Home Office 2.0

57sittingareawithwalk-out
Originally uploaded by julebule.

As we approach the last 1200 hours before we move into a new home, I am stunned that we haven't spent much time thinking and dreaming and planning about the new *home office*....

Sure, we've made a few desultory calls around, to see what sorts of services are available, in terms of broadband and cable and phones, but nothing terribly concrete. These are the sorts of services that are going to make or break our ability to be effective and productive remote workers, you would think we would be all over the options, and squealing with joy over the ability to design the space and all the accoutrements from the berber up!

Alas, aside from sitting in a few "star treck-esque" chairs, we really haven't done anything.

If you had the ability to design your office from the ground up - how would you do it?

Things that are must-haves:

1. Wireless connectivity inside the house
2. A reasonable sized desk for a laptop and *maybe* a monitor
3. Room for a printer
4. Room for interesting USB appliances and speakers
5. Phones: do we want VoIP again, or something else? There needs to be the ability for a spearate number for work, not necessarily a separate phone line. This number has to have a different ring to it. Plus, this number has to have the ability to change the caller id on it....or atleast have the ability to have a different caller ID than our main number. I bet I can find a VoIP solution for this,,,,
6. A comfy chair for curling up in during endless conference calls. (the wiz and I are at odds on this)
7. An uber-comfy work chair.
8. Bookshelves
9. Art

drewkivell

drewkivell
Originally uploaded by julebule.

... it's sort of sweet, seeing your wee cousin hoist a cup. God knows what sort of cup it is, but it's a cup.

Happy Cup!

Turning the Art of Blogging 90 Degrees Right...

The Homeless Guy


I didn't mean to.  I hadn't planned on reading it.  But I did.  Wow. A homeles guy, blogging.  What will they think of next?  Although, I am quietly thrilled that technology isn't just for the average joe. I'm quite tickled that web 2.0 is winding it's way through all facets of the population.  And whatever happens, the Homeless Guy is going to see something positive out of his blogging experience.  Kudos.


Technorati Tags: The Homeless Guy, Ethincal Blogging

An Interesting Idea in Data Security

You can't drop a bomb on the data storage vaults of Kazaa because they don't exist. The data is replicated rather than protected. The music files exist in thousands of redundant copies on the hard drives of cooperating Kazaa users.

Fractals of Change: America's Antiterrorism Network - Distributed Data Storage

Bravo! What an outstanding arguements... you can't destroy a zillion bits of information in a zillion different places....

I'm being reminded about trying to herd cats......

technorati tags:distributed data storage, anti-terrorism networks, kazaa

Definition from Tim Berners Lee...

This is likely a worthwhile page to tag.

Net Neutrality: This is serious | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs

Net neutrality is this: If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level.

Technorati Tags: net neutrality, tim berners lee, breadcrumbs

RFID Details Hit Ontario

Now this is an interesting bit of wildness....

When would you want to re-activate the tag?

Information Architecture > Service Oriented Architectures > New Ontario RFID guidelines emphasize "consumer consent"

Consumer consent must be obtained before personal information linked to a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is collected, used and disclosed, according a new set of guidelines issued by Ontario's Information and Privacy Commission (IPC).The guidelines also recommend automatic deactivation of the tags at the point of sale. Consumers should be able to choose to re-activate the tags at a later date, repurpose them, or otherwise have control over the manner in which tags interact with RFID readers.

Technorati Tags: RFID, Ontario

Sunset @ 6Mile

IMG_7109.JPG
Originally uploaded by julebule.

Since i've agreed to the wedding, i've been practicing and playing and reading... and practicing.
And I simply love this photo. Of course, the horizon shouldn't be in the middle, but pffft - the colours!!!

:-)

Pet Project: Collaboration

So - i've got almost 2 months under my belt at the new gig - and i'm ready to look around and see what sorts of fun i can stir up…. sure, it's one thing to encourage web cams and IM, another thing to figure out how to increase collaboration amongst a team who is extraordinarily geographically diverse. Did I mention the team is also fiercely independent? It makes for a great team, but it also makes for a VERY BIG VACUUM.

I need a tool that allows folks to keep each other up to speed on what we are working up, and also to share information, documents and diagrams. I am waiting for Foldera, because nothing else seems right. I'm worried that Foldera may be TOO much, and have too many whistles, and scare the ream away with arguements of cumbersome-ness and distractions… we shall see.

Smog - or Just a Cold?

