BANKSY
Which so much reminded me of the work of hugh
Then I stumbled across this...
"A guide to blagging things
One Never write a guide telling other people
how to blag things"
BRILLIANT!
Walk with me in Brooklyn after midnight
to the intersection of Old Fulton and Water streets
directly beneath the Brooklyn Bridge
walk with me half a block from the disaster relief kitchen
to Fulton's Ferry Landing
to look out across the East River
the smouldering Manhattan skyline
radiating the eerie stark white glare of
thousands of emergency lights
the remaining buildings silhouetted, standing
as silent sentinels around their fallen comrades
...
Our team is working the second shift - 6:PM to 6:AM
The midnight snack, hot hamburgers, have been cooked,
packaged, and shipped to the rescue workers
the night air is soft
with our chores done until breakfast a group
of us decide to go have a look at
ground zero
the silence of the Brooklyn Bridge is almost
deafening - the bridge is still closed - pedestrians only
from the height of the bridge span - there is a wonderful panoramic
view of New York City
bridge is closed because there is nowhere to
go on the Manhattan side - emergency vehicles only
but there are people out - walking, standing, red-eyed policemen,
exhausted national guard, fire men and women, rescue personnel,
red cross volunteers, news crews
spectators
and the displaced - New Yorkers, heart broken, hopeless and lost,
just wandering around...
...
Hastily erected cyclone fences keep all but
the authorized a full block away from
ground zero
everywhere there is a dull gray layer of
concrete dust - covering everything, plants,
window sills, cars, streets
I've never been to a war zone, but I have been to
ground zero
from our vantage point - a block away we
can see across an empty lot directly into the
smouldering remains of the World Trade
center
I've never been to a war zone, but I have been to
ground zero
I spent a number of years working the
ambulance as an emergency medical
technician - responding to horrendous
automobile accidents and all manner of
human insults and injuries
my heart has been broken many times
... and then I went to ground zero
with disaster relief I have responded to numerous
floods and tornadoes
my heart has been broken many times
...and then I went to ground zero
...
we returned to the disaster relief kitchen,
shaken and feeling empty
we sat silently on the sidewalk, outside the
kitchen compound in a semi-circle of street
light
she appeared out of the darkness, like an
apparition, standing just at the edge of the
light, smoking a cigarette
she was trying to decide if she would
approach or not
she sat stiffly, quietly chain smoking -
offering one and two word answers to our
initial questions
She said, "I've been having trouble sleeping..."
then she said
My land lady had called me from the
apartment downstairs, said something was
going on, something about the World Trade
Center, she said go down to the street - Old
Fulton street, to see
stepping from her apartment door and
turning right gave her a full view of both
towers - one already involved from the
impact of the first plane
then as if in a dream she watched the second
plane approach and slam into the
second tower
her description becomes vague - I assume that
she stood and watched in shock as the
situation unfolded before her very eyes
retreating to her apartment only when the
huge dust cloud crossed the East River and
swept into Brooklyn right past her door
...
sitting with us is the shell of a woman, a
woman who's heart is broken, a woman who is
lost, a woman with no hope
a woman who needs to tell and retell her
story - and we must listen
because listening is our only real ministry
listening is the only christian act of charity
available to us in the immediacy of this
catastrophe
As I was writing an apologetic sounding resolution that I would no longer dislike, criticize, haranguing, or otherwise dis Microsoft I came to this stunning realization... the Redmond giant occupies only a small niche market seat.
How many microprocessors are there out in the world?
How many microprocessors out in the world actually run a Microsoft OS?
Of the many choices available which microprocessor and OS is the next consumer going to run right out and buy?
My guess is it will be a Tweener or a Twenty-something buying either an music device or a cellular device. Priced in a range that is accessible to either of those target markets.
NOW HERE IS THE QUESTION WORTH SHOUTING ABOUT... How long will it be before PC manufactures realize that interfacing not with the device but with the device's OS will become paramount in the next big cyber-techno push? Wouldn't a PC running Symbian interface better with a phone running the same OS?
If God had meant for us to be naked, we would have been born that way.
[Borrowed from Slackware Linux|Fortune]
THINKING
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at cocktail parties. Now and then -- just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker. I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time. That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What exactly is it that we are doing here?"
One day the boss called me in to his office. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find employment elsewhere." This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking ..." "I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" "But honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!" "That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently. She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door. I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors... They didn't open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. As I sank to the ground, clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "*Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?"* it asked.
You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster. Which is why I am what I am today: a Recovering Thinker.
I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I believe the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.
Today, I registered to vote as a Republican.
Scoble made the crashing declaration "I love the new MAX but..." citing several values that he found appealing in the new MAX. So I downloaded the beast to see it for my self. Very slick! Installed politely and started promptly -- indeed, wonderful graphics and very cool user interface.
And then the illusion began to crumble... Strange!!! None of the links worked. Mouse-over indicated that the system was 'alive' but nada, zip, zero, ziltch... yo no connecto [sorry, alliteration carried me away.] Seems that MAX suffers from a low level Microsoft condition: Proprietary-ism!
