July 2008
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Getting up and tripping
Since last Wednesday I’ve been on the road, mostly hanging out at my aunt’s house in Maine. She’s way back in the woods, with a satellite Net connection that features a minimum of 7% packet loss (and >1 sec latencies), plus cell service that’s spotty at best. I was there to do other things anyway,… Continue reading
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Remembering a man I wish I’d met
The dude above is my grandfather, George W. Searls. He was born during the Civil War, in 1863, and died in 1935 at age 72, twelve years before I was born. This shot was taken when he was about 40, I’d guess. It’s from a group photo of a bunch of workers, some holding wrenches… Continue reading
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Polar Xtreme
J. Dana Hrubes has been reporting on his work and life at the North and South Pole for the last few years, but I just discovered his site this morning via the 12 July Aurora Gallery at SpaceWeather.com. Here’s his report on 2007-2008. Here is the June page, with some amazing pictures of the aurora… Continue reading
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Happy Birthday, Pop
Today is the 100th birthday of my father, Allen H. Searls. He only lived about 71 of those years, but they were all good ones, and I miss him still. I’m writing this from Portland, Maine, on our way up to his sister Grace’s place near Booth Bay, where the family will gather to reminisce… Continue reading
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Markets under reconstruction
Here’s my report (with links to as much as I could gather in a short time) on the VRM Workshop, over at the ProjectVRM blog. It was an outstanding event. Lots of projects and subjects were not only vetted with the whole group, but moved forward very effectively. Thanks to everybody who came, or participated… Continue reading
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NPR gets Mashable
National Public Radio has announced a new API. The gist: …almost everything that you can find on NPR.org that we have the rights to redistribute is available through the API. This includes audio, images, full text, etc. That said, there are elements, series and programs that we could not offer due to rights restrictions.… Continue reading
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On the shore, with flowers
Still waiting for Riverbend to show up again. It’s an old question, not asked recently. Here’s one. Another. Another. Odd how a blogger with such a high profile, once awol, seems forgotten by all but a few. But not by all. Continue reading
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Credits where drew
I find myself among the “top ideators” on this list here. Flattered, but why no links? I can see a lot of names and sites on that page I’d like to follow. Hey, what’s a hierarchy without links to subvert them? Continue reading
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What changed, exactly?
Here’s the FISA bill that Barack Obama voted for after saying he wouldn’t. It’s hugely complicated. Here’s a Volokh post that says coverage of it has been misleading. What isn’t misleading is that he voted for a bill that he said earlier that he would oppose. (TPM has a timeline.) In his last statement he… Continue reading
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Mars needs code
Missing Code Challenge is my latest at Linux Journal. One excerpt: We each need to be independent variables, not dependent ones. What makes me trustworthy to a service like Blogger shouldn’t be code that lives entirely on Blogger’s side, while all I’ve got is one among a zillion ID/password combinations, most of which I… Continue reading
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Painstream media
This is so pathetic… Download That was my first, and perhaps only, successful video embed. Not my style, but I had to give it a try. Continue reading
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Less is mobile
This is my blog. This is my blog on mofuse. Suddenly, cell-friendly. Interesting. What do ya’ll think? Continue reading
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Higher ground
Freeman Dyson in the New York Review of Books, via Kevin Kelly: There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism, holding that we are stewards of the earth, that despoiling the planet with waste products of our luxurious living is a sin, and that the path of righteousness is to live as… Continue reading
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Fires, cont’d
The Gap Fire is now 55% contained, and making less news, although the latest InciWeb report has this among its remarks: “Critical communication infrastructure such as Broadcast Peak are being assessed for fire protection. Broadcast Peak is next to Santa Ynez peak, and the highest point on the possible westward path of the fire. Many… Continue reading
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Can the Net itself be a frame?
That’s the question I get around to visiting near the end of Saving the Net III: Understanding its Frames, over in Linux Journal. It’s the long and unpacked version of Framing the Net, which ran recently at Publius.cc. It’s the third in what’s now a series. Here’s the first and here’s the second. The second… Continue reading
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Ahh, cool.
This morning we finally got the air conditioning going at our apartment here in Boston. One window unit is next to my desk here in my attic office, which had been an oven up until today. We had another one put in at the far end of the attic as well, so that space can… Continue reading
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VRM catch-up and get-ahead
I catch up on some VRM postings at VRM linkage and thinkage in the ProjectVRM blog. Meanwhile we’re busy getting ready for the first VRM Workshop, hosted by the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School, on Monday and Tuesday of next week. It’s free, but we’ll want you to pitch in and help work on… Continue reading
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Last laff
Nobody parodies TV news better than The Onion. They’re just wicked. Anyway, just caught Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency on a podcast here on the plane (still boarding), and laughed so hard I just had to pass it along. It’s almost up there with this one, which still wins… Continue reading
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Whether report
My plane to Boston may or may not be delayed, depending on weather. Meanwhile, I forgot my laptop charger in Santa Barbara. So much for getting much done here and in the plane. Some airports have places where you can buy laptop chargers, but not this corner of LAX. “International has a place”, says a… Continue reading
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Pulling the scales from our whys
Noah Brier has an interesting post titled Metcalfe’s Plateau, which he describes as — a place where the value of the network no longer increases with each additional node. In fact, thanks to spam (as deemed by me), the value of the network had started to decline, I was looking for other places to spend… Continue reading