Does anyone wardrive anymore?
Anyway, with the disaperance of regularly available free-and-open wifi, I've had to rely more and more on known Wifi spots to slurp up my mail on my iPod when I'm on the road.

Sure, I could get a real smartphone. But I won't pay for a 3G data package. If I could get one of those fancy $14.95 a month plans for my iPod touch, I'd think about it, maybe. But that day's a long way off. So I wardrive.

Terminator fans will appreciate that last night, on my way home, I spotted SkyNet on Capital Drive in Brookfield.

Sadly, the only wardriving app I've seen out of the three-billion tip calculators on the itunes store is a $2.99 app. Which is $2.99 more than I'm willing to pay for any app.

I usually have a almost obsessive urge to download app updates as soon as I see them.
I guess I'll pass on this "update." Praise Stansa for at least being honest about it.

Mother teases as the seasons creep.

Mother teases as the seasons creep.
She knows what she wants, and she can’t help but give glimpses
of the fires that bellow below her crusted coverings.

Ragged tufts of green poke between the crusts and cracks.
A bountiful bust of blossoms stands between the stations.

Can the turning of seasons come so closely to the deeps of winter’s despair?

That is not ours to say.
But it is ours to hope.
 
We hope
and hope
and hope some more.

Life waits between the peaks and valleys. Fire strikes at the midpoint, snuffing desolation with its bawdy smolder. Its flames belch dance and song, bread and wine.

It is springtime, and it comes again.

Feb. 2, 2010 \ Read it on Scribd \ Photo attribution

Earth: This time around

This life. This time around.
This blue-green gate of experience
is the place from where
our ancestors came and went.
It is our cradle and our casket.

This is the earth we stand upon:
We walk as creatures born of mud and dust.
We walk as creatures born as equals.
We walk in a miasma of existance, unaware of the life in which we tread. Look around!

Earth is.
Earth was.
Earth as will ever be.

We will break our mother's heart again and again
but she will take us back when we come to her.
We love her for it.

Wisdom of the earth is knoweldge incarnate, built of beauty, bone, peat and power.
On Earth, my friend, your virtue is reborn.

Jan. 25, 2010 \ Read it on Scribd \ Photo attribution

I try not to blog about blogging-- it's kind of a silly niche, filled with fatheads offering tips aimed at tricking readers into believing their bland writing has value, however, I recently had to write a "standards for blogging" document for work, and this morning I saw the need to amend it to include some things I thought were pretty obvious, but clearly need to be explained. And so:

Here are some things you may want to consider when picking out what links you want to use in the blog post that you're writing but don't really understand or care about.

1. It's probably better to go with a "impartial" source than one who has an axe to grind. You don't want to link to coverage of a news survey, for example, that is really an editorial condemning or questioning the value of the survey (Unless that's your point).
2. The link's relevancy to the topic at hand should be obvious. If you have to explain why a link is relevant, you don't need to make the link. Unless making that relevancy is why you're posting-- which is inherent in the link, right? Arg! Circular! Here's the thing: Don't just pass links on for the sake of passing links on. People know how to search now, so you don't need to do it for them.
3. Don't link directly to a PDF (or other downloadable) unless you have no other choice. And then, you should be sure to warn people that the link will cause them to download something, either in the narrative of your post or parenthetically. Although, the good news is that in today's day and age, you probably don't need to tell them they need to download a PDF reader.
4. Try to link to permanent links. That is, try to use a source that's not going to pull its link off the Internet because its confused about how the Interent works. I'm looking at you, newspapers. This is hard when you're commenting on news, since the news sites tend to take down links after a certain time because they think you are stealing from them by showing people that you are their customer and that you find value in their product. Dummies! For this reason, avoid linking to newspapers if a more direct source is available. (If you're talking about a study, for example, link to the original publication of the study, not the coverage of the study.)

Of course, the trick to blogging, really, is that you need to care. I know, right? Crazy. But the Lack of Genuine Care (tm) is why blogging in a corporate setting is a loser's game. The main piece of advice I have to offer regarding blogging, and understand that this is, in many ways, crapping in the hand that feeds me, is that if you have something to say, say it. Don't make your marketing department say it-- they will not have the passion for your message that you have. They can help you sculpt your words into something that will perform and represent well... but they can't fake your passion. The internet can spot in-genuineness at 100 paces and will decry and disregard it before you've even submitted your link to Digg. Again, I go back to Uncle Merlin's masterpeice: "How to Blog". "Find your obsession. Every day, explain it to one person you respect. Edit everything, skip shortcuts, and try not to be a dick. Get better."

I can't say it better than that. Another post about blogging degrades into yet another love letter fueled by my raging boner for Merlin Mann. This is why I don't meta-blog, people!

