In Praise of Facebook

I never really thought that the whole social networking aspect of the web would appeal to me.  Of course as an engineering professional, I have an account on "LinkedIn", I mean, everyone does.  LinkedIn is networking taken to its impersonal extreme, but it's a great way to reconnect with old friends and colleagues, and damned if there aren't some interesting jobs posted up there from time-to-time.

So, if LinkedIn is a professional tool, then MySpace and Facebook were (in my opinion), web presences that forced parents to meter their children's Internet consumption.  Basically they were for kids.  I was vaguely familiar with Facebook from a couple years back reading about how it was for college students what MySpace was to pre-teens and high schoolers.

All of this changed when I red an article on a technical blog that indicated a couple of subtle (at least to me) changes to Facebook:

1. They were opening it up to everyone
2. The were opening the platform to developers and publishing an open Facebook API

Now, I didn't even know what this meant at the time, but as an old programmer, I was intrigued enough to pop over to Facebook and sign up for an account.  Once I did, I was at first at a bit of a loss as to what all the noise was about.  Then, I started playing around with applications.  Now, some of these are just plain silly, you know, time-wasters that allow you to, well, waste time.  But some of them are entirely useful.

As I dug deeper, I discovered some other pretty cool things about Facebook:

• It has built-in EMAIL, and now you can use it to send messages to non-Facebook members (this was not always the case)
• It tightly controls who you can invite to be your "friend".  You must demonstrate some type of relationship with someone before you can befriend them.  This prevents potential abusers from Spamming you with friendship requests.  This is enforced in a couple of ways; first Facebook will mine your EMAIL address book (GMAIL, Outlook, what have you) and send invitations to your contacts.  Secondly, you can join "networks" (workplaces, schools, etc.), but only if you have an EMAIL address within the domain of the network you wish to join.  I think this was primarily done to keep predators from joining middle/high school networks and trolling for children.
• By far, the biggest attraction of Facebook are the applications.  As I mentioned above, some of these are just plain fluff, but some are very nice and dare I say it, powerful.  There are people who are monetizing Facebook through the applications development space.  A really good application might attract 100's of thousands of users.  Add in some advertising and you've got a compelling money-maker.
• Facebook has groups.  A group can be anything you want it to be.  You could create a group for the "Ministry of Silly Walks", and people will most likely join it.  This is one way around the restrictive nature of networks.  So, while I can't joint he Wheelersburg High School network (sadly, I do not have an active EMAIL account for that domain), I can absolutely join the Wheelersburg High School Alumni group.

So, once I got started, it was hard to stop.  You feel mysteriously compelled to personalize your Facebook presence with all sorts of applications.  The best applications encourage you interact with your friends.  You might take a test with one of your friends to see how compatible your tastes are for, say, movies.

Also, everything you do, is added to your home page's "feed" in near real-time.  In addition, you get to see what your friends are doing.  So, for instance, if I join the "We Are Marshall" group, that action is logged on both my home page and on the home pages of all of my friends.  If I "poke" (sort of an Internet nudge), one of my friends, that's logged as well.

All-in-all, it's quite addictive.  I have to force myself away from it while I'm at work.  If you haven't joined it, I highly recommend joining.  Just make sure you have quite a bit of free time to explore it.  Once you start, it's hard to stop.

