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Ramblings

Bloviating:
to you, from me.


Chide me if you will.
algot@runeman.org

All photos in this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, unless specifically stated otherwise. If something written seems worth your time and effort, use it under the same license.

Thu, 03 Jun 2010

Web Site - Website

AP Stylebook has "gone with the flow" and now recommends the usage of "website" instead of "Web site" which was the former recommendation.

If nothing else, it very clearly shows that the Internet, as modified by Tim Berners-Lee, has really entered our consciousness. It was only 1991, just 19 years ago that the main use of "web" was spider webs. Sir Tim's first server went online (formerly: "on-line" and "on line") in August of 1991. The World Wide Web protocol has changed that, obviously, but unlike many technology ideas, this one isn't the province of just geeks. It isn't a term stuck in some server room or in use by just role playing gamers.

The Web is a basic element of our speech and writing. We are comfortable with it, enough so that print dictionaries which "just" recently added the Berners-Lee Web to their pages are already out of date. The tendency we have to contract and compact our language has taken a mere linguistic blink of the eye to process and accept website as the proper style. We didn't even need to bother with the intermediate step of making it "Web-site" or some such.

Associated Press Press Release: Link
Huffington Post Article: Link
Wikipedia Berners-Lee Article: Link



posted at: 16:17 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Wed, 28 Apr 2010

Meat under Patent?

My understanding of the Kosher laws is very poor, but I checked, and Pig (pork, ham, bacon, etc.) is on the list of animals which should not be eaten. And, it is clear that the patent application by Monsanto isn't going to make much difference to those who adhere to Kosher rules. I wonder if it will matter much to the rest of us if Monsanto gains a patent on the meat of pigs, though. Thanks to the Jewfaq.org descriptions of Kosher dietary rules.

The world intellectual property organization (WIPO) has in hand a patent application from Monsanto which wants a patent granted by them to effective "own" any pig meat which make better human food by "incorporating healthy lipids containing stearidonic acid into swine feed products". WIPO Link

I don't think I have anything against genetically modified (GM) food products, per se. What troubles me is that the corporate patents related to these modified foods give unreasonable control over food chains. Think about it, food chains controlled by corporations. Saving harvested seed for subsequent planting is against the law when seed patents are granted. "Buy seed from me or don't plant at all!" seems to be what the GM patents say.

gmwatch.eu>



posted at: 17:16 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Tue, 27 Apr 2010

Voice of the People

The state legislature of Oklahoma recently voted an override of the Governor's veto of bills requiring women considering an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and a description of the fetus' condition. The senate vote was 36-12 and described by Senate President Protempre Glenn Coffee, "The voice of the people has spoken, twice now this session in the Senate and twice in the House, and I sincerely hope those who would reverse the people's voice would think twice before acting."

I guess 36 senators are "the voice of the people" because it is their vote that draws his description.

Since I'm not from Oklahoma, I put my Massachusetts legislators on notice that they are not "my voice". I'll voice my own opinions, thank you very much. Sometimes I'll even approve of the votes you take. If I am sufficiently moved, I'll notify you of my opinions. If I am disgusted with your performance as representative of my interests, I'll vote against you in the next election.

My primary expectation of you is that you work to craft laws which will lead to the benefit of the state's citizens, and those who are just passing through. Do that by carefully reading the bills put before you and actively seek advice from those who will be impacted by your vote.

CNN Story



posted at: 16:58 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Fri, 23 Apr 2010

Doughnuts

My family legends include the invention of the doughnut (doughnaught, donut) by "The Widow Joralemon" who opened the first doughnut store in 1673 in New York City. The legend is also repeated online in a Geneology of the Joralemon family.

I dont make doughnuts, though I've no doubt eaten many. It did come as a real surprise, seeing these donuts. The ones on the left of the photo are large ones, bigger than Dunkin' Donuts serves.

