test by replying to this

8:05 -  Awaken

8:10-8:15 - Search around up stairs for stuff to ebay. 

8:15-8:25 - Fixed laptop by rearranging ram sticks and kinda hitting it a bit

8:25-8:40 - Check feeds, email, FOAF sites, news

8:45-9:00 - Shower

media 9:00 - Start NPR from Boston

9:00-9:15 - browsed new media from the last day and selected 'keepers'

9:15-9:30 - outside maintenence (rebuttress air conditioner, trash)

9:30-9:45 - search for change (boo) / made a ramen pack

9:45-10:00 - Checked rummage sale next door, went and got smokes

10:00-10:15 - ate ramen, read http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lkm/ , saw

that Mr Ellis is looking for mp3's of music for his podcast DJ show 4am, submitted at

warrenellis@gmail.com, read new freakangels webisode

10:15-10:30 - read

http://airweb.cse.lehigh.edu/2008/submissions/krause_2008_anti_social_tagger.pdf and

considered antispam methods to use in the empowerment folksonomy / taxonomy (there is a

chart called "Confusion Matrix" lol)

10:30 - 10:45 - Studied the merger between Sirrus and XM radio, FCC approval, and reactions

in the web-0-blog-a-sphere-a-net.  Created a Del.ic.ous account finally.  Started browsing

around in my old bookmarks.

media 11:00 - gbsFM

10:45 - 11:30 - Finally imported the last hunk of public bookmarks from 3 digital

infrastructure generations ago.  Added delicious link to empowerment profile by blogging. 

added mission 'make a list of sites that people use to add as fields to profiles, like

flickr' and dispatched thekid on it to give him something web based to do that's effectively

useful

11:30 - 11:45 - Harrassed my cats by chasing them around and blowing noise at them through a

tube (they hate that).  bothered thekid12 by flicking water at his exposed face while he

slept.  put the wyoming incident video on loop in the living room next to his head.  ( he

started mumbling and woke up confused then fell back asleep).  Knocked on alex's door to

confirm that we where totally skipping the daily meeting at 10am.  No answer.

11:45 - 12:15 - smoked drugs and watched cartoons (the critic)

media 12:15 turned the fans up for ambient audio - turned off media

12:15 - 12:30 - considered writing a short story about a craftsman in an assembly line and

daydreaming about the day in which he can own and operate the tool he used there at home for

his own devices, added it to onenote GTD list.  considered how detailed to make ebay listing

for pokemon game, decided on 'very', found spreadsheet of pokemans and plugged in the

nintendo DS.  found and checked 2 more phones for thekid12, both came back crap.  Moved a

large duffel bag of old tools to the ebay table for thekid12 to look over and pick out

things for his basement lab, rest on CL then ebay.

media 12:30 - demon days

12:30 - 1:00 - simple maintenence chores upstairs.  seperated individual speakers that may

be usable in a housewide intercom system.  installed RSVP reader and text to speech programs

on laptop.  Dictator confirmed functional.  did a load of laundry.

1:00 - 5:30 - Sleep

5:30 - Ate a pickle. 

 

 

http://del.icio.us/agentpugsly

 

That's me!  Hi!

I'm always coming across more shipping container ideas and I've recently built a platform above SLHQ for prototyping shipping container-based development of future Empowerment arcologies.

Habitable Shipping Container Design

The Habitable Shipping Container is a design I developed after reading of similar concepts already in use around the world. My initial design (shown here) is for an entire dwelling in one 8' x 40 container. A home like this could be the ideal solution for someone without a lot of money to put into the construction or for an individual looking for an easy way to move around every-so-often without all the unnecessary accessories of an expensive RV.

 

Kill Switch X-Files Episode Had A Hacker and an AI In A Box

A Cafe in a Shipping Container

Where there are computer programmers, there must also be caffeine. Consider the fact that the nerd store ThinkGeek has a whole section devoted to the substance. One of my favorite sayings was adapted from a line in mathematician Paul Erdos’ biography, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: “A programmer is a machine for converting caffeine into software.”

It logically follows that if there are computing centers in shipping containers, there should also be some kind of caffeine dispensers in shipping containers as well. Here come artist Adam Kalkin and fancy-pants coffee vendor Illy to the rescue:

Unraveling some of the mysteries of the CCK api. Here are some of my notes.

I have descovered that one of the biggest problems with the cck api documentation is the lack of consistant terminology. For example, "field" can have 3 distinct meanings.

