Notes from a Floating Dog

Last weekend I attended a show at my daughter’s ballet school which was fun. It was at the Julia Morgan theater in Berkeley. As I sat in the somewhat dark performance theater, I started to notice the glow from 42 (I counted them) lcd displays as people filmed or snapped pics of the performance. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against folks trying to capture the ‘moment’, but as I watched people squirreling about in their seats to get the best shot, or yo-yo-ing back and forth from the stage for the same . I started to wonder, given all the effort people were putting into capturing the ‘moment’. How much of the moment were they missing ?

Sometimes I feel that we  as a culture, are so bent on “capturing for posterity’s sake ” , that we forget sometimes,sitting back, paying close attention and letting the mind take it all in, is as important as “documenting” the moment. Digital technology seems to make it almost too easy to capture everything, yet we end up having much less in terms of actual memories that last.

For me, I shoot only stills (yes I have a vid camera) , and I’m not always dragging my camera around. I notice I have a better memory of the  moment that way..

FWIW

It’s Friday, the day after tax day. Not that that is a big deal but it seems de-rigueur to say so….

I seem to be having more of these experiences where I do what I used to do; namely go out and randomly check out cultural events. And then realize, wow, there’s cool shit going on here in the bay area.

Tonight was no exception, I went to LaPena cultural center in Berkeley and caught a comic performing. His material was pretty good and poked my sensibilities in the side a bit. That was great. After the show I did the hang at the bar for a while and just watched people. Damn, there are some fun AND interesting folks out there. I seem to forget about this part of life during the work week. Aren’t we working to live, and NOT living to work.. Hmmm, I’ll have to do more of this…

And OBTW, I miss my mom…

So, I want to try my hand at sharpening my writing skills. Here a link to a review of some iPhone SW I did

http://www.brighthub.com/mobile/iphone/reviews/66760.aspx

Within the last month, Apple announced the iPad and Google announced that it wants to deploy 1 gigabit (1 billion bits/per second or 125Mbytes/second) internet service to selected communities. In both press campaigns there were allusions to enabling new rich applications. Given the hyperbole that tends to emanate from the tech sector it would be easy to dismiss such proclamations as just more geek bullshit…., that’s right, I used the word geek. Bullshit shouldn’t offend

Apple might have some sense of how the iPad will drive these “rich, new” apps. As arrogant as they  can be at times, Apple knows products, and  is smart enough not to try and impose an all-reaching narrative on the iPad/app story arc. The feature set for the iPad, at least the initial version seems reasonable. As usual, they’ll improve the hardware platform over time . I am also pretty sure, given recent history, they’ll use the App store to help nudge things in the “right” direction.

Google, a relative newcomer (compared to Apple), has a somewhat tougher task in that their offering is more a service augmentation than straight up new product. True to form however, their hubris, and formidable corporate developer intellect should help them overcome some of the pitfalls this deployment may encumber. What remains to be seen, however, is how much of their storied prescience was brought to bear on the long term effects of this deployment. If they are smart, they will have already put together, locked and loaded, a developer community outside of Google primed and ready to go, because 1G to the house is a large pipe and there is more than just good hi-def media that could be enabled.

This is an infrequent event in the tech industry. Two titans each bringing potentially disruptive products /and or services to the consuming public. Each product/service being somewhat underestimated in its potential effect. The iPad is more than just a big iPhone, 1Gbit to the home is an awfully big pipe.

Apple and Google have asked us to “wait and see”. IMHO, I think that true results from either of these plays is a little further out then either of them knows. Good counsel would  be to do as they have asked, wait and see, give this some time…

So far, from what I have read/seen online , while not quite the second coming, I do see the iPad as something I will probably buy.

I don’t think the iPad is a complete replacement for my MBP (or the upgrade I intend this year) but when I am traveling for fun, it and my iPhone will travel with me and will pretty much cover all my online/communication/organizing needs. Not to

No, I won’t be able to fire up VNC, log into work and write some Systerm Verilog.No, there is no X11 server/client stack for it… yet

But I am pretty sure will be able to satisfy all my news/journal reading and offload my brain from stuff I have to remember. That’s good enough

I’ll be buying physical hard cover books though. Call me a luddite in that domain, I don’t care.

I won’t be buying one  one immediately. I’ll wait until the end of the year, when more of the production and design kinks are worked out. I suspect the price may drop a bit as well.

There you go,not nearly the epic tome you may have been inspecting. But then hey,

It is without fail that the month or two after the end of the year is probably one of the tougher stretches, at least work wise, and also for me emotionally. The winter months have always been a tough. However, for the first time in a while the  holidays in ‘09, for me at least, despite some personal stumbles were actually on the whole, rather upbeat. Now, comes that long grind from the first of the year until Memorial day which is when summer, for me leastwise begins.

