I enjoy, no LOVE, my place at Rose Valley Lake in PA. Perhaps you have seen some of my photographs that I have posted here ocassionally, or visited my  sets on Flickr (around Rose Valley Lake and  creeks and rivers)  The beauty remains despite reasonable and rational development.

I love it so much that I am, In fact, disappointed every time I have to leave here to return to “Civilization.” That said, I also understand that private citizens have a right to use their private property in ways that they see fit, so long as the proposed uses are in line with the general guidelines and zoning of the area.

The “Friends of Rose Valley Lake” are stepping beyond the bounds of good citizens, as they are now seeking to block an individual from using his property in accordance with the zoning laws of the area. They are asserting that by granting this man access to his property (through the State fish commission property) he will somehow be violating the law.

They write on their homepage that:

” The ‘intent’ for Rose Valley Lake, was to ‘prevent developments . . . and retain the area in generally primitive conditions,’”

They then are somehow complaining that this citizen is willing to “trade with the PFBC one acre of land (generally inaccessible to the public) and $15,000 in exchange for an expanded farm lane right-of-way through Rose Valley Lake.”

Apparently the fact that he isn’t asking for a flat trade of one acre for another, but rather giving the state the land, AND $15,000, isn’t sufficient. Also, apparently the statement that the one acre of land is “generally inaccessible to the public” is meant to imply that is somehow a negative. Interesting in that many believe that in order to meet the objective of maintaining land in “generally primitive conditions” we should keep people from going there. (Remember, the biggest enemy of National Parks tends to be visitors to those same parks….)

One final comment from them. They are argue that the proposed trade would be for an “expanded farm lane right-of-way through Rose Valley Lake public lands in order to facilitate private development.”

Note this citizen isn’t proposing to DEVELOP public lands. He is simply seeking access to his privately owned property, so that he can exercise his legal right to develop his property as he sees fit, in accordance with the local zoning ordinances.

I ask–who are the unreasonable ones?

Also, they are requesting people sign their petition, but there exists no comparable avenue to elicit support for the land owner.  I have created a form, and would appreciate your taking the time to respond.  And for the record, I am interested in learning about BOTH sides of this.

One drawback had been that Amazon never explained how to get to the highlighted texts or notes when you were using a Kindle app–whether iPhone or Android.

Luckily others have deciphered this for us, and have developed a program that will generate a text file from the data file.  (The information in the apps is stored in *.mbp files, because they, like the core Kindle format, are based on the MobiBook standard.)

To find the files (in Android devices) go into the file system, either through a USB connection, or using a file explorer program such as Astro File Manager.  From there search the /SDCard/Android/Amazon/Kindle folder for the files.  You will need to do a little exploring here if you want to only get the information from one file, since the books are named with the Amazon naming convention and not using “book titles” as we know them.

From here, either copy the files to your computer or email them to yourself (or put them in your dropbox on your Android and expect them to be on your computer.)  At that point, just move the files to the folder on your computer where you have installed the mbp reader program, and you are off and running!

On Veteran’s Day, Genesis10’s founder and CEO Harley Lippman and newly appointed Manager of Diversity and Veterans Relations, Richard Sanchez, were interviewed by MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan about the challenges American Veterans face transitioning their careers from the military to corporate America. Watch the clip here:

Working with Genesis10 means working with a company that is dedicated to serving our community where and when we can. Veterans Outreach is our latest initiative whereby Genesis10 will partner with clients to identify opportunities for U.S. Veterans. Using training and mentoring programs in place internally and through external partners, Genesis10’s Veterans Outreach will prepare and support Veterans during their career transition from the military to the private sector.

If you know a Veteran who may benefit from this program, we want to know. You or the Veteran can send a message directly to G10Veterans@genesis10.com. Please share this message with your network. We ask you to help us spread the word – because by working together we can connect and support the men and women who served to protect our freedoms with new career opportunities in business and technology.

I would encourage everyone to share this post, the video link, and the email address with anyone who is either a veteran, or knows a veteran–or knows someone who knows… (you get it–tell everyone!)

For centuries our ability to gather content and disseminated wirh tide is not just to the content but to the media and the physical media that was used for delivery. If you wanted to read a book you would buy both the content and the delivery media simultaneously. The words in the paper on which they were printed or written were forever enmeshed. Even in recent decades with books on CD or tape you were still purchasing both the delivery media and the content as an inseparable unit.

We have an opportunity to day with the development of digital content and robust data exchange standards to forever separate the content from the media, or at least that will we use to receive the content. We’re at a crossroads. We can choose to follow the path of standards allowing users to decide on the delivery mechanism they prefer, or we can continue to develop content for delivery in specific devices and tools.

We’re currently entering a world where we have a wide variety of choices for the personal technology we use to access media. For instance, we have both been nearly ubiquitous iPad and now more and more android tablets on the market. We’re also seeing the early stages of windows eight tablets being previewed. If we take a device centric approach content will be developed and delivered as operating system specific applications. This will enable content creators to leverage the unique creative aspects of each of the operating systems and the devices. But it will limit the flexibility of the user and potentially limit the consumer base. Imagine if there is compelling content available for an android, and different yet equally compelling content available on the iPad. If you would like to consume the content available on both devices you’ll have to make an investment in each of the devices. If however the content creator focused on developing inside of existing content delivery standards the user will be free to choose the marriage of device and content that works best for them.

In the early days of conversations about developig media rich textbook on tablets, the discussions centered around the iPad and how to make compelling applications for that device. Once the android operating system began to get traction however the discussion we found devices competing not only for consumer selection but for the ability to consume content. This opens up a whole new avenue for the consumer where they get to choose both the delivery tool and the content that they to consume.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the content standards movement focused on Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) as a platform and application agnostic means of sharing and transferring content. This then evolved into the heart of the world wide web with the transformation into HTML.  Now, some browser developers added unique features to their implementation of HTML but over time they all seem to have come to the realization that standardized interfaces and interactions are better for all. This has now evolved into HTML5 and the integration of multimedia and interactive content into the markup language.

So here is the call—content creators and publishers need to focus on platform and application agnostic means of delivering their content. If they have a creative and innovative multimedia presentation they wish to provide they would do well to follow the lead of Amazon and other eBook resellers and develop their content for delivery using HTML5.  There are significant benefits to the publisher and content creator to this approach. First, the creators and publishers will not need to develop separate approaches for each and every device available to consumers. They will be able to create once and distribute to many. In addition, by following this open approach to content delivery they will please their consumer by allowing their consumer to choose the tool that works best for them while opening the door to significant increases in sales by offering their content to the widest selection of consumers available.

One final note: there are other benefits as well including the encouragement of design innovation in the devices separate from the need to maintain compatibility with specific applications running an existing hardware and software designs.

Win. Win. Win.

To hear more on this topic, listen to our discussion on the upcoming Episode 97 of Real Tech for Real People.

While perusing Gina Trapani’s blog from Smarterware.org, I saw she too struggles with sharing her varied, yet often inter-related, interests.

She writes:

It’s a tough question to answer, especially when you’re not working on a single thing. Last weekend at Foo Camp I failed miserably at explaining myself and my slash careers and how they all intersect. But at that same conference, I had the pleasure of attending a session by David Eaves, who eloquently explained that his goal is to apply his experience and training in negotiation skills to open source community management. On his site, he published a map of his past, current, and future work, and how those activities all interrelated. Cool!

When I read this I had one of those “DUH!” moments. It’s a brilliantly simple idea.  I like the way it forces some things into reductionism (you have to determine a fixed set of spheres–how many do you REALLY have?).  In addition, this approach can even help one find relationships between work that seemed “intuitively” there, but were never explicitly stated, even to oneself.  And finally, the approach David and Gina have both taken is to show how they are seeking the “greater good” (or a “Better world”) through their work.

The Venn Diagram David Eaves created is below.  To see the one Gina put together about her interests and work, go visit the link (really–you should!)  To see mine…. well, that may take a while longer.

Feel free to share yours here, or just put a link to yours in the comments!

I just want to quickly point out a few things, as I prepare for tomorrow night’s Real Tech for Real People podcast (listen live at 9PM ET).

1.  It’s not just computer security–it’s your personal security.  Sony unfortunately stored way too much information about you on their site and in the clear meaning that the hackers got people’s passwords, and credit card numbers, as well as other personal identifying information.  Talk about “bad juju.”

2.  Safe computers are not “safe” any more.  No computer is safe.  And neither are you.  Gone are the days when malicious hackers want to destroy your hard drive, or play silly music, or just replicate their software.  Today’s hackers would prefer you not even know they have made it onto your machine.  They want your passwords.  Your bank account information.  Your social security numbers.  Oh, and your CPU cycles.

Today’s infestations are sneaky.  They don’t advertise through garish graphics and sounds. They sneak on and install keyloggers ².  Or Trojans, or Backdoors.  Or “rootkits.” They all have one goal–to NOT be detected while they steal your precious information, or your computer processing power itself.

3.  In an effort to steal your valuable information and even assume your very identity, hackers still rely on the most trustworthy of approaches–the CON.  Yes, they will practice “phishing”   tossing out bait through mass emails to see if anyone (you?) will log on to a look alike site (bank site, FaceBook, Twitter, whatever…) and then they will simply take your user name and password as you type it in.  Even more “evil” is the approach known as “spear Phishing.” In this attack they go after specific targets, sending emails that really do seem to be sent to you directly. You “trust” it…

According to the FBI Spear Phishing works like this:

First, criminals need some inside information on their targets to convince them the e-mails are legitimate. They often obtain it by hacking into an organization’s computer network (which is what happened in the above case) or sometimes by combing through other websites, blogs, and social networking sites.

Then, they send e-mails that look like the real thing to targeted victims, offering all sorts of urgent and legitimate-sounding explanations as to why they need your personal data.

Finally, the victims are asked to click on a link inside the e-mail that takes them to a phony but realistic-looking website, where they are asked to provide passwords, account numbers, user IDs, access codes, PINs, etc.

This particular attack has recently been made simpler by the loss of the email lists by the mass-marketing firm “Epsilon.”  Perhaps you received an email from one of your banks, or stores your frequent, or travel company, notifying you that their marketer’s system was hacked.  Sadly, this means you can no longer trust emails from those firms to not lead you astray.

All of these stories (and many more) should have you a bit concerned.  Computer security is now no longer about people stealing internet, or putting destructive programs on your hard drives.  No longer is it simply your $1000 computer investment that is at risk.

It is your identity.  And it is time to protect yourself.  In my next post I will share some tips, and software tools, that you can use to help build a protective barrier around your computer, and your identity.

Relaxing in the summer sun.

“For those questioning the appropriateness of the celebrations on Sunday night, especially at PSU, keep in mind that many of us were In middle school. Those were the most impressionable days of our lives. It completely changed our lives and views.”

He wrote much more, and I took the liberty of making it more readable, and posting it over at our joint blog, http://thefathersonchats.com.

Please, go read his thoughts, and share yours. These thoughts are the ones we need to share, and preserve.

Sure, I know some will say “But it’s WIKI… it’s not to be used for academics! It’s not reliable!”  To that I respond–then take the time, as an expert in your field, to clean up what you think is incorrect–it is, after all, editable by us. Make your contribution to the greater good.

Now, the video:

Well, as an iPad user and an observer of tech, I was a bit surprised by this.  I have seen many iPads showing up around campus, and in other places, and almost exclusively I have seen it used as a reader (PDFs for class, books, and such) and as a device to view movies and shows.  Actually, I have seen less “video” than text on the screens of those around me.  I would venture to say that for most people the use of the iPad remains consumption.

I mentioned that, and my brother challenged me, arguing that he, and his colleagues, are using the iPad quite regularly for note taking and email.  I had to agree, but then…. we learned.

See, for me the operational definition of “content creation” is something that is substantive.  I have a definition that looks at the degree, or dare I say it, quantity, of the “content” being created.  I never viewed writing emails, taking notes, or editing existing slideshows as real “content creation.”  And I certainly don’t view arranging photographs into a slideshow as a “content creation” event.  The creation of the content in that case was during the translation from the photographer’s eye to the sensor in the camera.