 

1. A "field type"
   
   • Each filed type has its own unique behavior
     • The node hooks are designed to work on a single field type. Most of them pass a reference to it in the $field variable
     • They are stored in the table {node_field} It has the following columns:
       • name and type (name is the long one used in forms)
       • global configuration (the most global level of configuration you can immagine a field having. not used an awfull lot)
       • a flag named "required" which means that fields of this type can never be left blank when a form is submitted (the cck does this validation, not the field implimentation, which can do additional validation)
       • a flag named "multiple" which is primarily used when selecting multiple items from a list.
     • The data that are stored, displayed, and made editable are defined by the field hooks for the field type.
   • In the context of a hook implimentation, this is usually just called a field.
2. A "field instance"
   • These are properties of individual node types.
   • They are stored in the table {node_field_instance}
   • I haven't yet found a php variable that stores a list of them. If there is a variable that stores the type, it will probably have such a list. Otherwise, I haven't found a variable storing these.
   • Each "field instance" is essentially  a field that has been added to a content type.
   • These are generally called  "field" when you are adding them to a content type
3. An "item" represents the data associated with each instance of a field instance
   •  It is often just a single value.
   • Each node has its own items.
   • If "multiple" is enabled for this node type, then there will be more than nodes can have several of these for each field instance.
   • I have seen these called field in several places in the cck docs, but not very consistantly. I mostly see "item" in the source.
   • Items are arrays that contain key-value pairs.
4. A "value" ... I haven't seen these called anything but "fields", and I am running out of names...
   1. I haven't seen any consistant termanology for these, but they are what each are stored in the php variables $node->field_... variables.
   2. They are arrays of items.
   3. If multiple is not turned on for the node type
      1. Then the only item will allways be in $node->field_...[0]
      2. and the items will be stored in the table {content_type_fieldname}
      3. The table stores
         
         1. the nid of the node the data is attached to
         2. A "vid" that is used to associate the item with a field instance
         3. the values defined by the field type (through its hooks)
         4. this table (as opposed to content_field_fieldname) guarantees uniqueness of (nid,vid) pairs
   4. If multiple is turned on
      1. The items are in an un-ordered list in $node->field_fieldname
      2. they are stored in the table {content_field_fieldname}
      3. The table stores the same info as {content_type_fieldname} would, except that (nid,vid) pairs are not unique.
   5. The names of the tables used to store records were different in Drupal 4 and earlier, but the contents are the same.

Also, I see the phrase "multiple fields" thrown around a lot. There is a lot of multiplicity in the cck. In many cases where a singleton is the most common case, arrays are used instead.

1. Each item can contain multiple values. These essentially represent columns in the virtual table for that node type. Items are arrays of key value pairs, with the key being the name of the column and the value being the data stored there. Most fields store, display, and allow the editing of a single value, and so the php variable $node->field_fieldname[0]['value'] often contains the value.
   1. Prior to drupal 5, the  nodes were stored differently. I see lots of code that uses $node->field_fieldname_value[0] instead of $node->field_fieldname[0]['value']
2. You can have multiple field instances of the same field type attached to a single node type, or to different node types.
   1. Each field instance has its own name, label, and some unique configuration
   2. The records are stored in the same tables. There isn't a table of items for each field instance, rather for each field type.
3. You can have multiple Items per field instance per node. That is what the multiple flag in the node_field table does. The affects are described above in "values

Also, there are 3 different circumstances when a field provides a list of its fields. It can return separate lists for each

1. The list of fields to save to the db, and the list of values to save to the db
2. When rendering the field
3. When editing the field (though this case is limited by the wigit used... the editing behavior is detached from the field)

This allows for very elaborite behavior. For example, a date can be presented as a single item when editing the node, can look however you want, but can be stored in an appropriate format (separate columns for day, week, and year, for example, to allow faster sorting and searching). Localization is often handled this way by cck modules.

 

 

That pretty much summs up the stuff that I found terribly unclear in the cck docs and source (including the sources of several cck modules). Its definitely not a complete guide (or even my complete notes) but if anyone else is struggling with the cck docs, it could save them a few hours of staring at phpmyadmin or the source of random contributed modules.  

 

 

The Washington Monument makes me think perhaps a new kind of geometric symbol would be more appropriate to symbolize empowerment.

I recently created The Activist Memorial and the Gold Star Monument as first steps towards creating symbols of empowerment culture akin to the symbols of American democracy in Washington DC like the Vietnam Memorial, Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool.