Against the advice of smarter people than me, I went ahead and bought a Drobo along with Droboshare for use at my office. It seemed, at the time, to be a great way to eliminate to the escalating chain of USB and Firewire drives that was beginning to overwhelm my desk. And as a firewire device, as External Storage, the Drobo is as promised. It's a very nice alternative to having a handful of stupid little external drives cluttering up my desk. The idea of infinitely expandable, hot swappable, redundantly backed up external storage is sexy and alluring.

And if you're the kind of person who can stomach paying $1000 for a really big firewire drive, go for it. But if you're looking for networked storage, forget about it. It's garbage. Pure garbage. Lies heaped on half-truths, wrapped in a layer of near-uselessness.

I didn't think a product that was getting as much love as the Drobo-- a product that seemed so focused on usability, would dare release a product that is as Bad as the Droboshare. But they did. And it sucks. How much does it suck? This screenshot of my morning data transfer says at least 1,000 words;

Now I have a drobo on my desk _and_ a jumble of external storage devices that I can use when I need speedy access to drives. The Droboshare's ineptitude actually broke one of the most user-facing features of the Drobo-- that I'd be rid of that jumble of other external drives.

The Bottom Line: The Drobo is a consumer class product that should be considered only as a external storage device. THe Droboshare as it exists today has no business on a network. None. I am a disapointed man.

An aside: I'm told the DroboPro is a much less horrible network experience. Unfortunately, I just can't justify spending another $1,200 on a hope that the product won't suck as badly as the first $1,200 I just spent. If Data Robotics, the makers of the Drobo wanted to trade me up to a DroboPro (or DroboElite), I would happy try that out and report back.

Gaia and I have been spending a lot of time in the Mushroom Kingdom lately. And let me tell you this: New Super Mario Brothers Wii is both a blessing and a curse. It's great fun that Gaia can play along with me, carefully ensconced her her protective bubble until we get to a flag, at which point she will scream that she wants me to let her out of the bubble. Once I do, she will hop on to the flag before me and exclaim: "I Beat You, Daddy!"

The curse? It's a goddamn hard game. Especially when you have a little bubble floating around during boss fights that gets you killed every so often. And, it's unforgiving. It's a Mario game. Mario is stupid and falls in lava and dies a lot. That's what Mario does. He's lame that way. If Mario had half a brain, he'd leave the Mushroom Kingdom forever and head back to Brooklyn where he could rake it in as member of UA Local No. 1. But no. He'd rather get his ass kicked again and again by some cheaply placed Bullet Bill. Whatever Mario.

Anyway, my mismash of love/hate feelings for Mario have not yet sullied Gaia's feelings toward him, as evidenced by this pair of drawings found in the back seat of my car this morning. Enjoy Gaia's drawings of Mario and Luigi.

G: Oh my god Delicious Orange Juice!
G: Mmmm!
*later*
G: My mouth hurts. I drank too much orange juice.
*later still*
G: Oh! I think I'm going to throw up from all that Orange Juice. And Garlic Bread.
*even later still*
J: What?
J: When?

For Ashe...

Lady Crow visits and shivers

Smelling of oil and spilled road salt, Lady Crow takes a short rest on the barren tree that grows along the shoreline. She shakes and preens. She puffs and combs her feathers. She looks to the white sky and sighs; it is a cold day and the promise of spring flickers only slightly on the horizon. It will be colder before it is warm again.

With a stretch of her wings she floats away from the winter wind by becoming part of it.

  Pearls of snow flutter down from her perch, their journey a short-lived legacy of her visit. They sparkle as they fall.

Jan. 10, 2010 \ Read it on Scribd \ Photo attribution

I've always wanted to publish something in the Onion-- the satirical newspaper born in Madison when I was wrapping up middle school. This week I have accomplished that goal. But not in a way I would have ever imagined.

A snapshot I took of a local deli and published on Flickr so that I could remember the name of the place was a featured illustration of the Onion AV-Club's review of the establishment.

I took the picture in May of 2007 when I was training at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on their goofy ass pagination system. Then I published the photo, (along with a handful of others) on Flickr added a modicum of meta data, and pushed it out to the Milwaukee - (High Resolution) Creative Commons group.

There are a lot of people-- pro photographers mostly, who would say that I've gone and killed their industry by letting for-pay publications run my photo for free. And I say, Adapt of be Killed.

I am assuming that given the option of paying me $10 or not running a photo, the onion would have picked not running the photo. I was a journalist for a long time. There's no cash on hand to pay for that kind of thing. That photography -- not even necessarily good photography-- is available on he web for free is just part of the new reality.

Regardless, I'm greatful to the Onion for plugging Writelarge.com in exchange for using that photo. Haven't really seen much benefit from the attribution, don't really expect to. But still nice to see none the less.

And Hey, I've had my work published in The Onion. Have you?

Edit for Clarification:The editor of the Onion AV Club Milwaukee obtained my permission to use the photo prior to publication. Just so we're clear. :)