Yupper, just another example of Microsoft insisting, demanding, coercing, assimilating users into the Microsoft Blorg. Seems that MAX doesn't like to play nice when FireFox is designated as the default browser. I verified this by manually designating IE7 as the default and MAX started working like a charm[ing snake].
So, Microsoft has done it again. I will reset my browser default to FireFox and discard MAX. Simple as that. Seems like a HUGE amount of work on Microsoft's part, work well done to be simple shelved. But...I am just ambivalent about MAX.
Bums - as we are affectionately known are Roadies. Renown far and wide in the music and entertainment industry for our professionalism and our integrity. We get them loaded in, we set the show up, we leave them alone, we tear down the show, load it and get them on their way, in record time.
"This ain't our first rodeo."
Nashville Star is hitting the road this summer to perform a series of concerts across the country!
Featured on the Nashville Star Tour will be this season's final four contestants -- Nicole Jamrose, Matt Mason, Casey Rivers and Chris Young -- along with John Bohlinger and the Nashville Star Band.
Each of the four Nashville Stars will have their own block of time on stage. The show will open with the first of the four contestants to be voted off the show performing their own set of music, including original and cover material. The show progresses through each of the finalists in the order they were eliminated, until we reach the Nashville Star Winner!
After more than two decades together, 38 SPECIAL is still playing more than 100 shows per year. And at every one of them, thousands of audience members are completely blindsided by the power and muscle of the band's performance. "When we come out, people are like, 'Whoa! It's like a freight train rolling over them'" says vocalist/guitarist DON BARNES. While most associate the group with its arena-rock '80s pop smashes, these days the band's harder edge is what is immediately noticeable. Barnes says it's all about maintaining the intensity that they deliver in their live shows.
On Influence and Automation
a marketing and technology blog, douglas a karr, indianapolis, indiana
HP will be hoisted in its own petard... Doug, you nailed it!
Corporate Arrogance
You told me what you were going to sell me. I told you how I wanted it. You told me when I would get it. You delivered it to me when you said you would. You delivered what you said you would. You delivered what I asked you to. I paid you. You thanked me. I thanked you. I’ll order again soon.
It’s as easy as Pizza.
Seems that Forbes magazine in a strong proponent of the Cheap Revolution...
Technorati Tags: Cheap Revolution, Linux, Desktop
I believe the common perception of IMing is the adolescent, late at night in the privacy of TheirSpace or AIM typing short cryptic message blasts at one another. LOL, How R U?
I wish to explore another facet of Instant Messaging. The very controlled and mature deliberate conversation. IMing offers a unique facility for careful and specific communication. It can support a multi-thread model for simultaneous conversations. It can offer a retrospective or historical perspective on conversations. Its speed and the fact that it is text based provides a concise means of communicating complex thoughts in a timely fashion with some stability of the communication channel.
I have experienced conversations using IM that are both mature in nature and deliberate in context. IM is ideally suited for two or more people to engage in a near-real time conversation. Such a conversation can be deliberate in nature, by this I mean it can be concerning issues beyond anecdotal chat. Because of the "I-talk-then-you-talk" nature of IMing there is a heightened sense of turn taking courtesy. This turn taking can be refined into a multi-threaded model which I will discuss later.
Because IMing is text based it imposes certain constraints on the communicators. Clearly and concisely conveying meaning in a written format requires careful and specific word choices. Due to the "expense" of writing out each communique the sender has a tendency to be much more careful than during a typical verbal based communication session. IM sentences and phrases are much more succinct and on topic. It is inherent in this form of communication that corrections or clarifications, while employed, are also expensive and avoided at most cost. Another factor that contributes to this careful and specific communication is the "on the Internet no one can tell you are a dog" phenomenon. Careful tonal and inferential corrections must be made linguistically to prevent either mis-spoken emotion/intent or to indicate emotional/intentional content.
Because most IM programs offer Historical logging it is possible to record and then play back conversations. This provides an opportunity to review and clarify messages that were not fully developed or were misleading. Such a historical perspective also offers the reader a sense of the evolution of the topic material as well as the development of the speakers.
Once two or more individuals become comfortable with the IM medium then it is possible to change to a multi-thread model of communication. Due to the inevitable time lag (Internet transmission time as well as the ability of an individual to type) gaps in the "conversation" develop. By initiating a second or third communication line it is possible for the participants to hold two separate conversations at the same time using the same channel. It is worthy of note that this second or third "conversation" may or may not be contextually linked to the primary communication line.
IMing is a recorded technology, even if logging is not enabled. I record my message then I send it, you receive it then you play it back. This resembles the letter writing model. Because of the speed of transmission "letters" written in IM are shorter, more concise. The combination of the written message and the time lag offers a slower paced communication model. This allows the reader the opportunity to evaluate the incoming message leisurely. Responses can then be thoughtfully composed and sent. The rhythm of the conversation is preserved but is significantly faster than a snail-mail conversation. Conversely participants do not fall into the trap of having to respond immediately in a way that a telephone type or face-to-face conversation fosters.