How about The Monolith? You know, the one from 2001 Space Odyssey through 3001: Final Odyssey. The late, great Arthur C. Clarke was a great innovator who gave us many high-speed ideas including geosynchronous orbiting satellites.

The Monolith symbolizes a spark of inspiration for evolution, technological advancement and space exploration.

What does a monolith look like?

• It is a tall, smooth black cuboid artifact of precisely 1:4:9 proportions (the first 3 primes squared).
• It can change size, or, in the words of Monolith experiencer David Bowman, "It has only one size: As large as necessary." 
• It can appear suddenly where it is least expected.

The monolith could form a nexus for all the other monuments around it much like the Washington Monument does in DC between the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol.

I have begun prototyping the monolith on a new platform above the current Second Life HQ.

What do you think?

Novel List

 

Cyberpunk | The Electric Church -- Jeff Somers

 

The rich and the poor are about as distinct as possible. The story follows a hired gunman and his troubles with the law and the Electric Church. The Church is a group of cyborgs who preach salvation through immortality and mechanization.

 

Science Fiction | Off Armageddon Reef -- David Weber

 

Mankind is attacked and completely outmatched by an aggressive alien race. The final safeguard against extinction is to send a colony of people with their memories wiped to a far distant world to begin anew. Their society is designed to prevent all innovation since the aliens would otherwise be able to detect electrical and radio emissions and other such things. The plan does not work exactly as expected.

 

Science Fiction | The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress -- Robert Heinlein

 

The descendants of prisoners sent to the moon are still being treated like second class citizens. I don't want to spoil anything, just read the book.

 

Science Fantasy | The  Book Of The New Sun -- Gene Wolfe

 

Severian, a man who claims to have perfect memory recounts the story of his life. He is an apprentice of the Seekers For Truth And Penitence (The Guild Of Torturers), until his expelled for commiting the cardinal sin of giving mercy. He is sentenced to traveling to bumfuck nowhere as a punishment. The first part of the story is mainly about how he gets horribly sidetracked.

Western Fantasy | A Game Of Thrones (A Song Of Ice And Fire) -- George R. R. Martin

One of the single greatest works of fantasy fiction I've ever read. It focuses less on magic and strange creatures than it does on humanity. It's all about the political and personal motivations of each character. I don't like all the characters equally, but there's plenty to choose from.

 

Comics

 

Postcyberpunk | Transmetropolitan -- Warren Ellis

 

I refuse to spoil this. Just think of it as sort of like Hunter S. Thompson in the FUTURE!!

 

Western Fantasy | Berserk -- Kentaro Miura

 

Guts was once a mercenary but is now plagued by demons. He is constantly hunted because of a brand on his neck. Berserk is delightfully violent and it has a great story.

 

Psychological Thriller | Death Note -- Tsugumi Ohba

 

What happens when you give the power to instantly grant death to an overachieving yet mentally disturbed student.

 

Eastern Fantasy | Blade Of The Immortal

 

Manji, a wandering swordsman, is given the "gift" of immortality. In order to finally die himself he must rid the world of a thousand evil men.

 

Super Hero | Batman : The Long Halloween -- Jeph Loeb

 

The story of Harvey Dent and his descent into insanity. Think of it as sort of like The Godfather Meets Batman.

 

?????????? | Preacher -- Garth Ennis

 

Umm... just read this one.

So in a few short days, I will be empowering full time. I have been browsing over the empowerment, and looking at a lot of content that needs expanded and/or cleaned up. I have started filling in a few stubs that I created months ago, but much more needs done. If there is anything that you would like to see on the empowerment, but don't have time to add it, or content that exists but needs more work, post a comment here and I will see what I can do.  Anything that will take more than a couple of hours, or is way out side of my area of experties will get posted up to the mission system.

 

Also, add comments to any existing missions that you feel should be a higher priority or might need review, and post up missions for site improvements and feature requests (both for the iphone and regular www interface)

 

 

I have to admit, I find most counter-cultural activism and such things to be a little silly, possiobly pointless even. It's something inside of me, some weird I love, the idea that even though I think they miss the point, and are doomed to failure, I just love them a little for at least trying. Sadly, the view of the world that most people who would consider themselves "against the mainstream" have is, pretty much 100% wrong. There is no big screen or smoky room where the 23 Industrialists who control the world sit around and decide what's going to happen everywhere all the time. Shit, there might not actually be a shadow government? Well, that's absurd, but guess what; it doesn't act like you think it does, not one bit. They probably don't even knwo that they ARE the shadow government.

