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Quote of the Day

I have an ever increasing respect for Matt Damon. To me, he seems less like an actor pretending to be a political activist and more like a political activist who happens to be an actor. He definitely has the mental capacities to back it up where other actors have just used their fame as a platform without the brains required to support their stance.

…change comes from the bottom up; always has, always will. “That goes for today, too. We can’t wait for Barack Obama to just fix things. We have to be in his ear. That’s our job as engaged citizens. –Matt Damon [Source, OpenNews.com]

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State of Me

Wait a minute! What’s this under my feet? A sandbar! In the middle of the ocean! Okay, yes, the tide is rising. Quickly. But for the moment, however brief, my head is above the water without me having to kick my legs in a frantic panic.

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Dorm Room Flashback

The in-laws must be cleaning out their garage. The children brought home a huge box of highlighters. So I started thinking, "What could one do with so many highlighters?" Then I remembered Clement Hall room 308 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. That was my room. The walls were the color of an 80s computer that had been used too long. Dingy. Gray. Like a light but wet modeling clay. And the walls were cinder block.

A fun trick for the frequent traveler who stays in hotels a lot is to leave a message on the bathroom mirror using a light application of chap stick or other oil. Done correctly, the message remains invisible until a hot shower steams the mirror.

Highlighters on cinder block painted in that gray color work the same. Draw the highlighter art by turning off the normal lights and turning on black lights. The art in room 308 was quite intricate when my friends and I were done. When the black lights are turned off and the normal lights turned on, the highlighter disappears. Turn the black lights on and feel like you stepped into a Jimmy Hendrix black light poster.

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And the rugged got pulled out…

Have you ever been building up to make that leap? You know, the leap of faith. The one where you commit your whole self even though you aren’t sure you should but you do anyway and you are ready to put your all into it. And all the while you are gearing up to make the jump, someone else runs past you and just does it. It’s kinda like that. But that’s okay.

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There is a cure for Windows dependency

My computer experience looks a little like this: Atari 2600 -> Atari 400 -> Timex Sinclair -> Commodore 64 -> DOS boxes -> Apple ][ -> Apple ][e -> Apple //c -> Macintosh Classic -> Solaris workstations, AS 400, Next Box, CM5, VAX, ramdom flavors of Unix machines -> Mac Performas (etc), PCs (Windows 3.1, 3.11, 97, 98, 98se, Windows 2000 server, XP, Vista, 2003 (blah blah name it) -> Linux (Ubuntu primarily). In the end I find myself surrounded with PCs with loads of Microsoft software. So everything I write is dependent upon the Microsoft Office suite, software I install requires Windows and so on. Granted, I have Linux development servers because much of my work is in a LAMP environment. That is until my primary machine died horribly and while I was recovering it, I was forced to spend most of my time on my Ubuntu workstation.

After working for a couple of weeks on Ubuntu and relying heavily upon Google Docs, I learned that I love cloud computing. Cloud computing is using applications that are primarily accessed over the Internet. Twenty years or more ago, Bill Gates said this is how all our computing would be and that PCs would revert to being dummy terminals. The nice thing about cloud computing is your data is accessible anytime, anywhere, from any machine, as long as you have an Internet connection; this is also the bad thing. Your data is exposed to 3rd party companies that may go out of business or change ownership or malicious people may find ways to expose your data to the world. You must weight the risk versus the benefits.

osalt_logoAnother option is open source software. Many alternative software directories are ready to help you find a free alternative to the commercial software you love. My favorite is osalt.com. For example, search Photoshop, osalt points to GIMP. I’ve been using Quickbooks Pro since 1999 (actually earlier but 1999 was my most current version). So for 10 years, I have used financial software that was out of date. I cannot find the discs and desperately need a new solution. Many exist! including buying the current version of Quickbooks. A search of osalt found PostBooks which is free although some people are confused by their commercial offerings. Don’t be quick to discount open source software just because of the price. Free does not mean bad. For instance, I now favor GIMP over Photoshop in some instances. Soon I may wonder why I ever used Quickbooks.

Do you have any experience with Postbooks? Your thoughts?

See also GNU Cash h/t Jonathan Hickman of traveling at godspeed.

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First Red Balloon Found! DARPA Balloon #6!

