The Bigger You Get, The More People Who Want to Knock You Down

A.K.A. The Facebook Saga Continues….

Funny, how it’s never far out of the news, and just when you think that things are starting to level off and quiet down with Facebook, something snappy pops out of the ethernet to bring it right back to the top of the headlines….

This week, it’s the lawsuit against Facebook developer Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s also the decision by Telstra (Australia’s Number one telco) to ban employee Facebook usage. Wow - the negative backlash to this is interesting, considering Telstra is trying to portray an image of being an *online* enabler.

What’s it going to be next week? Facebook goes Head to Head with Google?

Facebook saves cat in tree?

Facebook reunites WWII lovers?

Facebook brings researchers the cure for cancer? 

:-) 

15 Years of Email

Sitting on my deck this morning, with the first coffee of the day is a treat and a pleasure. It also gives me time to think and dream and ponder. Sometimes I’m trying to figure out a problem, sometimes I’m planning an adventure.  This morning I was thinking about how long I’ve had email for, and how bizarrely tied to technology my life is.

It’s been 15 years since my first email address (jkivell@upguelph.ca). Sure - there weren’t alot of places I could check it. I didn’t have a computer 15 years ago. But every morning I would faithfully bike down to the university library, check my email, read newsgroups and monkey around with Archie and Gopher.

Aie. 

I’m not sure if I’m more or less productive now with email. Wearable email, at that…. My guess is that productivity has shifted, and for brief bursts of time, my productivity is through the roof, and for other, extended periods of time, I’m about as productive as a broken shovel. Om Malik has an interesting read on mobile email and productivity… 

I remember a time, when I was working for ISPs, when I was convinced that internet access would always be free for me. Aha. And it is. But at 56K dialup speed. I couldn’t fathom fast, always on internet service as I was  giggling over the thoughts of  free internet for life.

I also remember thinking that coding web pages by hand, with raw html was the only way to go. Ahem. Now my editors let me go raw or WYSIWYG, depending on my mood. Progress? Maybe. But I’m lazy now, and have left the technical understanding of CSS and XML to the applications, instead of having to learn how they actually work.

What were *you* doing 15 years ago? 

What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Vacation Count Down - T Minus 7 Hours.....

It’s a good time to take a vacation this year. Nothing terribly critical in the next 2 weeks, no complex bids hanging over my head right now. On last year’s vacation I worked more than I played, and despite the success of the work efforts, the rest of the family didn’t see it as such.

This year, I’ve got 9 days to do lots and lots of nothing.

:-) 

My Nothing List:

1. Improve tan with tan in a tube.
2. Go tubing with the chicklets… alot.
3. Read Harry Potter
4. Take nightime photos of fireflies
5. Sleep…. alot.
6. Solve a 1000 piece puzzle, where the pieces are *this* small.
7. Make Innukshuks
   

Being a Pleasure Prolonger

The older I get, I’m finding, the more I want *good things* to last.  Of course, I’m not as bad as the wiz, who only wears his most awesome red shirt a few times a year to keep it awesome, but I’m getting into his realm.  The Harry Potter came on Saturday. (Thank you to Chapters and Canada Post) And what did I do? I didn’t invest 40 hours in-a-row reading it. Heck no - I packed it along with its predecessor for next week’s vacation. I didn’t even crack the spine to take a peek. Nope, no way, nuhuh. The closest I’m going to come to it may be next sunday morning. On the deck, overlooking 6 Mile Lake, with loons eyeing my steaming coffee.

Pleasure.
Prolonger.



Technorati Tags: Pleasure Prolonger

Multiple Personality Blogging Disorder

I’m growing, expanding and taking up a bigger footprint now in cyberspace. Diversification, that’s the way of the future ;-) That, and growth by acquisition of course.
Coming soon…… Floobergeist Fotography.

Blog with A Midlife Crisis

No, not my midlife crisis... my blog's midlife crisis.
You see, it's trying to come to grips with a new direction, and it's still pouting, i'm afraid. A new direction - less telecom focused, more everything else focused.

And you know how it goes, as soon as you can't do something, that's all you really want to do. Evil, vicious circle.