 

People who try to hard to do things that they probably shouldn't do, people who think they am what they amn't, people who take the ideas of not being like everyone else and twist it around into their little cliques. Punks and ravers, hippies, I think Goths might still be considered vaguely hip, but they're time is done. Then lots of people try to reject those labels, by being 'scene' or just vaguely 'hip' (probably in combination with scene). I mean, that's fine for laughs and dealing with boredom, but the delussion that you're actually going to accomplish anything is silly. Am I a bit nihilistic? Probably, but it's a comfortable nihilism. You probably ARE doomed to failure, being 'different' or changing the world are almost certainly not things you'll be doing, at least not in the way you think. You'll probably end up giving up on all this idealistic siliness and get a steady job (having rejected formal education) working as a manager at Steak n Shake. Well, at least you can still have some bumper stickers to express your promotion of such "out there" and "controversial" beliefs; no torture, being nice, tolerating people. What a rebel you are! Getting shit done telling people to be nice, ain't ya? Jesus tried it, he was better at it than you'll ever be and look what hapened to him! Don't worry, you're not ever going to get crucified. Nobody cares about you enough to hate you that much.

 

At least you tried. Didn't you? Did you really? Actually, other than downloading some Mojo Nixon and perhaps going to a local coffee shop instead of Starbucks (which you almost certainly didn't.), you're just vaguely expressing your hip and with-it leftist opinions. Hint: The cool kids don't look like the cool kids, and they don't act like them either. Chilling at the local shows? Wowzers! How was the band? Shitty, almost certainly. Did you meet anyone really actually interesting? Probably not. Maybe though, but unlikely. I'm not saying to eat apathy for breakfast, you have to go out and have fun, meet people, but why do you need to make a cause out of it? Wanna make your point? Then get your shit together and actually do what you believe would be the way to go about it, and try to have a modicum or originality, creativity, and maybe even equipment. It'll probably be hard work, but it'll be a lot better than fucking around with half-baked ideologies and groups of shiftless ineffectual people. Almost certainly.

 

That's a little what this hopelessly utopian site is about, getting your shit together. Maybe a few people will be interested. You know what the cynic would say though. 

We need to start posting Recommedia lists for people.

 

On the one hand, most Recommedia would make sense in the toolpedia store as kit (possibly 6th line kit : media library) because a lot of it is purchaseable.  A lot of media is non-purchasable as well though, such as creative commons media.  Posting as a material works I guess, but I kinda like the idea of leaving the materials for projects and things that are made by internal members for use in campaigns.

 

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on it.

Other times I know I do.

 

It sucks working a soul sucking job because, not only does a sense of dread and disdain build up and grow, but also it drains the mind and body, leaving me exhausted and inept. I spend all day talking to people, explaining stupid shit, then when I actually have something worthwhile to explain, the words come out all wrong. My concentration fails me.

 

After finally finding the entry-level document to the Cocoa architectural guides (its titled "Cocoa fundamentals guide" and lays the groundwork for the other introductory guides) I read it for about an hour last night. It was fairly redundant after all the other reading I have been doing, but I still feel that its necessary, because any flaws in how I see the overall architecture now will be very troublesome later. When I started reading again today, about 20 hours after I found it, I realized that I am 50 pages in and don't remember what I have already read. What a bummer. Hope it wasn't anything important that I didn't already know.

 

On the up side, I only have 12 more days of customer service. Too bad I need the money.  

by Moses Silbiger —http://www.kenwilber.com/blog/show/459

click here to download accompanying poster image.

Learning is at its best when it is goal-oriented, contextual, interesting, challenging, and interactive. These same winning characteristics also define the best computer games … Learning can and should be hard fun!
- Clark N. Quinn, E-learning & video game designer, and author.

We are already the most overinformed, underreflective people in the history of civilization. Is it possible the twenty-first century needs a new kind of learning and a new kind of leader to help us …? Perhaps [we can] begin building not simply an information highway but a transformation highway.
- Robert Kegan, developmental psychologist, professor, and author, Harvard University.

Introduction

As odd or paradoxical as it may seem, I envision video games being increasingly designed to facilitate human development, as virtual reality technologies continue to evolve and integrate with leading edge developmental practices.

