John Joseph Bachir’s blog
It’s cute that Jet Blue calls my itinerary an “E-tinerary” (actually, it’s not cute), but I wish they would also use the word “itinerary” SOMEWHERE in the email. Searching for “austin itinerary” just now did not find it for me!
I wrote about special-forces dolphins a while ago. Well they are back in the news.
“These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission,” said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.
LaPuzza said that because of their astonishing sonar abilities, dolphins are excellent at patrolling for swimmers and divers. When a Navy dolphin detects a person in the water, it drops a beacon. This tells a human interception team where to find the suspicious swimmer.
Dolphins also are trained to detect underwater mines; they were sent to do this in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr in 2003. The last time the animals were used operationally in San Diego was in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.
Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person’s leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning.
As a follow up to this post– Barack Obama has launched a new campaign site, complete with profiles, social network tools, blogs, and excellent graphic and UI design. There is a main blog for “staff on the New Media team at Obama for America headquarters”…
But where is Obama’s own blog?
My coworker Lefty has a blog about Karaoke.
When you need to completely awe the crowd, what songs do you bust out? Mine are:
Hello Darlin’ by Conway Twitty
Travelin’ Man by Ricky Nelson
I’m Henry the 8th I Am by Herman’s Hermits
A few days ago I attended a “Blogger Summit” hosted by the local NBC station here in New York, WNBC. WNBC news wants to form a relationship with the blogging community, use their stories on TV and the website, and give credit. Paul got a similar invitation from NBC in North Carolina. Brian’s response is spot-on. More conversation here.
WNBC wants to take advantage of a more distributed information collection model. Fine. But this does not bridge the gap between old media (TV) and current media (blogging/internet). The internet is about conversation, removing degrees of separation between people, feedback…. I could go on. If WNBC is serious about participating in our world, they need to make their content accessible and usable after it has aired, allow feedback on their stories either via direct comment threads or forums on the website, and PARTICIPATE in these new tools. Have a presence on their forums. Adapt programming to the feedback… I know, I’m dreaming.
I mentioned this at the “symposium” and got a good response from the crowd. In fact some people cheered and clapped when I requested that the URLs to the videos never change. I know that was a little detailed given the context… maybe I should have told them to validate their markup and implement a semantic/style separation architecture…. :)
You can see their spiel about it here, and if you watch the top video in upper right, you’ll see my face and hand making motions, almost as if I were making important points. But of course this is television and they did not include the content of what I was saying, only the visual appearance. In fact, even thought they recorded the entire symposium, I think they didn’t use ANY of the audio from audience members.
You’ve probably heard about Steve Jobs’ open letter addressing DRM. In it he says that the only reason there is DRM on iTunes Music Store music is to appease the Big Four, and if they didn’t demand DRM, Apple would not use it.
The primary criticism so far has been that Apple is shifting the blame; they could have chosen to not participate in such a system in the first place (i.e., never create the iTunes Music Store). I can see the point here, but I think overall, this is a pretty bold move for Apple to make, and I don’t yet see it as a stunt. It’s Apple taking a genuine stance on what is best for their customers and industry.
But here’s what I’m wondering: what about the independent, non Big Four labels that are on the ITMS? Are they demanding DRM as well? Why not ship those songs without it?
Don’t get me wrong, there might be a very good and simple answer for this. For example, maybe the contract with the Big Four demands that all media in the store have DRM.
Does anyone know?
I just watched this excellent video, which I found through Jim’s blog. Jim describes it very well:
…a nine minute montage that suggests something compelling about the complex intersections of technology and identity -on Youtube specifically but also much more generally.
I love Trans Am, and noticed (via the super-awesome iconcertcal) that they are playing at The Knitting Factory later this month. I went to buy tickets right away, but came upon a problem:
I like Oneida, and am not familiar with Big Bear or Pterodactyl. Which concert should I see? Let’s see… in the first show they will be more rested and brimming with socio-creative energy that they are anxious to release via an awesome performance… in the second show they will be riding the waves of music and beauty, calling out into the black night.
I’ll probably just decide based on my own schedule.
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