I have a few stories to draw your attention to for today, but I want to lead off with one that I have a personal stake in, mostly because this guy could be me. I posted a story a little while ago about a NYC Board of Ed employee getting canned becuase he was caught playing solitaire by the esteemed Mayor of NYC. Today I like to say that madness has ended. A Judge ruled in favor of Toquir Choudri in his case of getting the boot for using the internet. Well he was not exhonorated, but he was only reprimanded instead of fired which is good. I thought I might have to cut back on my daily read of Slashdot and The Village voice for a sec but it turns out I am safe for the time being.
In a story that seems like it was written for every twenty something out there, here a nice piece of that new found art form of drunk dialing (which is now apparently moving on to drunk texting and drunk emailing). This is quite funny because a few weeks ago I got some random message from a girl on myspace who said that my profile was the first she had seen in a bit that did not want to make her vomit (she did not quite put it that way but you get the idea). SHe said in the message that she was a little tipsy or something to that effect, so that was a drunk myspacing I guess. SHe actually turned out to be pretty good looking, but as many relationships that start on myspace turn out, we don't really speak anymore.
In some tech news we have a study showing that the amount of people who actually care and keep up with the pace of technology being much higher than those that consider themselves geeks (most of the slashdot crowd). These people won't out themselves as geeks all the time but will sometimes switch conversation from politics to science or willfully jump into sciency (that's right, new word) conversations. I am an honest person, part geek, part athelete with enough knowledge to just get myself in trouble. The antithesis of this would be the Linux Snob who is now one of the latest reasons people wont jump into the linux crock pot. WHile I think this may be part of the reason there have been tech snobs since I can remember people being really into tech so there is really nothing new here.
More to post later, I just realized I actually haven't read some of the stories I wanted to talk about. Later chumps and chumpettes...
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
Sad Day
Today I found out that my immediate boss is resigning from the company. He was a really cool guy and it's not gonna be as fun at my job without him.
The other part of this is what it says to you in your career as one of your earliest bosses, most likely one of your first resigns from the company before you move to your next job. It's different when they just get a new position and they are no longer your direct supervisor or whatever, here they are actually leaving the company. I guess it depends on what the reasons for leaving are. I can only guess at what my boss left for, but let's assume that it was little faith in the company and not a greater family issue (which I think are the only reasons for a big career change later in your lifetime of working). It's always weird, I mean it definitely sends a message. What you do with the message I guess is what's important. I don't think I'm going anywhere, not now at least.
The other part of this is what it says to you in your career as one of your earliest bosses, most likely one of your first resigns from the company before you move to your next job. It's different when they just get a new position and they are no longer your direct supervisor or whatever, here they are actually leaving the company. I guess it depends on what the reasons for leaving are. I can only guess at what my boss left for, but let's assume that it was little faith in the company and not a greater family issue (which I think are the only reasons for a big career change later in your lifetime of working). It's always weird, I mean it definitely sends a message. What you do with the message I guess is what's important. I don't think I'm going anywhere, not now at least.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
UnAmerican Apparel
I gotta give a shout to my boy Patt Minto for a creative and hilarious series of photos bearing the title of this post. Check them out here. If you really want one for yourself your going to have to offer up some seriously provocative shots.
If you wonder where these come from check out the actual American Apparel website.
If you wonder where these come from check out the actual American Apparel website.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Back from Break
After a nice easter weekend vacation to NYC I am back in the saddle. Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it has been over two weeks since my last post. But not to dissapoint I have some interesting stuff here for you to read. It's a lot to put into one post but it has been building up for quite sometime now and the amount of links should keep you busy while I think up a much more witty post to put up.
First let me give a shout out to the Rainbow Traceurs, the Parkour group I have been recently inducted into. What is Parkour you may ask? Simply put it's an elegant, efficient way to move about the worlds obstacles to your many destinations. You want to go upstairs in a park or building? Instead of taking the stairs maybe you can scale the banister and hop to a wall near by to get to the level/floor you originally intended to get to. If you go to google video and search for parkour you will see what I'm talking about. Or if you have seen that scion commecial where the guys are racing through a parking garage trying to catch their moving vehicles, that would be an example of Parkour. I actually had to do a small tryout for this group which involved me climbing out of the stairwell of a train station. Pretty simple until I got to the last bar and it had spikes on it. Suckin it up and fearing falling if I let go I made it with only a little injury to my hands that has been lessening over the last few days. All the same, if anyone is interested I would be down to start a Rochester division of the Rainbow Traceurs if I can get the license from Matt Pinto, it's founder. Anyway onto the links:
For Starters we have a self parking car, pretty novel. Personally I like the challenge of parallel parking but finding a nice spot then being able to phone your buddies to tell them you'll be right into the club while your car is parking itself is pretty much the shit.