Most of us have played a video game at least once in our lives, or at least watched somebody else play, often a close one. Can you remember what you felt when you played a video game for the first time, or watched another player deeply engaged in one? I invite you now to engage in a brief Phenomenological exploration. Try to access how you were feeling, what were your emotions about it? … Who were you at that moment? Can you identify what “self” was playing, or observing somebody else deeply immersed in the game? What were your thoughts about it? Was there something “magical” or “different” about that? Just pause a little moment and close your eyes to really access and embody that memory…

Read more... http://www.kenwilber.com/blog/show/459

It's' been over a week since I started messing with LinuxMCE.  It is poorly documented.  Alow me to state that a bit better....

 

IT IS POORLY DOCUMENTED

 

Uhhhh, ever try and deploy a release candidate level beta class open source home automation software suite on rigged together and scrounged hardware?  Yeah, well, me either.  I've been keeping notes and I'm going to write a complete guide for the 6th line kit articles (because, uhhh, yeah).  The system does things like PBX / telephone system and voicemail integration, security grid control, media playback and recording, location to location intercoms, irrigation / lighting / etc control, user and group based access permissions, spawns controls onto cellphones and pdas, and more.  It's very useful.  Here is a vauge nested missions layout.

 

 

Learn LinuxMCE

  -beat head neverendingly into keyboard

  -wait forever for someone to show up in the IRC

  -click random page on the project wiki over and over and memorize what comes up

  -wish for death to come creeping silently in the night

 

Deploy LinuxMCE

  - Integrate all existing media collections into pluto file architecture and properly tag them

        -accumulate all needed cover art

        -re-id3 tag everything

        -collect attribute data for video media

        -find a way to display media (like series) as a single item on directors

  - Hardware analysis

         -find pc's and screens for at least 5 MD's in each the viralink and coder houses

              - weep over the need of 10 reasonably powerful PC's

         -find at least 3 webcams for each house on the grid

         -find speakers for each machine as well as an ambient microphone

         -experiment and choose orbiter and control devices (wiimote, pda's, cellphones, wireless mice and keyboards, etc) for each USER 

         - create network redundancy between houses, including having a backend CORE at each location

         - find sensors for doors and windows as well as numpads for keyed entry at doors (?) and sirens

         - find acceptable moutings for machines in living spaces that are mainly hands off

   -Software work

         -Create Security Scenarios that integrate with users individually

         -Create media scenarios that provide easy access to web streaming content

         -find a way to integrate the videoconfrence and voice chat with Second Life

         -find a way to integrate empowerthyself links to live voice chat with someone(s)

Create LinuxMCE deployment guide

  -log all steps taken to create a deployment

  -reformat log with pertinent wiki entries

  -take metric but-tons of screencaps / videos of doing things in the web admin software

  -create hardware checklists

  -create simple site security zone checklist / guide

 

 

 

I could die, people.  I'm so damn sick of this software I could hork.  Once it's 'done' (deployed) it'll be worth it though.  If I get an easy to follow deployment guide, we can have a standard for plugging collectives into each other digitally that will provide all kinds of really really really fun, productive, and practical features for any 6th line kitline.

 

Also, giant multitouch media display wall HO!

Fuck lines.  Fuck Apple.  Fuck AT&T.  Fuck Warehouses.  Fuck the color white.

Summary: Fuck the iPhone.

Afterword: I get mine next week.

In exploring Indiana we've run across some interesting spots at which to meet, eat and check out.

Indiana History Center's Stardust Terrace Cafe 450 West Ohio St.

Internets! Great atmosphere, lots of round tables, food was closed when we went but reliable Internet and awesome WWII victory posters.

Enzo's Pizza

It doesn't get any more Snow Crash than Enzo's Pizza. I forgot to ask if they do deliverations.

 

So as I mentioned before, there is now an announcement: Facebook's new simplified tabbed interface is coming next week. Try this preview link to see what it looks like in advance. I wish they had an ALL tab to show the whole profile like before and I wish there was a sort of table of contents of tabs at the top of all the boxes that let you filter to them all without scrolling.

 

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <![endif]-->

We have come to a time in our history where the forces of good and the forces of evil have reached a global scale. Over population, pollution, and limited resources have created an impending danger to future life on earth. It is time for all people to raise there level of awareness, and become empowered to strive for what they believe is right. Only through a mass cooperative effort of empowered people will we overcome the difficulties we have created.

