Reality Me

A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.

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Too much open..here comes the link dump May 17, 2009 3:04 pm

I often will see a link in Twitter or on Popurls and open it in another Firefox tab with the intention of reading it and/or blogging about it. Sometimes the link opens a picture that I want to photoshop. More times than not I skim these articles in 30 seconds and leave them for later. Eventually I dump them to Delicious tagged "toread" or "toblog" or I bookmark all the tabs in Firefox and close the window. In either case, I rarely return to the article and you miss out of mind altering, earth shattering, life changing commentary and information that sits collecting dust on an electronic shelf. One of these links could have saved the world! So, for society, I give you my tabs: (click more to read them) (more…)

Can you rely on Twitter for breaking news? August 21, 2008 10:56 am

Twitter gets the word out and fast! Twitter can spread news quickly because the news comes first hand from those experiencing it, concise (140 characters), and directly from their finger tips to a potentially worldwide audience. However, the ability to receive that breaking news has much to do with how well you, the reader, can process the stream of data; how many people you follow; and what subject/focus group captures your interest.

How many should I follow?

In the beginning we commit to following a few. "I don’t understand how people can follow hundreds or thousands. I’ll follow 10 or 20." That is how I began my Twitter experience. Today I follow 555 (yes, like the timer). A quick sidebar, if you follow 10 people who Tweet once a week each you will have a far different Twitter experience than following 10 people who Tweet once an hour. Too often we think of Twitter in "numbers of followers and following" when really it should be "ratio of following to tweets produced by those you are following." Back on topic, If you follow a small number of people your Twitter experience will be one of intimacy and learning great detail about those people. Your experience is narrow and deep. If you follow hundreds of people or thousands, your experience is wide and shallow; however, you experience a pulse like a life force on the common thread that ties those people together. If those hundreds of people are all in the tech industry, you will know what is happening in technology the instant it happens. If those hundreds of people are in the entertainment industry, you will know the gossip and dealings of Hollywood, Broadway, etc as it happens. If those hundreds are politicos, you will be informed more quickly about politics than others. And if those hundreds are locally connected, say all from Knoxville, then you will know about the happenings in your local area more rapidly than others. Of course topics bleed over. Those you follow could be local people that are into technology and politics. If those hundreds or thousands are diversely unrelated, you will get noise.

How to process the information?

Twitter’s power is in its SMS interactions. Okay, not so true. Twitter’s power is the community, the people, the audience; however, adoption of services like identi.ca, which stands to give Twitter the most fierce competition, has been slow due to lack of SMS integration. If you follow hundreds of people and something newsworthy happens, your phone will beep so quickly that you cannot possibly follow the conversation. Although SMS is very powerful for Twitter, it is cumbersome when the action is occurring. Watching Twitter in a browser is tedious and requires taking your attention away from other activities such as your job, family or playing solitaire. Using a program catered to Twitter is the best way to get the most from Twitter. For me, that program is Twhirl. Twhirl can connect to multiple Twitter accounts, Friendfeed, Identi.ca, Seemic and anything that commuicates with XMPP (and if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry, most people don’t). Twhirl sits in the background and in my peripheral vision I see its little stream move along. When I take breaks I scan it for keywords. In certain circumstances I get a ping with an alert to say it needs my attention. For the most part, I can stay connected without being distracted. And if it ever becomes a distraction, I turn it off. The problem with programs like Twhirl becomes its ease, addictiveness, and amusement. On a whim, I can send a nonsensical out and often it is directed to a single person but rather than making it a private message, I inadvertently spam 550 people (or in Barack Obama‘s case 64,140 people). Of course, maybe those 550 people want that level of interaction. For me, that remains my unanswered question, "what do these 550 people want or expect?"

What subject matter belongs in Twitter?

Your interests will dictate your Twitter experience and make it far different from someone else’s Twitter experience. I believe Twitters fall into 45 categories:

1. Exhibitionists, Voyeurs, Gossips – These are the folks that will send/read a stream of messages about the minutia of daily life
2. News feeds – These are the folks alerting the world about their experiences with the California fires, or the next big event. These are the newspapers getting the headlines out. These are people like myself alerting others that the Interstate is at a stand still.
3. Topic Specific – These would be people sharing information about a particular subject. Unlike news feeds these will often include back and forth discussions about the topic.
4. [addition to original post] Spammers – People taking advantage of the tendency to follow those who follow you simply to draw attention to a product or website. The Twitter staff and others are trying to minimize the ability for people to spam through Twitter.
5. [added Nov 5, 2008] Utility – such as how The RedCross has used Twitter to make accessing the Safe and Well database easier.