Instant Messaging offers a unique communication experience in our cyber enhanced world. In the seeming light speed send-and-receive world of the Internet IM offers us the opportunity to actually slow down to an optimum human speed and engage in the very fulfilling exchange of ideas and information. So slow down ... If you IM me do I not read?
Technorati Tags: IM, communication, conversation
...a New Barbarian!
"We're about to see a huge tectonic shift, more dramatic than anything in the past. This is the next boom, the next big storm. Things are going to get really wild."They already are. Coleman is one of dozens of new barbarians plotting the Cheap Revolution, the wholesale shift by corporate customers and techmakers to cheap chips and open-source (often free) software such as Linux. They are embracing simplicity, unlocking prodigious new power and cutting tech costs by up to 90%, threatening the Silicon Valley plutocracy: the proprietary gear, "closed" software, redundant backup systems and fat profit margins of incumbents like
Microsoft , IBM,Oracle ,Cisco , EMC and other blue-chip nameplates.
This is a long post but it tells a very real story about Linux.
Seems the major stumbling block to the adoption of Linux is that it is not as predictable as its major competitors. (Reads: Uninitiated users cannot find what they are looking for in the places they expect to find them.)
Now this is a given…most people will forgive one small inconsistancy in an operating system, in fact, they will forgive quite a few. BUT…if you have a new user who approaches the change-over to Linux with any measure of trepidation or a pre-existing bias, “little” things soon accumulate into an intangable jumble of negatives. Maybe the user cannot immediately tell you the number of specific negatives it took to back her away from Linux. That does not make her decision any less valid, not in her mind. All she knows is that with some measure of regularity and expectation, these little things piled up until her perception tilted permanently into the negative column. And once is all it takes.Many of us know the person next door who had a bad experience with DOS and has maintained the Luddite view ever since. This is a computing thing not just a Linux thing. But it affects the way the next user might see Linux.
Robert Scoble has gone to the mountain and he has looked into the face of Google. In addition to acknowledging those things that G is already famous for 'the Scoblizer' touched on something that is at the heart of the matter.
One other small thing I noticed? A lot more blog listening behavior. Carl Sjogreen, who runs the Google Calendar team, told me that the first thing he does every morning is do this search on Google’s Blogsearch service: “Google Calendar.” He says he answers everyone’s questions, even if you’re a kid in another country with only four readers.
Bing. Small things. They are gonna prove to be dramatically important over time.Thanks Robert
In light of Hugh's revelations I can only say that being a member of the "Z" list makes life very e-Z. I am not burdened with the responsibility of determining anything within the blogosphere social structure. Ahhhhh...
With a sense of trepidation I clicked the "Ok, upgrade my Blogger accounts to the new beta version..." And then I saw the fleeting remains of the "One Way" sign that says once you upgrade you cannot go back. So, what have I done? Stepped off the Blogspot cliff and begun my rapid descent into... beta-blogging (sounds vaguely like a cardiac med, a drifting memory from my EMT days).
WOO HOO!!! Hot stuff! Google has really stepped up to the plate and hit the HOME RUN with this one!!! My compliments to the chef. Outstanding. Excellent.
There I said it.
After Sigurd walked me through a demonstration I was just blown away. And to borrow a telling line from Firesign Theatre, "Yes, kinda like having bees in your head, but there they are..."
Which in turn reminded me of this visual Commitment explanation offered by the real Hugh.
Ok, enough linguistic gymnastics. Let me cite the attribute of Thingamy that tells me so clearly that it has so much potential - Simplicity. Blown away, with bees in your head over simplicity? Yes, emphatically! (I am sure that both Sigurd and Hugh are now laughing and wondering just kind of groat clusters I have been smoking.) Yes, simplicity.
Joe Average will open his shrink-wrapped copy of Thingamy and pours it out on the table and find very few moving parts. There won't be bright shiney baubles, there won't be an excess of progromatic chrome. There will only be a Thingamy.
How then will Joe be satisfied and fulfilled by his new Thingamy? Joe will quickly realize that Thingamy doesn't impose itself on Joe's business process. It doesn't make Joe pound square pegs into round holes. Thingamy doesn't make Joe do things differently. In fact it will help Joe do the things he has always done better. It will help Joe see his business in a clear and focused light.
Business is not a game but it should be. We should all be able to play at our work as we did games when we were young. Thingamy has a characteristic that is shared with the greatest of the games we humans play. I am not sure to whom it should be attibuted but it is said that the best games have the fewest rules. Thingamy has some structure to be sure but it has only a few "rules" - making it one of the best systems for giving you the edge in the "playing" of your business.
Tomorrow I have the great honor to be able to open my "shrink-wrapped" copy of Thingamy and begin to "play"... (Oh to be young again.)
This is the list I wish some one had sat me down with...and then used a 2x4 to get my attention...
1. How to talk to your boss.
2. How to survive a meeting that’s poorly run.
3. How to run a meeting.
4. How to figure out anything on your own.
5. How to negotiate.
6. How to have a conversation.
7. How to explain something in thirty seconds.
8. How to write a one-page report.
9. How to write a five-sentence email.
10. How to get along with co-workers.
11. How to use PowerPoint.
12. How to leave a voicemail.
Thanks Guy!
