Sunday, June 26, 2011
Creating charts in ColdFusion
If you are charting two lines, one with more data points than the next (as when you chart year to date vs. previous year), cfchart will make the lines equal length. You can change this by switching to isInterpolated="false" in the cfroot\charting\styles\default.xml file. Credit for this solution goes here.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Monday, June 06, 2011
trains
i think often that i love trains
but i forget
the love was not my own
just as America was not theirs
my love of trains
comes from a college class
mate who told me stories
of history
how the auto won
beat the train
with its dependency on something stable
such a mistake
to need tracks
but i forget
the love was not my own
Date: April 8, 2005 1:52:25 PM EDT
but i forget
the love was not my own
just as America was not theirs
my love of trains
comes from a college class
mate who told me stories
of history
how the auto won
beat the train
with its dependency on something stable
such a mistake
to need tracks
but i forget
the love was not my own
Date: April 8, 2005 1:52:25 PM EDT
Monday, May 30, 2011
What brought you back to spirituality?
guess you could say i read about it
i was reading lots of things in college
but really i don't know
slowly it slipped in
i let my guard down
left my mind open
and my heart expanded
Date: July 5, 2005 3:58:47 PM EDT
i was reading lots of things in college
but really i don't know
slowly it slipped in
i let my guard down
left my mind open
and my heart expanded
Date: July 5, 2005 3:58:47 PM EDT
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Song of the Flame
There's something wonderful about stove top coffee
The gushing sound of the water pouring into the cup
A brief parting of the silence in the still of morning
Instant coffee foaming as it transforms from solid into liquid
The foam that comes from within, swirls to the top, and settles
resting
It is the process more than the outcome:
Rinsing the pot, filling it, lighting the range.
The gas sings a little
There's something about waking up
and that song played around the flame
it parallels my brain and the thoughts beginning to alight
But truly it is none of this
Though I appreciate all these things
They are story composed on top of feeling
That for so long I knew not how to explain
But I can tell you this:
There were sailing trips
With me and my dad
Just the two of us in a little boat
And we were close in feeling but rarely in words
these trips tended to close the gap
And I would wake to a small propane range
Singing it's little morning song through the flame
I having just stirred to the sounds in the galley of a pot being rinsed.
I would wait to hear the rumbles of the boiling water
Then sit up and watch my father
He would place a cup before me
and one where he would sit
and he would pour the coffee in my cup
the foam swirling to the top
And he would pour coffee in his cup
And that swirl would come to the top
And I had a feeling I could not explain
Except to say
I love stove top coffee in the still of morning
originally composed 2011 May ?
read at Art House 2011 May 5 with the title "Stove Top Coffee"
The gushing sound of the water pouring into the cup
A brief parting of the silence in the still of morning
Instant coffee foaming as it transforms from solid into liquid
The foam that comes from within, swirls to the top, and settles
resting
It is the process more than the outcome:
Rinsing the pot, filling it, lighting the range.
The gas sings a little
There's something about waking up
and that song played around the flame
it parallels my brain and the thoughts beginning to alight
But truly it is none of this
Though I appreciate all these things
They are story composed on top of feeling
That for so long I knew not how to explain
But I can tell you this:
There were sailing trips
With me and my dad
Just the two of us in a little boat
And we were close in feeling but rarely in words
these trips tended to close the gap
And I would wake to a small propane range
Singing it's little morning song through the flame
I having just stirred to the sounds in the galley of a pot being rinsed.
I would wait to hear the rumbles of the boiling water
Then sit up and watch my father
He would place a cup before me
and one where he would sit
and he would pour the coffee in my cup
the foam swirling to the top
And he would pour coffee in his cup
And that swirl would come to the top
And I had a feeling I could not explain
Except to say
I love stove top coffee in the still of morning
originally composed 2011 May ?
read at Art House 2011 May 5 with the title "Stove Top Coffee"
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Kiddush English translation
A year or so ago we were given the honor of saying the blessing over the wine
at a very happy occasion. We said the traditional Hebrew but wanted a
more modern English version so we slightly modified a version we
found online to read. Sharing just in case anyone else could use it.
