The Whale Hunt 

• Frank Sinatra
• Sad songs and waltzes
• Comfort eagle
• Stickshift and safety belts
• Shadow stabbing
• Love you madly
• Comanche
• Friend is four letter word
• Wheels
• Guitar
• Rock n roll lifestyle
• Opera singer
• Never there

At this point the band left the stage…encore:

• Short skirt long jacket
• Pause for a tree giveaway (a blue spruce). Was given to Rusty and he had to promise to plant it and take a picture of him and it for the cake website.
• Kenny rogers cover – ruby, don’t take your love to town
• Black sabbath cover – war pigs

What a great show!

P.S. There was a cool intermission band to called, King City, they rocked the joint before Cake came on.

No guessing needed, this term is pretty simple. It is the 30+ commercials you get for every 30 minutes of tv viewed. Of course, those 30 commercials are not new and unique they are the same ones, over and over again. If you watch an hour of tv then it is doubled.

Next, throw in the commercials that are local and usually lower quality. Add-in the unspoken agreement to run commercials all at the same time, so you can’t avoid them. Finally, to top it off, the increased volume of the commercials (sorry, doesn’t relate to spamming, but it still annoys!).

To me that rings of the word spam, but let’s do some research to determine this:

• Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages. [1] (wikipedia)
• Spam: To send (a message) indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups. [2] (answers.com)
• Spam: Unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresse. [3] (miriam-websters)

Yep, it fits. A few exceptions could be made because it is not sent through email and somebody could argue that commercials are solicited.But, really, tv sends out commercial spam.

“During a media conference here…Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne said the 8th Air Force would become the new Air Force Cyberspace Command. “ [1]

The new command will be made up of “appropriate” folks from across the Air Force (read:brush up your web skills and resumes).  Thy also announced plans to develop educational plans for cyber work, which I would love to see. And, it looks like the location of the command is still up in the air, with Barksdale, AZ and Shreveport, LA competing for the big bucks.

I also took a look at the speech made by Security Wynne on that day, here are some interesting points:

• “I want to discuss with you today a subject I regard as extremely critical: the Freedom of Cyberspace.”
• This one kinda made me laugh, citing another official: “attempts of hackers, “Cyber-vigilantes”, terrorists, and even hostile nation-states to degrade our Fighting Networks” (on the internet?)
  
• “The Mission of the Air Force is to … fly and fight in Air, Space and Cyberspace”
• “Persistent, lethal, overwhelming Air, Space and Cyberspace power massed and brought to bear anywhere, anytime.” (whoa, scary!)
• “The capital cost of entry into the Cyberspace Domain is low”
• “the “Information Mosaic” — the whole data net, analog and digital; pixels and composites images; from all sensors that can be collected and downloaded and crossloaded for use by all in the Fight.”

There is much more but I dont have time to read and summarize the whole speech. I would recommend reading it as it is very interesting and contains a pretty cool video and some serious discussions about fighting the cyber threat.

P.S. And, yes I would want to work at this place…if it is built right.

“Wales believes simplicity is key to building an intuitive social network website. Which is why sites like Wikipedia and Facebook work so well in the social community. With a recent Wikia-Facebook like screenshot making its way through the web, will Wikia become like Facebook? No. Wales explains that they are working on an open source free license search engine that could launch in December.”

Watch the Video from the Giga Om Show

It is an exciting time right now for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. The momentum is beginning to reappear and personally I feel excited to be a part of this. For those of you keeping tabs on this, new to the program, or just looking to learn I have culled together some great new pieces. First, is the recent email sent out by the OLPC team to those who it labels “first day” donors. Make sure to read this link as it will explain a lot:

Welcome to OLPC Community

The OLPC program recently launched a buy one/get one program. Where folks can finally get a hold of the XO laptop by purchasing two. One will be donated to the third world and the other will be available for personal use. This program began on November 12, 2007 and those folks who purchased on that day are being called “first day” donors. It also looks like those folks will be given preferential treatment, receiving the personal laptop first. They are to be shipped between Dec 14-24, 2007. There is no mention of when the donated ones will be shipped, although it does state the countries they will be going to: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Mongolia, or Rwanda.

