March 2009
9 posts
8 tags
Fat of the Land
Lately I’ve been on a bit of a survivalist bend. I think it’s because I’ve just started reading World War Z and now every hay fever induced cough seems to induce paranoia of an outbreak. Today I discovered Fat of the Land - Adventures of a 21st Century Forager. In this blog, author Langdon Cook talks about his experiences foraging for his own food. And let me tell you, his...
9 tags
Crusty Advocates and Crunchy Orgs
Last week I requested info from Help a Reporter Out and LinkedIn on nonprofits and tech. I was excited to write an article about humanitarian aid organizations and the tech work they’re doing. But to my chagrin, I received a ton of criticism about how badly I suck. Is the world really so bleak that nonprofit organization’s have to immediately antagonize me for even trying?...
8 tags
Request for Removal: O Rly?
Someone contacted me today to tell me to remove a picture of them from Hiyaablog (my comic journal). There are a number of strange things about this:
Firstly, if it had been a picture of someone else, they’d have no real right to tell me to remove their photo because the background pic I used to collage the frame was public domain.
Secondly, the person was just plain wrong. It...
6 tags
BPA Ban: Legislating Healthy Babies
Ok. This is a really big deal. The Washington Post just published an article about the introduction of a bill to federally ban bisphenol A. (BPA)
BISPHENOL WHAT? Two years ago when I worked for the Breast Cancer Fund I’d meet people at cocktail parties and they’d say things like, “Everything causes cancer nowadays. Why bother trying?” The problem was, at the time, it...
2 tags
William Gibson, Wired Bio Feature →
I just really loved Idoru and was thoroughly impressed after seeing Gibson speak on androids a few years back in Vancouver. William Gibson and Douglas Coupland remind me of home.
10 tags
Woz has a Posse
And Twitter be thy name. Imagine my surprise when I awoke to find a Twitter DM from the VoteWoz campaign complimenting my blog. I almost passed out. Then I almost asked for a new Shuffle. But alas, it’s not the real Woz, it’s just a loyal fan. Still, it’s no surprise that Steve Wozniak has an online following for his efforts on Dancing with the Stars. The VoteWoz campaign is...
8 tags
In Defense of Woz
Did you see Apple founder Steve Wozniak on Dancing with the Stars? Someone hacked into his back end and set loose a malicious jiggle worm. All kidding aside, you can’t really blame him for being rusty at the Tango. He’s a segway man for goodness sakes.
In any case, I find it endearing and sweet. And this leads me to my point… It’s good to fail miserably while trying....
6 tags
I am not a moron...
I’m reading Donald A. Norman’s The Design of Future Things and in the first 30 pages I’ve already found a literary gem:
“As technology became more powerful and complex, we became less able to understand how it worked, less able to predict its actions…Now our machines are taking over. They act as if they have intelligence and volition, even though they don’t.”
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Kepler Spacecraft: Search for Intelligent Life →
The Kepler Spacecraft will launch this month and spend the next 3.5 years monitoring stars to find habitable planets. In other words, we’re taking some me time and trying to find ourselves.