Blessed is G-d
ruler of the universe
who has created the
fruit of the vine
at a very happy occasion. We said the traditional Hebrew but wanted a
more modern English version so we slightly modified a version we
found online to read. Sharing just in case anyone else could use it.
Blessed is G-d
ruler of the universe
who has created the
fruit of the vine
Monday, May 16, 2011
2 roads diverged in a yellow wood*
Consumed with thoughts from 3 in the morning
My mouth sometimes ran wild like my mind
Only hindered by my friend
Who said he didn't put much stock in thoughts of the night
Wait...until morning
It happens still
I sit awake
Snuggled closely with my love
But even in marriage we can be alone
Just for moments, but even in the best of company
we can be alone.
And I know it is the solution but i hate the thought of it
Wait...until morning
And though the fear is there
So to is an inspiration
A 3 am epiphany may scare the soul
question a lifetime.
Feeling so real, so novel, so right
and in that moment when you are sure it is genius
when you are ready to change it all
just remind yourself
in a still small voice
Wait...until morning
*"You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem – very tricky."
-- Robert Frost on The Road Not Taken
originally composed 2011 May 4
read at Art House 2011 May 5
read at Symposia 2011 May 12
My mouth sometimes ran wild like my mind
Only hindered by my friend
Who said he didn't put much stock in thoughts of the night
Wait...until morning
It happens still
I sit awake
Snuggled closely with my love
But even in marriage we can be alone
Just for moments, but even in the best of company
we can be alone.
And I know it is the solution but i hate the thought of it
Wait...until morning
And though the fear is there
So to is an inspiration
A 3 am epiphany may scare the soul
question a lifetime.
Feeling so real, so novel, so right
and in that moment when you are sure it is genius
when you are ready to change it all
just remind yourself
in a still small voice
Wait...until morning
*"You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem – very tricky."
-- Robert Frost on The Road Not Taken
originally composed 2011 May 4
read at Art House 2011 May 5
read at Symposia 2011 May 12
Sunday, May 15, 2011
my poetry
As one of my previous entries indicates, I have been doing a lot of thinking about who I am and what I am doing with my life. Over the past few years I have largely not been writing. From time to time during that period I have thought I was through the writer's block and celebrated a single work as a come back only to return to rarely picking up a pen and writing drivel when I did so.
Some serendipitous events recently brought me back to the pen. About a month ago changes at work had me wondering about the course of my career there (the restack, which I later came to terms with). I realized my life balance between work and writing had shifted so much that work was all I had. In the past both work and writing were significant parts in my life. If there was a dark cloud in one, I could step out from under it into the other. This helped me have a good attitude in both places in the past. But without writing, I was left in the rain.
Then, I saw Il Postino for the first time. Years ago I would have imagined myself as Neruda hoping to someday reach his stature, but I found I related to Mario and was envious of his ability to express the beauty in his small town. (I must admit that I was influenced by knowing the real life story of Massimo Troisi which was revealed in the DVD special features.) Finding my aspirations relating to Mario instead of Neruda reminded me how a high school English teacher said he found that as time went on when he read Jean Anouilh's Antigone he related more to Creon than Antigone. Still, what was important for my writing was that I saw the story of writing igniting the flame of life in someone at a time when I sought to stir the smoldering ashes in my writing life.
I realized that though I had always wanted to be a famous and critically acclaimed poet that maybe I could just be me. I could write without amazing ambition. Maybe I could just write for the poem and not for me. I was lucky enough to have a conversation some years back with David Amram (he did the music for one of Art House's productions plays) and he told me something that makes more and more sense to me as a life lesson: loose yourself in what you do, do what is best for the project, become part of what the group creates.
These realizations led me to pick up the pen now again and actually produce a few pieces that I could consider sharing. As I mentioned previously, I had tried to write a few times recently but maybe my aspirations blunted me, but whatever the case what I produced were just a collection of words on the paper, nothing worth repeating. However one night's insomnia led to my composing and the success of that writing led me to picking up the pen again.
A few days later I went to see a friend's one person play. To see an artist delve into a new medium (it was her first time acting per se) with such success was inspiring. Afterwords a mutual friend encouraged me to read at the next Art House open mic and I returned to the mic a couple days later.
