across this fan-made video for one of the in-game factions on CrazyKinux's blog.
Full screen this and play it in HD, while keeping in mind that this is made entirely of recorded gameplay video.
I'm the director of a group of players (called a "Corporation" as opposed to "Guild" in other MMORPGs), and if you're interested in playing with me, shoot me a line or message me in game as "Baeryn". You'll never find a game so perfect.
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I've been in the market for my dream phone for almost a year now. Products have been released left and right, but none of them seem to have the functionality that I am desiring. Okay, I admit - "phone" is a bit misleading. What I'm really looking for is a smartphone... no, not a smartphone, a digital companion.
Things I'm looking for:
Phone
Camera
Media Player
Freedom
Phone I want a mobile phone with what has become industry standards, including the dual-mode functionality of GSM and WiFi connections. I should be able to take this phone to any service provider, and get service using this device, keeping both my number and my contacts.
Camera I want a decent camera that gets decent lighting. While a 2 megapixel camera is about the range I'm looking for, most important is the quality of the resulting pictures. The functionality of a modern-day camera should be available, including light temperature and balance. I should be able to record video using this, as well.
Media Player I should be able to play any format of media on this device as I can play using my home Linux box. OGG, MP3, MPEG, AVI...
Freedom I wish to be able to install software freely, from wherever I may choose. If I choose to install emulators and play me some NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games, I should be able to do this freely, and have the necessary hardware resources to do this. I want to be able to make changes to my device's software at any point in time. I should be able to sync my calendar, to do list, and contacts with my choice of repositories.
I'll grow and review this as necessary. Until then, the Apple iPhone looks bitterly disgusting, while the Motorola Q's use of Windows continues to push me away.
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I'm of the opinion that we could teach our young children subjects like calculus, if only we had mechanisms through which to empower those with curiosity to play with them. Then, the application of the effort to teach becomes one of rewarding knowledge, rather than repetitive structures of memorization and batteries of tests.
Take, for example, these visualizations of various concepts in mathematics. How enlightening would it be if we could play with these as we work through the process of learning the equations that describe them, letting our brain form the map between the system's description, its properties, and its behavior?
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Education is Curiosity, Enabled I'm of the opinion that we could teach our young children subjects like calculus, if only we had mechanisms through which to empower those with curiosity to play with them. Then, the application of the effort to teach becomes one of rewarding knowledge, rather than repetitive structures of memorization and batteries of tests.
Take, for example, these visualizations of various concepts in mathematics. How enlightening would it be if we could play with these as we work through the process of learning the equations that describe them, letting our brain form the map between the system's description, its properties, and its behavior?
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Education is Curiosity, Enabled I'm of the opinion that we could teach our young children subjects like calculus, if only we had mechanisms through which to empower those with curiosity to play with them. Then, the application of the effort to teach becomes one of rewarding knowledge, rather than repetitive structures of memorization and batteries of tests.
Take, for example, these visualizations of various concepts in mathematics. How enlightening would it be if we could play with these as we work through the process of learning the equations that describe them, letting our brain form the map between the system's description, its properties, and its behavior?
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Education is Curiosity, Enabled I'm of the opinion that we could teach our young children subjects like calculus, if only we had mechanisms through which to empower those with curiosity to play with them. Then, the application of the effort to teach becomes one of rewarding knowledge, rather than repetitive structures of memorization and batteries of tests.
Take, for example, these visualizations of various concepts in mathematics. How enlightening would it be if we could play with these as we work through the process of learning the equations that describe them, letting our brain form the map between the system's description, its properties, and its behavior?
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Eric, Have we had the conversation about the predatory nature of evolutionary psychology inspiring Darwinian interactions within our own species? Play should not only be for children, we should teach humans to play together throughout their lives. I believe we've spoken about the necessity of philosophy in elementary school curriculum? Any chance you'd be interested in working with the state to make this happen? Are you searching for the complete solution through institution or solely seeking answers through decentralized systems?
Toni Lane Casserly, TLC Sent from my mobile. Pardon any error of the thumb.
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Jayme and I have decided to determine which one of us is the best at playing games. We're in the process of choosing the games to be played to determine the best of the best. (Or atleast between us two.) We're trying to get an equal amount of games on both the console and the PC, since he's a console gamer, and I'm a PC gamer. The winner of this will get bragging rights an' all that, but I think we'll need to write an agreement of some sort stating that the winner is final, no bitching about how the choices of games are sucky, and how lag killed you, and that when entering, you agree that it is FINAL. So yeah. Here's what we have so far, and by no means is this list final:
So that's a tally of 7 games so far, 3 console, 3 PC, and one arcade. Of course, I'd like to have two more, including a FPS for the PC, such as Unreal Tournament... and an additional game on the console to account for this. Perhaps a 3D Fighter such as Tekken 4/5, Mortal Combat: Deception/Deadly Alliance, or King Of Fighters: Maximum Impact?
We'll see.
-- Eric Martindale IT Professional Admin of GWing.net
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Running a role playing game online presents a large of amount of flexibility in the way you run the game. You no longer need individual sessions where all players are present, and there are a plethora of options as to where you are going to run it - if you want to run it in any one place.
One of the number one questions I receive relates to the medium for online RPGs. There are tons of different ways of communicating online, mainly grouped into a few categories. We have instant messenger, chats, message boards, and emails. There are a few custom services out there, but I'm going to touch on the four that I've mentioned.
On RolePlayGateway, we have a set of roleplaying forums as well as a roleplaying chat. When you're running an RPG, there are a few items you should consider when deciding where you're going to keep everything.
Forums have the benefit of being static and always available - users can post to forums at any time during the day and be sure that other users (and roleplayers) can see their message. Forums are also very flexible, they allow you to embed images and other multimedia within your posts, allowing you to share any experience with your players. However, it is post based - forums are often not the quickest way to communicate, as it is not a live feed of information like a chat.
Chats, on the other hand, have the benefit of being real time. Games can be run in chat (and instant messenger) on a moment's notice, and work best when all of the players can be available at the same time. Because it is real time, short blip-based sessions such as character conversations and interactions work extraordinarily well with chats. Players can get the chance to interject into other player's actions and statements without the worry of too much time going by. It is for this reason that the longer posts, such as those that exceed a paragraph, are often too large and unwieldy for chats - players end up waiting too long for each post, and will get bored.
Longer posts do very well on forums, where writing an individual post can take half an hour or longer to refine and perfect - just enough time for the players to go look at other games and other topics before they come back and begin formulating their response.
If you're running a game with a detailed and/or complicated storyline or characters, it is always good to post something on a forum for player reference. This lets the players have a place to communicate out of character (OOC) - such as when they won't be able to make a chat session, or when they want to discuss plans for character interaction, growth, or development. Even if your game is already on a forum - it is a good idea to create a place for OOC discussion. For chat-based games - this gives a perfect opportunity for players to jump in at the middle of a game with little trouble, as they simply need to read over the history of the game on the forum, which they can do at any point in time, and less time is needed explaining the game to the player.
Instant messenger works well when dealing with one on one sessions, such as when two characters are the only ones in an interaction or a meeting needs to be private. These interactions can be summarized or written into a cinematic format and then posted to the forum, for other players to enjoy as well. Instant messenger (as well as Private Messages) does very well at asking questions of the other players, which is convenient when you have a question about how they're playing a role or a reference they made in character.
There are also emails - many games aren't run by email anymore, but email is still a very valuable tool. RolePlayGateway like many forums offers you the ability to subscribe to topics. Subscriptions will let you receive an immediate email update whenever someone replies to the thread. This is extraordinarily helpful when there's an RPG with only a few players that can only reply every once in a while, but it requires that people, y'know, actually check their email. RolePlayGateway also has the special ability to instant message you when there's an update to a subscribed thread. All you need is a Jabber account (GMail accounts work, too) and to set up the notifications. We'll send you a message as soon as there's an update.
What methods have you used to manage your online roleplaying games? Are you a fan of forum or chat? Both? What helps you determine where you're going to hold your game? Discuss!
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To truly teach each other to learn, we must first teach each other to play. I learned my favorite writing is on the fly, in the midst of a heated RP session. Now to channel that same passion and fire into a compilation of such writings....
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Role playing is a gateway drug. Next thing you know you'll be on the street corner soliciting your services just to get your fix. "Hey buddy, wanna be a level 12 paladin for the night?"
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Interesting, certainly a relevant application for tourists and museum visitors. I look forward to a slightly more immersive experience, where for instance ruins are overlaid with an image of what they used to look like. Also, I want to wear google glasses while I bike/run/walk and play a video game at the same time, so I'm exercising outside and experiencing a "new world" at the same time. When is that coming?? ;)
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+Alexa Landsman I didn't, this is a photo from the protests. Anonymous has been playing a major role, and with this comes memes like "Forever Alone" and "Y U NO". There's a few more in this album, if you look through.
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I sometimes get mired in the monotony of programming work also. I have that obsessive nature that most scientists possess. This quote is true inspiration. I had a moment like Feynman's recently while playing with my son's Duplo Legos. We started building these really big towers and so I went off on an architectural research tangent when he went to sleep. It had no functional end except to make better lego towers but damn it was fun. And as I was doing this I had an epiphany concerning my programming. So, in conclusion, more Legos!!!
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Number of times that I've removed the Microsoft Office Language Bar in the past 7 days: 17
On another note, we've put up a technology forum, and hopefully this will help us keep things organized. Additionally, as I'm sure some of you have seen, we've launched the Role Play Academy.
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Well, it looks like Google is rolling out Google+ Pages now. The link to "Create a Google+ Page" [1] on the first page I found [2] (coincidentally, for Google+ itself) apparently "isn't ready for everyone", but I deleted the lightbox using my DOM inspector and was able to play around with the interface. Here are some screenshots of the options available when you create a Google+ Page.
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Well, it looks like Google is rolling out Google+ Pages now. The link to "Create a Google+ Page" [1] on the first page I found [2] (coincidentally, for Google+ itself) apparently "isn't ready for everyone", but I deleted the lightbox using my DOM inspector and was able to play around with the interface. Here are some screenshots of the options available when you create a Google+ Page.
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Well, it looks like Google is rolling out Google+ Pages now. The link to "Create a Google+ Page" [1] on the first page I found [2] (coincidentally, for Google+ itself) apparently "isn't ready for everyone", but I deleted the lightbox using my DOM inspector and was able to play around with the interface. Here are some screenshots of the options available when you create a Google+ Page.
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I think I'm sick or getting sick from the weekend, which was awesome all in itself. Rode over to Ian's on Saturday, enjoyed a good night with some new friends, playing Unreal Tournament (the original, what else?) until somewhere around 3AM. Ah, good times. I woke up the next day in time to give Amber a call before she left for work. We got to gaming shortly after lunch, and for once, our ship didn't esplode! (partly because we left it behind for the majority of the game...)
Sunday we relaxed and watched football, both American and World. Poor poor Chelsea! I ended up rolling in at about 4PM, and proceeded to put together some home cooking for when Amber got off work. Unfortunately, my plans were foiled by her work schedule, and she got off at six instead of the planned five, denying us the opportunity of going to the park to eat while the sun set. We enjoyed ourselves nonetheless, and had a good cuddly evening.
Work today was a pain, though. Internet was out, and Bellsouth took until 5PM to bring us a mediocre solution. One of our major clients was having email problems, which I couldn't troubleshoot until the internet was up. Pity.
And, now I come home, GWing is having some people problems, and the GT League is bumbling along as usual. Now, about that roleplaying social reform...
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Christmas time is here! The incessant Christmas music on the radio, the lights around this quiet little town, the music played over the speakers on main street, and the greenery and otherwise unusual happiness of the general populous. The best time of the year, many say - I can see why. I just hope the radio music doesn't wear thin on me too soon...
I'm getting over my sinus infection, with only a minor headache right now. Church went extraordinary, and life (as of right now) is good. Earlier this afternoon, Amber and I put together a French Meringue for her class at school, which looks absolutely gorgeous. We used an old lace napkin to pattern the surface with a delectable pattern of powdered sugar, and it came out well.
I just cleaned off her computer desk, just on one of those random cleaning spree (read: obsessive compulsive) things. I sorted her father's CDs, to much satisfaction. We also raked the yard... and now we're decorating her house. Well, they are - I'm cleaning up her father's computer now, too. What a day!
Spats lost!? I feel that he deserved the win, but that's not what the judge determined. I'm glad that Kouketsu took care of those flames in the "who do you think will win" topic, because I don't think I can last much longer dealing with such complete and total disgraces to the ideals of quality text fighting.
GWing seems to be picking up some more, there is a lot of progress being made in the Growth area. Several new moderators (critics...), namely Circ and Dovey, are preparing an awesome system for reviewing authors' submissions. I think I'm going to try and influence Amber to provide SOME input, as it is her forum, and it'd help her to get back into writing.
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Definitely an interesting read. Whenever i work at a Diabetes camp, one of the questions i have received from parents is "How do you make sure the remote is controlling the right pump? Currently, Medtronic/Minimed uses a device ID to pair the meter, CGM, or remote to the pump. I believe Johnson & Johnson/Animas One Touch Ping uses a similar method - i would have to ask my brother. The Insulet Omnipod uses a proximity registration method, which i don't fully understand (I haven't played with it much), but I have a feeling that this pairing method might be vulnerable to an attack, possibly of a man-in-the-middle design.
I also do not see how interfering with the CGM signal could cause any issue - the only integrated CGM/pump combo that is FDA approved for sale in the USA (Minimed 522/722 or 523/723 ("Revel")) does nothing with the CGM information beyond display it on the pump and alert you to changes. Let me reiterate: the US CGM/pump combo does not use CGM data to alter insulin patterns - at this point in time, the FDA simply will not allow it. Now, assuming the insulin pump is Medtronic's European model, I have been told (by a Medtronic Diabetes sales representative) that the european model features an "auto-off" switch - if the wearer's blood glucose level drops below a certain threshold, the insulin pump will immediately suspend insulin delivery. I do not know the specifics of how this works, if it is all insulin or just the basal levels, but it is a potential vulnerability, but leads to the risk of a high blood sugar (which leads to long-term complications if uncontrolled).
Now the flipside of the auto off, would be an automatic insulin increase. Theoretically, if we wanted a closed-loop insulin delivery system that mimics the natural function of the pancreas, we need to automatically reduce insulin delivery when blood glucose levels are dropping, as well as increase insulin delivery when BG levels are rising. The current technology has its known issues, so I am not sure if the FDA (or any similar agencies worldwide) will even allow this functionality with the available technology, but it is still a valid concern for biomedical programmers.
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I've always loved Eve Online. It's a space MMO, with ridiculous levels of immersion. They tout that it's the world's largest game universe, and let me tell you - it's absolutely huge.
Character journaling is a great way to extend the world of a game and add more depth to both the character and the plot. Be careful that you don't fall victim to the inactivity that often plagues real journaling! Stick to it, and you'll reap the benefits of fleshing out your character and having a solid history of the thought processes involved.
P.S.: Google Reader is an amazing tool that lets you follow your favorite sites and their content without ever checking the page. You can check out my shared items list to see what sort of things I follow, but check out the official Google Reader page for more information.
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I'm a pretty heavy feedreader, with about 164 subscriptions. Over the last 30 days, I've read 8,032 items, starred 9 items, shared 20 items, and emailed 2 items. Of course... I really enjoy a good number of things that I read - and I want to share these items with everyone.
Then there's the question about content-theft. Some bloggers like to take RSS feeds and republish them on their own site, earning revenue from the content, and there's a huge backlash from the original authors.
What I'd like to do is publish my shared items feed here on my blog, without changing anything in the original article. I'll have to play around with tagging and the like, and I'll have to decide on what plugin to use exactly. However, will I get any backlash from the authors? Is this appropriate?
(There's supposed to be a list of shared items here... but apparently it isn't working.)
Now, keep in mind that each of them would most likely get their own post, with all of the original links intact. I'd be pulling the RSS feed from my Google Reader account (if I could link to my profile, that'd be great - then people could even "Add Eric as a Friend" and subscribe to my shared items. Alas - Google doesn't make it that easy), and letting people read and see it here.
What do you think? Blog authors who I frequently share from, I'd really appreciate your opinion, or even suggestions on alternatives. Google Trends says my most shared items are from Lifehacker (a getting things done blog) - so YOUR comments would be especially helpful. ;) Let me know!
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In June of 1971, just days before his 26-year-old son, Michael, got married, future-U.S. President Ronald Reagan sent him the following letter of advice.
Michael Reagan
Manhattan Beach, California
June 1971
Dear Mike:
Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won't.
You've heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the "unhappy marrieds" and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.
Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn't ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.
Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.
Love,
Dad
P.S. You'll never get in trouble if you say "I love you" at least once a day.
Thank you, Letters of Note, for sharing this incredibly prescient tidbit.
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Ladies, have a sense of humor and don't rake me over the coals about this. Story came from a chain letter that was floating around.
One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed.
Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me."
I said, "WHAT??!! What was that?!"
So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear...
"You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man."
She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?"
Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.
The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take, so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said, "Lets get a pair for each outfit."
We went on to the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you... she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis.
I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey." She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, "I think this is all dear, let's go to the cashier."
I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel like it."
Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled, "WHAT?"
I then said, "Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman."
And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?"
Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either....but at least that bitch knows I'm smarter than her.
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In June of 1971, just days before his 26-year-old son, Michael, got married, future-U.S. President Ronald Reagan sent him the following letter of advice.
Michael Reagan Manhattan Beach, California June 1971
Dear Mike:
Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won't.
You've heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the "unhappy marrieds" and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.
Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn't ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.
Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.
Love,
Dad
P.S. You'll never get in trouble if you say "I love you" at least once a day.
Thank you, Letters of Note, for sharing this incredibly prescient tidbit.
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In June of 1971, just days before his 26-year-old son, Michael, got married, future-U.S. President Ronald Reagan sent him the following letter of advice.
Michael Reagan Manhattan Beach, California June 1971
Dear Mike:
Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won't.
You've heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the "unhappy marrieds" and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.
Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn't ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.
Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.
Love,
Dad
P.S. You'll never get in trouble if you say "I love you" at least once a day.
Thank you, Letters of Note, for sharing this incredibly prescient tidbit.
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In June of 1971, just days before his 26-year-old son, Michael, got married, future-U.S. President Ronald Reagan sent him the following letter of advice.
Michael Reagan Manhattan Beach, California June 1971
Dear Mike:
Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won't.
You've heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the "unhappy marrieds" and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.
Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn't ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.
Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.
Love,
Dad
P.S. You'll never get in trouble if you say "I love you" at least once a day.
Thank you, Letters of Note, for sharing this incredibly prescient tidbit.
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My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about, transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were built right, how amazing it could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
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My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about, transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were built right, how amazing it could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
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My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about, transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were built right, how amazing it could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
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My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about, transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were built right, how amazing it could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
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It's been a crazy past couple weeks for me. I've been training up for my next fight (AFL 1, May 17, 2008 Elizabeth City, NC) and staying pretty busy at work. In other news, The Grand Tournament 2008 invitations were sent out, and RolePlayGateway will be hosting the event. I had a blast at the SEO - What You Need To Know Meetup in Raleigh, and met some great people (hi Ashley!), and got connected with the upcoming Advanced SEO Meetup (which I'm really looking forward to, Brian - sorry I missed the first one!).