[Source, Reality Me, Put @RedCross in your Twitter]

A fifth category could be utility such as how The RedCross has used Twitter to make accessing the Safe and Well database easier. By following a topic specific group of people, you will get a pulse on the latest news regarding that topic. You will be in the know. By using a program like Twhirl, you can have multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously following different topic areas. Or by checking Twitter Search (aka Summize) you can quickly be updated on a particular subject matter. So yes, I think that you can rely on Twitter for breaking news. I think some misinformation is likely to come with the speed at which Twitter delivers that breaking news, but Twitter (and main stream media) will be quick to correct the misinformation.

See also: Who quit following you on Twitter?

Safer traffic is with less, not more May 30, 2008 1:52 pm

Michael Silence has posted that another Oak Ridge camera company (we have many: Ipix (dead), Pips, Perceptics, Aldis, others?) is attaching cameras to traffic lights. The full story is in the Knoxnews. These new cameras are being tested to replace the magnetic strips in the pavement that detect the flow of traffic or vehicles backed up at an intersection. These strips are often the bane of motorcyclists as they sometimes do not get detected and have to sit at a light forever. These cameras might be a good thing! Of course, No Silence Here commenter Joe Lance notes "Chattanooga has invested in a couple of cameras — complete with loudspeakers — that announce to illegal dumpers that they are being photographed." When do cameras cease to be a good thing?

I twitch a bit as we throw up more traffic lights, more signs, more lines on the road, more cameras, cameras, cameras. Traffic engineer Hans Monderman believes signs to be a danger to driving.

To him, they are an admission of failure, a sign – literally – that a road designer somewhere hasn’t done his job. "The trouble with traffic engineers is that when there’s a problem with a road, they always try to add something," Monderman says. "To my mind, it’s much better to remove things." [Source, Wired, Roads Gone Wild]

How does Monderman recommend building better intersections?

1. Remove signs
2. Install art
3. Let lighting illuminate both roadbed and pedestrian areas
4. Do it in the road (ie, get store fronts and Cafes closer to the road)
5. Negotiate right-of-way by human interaction instead of signs
6. Eliminate curbs

Knoxville has re-engeered roads for traffic control. Of course this project is not yet complete and Knoxville hasn’t reported on it at all much less said anything about its success or lack of success. Re-engineering roads for traffic control is not simply about removing lights and putting in traffic circles. It is about not cutting down that tree which seems so close to the road. A road with such an apparent danger causes drivers to be more alert. Re-engineering is about not straightening the roads and letting curves control speed. Re-engineering is about rethinking the paradigm by which we design our roads. I think some direct quotes from the article are in order. My favorite is when Monderman proves that designing without signs and signals works by putting hsi hands behind his back and walking backwards, blindly into traffic.

