friendfeed - cool web 2.0 tool

Okay folks, this isn't a regular post but actually homework for my library web design and development class. I figured I'd drive home the "2.0" element by posting it to this blog instead of making a lame-o word doc.

The web 2.0 tool that I've been exploring for class is Friendfeed. I played around with it several months ago, but only had a few friends that used it, so quickly dismissed it. A few months ago I gave it another try and my interest lasted several weeks. By now you may be asking "what the heck is it?" To put it simply, it's a social networking aggregator. It pulls in social actions from all of your networks: facebook, myspace, flickr, etc. It builds a new social network that crosses all of those network and includes some people you may not even know (i.e. friends of friends).



So once you have it set up to work with facebook, flickr, etc. and you update your Facebook status, you will automatically publish a new Friendfeed item reflecting the new status. The neat (and possibly not) thing is that this update in Friendfeed may be commented on, but in FF--in no way connected to Facebook. It's an interesting way to keep conversations about the same stuff separate. The one negative part to this that I can consider is that FF imposes a barrier to dialogue across networks, it would be really cool if someone commented on a Facebook item and that comment was then fed also back to Facebook and posted there too. FF also allows items to be posted natively within itself, not drawn from other networks.

Back to the part about becoming friends with people you don't know. When you register your existing social networks, FF looks to see if your friends from those networks use FF, if so, it puts them in your friend list. From then on you get all updates from those folks, as well as some updates from their friends, especially if there are several mutual friends-of-friends going on. I really expanded my social network by all of this peripheral friend action, eventually adding several of them to facebook, flickr, twitter, etc.

One of the biggest drawbacks of Friendfeed is that it is a timesink. So you have friends commenting on a post in Facebook, then you have FF friends commenting on the same post in FF. Now you have to visit two places to view those comments. You get the idea. Not to mention you have incoming info from your friends, as well as their friends, which during certain times of the day can be a huge amount of information. I quickly worked up to spending 2 or 3 hours per day on FF because goodness knows it's impolite to miss anything! After a few weeks of this I had to just stop using it, I was wasting too much time, even though the high degree of connectedness was so very satisfying. I haven't yet tried FF as a casual rainy-day tool. The ability to toggle greater/lesser interest in certain webs of friends might be useful to help cut down "fluff."

newest employment skill: stripping

So I just got home from my day with the oral surgeon. Pretty sore, but good to go otherwise. Anyway, that's not the point of this posting.

Since I have nothing better to do, I'm online. I saw another job listed for Vanderbilt University so am in the process of applying for it using their online application system. There is a section of the application where you may choose applicable job skills from a long list. Not too many on the list apply to me, mostly just computer applications. However, I ran across one gem of a skill: stripping. I'm really not exactly sure what they mean by this. My initial reaction was a giggle and then my sensible grown-up reaction went something like: "hmm, stripping paint and finishes I suppose? maybe even wax from floors?" but then I went a step further and thought "well, this is an affluent school, in the South, maybe they have gentleman's clubs on campus?" Can they use student employees? Are faculty allowed to go? There spews forth a slew of awkward but fascinating questions in this hypothetical situation. I'm pretty entertained by myself, but then, it could just be the schedule II narcotics (oxycodone) talking.

salmon, trout, coho got your IM?

So I've had this weird thing happen to me a few times over the past year or so. I'll be logged in to my AIM account minding my own business and then I get some crazy message from someone with a username containing the words "salmon," "trout," or "coho." They have happened chronologically in that order. My most recent is named "spiedoncoho." Fun, right? I just assumed it was someone who knew me and was having a good time at my expense when I would respond "umm, who are you?"

I finally smartened up and decided I needed to do some searching and find out just what is going on. My MLS is coming in slightly handy and I got to the dirt on my first Google search. I have been the victim of an IM "bot." Essentially an internet robot that is faking conversations between people. These particular bots send a message to a user, with the sending username one of these fish names. Then when I reply, they connect the reply to another actual IM user, who gets my message seemingly randomly. Crazy, huh? So then they ask why I'm messaging them, and I say no, you messaged me first. Hah.