Two of my friends passed away this past week, Brittany Custer and Chelsea Johnson, in two separate events. It's so sad - both of these girls had an entire life ahead of them.
A few of my friends have also had recent losses, all very devastating in their own way. I don't think you can possible hope to truly offer solace during times like these, but that is no reason to attempt to provide support and care for their loss.
It's a very polarizing view compared to what we often feel - especially looking at the age at which people pass away. With Cyclone Nargis and the China Earthquakes, there's a lot of pain in the world right now. It really makes you wake up out of whatever jaded state you're in and realize that hey, you're human. You're in this with the rest of us, regardless of how much hate you think you have.
I'm not participating in the elections this year. Full stop.
It's not that I don't feel like I can make a difference - it's that I refuse to be involved in what's going to happen next. I'll make my mark in my own way, this year. And hey, on a semi-related note, let me introduce you to an independent documentary (which means do your research to verify any of this) that I thoroughly recommend you sit down for 2 hours and watch. Two hours, give it your full attention.
All of that aside, let's all remember that we're in this together, like I said before. We need to be loving and supporting each other, through all of our trying times. Grow roots so that you might be able to nourish and feed others in their times of need, as we must do this in favor of our own health. (See The Golden Rule, figure 1.1)
For everyone who has lost someone, remember that everything has a cause and effect. You are still here and play a part in the effect of your loss - it is up to you to determine how you learn from and use the experiences you shared with this person. Be joyous and put these experiences to positive use, sharing and growing in their spirit.
Take refuge amongst your own family and friends - just as you have been there for them, they will be there for you.
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"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including image processing and 3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO +Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
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"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including image processing and 3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO +Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including image processing and 3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO +Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
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"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including image processing and 3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO +Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a really weird movie, and it really scared me. Not only is the concept nail-head-on, but I used to be called Jim Carrey, and some say I bear a striking resemblance to him in my expressions. Well... yeah. It's difficult to explain.
So what, I got over that. But then, just when I thought the worst was over, I was randomly Googling - the verb form of to search the google search engine - and then... BOOM! HEADSHOT!
Okay, I can handle someone from WW2 looking almost like myself - and the fact that he's a pilot, one of my dreams. Okay. I can handle that. And then...
http://www.artofcombat.com/instructors.htm : The training group (SOI) in Dallas was small and under the guidance of Eric Martindale (which promoted Ralph to 9th kyu), ....
I can handle a martial arts instructor being named Eric Martindale as well, a little odd, but then again, I've always been involved in martial arts, haven't I? Eric apparently promoted that guy to 9th kyu, right? So don't you have to be 10th kyu? So he's 1337 like that, right? ... And then...
And of course there's the soccer referee, or is he a player? I don't remember. He's another Eric Martindale. A little weird, too... but I've played soccer since the age of five. And then...
Holy crap, that IS me. For real. Only slightly unexpected at this point... after all of these STRANGE entries. Slightly. O_o ....
And then...
I've apparently lost myself on http://lostfriends.org - or is someone looking for me? Oh... that's what I meant to say. I haven't found myself there yet... but apparently Google did. And then...
I WAS on this page at some point... and this one is somewhat entertaining. Apparently, in Charlotte during some point about a year ago, someone named Eric Martindale died in a car accident. I believe I had four people come up to me that day and ask if I had died... I was about two hours north of charlotte at the time, and the "Eric Martindale" news had reached most parts of North Carolina and Virginia, and I got two phone calls, one from my mother - asking if I had died. .... ... ... ... .... And then...
I'm the president of a North Carolina rotary club. I've always been a fan of rotary engines... but this is ridiculous... WTFH? .... I'm becoming very frightened at this point... very frightened. I love rotary engines. That rotary club is two cities away. ... And then...
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SXG+: The Road Trip I'm now home and settled in after a whirlwind trip to +SXSW with +Superdave Houdini, and getting back to work on +LocalSense. We drove over 2,000 miles in total to +HIRL with amazing Google+ community members like +Carter Gibson, +Amanda Blain, and +Moritz Tolxdorff. It's over for me now, but the afterglow of meeting even more amazing people than I did at the #DCHIRL will linger with me for a while yet, and the impressions they've made upon me will be permanent.
It started in Raleigh, NC where I departed at around 6:30 PM to meet +Superdave Houdini in Valdosta, GA at around 2 AM. One Georgian speeding ticket later, I was #scheming with my soon-to-be roatrip partner (who'd just arrived from Miami, FL!) and +Raleigh Burke in a Google Hangout for an hour or two before hitting the road again.
We stopped in Tallahassee, FL for some breakfast and #starbucks ( #buxxin !) while I knocked out a few work tasks, and were New Orleans-bound within the hour. We soon passed a sign for a place called “Buc-ee's”, which was apparently 797 miles away ( #WTF ?) [1]. This is apparently a thing, and there's not one--but multiple posts on The Internet™ about that particular sign.
Following up our post-breakfast journey with a stop on Bourbon Street [2] for some wings was an absolute must, and we rewarded our success in overtaking +Amanda Blain (who was stuck way back Atlanta on the +StartupBus!) with a drink or two before cramming back into my car and cranking some #whitegirlfriday jams. Thankfully we had #bluetooth in the car, so +Superdave Houdini was able to play the appropriate soundtrack for the epic that was already unfolding.
There was more +Starbucks Coffee to be had in Baton Rouge, LA [3] before heading out on the final stretch to Texas, fueling our excitement as we looked forward to the upcoming shenanigans in Austin. Texas indeed greeted us with all its majesty, a grandiose lone star at a rest stop just across the border, where one of Mini-Supes' (R.I.P.) last photos was taken... (photo forthcoming!) but US-10 had some surprises for us before we'd land for the night.
Just as we were passing through Vidor, TX, we encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic that we later learned was the result of an overturned truck somewhere along that particular stretch. Not especially excited to endure three hours worth of traffic, we decided to route two hours down towards Bridge City [4] and then west to Winnie before picking up US10 again on the way into Houston, where we stayed with the brilliant and gracious +Calvin Christopher for drinks, intellectual discourse, and planning for the following day.
We all sadly lost a good partner and great friend that night [5], but we weren't to be thwarted--the show must go on! We had three hours remaining, and needed to be back on the road. So off we went! [6]
I'm sure all the others will document the happenings in Austin sufficiently, so I'll save my insight for later--but I'll end with a special thank you to +John Fanavans, +Summer Fulcher, and the rest of you who met us that night when we arrived. That night certainly set the tone for the remainder of what turned out to be one of the most alive, and vibrant, and incredible experiences possible.
Thank all of you for making Google+ for what it is.
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SXG+: The Road Trip I'm now home and settled in after a whirlwind trip to +SXSW with +Superdave Houdini, and getting back to work on +LocalSense. We drove over 2,000 miles in total to +HIRL with amazing Google+ community members like +Carter Gibson, +Amanda Blain, and +Moritz Tolxdorff. It's over for me now, but the afterglow of meeting even more amazing people than I did at the #DCHIRL will linger with me for a while yet, and the impressions they've made upon me will be permanent.
It started in Raleigh, NC where I departed at around 6:30 PM to meet +Superdave Houdini in Valdosta, GA at around 2 AM. One Georgian speeding ticket later, I was #scheming with my soon-to-be roatrip partner (who'd just arrived from Miami, FL!) and +Raleigh Burke in a Google Hangout for an hour or two before hitting the road again.
We stopped in Tallahassee, FL for some breakfast and #starbucks ( #buxxin !) while I knocked out a few work tasks, and were New Orleans-bound within the hour. We soon passed a sign for a place called “Buc-ee's”, which was apparently 797 miles away ( #WTF ?) [1]. This is apparently a thing, and there's not one-but multiple posts on The Internet™ about that particular sign.
Following up our post-breakfast journey with a stop on Bourbon Street [2] for some wings was an absolute must, and we rewarded our success in overtaking +Amanda Blain (who was stuck way back Atlanta on the +StartupBus!) with a drink or two before cramming back into my car and cranking some #whitegirlfriday jams. Thankfully we had #bluetooth in the car, so +Superdave Houdini was able to play the appropriate soundtrack for the epic that was already unfolding.
There was more +Starbucks Coffee to be had in Baton Rouge, LA [3] before heading out on the final stretch to Texas, fueling our excitement as we looked forward to the upcoming shenanigans in Austin. Texas indeed greeted us with all its majesty, a grandiose lone star at a rest stop just across the border, where one of Mini-Supes' (R.I.P.) last photos was taken... (photo forthcoming!) but US-10 had some surprises for us before we'd land for the night.
Just as we were passing through Vidor, TX, we encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic that we later learned was the result of an overturned truck somewhere along that particular stretch. Not especially excited to endure three hours worth of traffic, we decided to route two hours down towards Bridge City [4] and then west to Winnie before picking up US10 again on the way into Houston, where we stayed with the brilliant and gracious +Calvin Christopher for drinks, intellectual discourse, and planning for the following day.
We all sadly lost a good partner and great friend that night [5], but we weren't to be thwarted-the show must go on! We had three hours remaining, and needed to be back on the road. So off we went! [6]
I'm sure all the others will document the happenings in Austin sufficiently, so I'll save my insight for later--but I'll end with a special thank you to +John Fanavans, +Summer Fulcher, and the rest of you who met us that night when we arrived. That night certainly set the tone for the remainder of what turned out to be one of the most alive, and vibrant, and incredible experiences possible.
Thank all of you for making Google+ for what it is.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
SXG+: The Road Trip I'm now home and settled in after a whirlwind trip to +SXSW with +Superdave Houdini, and getting back to work on +LocalSense. We drove over 2,000 miles in total to +HIRL with amazing Google+ community members like +Carter Gibson, +Amanda Blain, and +Moritz Tolxdorff. It's over for me now, but the afterglow of meeting even more amazing people than I did at the #DCHIRL will linger with me for a while yet, and the impressions they've made upon me will be permanent.
It started in Raleigh, NC where I departed at around 6:30 PM to meet +Superdave Houdini in Valdosta, GA at around 2 AM. One Georgian speeding ticket later, I was #scheming with my soon-to-be roatrip partner (who'd just arrived from Miami, FL!) and +Raleigh Burke in a Google Hangout for an hour or two before hitting the road again.
We stopped in Tallahassee, FL for some breakfast and #starbucks ( #buxxin !) while I knocked out a few work tasks, and were New Orleans-bound within the hour. We soon passed a sign for a place called “Buc-ee's”, which was apparently 797 miles away ( #WTF ?) [1]. This is apparently a thing, and there's not one-but multiple posts on The Internet™ about that particular sign.
Following up our post-breakfast journey with a stop on Bourbon Street [2] for some wings was an absolute must, and we rewarded our success in overtaking +Amanda Blain (who was stuck way back Atlanta on the +StartupBus!) with a drink or two before cramming back into my car and cranking some #whitegirlfriday jams. Thankfully we had #bluetooth in the car, so +Superdave Houdini was able to play the appropriate soundtrack for the epic that was already unfolding.
There was more +Starbucks Coffee to be had in Baton Rouge, LA [3] before heading out on the final stretch to Texas, fueling our excitement as we looked forward to the upcoming shenanigans in Austin. Texas indeed greeted us with all its majesty, a grandiose lone star at a rest stop just across the border, where one of Mini-Supes' (R.I.P.) last photos was taken... (photo forthcoming!) but US-10 had some surprises for us before we'd land for the night.
Just as we were passing through Vidor, TX, we encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic that we later learned was the result of an overturned truck somewhere along that particular stretch. Not especially excited to endure three hours worth of traffic, we decided to route two hours down towards Bridge City [4] and then west to Winnie before picking up US10 again on the way into Houston, where we stayed with the brilliant and gracious +Calvin Christopher for drinks, intellectual discourse, and planning for the following day.
We all sadly lost a good partner and great friend that night [5], but we weren't to be thwarted-the show must go on! We had three hours remaining, and needed to be back on the road. So off we went! [6]
I'm sure all the others will document the happenings in Austin sufficiently, so I'll save my insight for later--but I'll end with a special thank you to +John Fanavans, +Summer Fulcher, and the rest of you who met us that night when we arrived. That night certainly set the tone for the remainder of what turned out to be one of the most alive, and vibrant, and incredible experiences possible.
Thank all of you for making Google+ for what it is.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
SXG+: The Road Trip I'm now home and settled in after a whirlwind trip to +SXSW with +Superdave Houdini, and getting back to work on +LocalSense. We drove over 2,000 miles in total to +HIRL with amazing Google+ community members like +Carter Gibson, +Amanda Blain, and +Moritz Tolxdorff. It's over for me now, but the afterglow of meeting even more amazing people than I did at the #DCHIRL will linger with me for a while yet, and the impressions they've made upon me will be permanent.
It started in Raleigh, NC where I departed at around 6:30 PM to meet +Superdave Houdini in Valdosta, GA at around 2 AM. One Georgian speeding ticket later, I was #scheming with my soon-to-be roatrip partner (who'd just arrived from Miami, FL!) and +Raleigh Burke in a Google Hangout for an hour or two before hitting the road again.
We stopped in Tallahassee, FL for some breakfast and #starbucks ( #buxxin !) while I knocked out a few work tasks, and were New Orleans-bound within the hour. We soon passed a sign for a place called “Buc-ee's”, which was apparently 797 miles away ( #WTF ?) [1]. This is apparently a thing, and there's not one-but multiple posts on The Internet™ about that particular sign.
Following up our post-breakfast journey with a stop on Bourbon Street [2] for some wings was an absolute must, and we rewarded our success in overtaking +Amanda Blain (who was stuck way back Atlanta on the +StartupBus!) with a drink or two before cramming back into my car and cranking some #whitegirlfriday jams. Thankfully we had #bluetooth in the car, so +Superdave Houdini was able to play the appropriate soundtrack for the epic that was already unfolding.
There was more +Starbucks Coffee to be had in Baton Rouge, LA [3] before heading out on the final stretch to Texas, fueling our excitement as we looked forward to the upcoming shenanigans in Austin. Texas indeed greeted us with all its majesty, a grandiose lone star at a rest stop just across the border, where one of Mini-Supes' (R.I.P.) last photos was taken... (photo forthcoming!) but US-10 had some surprises for us before we'd land for the night.
Just as we were passing through Vidor, TX, we encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic that we later learned was the result of an overturned truck somewhere along that particular stretch. Not especially excited to endure three hours worth of traffic, we decided to route two hours down towards Bridge City [4] and then west to Winnie before picking up US10 again on the way into Houston, where we stayed with the brilliant and gracious +Calvin Christopher for drinks, intellectual discourse, and planning for the following day.
We all sadly lost a good partner and great friend that night [5], but we weren't to be thwarted-the show must go on! We had three hours remaining, and needed to be back on the road. So off we went! [6]
I'm sure all the others will document the happenings in Austin sufficiently, so I'll save my insight for later--but I'll end with a special thank you to +John Fanavans, +Summer Fulcher, and the rest of you who met us that night when we arrived. That night certainly set the tone for the remainder of what turned out to be one of the most alive, and vibrant, and incredible experiences possible.
Thank all of you for making Google+ for what it is.
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Please see my post regarding Capitalism versus Statism [1], watch the video from Anonymous [2], and take a look at the non-partisan nature of these protests [3]. Don't just look at my links, go out and do the research yourself.
The #OccupyWallStreet movement appears to be spreading like wildfire across the country. San Francisco [4], Washington D.C. [5], Nashville [6], Portland [7], and New Orleans [8] all had organized and peaceful protests today and yesterday consisting of thousands of people. Other protests are rapidly forming around the nation [9], numbering at 895 different cities at the time of this post.
There's something very real, visceral, and most importantly democratic about how we're using the Internet to show a ground-up perspective of what is happening at these protests. There's nothing like seeing people like +Michael Mozart on the ground in New York, streaming live video of the protests, or +Rob Salzman sharing a steady stream of photos of the thousands of protesters in Portland directly to the internet. It's getting more and more difficult to trust anything but an individual who is on the ground, experiencing and documenting things first hand.
There is a major difference between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants", even at the chemical level [10]. We're entering a time where the people who've grown up with practically ubiquitous Internet access are becoming comfortable with adulthood and asserting their beliefs and opinions. This will have major and far-reaching implications at all levels of the human condition -- and I think we're only beginning to see the manifestation of this paradigm shift.
I'll be at the protest at Moore Square here in Raleigh, NC on Sunday at 5PM. Join if you'd like.
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Please see my post regarding Capitalism versus Statism [1], watch the video from Anonymous [2], and take a look at the non-partisan nature of these protests [3]. Don't just look at my links, go out and do the research yourself.
The #OccupyWallStreet movement appears to be spreading like wildfire across the country. San Francisco [4], Washington D.C. [5], Nashville [6], Portland [7], and New Orleans [8] all had organized and peaceful protests today and yesterday consisting of thousands of people. Other protests are rapidly forming around the nation [9], numbering at 895 different cities at the time of this post.
There's something very real, visceral, and most importantly democratic about how we're using the Internet to show a ground-up perspective of what is happening at these protests. There's nothing like seeing people like +Michael Mozart on the ground in New York, streaming live video of the protests, or +Rob Salzman sharing a steady stream of photos of the thousands of protesters in Portland directly to the internet. It's getting more and more difficult to trust anything but an individual who is on the ground, experiencing and documenting things first hand.
There is a major difference between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants", even at the chemical level [10]. We're entering a time where the people who've grown up with practically ubiquitous Internet access are becoming comfortable with adulthood and asserting their beliefs and opinions. This will have major and far-reaching implications at all levels of the human condition -- and I think we're only beginning to see the manifestation of this paradigm shift.
I'll be at the protest at Moore Square here in Raleigh, NC on Sunday at 5PM. Join if you'd like.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Please see my post regarding Capitalism versus Statism [1], watch the video from Anonymous [2], and take a look at the non-partisan nature of these protests [3]. Don't just look at my links, go out and do the research yourself.
The #OccupyWallStreet movement appears to be spreading like wildfire across the country. San Francisco [4], Washington D.C. [5], Nashville [6], Portland [7], and New Orleans [8] all had organized and peaceful protests today and yesterday consisting of thousands of people. Other protests are rapidly forming around the nation [9], numbering at 895 different cities at the time of this post.
There's something very real, visceral, and most importantly democratic about how we're using the Internet to show a ground-up perspective of what is happening at these protests. There's nothing like seeing people like +Michael Mozart on the ground in New York, streaming live video of the protests, or +Rob Salzman sharing a steady stream of photos of the thousands of protesters in Portland directly to the internet. It's getting more and more difficult to trust anything but an individual who is on the ground, experiencing and documenting things first hand.
There is a major difference between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants", even at the chemical level [10]. We're entering a time where the people who've grown up with practically ubiquitous Internet access are becoming comfortable with adulthood and asserting their beliefs and opinions. This will have major and far-reaching implications at all levels of the human condition -- and I think we're only beginning to see the manifestation of this paradigm shift.
I'll be at the protest at Moore Square here in Raleigh, NC on Sunday at 5PM. Join if you'd like.
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Please see my post regarding Capitalism versus Statism [1], watch the video from Anonymous [2], and take a look at the non-partisan nature of these protests [3]. Don't just look at my links, go out and do the research yourself.
