Accept no substitutes

Author: Paul (Page 64 of 147)

A Different Fly-Over

Kirk Ross gets the sound down from Thursday’s flyover of Chapel Hill by Navy jets on Exile on Jones Street. But I was set upon by equally unsettling fliers that morning.

First there was their chatter in the distance. Then the swooshing and the too loud movement of air. Then the darkening of the sky. They wove an unpredictable flight pattern as the went over me near dawn. A good look showed that they weren’t even all the same. A collection of black birds — starlings, cowbirds, grackles and a blackbird or two. Hundreds streaming over.

Then silence.

Then another flight. Louder. More of them. More wild shifts.

Those of us who saw Hitchcock’s movie remember how eerie flights of birds can be. Especially since Hitchcock used no music in his movie only the sounds in the birds as emlated on Oskar Sala‘s mixtrautonium. Those sounds I heard at dawn that day were almost the same as Tippi Hedren heard.

Sadness and Crying Studies

You would think that if Happiness has its own journal that Sadness and Depression would too. But I’m not finding one. Not that that makes me unhappy much less sad and certainly not depressed.

I did find this wonderful 1984 article “Toward the Laboratory Study of Sadness and Crying” by Albert Marston, Joseph Hart, Curtis Hileman, and William Faunce in the American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Spring, 1984), pp. 127-131 in which we learn “Despite a long history of frightening, angering, sexually arousing, and even humoring their patients, psychologists are reluctant to sadden them, perhaps out of ethical and professional concern. Or perhaps there has been uncertainty about whether sadness could be systematically aroused and measured in the laboratory.”

But don’t feel sad about that: “Interest in depression has recently [in 1984] blossomed…”

I’m not sure I feel good about that.

Rights and Innovation

I will be speaking to Computer Science 380 classes on “Digital Rights and Innovation” soon. Andrew Chin spoke on November 14 about his part in the Microsoft anti-trust suit (the browser one) and I’m up on November 28 scheduled for 5:00 pm in Sitterson 014. now in Carroll’s large auditorium (after the flood in Sitterson).

I’ve asked the students to read Chapters 1 and 8 of Eric von Hippel’s Democratizing Innovation. Chapter 1 is an Introduction and a Summary of the book by chapters that will give a great overview. Chapter 8 “Adapting Policy to User Innovation” is the meat of our discussion from a policy and law point of view.

Both chapters and in fact the whole book can be bought or downloaded for free from Eric von Hippel’s site.

I’m also asking folks in the class that have questions and/or issues that they’d like discussed to post them here as comments.

I welcome your suggestions and comments as well.

Deadly Tornado in Eastern NC

The wind was blowing in sheets today as I tried to get from the School of Government back to join a conference call in Manning Hall. I stayed inside and called in by cell.
The folks down in the Delco-Riegelwood area near Whiteville, NC weren’t lucky enough to be inside a nice stone and brick building. The trailerparks and other homes were blown to bits killing as many as 9 people according to the most recent reports.

The Whiteville News Reporter has the story and chilling pictures of the damage.

Citizen Journalists capture tazering by UCLA cops

UCLA cops got very taser-happy on a student who didn’t bring his id to the library. Other students documented the nearly 7 minute torture show in which the victim with his hand handcuffed behind his back was zapped a reported four times (I counted 5) while begging for mercy. A single tazering immobilizes the target for 5 to 15 minutes, yet the taser-bearers demand that the victim “get up or we’ll do it again” Another student asking for the badge numbers of the campus cops is told she should shut up or she’ll “get Tased too.”
Read here in the Daily Bruin. Or watch the painful video on YouTube here.

SUR down G’mint, CS and NCREN to go.

Had a very good meeting with the Computer Science folks and the IBM Shared University Grant folks this afternoon. Don Smith has some intriguing network load measuring work going on. John Smith has some great code generation from XML to JAR. There’s also good work done by Prasun Dewan and Sasa Junuzovic on something that seemed odd – PowerPoint animation and collaboration.

My own notes from my part are here.

Upcoming talks:

  • Nov 16 – Thursday 8:15 am “UNC Local Government of the Future Conference” Education Panel. UNC School of Government.
  • Nov 28 – Tuesday 5 pm CS 380. “Innovation and Copyright” UNC Computer Science Department
  • Dec 8 – Friday 2:30 “ibiblio.org at NCREN” North Carolina Research and Education Network Community Day.
  • Note NCREN Day is 4/5s full. Over 100 people signed up as of today.

    RSVVP Today – Eating well helps others

    Today, Tuesday November 14 is RSVVP day! You eat at a restaurant and 10% of your bill goes to the Urban Ministries in Chapel Hill and Durham.