I am a bit miffed that the OLPC team is being ambiguous about the donated laptops. It would be neat to know specifically where they went, how the child is using them, why they were chosen, etc, etc. Does not seem that hard to do and would really create some excitement for us over here.

Still I don’t want to poo-poo too much. This is exciting and we are truly becoming a part of an “international education community.” The OLPC crew is doing a great job of making us feel like we are a part of something big too.

Ok, so news:

• Uruguay recently decided to purchase 100,000 for its children, and has plans to buy more (one for every child in the country). See other countries joining in..
• Nicholas Negroponte (founder of the program) is himself miffed after several verbal commitments from world leaders have not translated into action.
• The mesh network for the laptops is causing some excitement. It allows multiple computers to gain internet access if one laptop can get a connection. The speed is diminished, of course, but something is better than nothing. (details)
• Frapper Map – see who is buying, where they live, and what they are saying
• YouTube Channel for OLPC – enjoy!
• I can’t forget the Wikipedia article and its external links section, very informative.

Finally, those interested in keeping up with all of this can visit the OLPC wiki. I haven’t dug too deep in it yet, but the main page is very informative.

Please, send me any questions or comments. I hope this encourages others out their to join up as well. If money is an issue you can do what I did, get a few friends together to share the costs, share the laptop, and giving something back together.

Let me air some dirty laundry. Specifically, three very annoying features (one kinda humorous one) that have turned me off to Citibank.

First, Citibank, why do you send me a letter, every month in snail-mail to notify me that my paperless bill is ready. So, lets get this straight. I sign-up for paperless statements and then you send me a paper statement to let me know I have a paperless statement. They do this every month, I am not kidding. I get this letter every month, I even took a picture of it (on right). Here is the wording in the letter: “This notification is part of the All-Electronic Program you enrolled in to receive your statements online only instead of in the mail”.

(laughing now)

So, as part of my “all-Electronic” statements that are “online only” they still send me a letter. Stupid, Citibank mean what you say!

Second issue with Citibank, their site stinks. No other way to put it. I mean, on the positive side, it does most of what I need it to do. Beyond that it is horrible. No clear organization of where the necessary tools are. Intuitiveness, readability, and sophistication are just completely thrown out of the window. Seriously, the entire thing looks like a crappy piece of white paper. I am not kidding, it even has this old school ledger for your statement that is all black & white. It looks like something that elementary school students would use to do online banking. Citibank is that what you think your customers are, 7 years old?

Third and final issue. They are considered one of the best online banks and they stink! Yes, their are some nice services, like a cash incentive for signing up and a good savings rate. Great, so how hard is it to get online banking right? Is it possible that the cash incentive comes from the fact that they have no staff for the website, only a pet monkey throwing html on a page? I have been doing online banking for almost a decade now and this is sad. I feel like I am regressing. The best banking site I ever had was with a small credit union in California. I hope that Citibank, and the many other guilty parties (you know who you are!), start investing a little time and money in site design, usability, and improving their online services. Seriously, the web is the future of your business and how are handling your future?

Another frustrated customer, with a paperless, paper statement, who will be switching banks soon. E-trade I hope you pass the test…

I am having flashbacks to Edward Norton in fight club, you know the scene where he has the perfect little apartment but he hates it. That’s how I feel. The normal life seems to be getting to me. I need a vacation, or rather, I need a life change. It feels like life is just becoming a blur of work, school, and fun. How could that be bad?

I love my job, I like my school, I have great friends, a good family, and I even have a new love interest. She is so great. Karen you have provided me with feelings and comfort that I have never felt before. Still….

Nothing seems to help. I tried all of the old tricks: something warm, something sweet, something wet, something cute, writings, poems, puppies, movies, sleep, laughter. Normally, one or two of those and I am good to go. This one is different though. It’s not like the others in that I don’t normally feel this lost. I actually enjoy my depressions, they are a recalibration, a slow down, and a casual refresh on life.

Weird thing is though…I am enjoying this one too. It just feels lower or stronger or strongly different than most. I am resisting the urge to “figure it out” though. I have found that there is nothing worse I can do to myself than force a resolution. My body and soul are pushing something out here and I want to be in touch with it. The natural course is best.

Well, thanks blog you are my memory, my thoughts, my life. It feels good to write to you. Here is one more for the ghost in the machine.