 

I wrote more about Empowerment on my BulbMedia blog site:

 

http://www.bulbmedia.com/index.php/2008/07/06/empower-thy-self/

I wanted to post the event dates for the Bored of UC Regents convergence in July and Think Outside the Bomb convergence this Aug.

I have a pretty important birthday coming up and I was wondering if anyone had any fun ideas of things to do with large groups of people (possibly at night). I could have a party in the dumpster, but we had one half a year ago and I don't want to wear out the idea. I could do something boring like have a party and buy a cake and eat it, but I was looking for creativity. Give me some ideas; nothing is too wild. An ex of mine already suggested a mass orgy on the steps of the police station, but I both don't know the legal status of that or their motives in suggesting it! Ideas for an awesome day/nite for a really nutty adventurous kid?

It used to be in the lower part of the far left light blue column. It listed the top posters on empowerment and it was fun to look and see who'd been on the site a lot lately. Where'd it go?

From one of my sock puppets:

 

Dear List Serve members,


 


 


We need your help!  For over a year now, someone has been  painting the same graffiti on all of the recycling bins at Broad Ripple Park. This is very costly to paint over and it is affecting all three types of bins at the location. The city is investing your tax dollars in the painting and maintaining for the Recycle Indianapolis drop-off containers and recently a freshly painted and refurbished container was vandalized by this person.


If you have any information or knowledge of this person, please report it to Lisa Laflin, Recycling Coordinator, at llaflin@indygov.org. She will pass the information along to our environmental police officer to investigate.


Thank you for your assistance

 

Lisa Laflin

Recycling Coordinator

City of Indianapolis  

This place feels very empty all the time.  I spend a bit of time watching the trackers and the page visit logs, trying to find out where the users here focus their attention.  It really looks like people spend a lot of time tied into what I call 'propaganda pages', and very little time on the core function pages like ideas and missions.  I also note that this site has about the same post to reply ratio as a fat aspie kid on myspace posting blogs about his distaste of some Naruto Fanfic communities new administration.

 

It's really hard to keep motivated on this community when there is so little community interaction.  In many cases it's understandable of course, the site is still EXTREMELY hard to navigate and there isn't any kind of useful guide to help people learn to navigate the site.  I've done the best I can, emailing all new members and telling folks that I'd be glad to give them a tour and answer questions.. but of course this very RARELY nets an interested party.

 

Like most communities online, participation levels are less than 10% of the registered user levels.  This is to be expected, even in a community with the types of messages that are floating around here.  I fear we have a hard case of 'too high a bar set' here at the moment.  People maybe don't think that they are competent to make ideas, missions, skills and the like postings because they really don't want to be responsible for a less than perfect post.  I think that this is a big part of things.

 

As I posted in the idea "Locations Vie for your Presence", there are innumerable webcommunities out there that desperately request for each and every one of our participation.  I'm a big chief enough to even get emails sometimes nowadays asking for me to become active on this website or that forum or some wiki over yonder.  Each community of course is going to be THE DEFINITIVE community for something or another and all they need is just ONE MORE active member to really get things 'started'.

 

I have lost count of the alias' I've used and the number of communties i've assisted in starting up.  How many wiki's have I had to make posts to and watched one day an administration fight lead to the loss of the database?  I have no idea anymore.  In fact, just in the Wog community there has had to be at least 4.  Hundreds of hours of labor spent and wasted entirely for no real benifit but to give the founder(s) of the community in question a nice high article count to look at and think 'behold, look what I have done!'. Of course, i've also had to deal with innumerable well meaning individuals who feel that they are the ONLY person who can make things happen, and thus feel that nobody can do anything without their ok and interference.  I don't know how many times I've seen a founder interfere with the natural growth of a community by demanding that they be involved personally with every aspect of a community.  It never turns out well. 

 

Is that what I think is going to come of THIS site?  No, it is not.  What I worry most about is the tone of things.  I have never trusted a community that says that they get things done that members of the community have never even tried to do before.  I see a lot of that here.  Instead of seeing people trying to preform social, kit, or network experiments I see.... nothing.  Which means the problem in tone stays.  A community of inactivity naturally breeds problems, very easy to define problems, and it's almost time for them to start cropping up.

 

What needs to happen?  Well, I have a pretty good idea.  Followups, guides, a chatroom, a voice confrence room, and who knows what else.  There really needs to be a social spot here that isn't reliant on any one person here.   I do know one thing that needs to happen though, We can no longer promote the site as an all inclusive social movement that has SO MUCH to offer the world when we only really have 2-4 active participants.  It's a lie, which can be made truth with only a lot more activity.

