Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Back to the Grind In my return to work, here are some things I did not miss while away from the office: my stuffy office my drive down Interstate 95 Now, my return to work has not been that bad. it is not that busy yet on campus, as this is the winter term, and the usual number of students is not at its height. There are some other good things, though: no longer dealing with the abortive NetMail project a 1GB Lexar JumpDrive Sport was waiting for me (imagine what I can do with this) more planning on interesting projects Looks like work should be interesting so far. 2:41:10 PM    comment []  trackback []

Flame On! I have heard and read about the existence of flame wars within the blogosphere.  I am used to observing them in the newsgroup/NNTP space, but I have not seen many in the blogosphere.  Part of that, though, comes from the small number of comments I read.  That's what I get for being addicted to FeedDemon.  That said, I observed the following brouhaha resulting from this post made yesterday by my boy, DaBrettman.  I would admit that it would make perfect sense for the offended blogger to flame DaB.  Of course, the blogger in question decided that flaming DaB would not be good enough, so the highly learned blogger--Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred--decided that it would be much more appropriate to level a shotgun blast at Baltimore and its school system.  I, naturally, took exception to that and left a rather extensive comment over at DaB's place.  The bottom line is this: the Internet and the blogosphere are merely places where folks get a really cheap source to make their views known.  In most cases, very few people will read a large number of these blogs, regardless of what the recent Pew Internet & American Life survey states.  Getting an internet domain is cheap, hence access to this forum is relatively inexpensive.  Dave Winer said as much.  Thus, any kook can get their opinion aired.  It takes much more for this opinion to be respected and possibly heeded.  10:56:44 AM    comment []  trackback []

What I Did Over My Vacation Over my vacation, I enjoyed my discovery of mashups.  The following post on BoingBoing pointed out a Beatles and Beastie Boys mashup.  I need to find a place to place it for downloading goodness, though.  For now, you can find them here.   I got a couple of more interesting ones that I found: More Cowbell Eminem Polka (Disturbing, but pretty darn funny. ) I continue to be a proselytizer for podcasts to any that listen to the crap that I talk about.  Of course, that implies people listen to me.  In all seriousness, I have some links on the linkroll to the left of my posts.  Check it out if you have an iPod or other non-Apple-branded MP3 player.  Podcasts are quite similar to blogs, just in a tidy downloadable format that can be taken with you and listened to at the gym or in the car.  Unlike other forms of streaming audio, you are not tethered to your desk.  The medium is still new, though, and there is plenty of stuff that is uninteresting. They are interesting to listen to at the gym, and in some sense they allow me to time shift my listening of things when it is convenient.  There are some public radio broadcasts that have embraced this, and I hope more of them do.  For example, I would love it if WYPR would create a podcast of the Marc Steiner show.  Yesterday, I missed the broadcast of the show discussing the medical malpractice reform bill generated in last week's special session in Annapolis.  I missed it because I was going to the gym.  Now, if it were available as a podcast, I could have heard the show while working out, feeling good and smarter at the same time.  Or at the very least, sweaty and confused.  9:58:43 AM    comment []  trackback []