The #OccupyWallStreet movement appears to be spreading like wildfire across the country. San Francisco [4], Washington D.C. [5], Nashville [6], Portland [7], and New Orleans [8] all had organized and peaceful protests today and yesterday consisting of thousands of people. Other protests are rapidly forming around the nation [9], numbering at 895 different cities at the time of this post.
There's something very real, visceral, and most importantly democratic about how we're using the Internet to show a ground-up perspective of what is happening at these protests. There's nothing like seeing people like +Michael Mozart on the ground in New York, streaming live video of the protests, or +Rob Salzman sharing a steady stream of photos of the thousands of protesters in Portland directly to the internet. It's getting more and more difficult to trust anything but an individual who is on the ground, experiencing and documenting things first hand.
There is a major difference between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants", even at the chemical level [10]. We're entering a time where the people who've grown up with practically ubiquitous Internet access are becoming comfortable with adulthood and asserting their beliefs and opinions. This will have major and far-reaching implications at all levels of the human condition -- and I think we're only beginning to see the manifestation of this paradigm shift.
I'll be at the protest at Moore Square here in Raleigh, NC on Sunday at 5PM. Join if you'd like.
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There's some discussion about how forums are or are not social media, (frankly, I don't think there's any question at all) - and it occurred to me the answer of why there is this rift in perception of forums/message boards.
Message boards haven't changed in almost 25 years. There simply hasn't been any real innovation - and that's why there's so much "real" social media out there that's exploding right now. The stuff is so radically different from traditional mediums such as forums that everyone is missing the core of what social media is: community engagement and interaction
So, here are some of the things I'd like to see in a forum, and some things that I've implemented on some of my own forums (heh, or at least planning to implement):
Trackbacks
It'd be awesome to have the same functionality in a blog post that we have on Wordpress or other blog software - did I give credit to someone? Let me hit the trackback API to make sure there's a connection between the two posts in the semantic web.
A forum thread is no different than a blog post. It has a topic, a goal, and a discussion pertaining to the original post. Let's see some of the functionality we found in the current decade put to use!
Native RSS Support
There's nothing worse than having to write an RSS extension for your forum, and still not have the functionality you want. Give every URL on my forum a /feed, please. This includes forums, threads, posts, users: the whole shebang.
While you're at it, tell Feedburner to support filtered feeds - a lot of my users don't want every single post. And I sure as hell don't want to burn a new feed for every forum. C'mon, let's meet somewhere in the middle.
Semantic URLs
Blogging software does it, why do we still have URLs on forums that use IDs right there in the URL? What benefit does that have to the user?
Social Profiles
Alright, we've got friends and foes lists on our forums, now - but where is the option to make this information public? Why aren't we displaying a users' friend list on their profile page by default? What about all their most recent posts and actions, and selected excerpts?
A community can only grow in a stifled manner if interaction between members isn't made as easy as humanly possible. Current forum software is stuck in the 90's, with an XHTML wrapper around it. Let's fix this, and soon - before we all melt.
Real Metrics and Algorithms
Stop using post count as a legitimate metric. This only encourages poor post quality. Let's see the ability to easily show Flesch-Kincaid, average word count, or something similar. The amount of posts a user has is not a good valuation of their contributions.
Instead, replace these with something more community-driven. Look at Digg for example. There is a solid (questionably) algorithm in place that measures users based on what they've submitted and the reactions of other users' reaction to that content, whether it be a comment or a submission.
Maybe I'm just whining. Maybe I've got legitimate desires. What do you think?
P.S.: And good god, phpBB! Why didn't you include this stuff in your phpBB3 release?!
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Google Reader + Disqus would be a better Google+ than Google+
I'm not feeling Google+. I get that people are excited about high level of "engagement" and stuff, but to me it looks like something that is trying to solve too many problems at once. Or combine things that don't need to be combined.
My stream on Google+ looks something like this: link post, link post, lolcatz, lolcatz, long 3-page-down post by +Robert Scoble , lolcatz, link post, long post, etc. It's kind of like twitter, but it's not glanceable. I can have twitter on my secondary monitor and glance at the timeline every few minutes and get back to what I was doing if I don't see anything interesting in a number of tweets that fits on the screen. With G+ the number of posts to glance at is about 1. So you have to scroll to check what's going on - no go, imho.
And to be something like a social blogging platform it lacks formatting, flexibility, etc. And most importantly it requires you to make a move which is not what most people are willing to decide to do easily.
On the other hand, I like that you can read the stream and comment right away. Unlike in Google Reader (or any other RSS reader) where you have to click through to the site to comment/read comments. And quite a lot of the blogs already use a global social commenting platform - Disqus.
So if there was a GReader-like RSS reader combined with inline Disqus comments it would have everything I like about Google+ without all the other stuff that looks like a big indecisive pile of everything to me.
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Google Reader + Disqus would be a better Google+ than Google+
I'm not feeling Google+. I get that people are excited about high level of "engagement" and stuff, but to me it looks like something that is trying to solve too many problems at once. Or combine things that don't need to be combined.
My stream on Google+ looks something like this: link post, link post, lolcatz, lolcatz, long 3-page-down post by +Robert Scoble , lolcatz, link post, long post, etc. It's kind of like twitter, but it's not glanceable. I can have twitter on my secondary monitor and glance at the timeline every few minutes and get back to what I was doing if I don't see anything interesting in a number of tweets that fits on the screen. With G+ the number of posts to glance at is about 1. So you have to scroll to check what's going on - no go, imho.
And to be something like a social blogging platform it lacks formatting, flexibility, etc. And most importantly it requires you to make a move which is not what most people are willing to decide to do easily.
On the other hand, I like that you can read the stream and comment right away. Unlike in Google Reader (or any other RSS reader) where you have to click through to the site to comment/read comments. And quite a lot of the blogs already use a global social commenting platform - Disqus.
So if there was a GReader-like RSS reader combined with inline Disqus comments it would have everything I like about Google+ without all the other stuff that looks like a big indecisive pile of everything to me.
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Google Reader + Disqus would be a better Google+ than Google+
I'm not feeling Google+. I get that people are excited about high level of "engagement" and stuff, but to me it looks like something that is trying to solve too many problems at once. Or combine things that don't need to be combined.
My stream on Google+ looks something like this: link post, link post, lolcatz, lolcatz, long 3-page-down post by +Robert Scoble , lolcatz, link post, long post, etc. It's kind of like twitter, but it's not glanceable. I can have twitter on my secondary monitor and glance at the timeline every few minutes and get back to what I was doing if I don't see anything interesting in a number of tweets that fits on the screen. With G+ the number of posts to glance at is about 1. So you have to scroll to check what's going on - no go, imho.
And to be something like a social blogging platform it lacks formatting, flexibility, etc. And most importantly it requires you to make a move which is not what most people are willing to decide to do easily.
On the other hand, I like that you can read the stream and comment right away. Unlike in Google Reader (or any other RSS reader) where you have to click through to the site to comment/read comments. And quite a lot of the blogs already use a global social commenting platform - Disqus.
So if there was a GReader-like RSS reader combined with inline Disqus comments it would have everything I like about Google+ without all the other stuff that looks like a big indecisive pile of everything to me.
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Google Reader + Disqus would be a better Google+ than Google+
I'm not feeling Google+. I get that people are excited about high level of "engagement" and stuff, but to me it looks like something that is trying to solve too many problems at once. Or combine things that don't need to be combined.
My stream on Google+ looks something like this: link post, link post, lolcatz, lolcatz, long 3-page-down post by +Robert Scoble , lolcatz, link post, long post, etc. It's kind of like twitter, but it's not glanceable. I can have twitter on my secondary monitor and glance at the timeline every few minutes and get back to what I was doing if I don't see anything interesting in a number of tweets that fits on the screen. With G+ the number of posts to glance at is about 1. So you have to scroll to check what's going on - no go, imho.
And to be something like a social blogging platform it lacks formatting, flexibility, etc. And most importantly it requires you to make a move which is not what most people are willing to decide to do easily.
On the other hand, I like that you can read the stream and comment right away. Unlike in Google Reader (or any other RSS reader) where you have to click through to the site to comment/read comments. And quite a lot of the blogs already use a global social commenting platform - Disqus.
So if there was a GReader-like RSS reader combined with inline Disqus comments it would have everything I like about Google+ without all the other stuff that looks like a big indecisive pile of everything to me.
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RPGChat is one of the other large roleplaying forums out there, and they've been around since about May, 2001. Since then, RPGChat has gone through many evolutions, and has expanded rapidly - they started with a forum, grew into a decent sized roleplaying chat, and finally removed the chat and went back to forums.
You'll immediately notice the large number of forums, which for most boards isn't an issue. In today's roleplaying world, RPGChat's index fits right in.
They've got four basic navigation options at the top of the page, which are images instead of text, which isn't very good for SEO. The four menu options are Home, Forums, Chat, and Rules. I gave each of them a shot, but it looks like only the "Home" and "Rules" link work.
I'm going to take a look at their code, because using images for links isn't horrible if you specify the right attributes. Let's have a glance:<a href="http://forums.rpgchat.com/index.php">
<img src="header/but_home.jpg" border="0">
</a>
Yikes! Not only does the anchor not have a title attribute, but the image doesn't have an alt attribute! Search engines won't be able to understand the context of these links, and the flow of link juice to the two working links won't be very beneficial.
I participated on these forums for a few months as the username Alighieri, for that period, I became the single most active user in their welcome forum. I posted in several other topics, but got pretty frustrated with the limitation on the length of a post (20,000 characters).
When attempting to post a profile for one of my characters, I was immediately snubbed by the limitation. This makes well-researched posts difficult to make, specifically with the citations that must be put in place for accurate references. Ultimately, I was forced to cut out portions of my character's history to fit it into the post.
After posting for a few weeks nonstop in the Welcome Forum, I headed off to the The Arena area, where turn-based fighting is largely popular. I opened a topic with a list of the top turn based fighters, placed into a neat little image and posted right into the topic. It took a few days to get any response at all, (save for a few people who contacted me over AIM) and when I did get a response, I logged in to RPGChat to find that I had been banned for "advertising on multiple occasions", much to my surprise.
However, while my visit was cut short, I met some good friends, and had some great discussions. Unfortunately, the forum does not allow any links to external sites of any kind, and also does not allow signatures, which makes it very difficult to spread the word about the topics you start there. This isn't very good for encouraging member interaction, and makes it very difficult for momentum of any sort to be gained within the community.
After speaking with someone who had messaged me on AIM prior to my banning, I confirmed my worst fears - RPGChat is a closed community, and is not very open to outside communities or positive interaction with those communities. This is the number one concern mentioned to me about RPGChat and their future, and there is ongoing fear of the community continuing to stagnate without any growth other than direct referral.
I sent a request via the site's contact form, as listed at the bottom every page, which merely opened a new email to their support address, forums@rpgchat.com - I sent a couple questions in my email, and I identified who I was, but I haven't yet received a response. It'd be great if we could get an interview with an admin from RPGChat on the history of the site!
In terms of organic visitors, a search for pages on RPGChat has about 16,200 results. When digging through the pages, I noticed that only 477 pages were in the primary index, with the remainder in the supplemental index. That's scary!
Let's take a look at their search results:
As you can see from the above search, we can confirm that there is some duplicate content problems. However, from what we've seen - most of RPGChat's traffic is a result of direct referral. We can identify with the importance of defensible traffic, but organic traffic is also a high-quality method of driving laser-targeted traffic to your site, and it looks like RPGChat is seriously missing out on this.
RPGChat has a relatively active forum; 63,708 threads, 1,925,709 posts, and 59,352 "active" members. While that's only an average of about 30 posts per thread and only about 32 posts per user, they do have some great quality and style elements in their posts that you simply don't see in many other places in roleplaying forums these days. I think it would be a great move for them to deactivate a lot of their older and inactive members, and send out reminders to these users to come back and join in on the fun.
It also seemed like a consensus that the single best area on RPGChat was the Clans & Guilds forum, which most users simply called "C/G" for short. It looks like most other forums' version of a multiverse, where roleplay is freeform, and most action is player-driven with rules being defined by the status quo.
Lack of availability aside, RPGChat leaves a pretty strong impression, and if you're careful to follow their 500 wordlist of rules, you can likely make some friends and enjoy some great high-quality roleplay. The administration needs to do some overhauling if they're going to keep the community healthy, but for the time being - RPGChat makes for a great roleplaying destination.
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I've been seriously slacking in getting RPGateway's blog up and running, but I've finally gotten around to re-posting the files and re-connecting Wordpress to the database. Now all I've got to do is to get a couple of our admins (and hopefully, one of our loverly owners) to start posting and managing it.
The idea here is to create a single update page where watchers who don't want to be involved in the site can still read updates from the staff. A buzz can be established, and hopefully, some real momentum can be generated with content that is updated daily. The so-called 'blogosphere' (I cringe too, relax.) is a very powerful force in the tubes today, and I think it's important to at least begin to establish some sort of presence here.
I was recently pointed to Trevor Somerville's 30 days to success, and I'm only reminded that articles are the Queen in a world where daily updates are King. Good luck to Trevor, I'll probably swing by once or twice to check up on his progress and see if he has any useful tips.
I started fiddling with some new posting options again, in particular the email posting. Blogger lets you set up a secret email to which you can send blog posts, at which point they'll automatically be added to your blog. I had a contact set up in my Gmail as of (insert long period of time) ago, and I sent a post to it, but I haven't seen anything of it. It looks like the same email, but... apparently not. I guess I'll be reconfiguring this later.
I've been having great experiences with SEO and RolePlay Gateway, we're rising in rankings rather quickly, even after the domain migration. Many thanks to the folks over at DigitalPoint for my education over the past few months. I'm sure I'll be telling these success stories soon, but right now I have to head off to Winston to run a few service calls.
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Since I subscribed to your feed (in early 2005), I have received and read every post you've made using my RSS reader of choice (Google Reader, currently). Your excerpts have been enticing, with well-written post titles and seemingly interesting topics. The idea was good, to aggregate content and discussions about Search Engines from multiple locations at one central blog.
Unfortunately, I've found that your articles are less informative than I'd have hoped, with frequent referrals to other locations where the conversations are actually taking place. Instead of effective bullet points and topic reviews, I find quick and hastily-written overviews of the content and discussion in question.
Not only that, but you're only providing partial content in your feeds! When I come across your posts in my daily reading of over 500 posts, you've caught my attention with your title - and because you're only giving me the partial article text, you've got me clicking through to your site (hoorah, ad impressions!). Unfortunately, half the time I'm wasting even more time by being forced to click through to yet another page to follow the conversation.
I rarely (if ever) find myself sharing your content, and from what I can tell from a cursory glance - you've never shown up in my shared items feed. (PS, when will I be able to control this page, Google? I hope this link juice means something in the future. Maybe even market that page in a bit more of a controlled fashion. I digress.) I've maybe starred one or two of your articles for future reading, but again - when I do finally read the posts, I find that I'm disappointed by your article quality and content.
What's up with that?! Alright, rabid feedreaders and social media evangelists - tell me if I'm in the wrong here, but I'm going to unsubscribe from Search Engine Roundtable.
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Ouch! A guy from Facebook just asked: "What the hell is with G+ and all the posts of cat pictures? Don't those people have anything better to post about? Are they still stuck in 2005 on MySpace with Caturday?"
As much as I dislike Facebook, post silly stuff just for fun and do like cats... I have to admit he has a point... it's old, unoriginal and no longer entertaining and at times makes the G+ stream look more sophmorish than Facebook.
So... rather than make G+ Catatonic... let's start giving +1 to original ideas.
(While I discreetly move those posting a plethora of cat pics into a Circle that I filter off my stream with PlusMinus.)
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Ouch! A guy from Facebook just asked: "What the hell is with G+ and all the posts of cat pictures? Don't those people have anything better to post about? Are they still stuck in 2005 on MySpace with Caturday?"
As much as I dislike Facebook, post silly stuff just for fun and do like cats... I have to admit he has a point... it's old, unoriginal and no longer entertaining and at times makes the G+ stream look more sophmorish than Facebook.
So... rather than make G+ Catatonic... let's start giving +1 to original ideas.
(While I discreetly move those posting a plethora of cat pics into a Circle that I filter off my stream with PlusMinus.)
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Ouch! A guy from Facebook just asked: "What the hell is with G+ and all the posts of cat pictures? Don't those people have anything better to post about? Are they still stuck in 2005 on MySpace with Caturday?"
As much as I dislike Facebook, post silly stuff just for fun and do like cats... I have to admit he has a point... it's old, unoriginal and no longer entertaining and at times makes the G+ stream look more sophmorish than Facebook.
So... rather than make G+ Catatonic... let's start giving +1 to original ideas.
(While I discreetly move those posting a plethora of cat pics into a Circle that I filter off my stream with PlusMinus.)
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Ouch! A guy from Facebook just asked: "What the hell is with G+ and all the posts of cat pictures? Don't those people have anything better to post about? Are they still stuck in 2005 on MySpace with Caturday?"
As much as I dislike Facebook, post silly stuff just for fun and do like cats... I have to admit he has a point... it's old, unoriginal and no longer entertaining and at times makes the G+ stream look more sophmorish than Facebook.
So... rather than make G+ Catatonic... let's start giving +1 to original ideas.
(While I discreetly move those posting a plethora of cat pics into a Circle that I filter off my stream with PlusMinus.)
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I got a haircut last night - I'm down to maybe half a curl of hair. I don't have any pictures yet, but as soon as I do I'll post them here. Tonia killed me two or three times over when she found out. Sorry!
On another note, I'm writing this post in Google Docs. Since I'm using the Blogger Beta, I wasn't able to do this up until about a week ago, but I'm only now testing it out. It's a fairly easy setup, all I've had to do is select "Blogger (Beta)" from the Blog settings here in Docs, and then enter my username, password, and finally which blog I'd like to post to. This last bit of information is optional, and they said that they'll post to the first blog they find if you don't specify it.
We're (GWing Roleplay) looking at some excellent affiliate options, and will be presenting the community with a good number of resources in the near future. There are some outstanding opportunities that have presented themselves, and we're striving to give GWing the best environment possible for the roleplayers. We'll keep you updated as things progress, we promise!
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Apparently, Google+ is testing a new feature that broadcasts and records the Hangouts to YouTube Live in real-time. +Eric Martindale+Mohamed Mansour are working on it.
So far, no idea why but I'll keep you posted. What do you think?
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Apparently, Google+ is testing a new feature that broadcasts and records the Hangouts to YouTube Live in real-time. +Eric Martindale+Mohamed Mansour are working on it.
So far, no idea why but I'll keep you posted. What do you think?
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Apparently, Google+ is testing a new feature that broadcasts and records the Hangouts to YouTube Live in real-time. +Eric Martindale+Mohamed Mansour are working on it.
So far, no idea why but I'll keep you posted. What do you think?
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Apparently, Google+ is testing a new feature that broadcasts and records the Hangouts to YouTube Live in real-time. +Eric Martindale+Mohamed Mansour are working on it.
So far, no idea why but I'll keep you posted. What do you think?
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Share if you oppose "Booberday," the G+ meme of sharing photographs of cleavage.
It's demeaning, and it is precisely the gateway to harassment that drives women away from online communities. We have a responsibility as early adopters to create a respectful, caring community where everyone feels welcome. If it is acceptable in a community to post a photograph of cleavage, it becomes okay to comment on it with sexual jokes, then to comment on a photograph of a woman in the G+ community with a sexual joke, and then with sexual comments that are not jokes. If left unchecked, an online community that tolerates harassment against women can become dangerous for women, professionally and physically: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/gender.blogging.