 

Comment on things people!  Post ideas and skills!  Post casual discussions in the forums!  PARTICIPATE.

 

This empty space is getting old for me, and the emals I am getting promising me that THEY will create the SOLE resource for self empowerment, productive activism, urban resource provisioning, web2.0 user dashboards, metacommunity organizing, decentralized learning, and so damn many other things are becoming more and more interesting.  I wish I had the time to work on multiple projects, but I just don't.  It's been 2 years for me here, and it feels like we aren't much more developed then we where at the start.

 

As of today, projects that seem more interesting and more social to me:

RantMedia's Second Life outpost

Warren Ellis' metacommunity

CouchSurfer university

rentacoder collective

hackthissite ( always :| )

and of course my own baby Viralink Industries

 

 

Ubu Web took the initiative to recruit people into uploading random samples of audio from the most obscure and random sources.. All the audio is Public Domain and works great for sampling if you are looking for royalty free strange and obsucre soucres.

365 days of cool and strange and often obscure audio selections

Some words to describe the material featured would be... Celebrity, Children, Demonstration, Indigenous, Industrial, Outsider, Song-Poem, Spoken, Ventriloquism, and on and on and on. The best thing to do is to simply listen.

Unlike a blog/journal/website consisting of one or a small group of contributors, 365 Days has over 200 people sharing from their stash of aural treasures.

Five days in a watery cave.
Another song for the day that I take to the grave.
I gotta be the first to see the specter.
Everybody want to be friends with the nectar protector.
Seventeen skulls in a hole in the woods
already know of the low down, but not of the goods.
We can't see but lo and behold her,
it's funny how we think with our heads when the shoulder is colder.
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
Back in elementary school,
there was a kid we knew, we considered him cool.
And when his eyes turned red, the principal said
he was gonna go mad from the things in his head.
Seventeen days later somebody told us there was no more school,
and the principal sold us to the ice cream shop down the street,
where it seemed there was nothing they'd let us eat, so we screamed
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
It's never too late
to take the chance of a lifetime under the weight
of life, and chance, and death.
And it's never too far out.
We don't know how the sun became a star.
They say it's always been that way,
but I'll be damned if that's the case.
We'd love to have you as our guest this afternoon.
We'll get the kettle ready, hope you show up soon.

(We'll get the kettle ready, hope you show up soon.)

We can talk about life, we can talk about death,
we can talk about film, we can talk about chess,
we can talk about the faceless evil shadow creatures
underneath our clothes
we can talk about the government conspiracies
and circumvent the challenges that represent our foes.
It's never my fault.
Take what I say with a big fat grain of salt,
and take my fears away.
We never will break out,
and we'll leave not one thing in our wake.
They say it's always been that way.
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
Your evil shadow has a cup of tea.

There are many benefits of closed captioning. Although you may not use this tool on your television on a regular basis, there are some who do. If you have never considered the benefits of closed captioning, there is no better time than now. You may find that this is something that you want to look into using in the near future.

Here are five benefits of closed captioning:

1. If you are deaf you can use closed captioning as a way of still being able to watch television. Although you will not be able to hear what is being said, you can read as to keep up with the action on the screen. If it were not for closed captioning deaf individuals would have a very difficult time enjoying the television experience.

2. If you are not deaf but have a difficult time hearing, you may find that closed captioning is the best option. Sure, you may be able to turn the volume up loud in order to hear what is going on, but using closed captioning could end up being a better option. At the very least this can be used along with the sound as a way of making it easier to follow along.

3. Believe it or not, there are some people who would rather read closed captioning than to listen to the television. If this sounds like you, there is nothing wrong with this. Most televisions and shows make it easy to use closed captioning at all times. For those who like to read, this is a good option.

4. Are you having a difficult time hearing the television because of too much noise? If so, you can use closed captioning as a way of making sure that you do not miss what is going on. While you could simply turn your television up, this is going to do nothing more than add to the confusion. If you are a noisy room that is inhibiting your ability to hear the television, there is no better option than closed captioning.

5. Keeping the noise down is something that you may need to do from time to time. If you are in this position, you can mute the television and turn closed captioning on. This will go a long way in keeping you up to speed without disturbing the other people in your home. Many never consider this option, and instead turn the television off altogether.

