| The Night Shift |
[Nov. 30th, 2007|05:43 pm] |
There was a "night shifts cause cancer" news meme being pushed today.
When I first told my mother that I was going to be working the night shift, babysitting computers as part of a 24x7 department, her reaction was "oh, you're one of THOSE types now, are you?" Her experience with the night shift was when she was a nurse, before I was born. They had it much worse than I do. Sometimes they'd be on days, and sometimes on nights. My work schedule is all nights, completely predictable and compact: three or four 12-hour night shifts in a row, then the rest of the week off. There's not much I can get done between shifts, but the rest of the week is great for traveling.
( Read more... ) |
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| The One Laptop Per Child Program |
[Nov. 27th, 2007|11:26 am] |
I've done it! I've just ordered a really cool, electric-green, alternately-powered, network-finding, colloboratively-programmed, weather-resistent little laptop for myself, AND another one will be sent to the developing world at my expense. Not a bad little bit of holiday shopping, if I may say so myself.
I think that relying on the free market in the first world to pay for initial distribution in the third world can help get the price down if this is properly publicised. They need to have a big campaign for this Christmas. (Is Bono helping out with this? He should.)
I was in the airport two weeks ago and from across a gate lobby, I saw that CNN was doing a piece on these. Even though I'd never seen a picture of them before and couldn't even hear the sound on the TV, I could tell what they were talking about. I was like, "Oh, they are bright green? That's so cool. I REALLY want one now!" I pointed to the TV and told the couple behind me about the program. They were equally excited about it--that for a reasonable price for us, they could be helping kids in the third world in such a direct and useful way.
The software is reportedly completely innovative. Assuming that the collaborative features and network discovery/creation capability are working as described in the press, who needs a Microsoft operating sytem to run on it? I won't want one on mine. ("...recently, the firm announced that it was working on a version of Windows XP that would run on the pared down machines"...ugh.)
In case you haven't heard of the program:
One Laptop Per Child Twofer Program Extended -- today's news from FOX, which reminded me to order one
One Laptop Per Child topic index from CNN
One Laptop Per Child News both pro and con, from a variety of sources
See some pictures of it from Flickr
Then, go check out their site and order two yourself!
Laptop Giving
"The future is here, it's just not equally distributed." - William Gibson |
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| How I got my first 2600 YouTube views for Ron Paul |
[Nov. 16th, 2007|05:29 am] |
Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November
The Fifth of November is Guy Fawkes day in England, but this year, it was also the planned date of the biggest "money bomb" so far for the Ron Paul presidential campaign in the U.S. After donating my $100, I got inspired to write something a little less violent for the day than the original Guy Fawkes rhyme. After sending my new version of the rhyme to a couple of mailing lists, I said to myself, "I should really make this into a video so I can post it on YouTube and see what kind of audience I can get."
( Read more... ) |
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| Choosing a new cell phone provider |
[Jul. 17th, 2007|01:31 pm] |
So, my cell phone's battery has been pretty much dead for weeks now, just barely usable when I hold the cord in firmly to its body. I'm half-way through transcribing the numbers off it, and I'm trying to find a new cell phone provider.
I need/want, approximately in order:
- the ability to do digital stuff from the yurt: surf the web from the phone, and be able to use the phone to connect a laptop online, even if it's for a separate but reasonable fee and/or not too fast
- the ability to use the phone in Burlington, VT and good coverage elsewhere in the US for travel, without undue penalty for my location
- any kind of camera in the phone, and the ability to upload pictures...preferably not just via the company's website, like my last four years with SprintPCS
- to be able to keep my 914 area code number
( Read more... ) |
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| My new iPod, plus some Web 2.0 links |
[Apr. 7th, 2007|01:55 am] |
I now have an iPod, one of the "50 Best Tech Products of All Time." It took me an hour or two to charge it up (I didn't notice when it finished), 45 minutes to upgrade all the iTunes software and reboot the computer a few times, then JUST SECONDS to transfer a full album plus two songs over to it. Wow! I'm getting psyched to rip all my CDs into MP3s and look online for all my favorite songs that I previously purchased on cassette. Because, face it -- most of the music I have is from the '80s and on cassette tape. The iPod is set for manual sync mode, because I'll mostly be transferring the music to it at home and the podcasts onto it while at work, where I'd already been using iTunes to listen to them.
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The other thing I wanted to post here today is a short series of links about the social networking sites. I haven't read them all in full yet, but they look great and they come from a blog posting that was really interesting, about HOW libraries should use online outposts like those on Facebook and MySpace. A lot of that applies to political parties (why I got interested in these kinds of sites) or anyone trying to do outreach and engage an audience.
Summarizing Facebook Research
http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/04/summarizing-facebook-research.html
Intuitive Revelations: The Ubiquitous Reference Model
http://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/1853/8446/3/IntuitiveRevelations.pdf
Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?
http://www.danah.org/papers/FriendsterMySpaceEssay.html
Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace
http://www.danah.org/papers/AAAS2006.html
Long overdue post about library marketing in online communities
http://librarymarketing.blogspot.com/2006/05/long-overdue-post-about-library.html
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Early Sunday AM, I'll be embarking on my first roadtrip with the new iPod. I didn't buy the "car kit" for the iPod, but between my inverter and the headphones, I can get by for now. |
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| Where have you been? |
[Jan. 27th, 2007|12:08 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | travel | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  content | ] |
I found this neat little mapping service at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) amanda42's LJ. These are the states I've actually visited something in, not just driven through. I didn't count it if I never got off the Interstate or only camped overnight on my way through. If I did, all the lower 48 would be highlighted, I think. Maybe I missed Arkansas in all the criss-crossing, but I bet I hit at least a corner of it once. I haven't been to Alaska or Hawaii yet.
create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks. |
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| Hello, world |
[Dec. 28th, 2006|04:03 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | NPR, as usual | ] |
I've been going around to all the Web 2.0 sites and updating my profiles, looking for friends who are on there, too. There are so many of these sites out there! One could waste a lot of time on them, as I'm sure you've found... |
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