June 26th, 2009 by bp
Bob Evans is leading the charge to bring the geriatric generation (oh those silver foxes!) access to the Internet where they want it, when they want it.
No longer confined to the bingo parlor or shuffle board range, the silver foxes can enjoy their favorite streamed Jake and the Fatman episode while they sip on coffee and munch on pie.
If you haven’t been there in a while (or ever) Bob Evans has free wireless Internet access points available at select locations.
Who says you need to be young and hip, and hang at Starbucks for a net fix?
So feel free to play that online bingo or grab a torent of the Lawrence Welk Show while your turkey and gravey is cooked up. Wunnerful! Wunnerful!
The one particularly fasinating element of this service, however, is that AT the MINUTE of restaurant closeing hour, much like the oven cooking those rolls, it gets shut down.
That’s right folks: you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
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June 13th, 2009 by bp
Flew a Delta Boeing 757-200, SFO to SLA. My seat is in an exit row, 19b. This is quite nice, as I’ve got nothing in front of me, and the door to deplane is right in front. My row-mate, however, in 19a I’d say got the short straw. As seen in the photograph below, the emergency raft gear system sticks out into their crotch, basically negating about 75% of what would be yards of leg room (or a leg and a half). The other drawback I’m getting from this row is that there is no designated or easily accessable reading light, air jet, nor call bell. Oh, and no window peaking view for middle me, as the window seat has a pretty exclusive command over this because of positioning, and there’s nothing ahead of us, save for the 3 inch round of the exit door.
On the flip side, as the seating config on the plane is 3/2, our colleagues in exit row 18e an 18d have it nice. They still have the similar door, however, this bump isn’t doubleing as their tray table. Those would be fairly cherry seats.
Note to self: great for leg room, not so good for ammenaties, usability, and those with a sence of claustrophobia (as you stair into the bulkhead). Also, no underseat storage, of course. If given the choice, 18d would be the ticket, although I’m by no means complaining about 19b and 19c. Bonus though if you like to play footsie with the crew, with the jump seat facing my seat. Good view of first class, though, for wishful thinking.
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June 12th, 2009 by bp
Here in San Francisco, the Apple World Wide Developer Conferece is wrapping up. Many new and upcoming products and enhancments were anounced and discussed. Usually the CEO, Steve Jobs makes the opening keynote, but he’s on medical leave.
But no fear, nerdy colleagues: there may be no Steve, but we’ve got iporn!
Tags: iporn, wwdc
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June 12th, 2009 by bp
I’ve been doing some travel, regularly over the past couple months. During some of these travels, I’ve also been involved in some usability discussions, which I then tend to take “offline” with myself, giving everyday things I encounter the once over.
Like the days of the cold war, there is a certain bit of nostalgia one gets from seeing reminders of what was and could have been, such as the faded fall out shelter signs in public buildings.
A flight in May and a complimentary pack if peanuts brought me back to the days of travel, pre-2001, with a visual remider of what was once how travel used to be, and how we ate our inflight snacks.
Posted in media disinformation | No Comments »
May 27th, 2009 by Big Rome
I’ll save the long preface and contextualization and cut to the point with some facts.
- The wealthier a state in the US is, the more likely that state is to be a “blue state,” though the wealthiest individuals in that state are most likely to be conservative.
- The wealthier a nation is, the less likely that nation is to be a religious one (The US is a big outlier here). Further, the less religious a nation is, the more likely it will be, on average, one in which its citizens report high levels of satisfaction and happiness- though, paradoxically, the more religious individuals in those societies are the happiest among them.
The point here is a simple one and one that echoes the theme below: regardless of your personal experience, there is something about the social milleu in which you live that sets the bounds of your sense of what is possible, your identity, your values and your interests. Social structure and environment are important, yo. Just a reminder.
Posted in just bitching, media disinformation, political view | No Comments »
May 24th, 2009 by Big Rome
After deploying the admirably concise (and accurate) analysis of Dick Cheney’s recent Death Star tour- and I quote: “Fuck that guy,” super interesting thinker (and, it turns out, fellow sociologist) Reza Aslan dropped a nice bit of wisdom on Bill Maher’s talk show Real Time. He was responding to Bill Maher’s assertion that Muslim religious extremism was somehow qualitatively different than other reactionaries ideologies:
“come on….our fundamentalists live in suburbs and drive SUVs, and their fundamentalists live in caves and destroyed villages”
Aslan has accurately pointed out that it is fundamentalism which is the core of the violent eliminationism and intolerance- not the particular god to which the zealots pray. But the second, and more important point that he makes is that it is the material conditions from which militant ideologies emerge that are important. That it is these conditions- not some essentialist notion of an ethnic or religious group- that deserve our attention in the path toward a more peaceful and democratic world. Props, Reza.
Posted in everyday beauty, political view | No Comments »
May 21st, 2009 by Big Rome
I suppose it is part of my street cred as a disconnected left wing academic that I enjoy listening to NPR- podcasting while I vacuum my Prius, no less! In particular, I enjoy the issue-oriented interactive format of which Talk of the Nation is likely the best known example. While I have long preferred On Point’s Tom Ashbrook as a much more engaging and compelling host, I still enjoy Talk of the Nation’s host Neal Conan.