So things came down to “Operational Definitions.”  In research we are often faced with the need to not just have a  simple definition but one that we can use to clearly differentiate between things, and more specifically, to transfer from a qualitative assessment to a measurable response.  For instance, we often talk about “small businesses” but without an “operational definition” we open ourselves up to a wide range of mis-communications.  For instance a small business can be measured as:

• a level of revenue (less than 1 million a year?)
• a level of profit (less than 1 million a year?  Notice that the same dollar figure leads to two very different thresholds)
• a number of employees (less than 5? 50? 500?)

So then, we are now faced with the question, how do we define “Content creation”?

Is it simply “creating a document of some sort and any size, so that something that did not exist, now does?”

Or does it require a greater degree of creativity and involvement in the process?

So readers:  I was wondering how you would define “Content Creation” and what amount of additional creativity do you believe needs to be brought to the process?  Please–comment here so others can see your thoughts!

I know, I should be doing all sorts of things techie, and you might think I am “all over the net.” But I am not. In fact, I not only don’t like the invasion of privacy that is so often the net, I actively choose to not invade other’s privacy as well.

So let me share my little rule book with you.

1. I view twitter as I do the ocean. I can’t take it all in, even with the people I follow. I will read any and all messages sent @ me, and also the direct messages. I will try, when I am on, to scan the twitter feed of people I follow, but just as I can’t catch every wave when I am at the beach, I can’t read every tweet that flows my way.

2. I don’t chase down people’s comments and statements on “the Facebook.” My family will tell you that. When asked by my kids or even my wife “did you see ____ on Facebook?” My answer invariably is “No.” They have learned–if you want to be sure I see something on Facebook, you might want to let me know through some other means (say, an @ comment or DM on Twitter–or an email!)

3. If a platform is not meant to be a social communication platform, I DEFINITELY don’t go there often. This includes Flickr, and PicasaWeb, and Youtube. I view these sites as places to go and see the creations of others, and perhaps be inspired. I certainly don’t go there for conversation. If you thought I had been reading your conversations there, i am sorry. It wasn’t me.

4. Honestly, I only put things on these sites that I want to have out there, and am willing to share with the world.

5. I have no expectation that the world will care, or even visit anything I write, or photograph, or post. If no one visits, then that is fine. I am not hurt.

6. If I create something for someone (think–water polo videos, or slideshows) I will point out that it is available.

7. Finally, I believe protecting other’s privacy is so important that I actually think long and hard before posting things that include other people in them, and often will ensure (double, and triple check the privacy settings) that I have shared certain things only with those people. Generally these are family photographs, or photographs from events, and I will share those with “family and friends.”

So there are my “not so short” rules that I live by when it comes to social media.

Now, dear reader, let me ask you: are you more or less open with your life and sharing your thoughts with the world now that we are in the era of “social”?

Or more importantly–do you really know just how much you are sharing, and how much “anyone” can actually see?

Let me know YOUR thoughts (in the comments, or in twitter! But remember to @ me, or I might not see it. LOL)

Perhaps there is a very good reason why someone would ask for money for a helicopter (oh, wait–”helOcopter”) ride to JFK–but wouldn’t a cab be more affordable?

From 2010_08_08

I also chuckle at “pan handling” while talking on a cell-phone, and having your Starbucks cup between your feet.

Speaking of “Pan Handling“–feel free to donate to this blog to keep this blog, and the podcast “Real Tech for Real People” moving along!  The donate button is over there on the right!

And I promise not to use your money for helicopter rides.

…players are forbidden from using the popular microblogging service.

The decision follows at least two instances where players were told to take down Twitter posts.²

My first reaction was “Wow!  Banning the use of a personal tool, on a personal phone or computer–that seems a bit Draconian!”  Then I started wondering what I would suggest instead.  After a little thought (very little) I decided this–he should take the same approach that I have had with my children.Football players are taught, or at least trained, to have discipline on the field, and in their practice regimen.  They must learn daily to control their urge to run over someone, to rush to a position, and rather hold their place, watch the play unfold, and then react.

Twitter (and life) isn’t that much different.

This was a “teachable” moment.  The coach (at the college level) is a teacher, a mentor–a COACH.  Take this as an opportunity to remind the players of important life lessons:

• Their words and their actions have consequences.
• They need to learn self-discipline as well as football discipline.
• They need to understand that what is said on twitter (or Facebook, or even a blog like this one) will take on a life of its own, and perhaps spiral well beyond the few people you thought you were talking with at the time.

Banning them from using Twitter teaches them nothing.  They don’t learn how to engage in a social (network/media) setting.  They don’t learn self discipline.

They don’t learn life lessons that they will need once they are off the field.

Sorry Coach–you lose this game.  And unfortunately this is the only game that matters–the game of life!

One of the interesting points (and relevant to Warehouse 13)  is that males tend to throw “Rock” first.

Go visit the site, and read–it’s worth you time–especially if you use Rock-Paper-Scissors to decide who gets to shoot the bad guys first.

You may know that I am trying to leave Facebook (and if you read my posts, you know I proposed a way to ‘roll your own’ using existing social networking sites.)  The reason I am concerned about Facebook, and wanting to leave, is that I am tired of the constant push and pull.  They push the limits on protecting privacy, we push back, they pull back… They claim they own our photos, we push, they pull back… I am not surprised, though. They don’t view their users as their customers (we aren’t–the advertisers are) but they simply view their users as the generators of content that will drive advertising sales.

The problem is that I am not sure how many really understand the several layers of privacy that could be at risk.

And here is where Moms put their kids at risk.  You know that security question “What is your mother’s maiden name?” Well… with so many women including there maiden name on facebook (“hey–my old friends can find me easier!”) it may actually put their childrens’ identity at risk.¹  I suppose this wouldn’t be a problem, so long as we make sure we don’t connect to our parents/siblings, and so forth.  But we share the information (Maiden name) and the say “oh, here are my kids’ names, too.”

Quickly, let me say I am in no way really trying to blame moms for ANYTHING here.  It’s not the fault of Moms or the kids.   I suspect all of us are in a sense “guilty” here–we don’t think about how easily people can connect the dots on this information.

Part of the problem here is that we don’t fully understand how Facebook shares information.  Apparently, even if you only share your information with your friends, if the friends have their settings open to “everyone” then your information is exposed.

I wish we could trust people. I wish we could trust Facebook.  But in this world we must be cautious.

How do we know if it is working?

I have had a simple measure:  Do some (or even any) students use the tools, and when they use them do they feel that they are grasping the material better?

My thought has been that numbers don’t matter as much as outcomes for individuals and if some students find value then these approaches are worth continuing.

What are your thoughts?  Must we have numbers to be considered successful?

Once this hard fought and necessary battle was won, the HOA celebrated their victory, and opened up a Yahoo Group to the community to enhance communications.  Alas, this seems to have brought out not a spirit of friendship and community but one of sniping and backbiting.

Everyone has their own little petty concerns that bother them.  Of course, what seems to bother them the most are what their neighbors are doing with their own property, or with their cars in front of their property.  And of course, all arguments er discussions are brought up with the “greater good” at heart, the greater good being, of course “Property Values.”

Sounds fair, right?

Try this one.  The first comment (and I mean the very first comment) was that, now that the roads have been paved and it is easier to get into your driveway, we need to mandate that everyone parks in the drive and ban parking on the streets in front of their own home.  Oh, and if you have too many cars for the driveway–you need to park in your garage.

The battles have continued, over swimming pools, RVs, pets, fences, and all the various other issues that can annoy neighbors.  But despite all of this, one things remains constant:  no one wants to participate in a Democracy.  They want things to simply be “their way.”

As I mentioned I am renting, so I honestly have “no dog in the hunt.”  I couldn’t care less how things are for the long term.  I just enjoy watching this little corner of America play itself out.  So I have until now just stayed out of the discussions, and watched–and laughed.

This weekend after a rather lengthy back and forth discussion with someone having violated a “24 hour RV parking rule” by 48 hours, I finally offered up my suggestion.  The argument seemed to focus on two things.  First, one group was adamant that “these are the rules” and it doesn’t matter if you like these rules are not, rules are rules and must be followed.  The other group (to summarize) essentially argued that some of these rules are silly and the application of fines and punishments for silly rules is beyond silly.

So I stepped in and suggested that, here in America, it might be a good idea to put the various rules up for a referendum.  Let the community decide as a whole, through a vote, which rules are important and which are worth modifying or discarding.  Then, as we always do in America, live with the will of the people until the next opportunity to change the rules presents itself. {2.  The current rules were simply “handed down” as an edict from the builder when he created the community (remember the builder? Bankrupt and all…) The various members did agree to the rules when they moved in, but are these rules to remain etched in stone for all eternity? ]

Seems simple.  But nooooooo… You can’t change the rules.  The rules are the rules.  And of course, my FAVORITE argument was this one:

“The only people who would want to change the rules are the people who want to break them in the first place.  We shouldn’t give these lawless people a voice!”

SERIOUSLY?  Yes… seriously.  That was the response.  Um. Duh.  People who repeal laws usually do so to allow a behavior that had previously been made illegal.  Remember Prohibition anyone?

I could go on, recounting story after story–the stories are numerous and honestly, I am saving every one of them, hoping some day to turn this dysfunctional microcosm of America into some sort of Erma Bombeck style book.

In the meantime, I would LOVE to hear from each of you–do YOU have any HOA stories you can share?  Horror, humor or happy?

=====

Books are wonderful things. Millenia ago, our predecessors shared their histories, and explained the world around them, through an oral tradition, passing stories down from one generation to another. Over time, these stories were written down, essentially “locking” the stories down on paper. Ever since, books have been a way to disseminate information for thousands of years, and with the advent of the printing press, to do so quickly, and broadly. We can partake in the imaginations of a Tolkien, a Lewis, a Shakespeare, or a Plato. We can read the political thoughts of Aristotle, Marx, and Obama, or the theological insights of Paul, Aquinas and Spong. We can even allow our minds to drift as we read romance novels through the ages, or the horror stories from Beowolf, to Frankenstein, to any Stephen King novel. Each book brings new thoughts, new images, and new imaginings.

In the 21st century we have even more ways to disseminate, and enjoy, the works and thoughts of others. Just as the printing press made paper books available to the masses, we have digital ebooks to take dozens of books with us, to read anywhere. We now also have stepped beyond “books on tape” to truly digital audio books that, when combined with personal media players such as the iPod, enable even those who cannot read to enjoy the panoply of thoughts.

If the printing press was the first revolution, sharing ideas with the literate masses, it was limited in the very requirement for literacy. In order to read, one must be able to read. Thus is its limitation it provided the impetus for literacy as more people sought to embrace the ideas made possible through literature.

This latest revolution both extends and hinders the reach of literature. Certainly, if one defines ‘educated’ and ‘literate’ as being exposed to ideas, then we can see how a more informed, and thus more literate, populace will result from such broad access to reading. And through the efforts of Project Gutenberg many of the classics through the ages are now available to the masses. People with internet access can now enjoy the thoughts of the ages, wherever they can reach the internet. And with the One Laptop per Child initiative, children in developing nations can be exposed to ideas global in scope, and timeless as the ages. And finally, whether one can actually read, or not, the proliferation and easy transportability of digital audio files has opened literature to everyone.

Alas, this great awakening may yet be returned to slumber. In the great confluence of enlightened self-interest we find that several challenges remain for making this the greatest literate population ever.

First, it is possible that, when provided with ample reasons to not learn to read, the population reverts once again to an “oral” tradition. Admittedly this is a different oral tradition. In this “new” tradition, the stories are told, and frozen, and remain accessible to those that can’t read. But in this “new” oral tradition the strengths of the oral tradition, the committing the stories to personal memory, embedding them deep in the social soul, is replaced by committing them to digital memory. The stories are retold, but not necessarily embraced. And perhaps worse, these stories then are so easily accessible as to render the impetus to read almost impotent. ¹

The second great challenge is the rush to protect the “digital rights.” Cory Doctorow, in a This Week in Tech podcast, (42 minutes, 50 seconds in) points out that Audible books, and other electronic book distributors, will not allow for the distribution of digital rights free books. Cory Doctorow actually insisted that his books be distributed without DRM, and audible refused.

So why is this the “second great challenge?” Perhaps the best way to explain the impact of DRM is to ask this set of questions: Have you ever given away a book? Loaned a book? Borrowed one from the library? The way digital rights are currently implemented, you cannot loan out a book that you have already read. You can’t say, as so many of us have, “this is a great book–I will give it to you when I am done.” In fact, the terms of service are such for the Kindle that you can’t sell, it loan it or give it away! If we are to experience the benefits of this greatest age of literacy, we need to allow for information to be shared. I honestly understand the concept of intellectual property (what professor doesn’t?) but I also understand that once we share an idea (and perhaps, get paid for it) the idea not only can enter the mainstream, we should hope that it does!

