From Merlin’s del.icio.us page comes a link to a Levenger 3×5 card How-To. The brief history of the index card is interesting, but I really enjoyed the tips. I know sometimes use the same card for more than one subject, and this is a habit that needs to be broken immediately.
Tag: tech
Unlike Jeff, I don’t hate Creative Commons. I just don’t see the point. I believe we’re much better off working with our legislators to getting copyright lowered, back toward something resembling what the Founding Fathers intended.
Update, 8:45 PM CST: In the August issue of Wired (archive not posted online at the time of this writing), in the “Posts” section, there is a little blurb on Creative Commons, targeted at the right-leaning talk show host the left loves to hate, Mr. Limbaugh:
Hey, Rush! Ever Heard of the Creative Commons?
“There are some things [from my show] that we can’t [podcast] yet, like music because of copyright problems. … But just want to tell you we’re continually working on it. … I know the Millennium Copyright Act is what this is all about, and until that’s changed, none of this is going to change.”
From The Rush Limbaugh Show
June 14, 2005
Rush Limbaugh, talk radio host
Now, unless I’m completely misunderstanding, I don’t believe, Wired writers, that the Creative Commons would be of help in this situation. Whatever music Rush is referring to, my guess it is of one of two natures.
First, he’s talking about music they use to lead in and out of the show from commercial breaks. This music is more often than not popular music from the last three or four decades, and is the copyrighted material of those artists. Creative Commons would play no role.
Second, the music referred to could be the parody songs some times featured on the show. More often than not, these songs are not the copyrighted property of The Rush Limbaugh Show or the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, parent company of the show. These parody songs are often the property of a third-party artist. Again, Creative Commons would play no role. So I’m not sure why Wired feels the need to slam CC on Rush…
Great. After multiple usage so far today, it would appear the aforementioned problems with my Akono headset were not the fault of the headset at all. (Still, mucho kudos to SE for the replacement; at least this helps clear it up.)
It looks like the problem is indeed with my T616. The phone is out of warranty. This is, as the Fontosaurus would say, the suck.
Wil Shipley, in a DrunkenBlog interview:
The two types of Windows users I’ve identified at my café are:
a. I use Windows to run Word and Excel and browse the web (and read e-mail in my web browser), and
b. I’m a programmer and I spend all my time in a Windows IDE or hacking around with my system.
I’m sure there may be a third category of user out there, but this has been my observation as well. My wife and parents clearly are the first type of users, and could just as well be served on a Mac. The SuperToad falls in to the second camp; he makes his living as a Windows programmer, but he does so with a Mac on his desk as well. Plus, he’s still getting mileage out of a decrepit, original orange iBook.
Since my switch to Macintosh over a decade ago, one of the reasons we have kept a PC or two in the house was due to my wife’s work. She’s a corporate attorney, and could always work from home, if need be. After our move to Dallas, the firm she worked for here had a VPN system set up, and she could work on items in the firm’s document management system from home, just as if she was sitting in the office.
Her new employer, however, being tied in to the stock market and the myriad regulations therein regarding insider trading, etc., does not have such a system in place. You work at the office, or you work on a company-provided laptop, or you don’t work. Also, my wife’s position also is not as intensive in outside-normal-business-hours work as her former firm life was. She doesn’t need a PC at home any more.
Last year, when her old desktop PC was giving up the ghost, and I set out to build her a new one, if we had known then she was going to change jobs, I wouldn’t have bothered. I would have milked the old PC until after she moved in to her new career, then replaced it with a Mac Mini. Hindsight is always 20/20.
Back in April, I blogged the WallyPower 118, beating the boys from Uncrate by, well, by a lot. Granted, Uncrate’s only been online since June 11th.
Looking at the trailers for The Island, it seems the WallyPower 118 is going to make a cameo. (I’ll save you some time: Trailer 2. Don’t blink.)
I still want one when I win the lottery. Jeff, you’re heading the list for crew. You’ve already got the uniform.
More than a month ago, my Sony Ericsson Akono HBH-602 Bluetooth Headset stopped syncing with my T616. I could get it to connect to the phone via Bluetooth, but the BT connection would drop out randomly, and often. I finally got around to calling SE tech support on this issue. I told them I was sure it was the headset, not my phone, as I had no issues syncing the T616 via Bluetooth to my PowerBook or Cube.
I was issued a RMA number, and given an address in the DFW metroplex to ship the headset to. “Just the headset, please,” is what the rep on the phone told me. No problem. Just the headset. This, of course, happened just before the long July 4th weekend, when we were traveling to and from New Orleans, so I didn’t actually ship the headset out until Friday the 8th.
Today, my replacement headset arrived, via FedEx. Not only did my replacement headset arrive, but I got the entire headset kit! In other words, they just pulled a retail box off the shelf and shipped it to me. So I got an extra AC adapter–that works with the T616 phone, too–and some more of the color plates, which I won’t use. (I stick with the silver.) Kudos to Sony Ericsson!
I will confess: I have not only thought about putting together my own podcast, but fantasized about what I would say, the music I would play, etc., etc. I have looked in to what tools I might use. I have had instant message discussions with a certain someone on teaming up to do a podcast, even discussing possible opening-theme music. My friend Richard has enthusiastically prodded me to do a podcast.
The more and more I think about it, however, the more and more I’m thinking this is one online fad I’m going to sit out. (Though I will not rule out guest appearances on someone else’s podcast, should someone ever wish to have me.)
First, there is the issue of “what would I talk about?” I thought about doing something Macintosh or technology-related, since that has been my professional, and personal, field of interest. Richard thinks I would be really good at doing something politically oriented, and I thank him for that compliment. However, there are a lot of people out there already doing podcasts in these areas, and frankly, doing a better job than I could hope to pull off. A case in point is that the certain someone mentioned above used to be a radio DJ, and would likely put me to shame.
Second, and more importantly, I’d like to stick to writing. Like Jeff, it would be a craft I would welcome to make a living at some day. As my family will tell you, I have long talked about being a writer, churning out novels. Normal blogging already cuts in to the time I should be devoting to such writing, and podcasting will only draw my attention further away. Reading Gruber and listening to Maciej has only convinced me this is the right course of action to take.
I’m not ruling out the possibility totally, but in the near future it seems highly unlikely.
Just in case you were wondering.
Which I know you weren’t.
Well, a widget I can actually get some use out of…
Chipt Productions has released a widget for the Backpack service from 37signals.
Darned if Gruber didn’t beat me to it.
I have been lamenting the fact that I did not go with a Flickr Pro account a few months back, instead opting for another service. At the time, it was probably the reasonable decision, as the Flickr Pro accounts didn’t have all of the amenities they do now.
So I had actually been considering anteing up for the Flickr Pro account, because I realized I would use it more than the other service.
Tonight, out of the blue, during an IM conversation, Eric offers me a free-for-a-year Flickr Pro account he was given as a in-beta Flickr Pro account holder. “Problem” solved!
However, even though I am filled with gratitude for Eric’s generosity, he doesn’t want word getting out. He’s trying for that curmudgeon rep, and if he appears all nice and everything, that will never happen. So make sure you don’t link to this post any where. Maybe you shouldn’t even be reading it. Maybe I shouldn’t be writing it. Maybe I should delete it…