After spending a weekend in the country, the drive back to the city saw the beginnings of sniffles and stuffed up nose… I thought it was just the smog - after all, i could barely see the skyline, the soup was so very thick…

I popped a reactine before bed, but woke this morning to the strangest cold like symptoms, scratchy throat and cotton head.  But nothing else… I don’t get it… it sort of reminds me of a cold - but i can breathe (sort of), and my throat is better, if only feeling thick.  The problem is, I haven’t had a cold in about 7 years…. really really.  Drives the Wiz insane…

 I don’t think this is a cold, i think it’s from the smog, and it feels ugly.

Update on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 10:11AM by jules

Great news - methinks it was the smog… and nothing more ;-)

YAY - i didn’t ruin my long standing cold-free record.

Man, smog is bad.  

Adventures in Medicine....

The past few days have been chock full of adventures.  Adventures into the Ontario Medical Industry.  On wednesday, the wiz came down with a crippling headache, and worried that his recent hockey head injury had suddenly taken a decidedly turn for the worst, we bustled on down to the energency room at Toronto General Hospital.

 

We arrived!  And after 40 minutes, we were able to register, and talk with a nurse, who promply gave the wiz a wheelchair to convalesce in.  2 hours later, we were wheeled into “Exam room 11”, which was to become the wiz’s home for the next 24 hours.  There were tests aplenty.  The wiz has an uncanny ability to do well on tests without studying, so this was a piece of cake… EKGs, blood, getting his Cats scanned… and then waiting for results. And waiting. And little bits of walking around for me, but more laying down and waiting for the wiz. Wild words were bandied about, leaks, blood, brains and guts.  At one point we were able to peek through a chart:

Me: Hey! You’ve got a sub-arracchnid hemmorage - I think that means you’re a spider.

The Wiz: I thought it meant I was a peanut.

 The MRI folks were able to open the lab early for the wiz, so at midnight, we were rolled through the bowels of the hospital to the MRI suites. MRIs make ALOT of noise.  I was convinced the terrible sounds coming from behind the door “where visitors cannot go”, were a result of me sneaking my blackberry into a wing with a very BIG MAGNET. Luckily - no - the MRI just makes those sounds naturally ;-)

It wasn’t till the wee hours of the morning that we were able to get the goods from the neosurgeon (i tell  you, no more brain surgery jokes for us) and all turned out well - and his haircut won’t be an issue.  Stay tuned, as i post jpegs of the wiz’s brain.  It’s larger than you might think.  You know what they say about fellows with big brains. Big ball caps. 

15 Minutes of Fame

If this isn’t possibly one of the niftiest things! 

Sender: Melissa
Reply To: blogophile@cbs.com
IP/Hostname: proxy-ny.cbs.com/170.20.11.116

———————————————

————————————————————

Hello,



Just wanted to let you know I linked to your blog in my column on CBSNews.com today. Thanks!



If you want to take a look, here’s the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/13/blogophile/main1705281.shtml



Thanks,

Melissa

The Whizzing of Time...

… canyou hear it…. wooossshhhttt!

It’s been 6 weeks since i started at the new gig, and there are only 1480 odd hours before we move. It feels like eons, and it feels like  yesterday, for everything.  Thre are times when i can wake up in the morning, and it seems like i’ve lived in the current tower with the wizard forever, and then i can blink, and still be surprised about where i am, who i’m with and all the interesting things that are still happening.

Wow, it’s like a continual time warp experiment. Time goes fast in your 30s… how fast can it go when you are in your 60s?  

A Spammer by any other name...

I’ve got mail from:

• Millicent Pineda
  
• Thurman Larsen
• Ava Russo
• Shuracov
• Cherokee Shelby
• Archie Brittingham
• Johnny Pierson
• Leonel Villegas

… just to name a few.  All spammers, the crumby lot of them.  But I wonder, were they ever real people? Are they still?  Do they know they are being exploited by spammers?

:-)

… did you ever wonder where the spammer names come from?

I just googled one - good old Johnny Pierson lives in Irvin, Texas.

Continuation of IP Multimedia Subsystems as a way to thwart Net Neutrality

Folks have been linking the 2 conversations - IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) and Net Neutrality for a few months now....

IP Democracy

IMS: Designing the Non-Neutral Smart Network
Courtesy of David Isenberg, author of "Rise of the Stupid Network," I stumbled upon some interesting comments on IMS (which might be described as "Quest for the Smart Network") by John Waclawsky. Waclawsky is a member of the Mobile Wireless Group at Cisco Systems involved with standards activities, product requirements and architectures.