¹ In fact, this is one area in which I struggle with podcasting for courses. If I make my lectures, notes and answers available as audio podcasts have I disconnected the students even further from the richness that is “the text?”

This time it was for Matthew’s Swim Team.  I had fun with this one, including playing with some 3D effects, but most importantly it was a chance for me to help the kids highlight the fun and excitement that was their Swim Season.

I would like to thank Mike Singletary for giving us the GREAT “Formula” quote, and the good folks Crackpot and Buzzkill at The No Agenda Show for the mix of the Formula quote.  It’s a great way to start a slide show–especially if we watch it “In the Morning.”

For the sound track I used:
Ladies and Gentlemen by Saliva

There’s A Party (Feat. George Clinton & Chali 2na) by N.A.S.A.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines by US Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants

Just A Friend by Biz Markie

Lord, Guard and Guide (The U.S. Air Force Hymn) by US Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants

Nota Bene:

There are two hidden audio jewels.  At the end of the first song, there is a faint voice over, with a certain person saying “I was told that, that suit is illegal.”  And then, before “Just a Friend” the audio is, in classic “no one likes to be a video star” mode being told “Brady, Go Away.”

So now we face  the BIG PROBLEM.

By shifting to a policy where everyone is now to be insured, we open the floodgates of demand (okay, a bit much. But we certainly will allow millions more in.) Demand for services will increase. So it would make sense that prices would increase to balance out the demand (remember Econ 101, all else equal, in the near term an increase in demand will result in an increase in price. In the long term it should result in an increase in supply, as the market responds to the increased demand for the product).

Will we see prices increase? Not for the consumer–they are capped at the Co-pay. And now we are seeing pressures to not raise prices from the supply side (and the insurance companies will be SHOT if they raise rates significantly).

So what happens now? If prices cannot go up, then demand will remain (unrealisticly) high. Unrealistic in that demand is acting free of the market place.

With demand high, and the inability to increase prices we will see no real “benefit” to more providers entering the marketplace.

More to the point, even if we could see more providers enter the market there are significant barriers to entry. Consider the medical field:

1. Doctors must go through extensive training, and then licensing (not to mention the fact that they never really get it right–so must keep “practicing”)

2. medicines must be approved after rigorous testing, and their labs must be approved, and so forth.

3. Various other licensing and authorizing are in place for therapists, assistants, nurses, and the like.

Supply cannot respond quickly, and with a rising demand and supply unable to keep up, and with no pricing mechanism to regulate the demand we will face:

Shortages of service resulting in long waiting lines/delays.

And how do you deal with shortages? Since the market forces are not allowed to work, we are left with the government stepping in, once again, to fix the mess of it’s own making. They will have to “ration” care.

Sorry–it’s a fact. In every nation that has shifted to “socialized” they have faced shortages, lines and rationing.

It’s not something we can “do better.”

It’s economics.

The whole initiative is predicated on a few arguments:

1. Costs (prices) are too high.
2. Insurance companies are “making too much money”
3. Millions of people don’t have access to care
4. The Health Care people are receiving is poor (oh, wait, it’s not about the actual care…)

So let’s tackle this. The basic problem now comes down to a discussion of supply and demand/economics.

As the system currently works we have two sets of perverse incentives fighting against the consumer (and one of these incentives takes place with the willing, yet unknowing, assistance of the patient)

First, the perverse incentives of the patient:

Currently, the “cost of entry” into the health care system is high (monthly “Insurance” rates) but thanks to low, or no, co-pays, the marginal costs of most health care transactions are quite low.

Given the low costs incurred per visit, and the high “sunk” costs incurred to enter the system, the insureds (patients) who HAVE insurance are incented to go to the doctors more frequently, and to go ahead and get the prescriptions (Hey, it’s only $3 copay at Wal*Mart!)

Of course, this is a mirage. The actual costs of each visit and each prescription are borne by the insurance companies, which then have to recover their costs through increased premiums, which of course has everyone screaming that the insurance companies are “gouging” the customers.

On the other hand, we have a set of pricing incentives that also conspire against the consumer. The ‘care providers” are aware that the patient/customer doesn’t see the actual costs–they only pay the co-pay. So given this we have a series of perversions that are at play:

1. Doctors are more able to prescribe tests/medicines, and the like, since they will receive little if any push-back from the patients because of costs. More services with a low marginal cost to the consumer/patient, but a higher total cost, paid by the insurance companies.
2. Insurance companies work to lower their costs by negotiating to pay health care providers a fraction (some value less than 1) of the billable rate. Thus the providers are incented to increase their prices the maintain their revenue stream. This increases the costs once again.

So these two twists to the problem work once again to force the insurance companies to have to raise the rates (really on everyone) to cover the payments they are having to make.

Now–as consumers, we see that we are paying a high “sunk cost” as a monthly fee and, rather than view this as traditional insurance (where I am betting against myself) the consumer wants to try to get at least that benefit back out of the “system” (and is encouraged to do so, by “low co-pays”)

Sadly, the whole mess was brought on by our desire to protect everyone and provide some level planning to health care. The “free market” actually would provide better incentives here, placing limits/governors not only on how much people are willing to spend on services, but the prices that people would have to pay. If service providers want to stay in business then they would be forced to price competitively based on the market, and the market would be making the decisions based on the consumers. As it stands now, with the “same co-pay regardless” the consumer has no indication of value, and the market cannot respond. Viagra is as valued as Interferon and as Motrin.

What to do when everything costs the same?

I am not alone in my expectation that the Health Care (insurance) reform will not improve Health Care (it won’t make bad doctors good ones, for instance) and it won’t improve access since lower prices have that pesky effect of increasing demand–in a field where the barriers to entry for suppliers are significant.

I will say this:  Welcome to the new “Grand Experiment.”  If it succeeds, then by all means celebrate (but could we get a good solid definition of success on which we can all agree?)  But (and this is significant) if it fails, how many will have died as part of the experiment, and will we ever be able to recover?

One final note:  As researchers we have to seek, and get, informed consent from human subjects before we can experiment on them.  Did you get the forms?

He is also a self-professed liberal. This is not surprising. He believes that we need to look out for our neighbors, and his view of neighbor is expansive. So understandably (I hop) I found myself pondering if I am missing something. Is there something “great” about liberalism as we know it today? And if it is “great” does that mean conservatism somehow misses the boat?

After much reflection, I realized that we have two problems facing us. First, the liberal ideal of caring for those around you is not only a good one, it’s Biblical. We are called on by Christ to love our neighbors. And Christ didn’t draw any neighborhood boundaries, either. On the other hand, we are faced with an ever-enlarging government that, despite all the best intentions and heartfelt goodwill, never seems to deliver on the “big promises.”

My conclusion? Liberalism doesn’t scale–and it wasn’t ever intended to. For us to love our neighbor we must be in contact with our neighbors. We can care best for those we touch. I suspect this was designed into our nature.

There have been many articles and books written, speeches given, and studies done, identifying that we respond more positively, and give more freely, to concerns closer to home. So we are hard-wired to care for those around us. This “local giving” may not be motivated from a pure heart, but at least we know it happens. Superfreakonomics gives us a perspective on this altruism: ‘Most giving is, as economists call it, impure altruism or warm-glow altruism. You give not only because you want to help but because it makes you look good, or feel good, or perhaps feel less bad.”]

So we, for whatever reasons or motivations, generally want to help our neighbors. Surely that extends to those we cannot see, correct? Well, the authors of the book SuperFreakonomics would perhaps argue no. Not only do they essentially argue that liberalism doesn’t scale, they go a step further and discusses research that indicates that, when given an opportunity, people will not only fail to behave benevolently towards their neighbor, they will in fact, cheat them. But what is most interesting here, is that, in the research they discussed, the cheating occurred most often between people who were not neighbors. “In the data, List found an interesting split: the out-of-town dealers cheated more often than the locals.”

So here is where I believe liberalism, or altruism, fails. When we ask the government to step in and perform altruistic acts, we ask the government to do a few things on our behalf:
1. We want an non-person to demonstrate humanity. We ask that the government “care.”
2. We want the government to make the “right” choices about what and whom to care for. Of course, we find that often that means bringing the “bacon” (or “Pork”) back to our own districts, where we “see the need.”
3. We want the government to do all this, without actually requiring that we pay for it, and simultaneously wanting the government to make sure someone else pays for it (“raise the taxes on the wealthy.”)

So over time, we find that government is called on less to be altruistic on a grand scale, and becomes for nearly all a way to force others to give money to causes and people they otherwise might not support, while simultaneously bringing resources to bear on my own local problems. Government then takes on the roll of proxy for the same local concerns we used to care for ourselves!

This is, of course, simply a blog. I make no pretense of conducting large scale research myself on this topic. I am simply tying together my readings, and my observations of the world around me. It seems to me that most people want to help those close to them, and most when presented with true and compelling need or tragedy, will give. But when we rely on our government to function on our behalf we become disconnected. We no longer have those “feel good” moments that cause us to practice “warm glow altruism.” Government

And then, over time, we stop caring.

Here is a video of the first of the linedances of the night.

Oh–and it’s never too late to donate to THON and the Four Diamonds Fund.

Donations can be sent to:
CV Four Diamonds Fund
Cumberland Valley High School
6746 Carlisle Pike
Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Attn: Elizabeth Rimpfel

Enjoy!

I have written about this all week, and I wanted to take another couple of minutes to remind you, dear reader, why they are doing this.

(Paraphrased from the Four Diamonds site “About us“) CV HS joins many other schools, and Penn State, in helping raise money for the Four Diamonds Fund. This fund was started in 1972 by Charles and Irma Millard soon after their son, Christopher, died of cancer at 14 years of age. They named the fund after a story their son wrote while battling cancer. In that story, he wrote about a knight that had to find the four diamonds of Courage, Wisdom, Honesty, and Strength. You can read his story, by visiting the Four Diamonds Fund site.

The students at Cumberland Valley HS have worked tirelessly through this year raising funds, and they have been doing this for 4 years (according to the Four Diamonds site) and last year, they raised $55,500 for the Four Diamonds Fund–the second largest school mini-thon amount!

Let’s give credit where it’s due. CVHS isn’t alone. Central Dauphin HS (15 yrs running a mini thon) raised $68,612 in 2009. All told, for the 2008-09 school year 38 schools (from elementary schools through HS) raised over 3/4 of a MILLION dollars for the Fund.

Please, consider a donation to CV THON. Visit their website at http://CVSCHOOLS.ORG/THON and go to “Donors” (or, simply Click Here!)

All the schools unite with one hope, one dream, one cause–to stop Childhood cancer. And they do it for one reason: FOR THE KIDS.

So in the spirit of unity, today, I will include a Central Dauphin THON Dodgeball Video.

The THON Team at Cumberland Valley >are not afraid. They have been planning and working, and fund-raising, year round, anticipating their “big event.” They apparently also have an “in” with God. In looking at the weather maps, and they way the storm will swirl about Pennsylvania, it appears our portion of South-Central PA will emerge relatively unscathed and, more importantly, with no school cancellations that would have a negating effect on CV THON.

So I am left with two requests: Pray for “no snow.” And, when it comes to donations, “Pray for Rain.” Pray, that our community will continue to reach out, and touch hundreds of lives through the love and dedication of these high school kids!

I am posting a triple video threat today. First, I wanted to share a video from Penn State’s THON in 2009, entitled “Where are They Now.” A powerful testimony to the love and devotion the THON has, and the impact the Four Diamonds Fund has had on children 10 15, or 20 years after they were diagnosed with pediatric cancer.

The second video shows just home much fun CV THON students have, as they find creative ways to not only raise money For The Kids, but to do it while having fun with each other (This time–dodge-ball.) Check the schedule. They have this Dodge Ball TOURNAMENT scheduled DURING CV THON! According to Matthew, they have about 30 teams — “It’s EPIC.”

Finally, no plea for you, dear readers, to “Pray for Rain” would be complete without including the song from PFR.

FOR THE KIDS!