When I commented on +Robert Scoble's post disagreeing with his participation, there were two primary reponses: (1) telling me to relax because it was just a single post of a woman who consented and (2) explaining that the purpose is breast cancer awareness. I normally wouldn't get upset about a single poster, but when my stream went from a thoughtful, respectful community to 2/3 animated gifs of breasts, I think I have reason to warn people: this isolates women and will cause them to leave. And this is not about breast cancer awareness, this is an excuse to share photographs of breasts without being derided as a pervert; if there ever was a component related to breast cancer awareness, that was lost the moment that the photographs were directed to excitement, rather than to the collection of research dollars (immediately?).
+Robert Scoble, I expected more from a public figure than to join in with a concept that degrades the quality of this budding community. You have one of the highest follower counts here, so what you endorse can dramatically shift the nature of the community. As a result of your post, thousands of additional people will join in this meme next week. That participation will harm women.
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Share if you oppose "Booberday," the G+ meme of sharing photographs of cleavage.
It's demeaning, and it is precisely the gateway to harassment that drives women away from online communities. We have a responsibility as early adopters to create a respectful, caring community where everyone feels welcome. If it is acceptable in a community to post a photograph of cleavage, it becomes okay to comment on it with sexual jokes, then to comment on a photograph of a woman in the G+ community with a sexual joke, and then with sexual comments that are not jokes. If left unchecked, an online community that tolerates harassment against women can become dangerous for women, professionally and physically: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/gender.blogging.
When I commented on +Robert Scoble's post disagreeing with his participation, there were two primary reponses: (1) telling me to relax because it was just a single post of a woman who consented and (2) explaining that the purpose is breast cancer awareness. I normally wouldn't get upset about a single poster, but when my stream went from a thoughtful, respectful community to 2/3 animated gifs of breasts, I think I have reason to warn people: this isolates women and will cause them to leave. And this is not about breast cancer awareness, this is an excuse to share photographs of breasts without being derided as a pervert; if there ever was a component related to breast cancer awareness, that was lost the moment that the photographs were directed to excitement, rather than to the collection of research dollars (immediately?).
+Robert Scoble, I expected more from a public figure than to join in with a concept that degrades the quality of this budding community. You have one of the highest follower counts here, so what you endorse can dramatically shift the nature of the community. As a result of your post, thousands of additional people will join in this meme next week. That participation will harm women.
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Share if you oppose "Booberday," the G+ meme of sharing photographs of cleavage.
It's demeaning, and it is precisely the gateway to harassment that drives women away from online communities. We have a responsibility as early adopters to create a respectful, caring community where everyone feels welcome. If it is acceptable in a community to post a photograph of cleavage, it becomes okay to comment on it with sexual jokes, then to comment on a photograph of a woman in the G+ community with a sexual joke, and then with sexual comments that are not jokes. If left unchecked, an online community that tolerates harassment against women can become dangerous for women, professionally and physically: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/gender.blogging.
When I commented on +Robert Scoble's post disagreeing with his participation, there were two primary reponses: (1) telling me to relax because it was just a single post of a woman who consented and (2) explaining that the purpose is breast cancer awareness. I normally wouldn't get upset about a single poster, but when my stream went from a thoughtful, respectful community to 2/3 animated gifs of breasts, I think I have reason to warn people: this isolates women and will cause them to leave. And this is not about breast cancer awareness, this is an excuse to share photographs of breasts without being derided as a pervert; if there ever was a component related to breast cancer awareness, that was lost the moment that the photographs were directed to excitement, rather than to the collection of research dollars (immediately?).
+Robert Scoble, I expected more from a public figure than to join in with a concept that degrades the quality of this budding community. You have one of the highest follower counts here, so what you endorse can dramatically shift the nature of the community. As a result of your post, thousands of additional people will join in this meme next week. That participation will harm women.
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Interested in #sustainability? +Daniel Ely Rankin recently introduced me to Liquid-Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTR), which were passed up in the 50s as commercial sources of nuclear energy because they apparently didn't provide "viable weapons-grade plutonium". [1] They provide a possibly viable safe alternative to the current form of nuclear fission reactors, and deserve the same level of attention that things like solar and wind power have been earning.
If you gather one thing from this post, it's that you should sign this WhiteHouse.gov Petition to fund further research into LFTR Reactors: http://goo.gl/KVnvO
It's a tragedy when we see disasters like #Fukushima. Extenuating circumstances indeed; but likely an avoidable tragedy nonetheless. As opposed to other reactors like the Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) at the heart of the Japanese disaster, LFTR Reactors cannot meltdown, [2] instead stabilizing themselves naturally because their power decreases as their temperature increases.
If you're further interested, check out +Daniel Ely Rankin's post [3] and read up on the technology yourself. It's completely fascinating, and it's a healthy balance to the anti-nuclear rhetoric that's become so much louder recently.
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Interested in #sustainability? +Daniel Ely Rankin recently introduced me to Liquid-Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTR), which were passed up in the 50s as commercial sources of nuclear energy because they apparently didn't provide "viable weapons-grade plutonium". [1] They provide a possibly viable safe alternative to the current form of nuclear fission reactors, and deserve the same level of attention that things like solar and wind power have been earning.
If you gather one thing from this post, it's that you should sign this WhiteHouse.gov Petition to fund further research into LFTR Reactors: http://goo.gl/KVnvO
It's a tragedy when we see disasters like #Fukushima. Extenuating circumstances indeed; but likely an avoidable tragedy nonetheless. As opposed to other reactors like the Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) at the heart of the Japanese disaster, LFTR Reactors cannot meltdown, [2] instead stabilizing themselves naturally because their power decreases as their temperature increases.
If you're further interested, check out +Daniel Ely Rankin's post [3] and read up on the technology yourself. It's completely fascinating, and it's a healthy balance to the anti-nuclear rhetoric that's become so much louder recently.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Interested in #sustainability? +Daniel Ely Rankin recently introduced me to Liquid-Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTR), which were passed up in the 50s as commercial sources of nuclear energy because they apparently didn't provide "viable weapons-grade plutonium". [1] They provide a possibly viable safe alternative to the current form of nuclear fission reactors, and deserve the same level of attention that things like solar and wind power have been earning.
If you gather one thing from this post, it's that you should sign this WhiteHouse.gov Petition to fund further research into LFTR Reactors: http://goo.gl/KVnvO
It's a tragedy when we see disasters like #Fukushima. Extenuating circumstances indeed; but likely an avoidable tragedy nonetheless. As opposed to other reactors like the Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) at the heart of the Japanese disaster, LFTR Reactors cannot meltdown, [2] instead stabilizing themselves naturally because their power decreases as their temperature increases.
If you're further interested, check out +Daniel Ely Rankin's post [3] and read up on the technology yourself. It's completely fascinating, and it's a healthy balance to the anti-nuclear rhetoric that's become so much louder recently.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Share if you oppose "Booberday," the G+ meme of sharing photographs of cleavage.
It's demeaning, and it is precisely the gateway to harassment that drives women away from online communities. We have a responsibility as early adopters to create a respectful, caring community where everyone feels welcome. If it is acceptable in a community to post a photograph of cleavage, it becomes okay to comment on it with sexual jokes, then to comment on a photograph of a woman in the G+ community with a sexual joke, and then with sexual comments that are not jokes. If left unchecked, an online community that tolerates harassment against women can become dangerous for women, professionally and physically: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/gender.blogging.
When I commented on +Robert Scoble's post disagreeing with his participation, there were two primary reponses: (1) telling me to relax because it was just a single post of a woman who consented and (2) explaining that the purpose is breast cancer awareness. I normally wouldn't get upset about a single poster, but when my stream went from a thoughtful, respectful community to 2/3 animated gifs of breasts, I think I have reason to warn people: this isolates women and will cause them to leave. And this is not about breast cancer awareness, this is an excuse to share photographs of breasts without being derided as a pervert; if there ever was a component related to breast cancer awareness, that was lost the moment that the photographs were directed to excitement, rather than to the collection of research dollars (immediately?).
+Robert Scoble, I expected more from a public figure than to join in with a concept that degrades the quality of this budding community. You have one of the highest follower counts here, so what you endorse can dramatically shift the nature of the community. As a result of your post, thousands of additional people will join in this meme next week. That participation will harm women.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Interested in #sustainability? +Daniel Ely Rankin recently introduced me to Liquid-Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTR), which were passed up in the 50s as commercial sources of nuclear energy because they apparently didn't provide "viable weapons-grade plutonium". [1] They provide a possibly viable safe alternative to the current form of nuclear fission reactors, and deserve the same level of attention that things like solar and wind power have been earning.
If you gather one thing from this post, it's that you should sign this WhiteHouse.gov Petition to fund further research into LFTR Reactors: http://goo.gl/KVnvO
It's a tragedy when we see disasters like #Fukushima. Extenuating circumstances indeed; but likely an avoidable tragedy nonetheless. As opposed to other reactors like the Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) at the heart of the Japanese disaster, LFTR Reactors cannot meltdown, [2] instead stabilizing themselves naturally because their power decreases as their temperature increases.
If you're further interested, check out +Daniel Ely Rankin's post [3] and read up on the technology yourself. It's completely fascinating, and it's a healthy balance to the anti-nuclear rhetoric that's become so much louder recently.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals +Alex Levinson, +Jerome Radcliffe, and +Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like +Ryan Dahl [7] and +Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not causes these types of security concerns.
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I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals +Alex Levinson, +Jerome Radcliffe, and +Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like +Ryan Dahl [7] and +Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not causes these types of security concerns.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals +Alex Levinson, +Jerome Radcliffe, and +Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like +Ryan Dahl [7] and +Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not causes these types of security concerns.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals +Alex Levinson, +Jerome Radcliffe, and +Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like +Ryan Dahl [7] and +Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not causes these types of security concerns.
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I've been using Twitter since pretty early on (and long before @oprah), and I've found it to be a superbly convenient communication tool and notification service. Even though it's still very young on the web (Twitter was founded in March of 2006) It's been the home to great ideas like the #twitterdata proposal and the publicdomain book-via-tweets project. It's also an awesome reputation management platform, and can be used to both to provide effective customer service and help distribute news and updates about your business or product, which is exactly how I use it for my online roleplaying project.
But as with the rest of the social media world, Twitter can become very complex very quickly (but I still contend that there is no social media overload) and as a result, can be difficult to manage. As a result, I use several third-party tools to help me manage and gather information that helps me do my Twitter job much more efficiently and effectively.
Splitweet
[caption id="attachment_196" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Splitweet allows you to post and monitor multiple Twitter accounts and brands."][/caption]
For those of us with multiple Twitter accounts (like some people who create a Twitter account for each roleplaying character they use), Splitweet is an absolute savior. This service allows you to tweet to multiple accounts at the same time, as well as combining the "stream" from each account into one page. A lot of desktop Twitter clients offer this kind of functionality, but where Splitweet truly excels is in its ability to track what it calls "brands" (more reputation management terms here): you can specify keywords and phrases that will appear in a separate feed, even if you do not follow those users. This gets us around the disastrous changes Twitter made to the @replies, and helps us keep up to date on any mentions of our site's name and any tweets relating to what it is that we do.
Sherflock
[caption id="attachment_195" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sherflock provides detailed statistics and summaries of Twitter users you are associated with."][/caption]
Sherflock is an absolutely awesome stat tracking machine that helps weed out the waves of spam that have been coming in since Twitter has gone mainstream. Sherflock gives a large number of statistics about each every account the either follows you or that you are following, and lets you sort and filter users based on these statistics.
Twitterfall
[caption id="attachment_194" align="alignnone" width="217" caption="Twitterfall offers a live stream of twitter updates on keywords that you specify."][/caption]
This tool allows you to specify any number of keywords that you wish to view on a live, moving stream of tweets. This is very useful if you are using a computer that allows you to "pin" a window on top (like Ubuntu Linux), or if you have a multiple-monitor rig, or even if you use multiple computers using the input-sharing app Synergy. You'll get a live feed of updates on any topic of your choice, which can even be updated and changed in real-time.
Using these three tools will help you maximize you Twitter performance and make the most of an already awesome service, preventing you from being inundated with the massive stream of messages that you're surely going to subscribe to.
What are your top three Twitter tools? Feel free to make a comment or write your own post, and I'll gladly append a link to this post to help everyone out!
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There's been a lot of active discussion about the state of AOL's directory project, DMOZ. There have been many attempts to unseat the directory project from its position as the most authoritative listing resource, such as the Yahoo Directory. Many of these attempts have fallen by the wayside, as Rand Fiskin points out, but none have remained more controversial than DMOZ. More recently, Chris Crum's post on WebProNews about his lack of respect for DMOZ has stirred up a hornet's nest of DMOZ criticism, including a particular post claiming DMOZ is a waste of time.
I forwarded a lot of this on to Philip Nicolcev, known by username as "frug", who is the editor of several roleplay-oriented categories on DMOZ. He responded to me directly with a highly insightful email, and I was fortunate enough to receive his permission to share its contents.
I've been editing the pbp category at DMOZ for what... 4 years now? About that. This article is a big whiny complaint which misses the mark. They are both correct and sadly mistaken.
Yes, dmoz is outdated and yes, it fails because of attitude problems, but not silly allegations of 'corruption' or people who are bitter because they didn't get listed. We don't list everything, I don't list even half of the submissions I get, and anyone who has been an administrator or an editor for a similar type of project knows better than to take these kinds of complaints seriously.
One thing they say is definitely correct: Apply once carefully following their rules if you wish and then, as Will suggested, forget about them.
This is exactly the approach that should be modeled for any directory, regardless of its state or condition. When you are submitting a link to a directory, you are being offered the privilege to be listed as a resource by the owners and management of that directory. They are not obligated to list your link, let alone review it in a timely fashion--but this would be genuinely appreciated and would reflect on the directory's position as a "good" resource.
DMOZ is the primary source for Google's Directory, and you must respect the opinion of such a large and successful company. It's obvious that the idea behind an open directory like DMOZ is good, but where they fail is in execution. More on that later.
He continues:
That is what you should do. Apply once and forget about it, don't claim anybody is corrupt because whether you believe my opinion or not, there's no corruption. Nobody cares enough about dmoz anymore for it to be valuable for extortion. Don't be ridiculous. Furthermore if you were to speak to some of the senior editors you'd discover that they are pretty damn uptight, even obsessive.
The problems with dmoz are, in my opinion, twofold. First off, you have the dated trashy look of the website which is a relic of the 1990's. It's not user friendly, it doesn't entice anyone to go browsing, and it hasn't adapted or added features that would help people understand the structure of the directory or find what they're looking for. The editor forums still use phpBB2, and you should see the editing panel. You wouldn't believe how dated this stuff is. Frankly it has needed an overhaul for years now.
I largely agree with him. The phpBB team deprecated the phpBB2 branch at the beginning of this year, ending support for the outdated platform. AOL would do well to do a complete overhaul of the site's design now that "Web 2.0" has come and gone (and I could referencepostsallday on that) - and AOL has completely missed their opportunity to latch on and ride the wave.
Philip finishes his correspondance with the frightening truth that has been plaguing many post-Web2.0 sites and services:
The second problem, attitude, is partially the cause of the first problem. It's a stagnant atmosphere where nothing gets done and nobody gets listened to. They would rather leave a directory as a cluttered mess of garbage than risk breaking its structure by overhauling it. Fixing my category took me about two years before I had approval to restructure it, and I'm in a small niche category nobody pays much attention to. Since becoming an editor I have deleted about 60% of the outdated links listed. Had I not joined, they'd still be there cluttering things up with linkspam geocities pages from 10 years ago.
So yeah, dmoz is failing, but not because of corruption or because some guy didn't get what he wanted. And, honestly, if the author of this article was applying to dmoz just to 'test how fair it was' then I'm glad they rejected him. Somehow they made the right decision because he's wasting their time.
And that's the exact problem - the DMOZ community has completely stagnated, which has resulted in the puddle of goop that the directory has become. In my personal opinion, I think that AOL could do a lot better job at community management (all reputation management aside) by setting up a more rigid structure of responsibility. The editors need to be held responsible for a timely review specified by their superiors, and there needs to be cross-checking of the editor's work by other qualified editors.
All said and done, DMOZ needs some love if it's going to survive as anything more than a relic of trust and authority in the Web 2.0 bubble. As Philip points out, it has both good and bad traits and deserves further attention, but it needs to be attention in (and from) the right direction. The questions remain; where has AOL been? What can be done about the editors (or lack thereof)? How can DMOZ be improved?
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Ouch. If you open a cover photo and create a post from the "Share" action, it removes the photo from your "cover photos" album and puts it into "Photos from posts" (thus breaking your cover photo).
If you subsequently edit your cover photo again, browse to the old picture and select it, it deletes any post associated with that photo, including +1s, comments, and reshares.
Thank you, #newgoogleplus . Ugh, and to think I used to be such a fan.
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Ouch. If you open a cover photo and create a post from the "Share" action, it removes the photo from your "cover photos" album and puts it into "Photos from posts" (thus breaking your cover photo).
If you subsequently edit your cover photo again, browse to the old picture and select it, it deletes any post associated with that photo, including +1s, comments, and reshares.
Thank you, #newgoogleplus . Ugh, and to think I used to be such a fan.
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Ouch. If you open a cover photo and create a post from the "Share" action, it removes the photo from your "cover photos" album and puts it into "Photos from posts" (thus breaking your cover photo).
If you subsequently edit your cover photo again, browse to the old picture and select it, it deletes any post associated with that photo, including +1s, comments, and reshares.
Thank you, #newgoogleplus . Ugh, and to think I used to be such a fan.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Ouch. If you open a cover photo and create a post from the "Share" action, it removes the photo from your "cover photos" album and puts it into "Photos from posts" (thus breaking your cover photo).
If you subsequently edit your cover photo again, browse to the old picture and select it, it deletes any post associated with that photo, including +1s, comments, and reshares.
Thank you, #newgoogleplus . Ugh, and to think I used to be such a fan.
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I was just reviewing some of my older starred posts in Google Reader, and I came across a great post from ShoeMoney about Understanding Communities. Pam outlines some great approaches to the whole social media market, and how to understand and utilize the communities on which they are build.
Oldie but goodie! Does anyone have any feedback on how relevant this four month old post is? I for one, totally support the ideas that she came up with for usability. I don't think usability will ever become a non-issue, personally. SEO is huge, but as we've always hammered home - your visitors come first.
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The author of the particularly famous Wheel of Time series passed away yesterday due to cardiac amyloidosis. Diagnosed with the disease in March of 2006, Jordan, born James Oliver Rigney Jr., vowed to fight the disease and continue his legendary writing career for many years to come. It is a great loss to the fantasy community, and on behalf of RolePlayGateway, we send our condolences to his family and friends, who will no doubt be the most affected by his passing.
It is with great sadness that I tell you that the Dragon is gone. RJ left us today at 2:45 PM. He fought a valiant fight against this most horrid disease. In the end, he left peacefully and in no pain. In the years he had fought this, he taught me much about living and about facing death. He never waivered in his faith, nor questioned our God’s timing. I could not possibly be more proud of anyone. I am eternally grateful for the time that I had with him on this earth and look forward to our reunion, though as I told him this afternoon, not yet. I love you bubba.