I am sitting here now, by myself, on Super Sunday reflecting on how adrift I have been since my mother passed (dad died in 1985) in 2004. I am not a momma’s boy or anything like that, but as an adult when you parents die you begin to note your own mortality and more importantly that you have no one to look to for answers. I don’t mean that in the literal sense, but that you have those moments where you could call home. I miss that.Soooo onwards I guess, next in line is doing something about my work.

_DSC0023.jpg (GG bridge california)

Originally uploaded by FloatingDogs

I just found this, it reminds me I have to get by drive fixed as that’s where a few years of digital photos reside

I had been meaning to write this for a while, so goes life I suppose.

About two months ago we took Natascha, our 6 year old daughter to the East Bay (in Berkeley) Vivarium. I have been to the vivarium countless times in the past and cool as it has been, this particular day was special in that there 3 feedings we manage to witness. Two Monitor lizards feeding on a chick and a small mouse respectively, and then a Burmese Python feeding on a rabbit. What was truly amazing was that Natascha watched all three feedings with rapt attention.

The python feeding was fairly sterile except for the fact that the one of the rabbit’s eye popped out as it was being constricted. Then there was the smaller of the two monitors who effectively bit the chick in half as my daughter was watching, and finally the mouse who was pretty much chewed and swallowed as well.

This all caught me by surprise as I was sure Nat would be a bit squeamish. Go figure.

Ok, finally, done…. so now I can rest a little easier.
Raising a daughter is truly amazing

Earlier this week, Monday to be precise, I went to a panel discussion on the state of the SF Chronicle during the “transition” it finds itself in. “Transition” is such a nice word. The panelists included:

Historian Gray Brechin
Investigative Reporter Lowell Bergman
Multimedia journalist Kevin Weston
Public radio producer Holly Kernan
San Francisco civic leader Clint Reilly

Introduced by Dean Neil Henry,
Moderated by Senior Lecturer Susan Rasky

I am not going to pretend that I am a subject matter expert, at least from the producer end of things. I do consume news, lots of it so I am pretty knowledgeable in terms of what I want to read and how I want to read it. And yes, I am willing to pay for it.

As far as the panel was concerned, they were a pretty sympathetic bunch, and some even grok’ed the fact that what needs to be saved is journalism, and not necessarily the delivery mechanism. I personally believe that the demise of newsprint was a long time in the making if for no other reason than that most print media relies on advertising to subsidize their operations and subscriptions help to close the remaining revenue gap.

If that is the case, then it was only a matter of time before some other medium came along (seems this medium was the internet, or at least that is the spin, though the actual dollars taken from print media by the internet needs to actually be tallied, and I am sure someone has that information) and put a hurt on the advertising revenue news print took in.

I am sure I am naive with this observation but wouldn’t it have made sense to have a purely subscription driven business model (though that might not have allowed some pubs to even push a first edition)

The panel itself was pretty sympathetic to the Chronicle’s plight although I had to agree with Kevin Weston when he indicated that maybe the Chronicle was not serving the needs of the right communities.

Clint Reilly has put a lot of effort into saving the news print version of the Chronicle bless his soul but I suspect that in the long run this effort may be in vain

What concerns me is that no one had any idea of a model (profit or non-profit) which would seem to work. I guess I am wondering as to whether or not people are willing to pay for news. I know I am, but maybe something is wrong with me. How big is the online news market ?

Who, if anyone is paying for news ?

Where does one go if one wants to pay ?

During the panel discussion, there was a fair amount of talk on seeing to it that journalism covering local news was important. My first response was to disagree as I tend to be focused on international stuff but in thinking more about what actually potentially affects my pocket book, it would be local issues. So then the question is how does that get financed, and then for me, how does international reporting get financed. It was suggested that maybe the future lies insmaller news/journalist coops/consortiums but that did get a lot of discussion. The NPR reporter suggested the best, albeit impossible model, A magically funded 700 person news room. We all chuckled at how nice that would be, but hey, I believe in Santa Claus too.

Newsprint kept coming up over and over again, I just didn’t get it, seems to me that newsprint is an anachronism at this point, though I can’t suggest a more robust replacement for it….

I am worried, we don’t know what we will lose if local, national, and international are weakened further beyond their current levels. Can you imagine what the coverage of the financial crisis would have been like if the fourth estate had degenerated further than it already has….

Pay for content, its the only way to go…, but pay the actual producers and not their middlemen

I have to wonder if people outside the US aren’t laughing at us and our media as we clamor to see the SS USA righted before even the first 60 days of Obama’s administration has been completed. I mean, are we (the royal we) stoopid or what. Exactly how much do we expect to be fixed in < 50 days and owe by the way, its not like the entire country is pulling on the same oar. We’ve got yahoos like Rush yapping away, a congress who is already drunk with power and money, and a non-existent fourth estate.

I’ll tell you what though, I want to be under the financial sector dinner table when they drop some of their crumbs. What a deal they got….

That’s ok though, I got a ton of stuff to read so I am sated

BTW, I just found out the universe is on occasion, self-righting