Where are They Now

DODGEBALL

PFR

Every year at Penn State the largest student-run philanthropic organization pulls together with the Dance Marathon called THON that culminates a year-long effort at fund raising. The funds raised go to the Four Diamonds Foundation providing support to children with cancer and their families.  From THON.org:

In 1973, a small group of dedicated Penn State students held our first Dance Marathon. That year, 34 dancers participated and raised $2,000. Since then, THON’s presence in the Penn State community has grown exponentially. THON now has 15,000 student volunteers, 700 dancers, and has raised more than $61 million, benefiting The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Children’s Hospital.

Last year, THON helped raise 7.4 MILLION dollars for the Four Diamonds Foundation.

To learn more about THON and to make your donation to help fight pediatric cancer, watch the streaming vide, and visit THON.org.

FOR THE KIDS!

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

Matthew made the big decision today.  He went back and forth, considering a Droid from Verizon, or upgrading his iPhone to a 3Gs.  (If you follow @scmprofessor or @spreadhdgfx on twitter you know the questions we were asking.)

After much consideration, he decided on the 3Gs.  Part of the decision was based on the fact that AT&T agreed to waive the activation fee.  This was no small thing–Verizon was willing to wave it if we switched to them, so it made AT&T competitive.

We did learn one other interesting tidbit–AT&T will be getting their own Motorola Android-based phone, as well as their own rebranded HTC Hero (again, Android based.) later this year.  While waiting until March (or later) wasn’t going to meet Matt’s immediate need (remember his video about the damaged 1st Gen iPhone), this is good news for those of us leaving AT&T to get to a Droid.

(On the other hand, if the Droid is a viable alternative to the iPhone, so that you can leave AT&T, well, that’s a different story.)

As you should know, I am a child of the space age, and a fan of space anythings for a long time.  Heck, my research areas have included Space Logistics, and Interplanetary Supply Chain Management.  So this REALLY caught my eye!

This website gives you plans to build your own paper model of the Space Shuttle!

From their site:

If you are a Space Shuttle model builder, this site is for you. Build a 1:144 scale Space Shuttle papermodel in several versions: Full Stack version with External tank and boosters or a single Orbiter with either a closed or open payload bay, for FREE! Also, Shuttle Payloads for every mission are available via PAYPAL. Check this site for new models every month.

Check it out–and if you make any of these, send me a picture that I can upload to the blog to share!

First, you need a pan.  While many “crepe pans” have you cook the crepe inside the pan, that’s not how the Magic Pan did it–they cooked the crepes on the bottom of the pan.  I have scoured the universe (okay, searched online) and found a crepe pan that does the same thing.  It’s the VillaWare V5225 Crepe Maker and I think you will find it does a great job at giving you that Magic Pan consistency. Remember, what made it work for them was not only the standard speed of the rotisserie, but also the evenness of the batter–which was achieved by having the pan upside down!

Once you get the pan, you might want to also then have some recipes. I have posted several “near authentic” recipes on my blog.  We start with the basic crepe recipe, followed by the Chantilly Crepes here, and the Chicken Elegante.  With the Potage St Germaine Soup recipe also included.

If that’s not enough, check out these cookbooks for recipes!

Finally, if you don’t want to mix your own batter, either because you don’t have the time, or want the hassle, try either of these crepe batter mixes!

We started simple.  We had a camcorder ¹ on a tripod, and a notebook computer with wifi.²  The camcorder had a Firewire out,  and the computer had a Firewire port as well, so we were able to simply feed the video out to the computer.

I created a UStream account and was ready to go.

I turned on the camcorder, and then logged in to the UStream account.  From that point forward it was quite simple:  point the camera at the action! ³

For later sessions, we added an audio mixer and microphones so that we could have commentators “calling” the match.  The kids loved that, and who knows, maybe we have encouraged some to pursue careers in media.

Families locked on to this quite quickly.  Family members from around the country, and around the world (to include Scotland and Iraq), were soon logging on to watch the live polo matches.  In addition, we picked up a few fans who are fans of water polo (and hopefully now fans of our high school team as well!)  It was quite gratifying to receive comments from the parents that their families were loving the video, and that the quality was outstanding.  The quality was so good that my brother was able to recognize my son, and comment on the plays he (and others) were making.

Of course, UStream provides the option to record the video and make it available for later viewing as well–and many of the families have taken advantage of that option as well.  You can too.  Go watch the videos!

This was a simple solution that I think serves to show how we can take events and provide coverage nationwide of what are traditionally under-covered sports.  Local HS football teams get coverage (every place I have lived has had “Football Friday” HS News coverage) but one rarely, if ever, sees TV coverage (live or recorded) of sports in the pool.

Try it yourself–and stop back here to share the link!

I must admit, I had somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction to that story.  I have always been resistant to people bringing up accusations of -isms when criticizing the actions of others.  That holds true for racism, sexism, and naziism to name just a few.¹

One comment of Williams’ that really stood out to me was when he said:

WILLIAMS: Well, there was an undercurrent, but in recent days the episode with Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouting out, You lie, as Obama was speaking to the joint session has really exacerbated that anxiety, and it’s led to this notion that there is disrespect, even condescension, in the way that Obama is being treated as compared to any other president of the United States.

I found myself thinking that this isn’t so much a disprespect directed at the President because he is black, but rather a further manifestation of what I believe we have been seeing ever since the “me” generation of the 70s.  Once we were told that WE were important, and that in a relativistic society *I* am the most important person in *my* life, it was only a matter of time until that level of narcissism pervaded every aspect of society.  We have been seeing it for years in talk radio and talking-head television shows when one person just shouts louder and louder, denying the other the basic right to be heard.  Why? Because what you have to say isn’t important because it gets in the way of what *I* want to say.

Rabbi Hirschfield, in his article “Why Joe (and Kanye and Serena) Won’t Apologize” from today’s Washington Post, points out that Wilson’s outburst is a symptom of something greater.

Over the past seven days, we have been treated to obnoxious outbursts by leading figures not only in politics, but in sports and pop culture as well. In addition to the heckle heard round the world issued by Rep. Wilson, there was the verbal attack launched by Serena Williams against a line judge at the U.S. Open, and the boorish behavior displayed by rapper and music producer Kanye West when he grabbed the microphone from award winner Taylor Swift at MTV’s Video Music Awards.

All of these stories are rooted in the same basic fact: speakers who think it’s all about them. And if it isn’t about them, they seem to think it must be about some other individual who is even more important than they are. Apparently though, it’s beyond any of the offenders’ ability to appreciate that civility is about all of us.

So while others were stunned, shocked, or outraged, I was not surprised by Wilson’s outburst, any more than I am surprised at the outbursts of any other public, or private, figure that chooses to elevate themselves over all others.  Look around.   We have been hearing reports of teens killing each other over sneakers. A cheerleader mom taking a “contract” out on her daughter’s rival.  Once we start seeing achieving our happiness as “all important” and achieving our goals in life as the most important aspect, it is little wonder we as a society start to devolve into a society of rudeness, and violence.  It is this propensity to devolve into violence then that has me concurring with Juan Williams when he says:

And it’s also then, I think, led to lots of discussion of whether or not there’s a greater chance of Obama being physically attacked, assaulted. This was heightened, of course, by people who were bringing guns to some of the August and other tea party events, you know, to express opposition to President Obama’s policies.

But let me be clear–I certainly believe there are some people who are opposed to Barrack Obama simply because of the color of his skin.  I cannot personally understand that, but I do know they exist.  But I think this cuts deeper.  It is my opinion that, when confronted with views in opposition to one’s own (either from the left, or the right) people have a tendency to view themselves as correct, and superior.  And once they step across that line, they believe they can justify any words, any action.

Perhaps I need to rethink my resistance to all charges of -isms.  If the Rabbi is right, then we do have a problem, and it is “Narcissism.”

^1. Of course in instances where one wears a white sheet, a swastika, and so forth you will get no argument from me.  I am not blind!

This can make for a very interesting future.  I can imagine a very fluid world with digital books, using much of the technology already existing.  Let’s discuss briefly the existing tech (in the Kindle) and the look at how we can imagine a new reading world.

Ease of Delivery First, the Kindle allows the purchase of books through the Sprint cellular network (a service Amazon has called “Whispernet.“)  Books are delivered relatively quickly (in my experience in less than a minute) and are ready to read.  I actually ordered, and was reading, a book for our Sunday School class before the sign up sheet to order the hard copy of the book even made it to my row.  So here we have the first component to the future.

Fluid Movement Between Devices For those readers that are unaware, Amazon has released a Kindle app for the iPhone that lets users read Kindle books on their phone.  As with any book that you read, when one goes from one device to another (or pick up a different copy of the same book) one must search for where they left off.  A different copy means no obvious book marks.  Amazon makes this simple–they synchronize where you were in one device when you pick up the other.  It tells you that you have read further ahead, and asks if you want to move to that spot.  Pretty “cool” in my book.

Devices for Different Settings As noted above, the Kindle is no longer just the “device” but it is the operating and reading application.  One can not only read on the “Kindle” that you purchase through Amazon (see the link on the right column of this page) but you can choose two different size Kindles.  In addition, you can also read using the free application for the iPhone.   As you move through the day, you can read using the devices that best fit your lifstyle at that time.

Currently books, magazines and papers are sent to “Devices” and are thus tied to the device.  You can move easily between those devices, but cannot pick up a different device.  But imagine a different world.

Imagine a world where the books,magazines and papers are associated with the person rather than the device.  As you move through the day, you pick up a “Whispernet capable” device (iPhone, Kindle, or something new) and “log in” to the Kindle.  You are presented with a list of items you have purchased, and you select which one you want to read.  Quietly, and quickly, the book or paper is downloaded to that device, and it picks up right where you left off when you were last reading.  In this way, you are able to read your books, without being tied to a device.

But what could this mean?

• Libraries can have “digital reading rooms” where people (especially students) can sign out a device, log on, and read their books simply, and easily.
• One could have several devices in the house and work place, shared between family members or co-workers.  Just grab the closest device, log on, and start reading.
• With the digital voice technology (available in the Kindle2) we can even imagine a device that, when we log on, will read to us as we drive.  Satellite Radio replaced by books!

Reading can become what we do, when we want to, not when we remember to bring our books, or our devices.

The possibilities seem almost endless.  How could you imagine this world?

A couple posts back I noted an email where Amazon announced they are giving web access to the clippings and notes that you make in your Kindle when reading.  And as you will recall, I believe the highlighting/notes feature is the best “game changing” feature of the Kindle so I was anxious to see what they have done.  I have since logged on to the site, and given it a test drive.

I must say I am not all that impressed.

When you first log on you get a listing of the books you have purchased, called a “reading list.”  (See graphic below)

As you can see it lists the books (in this case, sorted by most recently accessed) and even gives you your rating, and the average rating of others.  Interesting, but honestly, I think I already know what I thought, and I checked the ratings of others (if I cared about that) before I purchased the book.

What is potentially the most exciting thing here though is the little pen, and paper, that you see in the bottom right.  The pen indicates that I have “highlighted” some text and the notepaper shows that I have typed in notes about the text.  Hey, that shows promise!  How does that work?

And here is where the real disappointment comes in.  As I have noted before, the Kindle myclippings.txt file actually makes the clippings readily accessible as digital text.  The draw-back (and hence my writing the macro) was that it wasn’t sorted in any useful manner.  It was all entered sequentially, based on when I actually highlighted or wrote the note.  Thus, since I read (and highlight) several books concurrently (work, pleasure, and the like) I have a jumbled mess of texts.  My macro sorted that all out (but as has been pointed out–doesn’t work in anything but MS Windows.  But a new solution is coming! More on this later…)

The Kindle website solves the major problem of sequencing, in that it makes your highlights and notes available by book. In addition, the site shows you a quick summary count of your notes and highlights,  So for instance, in the book “Everything is Miscellaneous” I have:

That is interesting.  I didn’t know I had 41 sections highlighted, nor that I had 9 notes.  But when it comes to actually accessing my notes, the presentation of the text is weak.  They break it down into “screens” or “pages” of information, and my combined 50 highlights and notes are in 10 “screens” or pages.  And as you can see below, the text is presented in a rather simple way:

This is a start, but I find the access to the information to be rather cumbersome, requiring many clicks, and still keeping me from being able to get my hands around the information on the whole.  I personally like the idea of being able to have “documents” that are my notes and highlighting. And while I do like having the notes and highlighting together (that provides context, after all) I would appreciate the ability to get one, or the other.

