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I took the high road

This morning I was the lead car at a traffic light. As it turned green, a car zipped around me and pulled into my lane in front of me. My blood boiled. As we approached the next light, the car signaled and without waiting for an opening cut off the car beside me to squeeze into the right lane. I put my car in park, got out and approached his car. With angry words already composed in my head, I raised my first to pound on his window, but before I did, I noticed his company uniform and I considered the time. I imagined he is probably trying to get to work 3 minutes ago, possibly on his last reprimand with a boss who does not understand his obligation to his family. Perhaps he is a single dad trying desperately to get his child or children to school and fighting traffic to get to work on time for a check that maybe barely makes the bills. I lowered my hand and walked back to my car. Perhaps he saw. I’d like to think that he did not. I do not need to add to this gentleman’s stress.

The next time you are ready to lash out, take pause and consider the other person’s situation. Perhaps today we are all better without the confrontation.

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Either genius or stupid

Depending on your perspective, this is either a genius or not very brilliant solution to a cat problem. The kittens have taken to chewing electrical cords. At $80 a cord, Apple is loving our kittens. So, I’ve decided to train them away from cords…by squirting them with water when I see them chewing a cord. I think it is a spark of genius! One way or another, this problem will end.

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NODE+ unboxing

I won a NODE+! I’ll write more later. Have a client deadline to work on. In the meantime, here’s the video with credits and links below it:

CREDITS

Variable Technologies NODE+ with +clima and
+therma sensors by Doug McCaughan

Visit http://variableinc.com for more info

Visit http://realityme.net for more videos

Disclaimer: Node+ won in a contest by Variable
Technologies; however, this is NOT a paid
endorsement. All reviews by Doug are unbiases
and honest.

Links within the video include:

Product page: http://variableinc.com/

“NODE+motion helps stroke survivors heal at
home” http://goo.gl/7pTAUl

“Figure 8 teams up with NODE+chroma to
match any color paint” http://goo.gl/v51LXY

Special thanks to Variable Technologies

Thanks to the viewer for watching the video

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You call this news?!

With the current state of paywalls and news organizations, I am pretty sure I could grab a handful of journalist students from a university and put a hurt on the Boston Globe or Scripps Newspapers such as the Knoxnews. Yes, you read that correctly. I believe am amateur hack like me plus a handful of inexperienced young journalists could take on the major publishers and win.

Why? Because they have forgotten their core business is delivering news! And don’t whine to me about monetization. Or that I don’t understand the challenges of funding a news business because from the looks of it the big organizations don’t know how either! I’ll rest my case with this screen capture of Boston.com. Look closely for the story. There is none! Why? Probably because I’m not logged in. All it shows is a tabloidish title "Builders of Obama’s health website saw red flags" designed to drawn in pageviews then a webpage full of links to social networks, unrelated articles, and a couple of ads. This is not news:

bostonglobe