Monderman is one of the leaders of a new breed of traffic engineer – equal parts urban designer, social scientist, civil engineer, and psychologist. The approach is radically counterintuitive: Build roads that seem dangerous, and they’ll be safer.
…
He [shows] a favorite intersection he designed. It’s a busy confluence of two busy two-lane roads that handle 20,000 cars a day, plus thousands of bicyclists and pedestrians that doesn’t contain a single traffic signal, road sign, or directional marker, an approach that turns eight decades of traditional traffic thinking on its head. Several years ago, Monderman ripped out all the traffic lights, road markings, and some pedestrian crossings – and in their place created a roundabout, or traffic circle. The circle is remarkable for what it doesn’t contain: signs or signals telling drivers how fast to go, who has the right-of-way, or how to behave. There are no lane markers or curbs separating street and sidewalk, so it’s unclear exactly where the car zone ends and the pedestrian zone begins.
…
Monderman and I stand in silence by the side of the road a few minutes, watching the stream of motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians make their way through the circle, a giant concrete mixing bowl of transport. Somehow it all works. The drivers slow to gauge the intentions of crossing bicyclists and walkers. Negotiations over right-of-way are made through fleeting eye contact. Remarkably, traffic moves smoothly around the circle with hardly a brake screeching, horn honking, or obscene gesture. "I love it!" Monderman says at last. "Pedestrians and cyclists used to avoid this place, but now, as you see, the cars look out for the cyclists, the cyclists look out for the pedestrians, and everyone looks out for each other. You can’t expect traffic signs and street markings to encourage that sort of behavior. You have to build it into the design of the road."
…
In West Palm Beach, Florida, planners have redesigned several major streets, removing traffic signals and turn lanes, narrowing the roadbed, and bringing people and cars into much closer contact. The result: slower traffic, fewer accidents, shorter trip times.
…
In the village of Oosterwolde was once a conventional road junction with traffic lights [which] has been turned into something resembling a public square that mixes cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. About 5,000 cars pass through the square each day, with no serious accidents since the redesign in 1999. "To my mind, there is one crucial test of a design such as this," Monderman says. "Here, I will show you." With that, Monderman tucks his hands behind his back and begins to walk into the square – backward – straight into traffic, without being able to see oncoming vehicles. A stream of motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians ease around him, instinctively yielding to a man with the courage of his convictions.
[Source, Wired, Roads Gone Wild]

Some countries have no traffic controls what-so-ever and still function fine. We can also use traffic calming methods or make our roads play music to control speed.

Related: One way to be environmentally sound and avoid tickets is to pickup a free bus ticket from Kroger when you buy groceries!

Update 6/3/08: Knoxviews reports that Oak Ridge is considering red light cameras at the same time The New York Times reports Trolling for Trouble in the Red Light District.

Perhaps a better way to reduce red light running lies in improving the design of the intersection. Studies have shown that extending the duration of the yellow light by just two seconds has significantly decreased the number of red light violations. In Dallas, longer yellows and signs warning motorists of red light cameras have helped reduce the violations so dramatically that the cameras are no longer generating the revenue needed to keep them in operation. [Source, The New York Times,Trolling for Trouble in the Red Light District]

Update 6/4/08: Red light cameras legal?.

Test your speed. August 15, 2006 11:08 am

On August 9 I asked How fast are you? C|Net brings a new speed test service to our attention. Speedtest.net uses a snazzy graphical interface and records results. Other than making it look like the icon of the person is taking a whiz on the servers, the interface really brings this one home. I question the accuracy as it is the first service to truly rank my connection at the 6.5Mbit/s that it is supposed to be.

C|Net also offers their own meter similar to http://www.testmy.net/ and http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/.

How fast are you? August 9, 2006 11:05 pm

I enjoy writing about technology at Spy Journal Tech Tips. My lastest piece discusses Internet connection speeds. Reprinted here:

Our children will never appreciate the handshake of a 300 baud modem. The thought of transferring anything at 1200 baud is unthinkable even if we invoke the sacred z-modem. Now-a-days you are more likely to talk about megabits per second (a data rate) instead of baud (a symbol rate).

I find it amazing how our data communications have increased in such a short time. We used to drool over a T-1 connection (1.544Mbit/s). Since only businesses could afford such luxuries, people would plan weekend gaming sessions at their work place or stay late to download and surf in ways that the average home user could only dream possible. Now, your cable connection is likely faster than a T-1. Comcast advertises 6Mbit/s standard with 8Mbit/s for some extra money and is currently testing 16Mbit/s in Richmond, VA. The near future promises even better (28Mbit/s)!

What is your speed? Online testing services such as http://www.testmy.net/ and http://bandwidthplace.com/ can help you see if you are up to snuff. Your internal networking equipment can cause slowdowns so by-pass your router, hubs and other gear by plugging your computer directly into your cable or dsl modem when speed checking. You may need to power cycle the modem after connecting directly. http://broadbandreports.com/ (aka DSL Reports) is a fantastic resource when troubleshooting or investigating network speeds.

Your system software can influence speed. Tools like SG TCP Optimizer can greatly improve your Internet connection by adjusting network settings you may not even know exist.

See also It’s the latency, stupid for more understanding of speed issues. Read about hacking the Linksys router and Linksys Blue Box Router HOWTO.