As you can see, there are many benefits of closed captioning. If you find yourself in any of the situations above, you will want to consider what this option has to offer. There is nothing wrong with using closed captioning on a regular basis.

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A tale of a second hand iPhone

With all this talk of developing iphone applications and the location aware device stuff that the iPhone can theoretically do, I have to admit that I am somewhat interested in picking up one of these pieces of hardware.  I did some study on the SDK and it's power, which is mighty, and decided hell... it is a goodness to have one laying around.  If for no other reason, but to be able to have it around for testing applications.

 

I put my feelers out and got a bite.  Someone with an 8gb gen1 iPhone agreed to trade their unit for a 2ghz ibm t30 laptop.  For actual cash value, this trade seems good for me.. even calculating the probable drop that will be seen in gen1 phones in about a month.  The t30 can be had for 150 on ebay, the iphone for around 330.  Before finalizing the phone trade though, I decided to check around online for information about moving over my service to use the phone myself.  I carry the oldest crappiest nokia phone ever, though it's rugged as holy hell, and wouldn't mind something with wifi or something.

AT&T or Apple?  Who's the dick here?

I found something concerning about the iPhone activation though.  This clued me in to a problem:

Q. I'm an existing customer. Can I swap out my current SIM card and start right away?
A. No. iPhone must be activated before it can be used. iPhone includes a pre-installed SIM card for your convenience.

from:http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/iphone-faqs.jsp#activate

The phone has to be activated before it can be used.  If I get a second hand iphone I have to take it to an AT&T shop and have them not only change my sim card but also requires that I sign a 2 year service contract!  Now this may not seem like a big deal to most people, but to me a 2 year service contract is something I've been avoiding for YEARS.  I am currently on a friend of mine's family plan and he CERTAINLY is not interested in signing a 2 year data access contract just so I can use this fancy ass piece of plastic.

I assumed that the unit was already fine, since it was already bought and activated by the current owner.  Apparently the only way to get around it, and even this is up in the air without more research, is to unlock the phone itself.  Does this get around the need to activate though?  I have no idea!

 

I think the whole business reeks.  Sure the 3g phones are subsidized by the telecoms so they demand your 2 year contract, but this phone was purchased at the greater old price and I feel should be acceptable to purchase second hand.  If I want to add data service to a phone I don't need a 2 year contract, it's only for the iPhone.  

Assholes.  and from wikipedia....

The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone with an authorized carrier.

 

Cunts and Assholes.

Many people are pointing out how iPhone is a potential Gameboy DS killer. My mind is buzzing with the possibilities presented by a game platform that combines serious application interface design with entertainment.

You get both wii-style gesturing and movements AND DS-style touchscreen gameplay WITHOUT needing a pesky stylus.

And you get things no other game platform has: Always-on high-speed internet and GPS tracking EVERWHERE YOU ACTUALLY GO WITH IT.

Imagine locationally connected gameplay, altearnate reality gaming, etc...

My mind is buzzing and I think the real-world Empowerment tools on the iPhone and Facebook will become married to simulated gameplay on both platforms using almost the same interface.

Here's something an Empowerment writer contributed that is a work in progress that I want to share because the ideas and the related video is so exciting:

James Carse, in his wonderful book, Finite and Infinite Games, suggests:
There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
The finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play,
...and bringing as many persons as possible into the play.
Finite players play within boundaries;
infinite players play with boundaries.
Welcome to the Game of Empowerment!

You ARE already a Member of the Game! 

I have hired an anonymous ninja page layout guy to layout the entire zine in a professional mannor.  He is being paid in a laptop, at some personal loss to myself.  At 8am CST tomorrow (Monday 16), he will begin the layout process.  I will then take the file he has made, and posted to the site, and begin full scale duplication for use over the summer.  It will, of course, not even be CLOSE to a final version of the zine but... it will serve as a pre-Alpha. 

 

If you where waiting for the right time to add a few paragraphs, maybe correct some grammer problems, add some images, or whatever now is a great time!   Hopefully there will be a great preAlpha zine that will bring in even more contributers to make the overall printable empowerment zine collection an invaluable resouce for people to Get Things Done!

 

Head over to http://www.empowerthyself.com/introduction and click 'printer friendly version'.  That's a complete copy of what's current on the zine.  Everything has an edit tab, comments are great places to put ideas and aren't printed in the end, and good luck!

 

Agent

Viralink Industries

Empowerment Collective Representitive