But there was one more realization to be had. All these year's I had been saving my poems for The Collected Works of Bill Rood but now I was resigned to write for the poem's sake and not my fame. So I realized I might as well put the poems up on my blog and not keep them caged up at home--let them out to meet new people. After all, this is about them not me.
I've decided to try to publish a poem a week on this blog. In keeping with my new thoughts on it being about the work and not me (again inspired by David Amram) I decided to publish with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. I'll schedule them to post on Mondays at 7 PM EST. I have two new works scheduled and if I am unable to come up with new ones I will present older ones.
One thing to realize about my poetry is that typically I write for performance, so some of the conventions on the page are meant more to guide my performance. Also, another quirk is that I write at the end of the poems where I have performed them and when. I've always tried to not reread a poem at the same reading so back when I was active this became a necessary convention.
So what's left is for me to be me and compose little written creations. I hope you enjoy.
Some serendipitous events recently brought me back to the pen. About a month ago changes at work had me wondering about the course of my career there (the restack, which I later came to terms with). I realized my life balance between work and writing had shifted so much that work was all I had. In the past both work and writing were significant parts in my life. If there was a dark cloud in one, I could step out from under it into the other. This helped me have a good attitude in both places in the past. But without writing, I was left in the rain.
Then, I saw Il Postino for the first time. Years ago I would have imagined myself as Neruda hoping to someday reach his stature, but I found I related to Mario and was envious of his ability to express the beauty in his small town. (I must admit that I was influenced by knowing the real life story of Massimo Troisi which was revealed in the DVD special features.) Finding my aspirations relating to Mario instead of Neruda reminded me how a high school English teacher said he found that as time went on when he read Jean Anouilh's Antigone he related more to Creon than Antigone. Still, what was important for my writing was that I saw the story of writing igniting the flame of life in someone at a time when I sought to stir the smoldering ashes in my writing life.
I realized that though I had always wanted to be a famous and critically acclaimed poet that maybe I could just be me. I could write without amazing ambition. Maybe I could just write for the poem and not for me. I was lucky enough to have a conversation some years back with David Amram (he did the music for one of Art House's productions plays) and he told me something that makes more and more sense to me as a life lesson: loose yourself in what you do, do what is best for the project, become part of what the group creates.
These realizations led me to pick up the pen now again and actually produce a few pieces that I could consider sharing. As I mentioned previously, I had tried to write a few times recently but maybe my aspirations blunted me, but whatever the case what I produced were just a collection of words on the paper, nothing worth repeating. However one night's insomnia led to my composing and the success of that writing led me to picking up the pen again.
A few days later I went to see a friend's one person play. To see an artist delve into a new medium (it was her first time acting per se) with such success was inspiring. Afterwords a mutual friend encouraged me to read at the next Art House open mic and I returned to the mic a couple days later.
But there was one more realization to be had. All these year's I had been saving my poems for The Collected Works of Bill Rood but now I was resigned to write for the poem's sake and not my fame. So I realized I might as well put the poems up on my blog and not keep them caged up at home--let them out to meet new people. After all, this is about them not me.
I've decided to try to publish a poem a week on this blog. In keeping with my new thoughts on it being about the work and not me (again inspired by David Amram) I decided to publish with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. I'll schedule them to post on Mondays at 7 PM EST. I have two new works scheduled and if I am unable to come up with new ones I will present older ones.
One thing to realize about my poetry is that typically I write for performance, so some of the conventions on the page are meant more to guide my performance. Also, another quirk is that I write at the end of the poems where I have performed them and when. I've always tried to not reread a poem at the same reading so back when I was active this became a necessary convention.
So what's left is for me to be me and compose little written creations. I hope you enjoy.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
On the Wings of the Phoenix
The phoenix you are expecting tonight
was just a bird before becoming ashes and dust.
Ashes like me, dust like you.
The phoenix itself was just a bird
and it had to fail to become a story.
That is, if it’s true that death is a story
or if it’s true that death is failure
if it’s true that death is anything at all.
The story of the phoenix tells us
that which can burn always has hope.
The phoenix was just a story, a myth
but in so many retellings it is alive.
Either reborn or never having died.
A life is just a story
and a life remembered sounds like myth
creating the moment and space
to be reborn in many retellings.