You can read more about this, what has been called on the net "The Great Hatsby." This is kind of irritating, and luckily on this wikipedia page it tells you how to opt out. All you have to do is type in $optout and it gives you the instructions, it worked perfectly! The article also goes on to say that the usernames were commonly harvested from Livejournal, Xanga, and deviantART accounts.

One mystery solved, dozens to go!

bad dreams

I never have bad dreams. Sometimes I have unusual ones, or some that are dark, but they never make me scared or nervous. Until last night. I was really tired earlier in the evening, but way too early to go to sleep. So instead I stayed up chatting with a friend and then retiring to bed to read for an hour or so. Too late, really. Then about an hour or so later I'm having one of those half dream/half reality moments where I think I'm sleeping in my living room and there is an odd glowing light in the corner and I clearly hear booted footsteps going across my hardwood floor. At that point I was feeling total and complete irrational panic.

I knew that Gus was in the house with me so started quietly calling him. Normally he would've come dashing into the room, delighted to be called, but he didn't. So I got louder and louder calling him. Then I heard the footsteps coming closer to me, but for some reason I couldn't move. I was convinced that whoever was in the room would be killing me at any moment.

Then I woke up to the sound of Gus barking outside my bedroom door. I realized that I was in my bedroom with the door closed and I was alone. I switched on my light and got up and opened the door. Poor Gus, he was in a panic trying to get in the door. Apparently I was actually calling him in my sleep and then he freaked out and was trying to get to me. Doing so woke me up, so I guess he did help after all. Good boy, Gus.

Too long for Twitter!

I haven't done much of this in the past months, but I have a story to get off my chest that it just too long for Twitter. Well, nothing is too long for Twitter really, but not in a reveal of the full context sort of way.

Twitter version: On phone with friend in MA, sees ex-bf vehicle when arriving home, hangs up to haul things inside. Doesn't call back. I call father, all ok.

That doesn't exactly do it.

Regular blogged version: I have an amazing friend in Massachusetts that I only talk with every 4-6 months. We're both very busy people and the intersections are very few. She called me last night just as I was getting ready to call it a night at work. So far so good. She was driving home from somewhere and we talked for about 10 minutes. When she got home she saw her ex-boyfriend's vehicle in her apartment complex parking lot. I could tell by her voice that this was very shocking/disturbing to her. A minute or so later she asks if she can call me back because she needs to haul things into her apartment. I say sure, she says great, she'll call me *right* back.

Right about then is when my two reference questions via IM are really going strong (FYI, the phone conversation didn't start until after the library closed, but since I didn't close the chat client immediately, I got a question 2 minutes after closing, arg!). One of the questions involves complex troubleshooting to figure out if our proxy server is to blame, or Serials Solutions. About 35 minutes later I'm finally done and can go home, then I check my phone and notice she hadn't called. Said friend always follows through when she says she'll do something.

So, I call her back thinking maybe she got caught up in something after getting home and forgot to call me back. So I call and her cell phone rings and rings with no answer. At that point I start to panic a bit, remembering her shock over seeing the vehicle of the ex-bf. Then I start to wonder--what if something is going on? This girl always attracts the biggest losers and has been very seriously stalked once before.

Okay, so now I'm starting to freak out a little and am trying to decide what to do. Since we only call or MySpace each other, I don't have a home address or even city name for her location. I was thinking of calling her local police and asking them to check on her. I did however have her parents' phone number. Oh, dilemma! I didn't want to worry anyone unduly, but couldn't think of anything else to do. Just in case something bad was happening, anything is fair game, right? So I called and got her dad on the phone (which is very good, since he's a very calm and level-headed man, her mother probably would've panicked beyond belief) and explain who I am and what happened. He gets my # and says he'll get right to it.

About 5 minutes later I get a phone call from my friend apologizing profusely. Apparently she had her cell phone on silent and was indeed caught up inside her apartment putting things away, using the bathroom, and kind of freaking out about seeing the ex-bf's vehicle. She actually did forget to call me back, which is unusual for her. Luckily, she has a landline, which her father called and was able to get through.

