xkcd On english as a national language

A New York of the Maybe

The New Face of the Singulariy

DSC_0860
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

TADA!!! The future.

National Novel Writting Month and My Part In It

Some of the folks over at LibriVox decided to tackle writing a collaborative novel in this fine month of November which just happens to be National Novel Writing Month. I am Chapter 6, I might be more chapters if i have the time and more folks do not sign up to fill in the need. The story so far is interesting. I have my thoughts on where its going as I am sure everyone else has their very different thoughts, that is the fun of a collaborative effort. You can read the work as it unfurls at this url. Enjoy, and jump in with a chapter if you feel so moved.

James Burke - Balanced Anarchy

Why is the universe the way it is? Cause James Burke Say SO! Well actually cause we consensually say so. And thats one to grow on....

Carnal Knowledge book cover explained

I love Podictionary, it is one of the few podcasts that has stuck from those crazy "lets make a podcast of our breathing" days. Every day a new word, a new insight and some fine concise knowing. I can not wait to read this book.

MobMov: the mobile movie guerilla drive-in and street marketing

MobMov: the mobile movie guerilla drive-in and street marketing: "Definition of a Mobile Movie A 'mobile movie' or mobmov for short, is quite simply a drive-in that drives-in. Participating in a mobmov is very similar to attending a drive-in from the days of old, except now the projector is located inside and powered by a car, and the audio is piped in stereo over the FM band to the attendees' cars. As a mobmov driver, you assemble the kit, decide on the movies, and announce your showings to friends and the community at large. Then everyone assembles in a dark place with a big wall, and you watch a movie. It's a new technological twist to a nostalgic idea."

The Weakerthans

The Weakerthans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by John K. Samson, after he left the punk band Propagandhi to start a publishing company. " Ok so how did I miss this band for so long? Former Propaghandi member makes a punk folk group and some how this did not hit my radar. It took hearing them on Fresh Air to set me right.

Distance Learning circa 1948

One of the many great things to be springing forth from the great vineyard of the net is the tools and opportunities to learn things and perhaps even get a degree of some sort out of it. Nihil sub sol novum, an example of such being the NBC University Theater. From 1948 to 1951 NBC radio aired hour long adaptations of many a great book. It is reported that Tulsa, Louisville, and Washington State Colleges had classes that offered college credits connected to listening to this series. What a country. And where are such academically minded efforts on NBC broadcasts these days? With much of old time radio there are signs and names to look for to pick out the crud from the craft, one such name is associated with this series....Ernest Kinoy. His work both on radio and tv are amazing stand outs in excellence.

Free Speech Response

Someday I'll tell my kid the fairy tale of free speech.

DS Jam Sessions

Not a game like GuitarZeros but rather a guitar sim in all the right ways. Like all good sims it simplifies something (running a city, playing god, strumming a guitar) such that the bar for participation is lowered while acting as a gateway to pushing yourself to further understanding. Jam Sessions is not perfect but it is a great vector to songwriting and/or guitar playing ... rather than simply smashing buttons to make a point score go up. Yet another reason why the Nintendo DS and it's big sibling the Wii "get it" where most other game platforms do not.

RIP

Both gone, well as gone as you can be in the metasphere.

ToDo DIY

Rain barells
Originally uploaded by chrisdigo

The gutters on our house are in a bad way, fixing them will suck but less so now that I have found these pics, and plans, for making a good solid rain catching system. DIY in burbia, oh heck yea.

Metrofi Portland Blues

There was a time long ago when Portland was named one of the "best" unwired cities in the nation, this was before the city government got interested in doing its own wireless thing in the city. Up till then it was all about the work done by individual shop and home owners putting up APs and the work of the Personal Telco Project in helping out , educating folks and generally putting up nodes where ever they were allowed.

But then the city decided to get involved and they called in the company known as Metrofi to come in, get all sorts of prime pole placement and antenna perches in order to set up a for pay service, with the promise there would be a bit of free usage given to the populace. What wound up being doled out was ad injected sponsored log in required access that did not even meet the benchmarks set out for usability

So where does this leave the populace of the city? Lots of opportunity with very little coordination. Metrofi's coverage is spotty and lackluster at best, the Personal Telco Project's coverage not as vast but a bit more usable and others are still popping up new hotspots allover the town. What is missing from MetroFi's offering is a sense of community that the Personal Telco Project seems willing to take on. What sort of things?