Alas - we will bounce back. Patience ;-)

Facebook: The End of Class Reunions?

Chances are if you graduated from high school at any time of the 90's, you are now on Facebook, connecting with all your teenage angst again. Could the advancement of Facebook also result in the demise of the high school reunion? Is there a need to see your high school facebook friends in one place after 20 years?  Will high school reunions simply become a dreary coffee date for the people of your graduation class who *aren't* on facebook?

Wow. There are only about 4 people from high school who I still am waiting to join facebook. Hurry, or I've got to go to the reunion!

;-)

Every Day They Call for Rain

And yet, every other day (I’m on a stage 1 Water Alert), I find myself at the end of the day, watering those shrinking bits of green in my yard, wondering if perhaps my neighbourhood is averse to precipitation somehow.

Still there are yards on my street who have completed the dertification process, laying brown and crispy next to their lusher neighbours, and I wonder, could there become a bylaw that says that you are not ALLOWED to let your front lawn die because it hasn’t rained?  Would it have killed you to do a *little* watering? If only to keep a shred of life in your yard?

Aiee.

The Evolution of Photography

When i was little, the camera was pulled out “for special occasions”.  And ONLY then. The camera was one of those complicated jobs that was entirely manual, and of course, only 1 person really kind of, sort of knew how it worked. It likely was passed down from a grandparent somewhere along the way and had more miles on it than a pack mule.

Film was expensive, developing was expensive, and when a roll was finally finished, it wasn’t uncommon to get it developed and have a whole year’s worth of “special occasions”. It was treat. Granted, much of what was developed was blurry, but that didn’t stop you from pasting it into an album anyways!

Today, no reason is required to snap off a few hundred photos.  Everyone’s life is completely documented, special occasion or no occasion. Hard drives are bursting with 17 angles of the roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland, and another 15 photos of everyone eating funnel cakes. Are we over burdened with photos?  Will I ever get through the 3 gigs of pictures that are safely stored and backed up on various hardware vaults? What will future generations think when they discover a plethora of mediocrity that has been saved forever? Are we adding any value?

With the explosion of personal photography, a few good things have also developed along the way - Panoramio allows you to upload and share photos of places you’ve been, and then it turns around and maps the world according to the photos that have been submitted. Talk about taking vacation planning to a new level. Sure - there are a few similar sites popping up, making use of the massive amount of photos that are available of the planet, but if you’ve got some worthy shots, you also want to take a look at istockphoto.com, perhaps the most interesting application for actually making money from the 317 pictures you have from last weekend’s Ontario Place adventures.  At istockphoto.com, you can upload those shots that have the most commercial viability, and chances are, someone will buy it from you. You can limit how many times you want to licence an image, and group images together for ease of findability.  No more needing to sift through outdated clip art!So - if you’re going to take 455 photos this weekend, go ahead, make some extra cash as well.  You’re going to need it - I see aother hard drive upgrade in your future.

Technorati Tags: cameras, special occasions

2nd Canadian Long Weekend - Same Stupid Suburban Fireworks

A tiny, naive part of me secretly hoped that the recent Canada Day long weekend would bring a different type of serenity to the neighbourhood. Alas, the same suburban idiots continue to think it’s cool to impress their drooling offspring by lighting off fireworks just feet from their neighbour’s homes.  When you need a license these days to do everything from drive a boat to own a pet, when will the Canadian (or even Ontario) government realize that fireworks are decidedly NOT for the great unwashed masses?

If I can’t have a controlled *fire* in my backyard, why can people go freely to the closest 7-11 and buy the means to take down my street?  Did you know that fireworks were banned in Canada in the early 1970’s? Whaaaat happened?

[end rant]


Technorati Tags: fireworks ontario

Searching for Webkinz Cracks - The Easy Way Out

Funny - the number one search query that's leading folks here is "webkinz cracks".... all because of an article I posted about "Webkinz being like Crack for Kids"....

It still certainly is. And no, I still don't have any cracks. Play the games. Do the educational bits and earn your Kinzcash the hard way, babies.

In the real world, there isn't a crack for making a good salary.


Technorati Tags: webkinz cracks