My big girl

My wife and I rescued Ashley about 6 years ago from an organization in Manchester, NH. She was a dead dog walkin' at a kill shelter in Ashtabula county Ohio. Several volunteers got a van of these guys together and drove them from Ohio to New Hampshire where they would be spared. Since that time, Ashley (named after the county in Ohio), has proven to be quite a handful. She was a perfect, if silly and spirited" dog for several years, then, about 3 years ago when we adopted our 4th (at the time) puppy, Titan, she started showing some pretty scary signs that something was wrong. Our odyssey to determine what was wrong with her led us to Angell Memorial hospital in Boston, where she was diagnosed with a mostly fatal illness called GME. I won't go into what this means, but basically she has lesions on her brain, which alter her perception drastically. Her head moves constantly, and her depth perception is shot. She cannot go up/down stairs, and it's very difficult for her to eat. The prescribed treatment is a steroid, which, while effective, will ultimately kill her by damaging her kidneys and other internal organs. Obviously, we went ahead with the steroid treatment in the hopes that she would go into remission. We treated her for 6 months, and the improvement was amazing. When we took her off the steroids however, she quickly relapsed, which meant another round of steroids, and another prescription. This time, the prescription was for a drug called Cyclosporine, which is used by organ transplant patients to help combat rejection of their new organs. It's unbelievably expensive, especially for a dog. We were paying about $400 a month for this, for about 6 months. After she stopped this, we had yet another relapse, where we moved to yet another drug, which she took for most of a year. Mercifully, this one was not as expensive, quite reasonable actually, and she's been off of it for about a month now. So far, no more relapses. It's been quite a long strange trip; it's amazing what you'll do for your animals, especially when you don't have children and you (thank God) have a reasonable amount of disposable income. I imagine that when all is said and done, I've spent around $5000 on Ashley's care over the last 3 years. When you love a (any) dog like I do, this isn't really a choice; if you got the money, you spend it, but I sometimes wonder if we did the right thing. Ashley is happy now, she loves to eat and sleep, but she's clearly not the same dog I adopted 6 years ago. She isn't as playful, and she seems addled most of the time. She's still affectionate with me, but can be grumpy with Titan, who, for a while, was her best friend. I guess at the end of the day, my question is put to bed when, after we've all gone to bed for the evening, Ashley curls up next to my head on my pillow and lapses into sleep, just as she's done since she was old enough to jump into bed with us. I wouldn't trade that for all the money in the world...

What a great movie...

I'm writing about the movie "The 300". The Frank Miller epic about the battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans (actually between 5,000 and 7,000 Greek soldiers) held off the vast persion army of Xerxes long enough to rally additional troops and save the country of Greece. Actually, I'm really doing this to check out new technology from AdaptiveBlue, called BlueMarks. The technology is called "Smart Links", and basically it provides for an enhanced (or should I say enriched) linking experience. See, when I create a link to 300, you should see a little icon just to the right of the link. If you click that, you should see a whole bunch o' goodies about the DVD. Let's see how this worked...

God help us, do we really need this?

I'm sorry, but whatever happened to personal responsibility? Why do we need to use taxpayer's money to bail out people who we're too effin' stupid to understand the basics of mortgage finance?

In 1999, my wife and I purchased our first home. At the time, I did some careful math, and determined how much house I could afford. We then went through a pre-approval process, and I knew how much my monthly mortgage payments were going to be.

I didn't opt for any adjustable rate, because I wanted the predictability of a fixed rate. I knew what my financial limits were, and I crafted a mortgage plan that wouldn't exceed those limits. Now, if I had, and if I couldn't make my payments, shouldn't I lose the friggin' house to the bank? I mean, nobody held a gun to my head when I bought it. I wasn't suffering from diminished capacity? Why shouldn't I be held accountable.

I'm gonna hear a lot about unscrupulous brokers, etc. Hey, what about stupid homeowners? Read the freakin' paperwork. Know what your agreeing to.

This makes me crazy...

clipped from www.boston.com DERRY, N.H. -- As the mortgage crisis deepens, causing stock market jitters and forcing middle class families out of their homes, the Democratic presidential contenders are seizing on the issue, a tailor-made opportunity for them to accuse Republicans of letting rapacious, unregulated companies victimize hardworking families. Yesterday in New Hampshire, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York said she would ban fees that penalize early repayments and create a $1 billion fund to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina has called for banning a longer list of controversial lending practices, including balloon loans, in which interest rates grow dramatically over time. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois introduced a bill that would impose new penalties on mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud and offer counseling for homeowners to avoid foreclosure.

Sports Guy's Take on Michael Vick

Huge, long-running fan of the Sports Guy. Don't always agree with him (he's way too into Boston), but he nails this one. Far as I'm concerned, if Vick is guilty, I hope that not only is he incarcerated, but that in addition to becoming someone's wife, he also gets an electric cattle prod jammed up his ass every day for the remainder of his (hopefully short) life. Nothing's too bad for him.

clipped from sports.espn.go.com (And by the way, I'm one of them. I wish we could pay Roy Williams to horse-collar Vick from behind 200 times in a row. How could anyone cause pain to a dog? How could anyone want to be affiliated with a "sport" where dogs are electrocuted and you have to buy items with names like "rape stands"? Hopefully, this leads to a real-life Longest Yard sequel where Vick gets jailed and eventually leads a team of convicts against the guards, who summarily kick the living crap out of him for four quarters and turn his ACLs into fusilli. The end.)