Our beloved Harriet was at his side through the entire fight and to the end. The last words from his mouth were to tell her that he loved her.
Thank each and everyone of you for your prayers and support through this ordeal. He knew you were there. Harriet reminded him today that she was very proud of the many lives he had touched through his work. We’ve all felt the love that you’ve been sending my brother/cousin. Please keep it coming as our Harriet could use the support.
Jason will be posting funeral arrangements.
My sincerest thanks.
Peace and Light be with each of you,
Wilson
Brother/Cousin
4th of 3
To Catalyst: Never, never loose faith. RJ did not. Harriet hasn’t. I haven’t. Going through what we have, our faith is only strengthened. Besides, if God didn’t exist, we would have never had Jim. We did. God does. Remember my Brother/Cousin, my friend, think of him fondly and glorify God’s name.
Editor’s Note:
The entire staff of Dragonmount.com would like to extend its most deepest sympathies to Robert Jordan’s family. He touched all of our lives in some way and we wish him the rest and peace he deserves. We will be posting information in the near future about where you can send condolences. Please check the News Section for these updates.
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Warning: Strong nerdery follows. Please be cautious of your fragile mind.
Since late 1997, in all of my pre-teen glory, I have been involved with something my friends and I simply called roleplay in our own little vernacular. Of course I've since learned that roleplay doesn't only refer to the peer-driven world of online roleplay, it refers to all sorts of real-world tabletop games, live acting, and various amounts of storytelling, but this particular post is written with the word roleplay referring to the freeform online roleplaying that I have always been so close to.
Freeform roleplay, or the idea that there is no GM (game master) or storyteller (as in Vampire: The Masquerade), and is instead driven solely by the players, with no concrete rules for battle, statistics, or progression of the story. Rules and guidelines were driven by common expectation, which developed as a sort of social justice system that remains effective, even today.
The very roots of this sort of roleplay stem from early chat systems, where one could adopt a simple moniker and create a personality around the idea of an "avatar", which in most cases consisted only of this name. Players, without defining themselves as such, would interact in an imaginative world that coalesced out of their collaborative imagination. Each would react to the other characters' actions and dialogue in a fashion that suited their own character's theoretical personality, and this would create a constantly evolving story arc.
As the web (and the young teen's perception of the web) evolved and grew, so did the concept of roleplay. Online forums became an entirely new beast, allowing users to write more and more into their in character posts, instead of being limited to the single lines that chat provided (of course, some chats had enough space for people to post a full paragraph, or even two - but this was limited at the time), they were able to expound upon their writing and even proofread their copy before sending it across the web for the other players to view.
Freeform roleplay had also grown to be very competitive at this point, with groups of players forming groups known as clans, guilds, or otherwise, and expanded their IC competitions from chat to the forums and message boards now provided by a few enterprising organizations (or individuals). It was this competitive banter and challenge that defined what many now call the golden age of roleplay, which is what really drove the forefront of this gaming medium.
There were plenty of players who had entered their late teens (and some even were adults at this point, gasp!) who moved away from chat, and who moved away from the conflict-driven world of this type of roleplay. They went on to create storyline-oriented games, with a small and select number of players in more of a collaborative fiction setting. These players often went on to become writers and editors, being driven more by the literary aspect of relaying a fiction onto the internet, and often have their own private niche where they can continue to do this with their long-standing playergroup.
And... that's where we are today. The freeform roleplay community is growing and changing, barely 15 years old at this point. We have the chance to nurture it, just as we have the chance to neglect it. Those of us who've been involved since the beginning have the greatest opportunity to influence the course of growth, and that's exactly what I'm hoping to do.
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Hello there, adoring internet-stalkers! (I'm kidding. ~_~) You may have noticed (if you were loyal, that is ;)) that my Feedburner-powered RSS Feed has been lacking in activity lately. There's a reason for that.
Recently, I got rid of WordPress and Sweetcron in favor of a new CMS platform, Chyrp. I had been running Wordpress for a long time, using it to share my thoughts with the general internet populace. However, it had become a bit of a chore to maintain, and it really felt like duplicate work on top of all the other content-generation I was already performing (i.e., forum posts, blog comments, Last.fm "Loved" Tracks, Google Reader shared items, etc.), so I began to look for a way to aggregate this content into a central place.
For a while, FriendFeed served this purpose well, but I didn't like the lack of control I had over the source. Facebook also filled part of this gap (and it still does, to a point), and they've even purchased FriendFeed, but I was looking for something quite a bit more customizable and self-hosted. Through various referrals, I came across Yongfook's Sweetcron project which was a new platform designed specifically for this new thing they called, le gasp, "Lifestreaming".
However, after fighting with Sweetcron and its aggregation methods, particularly its lack of support for various service feed formats; I decided to look into something else. Initial searches landed me upon Tumblr, who had conveniently announced a feature that syncs comments across multiple services (or aggregates). Sadly, I didn't want to get back into a world where all my code was hosted by someone else, and I had no control over it. I kept Sweetcron running on my site under lifestream/, but I continued searching for a better solution.
I then stumbled across Bazooka, which was billed as "the first free PHP tumblelog engine". Thanks to Bazooka developer Evan Walsh, who alerted me to a more up-to-date and current replacement called Chyrp. And I was sold. I immediately spent a few hours converting my existing content from WordPress and SweetCron over to a test installation of Chyrp, and then took the next night changing my site structure and 301'd all my old links to the new URLs.
That's where EricMartindale.com stands today. I've spent a few weeks getting my stream set up the way I want it, and I'm turning the RSS feed back on. Posts should begin flowing into your RSS reader very shortly. Post comments, feedback, and questions here!
Edit 10:13 PM EST: It looks like Feedburner is having some trouble parsing my new RSS content. You can subscribe to my direct feed and it will always work.
Edit 10:58 PM EST: I've fixed the problem and committed the patch to GitHub.
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Just don't follow as many people that post it. Maybe one pic on a certain day, which isn't a bad thing, adds something fun, I don't have many that constantly post pics non stop.
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Scumbag +Eric Martindale shares post with me, doesn't actually include me in the post or any pictures included with it. Crying myself to sleep tonight.
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Thanks for this post +Eric Martindale. As a new Engineering student, I could use all the advice I can get, especially in making a decision on what to specialize in in grad school. And anyone on this post if I have circled you, I put you in my Engineers circle. Thank you all for the informative discussion here :-)
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+Annika O'Brien , people can add additional circles of under 100 people to the share box of a post and select "notify" to send out a notification to people in those circles (even if the post is public). I think it's happening more frequently because more people have figured out how to use that feature and you're in more and more peoples notify circles they have set up.
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Kindigo posted an awesome Oekaki contest over on GWing, and will be awarding 10,000 GWing Credits to a winner, every week. I can't wait to see some of the submissions. I think I'll participate, too. Maybe. <3
An Oekaki, for those of you who don't know, is a sort of online version of Photoshop. You can use an Oekaki to draw, sketch, and discuss all the little splurge-arts that you might have. A lot of fun, indeed. For an example, you can check out the GWing Oekaki, and maybe even draw something while you're there.
Don't be afraid - take a look at some of the shameful submissions I've posted!
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How to Get Funding for Your Idea If you're one of the growing number of people with the next big idea, you might be wondering how to get the ball rolling. At +Coursefork, we've been going through this process ourselves and my cofounder +Elliott Hauser has put together a great series of posts on how to it. Here's the first post in the series, on choosing the right investors [1] and getting the meetings.
[1]: I can't stress how important this part is. I've been burned in the past by allowing the wrong investors to participate, and am extremely cautious and selective as a result—you really want your investors to be excited about your vision, and for them to be ready to advise and otherwise open their own networks to ensure the success of your endeavor.
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How to Get Funding for Your Idea If you're one of the growing number of people with the next big idea, you might be wondering how to get the ball rolling. At +Coursefork, we've been going through this process ourselves and my cofounder +Elliott Hauser has put together a great series of posts on how to it. Here's the first post in the series, on choosing the right investors [1] and getting the meetings.
[1]: I can't stress how important this part is. I've been burned in the past by allowing the wrong investors to participate, and am extremely cautious and selective as a result—you really want your investors to be excited about your vision, and for them to be ready to advise and otherwise open their own networks to ensure the success of your endeavor.
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Work is work, as per the usual. I'm work at a company called TechNoggins, doing all sorts of various things. Primarily, I am Callcenter Manager, handling calls for three states and eleven major cities. It's unfortunately fairly slow today, which means my salary isn't augmented by the influx of web development work. Sad day.
I've been messing around with some of Facebook's features, recently. I just linked "My Notes" to this blog, which seems like a cool feature, but it needs some work. It imported my posts what seems to be twice?
Someone posted LeekSpin on the Grand Tournament forum. I've been subtly amused by the music to which this has been put, and have been listening to it for just over an hour now. You want to talk about overplaying, hrm? Full immersion, hrrrm?
Well, looks like I have a PC here in the office that I need to fix. So, until later, I'm gone. :P
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There's a large number of Content Management System, Bulletin Board, and Blog solutions available, all with amazing functionality that simply can't be missed on today's rapidly advancing internet(s).
My challenge is this:
What is the smallest full-featured CMS, BB, or Blog that you can create?
Contest submissions must include the following features:
User Accounts
Article Posts (or "Topics" in BB-land)
Comment System
Submissions will be accepted in any language, so long as the content can be served up over HTTP. To submit, comment on this post with a link to your project!
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As of today, I've changed the address of my blog from just EricMartindale.com to a new location that will contain my blog posts in a new format. Don't worry though, all your old links will still work just fine.
Why am I doing this? Well, there are a number of reasons why - not the least of which are some SEO (search engine optimization) adjustments that I'm in the process of making. However, the biggest and most important thing to you is the introduction of Eric Martindale's Lifestream, which is the newest and latest feature of EricMartindale[dot]com. This new area of the site is called a Lifestream because it will show you everything that I've been doing lately, from shared posts on Google Reader to photos from Flickr.
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Hi everyone, Filter Stream for Google Plus just released to the gallery!
In light of recent events, I've felt the need to include certain filtering mechanisms in my stream to filter out posts for specific keywords.
So here is a plugin that filters out specific keywords that you can customize in the options screen. It also remembers the filtered out posts that is accessible in the popup from the icon appearing next to the wrench button.
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Hi everyone, Filter Stream for Google Plus just released to the gallery!
In light of recent events, I've felt the need to include certain filtering mechanisms in my stream to filter out posts for specific keywords.
So here is a plugin that filters out specific keywords that you can customize in the options screen. It also remembers the filtered out posts that is accessible in the popup from the icon appearing next to the wrench button.
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If you don't control the program, the program controls you. Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” — +Douglas Rushkoff
I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of +Mark Zuckerberg, +will.i.am, and +Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
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If you don't control the program, the program controls you. Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” — +Douglas Rushkoff
I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of +Mark Zuckerberg, +will.i.am, and +Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
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If you don't control the program, the program controls you. Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” — +Douglas Rushkoff
I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of +Mark Zuckerberg, +will.i.am, and +Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
If you don't control the program, the program controls you. Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” — +Douglas Rushkoff
I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of +Mark Zuckerberg, +will.i.am, and +Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
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Now that it's public i'd like to share some tips that i think enrich your experience here and help your art be heard and seen and some new ways of profiting from it.
1. Re think your marketing strategy I see a lot of artists still using the site like twitter or facebook and just posting songs and not giving any inside story about how it came to be or what influenced it. Give people a reason to comment on your posts and continue that discussion.
2. Collaborate with artists outside your medium One of the most rewarding things about this site is the quality of the community here. As a musician, think of ways you can collaborate with photographers, graphic artists, software engineers etc.. This idea i think is the future of how artists of all mediums can be profitable and retain their artistic integrity ( i have a collaboration with +Colby Brown and +byron rempel that i'm working on right now that will showcase this)
3. Be Humble or at least be real The major change for artists that i feel is coming is how this amount of engagement and deeper connectivity will promote certain types of artists. Don't think that no matter how talented you are you can get away with thinking your art is enough to stand on it's own. Also, promote who you are and get people invested in who you are as a person and let them find out about your art if they want to know more about you, but don't push it on to people.
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Now that it's public i'd like to share some tips that i think enrich your experience here and help your art be heard and seen and some new ways of profiting from it.
1. Re think your marketing strategy I see a lot of artists still using the site like twitter or facebook and just posting songs and not giving any inside story about how it came to be or what influenced it. Give people a reason to comment on your posts and continue that discussion.
2. Collaborate with artists outside your medium One of the most rewarding things about this site is the quality of the community here. As a musician, think of ways you can collaborate with photographers, graphic artists, software engineers etc.. This idea i think is the future of how artists of all mediums can be profitable and retain their artistic integrity ( i have a collaboration with +Colby Brown and +byron rempel that i'm working on right now that will showcase this)
3. Be Humble or at least be real The major change for artists that i feel is coming is how this amount of engagement and deeper connectivity will promote certain types of artists. Don't think that no matter how talented you are you can get away with thinking your art is enough to stand on it's own. Also, promote who you are and get people invested in who you are as a person and let them find out about your art if they want to know more about you, but don't push it on to people.
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So, entirely not in light of any recent events, I was integrating the chat rules that Vexar wrote into RolePlayGateway's Rules, and I was looking for some examples of forum etiquette that other forums use. In searching, I found this perfectly humorous video:
(I found it on Neil Boortz's website, but since headed over to videojug to get the original. PS, Neil? You're awesome.)
That was probably the best one I found, above and beyond the video I came across that seemed geared towards the Steam forum community, which was a bit too NSFW to actually embed here on my blog. If you'd like, you can go check out posting a new thread on AlbinoBlackSheep.
I'm admin on several online forums, and I'm a moderator on many more; not counting the countless other communities where I'm an active member. I was pretty proud of the rules I put together on Gateway, and I think they're clean, simple, and easy to follow. No one likes being bombarded and tacked down by rules, so I try to keep them as simple as possible. What do you think of them?
How do you manage forum users and set rules? I know Martin Reed has some good tips on forum rules, and there are many others out there that learned a lot from running forums. The best thing that we can do is learn from others, and gather experience on how to handle these issues. What is your approach to forum etiquette?
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One of the sites I own and run (RolePlayGateway) has a pretty large forum, with several customizations and features that I've added on to the base install of phpBB3. As time went on, we continued upgrading the servers (moving from GoDaddy shared hosting to GoDaddy virtual dedicated servers, then onward to MediaTemple's (gs), and now we're on the second tier of MediaTemple's (dv) hosting) in an effort to keep the hardware moving as fast as possible.
As I'm sure you know, hardware can be pretty expensive! One month, while on MediaTemple's Grid Server, we racked up $600 in CPU time overage charges. (Ow.) Now that we've moved onward to bigger and better packages, we're shelling out just about $100 per month for a rock-solid server solution that can be upgraded seamlessly in the future. But since upgrades can only go so far without being prohibitively expensive, I thought it was time to take a look at some of our coding approaches.
Enter memcache, the distributed database caching solution originally designed by LiveJournal to help them deal with massive databases and large volumes of users. DavidMJ has written some shiny ACM modules to help phpBB3 make use of some caching systems, and a memcache module was among them.
That didn't work so well. It gave about a 50% boost to phpBB3's performance (which was great!), but we were still choking the server, and ended up upgrading to a bigger and more robust package with MediaTemple. So I started looking into more options, and DavidMJ suggested xcache. So I go grab xcache and compile it, then enabled it in php. Bingo! There's a 500% boost in our page compile times, and across most of our pages we're now well under 0.1 second compile times. (With the exception of viewtopic.php, which frequently approaches 2 seconds due to bad coding on my part... this will be fixed soon.)
So now that I've got the thirst for speed, let's take a look at how we're performing. To do this, use the apache benchmarking tool:ab -n 100000 http://www.mydomain.com/my_page
This will test the URL you specify 100,000 times, and give you some feedback about how the page performs. You'll end up with something looking like this:
Server Software: Apache/2.2.3
Server Hostname: www.mydomain.com
Server Port: 80
Document Path: /my_page
Document Length: 0 bytes
Concurrency Level: 1
Time taken for tests: 15.30100 seconds
Complete requests: 1
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Non-2xx responses: 1
Total transferred: 715 bytes
HTML transferred: 0 bytes
Requests per second: 0.07 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 15030.100 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 15030.100 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 0.00 [Kbytes/sec] received
Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 0 0 0.0 0 0
Processing: 15030 15030 0.0 15030 15030
Waiting: 30 30 0.0 30 30
Total: 15030 15030 0.0 15030 15030
Some tweaks to the default xcache config that I recommend:
Set the number of caches to one per processor on your server!
; set to cpu count (cat /proc/cpuinfo |grep -c processor)
xcache.count = 4
This post will be updated as I explore phpBB3 and more server side options. (I wrote part of this post, then stopped writing... and figure I'd publish it a couple days later anyway!)
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I often get asked for my Skype address, sometimes in relation to business or casual conversation. I politely decline with some degree of hand-waving about my reasons, and suggest an alternative form of communication (typically either Google Talk or Google Hangouts, depending on the context—both are built right in to Gmail!). I'd like to outline some of the reasons why I've made the decision to avoid Skype, primarily so I have something to link to when someone asks me about it.
First and foremost, we don't really know what Skype actually does. The binary (the actual program you run on your computer) is obfuscated, so attempts at disassembling it [PDF] to verify some of its strange behavior and the information it is transmitting have so far come up with very little. This is an issue, because Skype produces encrypted traffic even when you are not actively using Skype. This means we can only speculate on what information Skype is collecting about you after you've so graciously chosen to install it, and perhaps more importantly who it is sending that information to.
When a Skype client is not in a call and is running on a machine with public IP address, it has on the average 4-8 active TCP connections and atleast one UDP connection.
While connecting to external IP addresses is normal for a server/client architecture and necessary for receiving notifications, the volume of traffic and number of connections is concerning, considering the compounding issues between Skype's peer-to-peer architecture [PDF] and the "reasonable level of detection accuracy" in snooping on voice calls in Skype [PDF], despite the [purportedly] encrypted nature of the Skype protocol.
Speaking in general terms, Skype is "black box" software which has undergone no public review despite very concerning observed behavior. When new Skype malware (like Skype IMBot, of which an analysis is available, or the more recent Skype account hijacking) is released, there are very few options to protect ourselves if we've got Skype installed. On Linux, tools like AppArmor and TOMOYO exist, but without the ability to easily view the source and understand the attack (per perhaps even fix it proactively, before it occurs) we are at the mercy of Skype's new maintainers to provide a timely resolution in a reactive approach.
If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software.
— Richard Stallman
In conclusion, while Skype may be convenient, it presents a series of questions that must be asked and implications to be considered before choosing it over other chat, VoIP, and video chat solutions. I can only hope that more people consider these things before doing so.
Asides
Some of the other things I found interesting, more recently than the research I've linked in this post, include Skype's role in the Syrian conflict, in which a claim was made as follows:
A media activist in Idlib named Mohamed said a rebel informant working for the government was killed in Damascus six months ago after sending warnings to the Free Syrian Army on Skype.
“I saw this incident right in front of my eyes,” Mohamed said. “We put his info on Skype so he was arrested and killed.”
