I came across this little number the other day as I looked for footage of Dubya’s singing at a recent invitation-only meeting of journalists. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any footage of the event, but this older mashup was satisfaction enough. Notice all the unity and fresh faces, before the strain of 5 years (and counting) of war.
I’ve never found a more efficient way of looking up WhoIs details, nor have I ever found another site ending in .sc
I’m really not a truck guy – although I do drive one for some very foolish reason. On any given morning of the week, you can see me and my extra long F-150 making a fool of ourselves trying to back out of the post office parking lot. It may be the absolute epitome of impracticalities in my life as I have absolutely no use for the huge bed and gas isn’t getting any cheaper, but there is a certain comfort that comes from knowing that a big steel frame protects me from the few thousand crazies I drive to/from work with each day.
During my recent excursion in Texas, I had the pleasure of driving my brother’s equally gas-hungry, and much younger Chevy Avalanche – that SUV/Truck looking getup you see in the sexy commercials. The truck was all power, and had just about every bell and whistle I could imagine. It was a source of comfort as I hit the road from Houston to San Antonio – a high-octane 200 mile blast through the tranquil fields of South Texas. As I left the concrete jungle of Houston behind me, I recognized myself falling very much into the truck culture. A $10 cowboy hat, a muscle-tee, and the “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack only strengthened the sensation. An hour into my trip, I pulled off of that massive highway, and navigated down one of the millions of miles of CRs (county roads) veining out into the real meat of the state.
My fondest memories of the trip took place on those CRs… and at the bars in Austin of course!
While I was in Texas my iPhone‘s browser seemed to choke on the WordPress WYSIWYG interface, preventing me from making any posts “from the road”, but I got plenty of good stories and even more pictures from my vacation. Among the most exciting moments was holding the absolutely stunning MacBook Air. The weight and profile were much smaller than I ever imagined! The photo (which features cameos by both my dad and the flyte crew blog) doesn’t begin to capture just how snazzy this baby really is.
I’m going down to Texas for a week of fun and sun! I can’t wait to get on the ground – imagine a wet cat in the back of a speeding car, and that’s me in the sky! I’m taking a nice road trip starting Monday from Houston to San Antonio, up to Austin and back to Houston. It should be some good times and I’ll be posting from the road!
I have three objectives on this trip:
Yeeehaaww!
I haven’t got a family member for a little under 1700 geographic miles (my folks in Texas), in fact, my brother is a solid 6500 miles away (in Dubai) from my little roost in North Freeport. Although seeing one another in person on a regular basis isn’t very feasible, that doesn’t stop my family from having some great face-to-face contact every couple of days through Skype. Like most disruptive technologies Skype is free of charge and quite revolutionary. With a decent internet connection, a cheapo web cam (or a fancy built in iSight), and the free Skype client, you can speak and see friends, family, and/or business contacts from all over the world!
At first try, Skype seems a little strange. I remember the first time my folks sat on my desk and spoke to me face-to-face. It was almost disorienting! The strangest part being after we “hung up”. I almost expected to see them down my driveway. After about 40 uses or so with about a dozen people, it’s become a very innate method of communicating. I prefer it over the telephone in most cases.
Using Skype with different flyte crew members seems to be quite useful too. Even though they are just a few steps away in most cases, it’s nice to be able to give somebody a jingle for a quick face-to-face, or drop them a text in Skype‘s slick IM agent.
Whether they’re .0001 miles or 6500 miles away, Skype is hugely useful and will likely evolve in ways nobody can imagine today – just as txt messaging grew from a technology to accommodate the deaf into the preferred language of youth.
They say you should never discuss politics in the workplace… I’m a big fan of Barack Obama, I think he’s got just what it will take to restore the faith of the world in the last remaining superpower and perhaps even the faith of Americans in themselves. I’m not going to get into politics. I’m at the workplace. What I will get into is just how spectacular I find Barack’s website. Beyond the tremendous aesthetic appeal, the smart information architecture, and the seemingly-endless number of things to do or ways to get involved, the power of the my.barackobama.com volunteer section is fantastic!
For several evenings over the past week I have been calling everyday Americans to encourage them to vote in their state Caucus or Primary. The site asks me which of a select group of states I would like to focus on, dishes me up names/numbers along with a script and an orderly abundance of responses to questions Joe Citizen may have on nearly any topic. The interface is slick, the results are useful, and the cause is mighty.
Aside from having a very sturdy website, Barack has grabbed Web 2.0 by the horns in a big way – linking to every relevant social networking site imaginable and a whole host of sites I’d never heard about. I wonder how candidates 100 years (25 political seasons) ago would have integrated the internet into their efforts. I wonder if riding across the country in a caboose campaign would work today.
I’ve been reading Dan Pink‘s “A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future“. It paints a fascinating and very convincing case that we are on the brink of the next age; the Conceptual Age. Where this country’s Industrial Age was built on the hard-working American work ethic, and the white collar intellect (left brain functionality) fueled the Information Age, the Conceptual Age will be very much based on western society’s fantastic ability to conceive design or, as the title suggests, use our right brain.
The book is a great read, but highly untraditional as much of it is in the form of a workbook with assigned tasks to help strengthen the “six essential aptitudes” of a strong right brain – Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. I’d explain what I’ve learned about each, but it’s probably best you go buy the book.
Because of the untraditional approach of the book, I’ve spent nearly 2 months with it and am only about half way through. It’s a little awkward telling people about the book I’ve been “reading” for the last couple of months, they must think”man, that guy is one SLOW reader!”
It’s quite possible you’ve already seen this as the clip is over a decade old, but Hurra Torpedo‘s interpretation of this Bonnie Tyler classic is a classic unto itself.
It’s not a new topic, in fact it’s at least a couple of years old (according to conflicting reports on the topic), but Drawball still strikes me as something that is ahead of its time. Drawball is fairly straight forward – it’s a huge digital circle which users can draw/write/scribble on with digital ink. The ink is rationed out in small amounts after a user completes a simple puzzle. Much of the murkiness that surrounds the history of Drawball is due to the retaliatory nature of the international canvas. Even the Wikipedia entry has been vandalized to the point of collapse under the weight of controversy. For sometime a huge South Korean flag adorned the upper region of the ball – the efforts of countless dedicated souls who put an enormous amount of time (and digital ink) into the icon. The flag was turned into a Pepsi logo by vandals and is nearly undecipherable today behind all the layers of graffiti.
In essence, Drawball is a living artistic expression of people all over the world. It’s arguably the largest collective canvas the world has ever seen, and from what I can tell, still fairly obscure. Check it out if you get a chance. The Hall of Fame is especially fascinating.
