WiredPen

Guest lecture for COM302, The Cultural Impact of New Technologies, professor Gina Neff.
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I’m ashamed to admit this, but last week I heard two FM Seattle DJs (102.5) laughing about and dissing Hillary Clinton in the most misogynist of terms … and I did nothing but yell at the radio in the truck and change stations. I should have picked up my cellphone and called, giving them a piece of my mind. Criticize Clinton’s politics if you feel like it (I do, for example, I think her gas-tax proposal is ill-advised pandering), but criticize the policy, don’t personally attack the woman.

My inaction last week has contributed to my including this latest YouTube clip (tip) that highlights not only MSM misogyny but also questionable comments from Barack Obama and his supporters. (Ack - I was not favorably impressed to see that his campaign used a rap song, talking about b*tches, at a rally).

Please show me if you’ve seen any comparable MSM stereotyping of Obama using words or analogies offensive to blacks.

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I type these words with an ear worm: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer!

Today, the UW Communications Department held its annual “Fund Run” at Green Lake. We “picnic” adjacent to the Lake, at Woodland Park Zoo. While Mike, Katie and I were walking around the Lake, we spotted a Great Dane in the water; I commented to Mike that the dog looked like Scooby Doo.

We were walking up the hill from the W Green Lake Way N (the southwest end of the Lake) to the picnic area (Area #6, by the horseshoe pit, for the locals reading this) when we spotted the Great Dane and her owner, who was talking to someone playing horseshoes. “There’s Scooby, again,” I said.

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than the dog spotted us — specifically, Katie, who was walking in front (on lead). The Dane (illegally off-lead - this is NOT the off-leash dog park!) rushed her. Katie, being an intelligent Cairn Terrier, ducked behind my legs. Scooby took me out, in flying tackle style. My legs went out from under me, and *splat* (+ “ooff”) I fell flat to the ground, face-down.

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Using an obscure oversight authority, Thursday night the Senate “disapproved” a recent Federal Communications Commission rule which would relax restrictions on media ownership; it was a voice vote. President Bush has threatened a veto (pdf).

Should the resolution (SJ 28/HJ RES 79)
pass, and be signed into law, it would be only the second time Congress
has nullified an agency rulemaking. This is only the fourth time the
Senate has voted on such a resolution; two of the four are FCC ownership rule rejections. More at About.com.
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With OS10.4, the only problem I had with printing with my networked (via AirportExtreme) Brother 2070N was when my G4PB would have a 10.x address instead of a 192.x address. Not so with Leopard and the new MBP. I finally got tired of walking to the office for a USB print, and Google helped me find this helpful post on LiveJournal. (tip)

The problem is that Brother printers aren’t talking “Bonjour” under Leopard — dunno if it’s Apple’s fault or Brother’s. Read the rest of this entry »

He gets some of the verbs (”to tweet” not “to twitter”) and nouns (we’re “twits” not “twitter-ers”!) wrong, but give Stephan Baker credit for jumping into Twitter-space to write his 15 May article, Why Twitter Matters. (tip)

The screen capture (right) is from the slideshow accompanying the story. What happened in March?

I joined Twitter last year at MindCamp, the day after the iPhone was released. I started playing with it again … when? In the fall (this seems to be my first post). And I got a request to sit on a master’s committee (Museology - the study of museums) where Twitter is the focus (how are early adopter museums using the tool? what are best practices?)

In February, Reuters added a “share with Twitter” link on some stories. Then in April, perhaps pushed by that unknown forced reflected in the graph, I published a resources page and a draft framework to analyze Twitter genres

The victim of theft in White Plains NY was an Apple owner and employee. When a friend noticed that Kait’s (stolen) computer had shown up online (which shows how clueless the burglar was)… Kait activated a service called “Back to My Mac,” part of Apple’s dot-Mac service (annual fee, $99). She logged in to the stolen machine and snapped a photo of the thief, who turned out to be a friend-of-a-friend. Both the software used, PhotoBooth, and the built-in camera are standard on newer Apple laptops running OS10.5, Leopard. (tip) Disclaimer: I own multiple Macs and Apple stock.

The FBI has withdrawn a secret demand that the Internet Archive provide details of a registered user’s personal information. This is reportedly only the third time an organization has succeeded in challenging a National Security Letter (NSL). The enormity of this success: the NYT reports that the “FBI issued nearly 200,000 NSLs between 2003 and 2006.”

With a national security letter, the FBI can “require businesses such as libraries, internet service providers, banks, hospitals or telephone companies to provide customer records on request — no court order (warrant) required.” Courtesy of the US Patriot Act.

At least one judge has ruled that NSLs are unconstitutional due to the gag order; the ruling is under appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
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You’ve created a document (not a spreadsheet!) in GoogleDocs and you’d like to invite lots of people to edit the document … without having to input each-and-every email address. Here’s how to do that:
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Today’s Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune says “yes.”

This year, as never before, the Internet is fundamentally reshaping
fundraising, voter outreach, turnout strategies and campaign news
coverage.

Not since the advent of television has the nature of campaigning changed so much and so permanently.

Tip (via Twitter)