Though I was tempted, I was in Washington, DC as a chaperone for the King Philip Regional Middle School, and I didn't think I should display such gluttony as to eat a foot wide donut. Maybe all six of us chaperones could have shared it. Maybe all 60 plus students could have shared a bite. If you go to DC, check the cookie shop at the Union Station food court.



posted at: 14:23 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Wed, 14 Apr 2010

Bus Stop Ratios

This morning, I saw a new high in adult-to-child ratio at a bus stop for young children waiting for the morning bus ride to school.
4 adults : 3 children
Enough, already.



posted at: 07:10 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Mon, 12 Apr 2010

Remote Contribution

There was a conference at Yale University a few days ago. The topic was Open Education Resources and was sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation. I didn't attend. I wish I could have done so, but I did the next best thing because somebody associated with the conference promoted using Twitter and the hashtag #oerhf to generate comments from those who attended and from people like me who just decided to join in.

You may also want to go to Twitter and look at the full transcript by doing a search of the #oerhf hashtag. My comments will be interspersed with that full record along with the others who made the effort to post on Twitter. My "contributions" are in the order I made them. Looking at the transcript, you will be looking in reverse order. That's the nature of Twitter's process, keeping you up-to-date with most recent posts at the top.

The full conversation is pretty rich, considering that it is composed of posts limited to the maximum of 140 characters at a time. I suppose that one major benefit is that 140 character limits keep one person from monopolizing the conversation with big blocks of text...even though the following list seems like I'm monopolizing, remember it is just my posts, here.



posted at: 13:23 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Twitter and Conferences

No it isn't the same as being there.

Still, it is better than I expected. Twitter is letting me keep abreast of a meeting on Open Education Resources going on right now at Yale. One of the people I follow on Twitter is attending and I got her tweet about an hour ago. Her tweet used the hashtag (#) #oerhf which many others are also using as they report and discuss the conference.

Because people are familiar with Twitter (relatively speaking) it may be easier to get remote participation going for meetings with this tool than with other tools. It is easy to set up a Twitter account. It is easy to get to a Twitter page. It is easy to post a short comment. The hashtag "system" makes it easy to get to the shared conversation without worry about using multiple reply addresses.

If you want to take a peek, go to Twitter.com and search for the hashtag. Use the whole tag including the hash mark/number symbol: #oerhf You can also find out more about the conference at a Cloudscapes link.

One quirk that needs to be taken into consideration: People retweet so their own followers will get benefit of comments seen as useful. If retweet includes the hashtag, then some comments get repeated many times. While a quirk, it is also a measure of usefulness/value as seen by the retweeters.



posted at: 13:20 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Sat, 03 Apr 2010

Too Much Effort

Yes, I'm sure there was a real reason, but I cannot help seeing this photo as evidence of terminal laziness.

It was just TOO DIFFICULT to push the cart another 10 feet.

image: cart corral too far away

posted at: 08:46 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Sat, 27 Mar 2010

Twitter Analysis

As time has passed, I have become more comfortable with Twitter and Identi.ca as tools for my "professional" life. Each depends on selecting people to follow. If I select the right people, I'll get a stream of useful information and links that the list I follow think is interesting enough to include in a Tweet/Dent.

Today, I read a blog entry from a Twitter link of jasonhiner. The blog entry talked about Twitter statistics using Tweetstats where I entered my own Twitter User name "algotruneman". I found out a variety of information in graph form. I'll show a couple here, but you can see them all by entering my user name in the blank on the tweetstats site.

image:Twitter Stats

You can see the pattern over time of my blogging along with the interesting average of 1.9 tweets a day. There are hourly graphs and more. Try your own account, of course, and try some accounts of those you follow. I am not sure if the stats are ever restricted. Graphs for all the people I tried all showed up.

Another tweet lead me to Sleeping Time. It uses the pattern of a person's tweets to show when they DON'T tweet and assume that you are asleep when you aren't active as a tweeter.

image:Sleep based on Twitter

Neither of these sites provides much important data, I suppose, but it was interesting to see what coders do with open, programmer friendly APIs. Checking myself wasn't as interesting as checking others. They are more prolific than I am, and probably have more interesting lives, too.



posted at: 15:29 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Thu, 25 Feb 2010

Too Little, Too Late?

BBC Headline: "Microsoft Closes Spam Network"

Microsoft being given credit for using a court order to force the shutdown of Internet access for command and control computers that run a network of compromised computers that are responsible for masses of spam.

