Digital Media and whatever else flows through my head…
Archive for June, 2006
This IS serious…
Jun 24th
It isn’t often that I get involved in politics. I find it painfully illogical, inefficient and, primarily, motivied by greed. It physically hurts for me to think down to the level of your average Representative/Senator. What has come to be called Net Neutrality is one issue that is worth the pain.
I’ll not bore you further with my drivel when I can refer you, kind reader, to none other than Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
Net Neutrality: This is serious | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs
Right is its own defense
Jun 24th
Mark Cuban is smart guy that I respect. Well, at least as much as you can respect someone whom I have never met in person and in fact would not know if I ran over him with a ice cream truck.
I’ve ‘known’ Mark since his days starting broadcast.com, one of the extremely rare bubble-era companies on who’s stock I actually made money (DAMN DIRTY PeaPod!). He saw the digital media wave long before most people and was rewarded for it.
Although I couldn’t give two beads of sweat about his thoughts on the NBA, I do follow Mark’s (I can call you ‘Mark’, can’t I… Mark?) thoughts reguarding digital media and business with great interest. This post is interesting in two ways; the annoucement of a new web site/service to discuss/expose corporate fraud and his tenat that ‘Right is its own defense’.
I think I’m adding that one to my list of “Tim’s Rules of Life”.
Right is its own defense – Blog Maverick – www.blogmaverick.com _
It’s been an interesting week.
Jun 23rd
On my day job we signed not one, but two H U G E clients. One of these we have been chasing for a year (to the day). This basically ‘makes’ the company. There was Dom all around. We also received commitments from two other clients for large-scale tests. Dammmmmmmn.
If that wasn’t enough fun for one week, my weekend gig filed a provisional patent. I’m someone now!
Whew — I need a nap.
And now for a word from Engineering…
Jun 22nd
One often asks one’s self, “Self, How many is too many?” Here’s the answer I got from myself.
- 1 motorcycle accident
- 3 startups, concurrently
- 115 comment spams in a single hour
The first one, a Tim vs. Tree incident I discussed briefly yesterday. The second is a side-effect of my personality, sad but true.
The last however, has a technology solution. A quick trip to Goggle lead me to the WordPress plug-in Spam Karma 2. The install process was completely painless; from download to running in about 10 minutes.
Once installed and running it examines all comments posted to the blog and assigns each a ‘karma value’. The points associated with certain characterstics of the message along with the actions to take based on the total karma are highly customizable. Even the admin interface is adjustable (basic vs. advanced); Brilliant!
I dug deep into my long (long, long, LONG) systems architecture and engineering experience bag and pulled out a basic tenant of systems design: “Go with the defaults!”. This is, of course, second only to the first tenant; “Let’s try rebooting”. Both are dwarfed of course, by the immortal words of Tech Support minions everwhere; “Ok, try it now.”.
According to the handy dashboard, in the first hour of operation SK2 squashed a grin-inducing 22 comment spams. Sweet.
What year Honda Civic?
Jun 21st
I ride a motorcycle and before you ask, Yes, I do wear a helmet. I’m still not sure if Mom is aware of this fact; ever since the ‘incident’ back in High School where I went head-to-bark with a tree I’ve been loath to discuss the entire subject with her. But I digress…
I work in downtown Boston and parking here follows the general rules of economics; a scarce commodity begets high prices. Bearing this in mind, and the fact that most commercial lots do not accept two-wheeled vehicles I opt to park on the street. By .on the street. I mean anyplace I can wedge my scooter into without creating a public nuisance or putting it into the likely path of a garbage truck or Starbucks starved commuter.
In fact, I found a .perfect. place directly across the street from my office. It is a space along the curb approx. 25 feed wide, bounded by posted no parking zones, (what the hell is a .counsul tag. anyway?) centered on a fire hydrant. I back up against the curb, with my rear wheel touching, at one of the extremes of the space to maximize my distance from the hydrant. I.ve parked here on numerous occasions without incident. Imagine my surpize to emerge from my office to discover the day-glow-can-see-it-from-space orange ticket slipped under my seat strap. .HYDRANT. was listed as the violation. I proceeded to step off the distance between the hydrant and my bike, 11 .boots.. (I.ve the happy coincidence of having feet that are close enough to 1 foot long to double as measuring sticks. Thanks Mom & Dad). A few quick snaps with my camphone to document the scene and I was off. More >