I felt like a bit of a chump, but really, I don't think I had any other options. I feel bad for giving her father's life a few minutes of extreme worry--but I hope he is glad that I was trying to help in what I thought might have been a bad situation.

Now that it's the next day, my actions DO seem a little extreme. However, what would YOU do if it were your very good female friend alone late at night in a parking lot and she does not call you back or answer her phone?

ALA Part 2

I had breakfast by myself at the Hilton this morning--$8 for some Oatmeal. Yeah, I know. It was supposedly "Irish" oatmeal and included fresh mango and strawberries. It was actually pretty tasty.

Finally, time to get my power adapter back so I don't go crazy! I found Laurie's session, which happened to be in my own hotel and nabbed the power goodness. I immediately came over to the conference center to check out this free wireless I had heard so much about. It is lovely, along with the newfound electricity for the macbook.

While there I spied sandwich lunches outside of a session, everyone involved seems to have already eaten, so they are leftovers. I discover via Twitter that my friend Shondra is close to the conference center and hungry--so I offer up one of the free sandwiches I have no right to offer. We eat our sandwiches and chat for awhile, then find where she can pick up her giant orange conference bag and name badge holder.

Now I've scheduled myself for a session at the New Members Round Table (NMRT) Resume Review Service (RRS) at 3:30 pm. I'm excited to have someone look at my CV and tell me what they think, I could use some honest feedback by someone who doesn't know me and can be mostly unbiased.

Tomorrow I'll be cruising through the placement service area hoping to impress a few folks and get some job leads. Wish me luck!

ALA Part 1

So I'm already a day late on my postings.

Yesterday (Thursday) was long but mostly uneventful.

6:40 am - My roommate Katie took me to the OSU Bookstore to catch the HUT shuttle to PDX.

9:30 am - The first blunder of the day is that I forgot my macbook power adapter at home. I think it's the only thing I left, though a pretty significant one. I immediately called my roommate Katie and asked if she'd be home for awhile. She said yes.

9:45 am - I hear back from a co-worker librarian, Laurie, she's catching an afternoon flight and will be home until 1 pm.

10:00 am - I call the roommate and arrange for her to drop the adapter at Laurie's house so she can bring it to Anaheim for me.

HURRAY!

I did a bunch of walking down until I spied Margaret and Sue then cyber-stalked them via text message and invited myself to dinner with them. Margaret bought me dinner which was supremely nice of her. I had an Ahi sandwich, 2 "double-barrel ale"'s, and 1 guinness. w00t!

Back to the hotel for some relaxing chat with the conference roomie Maureen and then sleepy-time.

The Hilton is doing construction, in a room adjacent to mine. Hammering at 8 am is not welcome. Ever.

microblogging

So lately I have become much more active in microblogging...AKA Twitter and Facebook status. For those of you darlings that can't bear to live without my hideous prose, point your browsers to http://twitter.com/mikeypage10 and follow along.

checking in

No silly, not checking in to a mental institution. You know, just keeping this blog alive before it completely dies.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about libraries. Mostly instead of doing my homework...related to libraries. Who knows, this thinking might do more for me than the classes. We'll see about that.

One of my biggest thoughts and fears is the way some folks in the industry define it and shove it into a box so they can stand guard over that box. Times change, people change, even geography changes. How silly is it to stand in the way of changes in the access to information when observing all of the other craziness out there?

I kind of want to set fire to that box and see what happens. Perhaps the semantic web will deconstruct the box. Someone ought to.

Our whole information movement, paradigm shift if you will, is struggling toward a state of transparency and oneness. Imagine being in tune with all information around you, bearing in mind just what information is and can be. Perhaps our humanity ideal is to join into this single harmonic pipeline of pure information.

service, barriers to

I just had a student ask if we had an electronic copy of Perry's Handbook for Engineers. We do not, I'm not even sure if such a thing exists. They were surprised when I told them we did not have access to an electronic edition, print only. Then he wanted to know how long he could check the book out. It's a reference book, so he can't.

I realize that a lot of these barriers are rooted in a limited budget, but it makes me wonder. How many other students in the next day will actually use this book? Could it have been loaned out?