Microsoft is doing good work here.

However, isn't Microsoft's combination of computer domination and severe vulnerability a bigger issue?

Microsoft is getting the good headlines, in part, because its Windows operating system is rife with infestations of viruses, to the point that everyone using a Windows computer needs to install a program that block viruses, malware and the netbots mentioned in the BBC article. The anti-virus program business is booming. There are more than a dozen competitive products for sale to remove the threats to which Microsoft's system software is vulnerable. The vulnerability isn't new. Microsoft's gradual development of its operating system went from the venerable DOS, to Windows various versions. Initially a single-user operating system, Microsoft's improvements through the versions of Windows have not made the computers very secure.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8537741.stm

Antivirus Software List: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antivirus_software



posted at: 17:23 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Sat, 23 Jan 2010

Parties

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme court effectively told me I am a second class citizen. Before yesterday, I had freedom of speech that amounted to something. Today, the 22nd, I have only "freedom of whisper". Corporations can spend much more money to flood the television channels, radio stations, maybe even Google ads than I can. Their ads/speech are a result of their financial success. With few exceptions, few individuals have the financial power of corporations.

Christian Science Monitor Article
Corporate Personhood Legal Timeline

Party politics currently trump the balance of power established in the United States Constitution. By joining a political party, people partially replace their individual political voice, letting the "machines" of parties direct policy. We elect representatives from our districts and senators from our states, but that connection to us is blunted and replaced by a connection to the established order of the parties. We do not elect independent thinkers. We elect followers of the party leadership. 60 vote "super majority" vs 40 vote foot dragging, what a travesty of representative democracy.

What's next?

The Walmart Party
vs.
The Insurance/Banking Party

How will my voice carry so my free speech matters?



posted at: 06:47 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Wed, 20 Jan 2010

Landshark --> Sun Life Stadium

Recently, we've been seeing television ads for Sun Life with people representing the company making a pitch to people like KC and the Sunshine Band. They want to rename it "KC and the Sun Life Band".

Well, it wasn't all just a silly ad series. It looks like Sun Life, a Toronto, CA insurance company may have created the ad series to prepare us for this:
The Pro Bowl and Superbowl games, as well as Dolphin games starting in the fall, will be played in Sun Life Stadium.

The ad series is effective, I guess. I'm sure I'll remember the ads when I am watching the Superbowl. Good job to the people who designed the ads to lead up to the actual naming of the stadium. On the other hand, I probably will not change insurers, any more than I'm jumping to Geico, Progressive or Amica, companies that are also advertising heavily here in Massachusetts.

NFL.com Story

posted at: 17:59 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Mon, 18 Jan 2010

Fresh or Frozen?

When fish is delivered fresh halfway around the world, it must travel by air. If it travels frozen, it can go by truck, train or ship, using less fuel. That translates into a benefit for cost, but more importantly it is an ecological benefit.

Do your part at the supermarket. Buy frozen when fresh comes from far away. Buy fresh when it is reasonably local to do so. If you are even more bold, ask the server if foods that come from far across the globe are "fresh" which would indicate they have travelled by air. Order responsibly, based on the answer you get.

Learn more with these links:

New York Times Opinion Piece.
Ecotrust Research



posted at: 16:33 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Support a Colleague

Sean Powers, editor of Linux Journal magazine, and his family lost their house to a fire. If you read the magazine or use a GNU/Linux system, you may want to help him bridge the gap until he and his family can get into a new house.




posted at: 09:53 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Thu, 19 Nov 2009

New Tweets

Recently my followed tweets have been pouring in. Using Echofon as a Firefox plugin has worked well for the most part, but when I have a bunch built up, Echofon doesn't do the job at the moment. It doesn't show the whole list of "new" tweets. So I have resorted to going to my Twitter home page where it is easier to scroll down through several pages of tweets I have not read. Echofon works fine if I only have a few to read since I last checked.