Okay…first red herring found. How will we deal with similar misinformation tomorrow?

balloon1DARPA has issued a challenge so that it can study study how to solve large scale problems with social networks. All day today people have clamored to create teams in preparation for tomorrow’s red balloon hunt. Tomorrow from 10am eastern time to 4pm local time 10 red weather balloons will be anchored near roads throughout the United States. The person who finds all ten balloons and reports their GPS coordinates will receive $40,000.

Rather than forming a team, I am offering $1000 to the first person who reports the correct coordinates of any of the 10 balloons to me if I am able to win the prize. Read the details here.

Where is red balloon #6?

Okay, the contest doesn’t start until 10am tomorrow. But you can see red balloon #6 here and see the rest in DARPA’s gallery. This post begs an interesting question. How will we distinguish the red herrings? The false information? Each entrant only gets 25 guesses. How many ghost will we chase between now and December 14th?

Get at least $10 from this

I will pay $10 a retweet to each of the first 100 people who retweet the following message on Twitter if I win the challenge. No money rewards will be paid if I am not the first to report all 10 red balloons. Be sure to follow @djuggler.

Help @djuggler win the DARPA challenge. $ rewards for balloons and RTs; http://3.ly/10luftballoons #10luftballoons

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Air America Cruise Round 1 ends

If today’s live poll on Air America blog is any indication about the results of the first round of the cruise contest, Digsby jumped from position 20 into the top 5. Joe Jervis moved from position 11 into the top 5. And no one was successful in knocking Mike Lux, Karl Frisch, or Pam Spaulding out of the top 5. I hope I’m misinterpreting this and that Aunt B of Tiny Cat Pants actually made it into the top 5.

Update: Yes, here is the round two page.

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All I want for Christmas is 10 red balloons

Update: Winner declared! As expected, the MIT team won.

If I win, I will share $1000 with each person who was first to correctly identify the location of a balloon.

I will pay $10 a retweet to each of the first 100 people who retweet the following message on Twitter if I win the challenge. No money rewards will be paid if I am not the first to report all 10 red balloons. Be sure to follow @djuggler.

Help @djuggler win the DARPA challenge. $ rewards for balloons and RTs; http://3.ly/10luftballoons #10luftballoons

I’ve always been fascinated with the DARPA challenges. I through for sure I could be a contender on the first DARPA automated car challenge but I could not figure out how to devote all my time to development and still feed my family. I guess that’s part of the challenge. There are many other challenges out there like the X-Prize. These are usually gone after by universities and corporations (I think). Now DARPA has one that is right up my alley. Tomorrow, December 5th, 10 red balloons will be launched in the United States. The places are specific. The person who finds all 10 is rewarded with $40,000. DARPA is studying how to solve large scale problems with social networks.

9910 red balloons.
floating in the summerwinter sky.
Panic bells, it’s red alert.
There’s something here from somewhere else.
The warDARPA machine springs to life.
Opens up onemy eager eye.
Focusing it on the skysocial media.
Where 9910 red balloons goTwitter by.
[Source, eighty-eightynine, Lyrics: Nena – 99 Luftballoons (99 Red Balloons); modified by Doug McCaughan]
See the interview with 99 Luftballoons English version author Kevin McAlea.

DARPA Red Balloon ChallengeI believe the large networks of the Internet social media celebrities will get the balloons. However, I’m going to have a shot. I’m registered and soliciting your help If you see a large red balloon with a number on it, please twitter a DM to @djuggler, email juggler@gmail.com, Skype djuggler or call me (865)686-8693 with its location and if possible its GPS coordinates. If I win, I will share $1000 with each person who was first to correctly identify the location of a balloon. A correct location is GPS coordinates with an error of less than 1.0 mile. That means if you are first to correctly tell me where balloon #3 is and I find the other #9 balloons and win, you get $1000 after I receive the prize money. DARPA has pictures of the balloons here.

Related

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The noose

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State of Me

Ambivalent. I am tired. Instead of picking one of the sticky notes from my monitor and working on its task, I can only cycle through the top 3 and think about how each is more important than the other while none get done. My mind also keeps thinking about Commercialmas being 22 days away. It can become Christmas again once I know I will have happy children on the 25th. I think I need to step away from the computer and collect my thoughts.