Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
I think someone’s confused about the concept of step-by-step directions.
Wayne comments on Google+: Haven’t they heard of baby steps? sheesh
Lia comments on Facebook: Soon you will have your very own doomsday device. That is what those instructions are for, right?
Battling the stress of email. “[Professor Gloria] Mark jokingly calls it the “zombie” paper because, like zombies, no matter how many times you delete e-mails they keep on coming.”
Email ‘vacations’ decrease stress, increase concentration
Wayne comments on Google+:
Email management is definitely a mindset one needs to train. I remember when I first used email more frequently at UCI, I did feel that pressure of the immediacy possible and often consequently expected with email. I had felt I needed to answer every email immediately and would check it regularly so as not to disappoint my contacts.
It wasn’t until later (much later) that I realized I need to focus on priorities and that email isn’t a ruling factor of my life. My emotional state (and heart rate 😉 ) became much more stable as a result.
That’s not to say emails aren’t a major part of my life. I still do a lot of work and activities through them. (Today in fact wasn’t as productive, work-wise, due to email access issues.) But I don’t let them rule my mood for the day. I don’t let them be the determining factor of my life.
In this digital age, I think we often forget that email isn’t the only way we can communicate with someone. 🙂 Nor is it the only lifeline between two people.
Yeah, that would explain the CLANG CLANG CLANG sound. It’s supposed to be a computer, not a trolley.
Brion comments on FB: all aboard the broken power supply train!
Wayne comments on Google+: yeah, ouch, fare’s not worth it. 😉
Today, I watched a lunar eclipse, sunrise, and sunset. Probably a first.
Venus & Jupiter just popped into view. It would’ve been nice to add Mercury too, but it’s below the horizon.
Also: I really should’ve brought gloves.
If I’d thought about it, I could have gone back to the spot where I watched the sunrise this morning to catch the moonrise for full symmetry. Oh, well.
Lia BrownCool! I don’t think it was visible here…and it was so cold last night I wouldn’t have had much patience anyway…
Dec 10, 2011, 7:38 PM
Kelson VibberYeah, I think you might have been able to see the beginning of it in your area, but not much else.
Dec 10, 2011, 11:06 PM
Wendi HeckathornWhere did you watch it at?
Dec 11, 2011, 2:10 AM
Kelson VibberI watched most of the eclipse from home (well, across the street), then went down to an area of Redondo Beach where a street runs along a bluff above the beach (Esplanade & Avenue A). I tried to watch the moon set while eclipsed, but the sky was too light by then to really see it at that point, so I drove over to an east-facing hill to watch the sunrise. I came back to Esplanade at the end of the day to watch the sunset.
Dec 11, 2011, 11:25 PM
Wendi HeckathornThat’s awesome! I’m bummed I missed it, but I did enjoy seeing the beautiful full moon. Thanks for sharing the gorgeouspics you took. 🙂
Dec 12, 2011, 12:36 AM
Finished assembling the new computer desk last night. First thing J did after I cleaned up all the packaging and vacuumed the floor was crawl over, check the thing out, and start opening and closing the drawers. Next up: cabinet locks!
Wayne comments: unit test complete, next phase ;p
You are in a maze of twisty passages, all filled with furniture.
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Comments on Google+
Wayne: Ikea!
Me: Exactly
Andy: Most powerful weapon? Tiny bendy wrench of infinite power(tm) 🙂
Wayne: Can it hit the darkness? Or does it facilitate plasticity and its bright colors? ;>
It’s rare that translating from English to (in this case) Chinese and back to English improves things, but “The user’s space has been used up” is clearer than “Mailbox over quota.”
Wayne suggests on Google+: lol might be because Chinese like to be more formal in their phrasing so Chinese probably translated to something like “The user’s space…”
Interesting theory: Amazon could buy Netflix, but wouldn’t want to buy the current business with all its shipping centers in places where Amazon doesn’t have to pay/collect sales tax. If Netflix spins off the discs first, then Amazon gets Netflix’s catalog, technology…and most importantly, the zillions of TV sets and set-top boxes that have the streaming client included.
Netflix split to set up Amazon streaming merger? | ZDNet
Netflix’s move to separate its DVD-by-mail service may pave the way for Amazon to buy the company, argues an analyst.
Comments on Google+:
Brion: Possible… but I’ve always found netflix’s streaming catalog to be insufficient as is… best of a bad lot I guess!
Me: Yeah. That’s the main reason we still have the DVD subscription: 80% of our queue isn’t available streaming. In this theory, the big win for Amazon would be the install base.