[Source]

Project Done! May 2, 2006 7:19 pm

Most of the time I try to avoid talking about my work. Often it just is not appropriate. However, many people have no idea what I do. I find solutions to computer problems with a focus on web application development and database design; usually my work is in content management, inventory control, and e-commerce/point of sales. I have bid projects on automation of assembly lines, and done work as diverse as writing C++ programs with the aid of Russian programmers (that app had many millions of downloads btw). I sometimes get hands on and build computers or troubleshoot and repair systems. Often, I find some of my solutions to problems both fun and really cool.

I just completed two fun projects that each tormented me with overruns on deadlines due to technical hurdles. The latter was simply a statistical report of some tracked performance on a website. The challenge in organizing and categorizing the data came down to database design choices previously made by the client including housing some of the data in a MS SQL database and some of the data in a MS Access database. A requirement was speed so the choice was made to place as much onus on the MS SQL database for preparing the data. Unfortunately, this came down only to using some aggregate functions to get the totals and unioning a couple of tables. I did have the pleasure of writing a neat little UDF to convert a list into some table results. Because of the way the aggregate functions had to be written, the data came out neither grouped appropriately and with some unavoidably duplicate data.

Fortunately, ColdFusion now has the ability to perform queries on queries including the joining of data across different datasources. So now that I had data appropriately summed albeit out of order and with some duplicates (as stated previously), I could write a query to pull the labels from the MS Access database. All labels and details were in Access; all statistical information, referred to only by id, was in SQL. Next I used a query of query to join the resultset from the stored procedure with the result set from the Access database and now the data started to resemble something meaningful; however, duplicate information still litered the results.

ColdFusion also allows for manually building a result set. I’ve seen the unfortunate growth in popularity of the term "fake query" which is a terrible misnomer. It is a manual query result set. You, the programmer, are programmatically reproducing a set of data that otherwise would have been delivered via a database engine. So, using a loop to step through our latest result set formed from the QoQ and logic within the loop, I create a result set that combines information from the semi-duplicated rows into a single row. In the process I wrote a slick little number using a structure to hold the grand totals for each segment that I could refer to mathmatically when outputing the result set. Then I simply display the results reaching into the structure for additional information when necessary.

Wahla! Greek.

A New Day! Let’s start the day off with a PayPa… January 17, 2005 9:18 am

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

I have a feeling this is going to try to be a difficult day. I am not going to let it.

I have needs getting in the way of needs.

“I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968. Further credits to Nation Civil Rights Museum.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

What would Martin Luther King, Jr do?

Martin Luther King Jr.’s youngest daughter participated in a march in Atlanta in December 2004, in support of a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The Rev. Bernice King has said she doesn’t believe her father died to give homosexuals the right to marry.

A brief look at MLK’s life

Harry Belafonte met the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s, he promised to always assist in his mission.

A New Day! Let’s start the day off with a PayPa… January 15, 2004 8:58 am

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

* Worked with the 7yr old on a spelling practice. Had he taken the test without practice it would have been his worst. He may still not fair well.

* Worked with the 10yr old on addition and subtraction of fractions, and improper fractions. I enjoy working with the kids.

state of being

* I am angry with myself. I’ve had some great domains relating to the Tennessee Lottery for a year. I could have been promoting them and had so much traffic to them by now (the first tickets go on sale in 5 days) that I would have been solicited by the commission in some way (lawsuit, partnership, payoff..whatever) or at least been making money in advertising sales. It may be too late to recover. I need to be working fulltime on it but that doesn’t make money plus my life doesn’t really permit it. I have to start sleeping less!

* On the positive side, I began my stretching exercises again today. Those make me feel great and help me find a meditative balance in my life.

today’s goals: Finish (completely) the php/mysql project that I started [hopefully receive payment before the 19th], work on personal lottery related website [this is also a training exercise to bring me up to speed with css and rss-my skillset is starting to feel aged to me], some kind of marketing effort [hmm. I should be specific.] table toppers to several businesses, call employment agency and turn down Memphis job (they will quit working with me..one more bridge on fire), COOK!

Last Night

* found sleep near midnight

* woke from deep sleep and jumped out of bed resulting in a dizzy spell so strong that it floored me (literally)

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