There are a few simple things that I think could really improve utility of the site:

1. Allow the user to determine how many clippings to show on a screen. This would let us see as much, or as little, of the content as we wish, providing the context we might want to have. NOTE: as of 11 Jun 2009, they have added the option to view all the notes and higlights on one “page.” Consider this one down…
2. Provide an export feature. Having the text sorted by book is helpful, but if I could then get it as another usable file, it would be better.  Let me download the single book’s highlighting as a text file (to let me use/quote the material when writing), or perhaps pdf?
3. Give a formatted citation option.  Speaking as an academic, I want to be able to quote, and reference, the materials I read.  Providing me with a formatted citation (MLA, APA, etc) in the summary section would be quite helpful.  Better yet, include it in the exported file (see #2).

Honestly, I think what Amazon has done is a good start.  They have provided a web-based solution that keeps me from having to connect my Kindle to a computer.  If I am working at another workstation, or heaven forfend I have not brought my kindle or my cable with me, this is a great way to quickly get to my notes.  But there are so many other great things that can be done with this information.

And as a teaser, let me say this–there are some great things still TO COME!

My techie friends at Penn State are starting work on a project to manipulate the Kindle myclippings.txt file that will not only sort the information but provide many different ways of using the data.  And most importantly, they are creating a solution that is “OS agnostic!” Yes–it should ultimately work for any OS.

I hope to have more information from them to share later, and in a dedicated blog post.

Until then–happy reading!

My good friend and Colleague Dr Swartz has since asked the age old question–”What were the results!?”

Well, I am here to tell you (and I will be assisted by the rather cool graphics generated by Google as part of their Google Forms functionality.)

As of this date, we have had 100 responses.  When asked if they watched Hulu 65% said yes, while 35% have not.

When asked the “demographic” questions, we learned picked up some other interesting “tid bits.”

For instance when asked , “Are you a student” we learned that:

And that the respondents came from all the areas where we “advertised” the survey:

But here is where it gets interesting.  When we started looking at correlation between questions, it became apparent that the majority of Hulu watchers are students (both grad and undergrad) but what was really interesting is that nearly 100% of the “non-students” who went to the survey from Facebook did NOT watch Hulu (and from the comments it appears most had not heard of Hulu.) I suspect (but can’t prove, since we didn’t ask many more questions) that those people who are out of college, and away from convenient access to high speed internet, are less likely to know about, and use, these sorts of tools.  In addition, and this is important, I suspect that it is NOT a function of simply “age” since grad students do watch Hulu when they have time, but is rather a function of ready access.  Remember, these are people we “know” and thus the non-students are most likely our peers, people our age who are no longer tied to the University networks.

I suspect that it is NOT a function of simply “age”

I am curious if we were to ask people of all ages, and all walks of life, if we would see an “age” split or if the suspicion that it is related to access would hold.  It is this sort of “digging” just below the surface that I really found interesting.  It might even be worth further study as we continue to have discussions about who uses technology.

Anyway, here’s the results–let me know what YOU think of the outcomes.  And if you decide to conduct any surveys let us know, we will gladly help get the work out!

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

Our customers have told us that they love being able to add highlights and notes to their Kindle books. We want to make it possible for you to access your highlights and notes directly from a Web browser too. So we’ve released http://kindle.amazon.com, an online tool that enables you to do just that.

To try it out, go to http://kindle.amazon.com, sign in with your Amazon account, and simply select one of your books where you have added highlights or notes.

We hope you enjoy this new feature. If you have feedback please send it to us at amazonkindle-feedback@amazon.com.

The Amazon Kindle Team

When making a choice between two options, only consider what’s going to happen in the future, not which investments you’ve made in the past. The past investments are over, lost, gone forever. They are irrelevant to the future.

He (quite properly) deals with the monetary aspect of the sunk cost (it is called a “cost” after all). In his final example he points to the sign in the photograph on his blog, and reminds the reader that, regardless of the cost of the sign, having the largest word on the sign spelled correctly is, as they would say in the Visa commercial, “Priceless.”

But another point worthy of consideration is the emotional investment.  Quite often we fail to let go of efforts gone awry for emotional reasons.  How often have you been so wrapped up in a project that you haven’t been able to step back, take a deep breath, and see the “forest for the trees”?

When we are engaged in projects we need to be able to step back, as an outside observer for advice, and change.  We need to be able to realize that, no matter how vested we feel about a project, no matter how emotionally entangled we are, it is time to ignore the “sunk costs” of emotional investment and cut the ties.

Am I arguing that we should always just “walk away?”  Not necessarily.  If the “outcome” you want to achieve is still worth achieving then strive for that outcome.  But don’t continue to spend time heading down a fruitless path.  Don’t walk down a road heading away from your destination, simply because you have paid for that road, either emotionally or with cash.

Move on. Chart a new course.

I suggested that it would be a great idea to ask you, our readers, how you watch TV.  And a Google Form seemed the perfect vehicle for that.  So, while I was driving, I introduced my brother to Google Forms–and I think he did quite an admirable job putting it together.

We would love it if you would come take the survey. Thanks!

Enjoy!

Jason

First thank you for all your newsletters and emails that you share with the world.  As a business professor at Penn State, I find it refreshing and useful to see a business person not only being successful and touting their success, but sharing the inner-workings of their decision processes.  Certainly this most recent email with the Twitter/$500K explanation is great to show students how to actually conduct an analysis for a business decision.

I did want to answer your three questions, and then as for what amounts to a “favor” from you (to someone you don’t know.)

First, the questions:

1. Am I crazy, or crazy like fox?

Crazy?  Well I would say not–but if the choice is simply either/or, then crazy like a fox.  I actually believe you are far from crazy.  You have conducted a detailed analysis of the situation, evaluated what history has shown, and made a deliberate and informed decision.  All decisions have risk, but it appears you have worked to limit the risk (or at least understand it.)

2. What’s the value of a Twitter follower?

This one, honestly, is a “it depends on the follower.”  Of course, you have accounted for the “it depends” piece by eliminating group after group, and working down to just how many out of a million followers with be “valuable.”  I have found that followers, AND following, are quite valuable for the ways I use Twitter–and I use Twitter in different ways for different groups.  I use Twitter to connect with at least 3 (sometimes overlapping) groups.  First, there are the “supply chain” professionals actively engaged in my profession and field of study.  Then there are the educators, specifically those that are using technology to reach students.  Finally, there is the geo-specific group of folks here in Central PA, that I reach out and touch to stay connected with my community.  ed: (Of course there always exists that 3rd group–actual friends and family!)

Each has value, but in different ways.  Can I monetize this? Perhaps–but that’s not quite what I am about in a direct sense.  Although I would like to think that, as we all improve our skill sets, learning from one another, we all enhance our earnings, potential and kinetic (to steal from Physics).

3. What’s the value of of being one of “The Suggested?”

This is an interesting one.  I think being one of “The Suggested” is great in your type of area, where you are offering services that are of value to nearly the full range of Twitter users.  I suspect if I were to show up on the list, I would end up with a large number of followers with whom I have little in common, and that “twitter-stream” would cloud the engagement with the communities I have worked to develop.
This discussion is actually what I like most about Twitter–it allows us to develop our own communities, meeting nearly an infinite set of needs and desires truly providing a platform for community.  The communities are no longer bound by time, or space, and can grow organically as people connect with what is of interest to them.

The “Requests”

//**requests deleted–for I hope obvious reasons**//

Thanks for perhaps reading this far down–I realize your time is far more valuable than mine.

Best wishes.

While I haven’t heard back from Mr Calacanis I wanted to at least share these thoughts with you, my reader.

S

Yesterday many apparently acknowledged their own inability to do anything significant by jointly doing something silly–turning off all their lights for an hour, during “Earth Hour.” I made a few comments about it last night to family, and was told that it was all fodder for my blog.  In fact, these actions (designed to be done at night, so presumably everyone else can see what good citizens we are) remind me of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14).

Let’s, for a moment, consider the value in simply helping those in need.  We can wait for the government to institute a program, identify people that have a need, hope those people will learn about the program, seek help, and receive it in a timely manner.

Or–we can act, and help our brother and sister in need, when in need, directly. And even better, we can do it anonymously so that no one need feel awkward or indebted to a friend, colleague, boss or employee.

There is a new website that helps facilitate just this very thing.  Giving Anonymously has as it’s mission the task of enabling people helping people.

As they say on their site:

We are a non-profit organization facilitating generosity between people.

We are not the ‘charity’ you are! Look around your community, your neighbors, friends and family. Do you see anyone in need? If so, give to them. You can give anonymously. We’ll send them a check, and you’ll get an email with a voice file of them thanking you. But they won’t know who you are! How cool is this!

The Goal

Our goal is to enable and encourage you to be your own charity, and for you to give anonymously to those around you in need.

Sure, you could give money to us and expect us to find those in need. But then your neighbor, Bill, who had to quit his job because he’s sick and now can’t pay the bills or adequately feed his family, will not be helped.

Do you know people who could use a helping hand, and you would like to help, but don’t want, or need, the credit?  Do you have a friend that:

• Had their work hours cut, and they can’t make ends meet?
• Is struggling with chemotherapy for cancer and perhaps simply needs a manicure/pedicure to feel good about themselves?
• Has a child with an illness and cannot deal with the mounting medical bills?
• You would just like to give a hand to?

If so this is the site for you!

They will charge a $2.50 and additional 2.5% handling fee, but considering they will be handling the delivery, and even accepting, on your behalf, an audio thank-you note, it’s a small price (and hey, it keeps others employed in this tough time!)

I commend the site to you, and encourage all of us to take actions that are substantive and meaningful–and perhaps actually make a real, immediate difference in people’s lives.

DISCLAIMER:  As of this writing, I have not yet used this service, and cannot vouch that it isn’t simply a scam.  If anyone knows anything more about the service, please contact me. –Steve

One of the thoughts that he makes it that is harder and harder to know when we are being sold to, and when we are just being “talked” to.  Is that Youtube video truly an amateur sharing a moment and a thought?

Today someone on twitter shared a link from YouTube that is a video of a “spontaneous” event filmed at a train station, for a T-Mobile commercial.  In this commercial music starts playing, and the crowd starts dancing… at first a few, then a few more, and then almost everyone.

I would assume they had a few people “seed” the crowd to get them started.  It might even be a LOT of people were “seeded” in the crowd.

But I wondered–are we so easily manipulated that we can be pulled into a commercial for a mobile phone company in real life?

(UPDATE: see below for an update on this.)

Anyway, enjoy the clip!

(And, if you get a chance, go support my son and his effort to get to water polo camp!)

(UPDATE: well it turns out it was apparently ALL choreographed. Hm. That means that while it was a openly sold as a commercial, they manipulated the audience into thinking it was like a “flash mob” event. Hmmmmm)

To earn money for his upcoming water polo camp, he is willing to custom design wallpapers for anyone that asks, for a donation of $50 towards camp.

To learn more about it, or just to donate a small amount (2 (two) dollars is fine!) go read about it at that site.

And go, and enjoy his existing work!

View the animation, and then please, come back here and share your thoughts.  Do you see this as a potential? Why, or why not?

nb: I had originally posted a link to this well done Flash production back in 2006.  Because it gives “future  history” (that is, presents things as fact that at the time had not yet occured) the timeline is somewhat muddied.  I can certainly say it was produced before May of 2006.

The website, Get The Next _____ is a nice website, highlighting things that you may, or may not, already be using.  Rarely does he seem to highlight anything outrageously expensive, but they are things that are cool, and useful!

As he writes in the “About” section:

Here we’re all about what’s coming next.  Check back regularly to see input from technology and media enthusiasts who are always focused on what’s on the horizon.  There is a lot going on in the worlds of technology and new media.  We’re here to help you stay on top of what’s next so that you are always prepared to Get The Next ____.

Go visit, follow Tony on Twitter, or email him at: tony@getthenext.com

UPDATE 2:  Microsoft has returned VBA to their Mac Office 2011 suite, so you can now run this macro in both Windows and Mac OS’s.  If you find this useful, please consider making a donation–even $1.00 let’s me know you appreciate with we are doing here.  You can find the link for donations on the right side of the page.

UPDATE:  MAC Users–apparently Microsoft removed VBA from their Word for MAC (read excruciating details here.)  Thus, the only way to use this macro is to run Windows on your Mac, with the Windows version of Office running.

First let me thank Lance Laytner for encouraging me to pull out the macros and work on them some more.

As I posted previously, I had compiled/written a Word macro routine that would go through and reformat the Kindle’s “My Clippings.txt” file into something a bit more useful.  It was rough around the edges requiring much massaging afterwards due to some quirks of formatting.  In other words, it was a 50% solution.

I have fixed “most” of the problems with the macros. (see the file after the break!)  I say most, because it now works properly for me, but that’s not to say there aren’t some other “odd” formatting features I haven’t found yet.

You can find the file here.  (It should show up as a text file in your browser.  I recommend cutting and pasting into a text document, and then saving as kindle.bas)

To install the macro, just go in Word to the VBA window (Alt-F11 usually gets you there–you might need to enable the “developer” tab first) and then import the file Kindle.bas — it should load into the Normal project, as Module Kindle.

To use the macro, just open the My Clippings.txt file (I open as a text file, and cut and paste into word) and then run the macro in Word.

Here’s what the macro does:

• Creates a table of highlights, notes and bookmarks.
• sorts the table by book and location in book
• removes a (now useless) column
• changes the font to a smaller one
• adjusts the column sizes

Let me know what you think.  (and feel free to make a small donation to the right, if you like it!)

I wanted to take a few minutes to write about ways to address the challenges of these three points.

I have commented on twitter (@SCMProfessor) that I don’t like the push to be “followed” but not to follow back.  Leo LaPorte, and many others, talk in their podcasts about how many people follow them, and either in jest or with serious intent, talk about wanting more followers.  There I find myself usually asking “why?”

Of course, people like Barack Obama, @LeoLaPorte, and my two personal favorites @BrentSpiner  and @bobbyll (two of the best TV androids around!) serve a role as thought leaders.  But what about the rest of  us? Should we want to be folllowed by millions and not follow back?

I admit, I enjoy watching the following numbers go up.  It is in some sense a boost to the ego.  But I also feel it is important to follow back.  If we are to be part of a “community” then that community should encourage discourse and exchange.  We should want to follow the people that follow us, so that we can learn from them.  @TheRealDvorak (John C Dvorak) actually was doing this.  He would follow back.  He would engage.  Of course, leading the way in following back is Scoble (@thescobleizer) who follows 70K people, and is followed by 65K.  He engages!

Here’s my suggestions for engagement on Twitter.

1. First, when someone follows you (and they aren’t a scam-bot) follow back.
2. Don’t block people you disagree with–engage, and learn.  Neither of you will likely change, but both can grow.
3. Seek out experts in your field on Twitter, and acknoweldge them
4. Ask questions!  A true community should be willing to help one another, which leads to;
5. Answer questions!  When someone asks for help, and if you are qualified, respond, and finally;
6. Engage people at the personal level.

I have tried, in thinking through these suggestions, to address Keen’s legitimate concerns regarding Web 2.0.

First and foremost if we make this conversational and if we are willing to follow and engage with people whom we disagree, we may find that while ideologies separate us, we can be friends.  And through it all we may learn that the “I” is not as important as the “we.”

Second, by seeking out, and acknowledging, experts in a our fields, we help to quell the cacaophony of amateurs, and reinforce the importance of depth.  This approach also helps build sub-communities in Twitter where practitioners (for instance in my fields of education, and supply chain) can grow and share and learn.

Finally, by engaging in these social networking communities of practice we open doors for further growth and development of knowledge.  The professional benefit of Twitter can be that it answers questions to immediate needs, and opens doors for further (monetarily rewarding)

Take a minutes, and contribute to the community. Leave a comment, and if you are on Twitter, leave your twitter info!

A new software update for Kindle has rolled out. This update (version 1.2) adds the following features:

- Zoom any image in Kindle books or periodicals by selecting the image using the scroll wheel.
- Individual items and groups of items can be deleted directly from the Home screen. Simply scroll to the item you wish to delete and push the backspace key.
- Improved character and font support including Greek characters and monospace fonts.

It turns out there are a few other hidden feature changes.

At this point the most obvious is the screen refresh.  Many of you know that TOK has a refresh cycle that some considered slow, and would flash a “reverse image” before showing the next page.  That was changed in TNK (The New Kindle) and the 2.0 Kindle reportedly has a 20% faster screen refresh rate.  Well, apparently this firmware update does the same.

I will continue using the update, and will report what else I find–so stay tuned!

This conversation started over at Twitter (follow me– @SCMProfessor) as an outgrowth of reading and thinking about a survey conducted at Penn State as part of their Rock Ethics Institute.  Students at one of the Penn State campuses were asked several questions.  Each question presented a situation, and they were asked if that situation was “cheating” or “not cheating.”

As I said, we have had some good discussions over on Twitter (in 140 characters or less!).  Let’s see what others think.

I will share the results in a coming post.

Thanks!

Seth Godin has a reputation among marketing circles (new and old media types) for shaking things up and helping us see the world “different.”

He has written some amazing books that challenge our thinking (my favorite “All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World.”)  But I think this one just about takes it.  He is offering a few, select people, a chance to work with him for 6 months.  Unpaid. And I think it is worth it!

In his words:

If you’re stuck in a dead end job in publishing, or if you made a not-so-great choice in getting your career started, or if you thought Wall Street would be a different place, or if you just got laid off, or if you’re not crazy about fretting away the next six months waiting to get fired and you’re not quite ready to start your own gig… this might be the turbolift you were hoping for. Yes, it’s free.

It’s a chance to get off that track and onto a new track, faster and cheaper than most of the alternatives. And it might even be fun.

[The rest of this page has various details about the program, so I don't have to answer the same questions again and again. It also has a bit of encouragement to it, since I realize it's a very big deal for you to drop everything to do this. It's also a big deal on my end, so hopefully it'll all work out.]

Read more about it here.

Given that so many people wanted recipes (and @melanig from twitter wanted vegetarian!) I have putting up yet another recipe. (see post here for basic crepe recipe!)

Magic Pan Banana Crepes Chantilly

You take a fresh crepe, and spread it with apricot jam. Then you slice one
banana (just ripe, not mushy), carefully toss the slices with a little brown
sugar and sweet vermouth, and let them steep for a couple of minutes. You lay the
steeped banana slices in a line across the middle of the crepe, blanket the
line in whipped cream, and then flap the crepe edges one over the other around
the puffy line of bananas and whipped cream. Finally, you dust the outside of
the rolled crepe with powdered sugar, top it with another dollop of whipped
cream, top the dollop of cream with toasted slivered almonds and maybe a banana
slice and a mint sprig.

I enjoy listening to podcasts (and producing them, as you all know!)  I have been finding there are some really good fan fiction productions out there.  I will point to some others soon, but I wanted to share with you two from “Darker Projects” productions.

The first is “Star Trek:  Lost Frontier.”  True to the name of the production house, this is a “darker” series.  From their site:

Star Trek: Lost Frontier is a look at a dark time in the future of Star Trek. It is the dawn of the 25th century and the galaxy is coming-out of a period of great war. The story of Lost Frontier focuses on the crew of the new Enterprise F as they go forth to unite the lost worlds of the Federation.

I have enjoyed listening to these, and find their stories to be quite captivating.  That said, it is fan fiction, and there are at times bouts of over (and under) acting, and awkward uses of special effects and sounds, but you know what?  That’s what makes it special.  It’s a labor of love.  I especially enjoy the way they have turned the series into a serial, complete with resolution and new cliff-hangers!

In addition, they have created a “spin off” series based on a “secret” group first introduced I believe in Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  The secret group “Section 31″ moves from the shadows to a full-fledged show in it’s own right with this podcast.  As they describe it:

Space is dark. Let’s face it.The universe of shiny, well-groomed Starfleet officers and the pristine starships of the United Federation of Planets where the Prime Directive rules and hopes for galactic unity of all species is an ongoing quest is reinterpreted in our vision of the reality of the Star Trek Universe. It’s not all “let’s be friends with our alien brethren”. Here the Federation has a dark underbelly and the daring crew of the Nosferatu boldly goes where Starfleet fears to tread.

These are desperate times.
We are the desperate measure.

And finally, the full length VIDEO episode  of Star Trek the New Voyages.  (great story, great special effects, and solid acting).  This is just my first find in this realm of (relatively High) quality video fan fiction.  It is truly amazing what a few dedicated fans can accomplish with what I can assume is a limited budget, and a whole lot of heart!

I have found a few others, and will watch/listen to them, and then come back with more links, and reviews.

I hope you enjoy these pieces of fan fiction as much as I, and please, if you have any recommendations for podcasts, please pass them on to me (here in the comments would be fine!)

In just looking at the stills released on the site, I have to say, the actors have the mannerisms down.  The Dr McCoy character looks the part, and I would swear that the Chekov actor has to be the son (or some other close relative) of Walter Koenig. (For grins, go watch Walter Koenig in a 1965 Gidget!)

Anyway–now *I* have a movie to look forward to!

The Magic Pan Chicken Crepe Elegante
Yield: 6 servings.

For crepes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter

For filling:
1 cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

To prepare crepes: Sift flour and salt together into a large mixing bowl. Add eggs; mix thoroughly (mixture will form a thick paste). Add milk gradually, beating until smooth. Batter will have the consistency of heavy cream. Cover bowl; refrigerate for 2 hours.

Brush a hot crepe pan with oil or melted butter. Pour in about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter, depending on the size of the pan. Tip the pan to coat it with a thin layer of batter. Cook over medium-high heat until crepe is golden brown, about 1 minute, then turn and brown other side. Continue cooking crepes, adding oil or butter to pan as needed.

To prepare filling: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring stock to a boil in a small pan. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour. Cook, stirring for 1 minute.  Gradually add stock. Bring to a boil. Cook, stirring over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Stir in chicken, salt, pepper, parsley and chives.

Beat egg yolks and half-and-half in a small mixing bowl. Add a little of the hot sauce; mix well. Stir egg mixture into remaining hot sauce in pan.  Put a portion of the mixture in the center of each crepe. Roll up crepes.

Place in a buttered oven-to-table baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 10 to 15 minutes. Serve at once.

PER SERVING: 500 calories; 34g fat (61 percent calories from fat); 11g saturated fat; 248mg cholesterol; 24.5g protein; 23.5g carbohydrate; 5g sugar; 1g fiber; 519mg sodium; 173mg calcium; 285mg potassium.

For crepes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter

To prepare crepes: Sift flour and salt together into a large mixing bowl.
Add eggs; mix thoroughly (mixture will form a thick paste). Add milk
gradually, beating until smooth. Batter will have the consistency of heavy
cream. Cover bowl; refrigerate for 2 hours.

Brush a hot crepe pan with oil or melted butter. Pour in about 1 1/2
tablespoons of batter, depending on the size of the pan. Tip the pan to
coat it with a thin layer of batter. Cook over medium-high heat until crepe
is golden brown, about 1 minute, then turn and brown other side. Continue
cooking crepes, adding oil or butter to pan as needed.

Apparently I was not alone.  Many who visit share in the comments section their memories of the restaurant, and of their time eating, working, or just hanging, there.  Some have even shared the “deep dark secrets” of the contents of some of my favorite recipes.  (Go read the comments! Interesting!)

In addition, many have asked for people to post recipes.  I have found a few online, and while I encourage all to visit the web sources, I will be posting a few here over the next few weeks and months.  So, enjoy!

MAGIC PAN RESTAURANT POTAGE ST GERMAIN (Pea Soup) (from Phaedrus)

This pea soup recipe is from the Magic Pan Restaurant.

1 (1 pound) ham bone
4 1/2 cups water
1 (13 ounce) can chicken broth
2 cups split peas
2/3 cup finely chopped leeks or green onions
1/3 cup finely chopped carrots
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon thyme
Bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup chopped ham, cooked
1/2 cup chopped chicken (cooked) (optional)

Place ham bone in large pot. Add water, chicken stock and peas and bring to
boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 30
minutes.

Sauté the onions, carrots and celery just until limp. Add them to the soup
pot along with all the seasonings and continue to simmer until peas are very
soft and mixture is thick - about 45 minutes. Remove ham bone. Gradually
stir in the milk and cream. Add ham and chicken. Simmer, stirring
occasionally, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Potage St. Germain soup should be served with a dollop of sour cream
and a splash of sherry. The sherry was served on the side in a tiny
glass pitcher, while the sour cream was placed in the bowl and dusted
with chopped parsley.

The premise of the book is that life is “random” or at least in large partt driven by likelihoods and probabilities.  Those of you that actually know me, know that I appreciate the random nature of life, and that I believe no outcome is “certain.”  Even knowing that, intellectually, I find myself reflecting on the various lessons in this book, particularly after my recent automobile accident.  In that accident, I started second guessing my decisions.  What if I had gone to Home Depot first?  What if I had decided to go back to the main road to get between stores?  What if I had waited a few seconds before leaving Lowe’s?  What if I hadn’t asked for help, and had left Lowe’s 2 minutes earlier?

The timing of receiving the book (and reading it) helped my put all this in perspective.  All those decision points, and actions arising from those points, are what quatum physicists would call “alternative realities” (and some would tell you they all occured, in parallel universes!)  But there is little one can do to control the outcome.

According to this book (at least, up to my current point in reading it) we see patterns in most things, after the fact.  We play an elaborate game of connect the dots, to make “sense” out of what happened.  We ignore the role of chance, the importance of sheer “randomness” in the events.  The author writes:

Past events will always look less random than they  were (it is called the hindsight bias). I would listen to  someone’s discussion of his own past realizing that  much of what he was saying was just backfit  explanations concocted ex post by his deluded mind.

I realize that, in some way, (perhaps some warped way) I am taking solice in the fact that the accident was just a statistical probability that for some reason, on Thursday, decided to “realize” itself on the side of my car. BAM!

Now, that said, the book also plays a role in explaining the importance of “managing” randomness.  In the book, the author discusses a man, Nero who, as a trader in Chicago, learned early on to play the “game” of moderation.  Nero (being a statistician by education) understood the role of probability even in the market, and understood even better the impact of the “statistically rare event” or what the author calls “The Black Swan.” (He then later writes a longer book on this topic “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable — This one is on my shelf and will be next in my reading queue).

According to Taleb, Nero chose to limit his gains by not seeking the high rewards, because those carry with them the greatest risk, in the event of the “statistically unlikely” black swan. In my accident, Honda helped moderate the risks by providing side curtain and seat-embedded airbags.  We were t-boned, but my wife (sitting on the side that got hit) doesn’t have a single scratch and given the extent of the damage to the door, we believe the airbags protected her.

These are the sorts of things that we teach our students in decision analysis.  Assess the probable outcomes, and the likelihood of the event.  Understand the possible gains and losses.  Then make your decisions based not on the certainty of your ability (flawed) but on your knowledge of the impact of randomness.

This book arrives at just the right time to console me, to remind me that sometimes “stuff happens” and it’s just random.  Accept it, acknowledge it, and plan as best you can.  It’s a great read, and I highly recommend it to all.  But it leaves me with this question:  If it’s arrival was truly at “just the right time” –

Was it’s arrival… Random?

Actually, this is one of those great ideas for a “get away special” at a lake, or campsite.  Note that the houses are actually (apparently) on trailers (at least, they have wheels) so this is quite a luxurious camper setup.  And no worrying about resettling when you change jobs.  So long as you don’t move someplace off the continent, you should be “good to GO!”

Definitely check out the “Tumbleweed Tiny House Company” Video tour.

There are some remarkable success stories, but there doesn’t seem to be a groundswell of adoption for much of the technological opportunities the are proposed.  I suspect that there is a disconnect between the “art of the possible” and the wants, desires, and needs of the faculty.

Perhaps the most successful tech solution has been the Course Management System (ANGEL here at Penn State.)  This is a system that allows faculty to communicate electronically with students, make slides and readings available, and even host synchronous and asychronous discussions.  I suspect, through anecdotal evidence, the most used features are the delivery of documents, and the least used are the more interactive features of discussion groups and chat.

In addition, we have blog initiatives, podcasts, and wiki initiatives ongoing at the University. All great stuff, and “spaces” in which I also play.  But each of these comes at a cost. (And often several costs.)

So what keeps faculty from using these technologies?  Are most faculty simply “Luddites” unwilling to step into the 21st Century?  Or is there something else at work here? I suspect that, while some faculty are reluctant to move outside their technological comfort zones, there is something else at play here.

I posit that there are three forces at work here.  Time, ownership, and uncertainty.

I believe that faculty are focused on their disciplines, and pursuing the development of knowledge in those areas, and view these not as technological “solutions” but rather as “technological distractions” that would steal time away from their other honorable pursuits.  TIme is a precious commodity for us all, and for newly hired faculty seeking tenure, nothing is more critical than publishing scholarly research as we “build our bones” and work towards tenure.  This often means that as faculty, when faced with the trade-off of innovating in the course-ware or conducting research, we make the understandable personal choice to maximize our long-term standing with the University (and improve our income earning potential) by focusing on the publishing aspect of academia.

The second issue is just as inward focused, but understandable as well.  As faculty members, we do spend time developing our course content.  That content is derived from our expert knowledge of our field of study, and the materials reflect both our time-commitment, and our intellectual property.  Making that material available in easily-shared media (podcasts, images/videos on flickr.com and elsewhere, lectures written in blogs) leaves the faculty with the sense that others can “steal” their work.  Even before the advent of all this “tech” faculty members were often incensed over the downtown businesses that would publish notes taken by the “good” students.  Why? Because that was publishing their materials without permision!

Finally, faculty members (rightly, or wrongly) believe that making the materials available to students outside the classroom will result in rampant absenteeism.  In this case, faculty members often believe that part of the learning experience is derived from the personal interactions one gets in the classroom, and that learning goes both ways (well, actually many ways).

• The students have a more direct opportunity to question the faculty member, and explore more fullly thoughts and ideas in a socratic give-and-take.  And while we can argue that such exchanges can take place in discussion boards and chats, I think we all must agree that only the most advanced typist can type as fast as we speak, and think.
• Other students learn from the exchanges mentioned above.  In fact, some of my most interesting “Aha!” moments came as a result of pursuing thoughts generated by classmates.  These thoughts often result in follow-up questions, but also in discussions amongst students as they leave the lecture hall, go to lunch, and so forth.
• In addition, the faculty member learns from the students.  More than once I have found (and seen other faculty who also have found) that a question posed by a student opened up a thought-process not yet explored. In fact, those questions often lead to new and potentially exciting research opportunities.

So, faculty members are reluctant to provide any excuse for students to “leave” the classroom, and instead get most of the materials through digital and technical means.  That said, I personally have found no drop in attendance in my classes even when using podcasts, and other technology, but I certainly understand the fear from the faculty in this regard.

The question is now, how can one make an argument to faculty members, a “business case” if you will, that addresses these needs, and concerns?  Certainly one could present research showing that students retain more information when bombarded (oops, exposed) to multiple media.  But we are left with a disconnect between the current system that rewards research and publication while expecting “adequate” teaching, and one that focuses on improving the quality of instruction while sacrificing (at least in the faculy members’ eyes) the research.

So, short of changing the reward system to place less emphasis on research, how can we convince faculty that it is in their interest as academics to integrate more technology into their instruction? (And remember, this is to be a persuasive argument–that is, one that is persuasive to the faculty, so must appeal to their wants/needs/desires)

That is the question I toss open for discussion.

1. Visit here regularly if you are from around Mechanicsburg to check the lowest prices
2. Visit the gasbuddy.com site and search for lowest prices in your area
3. Join their site and provide updates to the prices for the stations you pass every day
4. If you have a blog, add a listing for your local area

The way I see it, McCain has a strategy that when taken as a whole will hopefully remove “energy” from our worry list. (see my entries here, and here) But… that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing things to help each other out in the meantime.  By updating the gasbuddy.com site as we see changing gas prices, we help our neighbors save a little, and hopefully reward those stations that have the lower prices, encouraging more downward pressure on prices (Of course, economics being what it is, the increased volume at those lower-priced stations may be seen as an increase in demand that should result in an increase in prices at the micro level.  Who knows…)

So, what are your thoughts on how we can help our neighbors lessen the impact of higher gasoline prices? (and might I suggest that telling them to drive less, or buy a new car, isn’t very helpful…)

So, I decided to get an iPhone.  And, I decided to be one of those that “lived the experience” and went to the store early on Friday morning to stand in line.  It was interesting, although I must say most people are not very talkative at 0715 hr.  My son went with me, in part to experience the event, and in part to skip swim practice, but hey, it’s all good.  Oh, and I think he wanted to laugh at Dad being a “fan boy.”

As you can see, when we arrived there were already a number of folks (29 to be exact) in line ahead of me.  They were almost all 20 something males, but not exclusively.  There were a few 1st Generation iPhone owners there buying the upgrade, and interestingly, they had already installed the 2,0 firmware upgrade a few hours before.  I guess they wanted 3G and GPS.

My son had already upgraded his, as well, so he was standing there playing with a few apps on the phone.

We did take a recorder with us and I hope to have a podcast of our experience uploaded in a few days–assuming you would want to hear that.

Leave a note and let me know if you would want to hear the “Podcast from the line.”

I haven’t been to Vegas in years, and when I was there, it was only for a lay-over at the airport.  Now after reading Wil’s description of Star Trek: The Experience at the Hilton, I find myself wishing I had one more chance to go.  (I can’t help but wonder if the thought to visit crossed my brother’s mind during his recent whirlwind tour of Vegas.)  Of course his description of the experience is amazing, and comes from the perspective of one who has been “there” and longed for “there” to perhaps have been real.  But what is most touching is when he writes

I have an epiphany.

Until this moment, all I have been able to remember is the pain that came with Star Trek. I’d forgotten the joy.

I suspect that every fan has a story of how Star Trek touched them.  Only no story in quite so special a way.

Oh, and if you want to follow Wil Wheaton, he is on Twitter as wilw.

The nugget, the lede, the important issue that is rapidly being buried here is that when I walk out to my driveway in the morning and pick up my nicely rubber-banded and bagged print newspaper, there is no one else out there in bathrobes to join me.

No one.

I am the only house for BLOCKS that gets the daily newspaper.

Where are people getting their news, then?

What a GREAT question!  I haven’t subscribed to a “local paper” for a very long time.  I don’t subscribe to one here in Harrisburg, although I do like the Patriot-News.  (and I do like the reporting by Daniel Victor!  see  him at twitter)   I didn’t subscribe to one in Dayton, either.  I can’t remember if I ever subscribed to one in State College.

For me, the question is simple, but the answer is complex. It’s not as simple as “I can get all my news online,” although I obviously can, since I linked to the Patriot-News.  I also receive the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post delivered to my Kindle. (without advertising.)

So why don’t I get a local paper?  Honestly, I haven’t had a whole lot of faith in the ability of local reporters to get the story “right.”  I wrote in a comment back on DaSilva’s blog

After service in the Armed Forces for 20 years, and a few other jobs along the way, I have noticed how what “really happened” and what is reported are often quite different. Sometimes with serious consequences. Most often, it is because the reporter was not familiar with the actual organization/technology/operation on which they reported.

I have found that this is not limited to stories of complex military and political issues.  When I am familiar with the story I read, I find errors in fact that just “get in the way.”  Swimmers’ times are reported incorrectly.  Swimmers names are wrong.  Analysis of budget figures are done so poorly as to give “back of envelope” math a bad name.  Sometimes they are just written in a way that makes me have to re-read it a few times to figure out what they meant.  For instance, in today’s Partriot-News one reporter writes “Pennsylvania has 36 fairs — four more than 200 years old.”  (My confusion is the count of the number of fairs, followed by “four more than…”  This had me thinking something else was numbered at 32.  Until I realized that the reporter meant “four of them over 200 years old.”  Trivial, but it makes the point.)

All in all, I find that my faith in the local reporters’ ability to “report” is challenged.  I am not quite sure what to believe.

This is compounded further by the apparent need for reporters to view themselves as activists.  They often inject their own editorial comments into the stories.  Often they are simply the introduction of an adjective or some other description that I am sure the reporter intended to make the story interesting, but unfortunately also tends to tilt the story.  Just check out the way the same story (use Google News) can be reported by different newspapers to see the ways they perhaps unintentionally spin the story.

All that said, I do stay up on the news. In fact, I use Google News quite a lot.  I use RSS feeds (and am really liking the new Adobe Air app, Snackr, which selects, and scrolls. random headlines from my feeds list.)

So my question for you is: where do you get your news?