Brion: Yep… hell, with any luck Amazon can strong-arm better deals with the studios. 😛 But I’d still love blanket non-exclusive compulsory streaming licenses: if the content’s out there for sale to the public on little plastic disks, anybody should be able to stream the same material for a nice standard fee (like ASCAP etc’s public performance, radio, & streaming systems… but maybe not as annoying. The reason Pandora doesn’t let you choose exactly which songs to play is to comply with the hoops necessary to qualify for the compulsory licensing, since they presumably think they can squeeze more money for on-demand services. A couple years out of date, but good overview of the lay of the land there from JWZ: http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/webcasting.html )
Me: Wow. That is profoundly screwed up.
9/15: Netflix thought: If dairy farms got together and hiked up the price of milk, would you blame your grocery store for raising their prices?
9/16: It must be the Netflix/studio milk/dairy farm analogy that’s got @Peerindex convinced that I write about breakfast cereal.
9/20: Updated Netflix thought: Dairy farms get together to raise prices, putting the squeeze on your local grocery store. The local store raises their prices to cover their higher costs. People blame the grocery store.
Then the grocery store responds by spinning off a separate store. One store will only sell milk in cardboard cartons and cheese. The other store will only sell milk in plastic bottles or yogurt. This is, of course, to make your life easier.
Of course, there’s always The Oatmeal’s explanation: https://theoatmeal.com/static/netflix.html
Brion adds:
One store pipes fresh delicious milk direct to your faucets, but only carries 1% because the dairy cartel is being paid by another grocery chain for an exclusive right to whole, skim, and 2%.
Some thoughts I had about when it’s better to post something online immediately, and when it’s better to hold off for a bit.
https://hyperborea.org/journal/2011/08/is-now-better/
Wayne: Good point. I’m a more later kind of poster mainly because I want to live in the moment. Posting as you experience an event can leave one distracted and I want to get my full “money’s worth” before I go talk about it otherwise I may not have much to talk about. ;p
Though I’ve always wanted to try a live twitter feed of a big presentation like the E3 press conferences with a laptop just for the fun of having the event flow from my fingertips. But that’s mainly because I wouldn’t need to move and I can type without looking at the keyboard. ;>
Me: Great point about actually experiencing an event rather than reporting on it.
I’ve liveblogged a couple of Comic-Con panels, which was kind of neat – but they were all annoucement/Q&A, like a press conference, so they were kind of built for that to begin with. It was neat interacting with people who weren’t there, though, as they offered comments and questions during the event.
Wayne: hehe exactly, I’ve been part of some live tweet sessions giving those comments myself which makes me want to try hosting one. As you said for news bytes they’re short blurts already. (Made for the ADD generation! ;p) So might as well blurt more on it and share. :>
Today’s baby milestone: J has deleted a blog post I was working on. Hooray for autosave and undo trash.
Wayne comments: Careful with the hacking tools, he may get you yet! ;p
J loves to climb. He started climbing my computer. As I was trying to make sure he didn’t hit the power button, he leaned forward and pressed the button to open the DVD drive with his forehead.
Comments from Google+:
Wayne: Was he thinking there would be something inside?
Brion: Sippy cup holder.
Wayne: /facepalm you’re right, it can be
Nice bit of perspective on software usability. I particularly like the comment, “No one feels passionate about SharePoint. But they do about WordPress.”
The Software is Wrong, Not the People | Joe Flood
It was a small moment at the WordPress DC Meetup. One of the creators of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, was in town.
Comments on Google+:
Wayne: I’d love to buck the trend of saying “The computer is always right.” I like how having something open source allows us to act on and resolve our gripes so we don’t have to resign ourselves to the technology we depend on. After all, we are supposed to be the creators and therefore the masters, right? ;p (No matter how situations may actually play out. lol)
Regan: Definitely a refreshing perspective. After hearing David curse for about 5-7 hours straight trying to muddle through the quirks of the HTC software (he’d had a Pre for a couple years), I can definitely appreciate someone admitting that a program is wrong, not the user.
Level 2 coffee? Character profiles? Is this a new Coffee-themed RPG?
For the record: The back explains that it's roasting levels.
Katie: I can see coffee having strength, constitution, and charisma, but the rest…not so much.
Wayne: roasting levels themselves are a stat right? ;> Actually, how does one measure charisma on coffee? How sane it ends up making you after you drink it? ;p
Katie: I'd think of coffee charisma as being layperson appeal…how friendly it is to the general public's palate. But tea automatically has a better charisma, being CHA.
Wayne: (forehead slap) groooan TEAed off good there
Kelson: That's a measurement of Total Effective Armor, right?
Wayne:totally 🙂
Katie:Yeah, that stat increases steeply over time. Makes a big difference in whether you take one lump or two.
Wayne:ba-lump-dump!
Glenna:now, do you want Charisma to mean attractiveness of a person or how hyper-bunny that person is thus driving the rest of us insane? lol 😀