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On the Ongoing Attacks between China, U.S., Russia, Israel, etc.… The latest round of evidence of ongoing digital warfare between the superpowers is now being reported in the N.Y. Times [1] after an undeniably incriminating 60-page report on the Chinese attacks on the U.S. by security firm Mandiant [2].
“Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398, or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.” — Kevin Mandia
The report goes on to track individual participants in the attack, tracing them back to the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398.
Attacks from the Chinese have been ongoing for many years, notably back to Operation Titan Rain [3] in 2003, in which attackers gained access to military intelligence networks at organizations such as Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories, Redstone Arsenal, and NASA [4]. Direct military targets were also included in the assault, such as the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington, Virginia, the Naval Ocean Systems Center, a Defense Department installation in San Diego, California, and the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense installation in Huntsville, Alabama [5].
These ongoing attacks are labeled "Advanced Persistent Threats" or "APT" by the American Military, are considered acts of war by both the White House [6] and the Department of Defense [7] as far back as 2011, and are not unique to the Chinese origins. You may remember the 2007 attacks on Estonia [8], which has been attributed to entities within Russian territory operating with the assistance of the Russian government [9]. These attacks disabled a wide array of Estonian government sites, rendering services in the world's most digitally-connected country unusable. The attacks also disabled ATM machines, effectively disabling some portion of the Estonian economy.
The United States [and arguably Israel, [10]] have also been actively participating in these attacks [11] with the deploying of FLAME and Stuxnet against Iran, which made international headlines this past year when the coordinated efforts of the tools were used to disable Iranian nuclear centrifuges in an attempt to slow their progress in their nuclear program [12]. These efforts are ongoing, with the latest addition of the Gauss and Duqu malwares [13] continuing to target middle-eastern countries.
“From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.” — +The New York Times
Obama reportedly went on to sign a classified directive last year [14] enabling the government to seize control of private networks, and the 2012 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) includes terms [15, section 954] that authorize offensive attacks on foreign threats [16]. The official United States policy already is to deem any cyberattack on the U.S. as an "act of war" [17], and it looks like these types of actions and attacks have already been made legal.
While it may once have been a subject of fiction [18], it's now and has been a harsh reality that we're in the middle of a new era in warfare, and the battles are already well-underway as countries around the world are openly engaging in offensive attacks on one another that are impacting economies on a massive scale. I don't know what else to call this other than a world war—even the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) predicted this [19], as have many others even earlier [20].
Here's a thought; if our constitution gives us the right to bear arms, and the government deems these types of attacks as acts of war, then isn't it our right to keep and bear these arms? Yet another case for a mass-algorate society [21], which Mr. Obama appears to agree with me on [22], at the very least.
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On the Ongoing Attacks between China, U.S., Russia, Israel, etc.… The latest round of evidence of ongoing digital warfare between the superpowers is now being reported in the N.Y. Times [1] after an undeniably incriminating 60-page report on the Chinese attacks on the U.S. by security firm Mandiant [2].
“Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398, or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.” — Kevin Mandia
The report goes on to track individual participants in the attack, tracing them back to the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398.
Attacks from the Chinese have been ongoing for many years, notably back to Operation Titan Rain [3] in 2003, in which attackers gained access to military intelligence networks at organizations such as Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories, Redstone Arsenal, and NASA [4]. Direct military targets were also included in the assault, such as the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington, Virginia, the Naval Ocean Systems Center, a Defense Department installation in San Diego, California, and the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense installation in Huntsville, Alabama [5].
These ongoing attacks are labeled "Advanced Persistent Threats" or "APT" by the American Military, are considered acts of war by both the White House [6] and the Department of Defense [7] as far back as 2011, and are not unique to the Chinese origins. You may remember the 2007 attacks on Estonia [8], which has been attributed to entities within Russian territory operating with the assistance of the Russian government [9]. These attacks disabled a wide array of Estonian government sites, rendering services in the world's most digitally-connected country unusable. The attacks also disabled ATM machines, effectively disabling some portion of the Estonian economy.
The United States [and arguably Israel, [10]] have also been actively participating in these attacks [11] with the deploying of FLAME and Stuxnet against Iran, which made international headlines this past year when the coordinated efforts of the tools were used to disable Iranian nuclear centrifuges in an attempt to slow their progress in their nuclear program [12]. These efforts are ongoing, with the latest addition of the Gauss and Duqu malwares [13] continuing to target middle-eastern countries.
“From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.” — +The New York Times
Obama reportedly went on to sign a classified directive last year [14] enabling the government to seize control of private networks, and the 2012 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) includes terms [15, section 954] that authorize offensive attacks on foreign threats [16]. The official United States policy already is to deem any cyberattack on the U.S. as an "act of war" [17], and it looks like these types of actions and attacks have already been made legal.
While it may once have been a subject of fiction [18], it's now and has been a harsh reality that we're in the middle of a new era in warfare, and the battles are already well-underway as countries around the world are openly engaging in offensive attacks on one another that are impacting economies on a massive scale. I don't know what else to call this other than a world war—even the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) predicted this [19], as have many others even earlier [20].
Here's a thought; if our constitution gives us the right to bear arms, and the government deems these types of attacks as acts of war, then isn't it our right to keep and bear these arms? Yet another case for a mass-algorate society [21], which Mr. Obama appears to agree with me on [22], at the very least.
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On the Ongoing Attacks between China, U.S., Russia, Israel, etc.… The latest round of evidence of ongoing digital warfare between the superpowers is now being reported in the N.Y. Times [1] after an undeniably incriminating 60-page report on the Chinese attacks on the U.S. by security firm Mandiant [2].
“Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398, or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.” — Kevin Mandia
The report goes on to track individual participants in the attack, tracing them back to the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398.
Attacks from the Chinese have been ongoing for many years, notably back to Operation Titan Rain [3] in 2003, in which attackers gained access to military intelligence networks at organizations such as Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories, Redstone Arsenal, and NASA [4]. Direct military targets were also included in the assault, such as the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington, Virginia, the Naval Ocean Systems Center, a Defense Department installation in San Diego, California, and the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense installation in Huntsville, Alabama [5].
These ongoing attacks are labeled "Advanced Persistent Threats" or "APT" by the American Military, are considered acts of war by both the White House [6] and the Department of Defense [7] as far back as 2011, and are not unique to the Chinese origins. You may remember the 2007 attacks on Estonia [8], which has been attributed to entities within Russian territory operating with the assistance of the Russian government [9]. These attacks disabled a wide array of Estonian government sites, rendering services in the world's most digitally-connected country unusable. The attacks also disabled ATM machines, effectively disabling some portion of the Estonian economy.
The United States [and arguably Israel, [10]] have also been actively participating in these attacks [11] with the deploying of FLAME and Stuxnet against Iran, which made international headlines this past year when the coordinated efforts of the tools were used to disable Iranian nuclear centrifuges in an attempt to slow their progress in their nuclear program [12]. These efforts are ongoing, with the latest addition of the Gauss and Duqu malwares [13] continuing to target middle-eastern countries.
“From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.” — +The New York Times
Obama reportedly went on to sign a classified directive last year [14] enabling the government to seize control of private networks, and the 2012 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) includes terms [15, section 954] that authorize offensive attacks on foreign threats [16]. The official United States policy already is to deem any cyberattack on the U.S. as an "act of war" [17], and it looks like these types of actions and attacks have already been made legal.
While it may once have been a subject of fiction [18], it's now and has been a harsh reality that we're in the middle of a new era in warfare, and the battles are already well-underway as countries around the world are openly engaging in offensive attacks on one another that are impacting economies on a massive scale. I don't know what else to call this other than a world war—even the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) predicted this [19], as have many others even earlier [20].
Here's a thought; if our constitution gives us the right to bear arms, and the government deems these types of attacks as acts of war, then isn't it our right to keep and bear these arms? Yet another case for a mass-algorate society [21], which Mr. Obama appears to agree with me on [22], at the very least.
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On the Ongoing Attacks between China, U.S., Russia, Israel, etc.… The latest round of evidence of ongoing digital warfare between the superpowers is now being reported in the N.Y. Times [1] after an undeniably incriminating 60-page report on the Chinese attacks on the U.S. by security firm Mandiant [2].
“Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398, or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.” — Kevin Mandia
The report goes on to track individual participants in the attack, tracing them back to the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398.
Attacks from the Chinese have been ongoing for many years, notably back to Operation Titan Rain [3] in 2003, in which attackers gained access to military intelligence networks at organizations such as Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories, Redstone Arsenal, and NASA [4]. Direct military targets were also included in the assault, such as the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington, Virginia, the Naval Ocean Systems Center, a Defense Department installation in San Diego, California, and the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense installation in Huntsville, Alabama [5].
These ongoing attacks are labeled "Advanced Persistent Threats" or "APT" by the American Military, are considered acts of war by both the White House [6] and the Department of Defense [7] as far back as 2011, and are not unique to the Chinese origins. You may remember the 2007 attacks on Estonia [8], which has been attributed to entities within Russian territory operating with the assistance of the Russian government [9]. These attacks disabled a wide array of Estonian government sites, rendering services in the world's most digitally-connected country unusable. The attacks also disabled ATM machines, effectively disabling some portion of the Estonian economy.
The United States [and arguably Israel, [10]] have also been actively participating in these attacks [11] with the deploying of FLAME and Stuxnet against Iran, which made international headlines this past year when the coordinated efforts of the tools were used to disable Iranian nuclear centrifuges in an attempt to slow their progress in their nuclear program [12]. These efforts are ongoing, with the latest addition of the Gauss and Duqu malwares [13] continuing to target middle-eastern countries.
“From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.” — +The New York Times
Obama reportedly went on to sign a classified directive last year [14] enabling the government to seize control of private networks, and the 2012 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) includes terms [15, section 954] that authorize offensive attacks on foreign threats [16]. The official United States policy already is to deem any cyberattack on the U.S. as an "act of war" [17], and it looks like these types of actions and attacks have already been made legal.
While it may once have been a subject of fiction [18], it's now and has been a harsh reality that we're in the middle of a new era in warfare, and the battles are already well-underway as countries around the world are openly engaging in offensive attacks on one another that are impacting economies on a massive scale. I don't know what else to call this other than a world war—even the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) predicted this [19], as have many others even earlier [20].
Here's a thought; if our constitution gives us the right to bear arms, and the government deems these types of attacks as acts of war, then isn't it our right to keep and bear these arms? Yet another case for a mass-algorate society [21], which Mr. Obama appears to agree with me on [22], at the very least.
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Interesting, wish I could be back in Raleigh for this. Unfortunately that won't be happening. Hopefully someone posts the synopsis of the event. Please and thanks.
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I think Erin Monday is in charge of the video stuff, Arwa. I'm pretty sure it'll be recorded and posted afterwards, but it'd be pretty neat if it was livestreamed as well!
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Really like this post. I'm a programmer without the academic degree, having only programmed for my own personal use as a hobby for 10+ years over 3 different languages. Only now considering getting a job in it. I never would've thought to put some of my work on GitHub.
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I was looking for pics on this computer but can't find any...will post next week when I get home. I'm visiting my daughter for "Family Weekend" in Oregon right now!
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+Kent Goertzen, if you'll read my first post, you'll find that I was pointing out that it is a common misconception that bitcoin is transaction fee free. This simply isn't true. No smoke blowing involved.
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Congrats, Uncle Eric! And to your sister and her family too.
Regarding my post, I read the excerpt long ago and can't recall where I read from. I just remember bits and pieces. I'm reluctant to say, perhaps I may have read it in Psychology Today. I can't be sure. Sorry for the no help. However, I think that a part of us that makes us lucky is that if we keep a positive attitude about things, positive things will come to us.
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I don't know why I didn't include it in the main post, but Feynman also did a series of lectures called The Messenger Lectures that I have to say are probably my favorite lectures of all time. I haven't seen "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" yet, so I'll have to go find it. Thanks, +Siromi Samarasinghe!
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+Eric Martindale Sorry I didn't bump into ya on Turkeyday! The extended fam was... well... They needed some coaxinG+. I'm having a L+VE Album Release Party Hangout tomorrow night! Wanna come?? Here's the post about it:http://bit.ly/rHWVPM
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Yes I am also agreed with this post that “Education must be Open source and Free for all”; there are many potential students who are not able to get proper education because of high Tuition fees. However recently one of my friend got online Life experience degree from his professional Experience , This Good thing which universities have started to offer. You can more info here http://www.usauniversitiesonline.com/degree/awarding-honorary-doctorate-degree/ or you can Google it about online life experience degree.
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In terms of source control, my past few weeks have been spent entirely in Git for one project or another. I've had my ups and downs. Conveniently enough, +Nick Farina provides this timely post on how simple it really can be. No rocket science required! (Hat tip, +Bob Cleveland!)
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In terms of source control, my past few weeks have been spent entirely in Git for one project or another. I've had my ups and downs. Conveniently enough, +Nick Farina provides this timely post on how simple it really can be. No rocket science required! (Hat tip, +Bob Cleveland!)
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In terms of source control, my past few weeks have been spent entirely in Git for one project or another. I've had my ups and downs. Conveniently enough, +Nick Farina provides this timely post on how simple it really can be. No rocket science required! (Hat tip, +Bob Cleveland!)
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In terms of source control, my past few weeks have been spent entirely in Git for one project or another. I've had my ups and downs. Conveniently enough, +Nick Farina provides this timely post on how simple it really can be. No rocket science required! (Hat tip, +Bob Cleveland!)
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+Ryan Ng you can click the arrow to the top right and click "view ripples" to see all the people that've shared it. This is why I always try to add meaningful contribution to everything I post; in this case, the quote by +Douglas Rushkoff adds some great context to what I've written about before, which I included in the footnotes. :)
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Recently on DigitalPoint, I posted in response to someone who had some old domains forwarding email to his Gmail account - high traffic domains that received tens of thousands of spam messages per day.
I presented him a solution, which might work for you, too, if you're in a similiar situation.
Up at the top of your Gmail, click "Create a Filter". It's to the right of the search box.
In the "From:" box, type the domain name of the affected domain. Click "Next Step".
Select "Delete It". Click "Create Filter" and you're done.
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Interesting blog post, He seems pretty angry about it all and while I agree that a deeper understanding is needed for some programming tasks, other just need you to crank out code. Could be wrong but I think people use to argue that Java wasn't scalable either... it evolved and every bank in the country seems to think its the only language out there now. It scales now even though it could have been reasonably debated back in 2001 when it was slow and immature.
What it really comes down to is that a huge majority of software is ephemeral, give it 2-3 years and it will be rewritten not because the code has any real problems but, technology has changed along with the business requirements. Things move change, don't build a cathedral when a bazaar will exceed the requirements.
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
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All of these Social Networking sites have been giving me a real headache since... well, since forever. There's too many of them. I can't keep track of everything. I've always had the idea of creating a service that'll link all of these together, check and update them all. Well, someone beat me to the punch.
Sara show this to me, but it's take me a while to post my results. Well, here I am.
Now, the other question is what am I supposed to do with all of these accounts that work as an OpenID, like Facebook? Do use one of these as my primary OpenID? Or should I go with one of the many OpenID providers? If so, which should I pick?
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This post just went up on GitHub's blog, showing some action-steps they're taking to help us move towards a mass-algorate society. They're hosting a CoderDojo class for kids aged 7 to 18 in the San Francisco area. How cool is that? #education
“Sit back, close your eyes, and think about how good you are at coding. Man, you're awesome. When did you learn how to be so awesome? Now just think how awesome you would be if you had learned how to code when you were seven years old.”
How can we engage our children in learning how to program?
I can't find the author (Cameron Mcefee) or GitHub on Google+, so I can't tag them. Sadface.
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This post just went up on GitHub's blog, showing some action-steps they're taking to help us move towards a mass-algorate society. They're hosting a CoderDojo class for kids aged 7 to 18 in the San Francisco area. How cool is that? #education
“Sit back, close your eyes, and think about how good you are at coding. Man, you're awesome. When did you learn how to be so awesome? Now just think how awesome you would be if you had learned how to code when you were seven years old.”
How can we engage our children in learning how to program?
I can't find the author (Cameron Mcefee) or GitHub on Google+, so I can't tag them. Sadface.
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This post just went up on GitHub's blog, showing some action-steps they're taking to help us move towards a mass-algorate society. They're hosting a CoderDojo class for kids aged 7 to 18 in the San Francisco area. How cool is that? #education
“Sit back, close your eyes, and think about how good you are at coding. Man, you're awesome. When did you learn how to be so awesome? Now just think how awesome you would be if you had learned how to code when you were seven years old.”
How can we engage our children in learning how to program?
I can't find the author (Cameron Mcefee) or GitHub on Google+, so I can't tag them. Sadface.
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+Johnny Roquemore , When did Chee jump over to the photos team? Did he and +Brian Rose trade jobs or something and I missed a memo?
I guess the workaround for this bug +Eric Martindale , is make a copy of the cover photo to share in a post. A bit of a pain to click around and do that, but it should temporarily solve that issue.
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This post just went up on GitHub's blog, showing some action-steps they're taking to help us move towards a mass-algorate society. They're hosting a CoderDojo class for kids aged 7 to 18 in the San Francisco area. How cool is that? #education
“Sit back, close your eyes, and think about how good you are at coding. Man, you're awesome. When did you learn how to be so awesome? Now just think how awesome you would be if you had learned how to code when you were seven years old.”
How can we engage our children in learning how to program?
I can't find the author (Cameron Mcefee) or GitHub on Google+, so I can't tag them. Sadface.
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So I've finally given in to the likes of John Chow and opened up a blog using my own name. Sadly, right as I've started and configured the blog - I've lost all interest in posting anything to it!
Here's what I've done so far:
Added new theme.
Installed All-in-one-SEO
Installed Google Sitemap plugin
Toyed with NextGen Gallery
Configured my permalinks
Conspired against humanity
And that's about all. Oh, just disabled the visual code editor too - I hate it. Please badger and pester me until I make this place worth your visit. Got it?
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Thanks! I am glad to see this posted here, so thanks! This is good start but very short! I'm glad he addressed the propaganda a lot of us grew up with; which indeed was most proffered by Hitler & USSR against the USA "capitalist pigs". I'm sorta disappointed that Woods here in this brief explanation, does still associate the term capitalism with the idea of free markets. Capitalism is a term used for the means by which all people make a living-- anyone with a job is a capitalist. It is not a form of government or a form of market or a form of banking. There is capitalism; and then there are forms of government, and then there is banking; and then there are markets-- (these are separate things and the words for them are not synonymous). There are free markets and there are regulated markets. We are all capitalists suffering from the problems of corrupt people given sole authority over all the money with which power they have centralized banking & turned it into a government industry, which forces them to REGULATE the market to suit their own interests. May Luck Turn in our Favor and Right Soon! PEACE!
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I was putting together a "Top 10 Ways to Kill a Roleplay" list, and I figured I'd post it on the GWing Roleplay site to get everyone's input on the issue. Roleplayers there should spread the votes across all of the options, for the most part. I'll probably take the top 10 and make this top 10 list a bit more intuitive.
On another note - a friend from my childhood found me on Facebook last night, and we were talking this morning a bit. It's good to hear from her, it's been a few years. Her mother called me on Saturday, and we chatted for a short while. It's always good to stay connected. Okay, maybe not always, but this circumstance DOES apply.
Though, it doesn't quite make up for Facebook's broken note import feature.