Technorati Tags: IMS, Net Neutrality

Blog as the Resume of the 21st Century... or not

The Wizard and I regularly debate the value of blogs. He's of the mind that blogs are at the epoch of the their popularity, and that there will be a vast majority of the population who will never engage in the activity. Moreover, he is convinced that blogs will ultimately die a slow death, and are simply a flash in the pan. He may be right. Sort of.

There is a generation who will never find the on-line bug. The bug that encourages you to try out new technologies, to invest in on-line applications, to immerse yourself in the greater atmosphere of the internet. Folks who won't use Skype, or IM or wireless. Folks who simply are grounded in web 1.0

That being said, there is the next generation, the newbies who are podcasting, and IM'ing with their phones, and setting up MySpace sites. The people who ARE sharing music, who are making maps of the best pubs in chicago. People who are attending conferences and live chats. My gut says that these are the people who are going to run the world some day.

A lynchpin in discussions between the Wiz and I is the debate of using your blog as your resume. Or, at very least, having your URL on your resume. He is adament that the day will never come. His peers are likeminded. Me, well, now that my indentity has evolved, and my online presence is gelling, I have a feeling that my next resume will indeed have my url. It's all about audience. And it's all about identity.

Finally people are starting to realize, with the internet, as with everything in life, you have to accurately portray yourself, or face the consequences.

What do you think - would you put your blog URL in your resume?

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé - New York Times

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a RésuméBy ALAN FINDERWhen a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company's president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois.At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate's Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin' blunts" (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang.It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done."A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company's president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?"

Technorati Tags: blogs, resumes, blog future

Technorati Tags: blogs, resumes, blog future

Blog as the Resume of the 21st Century... or not

The Wizard and I regularly debate the value of blogs.  He's of the mind that blogs are at the epoch of the their popularity, and that there will be a vast majority of the population who will never engage in the activity.  Moreover, he is convinced that blogs will ultimately die a slow death, and are simply a flash in the pan.  He may be right.  Sort of.

There is a generation who will never find the on-line bug.  The bug that encourages you to try out new technologies, to invest in on-line applications,  to immerse yourself in the greater atmosphere of the internet.  Folks who won't use Skype, or IM or wireless. Folks who simply are grounded in web 1.0

That being said, there is the next generation, the newbies who are podcasting, and IM'ing with their phones, and setting up MySpace sites.  The people who ARE sharing music, who are making maps of the best pubs in chicago.  People who are attending conferences and live chats.  My gut says that these are the people who are going to run the world some day.

A lynchpin in discussions between the Wiz and I is the debate of using your blog as your resume.  Or, at very least, having your URL on your resume.  He is adament that the day will never come. His peers are likeminded. Me, well, now that my indentity has evolved, and my online presence is gelling, I have a feeling that my next resume will indeed have my url.  It's all about audience.  And it's all about identity. 

Finally people are starting to realize, with the internet, as with everything in life, you have to accurately portray yourself, or face the consequences.

What do you think - would you put your blog URL in your resume?

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé - New York Times

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a RésuméBy ALAN FINDERWhen a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company's president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois.At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate's Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin' blunts" (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang.It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done."A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company's president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?"

Technorati Tags: blogs, resumes, blog future

Things you forget to blog about...

I can have an unlimted diatribe of things to blog about.... and yet, i come across this, and the fellow manages to hit things spot in.  You will like it.  I still tease people i drive with on the 401 between milton and mississauga to "keep back 2 Chevrons".  After commuting that stretch for 4 years, it's burned into my brain like fireworks.

Things That Make Me Angry

Chevrons and Hidden Driveway SignsWe've all seen the sign "Watch your distance, keep 2 chevrons apart." Why can't they just double the distance between the chevrons and ask drivers to keep one chevron apart? We could cut our chevron budget in half. It's almost as stupid as "Hidden Driveway" signs. Couldn't the sign just say "Driveway"?

Technorati Tags: angry chevrons

testing new flock

yeesh..... the flock updates are coming fast and furious - and the blogging bugs are changing hourly methinks.

technorati tags:flock, blog, bugs

Blogged with Flock

Still Reeling over IMS

I’m still wrapping my head around this.

I need a moment. 

When Blogs go Dim

… you know what i mean, when they suddenly go quiet. Like: All is Quiet on the Blogging front? Like: when you find a blog that you love, and then suddenly, one day, the music stops? And still you wait, wonder if the blog master will return, not wanting to have to unsubscribe to the rss feed, hoping upon hope that you are being too hasty…

Meh, i hate it when bloggers burn out. Especially when they are a joy to read. Pfft. Now that's 2 i've lost. Like losing a good friend, I say.