Why don't we get electronic access to these types of foundational reference sources? We don't let students check out the print editions... there is only one copy available. That's pretty damned limiting. Again, budget is probably an issue here.

I really want to have some detached conversations about bringing down service barriers. They should be constantly examined.. 5 years ago most texts were not available electronically so it would have been a moot point. Now... odds are pretty decent.

a new year, looking forward and back

Here is a photo collage of some of my favs from last year:

christmas eve, twittering

Today is an amazingly beautiful day. The sun has been out all morning. There has been a little bit of rain, but nothing too bad. Snow is forecast at some point... hopefully it'll happen late this afternoon and stick a bit. Snow on Christmas would be absolutely heavenly.

The last two nights I haven't slept the best. My parents got a new bed for the small guest room at their house. It's really comfy, but it is in the wrong direction. I like to lay on my right side facing "out." Tonight I think I'm swapping the sheets and blankets to orient on the other end. Grrrrr.

Right now I'm leaning up against Gus, who is wonderfully warm, catching up on some holiday e-mails and facebook messages before the family events get fully under way. More to come once the gifts have arrived!

ruby, what to do with

Has anyone ever gotten a keg for a party and was then unable to empty it? I recently did, this past friday, in fact. It was full of McMenamin's "Ruby" ale which is just lovely lovely lovely to drink.

Anyone ever have a "kill the keg" party or similar thing? Our party ended with a keg containing roughly 5 gallons of beer left over. I don't know about you, but this is something that I really can't handle in just a few days. Not and remain moderately sober for the rest of the week (goodness I'm getting old). It's a good thing I'm on vacation.

Anyway, I just wanted a post for the week and this seemed just as good a thing as any.

Any creative ideas for dealing with the remaining brew?

emu, try roasting one

Ever had emu? I hadn't, not until tonight. I have to say that it is one of the most delicious protein sources I have ever experienced. If any of you ever get a chance to go through Corvallis, Oregon and are able to have a fairly expensive meal, check out Magenta, an excellent restaurant.

I hadn't really ever considered emu as a food option. On reflection, tasty, I'll do it again. Let's roast one!

RDC for mac on the VPN, woah!

Did that make any sense? Well, I'm really really really proud of myself.

A few days ago I learned that the folks at Windows had made a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client for us mac folks. Don't know what RDC is? Basically, it's a neat program that lets you connect to another computer and use it as if you were sitting in front of it, all of your files, programs, etc. are accessible just like normal. So, just like it sounds, RDC. Anyway, connecting to this with a mac has been a bit problematic, there are a few freebie programs that do it, but usually the graphics are fuzzy/pixelated or they are just super slow and laggy. I didn't have time to mess with it when I found out about it, but today I finally had the time, whee!

I installed RDC and was attempting to connect to my computer at work. I had gotten the IP address and knew I needed to log in to a specific network to validate myself. However, I kept getting errors. Then it donned on me, since I'm not on campus there are extra security measures to go through. I was able to locate the Virtual Private Network (VPN) info on the OSU website, install the appropriate version for mac, look through the config instructions and set it up properly. After this, RDC for mac connected just fine.

The only real tricky part with this was trying to get the display settings set up in a friendly way. After trying to match resolution types, I finally noticed at the bottom of the list in RDC (Full Screen) ... DUH. Now RDC displays my work desktop beautifully! This means I can check my work e-mail from home using Outlook 2003 on our Microsoft Exchange server, aka happy meeting requests approval/denial and calendaring central. Previously, I would have to connect to the Outlook web interface which blows CHUNKS. It doesn't even have a message search function. This means scrolling through the over 2000 messages in my inbox, manually. Eww.

It's so sad how happy this makes me. Uber geek? Maybe. This might be the first time I've ever said this, but... Thank You, Microsoft! 2 kudos!

boredom and cinnamon

Remind me to never work on the Thursday of finals week. In a 4 hour shift at the desk I have had 4 questions. I sent my student employee home so she could escape the torture. Unfortunately, I'm not so flexible.