How do you use the freely open(as opposed to accidentally opened) networks around you?

How do you leverage them to get things done on a personal and community level?

How to get more people connected to these resources who would not otherwise have access to such things?

What are Best Practices when using such networks?

There has been a call to gather interested parties and teach just these issues to those citizens who are interested in learning.

In the long run I think its going to be important for Portland to keep what is best about its wireless efforts in focus, that is being community driven with a strong effort to educate and experiment for the betterment of the community it serves. Else wise Portland becomes just another For Pay profit pool with not payoff for the community.

3195 Decatur Ave

DSC_0203
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

Three generations of Higgins' lived in this apt building.

Early MP3 Player

Early MP3 Player
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

Wall Drug is a tourist mecca, there are more things to see and buy than should rightfully be found in that corner of South Dakota. Its whole claim to fame is an amazing marketing effort revolving around ice water and the local state of thirst.

This was one of hundreds of items we saw that day. I could not find an SD slot.

Humble Narrator

DSC_0226
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

No matter where I go, there I am.

Crazy Horse from the Base

Crazy Horse from the base
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

Each time I go visit the Crazy Horse Memorial I try to get a little closer to the detail. This time out we took a bus tour to the base. Every year a little more detail shows up.

Stay In Your Car

Stay In Your Car
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

Yes you, yes for real. When 2k pounds of bison gives you the stare down being inside a car is a good thing.

This is one of a number of photos taken in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We found three herd of bison that day, one of which took about 20 mins to walk around our van. I got some good shots of the youngins and the elders

Pearl Takes Aim

Pearl Takes Aim
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

This is Pearl Wilson. Every years for many many a moon it has been on her farm that the generations and neighbors gather on the 4th. How is it a kid from the Bronx made his way here?

Maybe for another post I will recount the begatings

4th Of July(theres a hard rain gonna fall)

4th Of July(theres a hard rain gonna fall)
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

"Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall." Bob Dylan

WSMF Mobile

WSMF Mobile
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

A quick note here....our trip to South Dakota is turning out to be a dash to the farm, Aside from the big bash at the Wilson Farm on the 4th Dawn's grandma is not doing so well; thus not much in the way of photo shoots and AWWWW Aint They So Cute events. That will be for the way back.

For now I will post up what might be fun to read, a rant or two and...oh yeah...The WSMF Road Cooking Show....yep...we got some good old road cooking gear and the divx of Alton Brown's Dinning On Asphalt..good times good times.

(pictured here is the rig, a Ford Excursion disel and the newly aquired 24 foot Terry Trailer Light...both vintage 2000...we like buying used:)- )

The AC or as I like to call it The Money Shot

The AC or as I like to call it The Money Shot
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

When traveling across a section of the USA that dips into what I like to term the Third World In The Middle it has been my experience to pack those things that will make living good....medical supplies, Portland OR's finest microbrew (Hair of the Dog's Fred On Wood) and a 24 foot trailer with AC.Decedent? In the land of swelter and swarming mosquitoes I would say its an essential. Campsites with free wifi ranks up there as well.

June 30th 2007 - begining

Trailer Meets Scurge
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins

Vancouver WA to WSLF Farms SD and back again. vroooom

Purple Hacksaws are Here

two great memes

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09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

Lonesome No More

'At Last!'
Originally uploaded by The One True b!X.

Once more into the chronosynclasticinfadibulator

Monks Of The Xiaolin Octagon

DSCN4163
Originally uploaded by TomHiggins.

Training Days....wax on wax off

the secret life of machines - combustion engine

I have been gathering material for use in my little Dojo Of Anti Dumbness (the home school for my 4 year old and eventualy the youngest) and came across something I should have known about years ago and thanks to the glory of the googlesphere now am in full possession of (burnt on dvds complete with websites and text of related material for each episode...)

Boycott the RIAA in March

What To Boycott? Anything that would put money in the RIAA's coffers
When? The Month of March Why? Predatory Practices and Skulduggery

"DRM - what is it good for absolutley nothing...say it again"

In the last few days I have read all manner of pro and con DRM issues spurred on, in large part, by the utterances of one Steve Jobs. Jobs has built a little empire on selling devices that tie into a DRM locked content delivery system and has now said that he would be willing to tear down his DRM Curtain if the content management companies would let him.