So, when I wrote that that the babyboomers were the ones “who argued to ‘never trust anyone over 30.’ Seems they now are being asked to ‘eat their own dogfood’” I may have been mistaken. You see, Dean Dad was essentially arguing that the current crop of Adminstrators need to move along (ref his first line “Reason #456 we need to hire the next generation of administrators”). Thus I felt that asking them (the boomers) to move along and get out of the way, was essentially reminding them not to trust anyone their own age.
But the question I have is whether it is “eating your own dog food.” It certainly is “having to take your own medicine.” And perhaps it is asking for one to “follow one’s own advice.” But is it the same as using your own product?

I argue that in this context it is. You see, Dean Dad is talking about how a service organization is run. Services are different from “goods” in that there is no tangible asset, nothing to, well, eat. So one must stretch the metaphor a bit. But in this case, I believe it works, since one is being asked to follow the management principles they at one time preached. To continue down the road of “old saws” one could say for the Boomers their “Chickens have come home to roost.”

Perhaps it is time for Boomers to acknowledge that they were wrong about something. And for the Gen X’ers to realize that their parents aren’t always wrong–and perhaps should be allowed to continue to work, and lead.

BONUS:  Can you guess which songs were selected when I searched on “photo” and my library came up with these three artists?

A comedian rants about how much it sucks to play Pachelbel’s Canon in D on a cello. Recorded live at Penn State, this piece by comedian/musician Rob Paravonian has been a favorite on the Dr. Demento Show.

Well, the next time he is at Penn State, I hope I find out! You should visit his site, too! So here–enjoy!

Okay–so the book is Designing and Managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies and Case Studies by Simchi-Levy, Kaminsky, and Simchi-Levi. (3rd Edition)

Page 123 is the first page of Chapter 4–Supply Contracts, and it starts with a case study about American Tool Works (ATW). So, without further ado, the three sentences.

The relationship between ATW and its distributors and dealers may take two forms:

• Large Distributors tend to have a vendor-managed-inventory (VMI) agreement with ATW.  In this situation, ATW monitors the inventory levels of various products at the distributors’ facilities, and makes additional shipments as necessary.

So there you have it.  Only my second meme (my first can be found here.)
I would like to tag my favorite liberals.  Fleshy, Eric from A liberal dose, and then Dean Dad at Confessions of a Community College Dean.  Not that they will ever actually find out that they have been tagged.

The avid listener and follower will know that he and I blog and podcast together over at “The Father Son Chats.”

Enjoy his video!

The general idea is to write about what I was doing 1, 20 and 30 yrs ago. Well, I will do that, but I will focus mostly on what was going on “today” and then also add “16 years ago today.” Today, of course, being Halloween.

10 years ago, I was at Penn State, starting my second year of my PhD program. I still had some course work to accomplish, and I was dreading the candidacy exam. At that point in the program, I am thinking that Halloween came, and went, with not much fanfare, although I am sure we did something for my son, and for my oldest daughter, who had just turned 11. Halloween, which is normally a well-marked day for me, most likely came and went with perhaps a few cards, a cake, and couple presents.

16 years ago (here I break the meme) I remember quite well. That Thursday morning I took my wife into the base hospital for the delivery of our son. He was born 28 years to the day after me. Yes, we share a birthday. Halloween. After some coaxing, he breathed fresh air later that afternoon, and for the first, and only, time in my life I video taped a birth. The tape later scared my parents as he had some rather low initial APGAR scores, driven in part by the fact that his pancreas was doing a GREAT job of creating insulin, and once he left the womb (mom is a diabetic) he wiped out his supply of blood sugars! The scores moved up quickly, however. Later, a nurse discovered that his collar bone was broken on the way out (he was a BIG baby!) and they immobilized it right away. (In a serendipitous turn of events, it turned out that the nurse had been in my flight during ROTC summer camp at Dover AFB back in 1983!) Later that evening, my parents took our girls to the circus! What a Halloween!

So now, on to 20 years ago. Oct 31, 1987. I was stationed at Pease AFB, having completed my first 1 1/2 years as a Logistics Plans officer. We had celebrated, just the week before, the first birthday of our eldest (yes, that means she just turned 21!) You can imagine how family-focused that event was, since she was not only our first-born, but the first grandchild for either side of the family! As for other events at work–I was beginning to realize just how much fun it can be working in the area of logistics, and planning for everything necessary to support a large operation long distances away from home. And since we were in the Strategic Air Command, you can imagine some of the operating conditions and environments that we had to consider when planning.

30 years ago. Well, I certainly wish I could tell some great story about a huge 14th birthday party. Or some great story about how much fun 8th grade was. But–it was 8th grade! Does anyone have memories from 8th grade that they look back on with any significant degree of fondness? I had some things I enjoyed in 8th grade. Band. FFA. Ag class. Actually, I think* 8th grade was the year we would have a garden as part of our ag class. Mr Durand was my Ag teacher. Mr Davids was my Social Studies teacher (a long haired wanna be hippie type, but a GREAT teacher!)

So there you have it. 30 yrs of history.

Now, if any of you know of a WordPress plugin that I can use to facilitate the voting, let me know! I will install it right away, but for now… vote in your comments.

Be sure to DIGG the story, as well! Just click on the blog headline, then you should see this blog with a DIGG THIS link. Click on DIGG IT! and then your DIGG vote will be counted. If you don’t have a DIGG account, it is quick and easy to create!

The Prof

PS This post is now also a permanent page! See the left margin!

The kind professors at the Language Log carefully point out that hyperbole is used to extend in exaggeration. Now, thankfully, they weren’t actually talking about this blog in their post, but far be it from me to not acknowledge the error of my ways. Clearly my use of the word was not an extension of the point.
I want to thank the kind professors at the Language Log for continuously enlightening and brightening my blog-reading day.

I want to continue to encourage all four of you, dear readers, to visit regularly the Language Log.

Here are two photos (well, one, really) taken by my son. As you can see, the original is in color, and only three simple effects were applied using Picasa from Google. Converted to B/W, increased the contrast (using the shadows and highlights effect) and the adjusting the focal point.

Enjoy!

I am wondering, dear class, what you think I should add as links? Any favorite blogs you think I should point to? Should I, out of shear magnanimity, add our dear, eloquent friend the “new American Patriot” to the list? (Remember him? He is the owner of A Liberal Dose that, if I remember correctly, wants to kick me in my nuts…)

Just leave your comments here with your suggestions, and your votes!

The Professor

Gospel Music Podcast

Charles and Matt Brady have a website, and a podcast. Interesting…

I must say, I find this “episode” of the Language Log uniquely satisfying. Partially because I too have fallen prey to the odd grammatical error, now and again. But mostly because it serves as a humbling reminder that we all fail, and thus, as we point out each other’s failings, we all contribute.

but perhaps I read too much into this.

The last sentence though, remains priceless. Sure, pick on the word “decider.” Anyone want to guess what the other “obvious” error is?

Wow… Frazz, one of my all-time favorite comicstrips (I am not such as avid junky as my brother and father) makes the big-time in the Language Log! Okay, so I enjoy the language log for their defense of freedom of speech AND their defense of speech…

But this one, well, it “da bomb.”

So, how do YOU pronounce Sauna?

Taken in color. Desaturated, added real film grain.

made a tad smaller.

I know… where’s my cutting political wit, and sharp insights? Well, hey, I am here to serve… and EVERYONE has an iPod now, right?

Here is a website with some rather neat tools for the iPod. Not only can you save your music back to a computer, you can alsoset up RSS newsfeeds, and when you sync your iPod to your computer, get your newstories “to go.” Quite handy, IF you don’t already have a PDA doing that for you.

Now, to just get a utility that makes the screen bigger…

Okay, so I had to blog on this. Apparently Republicans are just happier people! As are church-goers, and suburbanites.

I am not sure if I am happy or not right now, since I should be writing a research proposal for funding, but I certainly thought this was worth sharing!

The brief morning Sun…

Okay, I haven’t revealed much personal, but I figured it was about time I showed a picture from the lake house. I woke to a gorgeous sunrise (some would say it was “fabulous”) and grabbed the camera. It’s a good thing I did. It didn’t last long.

I also have a RAW version, which of course has far more detail.

enjoy.

Time to do something “extra curricular.” Okay, this one is a bit “odd” but I kinda like it. This site posts the phone numbers as pay phones, and encourages people to call. The owner of the site even has posted “ways to make it more hep” if you wish. (click on the link above!)

Visit the site–it’s worth the read, if nothing else!

Have you ever read a news story that just seemed, well, odd? This, to me, is one of those stories.

Perhaps I have been tainted by a book I recently read and enjoyed, titled “Freakonomics.” In that book, an economist slices data in ways that challenge the “conventional” views of the world, and shows how an understanding of data can help one make more sense of the world around us.

One of my favorite vignettes in the book is the discussion about airline vs automobile fatalities. Yes, we all “know” that it is safer to fly than to ride in a car. That’s conventional wisdom. The authors point out, however, that if you evaluate the data differently, by assessing time spent “in the seat” then it turns out to be a dead heat (no pun intended.) the number of fatalities per hour spent traveling in that mode is statistically even. Go figure.

So that leads me to this story. Here we have all the makings of bad journalism–reporting misleading facts, quoting of inflammatory language, and the obligatory “counter view” at the end of the article.

Let’s tackle the facts. In the article you will find this:

“We should have experienced a significant decline in speeding-related fatalities, given the tremendous gains in safety-belt use coupled with the increasingly safe design of vehicles,” said Lt. Col. Jim Champagne of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission and chairman of the GSHA.

That statement follows a paragraph where we are informed that “The number of speeding-related deaths is not declining” and “Speeding is a major factor in about one-third of the 42,000 traffic deaths a year in the USA.”

Hmmm… The “numbers” are not declining? Sounds like we have a problem on our hands, right? As the article points out, vehicles are far safer than ever before, and yet the “numbers” are not declining.

But wait just one minute! The article then points out that “The nation’s traffic fatality rate last year was a record low of 1.46 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.” Now we begin to see that in fact, fatalities have declined, and we are just spending more and more time on the road. It’s not that speeding is more deadly. It’s that we are spending more and more time on the road.

But wait, there’s more! The author can’t just let the record stand corrected. The author uses the word “But.” Yup, after telling the reader that the actual rate is lower the author points out “But the number of people killed in accidents each year has remained fairly constant as the number of vehicles and miles driven increased.”

So now we see that perhaps Lt Col Champagne was speaking in hyperbole when he argued against speeding. What’s worse, he called the accidents “carnage” on the highways. Inflammatory language, to be sure. Especially since, according to Dictionary.com, carnage is “Massive slaughter, as in war; a massacre.”

Bottom line? Read carefully–and look for all the details. Ask questions about the data presented. In this case, the article at least presented the death rate, and not just raw data. Imagine if the author had chosen to leave just that one bit of data out.

So the question I have is: Which do readers notice more, and why?

Class dismissed.

Here is my opinion:

It’s not a magic age (“I am 18, and an adult” usually followed by “why won’t you let me…”). It’s not a magic formula or convergence of events in a life (mortgage, marriage, move, or any such thing.) Turning 18 just means you alone are legally responsible for your mistakes, and I have seen plenty of childish husbands, wives, and so forth.

It is the point where one takes on responsibility for “things” great and small in their life, and takes responsibility for one’s own actions. When one gets to the point where one can do that, one has begun the lifelong journey to and through adulthood. And guess what–we will slip, and revert, and blame others, and shy away from rather, than step up to, our responsibilities. That too is part of the journey. It is how we recognize our failings, and whether we step forward and accept responsbility, that helps us determine whether we are still climbing the path to maturity, or slipping down the slope of childishness.

Did I mention yet, God? Spiritual maturity actually, to some extent, is the reverse. As one grows in Christ one finds (as I had to over a recent weekend–Thanks to all that prayed, and please continue!) that while we need to accept responsibility for our actions, we must recognize that we can do nothing, and Christ can do all things. It is the recognition of the role of Servant to our Lord, the subjugating of self so that Christ can live through us, that shapes and provides definition to spiritual maturity.

So where do we stand? Do we blame others for not recognizing us or allowing us to serve, rather than stepping up and stepping in? Or do we acknowledge that God has called us to serve, and we are to serve in whatever capacity He has made for us, and serve joyfully. “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

P.S. I realize that I have to some degree stepped outside the bounds of this BLOG’s construct. If this were a state school, I suppose I would find myself in trouble for talking about God at all. Oh, well.