Another one about cars, this is a nice article about how you should never blindy trust your GPS, lest you find yourself on the edge of the mountain with an all to scenic view. I once used mapquest to get to a football stadium and ended up at someone's house. No lie.
Finally, some tech from Star Trek:TNG is going to make it to us mere technologically undeveloped humanoids. A scientist is postulating the creation of synthehol and suggesting there really is no reason that it cannot be created. Can you imagine the boom in the bar and alcoholic industry if you could get wasted without a hangover? I fear what it would do to our health as the sale of street meat and hot dogs late at night would soar.
I have been reading a lot about the DMCA, DRM and patents in the last few weeks. A pretty good article here by Paul Graham asking "Are Software Patents Evil" ? You be the judge, pretty long but very good and interesting.
And for all my gamer friends out there (Lodzo, Nuggetor) here's a link to a humurous but very poignant piece about the situations found in modern games that we are all sick of. The Gamer's Manifesto is a rant on everything you have always hated about games that really did not have to be features of games, i.e. hitting an invisible ceiling while soaring through the air on any SSX game. I have read this thing twice and it really doesn't get very old. Also pretty long so block off some time for it.
More ST:TNG news here with an article about the blind regaining their sight. There are a few caviats, but overall once we get this thing looking aesthetically pleasing (read:Jordi's visor) we will truly be entering the bionic age of humans.
Lastly, an interesting concept for a cell phone that not only uses normal cell tower service but a wi-fi connection as well so that when you are at home your cell phone can act as a landline, sort of. Best thing about this, call does not drop when switching from wi-fi to normal cell network. A golden age of Tech has arrived!!
First let me give a shout out to the Rainbow Traceurs, the Parkour group I have been recently inducted into. What is Parkour you may ask? Simply put it's an elegant, efficient way to move about the worlds obstacles to your many destinations. You want to go upstairs in a park or building? Instead of taking the stairs maybe you can scale the banister and hop to a wall near by to get to the level/floor you originally intended to get to. If you go to google video and search for parkour you will see what I'm talking about. Or if you have seen that scion commecial where the guys are racing through a parking garage trying to catch their moving vehicles, that would be an example of Parkour. I actually had to do a small tryout for this group which involved me climbing out of the stairwell of a train station. Pretty simple until I got to the last bar and it had spikes on it. Suckin it up and fearing falling if I let go I made it with only a little injury to my hands that has been lessening over the last few days. All the same, if anyone is interested I would be down to start a Rochester division of the Rainbow Traceurs if I can get the license from Matt Pinto, it's founder. Anyway onto the links:
For Starters we have a self parking car, pretty novel. Personally I like the challenge of parallel parking but finding a nice spot then being able to phone your buddies to tell them you'll be right into the club while your car is parking itself is pretty much the shit.
Another one about cars, this is a nice article about how you should never blindy trust your GPS, lest you find yourself on the edge of the mountain with an all to scenic view. I once used mapquest to get to a football stadium and ended up at someone's house. No lie.
Finally, some tech from Star Trek:TNG is going to make it to us mere technologically undeveloped humanoids. A scientist is postulating the creation of synthehol and suggesting there really is no reason that it cannot be created. Can you imagine the boom in the bar and alcoholic industry if you could get wasted without a hangover? I fear what it would do to our health as the sale of street meat and hot dogs late at night would soar.
I have been reading a lot about the DMCA, DRM and patents in the last few weeks. A pretty good article here by Paul Graham asking "Are Software Patents Evil" ? You be the judge, pretty long but very good and interesting.
And for all my gamer friends out there (Lodzo, Nuggetor) here's a link to a humurous but very poignant piece about the situations found in modern games that we are all sick of. The Gamer's Manifesto is a rant on everything you have always hated about games that really did not have to be features of games, i.e. hitting an invisible ceiling while soaring through the air on any SSX game. I have read this thing twice and it really doesn't get very old. Also pretty long so block off some time for it.
More ST:TNG news here with an article about the blind regaining their sight. There are a few caviats, but overall once we get this thing looking aesthetically pleasing (read:Jordi's visor) we will truly be entering the bionic age of humans.
Lastly, an interesting concept for a cell phone that not only uses normal cell tower service but a wi-fi connection as well so that when you are at home your cell phone can act as a landline, sort of. Best thing about this, call does not drop when switching from wi-fi to normal cell network. A golden age of Tech has arrived!!
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