They say that which reaches too high
will fall from the sky.
Like the boy or the bird
and the wings that burnt.
But those same stories say
from the flames of the sun
the boy Icarus became an ocean;
the phoenix bird never died.
The hero you is just a myth with a thousand faces
retelling the story that anything can fly.
You are mainly water
but there’s hope --
you can still burn
originally digitized 2008 May 3
edits on 2008 May 12
read at Rebirth, part of the Cathedral Arts Festival 2008
was just a bird before becoming ashes and dust.
Ashes like me, dust like you.
The phoenix itself was just a bird
and it had to fail to become a story.
That is, if it’s true that death is a story
or if it’s true that death is failure
if it’s true that death is anything at all.
The story of the phoenix tells us
that which can burn always has hope.
The phoenix was just a story, a myth
but in so many retellings it is alive.
Either reborn or never having died.
A life is just a story
and a life remembered sounds like myth
creating the moment and space
to be reborn in many retellings.
They say that which reaches too high
will fall from the sky.
Like the boy or the bird
and the wings that burnt.
But those same stories say
from the flames of the sun
the boy Icarus became an ocean;
the phoenix bird never died.
The hero you is just a myth with a thousand faces
retelling the story that anything can fly.
You are mainly water
but there’s hope --
you can still burn
originally digitized 2008 May 3
edits on 2008 May 12
read at Rebirth, part of the Cathedral Arts Festival 2008
untitled poem
I’m going through a time
which one might say
that’s all life is
and I’m trying to accept
that I can try
even though maybe I won’t
be a superstar.
See for a lifetime
I had to be famous
if I was going to try
if I would bother to live
but now
maybe it is ok
to try
but just be
just succeed to be ... me
originally composed 2011 May ?
read at Art House 2011 May 5
which one might say
that’s all life is
and I’m trying to accept
that I can try
even though maybe I won’t
be a superstar.
See for a lifetime
I had to be famous
if I was going to try
if I would bother to live
but now
maybe it is ok
to try
but just be
just succeed to be ... me
originally composed 2011 May ?
read at Art House 2011 May 5
Saturday, October 09, 2010
digital writing and reading
Jan Swafford argues that we read differently on paper and offers experience with students editing their writing on paper. As the article of his paper states he is arguing "why e-books will never replace real books." I wonder though if advances in touch screens will change this.
Ever since realizing that our cat appears to understand that I interact with an iPad but he seems to have no clue that I'm moving a cursor on the desktop with a mouse, I've wondered if touch screen is significant. Hearing stories of children that take more readily to iPad than desktops furthers this. Maybe what is really significant is that we now have a combination of touch screen and gesture based interfaces that is subtly revolutionary. "Subtly" because it may be the kind of revolution we only notice in retrospect.
The revolution will come when we are able to edit text with sweeps of the fingers and gestures that seem to hold the text itself it will be more visceral than using a pen or pencil. Currently the experience of writing on paper is more directly connected to the words and letters than typing on a keyboard that makes characters appear elsewhere on a screen. However with advances in gesture input and touch screens (or possibly motion sensors) may bring us an experience that is even more connected to the experience of bring words to the page/screen.
By-the-way, I find the cartoon from Swafford's article funny, so I had to include it.
Political Parties and Genetics
I was impressed when I read in one of Steven Pinker's books that identical twins separated at birth tended to vote along the same party lines. I thought of the idea again when I came across The Psychology of Conservatism Academic Press, by G.D. Wilson. According to wikipedia "His 1973 theory that a heritable trait reflecting fear of uncertainty underlies social attitudes in all fields has much empirical support." According to Wilson the fear of uncertainty leads to conservative beliefs. (Do not read "fear" with bias though, I think a better choice of word would be "dislike".)
What I find compelling is the idea that maybe our genes lead us to have certain reactions based on certain emotions. Obviously there's no GOP or Democrat gene, but I find the idea that some people are more likely to react with a yearning for traditional values (maybe a certain nostalgia based sense of security) when exposed to uncertainty and fear does work for me. In other words the idea is that when presented with a certain stimulus some people are genetically predisposed to have a certain emotional response and this response tends to fall along certain political party values.