    On Tuesday, November 14, 2006, area restaurants will donate 10% of their breakfast, lunch and dinner proceeds to help alleviate hunger in the Triangle.

    It’s simple. We advertise. The public eats out (or gets take-out). The restaurant makes a donation. Everyone gets a meal.

    Restaurants sharing V(5) + V(5) percent (5+5=10%), or RSVVP, has raised more than $425,000 to fight hunger since its inception in 1989.

    The fundraiser will be advertised extensively on TV, radio, newspapers, direct mail, and posters.

    Our major sponsors include SunTrust Bank, ABC 11, The Herald-Sun and The Chapel Hill Herald, Money Mailer Durham-Orange, Curtis Media and 1360 WCHL. Posters will be displayed throughout the Triangle asking the public to “eat locally, feed locally” on our designated RSVVP day.

    Hosted by ibiblio.org

    Amongst the Online Journalists

    At Chapel Hill’s best kept secret, the Barbecue Joint, with Ed Cone, Kirk Ross, Henry Copeland and Dan Gillmor.

    Henry talked about deciding to be a financial journalist in Budapest thinking that with his understanding of finance that the journalism part would be a snap. Turned out to be tougher and he in the end did commit journalism but started companies that eventually led to BlogAds.com

    Lots of dissection of community sites and community news projects. What makes them? What makes a company work? Visionaries aren’t the ones who see the work through often. The programmer who is great at swift prototypes and proof of concept designs isn’t usually a very good production programmer or the one who turns out the final polished product. Likewise the production programmer who is great at seeing bugs and straightening out code usually can’t get the sloppy but needed prototype out. Are community thinkers like that? If so who are the production people in community — Ruby?

    A number of still secret projects hinted at and even delineated. Great talk and in what seems to be an oxymoron — great brussel sprouts! I can’t believe I wrote that but it’s true.

    Library Foundation on Friday

    Sally, her mom, author Elizabeth Spencer and I were at the Chapel Hill Library Foundation fundraiser on Friday. John Grisham was the guest of honor at the event held at UNC President Erskine Bowles home. The place was packed and money was raised. “Significant amounts” according to delighted campaign organizer Melissa Cain.

    Among the items of special interest were pigs in a blanket which I hadn’t seen out on a table suited out with a cloth table cloth since I was maybe 12. Keebe Fitch assured me that pigs in blankets are retro-in in the New York area. “Seen at all the weddings” she told me. Why? “They really absorb alcohol.” Secrets of the chefs revealed.

    The Daily Tar Heel covers the party here (but has nothing to say about pigs in blankets.

    Dan Gillmor – Monday at 4

    Dan Gillmor
    What: We the (Traditional) Media: As citizen media explodes, journalism organizations are finally beginning to understand — and use — the tools and techniques. We’ll look at how this is happening, how far it may go and why it matters.
    Who: Dan Gillmor, Director of the Center for Citizen Media and author of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People
    When: Monday November 13 beginning at 4 pm
    Where: Pleasants Family Room, Wilson Library, UNC-CH

    Sponsor: ibiblio.org

    Dan Lucas made a poster for Dan Gillmor here.

    Duke ISIS TechTuesdays featuring Paolo Mangiafico

    What: ISIS TechTuesdays featuring Paolo Mangiafico
    When: November 14, 2006, 12:00-1:15 PM
    Where: John Hope Franklin Center 240, Duke. Derm, NC
    Why:

    You probably have somewhere in a box photographs and letters left to you by your grandparents, and scholars have always counted on libraries and archives to preserve and provide access to documents and other media for study. Will future generations be able to see and use the terabytes of “born digital” data that our society is creating now? What will it take to make sure that digital materials are preserved and usable beyond the short lifespan of current technologies?

    Paolo Mangiafico, Digital Project Consultant with Duke University Libraries, will discuss the opportunities and challenges of digital preservation, and what libraries, archives, and universities are doing to meet them.

    NCLIS supports Net Neutrality

    Washington, DC. USA November 7, 2006 – The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) today announced its position on Internet neutrality (“net neutrality”), currently being debated in the Congress…

    In the press release [PDF], NCLIS sets forth Four Principles:

    The four principles are:

    1. Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.
    2. Consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice (subject to the needs of law enforcement).
    3. Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network.
    4. Consumes are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

    Open Source .com and .org

    As I’ve been preparing for my Open Source Licensing talk today, I’ve been struck by how many F/LOSS projects have a .org and a .com side.

    For Course Management Systems, Moodle operates in development mode as a .org and in a support and certification mode as a .com.

    For Customer Relationship Management, SugarCRM also operates as a community development site .org and a service and support and packaged product site as a .com.

    In Network Management, OpenNMS is a community supported project as a .org and in its commercial mode acts as steward of the project while providing training, professional services and support.

    Others?

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