On the optimistic side of things, this extra time has given me sufficient time to carefully consider the new brand of gum I am trying. It is a very nice cinnamon that has a slightly musky scent to it when removed from the wrapper. Long after most of the flavor is done the gum continues to provide a warming sensation in your mouth. I'm not sure if this is legal, but I kind of enjoy it. Now that you're all chomping at the bit to run to your nearest 7-11 and buy yourself a pack, the gum is called 5 and is made by the folks at Wrigley's. How presumptuous can you get? 5. They just got their website up and running, check it out, it promises to delight the senses. When you first see the package you have a moment of "are these cigarettes?" or maybe "über manly sexy condoms?" or possibly even "trashy trendy chocolate bar for yuppies." Nope. Gum.

I have to give it to them. It's sugarfree, the flavor is nice, the warming sensation is pleasant, and you get 15 sticks in a pack. It costs no more than Orbitz or any of the others and has a much higher cool factor.

subscribers, apologies to

Hi all, apologies if you received a slew of old posts as "new" in your aggregator. I did some tweaking around on the backend of the blog and it seems some readers are viewing this as a total "reset" of my blog. It shouldn't hurt anything otherwise. Thanks for reading!

natural products, aren't all they could be?

So lately I have begun a quest for living a more natural and less chemically-enhanced life. In most areas it is going pretty well: reusable stainless steel water containers, biodegradable laundry detergent and fabric softener, etc. However, there are a few areas I'm not quite satisfied with. Personal hygiene. There's a really amazing website that simply lays out the potential health risks for personal products. It's a good way to see the problems with what you currently use and get ideas for products to use that are less likely to give you cancer in the next 10 years. It's called Skin Deep, you'll find it at http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com.

For those of you with sensitive constitutions or an unwillingness to delve into my personal hygiene, disregard the following paragraph and come back later for my next post (right, like you're going to turn back now).

Since all of the hype about aluminum in deoderant, I got a little nervous about using my regular kind of deoderant/anti-perspirant. I'm currently trying out the Tom's of Maine Natural Original Deoderant Stick. It contains hops, yeah, as in hops that make beer. Tom's claims that hops are a natural anti-bacterial solution. It's been about 6 hours since application and I'm starting to smell myself a bit. Some days it seems to last longer, but today I did a lot of walking around with a jacket on which heated things up. Not so fresh and I have 2.5 hours left of work. Eww. I just discovered that Tom's has a long-lasting formula, I might give that one a try. Anyone have any favorites that don't contain aluminum derivatives? I really don't want my armpits to rot away. They're sort of necessary to keep my arms attached to my body. I do enjoy my arms.

night time

DSC_1985.JPG
Originally uploaded by mikey mikey mikey

A few days ago I borrowed a tripod from a friend. I recently bought a very nice digital SLR camera and have been itching to try it out with some night time shots. The trick with this is that a very slow shutter speed requires a completely still camera. So tonight after I got home from work (~1:45 am mind you) I toted everything outside (~30 degrees F mind you) and set it up. I wanted to play around with different settings and see what the camera was capable of. Night photography is still a little confusing for me and I wanted to do some playing.

This is the first pic I took. The light source is a street lamp behind the trees. I thought it was kind of neat.

After about 30 minutes of shooting, I started to get more than a little cold and decided to pack everything back up and go inside. Then it hit me. How nice it is to be very cold then come inside and be warm and comfortable with rosy cheeks. This really is a very great feeling, something I haven't fully been aware of for quite awhile.

orange-skinned, of being

I can sympathize with people who want to be more tan. Really, I can. I often think it would be great to have a super dark complexion. But, I'm not really such a fan of those harmful UV rays so suck it up and stay moderately pale. Well, there's an entirely new breed of individuals out there. Who are they? You might ask. They're oompa loompas.

I don't lie. They range in age somewhere between 17 and 28 and have an unnatural orangey glow to them. It's as though they are using luminescent pumpkin foundation. I've been told that this is a completely self-imposed phenomena that is a direct result of topical sunless tanning products. Instead of becoming tan, they get dark orange. Way to win the beauty contest, sweetheart.