The big news, though is the "new tweet" notification. The page itself doesn't update live, instead, I am advised to refresh the page in order to see the new information. I think I actually like the process better than having the page jump to update each time a new tweet arrives. That would make the page difficult to read during times of frequent updates. The NFL scores page does a live update, but the update is confined to an unchanging block so the screen does not jump when information changes. Suddenly appearing tweets would cause a problem because they would produce a new "paragraph" at the top for each tweet and push the rest of the page downward. I like this solution to the need to check for updates.

The page refresh is easy, too. Just click on the notice and the page refreshes with the new tweets right at the top; easy!



posted at: 16:35 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Sun, 15 Nov 2009

Plagiarism

One of the many "sins" of students is plagiarism. In the papers students write, their own statements and opinions need to stand on their own. Any words that came from others are to be attributed, preferably with a clear reference to the source and an in-text acknowledgement of the original writer.

Teachers have taught the lessons. Teachers have enforced the rules by lowering grades. Teachers have done their part.

It would seem that some segments of our population have chosen to ignore the training that they did receive. While lobbyists don't seem to mind that they get quoted without attribution (and without quotation marks, either), it is clear that congressional staffers and perhaps even the congress members themselves don't remember the "Do Not Plagiarize" lecture from elementary, middle, secondary and college classes they took. I wonder if law school has a "Go Ahead, It's Really Okay" plagiarism lecture?

The following quotation (two separate paragraphs) is from the article "In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists'" the New York Times By Robert Pear Published: November 14, 2009.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world's largest biotechnology companies.
...
In separate statements using language suggested by the lobbyists, Representatives Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri and Joe Wilson of South Carolina, both Republicans, said: "One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country. Unfortunately, many of the largest companies that would seek to enter the biosimilar market have made their money by outsourcing their research to foreign countries like India."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html?_r=1&ref=politics

I happen to agree with the sentiment expressed. In general, it seems wise to keep as many jobs in the U.S. as possible. It doesn't surprise me that the representatives mentioned in the quote agree with the jobs-for-Americans sentiment. Democrats as well as Republicans were supplied and apparently used lobbyist statements, according to the article. So what's the problem?

Well, at a minimum, I would hope that neither of these congressmen ever, with plagiarism of a lobbyist or not, ever reiterate the phrase "Our public schools and teachers have failed". It is clearly not the failure of education, but rather the failure of individuals to do the right thing. Every member of Congress has had a quality education, some from public schools, but also some getting education from high priced private schools. Each and every one of them was given the "Do Not Plagiarize" lecture many, many times. Choosing to ignore the lecture is a personal decision. It is not a wise decision. The lecture was given repeatedly because the principle of self expression is important.

Fortunately for most members of Congress, the majority of the public they serve don't read the Congressional Record, and reports abound that fewer Americans are reading the news, and this blog...well, sure!



posted at: 10:28 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Fri, 23 Oct 2009

Leaders and Followers

Twitter and Identica are two "Social Media" channels on the Web. Their value to me is mixed. The "fault" causing mixed value isn't the services themselves, I believe. The fault comes from the list of individuals I choose to follow. Each of them has a perspective that either interests me, or could interest me.

It has been a few months that I have had accounts on Twitter and Identica. I don't follow too many people, but I get at least 100 entries to read from each service each day. To keep abreast of the services, I use a Firefox add-on, Echofon in a couple of versions, TwitterFox and IdentiFox. They sit in my status bar and show me how many messages have come in since I last looked. They allow me to pop up the unread list and deal with the messages as I wish. It works out well. Nonetheless, I don't do much with many of the messages.

Many of the messages are the semi-random thoughts or observations of the individual. Sometimes the observation is mildly interesting. Other times it is completely forgettable, and I just skim through to be sure I didn't miss something significant. Some of the messages have links in them. The message calls my attention to information that my "source" has found interesting. I follow some of the links and get to information that I appreciate and would not have encountered without the link.

In some ways, the service provides value because of the ratio of "leaders" to "tweeters". In this case, I am suggesting that a tweeter is mainly leaving a clutter of comments that are easy to ignore while a leader is someone who gives me information I want to further pursue. My satisfaction with Twitter and Identica depends on having a high leader/tweeter ratio. I think it also requires that I keep myself under control by limiting the absolute number of people and or tags I try to follow. I believe that at some point, even high value messages would overwhelm me as I add too many sources to the list of those I follow. It's a little like high volume mailing lists where a large number of people send messages. At some point, too much of a good thing is indistinguishable from spam.