This then makes it a strange thing to debate political parties. Sure we can debate specific issues and possibly come to consensus across party lines, but the overall party is emotionally based and that's not something you can argue someone into changing themselves on (most of the time). I should disclose that I've always been skeptical against having a debate over whether one party is better than another, so I'm predisposed towards believing in the science that agrees with me. :)
This then led me to wondering if the political party in power matters for the overall economy. If in truth the economy has very little to do with politics or government (with a few rare exceptions). Of course we should vote for the politician that upholds the values and platform that we think is right, but I'm not sure we should vote based on the overall economy although we probably always will since it may be an emotional reaction that reason can't best.
It also had me thinking about the graph of the US GDP versus which party is in power. I can't find it now, but it showed that for the past 100 years or so the economy improved with Democrats in power and went down with Republicans in power. At first I thought this might be meaningful of who you should vote for, but now I am not so sure. If times of uncertainty and fear bring out conservative values then we'll have Republicans in power then. Times of fear and uncertainty are probably bad economic times (certainly at least with consumer confidence) so we have low GDP. Instead of the party being causal, maybe its just reflective. This would certainly be true if in general the government really has only a minor impact on the overall economy.
All of the above is just musing though and nothing I'm really sure about except that I do believe our genes can lead us to have certain reactions based on certain emotions and this has predictive implication.
What I find compelling is the idea that maybe our genes lead us to have certain reactions based on certain emotions. Obviously there's no GOP or Democrat gene, but I find the idea that some people are more likely to react with a yearning for traditional values (maybe a certain nostalgia based sense of security) when exposed to uncertainty and fear does work for me. In other words the idea is that when presented with a certain stimulus some people are genetically predisposed to have a certain emotional response and this response tends to fall along certain political party values.
This then makes it a strange thing to debate political parties. Sure we can debate specific issues and possibly come to consensus across party lines, but the overall party is emotionally based and that's not something you can argue someone into changing themselves on (most of the time). I should disclose that I've always been skeptical against having a debate over whether one party is better than another, so I'm predisposed towards believing in the science that agrees with me. :)
This then led me to wondering if the political party in power matters for the overall economy. If in truth the economy has very little to do with politics or government (with a few rare exceptions). Of course we should vote for the politician that upholds the values and platform that we think is right, but I'm not sure we should vote based on the overall economy although we probably always will since it may be an emotional reaction that reason can't best.
It also had me thinking about the graph of the US GDP versus which party is in power. I can't find it now, but it showed that for the past 100 years or so the economy improved with Democrats in power and went down with Republicans in power. At first I thought this might be meaningful of who you should vote for, but now I am not so sure. If times of uncertainty and fear bring out conservative values then we'll have Republicans in power then. Times of fear and uncertainty are probably bad economic times (certainly at least with consumer confidence) so we have low GDP. Instead of the party being causal, maybe its just reflective. This would certainly be true if in general the government really has only a minor impact on the overall economy.
All of the above is just musing though and nothing I'm really sure about except that I do believe our genes can lead us to have certain reactions based on certain emotions and this has predictive implication.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
eReaders - iPad vs. Kindle
The predictions that Amazon is making about paperback sales are interesting. I like their customer centric stance even if I'm just the tiniest bit skeptical when they say the price cuts are all about the customer -- thing is, it shows they have their eye on the right spot. The chatter around the new Kindle is interesting and has little to do with the device as the message that comes with it. I feel like Kindle vs. iPad is like the past Presidential Democratic primaries in how there were a number of runners but its really about two different candidates. I keep rethinking my position on what I think will happen and what I want to happen. However, my basic idea has been that Kindle (and to a lesser extent other eInk devices) will be for that small set of the population who's always been publishing's core audience. Ipad readers will be where bestseller breakthroughs occur and the average person has a copy of maybe a couple books like Da Vinci Code or the Twilight series. The challenge of a bestseller has always been to hit both core audience and average person, but now that is complicated by a need for the content to bridge devices/platforms.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
What Kindle and iPad eBook sales may mean
The predictions that Amazon is making about paperback sales are interesting. I like their customer centric stance even if I'm a little skeptical when they say the price cuts are all about the customer, because it shows they have their eye on the right spot (customer). The chatter around the new Kindle is interesting and has little to do with the device as the message that comes with it. I feel like Kindle vs. iPad is like the past Presidential Democratic primaries in how there were a number of runners but its coming down to two different candidates. I keep rethinking my position on what I think will happen and what I want to happen. However, my basic idea has been that Kindle (and to a lesser extent other eInk devices) will be for that small set of the population who's always been publishing's core audience. Ipad readers will be where bestseller breakthroughs occur and the average person has a copy of maybe a couple books like Da Vinci Code or the Twilight series. The challenge of a bestseller has always been to hit both core audience and average person, but now that is complicated by the need for the content to bridge devices/platforms.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
The price of freedom and free is vigilance: Facebook privacy thoughts
A friend posted within Facebook about how we should all read the article "Facebook privacy" on the Library at the End of Time
My first thought is if Facebook worries you, what do you think about Google (and I'm well aware of who pays for this blog)?
This seems to be the new internet business model (which I would credit my friend, but he's the one who will later be revealed as very privacy conscious):
1. figure out what kind of data is valuable to data mine
2. figure out a free service that people will want to use that collects said data unobtrusively
3. sell the data after you mined enough for it to be valuable (or earlier since a lot of people do not understand statistics well enough)
There's a lot of new business books out there these days about how to monetize "free". The thing about free is that someone always pays for it. You are reading this content for free and I can afford to give out a few thoughts for free, but I still need a day job to pay for this leisure time and my thinking and opinions will be influnced by that. But what's more important to focus on is blogger.com or facebook.com and not my little blog.
A site that has massive numbers of users like Facebook requires massive hardware and someone has to figure out how to pay for that. I'm not justifying it -- I'm saying that's the thinking you need to go through to sniff out privacy concerns. And you may not find them or you may not find them yet. The price of freedom and free is vigilance.
Although lost privacy worries me, I don't think any of it is malicious. I think the big problem of evil is that its usually done by those thinking they are doing good (if you're familiar, see my omelet poem). Frankly, I'm undecided on whether the new world of lost privacy is all together bad, but weighing the pros and cons consciously should be essential to any societal shift. Anyway, part of the motivation of Facebook aside from profit is to improve data quality. Although Facebook does so much better at targeted advertising then something like TV, the data really isn't as good as it could be and some want to improve it.
There's also an interesting study that shows the majority of people on a social network do not interact with people outside the social circles they would interact with in the physical world. This is relevant to those who say just dropping off Facebook completely is not an option. Sure social networking makes it all easier, but like with most luxuries we don't use it the way you would expect. They said in the 1950s that housework would take up less of our lives because there were now all these new efficiencies from washing machines, vacuums, dish washers and the like. But instead we found ways to keep the house cleaner, bought more things to clean, and spend about the same amount of time at it. I think the same may be true of social networks: we are not using it to expand the network or spend less time maintaining it, we are merely diving into the details a little more and spending about the same amount of time on it.
I'm speaking of course about the majority of people and not fringe groups like those that are called "addicts" (which seems to be the initial response for many who then calm down after their first exposure).
I have a friend who does not do any online social networking. He has a Facebook account but it's with a pseudonym and there's no identifying information on it. So he keeps in touch with what's going on but doesn't share anything. He does his networking the old fashioned way. I think if you did the same you might end up giving up a certain amount of yourself merely based on Google searches which reveal more about you than any normal Facebook status update (he actually gets around that but it requires vigilance and skill).
So what I think about vacuums, dishwashers, and Facebook is that we always give up a little something, but we seem to do our best to bring it back to the status quo, somewhere where the familiarity brings a feeling of safety. And this I think is what you are up against when you want to warn people of the dangers within: they've naturally brought this new thing into a safe spot in their lives.
And Facebook? They were sold to a parent company long ago and parent companies do not take in little orphans to shelter and protect them. Parent companies want to very quickly raise the children up so they can go out into the world and have a real job making profit. And Facebook costs a lot to run because of the massive number of people who use the site. And just as most parents get worried about you not reaching your potential, the parent company is always going to push the child to make the most profit (parent: "what? you have an advanced degree and you're working in retail?").
But I do not say these things to say "this is how it is" and "the battle is over". Instead it is merely: know what you are dealing with (both regarding Facebook itself and the average Facebook user) and know what you are looking for.
My first thought is if Facebook worries you, what do you think about Google (and I'm well aware of who pays for this blog)?
This seems to be the new internet business model (which I would credit my friend, but he's the one who will later be revealed as very privacy conscious):
1. figure out what kind of data is valuable to data mine
2. figure out a free service that people will want to use that collects said data unobtrusively
3. sell the data after you mined enough for it to be valuable (or earlier since a lot of people do not understand statistics well enough)
There's a lot of new business books out there these days about how to monetize "free". The thing about free is that someone always pays for it. You are reading this content for free and I can afford to give out a few thoughts for free, but I still need a day job to pay for this leisure time and my thinking and opinions will be influnced by that. But what's more important to focus on is blogger.com or facebook.com and not my little blog.
A site that has massive numbers of users like Facebook requires massive hardware and someone has to figure out how to pay for that. I'm not justifying it -- I'm saying that's the thinking you need to go through to sniff out privacy concerns. And you may not find them or you may not find them yet. The price of freedom and free is vigilance.
Although lost privacy worries me, I don't think any of it is malicious. I think the big problem of evil is that its usually done by those thinking they are doing good (if you're familiar, see my omelet poem). Frankly, I'm undecided on whether the new world of lost privacy is all together bad, but weighing the pros and cons consciously should be essential to any societal shift. Anyway, part of the motivation of Facebook aside from profit is to improve data quality. Although Facebook does so much better at targeted advertising then something like TV, the data really isn't as good as it could be and some want to improve it.
There's also an interesting study that shows the majority of people on a social network do not interact with people outside the social circles they would interact with in the physical world. This is relevant to those who say just dropping off Facebook completely is not an option. Sure social networking makes it all easier, but like with most luxuries we don't use it the way you would expect. They said in the 1950s that housework would take up less of our lives because there were now all these new efficiencies from washing machines, vacuums, dish washers and the like. But instead we found ways to keep the house cleaner, bought more things to clean, and spend about the same amount of time at it. I think the same may be true of social networks: we are not using it to expand the network or spend less time maintaining it, we are merely diving into the details a little more and spending about the same amount of time on it.
I'm speaking of course about the majority of people and not fringe groups like those that are called "addicts" (which seems to be the initial response for many who then calm down after their first exposure).
I have a friend who does not do any online social networking. He has a Facebook account but it's with a pseudonym and there's no identifying information on it. So he keeps in touch with what's going on but doesn't share anything. He does his networking the old fashioned way. I think if you did the same you might end up giving up a certain amount of yourself merely based on Google searches which reveal more about you than any normal Facebook status update (he actually gets around that but it requires vigilance and skill).
So what I think about vacuums, dishwashers, and Facebook is that we always give up a little something, but we seem to do our best to bring it back to the status quo, somewhere where the familiarity brings a feeling of safety. And this I think is what you are up against when you want to warn people of the dangers within: they've naturally brought this new thing into a safe spot in their lives.
And Facebook? They were sold to a parent company long ago and parent companies do not take in little orphans to shelter and protect them. Parent companies want to very quickly raise the children up so they can go out into the world and have a real job making profit. And Facebook costs a lot to run because of the massive number of people who use the site. And just as most parents get worried about you not reaching your potential, the parent company is always going to push the child to make the most profit (parent: "what? you have an advanced degree and you're working in retail?").
But I do not say these things to say "this is how it is" and "the battle is over". Instead it is merely: know what you are dealing with (both regarding Facebook itself and the average Facebook user) and know what you are looking for.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Scala
Through a friend's influence I decided to play around with Scala. The easiest way to install it on OSX is macPORTS, according to the O'Reilly book. Turns out macPORTS had two curve balls for me. The first is that at work we have all remote rsync disabled, so I had to use this setup:
modified /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf to not use rsync with this line:
http://www.macports.org/files/ports.tar.gz [default]
synced ports tree with this line:
sudo port -d sync
Then when I went to sync it turns out the name of the port had changed to include the version number so when you tried to "install scala" you were told "Please one of the numbered scala* ports instead". Now I see what the message means but when it first appeared the awkward phrasing threw me. Anyway I googled it, google translated a Japanese blog and found the answer which I have below.
_____
bash-3.2$ sudo port install scala
---> Computing dependencies for scala
---> Fetching scala
Error: Please one of the numbered scala* ports instead.
Error: Target org.macports.fetch returned: obsolete port
bash-3.2$ port search scala
[...scala27...scala28...]
bash-3.2$ sudo port install scala28
modified /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf to not use rsync with this line:
http://www.macports.org/files/ports.tar.gz [default]
synced ports tree with this line:
sudo port -d sync
Then when I went to sync it turns out the name of the port had changed to include the version number so when you tried to "install scala" you were told "Please one of the numbered scala* ports instead". Now I see what the message means but when it first appeared the awkward phrasing threw me. Anyway I googled it, google translated a Japanese blog and found the answer which I have below.
_____
bash-3.2$ sudo port install scala
---> Computing dependencies for scala
---> Fetching scala
Error: Please one of the numbered scala* ports instead.
Error: Target org.macports.fetch returned: obsolete port
bash-3.2$ port search scala
[...scala27...scala28...]
bash-3.2$ sudo port install scala28
Saturday, April 10, 2010
ISNI
I heard about the The International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) at O'Reilly TOC and figured I'd look into it later. On the one hand as one who dabbles with code and system design, any standard that gives a code to a name is great. And the more open, the more people that sign up, so the more likely it is to be a practical standard (as opposed to a academic standard, which is theoretically great but no one uses it). However, the immediate thing that strikes me about it is 16 digits (really 15 with a check digit). Really once you hit more than 7 (+ or - 2) then no one can be assumed to memorize it, so just go way high with the number so that it'll be replaced as a standard before you run out. Give it 32 digits because no one is memorizing 16 or 32 and really cut and paste is going to be the method of transmission, not memorization in human brains.
Still that's a small point and probably not an issue for ISNI. What they aim to do is give a numeric code "to the Public Identities of Parties that participate in the creation, production, management or distribution of cultural goods in the digital environment." Which like I said, if its adopted it is great.
Another numbering agency that got into conversation was ISTC which makes numbering for the works themselves. Again adoption is key, but if you're putting out documents, why not register with everything and just list a bunch of different identifying numbers?
Still that's a small point and probably not an issue for ISNI. What they aim to do is give a numeric code "to the Public Identities of Parties that participate in the creation, production, management or distribution of cultural goods in the digital environment." Which like I said, if its adopted it is great.
Another numbering agency that got into conversation was ISTC which makes numbering for the works themselves. Again adoption is key, but if you're putting out documents, why not register with everything and just list a bunch of different identifying numbers?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Quilly Little Hedgehog
We saw a wonderfully written and directed film called "The Lives of Others" about the secret police in East Germany and suddenly I knew how to write a poem based on a poetry group assignment about a headless hedgehog. I had also just heard that in Poland hedgehogs are abundant (I gather its like squirrels in Jersey).
"The Quilly Little Hedgehog"
The quilly little hedgehog
rolls into a ball
he is able
he is able
The quilly little hedgehog
waddles along
life roles on
life roles on
The quilly little hedgehog
survives in Poland
rolls in numbers
rolls in numbers
The quilly little hedgehog
hides his head to danger
he is headless
he is headless
The quilly little hedgehog
sees despair in others
he has vision
he has vision
The quilly little hedgehog
never saves another
he is safe now
he is so safe now
"The Quilly Little Hedgehog"
The quilly little hedgehog
rolls into a ball
he is able
he is able
The quilly little hedgehog
waddles along
life roles on
life roles on
The quilly little hedgehog
survives in Poland
rolls in numbers
rolls in numbers
The quilly little hedgehog
hides his head to danger
he is headless
he is headless
The quilly little hedgehog
sees despair in others
he has vision
he has vision
The quilly little hedgehog
never saves another
he is safe now
he is so safe now
Year in Review
We are starting a new New Year's Eve tradition, creating a year in review canvas. We have created one the past couple years. It starts with canvas board (26" x 32") and various markers, pencils, and paints. We spend the night remembering events and doodling about the past year to create a sort of drawn collage of the past year.
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