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One of my favorite blogs is run by Martin Reed, and it's about online community building. He's really onto something here, and it's a shame there aren't more blogs out there on the topic (ahem, nudge nudge, wink wink). His content is top notch, and it relates directly to what it is that I do with my sites, particularly RolePlayGateway.
Just today he posted an article on active forum members and their value, and I'll be damned if I didn't forward that article to two teams on RolePlayGateway. And then I submitted it to StumbleUpon for good measure! Keep up the good work, Martin!
Does anyone know of any blogs about online community building? Please, share!
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+Eric Martindale Awesome post dude! I loved it even more, cause I love road trips. The way you've written it, I guess you do too.
Funny about the Bucees. But there's something funnier. Good funnier. There's a drugstore called Walls Drugstore, in Walls, SD, a very small town, and it's like a tourist attraction. Signs for that drugstore are everywhere, and in the middle of nowhere. It's just their thing. There are signs in Afghanistan, Amsterdam, and South Pole :) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bKoAd4YrGgM/S-cc_4G9w-I/AAAAAAAAFFs/DjV8PDmoIfA/s1600/Wall_Drug_Sign+-+afghanistan.jpg
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I'm in #Atlanta for the weekend, and happen to have a bit of free time tonight! Is anyone in the area interested in +HIRL ing?
The awesome Atlanta #photography I've attached was taken by Don Brown, using a graduated neutral density filter from room 5508 of the Peachtree Westin Hotel, where +Mary Bedard is attending the Emerging Researchers National Conference in #STEM [1]. You can get more details of the shot on his Flickr post! [2]
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I'm in #Atlanta for the weekend, and happen to have a bit of free time tonight! Is anyone in the area interested in +HIRL ing?
The awesome Atlanta #photography I've attached was taken by Don Brown, using a graduated neutral density filter from room 5508 of the Peachtree Westin Hotel, where +Mary Bedard is attending the Emerging Researchers National Conference in #STEM [1]. You can get more details of the shot on his Flickr post! [2]
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I'm in #Atlanta for the weekend, and happen to have a bit of free time tonight! Is anyone in the area interested in +HIRL ing?
The awesome Atlanta #photography I've attached was taken by Don Brown, using a graduated neutral density filter from room 5508 of the Peachtree Westin Hotel, where +Mary Bedard is attending the Emerging Researchers National Conference in #STEM [1]. You can get more details of the shot on his Flickr post! [2]
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I'm in #Atlanta for the weekend, and happen to have a bit of free time tonight! Is anyone in the area interested in +HIRL ing?
The awesome Atlanta #photography I've attached was taken by Don Brown, using a graduated neutral density filter from room 5508 of the Peachtree Westin Hotel, where +Mary Bedard is attending the Emerging Researchers National Conference in #STEM [1]. You can get more details of the shot on his Flickr post! [2]
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Here's my list of "top topics" according to +Mohamed Mansour's Stream Plus, which uses a distance and grouping algorithm to analyze your stream for public posts, and determine what they are about. Pretty svelte results!
+Jake McCuistion, +Carmelyne Thompson, and I helped him build this almost immediately after the Google+ API was released -- as far as I can tell, it was the first public application built on top of it. :)
What does your "top topics" look like? What do you think this algorithm accurately conveys? Share!
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Here's my list of "top topics" according to +Mohamed Mansour's Stream Plus, which uses a distance and grouping algorithm to analyze your stream for public posts, and determine what they are about. Pretty svelte results!
+Jake McCuistion, +Carmelyne Thompson, and I helped him build this almost immediately after the Google+ API was released -- as far as I can tell, it was the first public application built on top of it. :)
What does your "top topics" look like? What do you think this algorithm accurately conveys? Share!
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Here's my list of "top topics" according to +Mohamed Mansour's Stream Plus, which uses a distance and grouping algorithm to analyze your stream for public posts, and determine what they are about. Pretty svelte results!
+Jake McCuistion, +Carmelyne Thompson, and I helped him build this almost immediately after the Google+ API was released -- as far as I can tell, it was the first public application built on top of it. :)
What does your "top topics" look like? What do you think this algorithm accurately conveys? Share!
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I've been building a lot using Node.js lately. My experience with it has been good, from the ease and simplicity of setting up a realtime die-roller [1] to building an entire education platform [2]. It's a little strange getting your head around the constant callback mentality, but it's otherwise intuitive.
It's good reading some legitimate criticisms of Node.js, though. The author of this post has a point about how using it creates a tightly coupled system, contrary to existing UNIX patterns and presumably creating a maintenance nightmare in the future. I think time will tell, however--especially as parts of the toolchain and deploying solutions mature (I'm looking at you, Joyent!).
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I've been building a lot using Node.js lately. My experience with it has been good, from the ease and simplicity of setting up a realtime die-roller [1] to building an entire education platform [2]. It's a little strange getting your head around the constant callback mentality, but it's otherwise intuitive.
It's good reading some legitimate criticisms of Node.js, though. The author of this post has a point about how using it creates a tightly coupled system, contrary to existing UNIX patterns and presumably creating a maintenance nightmare in the future. I think time will tell, however--especially as parts of the toolchain and deploying solutions mature (I'm looking at you, Joyent!).
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I've been building a lot using Node.js lately. My experience with it has been good, from the ease and simplicity of setting up a realtime die-roller [1] to building an entire education platform [2]. It's a little strange getting your head around the constant callback mentality, but it's otherwise intuitive.
It's good reading some legitimate criticisms of Node.js, though. The author of this post has a point about how using it creates a tightly coupled system, contrary to existing UNIX patterns and presumably creating a maintenance nightmare in the future. I think time will tell, however--especially as parts of the toolchain and deploying solutions mature (I'm looking at you, Joyent!).
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Here's my list of "top topics" according to +Mohamed Mansour's Stream Plus, which uses a distance and grouping algorithm to analyze your stream for public posts, and determine what they are about. Pretty svelte results!
+Jake McCuistion, +Carmelyne Thompson, and I helped him build this almost immediately after the Google+ API was released -- as far as I can tell, it was the first public application built on top of it. :)
What does your "top topics" look like? What do you think this algorithm accurately conveys? Share!
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Yes, I am damn well aware that this is a stock template. Right now, I couldn't care less. I'm not even posting, really.
Well, GWing is back, but somehow, all of the files in my home directory disappeared, as well as all of my backups. For right now, I've created a simple placeholder page for everyone who just happens to type GWing.net into their address bar.
Now that I think about it, I may just end up redesigning the whole index page anyways. I'm considering using Drupal or something similiar, or just recoding a simple page for the index. I'm going to need to further tie in to the main user database - the phpbb one - to allow a smoother experience.
Now that I'm talking about the forums, I should mention that I have no idea how I put so many things on the board without completely breaking it. I have over 100 installed modifications installed, and I still have a functional forum. Now, don't get me wrong: There are a LOT of bugs... but it's functional. [Insert-puzzled-glee]
I think I will refer to the above insert statement as [IPG] from now on.
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I've been building a lot using Node.js lately. My experience with it has been good, from the ease and simplicity of setting up a realtime die-roller [1] to building an entire education platform [2]. It's a little strange getting your head around the constant callback mentality, but it's otherwise intuitive.
It's good reading some legitimate criticisms of Node.js, though. The author of this post has a point about how using it creates a tightly coupled system, contrary to existing UNIX patterns and presumably creating a maintenance nightmare in the future. I think time will tell, however--especially as parts of the toolchain and deploying solutions mature (I'm looking at you, Joyent!).
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Whoever is curious what we use: - Gerrit for Code Review - We use Debian for Staging Server / Production Server - We have automated builds that it deploys the web app to Staging server - We follow agile development, we do modified SCRUM every other day. - We document enough so that if a new member joins, they wont get lost. - We design, we architect, we develop and iterate! - We use hangouts for our main communication tool. - We use Google Apps with Sites / Mail / Calendar integration
The team is beyond awesome, read her post to know the full picture! We love to tinker, we love development, and we love design!
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Whoever is curious what we use: - Gerrit for Code Review - We use Debian for Staging Server / Production Server - We have automated builds that it deploys the web app to Staging server - We follow agile development, we do modified SCRUM every other day. - We document enough so that if a new member joins, they wont get lost. - We design, we architect, we develop and iterate! - We use hangouts for our main communication tool. - We use Google Apps with Sites / Mail / Calendar integration
The team is beyond awesome, read her post to know the full picture! We love to tinker, we love development, and we love design!
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Venezuela would need to transport the gold in several trips, traders said, since the high value of gold means it would be impossible to insure a single aircraft carrying 211 tonnes. It could take about 40 shipments to move the gold back to Caracas, traders estimated.
“It’s going to be quite a task. Logistically, I’m not sure if the central bank realises the magnitude of the task ahead of them,” said one senior gold banker.
So the challenge is this: how can Venezuela safely retrieve 211 tons of gold from its European stores? What solutions can you come up with using lateral analysis?
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How would you behave in a world with no anonymity?
Researchers from +Yuriy Zubovski's alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, raise a few troubling questions about identity and privacy in a paper released at BlackHat in August [1]. They show results from a facial recognition study and hit some points about how it relates to Augmented Reality (AR), right up +Robert Rice's alley.
One of the authors, Alessandro Acquisti, also gave a talk at USENIX shortly after the release, of which there is video [2]. He explores some fascinating examples of how the images and videos that people have posted online can be utilized for tracking identity, even in cases where you explicitly "untag" yourself, which may people simply do not consider.
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How would you behave in a world with no anonymity?
Researchers from +Yuriy Zubovski's alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, raise a few troubling questions about identity and privacy in a paper released at BlackHat in August [1]. They show results from a facial recognition study and hit some points about how it relates to Augmented Reality (AR), right up +Robert Rice's alley.
One of the authors, Alessandro Acquisti, also gave a talk at USENIX shortly after the release, of which there is video [2]. He explores some fascinating examples of how the images and videos that people have posted online can be utilized for tracking identity, even in cases where you explicitly "untag" yourself, which may people simply do not consider.
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How would you behave in a world with no anonymity?
Researchers from +Yuriy Zubovski's alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, raise a few troubling questions about identity and privacy in a paper released at BlackHat in August [1]. They show results from a facial recognition study and hit some points about how it relates to Augmented Reality (AR), right up +Robert Rice's alley.
One of the authors, Alessandro Acquisti, also gave a talk at USENIX shortly after the release, of which there is video [2]. He explores some fascinating examples of how the images and videos that people have posted online can be utilized for tracking identity, even in cases where you explicitly "untag" yourself, which may people simply do not consider.
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How would you behave in a world with no anonymity?
Researchers from +Yuriy Zubovski's alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, raise a few troubling questions about identity and privacy in a paper released at BlackHat in August [1]. They show results from a facial recognition study and hit some points about how it relates to Augmented Reality (AR), right up +Robert Rice's alley.
One of the authors, Alessandro Acquisti, also gave a talk at USENIX shortly after the release, of which there is video [2]. He explores some fascinating examples of how the images and videos that people have posted online can be utilized for tracking identity, even in cases where you explicitly "untag" yourself, which may people simply do not consider.
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I've been thinking about how awesome it would be to have a button with the text "Magic Market" on it. This theoretical button would do all of the things I do on a daily basis, automatically, since most of them are menial and procedural anyways. These would include:
<ul>
<li>StumbleUpon</li>
<li>Directory Submission</li>
<li>MySpace Promotion</li>
<li>Sitemap generation</li>
<li>Keyword Ranking Check</li>
<li>Backlink Check</li>
<li>Traffic Trend Check (Google Analytics!)</li>
</ul>
Oh, the fantasy.
On second thought, maybe this is a viable project...
And tangentially, I figured out why this didn't post the first time. I sent it to "blogspot.com" instead of "blogger.com". Problem solved, and this makes it a bit easier for me to update, now. :)
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Early this morning, somewhere within an hour of me getting in to work, there were a large number of sirens in my otherwise quiet town. Come to find out, the IGA (International Grocer's Association) down the road got robbed at gunpoint. The police showed up, chased them down the road and through town, crashing just near our watered version of downtown. Apparently one suspect has been apprehended, and two are still on the loose. There have been helicopters circling the area for a while, and intermittent sirens. The police and of all things the fire department have blocked off sections of roads, last I heard.
A wonderful start to a week, don't you think? Hey, at least there's something going on instead of the usual droll mood of a small town. To some ill effect, however: the internet here, Bellsouth, seems to have slowed to a complete and utter crawl. It seems to be letting up slightly now that the excitement is over, but this is unacceptable from a business class DSL service. It likely has to do with the news channels showing up and perhaps plugging in to landlines for their newscasts?
I had a good rest on Saturday, after a rather long night on Friday, and enjoyed my time with Amber. Sunday turned out to be a work day for me, as I was looking through a client's server logs in the morning, fixing my own computer woes, and then fixing an install of Linux for my family while my laundry ran. I left to fix MORE personal computer troubles, then headed out to finally relax with my love that evening.
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Now that I've upgraded to Google's Blogger Beta, I'm tweaking a bunch of controls on my blog. I am continually running into the user-friendly syndrome, where a feature is too user friendly and I can't get down to the nitty-gritty tech side of the application. While it saves me the five minute trouble of setting up a Wordpress or similiar in-house blog, it constantly reminds me of the merits of having the Wordpress, and consequently influencing me to neglect posting here at all.
I woke up this morning to a completed upgrade from Ubuntu's Dapper Drake (6.06 LTS) to Edgy Eft (6.10), after encountering some problems resulting from my own stupidity. Upgrading from the servers took a grand total of 16 hours, start to finish. This includes my time working out the kinks from my said stupidity, which I won't go into further here. Due to the complications, my personal alarm clock (XMMS and an alarm plugin...) failed to wake me at the goal of 5:30 AM, having not rung at all. Sadly, this caused me to miss the chance to see my beautiful Amber, with her leaving for school at 6:30, and me waking at 7. grumble
After rebooting the machine to seal the deal, I opened up my shiny new Firefox 2.0 to look at the GWing RSS feed. I clicked the most important thing at the time, a new topic titled A Tale of Two Wreckages: A True Story. I then proceeded to heartily laugh my way through the time I had remaining before I had to leave for work.
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Yep, this April 22nd, 2008 is my birthday (credit to the intro goes to sXePhil), and I'm turning 21 today. However, due to the upcoming MMA fight that I've got at Dorton Arena on April 26th, all mandatory 21st birthday celebrations will be postponed until after the fight.
For those of you who aren't already aware, you can pick up tickets at Carolina Fight Promotions. I'm going to be fighting Andy Teague, a well-versed jiujitsu competitor, and the match is scheduled for three rounds at 3 minutes each.
So, today being my birthday--and as such, I've received tons and tons of birthday wishes--I thought I'd give some shoutouts to everyone who has done so. It's pretty simple, all you've got to do is write a "happy birthday" post somewhere on the web, link to me, and then show me the page you want me to link back to.
My twitter friends have had an early start, and it's already the afternoon - don't procrastinate, I'm ending this at midnight tonight!
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After the usual late-nighter, I went out to grab some coffee somewhere north of 6:30 this morning. The young woman behind the counter asked in a surprisingly enthusiastic tone, perhaps recognizing me from a certain coffee adventure prior.
"What're you doing up so early!?"
I started to reply with a nondescript "Eh, work.", but what words actually slipped out of my mouth turned out to be more inquisitive.
"Well, have you ever heard of Google Plus?" I ventured, fully expecting a blank stare with that ever so vague hint of condescension. Perhaps I was too exhausted to consider how much buzz Google+ had generated, or to remember that it went public no less than a day prior. Whatever the case, her reply jarred me for a moment.
"Yeah, I've heard of it! Isn't it that new Google social network?" she asked.
I briefly explained how I'd met a handful of incredible people through Google Hangouts, and that we were all working on a side project outside of our normal jobs, and for fun no less. It might well have been my sleepless stupor again, but the ensuing conversation led me to believe she was absolutely fascinated with the idea of meeting and collaborating with people from around the world.
I grabbed my coffee and headed back to work, my enthusiasm bolstered by exchange.
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After the usual late-nighter, I went out to grab some coffee somewhere north of 6:30 this morning. The young woman behind the counter asked in a surprisingly enthusiastic tone, perhaps recognizing me from a certain coffee adventure prior.
"What're you doing up so early!?"
I started to reply with a nondescript "Eh, work.", but what words actually slipped out of my mouth turned out to be more inquisitive.
"Well, have you ever heard of Google Plus?" I ventured, fully expecting a blank stare with that ever so vague hint of condescension. Perhaps I was too exhausted to consider how much buzz Google+ had generated, or to remember that it went public no less than a day prior. Whatever the case, her reply jarred me for a moment.
"Yeah, I've heard of it! Isn't it that new Google social network?" she asked.
I briefly explained how I'd met a handful of incredible people through Google Hangouts, and that we were all working on a side project outside of our normal jobs, and for fun no less. It might well have been my sleepless stupor again, but the ensuing conversation led me to believe she was absolutely fascinated with the idea of meeting and collaborating with people from around the world.
I grabbed my coffee and headed back to work, my enthusiasm bolstered by exchange.
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After the usual late-nighter, I went out to grab some coffee somewhere north of 6:30 this morning. The young woman behind the counter asked in a surprisingly enthusiastic tone, perhaps recognizing me from a certain coffee adventure prior.
"What're you doing up so early!?"
I started to reply with a nondescript "Eh, work.", but what words actually slipped out of my mouth turned out to be more inquisitive.
"Well, have you ever heard of Google Plus?" I ventured, fully expecting a blank stare with that ever so vague hint of condescension. Perhaps I was too exhausted to consider how much buzz Google+ had generated, or to remember that it went public no less than a day prior. Whatever the case, her reply jarred me for a moment.
"Yeah, I've heard of it! Isn't it that new Google social network?" she asked.
I briefly explained how I'd met a handful of incredible people through Google Hangouts, and that we were all working on a side project outside of our normal jobs, and for fun no less. It might well have been my sleepless stupor again, but the ensuing conversation led me to believe she was absolutely fascinated with the idea of meeting and collaborating with people from around the world.
I grabbed my coffee and headed back to work, my enthusiasm bolstered by exchange.
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After the usual late-nighter, I went out to grab some coffee somewhere north of 6:30 this morning. The young woman behind the counter asked in a surprisingly enthusiastic tone, perhaps recognizing me from a certain coffee adventure prior.
"What're you doing up so early!?"
I started to reply with a nondescript "Eh, work.", but what words actually slipped out of my mouth turned out to be more inquisitive.
"Well, have you ever heard of Google Plus?" I ventured, fully expecting a blank stare with that ever so vague hint of condescension. Perhaps I was too exhausted to consider how much buzz Google+ had generated, or to remember that it went public no less than a day prior. Whatever the case, her reply jarred me for a moment.
"Yeah, I've heard of it! Isn't it that new Google social network?" she asked.
I briefly explained how I'd met a handful of incredible people through Google Hangouts, and that we were all working on a side project outside of our normal jobs, and for fun no less. It might well have been my sleepless stupor again, but the ensuing conversation led me to believe she was absolutely fascinated with the idea of meeting and collaborating with people from around the world.
I grabbed my coffee and headed back to work, my enthusiasm bolstered by exchange.
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Just caught this over a MySpace (gasp!) bulletin. Actually, I'm lying, Shannon called me when she posted this to make sure I saw it. Because you know I wouldn't have.