How do you select your sources on the social networks?



posted at: 08:00 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Tue, 13 Oct 2009

Who Owns My Thoughts?

Copyright applies immediately as I post this blog entry to the Internet. As I understand the law, there is no requirement that I go through a registration process. Does that mean I own the ideas expressed by these words?

I don't think so. I am not egotistical enough to consider my thougts unique. It is probable that others are considering this exact issue during the moments I type. Having specific ideas "just for myself" might, at best, be appropriate for thoughts I wouldn't want to express anyway. If writing and posting is my goal, it makes sense that the things I say are suitable for others to consider. The written words might be important to somebody. It is unlikely, but possible. If an expressed idea catches attention of one other who passes it along to a couple of others who also pass it along, the idea has the potential to have impact. Unless the idea is spread, it might as well stay trapped within my skull, not written here.

Now, I understand that copyright doesn't give me ownership of the idea I have expressed in writing, just the specific expression: my selection of words, combined in sentences and grouped into paragraphs. Someone who recasts my thoughts into their own style isn't stealing anything. Copyright only prohibits someone from duplicating my exact expression, and doing so in an extended way. Copyright acknowledges fair use of my exact words for things like education, commentary, etc. Even then, most people understand that they should refer back to me as the source of the copied expression. Indeed, it is common to make "reference" so that my original work validates the writing of another which expands on it, explains it, or refutes it.

Ideas that stay in my mind alone, if they are unique, cannot benefit others. Such ideas, unexpressed, might give me joy, but only to me. Power of ideas really comes through thier expression, dissemination, adoption and implementation. Ideas gain in strength only if they attract attention from a bunch of people who think about and act on them. At best, my ideas will lead to my celebrity/fame/infamy. Attaching the idea to me is the work of others who point (refer) and say "This great/insane idea is his!"

The idea is more important than the expression, in the long run, anyway. Many of the most powerful ideas are the associated with religion. Strong beliefs are commonly religious and the more people who cluster around a particular religion, the more "power" it can exert. Adherents of a particular religion express tenets (important fundamental ideas) from texts that are officially recognized by the religious hierarchy. I believe that many of the most important of these ideas are essentially duplicates from one religion to another. Sharing common beliefs does not diminish the ideas, nor do the ideas break because they are held as important by groups who don't agree on everything. The shared ideas probably should be recognized as even more significant because they are shared. Sadly, it seems to me, religious groups seem to focus on the things that separate the groups instead of on the shared ideas.

The upshot of what this post says is: If you like what you read here, think about it, talk about it with others, expand upon it, enrich it with your own layered thoughts. I do not own the thoughts. They are only useful if I share them with you, and the ideas only have the chance to be powerful if they become widespread. Good luck.



posted at: 09:06 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Wed, 23 Sep 2009

Symbolism is Important

Software patents are silly. A computer program is composed of math algorythms. It isn't a piece of ownable property. Tomorrow is an activism day. Join in.


[Image used with permission]

http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/



posted at: 15:28 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Mon, 07 Sep 2009

Plate Progress

In another section of this Web site, I am doing a photo "collection" of the licence plates of the United States. Yes, it is a nearly mindless pastime. I drive around parking lots near my house looking for cars with plates I don't have. I live just a little over a mile from the renamed Natick Mall (now the "Natick Collection"). The next mall along Route 9 is Shoppers' World. I believe it was the second mall in the U.S. Even though retailers complain that they aren't making money now, the parking lots are pretty full.

I started in January (the 3rd) and, as of today, September 7th, I have only 9 US plates to go. I wonder if I'll get them all by the end of the year. The "long tail" effect should reduce that possibility. Long tail refers to the least likely events at the ends of the famous bell curve or "normal distribution" in statistics. The belly of the bell curve is tall because the frequency of events in it are larger than the frequency of the events at the tails.

Some random observations: