new site

I’ve gotten frustrated with trying to up load pictures to this blog so I’m moving, again. The FedEx guy brought my new copy of iLife v.6 today and I’ve moved back to where I started, on  dot.mac but don’t believe there will be as many broken links. The new writing tool iWeb, is pretty nice, take a look and let me know what you think.

there is a welcome page that is kind of the gateway to the site it has links to the blog and will in a few days have a page with photos and maybe even one with movies, though I can put movies right in the blog.

have a look at this …

this is a great site … be ready to loose some time watching the movies … squirrels are amazing little buggers

Resolutions?

It seems to be the custom to reflect back as we move forward with a new year, I’ll leave the historical prospective to better minds. As to forcasting 2006, well the internet is filled with predictions but it seems a better use of the bandwidth to just look at how the new year started.
Over the next few days I’ve got a lot of work at the computer so will be posting frequently, hopefully developing some better habits for the new year.

Top of the list is to to figure out why I can only post thumbnails of pictures before posting any new photos. but even this small, Maggie’s snow angel gets the message across …
may the new year bring you joy and happiness. BDH

Now what?

The week between Christmas and the new year is down time.
SO … get lots of naps, finish off any leftover cookies and take in a movie.

Which one? Narnia is a must see, don’t complain to me about the Ice Queen because I know her character is lame, and what were they thinking that costume is hidious even for the the evil white witch, however the rest of the movie is great … you have to see it.

The other big blockbuster is Kong … to call it a dog would be insulting to dogs and as you know we have a fondness for dogs but not for turkeys. What the heck, the gorilla dies, we knew the gorilla would die and so went to see the effects and yes they were good BUT the movie was so bad even the great effects couldn’t save it. I say wait for it to come out on rental then you can fast forward through the slow parts.

On my list to see

Good Night and Good Luck (a bit late but this is a good flick)

Syriana – which looks like a good thriller, and we missed The Constant Gardner.

One more thing, here is a great site for true film buffs, a way to plan double features at the mega plex. Althought it would work that way the site isn’t advocating theater hopping. Just buy seperate tickets … what a great way to spend an afternoon. The link works for any zip code. Now that tub of popcorn may come in handy.

Merry ‘eve’

Things are quiet around here … if you look closely at the photo you’ll see there are 4 black dots,  Riley Yecny is staying with us over the break.  Well, as a black dog it is important to make note of that. He is having a grand time, usually, though he’s a bit of an Oaf and gets yelled at regularly by the Border Collies for some of his ham-pawed tactics. Walks are still enjoyed by all and there is time for plenty of them.

There is a coffee bean shortage that needs to be fixed, and a cheese cake that needs to be baked all in preperation for the pending holiday.  It is interesting to note, particularly in light of recent debate about the word Christmas, what exactly we are celebrating.  It would appear that Dec. 25th is really just a Pagan feast ancient Popes usurped to bring more bodies to the pews. Then we have the ‘mega’ church where they have decided that when their savor’s Birthday happens to fall on a Sunday you don’t have to go to church. Catholics wouldn’t go for that loop hole. That is a very interesting twist in blossoming non-denominational religious groups … well they have a denomination it’s  a sawbuck something Catholicism understanded. I’m strongly thinking of returning to the old ways and using the darkest days of winter to celebrate Saturnila … gifts of fruit and feasting … it works for me.

My wish for the new year to all of you …  health and happiness and …
Have a very merry …. what ever.

Some weather

We got hit with a winter storm Sunday. Started out as a snow strom Sunday afternoon but the rain came overnight, froze, ice is pretty much what we have outside as I’m posting this.

An Artic cold front has been slamming us for a week, powered by winds out of the Gorge, I believe this has been keeping temps kind of low in Montana as well. So than this morning a warm(er) front moves on shore and brings rain. Everything is coated in ice…

By coated I mean encased in ice and by everthing I mean everthing. The limbs of trees, the car antenna, sidewalks. Imagine spraying water on something that has been sitting at 28 degrees for two days, yea a nice quarter inch of ice. An Oregon Ice storm, you need to see one to believe it, It’s one of the few times I miss Montana winter weather, but unlike a Montana winter this is usually gone in a day or two.