As Andy Armstrong put so well "He’s an opportunistic hypocrite. DRM allowed Apple to create the iPod monopoly. Just a few months ago he was vocally pro-DRM. So what? The fact that he’s one of the most prominent rats leaving the sinking DRM ship doesn’t disguise the fact that it’s sinking."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the companies Jobs is looking to for the green light on being a good boy are still spending millions to develop and deploy DRM content. They are also very much working the legal system to make it a crime to not purchase their content at the price they set.

On the other side of this are the truly brave and forward looking efforts have been moving along to make DRM Free content available as well as to break the DRM with 2$ sharpies a day after the DRM Curtain companies unveil their million dollar schemes.

To paraphrase the Gipper ...If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the artists and the consumers of their content.. Come here, to this gate. Mr. Job, open this gate. Mr. Jobs, tear down this DRM. Eleswise, your just anotha victim..see.

From the amazing Greylodge you can find this gem of viewing..."As the centrepiece of BBC Four’s Science Fiction Britannia season, this three-part documentary explores how UK writers pioneered and remained in the vanguard of one of the world’s most popular literary genres." Part 1 - From Apes to Aliens Part 2 - Trouble in Paradise Part 3 - The end of the world as we know it

ChickenMan, yes that amazing power of yore, can now be heard thanks to the dedicated folks putting Old Time Radio shows up at archive.org.

[bstewart] I do wish castro would make a public appearance just to announce that chavez is an asshole wannabe

This article over at the Guardian begs the question..Jesus Vs Zeus? Ill take a ticket for that one:)- "After a break of 16 centuries, Greek pagans are worshipping the ancient gods again - despite furious opposition from the Orthodox church. Helena Smith asks them why they're so keen to revive the old religion "

Religion not Harmful To kids?

Once a year a blade is thrice run across the heads of all males form as young as 1 month old. Why? To remember a killed religious person..and for one young boy,"God will make me do well in school" Look into the face of religion and then ask yourself why.

The Proper Reaction to DoHS and living in the Terrordome?

1-31-07 Never Forget!

StickFigure Ben

Get Ready For....Vietraq II

because, ya know, Mission Accomplished on part the first and all that......yeeeesh "January 23, 2007 Today, the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) begins a week-long advertising campaign aimed at educating the American public about the growing threat posed by a nuclear Iran. The ad campaign consists of two 30-second spots that began running Tuesday on CNN, MSNBC, Headline News and the Fox News Channel in Washington, DC, Maryland and northern Virginia. " and then add this WP piece "The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort."

Cardiac Paper Computer Take One

Cardiac Paper Computer Take One Originally uploaded by TomHiggins.

I printed out the PDFs for making a CARDIAC and crafted this of plain paper and tape..man this needs much better makings. The next version will probably be coated/laminated so you can write on it with a dry erase and then wipe when you are done with that run.

If you are wondering what this is....

"I had one of the real deal CARDIAC's back in 7th grade(1977ish) , I was already hooked on the bit tip but this thing showed me some of the ways and means of the root issues. I found mention of it a few years back on boing^2 but lost the scent. The desire to teach my little ones that computers are not all about bloat and legaly constrained guis made me go and find the makings. What I lack now is the orginal manual that came with it, there is a meatspace source for it that I am tracking down.

This was a paper trialto see if it worked, it does. Paper thoug is teh flimzy so I am goingto make the next one out of sturdier stuff, maybe cardboard with the text laminated on...I dont know yet. Any ideas?

For more info on the CARDIAC go to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_-_cardboard_illustrative_aid_to_computation "

What A Drag It Is Getting Old

It seems the CWN (community wireless network) group I am part of , that being the Personal Telco Project, is going through another bout of growth/contraction/selfexamination/reinvnetion that happens to groups . After 6 years of hard work and a shifting landscape this comes as no surprise. The thread linked to has some good WhereToNow ideas. Any ideas? Toss em in. Upshot of this, many of us will be at the Recent Changes Camp being hosted in Portland to see if we can do more than just post about things to the list(not that many are not already doing things, we just need more folks, myself included, doing more)