In the following clip, Conan is doing his best to deal with what his guest- right wing lunatic and “talk show host” Michael Savage- hopes will be a loud and “entertaining” confrontation. The occasion of the discussion is Savage having been denied entry into the United Kingdom on the basis of his promotion of hate speech- something the Brits take quite seriously. When Savage starts pushing buttons and doing his best to drag the show to his level, Conan admirably sets the mouth-frothing Savage free. An artful piece of journalism to be sure.
Mike Savage on TOTN
Posted in media disinformation, political view | 1 Comment »
April 7th, 2009 by Big Rome
So after a day in which I caught a portion of a History Channel documentary on Bernie Madoff while I graded papers, followed by a period listening to an interview about Madoff on my iPod while cleaning the house, I had a realization.
Bernie Madoff (and a few others like him) serve an important function for many in the process of making sense of where we are and how we got here. By focusing on this one man and his infamous feats of deception and thievery, we can avoid spending the uncomfortable time exploring the extent to which the problems that Madoff embodies are of a deeper and more systemic nature.
In short- by making the story simply about Bernie Madoff and his ponzi scheme, we never have to come to terms with the fact that his deeds were made possible– in fact likely– by a seismic shift in both values and public policy. Put even more simply, we love the Madoff story because it grants us collective absolution. We are absolved from having created a system so corrupt and corrupting that Madoff’s feat was possible, and we are absolved from taking a hard look at the reforms necessary to prevent these deeds in the future.
It won’t be the first time that I have called down the words of Dr. King (and it won’t be the last)- but the following few famous lines speak a bit to the point I hope to be making here.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. (Emphasis mine)
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March 30th, 2009 by Big Rome
ME: Hello, XXXXX. Are you there?
HER: No.
ME: Is this XXXXX from Elkhart?
ME: Well, XXXXX, I hope you are well and to chat sometime soon.
HER: Yes, this is the XXXXX from Elkhart. I would appreciate it if you didn’t contact me.
ME: I’m really sorry to hear that. I wish you well, and hope someday we can talk again.
HER: Please don’t contact me again. I’ve tried ignoring your contact attempts, but you clearly didn’t get the message, so I have to be this direct about it.
Posted in just bitching | 2 Comments »
March 20th, 2009 by bp
This entry is to save others (as well as myself, once I forget how I did this) hours of frustration and money in the curse-jar. For brevity on those that don’t care on the tech issue, I’m not going to fully explain, but will have enough for entertainment purposes, as well as to remember and explain my problem in the future.
Note To Self
Regarding: OS X 10.5.x Server Workgroup Manager
Regarding: Mobile Account Preferences. Successful configuration settings for Synching at Login and Logout, while controlling what is ignored and not ignored; apparent solution for lab configuration.
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Posted in technoscene | 1 Comment »
March 17th, 2009 by bp
Today, Apple announced their upcoming iPhone 3.0 software update and associated software developer kit (sdk), available in beta. (aside: Apple did announce the Push Notification capability in a previous announcement, nearly a year ago.) There are several enhancements coming, many I am very excited about utilizing and the potential these new features will lend themselves to, there is one particular enhancement that caused me to raise an eyebrow.
To quote Apple’s website, “The Apple Push Notification service provides a way to alert your users of new information, even when your application isn’t running. Send text notifications, trigger audible alerts, or add a numbered badge to your application icon.”
Why is this needed?
This Push capability is Apple’s answer to iPhone application background process functionality on the iPhone. Broadly speaking, as it is designed, the iPhone utilizes only the foremost application. No app can be running in the background. When you exit an app, it stops running. This is being done for a few reasons, particularly as Apple claims, for performance and battery life. This push service allows a sound, a text alert, or other action to occur in conjunction with an associated 3rd party application that is loaded on the iPhone.
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Posted in technoscene | 1 Comment »
March 12th, 2009 by bp
Reportedly, Google has recently announced further tweaking and customization of your digital-likeness rendering. Now, instead of advertisement content being displayed based on the topic of your search, it will now look at your broader trail of droppings, taking into account your search history, youtubing, and other web habits.
To some chagrin, my stance on unique delivered content (push-marketing) based on my personal profile has mellowed over the years. The cabin-in the woods Kaczynski in me has been walking to the woods edge to embrace the easy-life of Jetson-tech living, enjoying some of the “suggested gems” such companies as Amazon, Pandora, and Apple through iTunes provide to me. With so much crap out there, it can be useful to have a bit of intelligent “pre-sort” through some of the noise. I would bet most users have had some nice surprises using these services.
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Posted in technoscene | 1 Comment »
March 9th, 2009 by Big Rome
It seems like lately, I’ve encountered a fair amount of folks setting up false dichotomies of faith and reason, or faith and doubt. First, it occurs to me that these things are not at all mutually exclusive. Further, it seems to me that if one would argue for any kind of simple opposition, it is that of faith and certainty.
There are an awful lot of religious folk around who have yet to have gotten that memo. It’s all good, though. I’ve got faith that they will come around.
Posted in everyday beauty, political view | No Comments »