Quitting smoking...

So, after my last visit to the Doctor, I decided to try to finally quit smoking. I had smoked pretty much steadily for 20 years, figure a pack a day.

I decided to quit because in the abstract, I knew that I should. I have to say though, that while emotionally, and academically I knew that I should quit, I never really wanted to. See, I really liked smoking. I loved the taste/rush/ritual of the first cigarette of the day. I loved how smoking kept me calmer while I was driving. I even liked the way that smoke kept the mosquitoes away in the hazy summer days on the deck.

And yet, I knew I needed to quit. I’d heard all the “Oh you can’t imagine how much better you’ll feel” platitudes from everyone else who’d ever quit and figured if nothing else, I’d save north of $100 a month.

When I told the doc (annual physical) he said he had just the thing. There’s a new drug out there called Chantix. Google it, you’ll find it. In my opinion, it was a miracle. There’s no way I could have quit without this. It’s simply an amazing drug. You smoke the first week you’re on it, and then you stop but continue taking the drug for 7 weeks. Basically, it made me feel (for the most part) indifferent to cigarettes. Now this is something I couldn’t imagine, but I’m tellin’ you, it that’s how it worked for me.

I kept busy, upped my workout regimen to stay tired, and completely forswore alcohol for the first 5 weeks and all-in-all, aside from a cranky first couple of weeks without the smokes, I made it happen.

Here’s the thing though, I haven’t experienced any of the positives that everyone always mentions – food doesn’t taste better, my wind isn’t that much better, and I don’t breathe that much better. And, I miss smoking. I don’t physically crave it, but there are times when I sure would like to fire one up. Intellectually, I know better, and I’m pretty sure I won’t back-slide, but I’m just sayin’, the temptation is still there and I don’t think it’ll every completely go away.

But, if you think you can’t quit and want to, ask your Doc about Chantix, it worked for me!

See more progress on: stop smoking

OK, one step closer...

We live in New Hampshire, and our last puppy rescue (2005) was with the help of a wonderful local organization called Puppy Angels (www.puppyangels.com).

Well, today I went up to their site and fell in love with a little girl named Mindy. I filled out the adoption request form, so stay tuned!

See more progress on: Adopt another puppy

It was pretty easy, but expensive...

I used Music Shifter to rip 200 CDs to digital format, and they charged about $230 for 200 CDs. Should have them back in the next week. Nice thing about them is that they’ll allow you to do a free 10 CD sampler to see if you like ‘em. I highly recommend.

www.musicshifter.com

I thought they did a pretty good job!

See more progress on: Rip all of my CDs to MP3 DVD

What I believe in (and what I don't)

This is not an exhaustive set of topics, but it's a good overview... I believe: 1) In a woman's right to choose - although I'd defer to the individual states as prescribed by the second item 2) In states rights (and by association the rights of the individuals collectively within the states). I think the most incendiary issue of this type is gay marriage. I believe it belongs with the states. I'm personally quite ambivalent about it; I certainly have no problem with it, but I wouldn't take my time to vote in a referendum on the topic. However, I believe that the people have a right to vote in such a referendum. If the majority does not approve in one state, I'm sure that there are others (Vermont ?) where such a right might ultimately (currently) be in place. People who feel strongly about it can move there. I can't help but take a moment to rail against Massachusetts' and their political gyrations to keep this issue off a special election (referendum, whatever). If the people of MA are goverened in a truly representative fashion, the liberal views of the governing body (and by association those of the people), would clearly defeat any proposals that threaten gay rights. Point is, the people should be allowed a vote. 3) In competition. Gotta flame against the type of thinking that rewards kids "just for playing". It's not the real world, and it is definitely not how I grew up. There are winners and losers. Get used to it. 4) In school choice. Have to since I believe in competition. But I would in any case; it's fair and is right. 5) In limited government - the government that governs best, governs least. 6) In low taxes. 7) Tax credits/deductions for college educations 8) Partial privatization of Social Security What I do NOT believe in: 1) The redistribution/transfer of wealth by government. I grew up middle class. My parents were teachers. We didn't have a ton of money and certainly weren't wealthy. I went to school at Marshall University in Huntington, WV and got a degree in Computer Science. I went on to do fairly well. By any standard, my wife and I are comfortable. But, I pay enough in taxes. I know better about what to do with my money, my healthcare, my retirement, than any government does. I think there should be an additional line on the tax form that would allow wealthy liberal taxpayers to add additional monies to the govenment. If they feel we need more taxes, let 'em pay it - voluntarily. 2) The Bush administration. As a registered Republican with libertarian, fiscal conservative roots, I cannot stand by a president who has: trampled individual rights, and squandered an opportunity to institute (fiscal) change on an incredible scale by bogging us down in Iraq. I have no doubt that we would have passed Social Security reform legislation if we had not been fighting an incompetent and unpopular war in Iraq. That's just one example; there are probably countless others; we'll never know because we've (they) fucked things up so badly. 3) Socialized healthcare.