Girls - pick the first guy on your top friends. Unless their family than pick the next one. Guys - do the same, but the first girl .
- Don't change it - Enter their name - Be honest - Repost this so your friends can do it too
1. Who is it? ...Errriiiccckkk.
2. How did you meet? 6th grade, baby. We go back.
3. If you were crying would this person cheer you up? Always.
4. Where is this person? Wendell
5. Have you ever spent the night with this person? I've crashed at his place. But not with him. We don't roll like that, s0n.
6. Will this person repost this? Lol, Never.
7. Is this person family? Yup. Always will be part of it.
8. Do you trust this person ? Uh Hu. He knows me better than anyone.
9. If you could change something about them, would you? Nope. Well, I'd make it so he called more often. But we're both so damn busy.
10. Does this person live close to you? 5 minutes away.
11. How much does this person know about you? TOO much...=). Just kidding.
12. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with this person? We'd probably do stuipd shit so the people monitoring the elevator cameras would be laughing their asses off. And then I'd probably be fussing him out, saying this was all his fault and he'd just sit there trying to take apart the damn elevator keypad and claim it was something he's always wanted to do. What a retard... ;)
13. Do you argue with this person? God yes. And we fight. I'm Talking an all out BRAWL. ;)
14. If you guys went to jail together, what would it be for? Running from the cops. Hacking into some top secret government website. Aiding and Ebedding. TRYING to get into Lake Royal. ha...
15. Do you want to see this person right now? Sometime soon, Yeah. I miss him =(
"MY TOP BOY"- if you're a girl and "MY TOP GIRL"-if your a guy
I love you too, Shannon. You're... mostly correct. On which parts... I'm not at liberty to disclose. :D
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So, Firefox allows you to open favorites in a sidebar - which is great for things like FriendFeed, Google Talk, Twitter, or even Facebook chat. It lets you use a good web service as what essentially becomes an extension for your browser, so you can browse your regular pages while still participating in the conversation.
I recently switched over to the social browser, Flock - with great success and elation. Flock is built from the Firefox codebase, but they are massively more social in what the browser does - drag and drop images, open media feeds, view your friends in their People and Places sidebar, among many other really cool things.
Then there's Friendfeed - which is a web service that recently took off (but I must say, I've been using long before the hype. :D) because it allows you to combine all of your social media connections (Web 2.5, if you will) and even cross-post responses between them (closer to Web 3.0, minus filtering and duplicate content issues...). After putting in a request to Flock's develpment team to start moving in this direction, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
When you bookmark something in Firefox, you can open the properties of the bookmark and hit a checkbox, "Open this link in the sidebar." However, this option is not available in Flock (by default). So let's open our trusty about:config:
Do a filter on "sidebar", and you'll find a value called "flock.favorites.loadPageInSidebar" - which is set to false by default. Right click this value, and click "toggle".
Bingo. Now you will have the checkbox on all your bookmarks that will allow you to open links in your sidebar!
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As I have mentioned before, I'm in a love affair with Chyrp, which is an up-and-coming platform meant to replace WordPress and work a bit like Tumblr, as a microblogging and lifestreaming service.
One of Chyrp's major draws for me is the Aggregator module, which is included in Chryp 2.0 by default. Mike Crittenden of MergeWeb Fame has covered the use of Chyrp's Aggregator previously, but I figured I'd dive in a bit further and help others in configuring their feeds.
You may also be familiar with StackOverflow, a crowd-sourcing social-media head-bashing awesome site that enables users to ask tech-related questions and get awesome community-approved answers. The same group runs several other sites using the same model, including SuperUser and ServerFault, and they are even releasing their codebase as free and open source as the <a href="http://stackexchange.com/>StackExchange project.
But, onward into the goodies: syndicating your activity on StackOverflow (and the other sites) using Chryp.
The first you'll need is your Activity Feed. To acquire this, visit the "Recent" tab of your user profile and look in the bottom right hand corner: you'll see a link to "user recent activity feed". This is the URL for your activity feed, grab that and let's move on to Chyrp.
In Chyrp, you'll want to add a new aggregate in your Admin panel. Paste your Activity Feed into the "Source URL" box, then configure the remaining settings as follows:
Feather: Link
Post Attributes:name: "feed[title]"
source: "feed[id]"
description: "feed[description]"
Now, assign a "Name" and make sure the correct Author is selected, and click "Update". You're all done! You'll see new content from your feed the next time your aggregates update.
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After a year and a half working with some of the smartest and most competent engineers I've ever met, it's time for me to part ways with BitPay. I've had the opportunity to be deeply involved in the design, implementation, and deployment of some incredible technologies, but we're turning a page in the story of Bitcoin's rise and it's time to start exploring the new chapter.
BitPay continues to paint an incredibly compelling picture as to what the decentralized future looks like – we worked on some incredibly far-reaching and massively impactful ideas, including:
- [ChainDB][chaindb], a distributed database backed exclusively by the Bitcoin blockchain.
- [Copay][copay], a truly decentralized wallet & identity management platform.
- [BitAuth][bitauth], a secure authentication mechanism for peers on the web, using the `k1` curve.
- [Impulse][impulse], a method of securing zero-confirmation transactions.
- [Foxtrot][foxtrot], a completely encrypted data transmission network.
- [Bitcore][bitcore], a library of common software functionality to glue everything together.
You might notice a few common themes. Let me point out the two most important.
Firstly, that everything here is open source (with the notable exception of ChainDB). Open source, and more importantly [free software][free software], is a very big deal to me. Prior to joining BitPay, I was [open sourcing education][coursefork], [contributing to open source software](https://github.com/martindale), and [speaking on the importance of open source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuYLWdG-lP0). Some of the things I'm most proud of are the things _other_ people built with the things _we_ gave away – _that's_ the real power of open source.
Secondly, that everything here is based on Bitcoin, not some alternative blockchain. BitPay was a firm believer in Bitcoin as the exclusive platform that would secure the post-fiat era, and that belief has held strongly with me before and after my departure. Until a more compelling alternative to Bitcoin emerges,
One of the other exciting things to come out of BitPay was the emergence of [DECENTRALIZE][decentralize], which we formed last fall with a few of our fellow employees. DECENTRALIZE has become [an acclaimed content source][cointelegraph:decentralize] in the latest resurgence of decentralized thinking, and now it gets to be a much bigger priority for me.
Before I joined BitPay, I'd put a lot of work into [Maki][maki], a framework for making full-stack application development significantly easier. Maki took a bit of a back-burner position while I was focusing on my work at BitPay, so I'll be redoubling my efforts to see that vision through. In fact, I think now's as good a time as any to share that vision.
To that end, I'm starting a new project named Fabric. I'd like to entirely eliminate centralized servers on the Internet and catalyze the development of an entirely new class of economic actor. More details soon.
As we embark on our next journey, let's always remember the carefully selected input used to create [the Genesis Block][genesis]:
> The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
[chaindb]: https://bitpay.com/chaindb.pdf
[copay]: https://copay.io/
[bitauth]: https://github.com/bitpay/bitauth
[impulse]: https://impulse.is/
[foxtrot]: https://github.com/bitpay/foxtrot
[bitcore]: https://bitcore.io
[decentralize]: https://decentralize.fm
[free software]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
[coursefork]: https://coursefork.org/
[maki]: https://maki.ericmartindale.com/
[cointelegraph:decentralize]: http://cointelegraph.com/news/114496/leaders-in-bitcoin-broadcasting-pandoras-box-is-open-and-theres-no-going-back
[genesis]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block
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While marketing RolePlayGateway, one of the things we considered was the "virality" of our approach. Viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect. We're going to guide you on the road to a truly viral campaign.
A successful viral push can be launched simply by following three simple rules.
Don't spend everything you have on a single campaign.
Don't rely entirely on one vehicle of viral marketing.
Be different from everyone else; stand out.
While we're not nearly viral enough, part of our success so far has been the evangelism of our passionate users. And there you have it, one of the most important keys to successful viral marketing:
Passion:
Users who are passionate about your service, your community, or your site. They will propagate, they will evangelize, and ultimately will generate more passionate users who will do the same thing for you. Dawn Anfusocalls these members Boomers - and it is important to not ignore them.
Make it easy for your users to share. Make it hard for them NOT to share. Add a feature on your site that encourages them to send an email to their friends about the service. Add blocks where they can copy and paste code straight to their social profiles on sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. Jeanne Jennings wrote an amazing article on Optimizing the "E-mail This" Marketing Opportunity, and I'd recommend you read it and implement the things you learn from it.
Widgetize:
On that note, we arrive on one of our most powerful vehicles for viral marketing: Widgets. The list of sites that you can infect with widgets are endless. From iGoogle to individual sites, widgets encourage users to put your tool on their page. Be sure to incorporate other techniques here: Include encouragement to share it. Make it easy to post elsewhere and share.
One of the items that RolePlay Gateway could utilize to great success is the concept of game trailers. Many of the games on RPGateway are text-based, and have no real graphics. However, most of these games have amazing storylines, storylines which could be utilized to hitch audiences, or at least entertain them. Flash-based videos, or trailers, with pivotal content, captivating video and audio, and viral marketing elements such as "Email this!" or "Share This", would be an amazing leap forward. Take a look at how YouTube's video player works. Such trailers could even be uploaded to social networking sites, like YouTube and Google Video, and shared to millions of users with a touch of viral marketing magic.
Juice It Up:
Include your URL everywhere you go. Facebook, MySpace. Everywhere. This generates user authority, even if the site you are on has nothing at all to do with your target market. Cross sections are a beautiful thing, and even if you don't get a drop of link juice in comments, market saturation is a very important, yet delicate, part of viral marketing.
Maintain a presence on every social networking site you can sustain. Extend your campaign to all of them. Create social groups for each of these sites, and publicize them. The more targets you hit, just like investing, the less committed you are to that particular market. Your assets are distributed, and while the workload may be unfathomably difficult (keeping up with so many social networking sites sucks... that's why we have ProfileLinker), the potential for success is incredible.
Reward:
Another option is to provide tangible rewards for marketing. This can be in the form of prizes, such as in a contest, or to individual users. Incentives are very powerful, and drive many users to promote where they'd be otherwise apathetic. Things can be very simple, such as giving them tokens or credits, to very expensive, such as providing real cash per referral. This is probably the most effective, albeit expensive, method of encouraging users to infect others.
Don't Stop.
Don't set these actions in motion and then hope they work. Get involved. Comment on profiles. Reply to messages. Enhance your viral effect. Make it tangible. If users can see that there is a real person there, they will be a lot more enthusiastic and encouraged to participate, and your viral marketing campaign will be more successful.
Other Resources!!!Web Marketing Today has an amazing list of resource articles that are sure to help you build your campaign.
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Hurricane Sandy: Resources, Guides, and Information
With #HurricaneSandy already flooding streets [1] and causing damage [2] in #NYC due to the effects of the combined hurricane, western stormfront, and full-moon tides [3], I wanted to take just a quick moment to collect some resources related to the storm. I have quite a few friends directly in the path of the storm (ahem, +Sharon Strandskov!) and I want to urge everyone to stay safe. Make no illusion, this storm is serious business: take a look at the attached photo to see a comparison to Hurricane Irene.
As always, preparedness is key. If you're in the path of the storm and haven't yet found your battery-powered radio, it's strongly recommend that you do so now while you have the light, as both your Internet and cell signals are likely to be interrupted. If you haven't stocked up on water and [non-perishable] food, it's a bit late and you're going to have to hunker down and hope for the best.
Course of Action: From the FEMA Guidelines [4]: 1) Listen to the radio or TV for information. [ed.: or FEMA's Twitter [5]] 2) Secure your home, close storm shutters, and secure outdoor objects or bring them indoors. 3) Turn off utilities if instructed to do so. Otherwise, turn the refrigerator thermostat to its coldest setting and keep its doors closed. 4) Turn off propane tanks.· Avoid using the phone, except for serious emergencies. 5) Moor your boat if time permits. 6) Ensure a supply of water for sanitary purposes such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill the bathtub and other large containers with water.
As an additional tip that I recently learned, you can fill plastic bags with water and put them in your freezer to prepare for extended power/water outages. These will stay cool longer than bottled water in your refrigerator.
If you're in one of the evacuation areas and haven't yet followed the instructions or aren't able to do so, make sure to seek shelter and follow the appropriate guidelines. [4]
Take a moment and look up your local news station's Facebook / Twitter and subscribe, optionally via SMS so that when the power goes out, you still have a method of receiving realtime updates (provided cell coverage doesn't go down / get inundated with emergency requests).
As a bonus, there's a pretty awesome #HTML5 canvas wind visualization demo that updates in realtime [6]. Some pretty slick techniques there, so view the source [Luke].
Feel free to add your own resources in the comments. I'll edit the post to add the most helpful resources.
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Hurricane Sandy: Resources, Guides, and Information
With #HurricaneSandy already flooding streets [1] and causing damage [2] in #NYC due to the effects of the combined hurricane, western stormfront, and full-moon tides [3], I wanted to take just a quick moment to collect some resources related to the storm. I have quite a few friends directly in the path of the storm (ahem, +Sharon Strandskov!) and I want to urge everyone to stay safe. Make no illusion, this storm is serious business: take a look at the attached photo to see a comparison to Hurricane Irene.
As always, preparedness is key. If you're in the path of the storm and haven't yet found your battery-powered radio, it's strongly recommend that you do so now while you have the light, as both your Internet and cell signals are likely to be interrupted. If you haven't stocked up on water and [non-perishable] food, it's a bit late and you're going to have to hunker down and hope for the best.
Course of Action: From the FEMA Guidelines [4]: 1) Listen to the radio or TV for information. [ed.: or FEMA's Twitter [5]] 2) Secure your home, close storm shutters, and secure outdoor objects or bring them indoors. 3) Turn off utilities if instructed to do so. Otherwise, turn the refrigerator thermostat to its coldest setting and keep its doors closed. 4) Turn off propane tanks.· Avoid using the phone, except for serious emergencies. 5) Moor your boat if time permits. 6) Ensure a supply of water for sanitary purposes such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill the bathtub and other large containers with water.
As an additional tip that I recently learned, you can fill plastic bags with water and put them in your freezer to prepare for extended power/water outages. These will stay cool longer than bottled water in your refrigerator.
If you're in one of the evacuation areas and haven't yet followed the instructions or aren't able to do so, make sure to seek shelter and follow the appropriate guidelines. [4]
Take a moment and look up your local news station's Facebook / Twitter and subscribe, optionally via SMS so that when the power goes out, you still have a method of receiving realtime updates (provided cell coverage doesn't go down / get inundated with emergency requests).
As a bonus, there's a pretty awesome #HTML5 canvas wind visualization demo that updates in realtime [6]. Some pretty slick techniques there, so view the source [Luke].
Feel free to add your own resources in the comments. I'll edit the post to add the most helpful resources.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Hurricane Sandy: Resources, Guides, and Information
With #HurricaneSandy already flooding streets [1] and causing damage [2] in #NYC due to the effects of the combined hurricane, western stormfront, and full-moon tides [3], I wanted to take just a quick moment to collect some resources related to the storm. I have quite a few friends directly in the path of the storm (ahem, +Sharon Strandskov!) and I want to urge everyone to stay safe. Make no illusion, this storm is serious business: take a look at the attached photo to see a comparison to Hurricane Irene.
As always, preparedness is key. If you're in the path of the storm and haven't yet found your battery-powered radio, it's strongly recommend that you do so now while you have the light, as both your Internet and cell signals are likely to be interrupted. If you haven't stocked up on water and [non-perishable] food, it's a bit late and you're going to have to hunker down and hope for the best.
Course of Action: From the FEMA Guidelines [4]: 1) Listen to the radio or TV for information. [ed.: or FEMA's Twitter [5]] 2) Secure your home, close storm shutters, and secure outdoor objects or bring them indoors. 3) Turn off utilities if instructed to do so. Otherwise, turn the refrigerator thermostat to its coldest setting and keep its doors closed. 4) Turn off propane tanks.· Avoid using the phone, except for serious emergencies. 5) Moor your boat if time permits. 6) Ensure a supply of water for sanitary purposes such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill the bathtub and other large containers with water.
As an additional tip that I recently learned, you can fill plastic bags with water and put them in your freezer to prepare for extended power/water outages. These will stay cool longer than bottled water in your refrigerator.
If you're in one of the evacuation areas and haven't yet followed the instructions or aren't able to do so, make sure to seek shelter and follow the appropriate guidelines. [4]
Take a moment and look up your local news station's Facebook / Twitter and subscribe, optionally via SMS so that when the power goes out, you still have a method of receiving realtime updates (provided cell coverage doesn't go down / get inundated with emergency requests).
As a bonus, there's a pretty awesome #HTML5 canvas wind visualization demo that updates in realtime [6]. Some pretty slick techniques there, so view the source [Luke].
Feel free to add your own resources in the comments. I'll edit the post to add the most helpful resources.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Hurricane Sandy: Resources, Guides, and Information
With #HurricaneSandy already flooding streets [1] and causing damage [2] in #NYC due to the effects of the combined hurricane, western stormfront, and full-moon tides [3], I wanted to take just a quick moment to collect some resources related to the storm. I have quite a few friends directly in the path of the storm (ahem, +Sharon Strandskov!) and I want to urge everyone to stay safe. Make no illusion, this storm is serious business: take a look at the attached photo to see a comparison to Hurricane Irene.
As always, preparedness is key. If you're in the path of the storm and haven't yet found your battery-powered radio, it's strongly recommend that you do so now while you have the light, as both your Internet and cell signals are likely to be interrupted. If you haven't stocked up on water and [non-perishable] food, it's a bit late and you're going to have to hunker down and hope for the best.
Course of Action: From the FEMA Guidelines [4]: 1) Listen to the radio or TV for information. [ed.: or FEMA's Twitter [5]] 2) Secure your home, close storm shutters, and secure outdoor objects or bring them indoors. 3) Turn off utilities if instructed to do so. Otherwise, turn the refrigerator thermostat to its coldest setting and keep its doors closed. 4) Turn off propane tanks.· Avoid using the phone, except for serious emergencies. 5) Moor your boat if time permits. 6) Ensure a supply of water for sanitary purposes such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill the bathtub and other large containers with water.
As an additional tip that I recently learned, you can fill plastic bags with water and put them in your freezer to prepare for extended power/water outages. These will stay cool longer than bottled water in your refrigerator.
If you're in one of the evacuation areas and haven't yet followed the instructions or aren't able to do so, make sure to seek shelter and follow the appropriate guidelines. [4]
Take a moment and look up your local news station's Facebook / Twitter and subscribe, optionally via SMS so that when the power goes out, you still have a method of receiving realtime updates (provided cell coverage doesn't go down / get inundated with emergency requests).
As a bonus, there's a pretty awesome #HTML5 canvas wind visualization demo that updates in realtime [6]. Some pretty slick techniques there, so view the source [Luke].
Feel free to add your own resources in the comments. I'll edit the post to add the most helpful resources.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
[/caption]
[/caption]
[/caption]
There's been a lot of active discussion about the state of AOL's directory project, 
I often get asked for my Skype address, sometimes in relation to business or casual conversation. I politely decline with some degree of hand-waving about my reasons, and suggest an alternative form of communication (typically either 
As 