Just while it’s here you have to walk very carefully

The warming started this afternoon … though Troutdale is too close to those East Winds out of the Gorge so we’ll be encased until Tuesday … and it will be 50 by Christmas.

I’m back

Well in the strictest sense of the word I wasn’t really away, just negligent in posting. It was a busy couple of weeks since turkey day but with finals week and the ART279 presentations done things will be getting less complicated.

We spent the Thanksgiving break in Monroe WA and got snow on Sunday. was just up by Tammi and Jim’s but there was about 2 inches of white stuff.

And with that comes Snow Angels.

Maggie really loves the snow, interesting because she doesn’t see much of it. This is a pretty typical reaction from her … we really need to get up to Mt Hood this break.

I also did some cooking at Nana Carmella’s … well Jim did the dinners while I tried not to get in his way too much. Hey, you get to wear a chefs coat, drink wine and cook stuff, which is a great way to spend Friday and Saturday night. Speaking of Saturday night we did 120 dinners. The place seats 35 or 40 people so that is, in restaurant lingo, three turns … in anyones lingo it was a lot of work. Not so sure I’d want to be doing this professionally but wines good and the food it great.

We finished up the Integrated Media class this last Friday and did our last podcast … had students sit in a talk about the class and what they thought. It turns out they understand what we were trying to get across, which is good. You should check out the pod cast … there is an explaination on how to connect via iTunes at the class web page.

Is it Friday already?

One thing about using Flock is this quick blog function, which allows me to drop in a quick note. Not that it has been getting much use lately.  We did have a good Thanksgiving break. Went up to Monore for the long weekend and even got some snow. Just captured a bunch of photos and will post with pix this weekend … in the mean time you can get a look at the holiday photos at new blog photos

And so it begins …

While there is still a bit of leftover turkey in the fridge some of you may be thinking about putting up the Christmas decorations … if you already have you are the left over turkey … if you never took them down from last year we need to talk.

Here is a video that, I believe, captures all that home lighting displays can be. Just hope your neighbor doesn’t have a lot of extra time and extension cords on hand.

A bit of tech …

Two things, first Google and dark fiber and an internet over the internet. Robert X Cringely offers an interesting view on future of the World Wide Web.

And there lies the differences between the two companies. Last week, I wrote about Windows Live and Office Live as Microsoft’s best attempts at pretending to be Google. And Google will do those kinds of applications, too. But they’ll build them atop a network infrastructure that Microsoft can’t match.

… by the way, you really need to bookmark waxy.org.
Then there’s this article in the most recent issue of Wired, it’s what got me searching in the first place. The Cringely article was colateral info. What I was looking for was information on Connect & Protect. There is this piece of software mentioned in an article; Reinventing 911 by Gary Wolf, Wired, issue 13.12 (Dec) p. 208. Not posted on the web, worth a trip to the library.

The crux of the article is that Homeland Security’s measures to protect have been costly, narrowly focused and for the most part ineffective. According to Wolf the answer is to make emergency information available to everyone, and that is literally everyone.

It’s impossible to keep us safe by keeping us out of the loop.

There was a pilot project in Portland that took 911 call center data, mapped it and sent it out over the internet. This is, needless to say a lot of information. What it does is work against the very human tendency of ‘milling’. Milling is a term used by emergency managers to describe how we naturally pause or hesitate when receiving new information. Milling is more pronounced when the information received comes through a channel that is infrequently used. This pause results in an overload of messages which in turn makes sorting very difficult.

… rarely used systems actually produce idiocy. Who could remain ready to act on a signal that seldom, if ever comes through?

He goes on to point out that training is forgotten in the period when things are going smoothly. The system reaches a very diverse set of eyes and by being in so many places it becomes what Wolf refers to as deep textured. This adds to its strength, in that it is hard to bring down and …

A system that encourages improvisation is quick to recover.

I find the current fear mongering acts more as a method of perpetuating and enlarging power. The system outlined in Wolf’s article could actually democratize emergancy and security data severely limiting any single entity’s control. He points out;

Even with constant propaganda, it’s impossible to keep us safe by keeping us scared.

It was a very interesting read. There is also a great article on why high gas prices are good for America. I know you think I have Wired to look at the pictures (very cool gadgets) but really I’m reading the great articles.