Confessions of a bibliophile...

OK, I admit it, I have a problem. An addiction if you will. I buy books. Lots and lots and lots of books. My house is overrun with them. My wife is openly hostile towards them. I find myself having to routinely purge some books (some of which I haven't even read) by donating them to our local library just to make room for new ones that arrive almost weekly. Hell, almost daily. Last time I walked into a Barnes and Noble, I walked out $217.00 lighter, but with two bags full of marvelous books. I can't help it. I have no other vices (nothing major or illegal in any case), but I grew up loving to read. It was something my entire family did. My parents were both teachers, and they instilled a love of books into my impressionable soul at a very early age. As I grew older, and my income grew, I was able to indulge my passion more readily. As few as 10 years ago I would go into a bookstore, and drop $100 or so dollars every month or so. I had the time, and would generally stay on top of my reading. Don't get me wrong, I always had another book to move to when I finished the current one, but I didn't have a hoard of books that I hadn't read. Then, about 1996, came the internet explosion, and with it the greatest thing that ever happened (my wife would argue this point) to me: Amazon.com. From the first time I logged in I knew I had found nirvana. When Amazon offered the prime shipping deal ($79/year gets free 2-day shipping), I jumped at it! I've got stuff (not just books anymore) coming from Amazon almost daily. Over the last 10 years I've probably expanded my book collection 10-fold. I'm guessing that I now have 3000 or so books, not to mention 200+ DVDs; almost all of them purchased from (the satanic) Amazon.com. In any case, as long as I can afford it, I don't see myself changing too much. I love books. Like God's rod and staff, they comfort me. The fact that I'll probably never get around to reading them all doesn't faze me; I just love being able to go to my basement, browse through my library, and pick out something new that is perfect for the mood I'm in that day. Another new adventure starts! Here's some of my collection viewable on LibraryThing.

Cable battle in Mass?

So, I've been watching these commercials from Massachusetts TV stations from "concerned citizens" about keeping "local control" of cable and how that is somehow as good for the citizens as apple pie and the Star Spangled Banner. So the (same) local control that we've always had is good? For whom? This is the system that provides a monopoly to a single company for some set of municipalities. When was the last time you had any choice for cable programming? The current system benefits the cable companies, and the municipalities, but not the customer. The cable company gets a captive market, an effective geographic monopoly. The municipality allows competitive bidding for which company will service the area, and chooses the winner based on who will provide the best franchise fees to the local cable board. The one party that does not "win" is the consumer. They're left a single choice, and before you start throwing out the satellite card, forget it. I've been there. Direct TV is the only company I know with customer service that's worse than the airlines. So, when you see ads that cry out for retaining "local control" of cable, understand that the sponsors of those ads are probably the cable companies themselves; it sure as hell ain't the customers that are being served... Hell I don't know - I may be wrong - feel free to correct me! Until next time...

Hello World!

Hard to believe I've worked in technology for 20 years and only now am getting around to "blogging". Thought I'd give it a try. Ignore the banality of this post, I'm just doing the blog equivalent of "Hello World!" to see how things work and learn my way around. Hopefully, I'll be providing more interesting posts as I get more comfortable. Well, I think I'll wrap this up. Later