Friends

theprotagonist5

07:26 pm - My International Life

I was someone not much interested in the world beyond my town growing up but as an adult I am finding that my life crosses paths with information, entertainment, work and design from all over the world every day. I find it interesting that not only do we do this all the time, it's almost not a big deal anymore that we are all so interrelated. Here are some recent examples: 

1. I am actually on the phone with Singapore right now while we sort out some info on an international campaign. I also get to call London later. International media has begun to become a bigger part of my job and it's interesting and cool. The media properties right now are all across Asia. The previous one was all across Europe. Pretty cool.

2. I have been listening to the live "Swell Season" concert online at NPR at work to block out all the noise chatter when I am crunching data and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are from Ireland and the Czech Republic. It is interesting to hear his Irish accent and her Czech/Irish accent in the concert when they talk between songs. In the car these songs are great to sing along to. Listen to the interview and concert here

3. Eddie Izzard is coming to town this week and Steve and I are going to see the show on Thursday and Friday. A few upper corner balcony seats are still available online at Ticketmaster, get them quick before they sell out!. Eddie of course is from the UK and likes to say he is British European. (kind of like I'm polish ukranian american?) His humor and standup shows have influenced me in a much more positive way about global relationships and cultural uniqueness. I want to find out what it is like to live, work and be a part other places. All the differences are interesting and sometimes shed light on how odd we are in comparison too if you think about it. I have bought a fair amount of stuff from UK Ebay that isn't available here. It is probably also worth mentioning that my favorite TV show has been TopGear which I discovered because Eddie was on it. I have found access to all the episodes and bought a good number of DVDs and books from Amazon UK from TG. (not to mention the Stig T-shirts from the UK for my brother and the region free DVD player)

4. As per always Steve and I are thinking of going to France for a Vacation. I know the currency conversion isn't in our favor, but his brother lives there so there has to be a cost benefit there and we don't know how many years he will be there. Steve even plays online mporg (?) games online with his brother in France and other friends all over the country. I am glad I have my passport ready and Steve even got one too. This is still a very costly trip though, so don't be suprised if as far as we go is Indiana this summer if I have to keep fixing my car. Grrr...

5. I am still a fan of Flickr and the every day photos from all across the world. You can learn from flickr. I find it interesting that the photos, contacts and sometimes recipies I like aren't even from the US. 

6. All this is in addition to the fact that I drive a Swedish car, have furniture from Ikea, work on a Chinese (Lenovo) computer, buy clothes made in China and other low cost manufacturing countries and email to keep in touch with people all over the world all the time. We used to think email was making the world a smaller place, when I think business is starting to really be global for all size companies and our relationships are following suit. It never ceases to amaze me that all these people in other countries not only speak english very well, but they also know our technology and business practices well. I feel lucky to represent my country and company when working with them and hopefully show both in a positive light.

Anyway, I just wanted to aggregate this for posterity since I was feeling kind of international today.

I hope all is well wherever you are today. 

asd

08:27 pm - Попробую новый формат

Tulipány, Václavské náměstí, Praha, Czech Republic.

vzaliva

06:15 pm - интернет в джунглях

bird_owl поехал отдыхать в тропические страны. Вскоре после отъезда мне от него пришло радостное сообщение что даже в джунглях есть WiFi интернет. Правда через пару дней пришло еще одно, уточняющее что интернет, похоже, только в джунглях и есть. Судя по тому что письма от него изредка приходят, он наверное в джунгли ходит "за интернетом", как дикари ходили за коксами :)

asd

04:57 pm

Pohled z mostu Legií, Praha, Czech Republic.

quappa

12:32 pm - Зачем нужен email?

Poll #1186030 Нейрончики против транзисторчиков
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Чего в вашей входящей электронной почте больше:

asd

01:09 pm

Strahovský Klášter, Praha, Czech Republic.

asd

12:41 am

Kutná Hora, Czech Republic.

314159265

10:58 pm - j

Wow, it seems like Sun is going to extend/replace NIO with something like a NIOv2 with much better results than its predecessor. Looks promising.

barbaraanne

04:03 pm - Iris and Alice

My haute couture iris from Cooley's Gardens appeared this year. The color is somewhere between pink and peach. Amazing. Also the gladiolas are coming out, and the blue hydrangea is going to be a star. Myrna wanted more pics of Alicie Walicie before she grew up too much, so I have some of those, too. Enjoy!

hfx_ben

12:00 am - Day 1 of my 55th year

Of SigInt on The Side of The Angels
A letter to a rare acquaintance

I'm sure your time is short: I'll get to the point. How would this army of 1 connect fine folk like your good self with the forensic IT tool he's spent 30 years devising?

"Is your truth the same as mine?" ... Pontias Pilate was a career diplomat. And his sophistry works as well today as when he spoke it.

But we've learned some. PoMo? Entirely problematic.
But how about historiography?
How about forensic accounting?
How about how civil society thrives on real discourse and shrivels without it?

How about "truth is dialectical in nature; facts are the raw material that fuel that mill".

Thing is: for me to blurt (after so many years on the web, so much pro bono work) is for me to loose my last grasp on survivability.

I turned 54 yesterday.
I've been on welfare since I broke both feet escaping from a home invasion.
I need some entity into which I can invest my work.

http://bentrem.sycks.net/gnodal/ or, less eccentric: http://groundplane.wordpress.org

with respect and appreciation
ben

p.s. I was in the Canadian Armed Forces "Communications Research" in September of 1973. I filed for release on the 14th of that month. They rolled out a red-carpet deal. I turned it down and got a job selling stereos.
Philippe Agee is/was a hero.

theprotagonist5

06:02 pm - Crowd Control Eddie Izzard Style

Crowd Control
Originally uploaded by General Erin

theprotagonist5

05:26 pm - Interesting

I just saw this chart from the NYT that shows YOY change in consumer spending. This is of course influenced by how much the prices have increased or decreased and inflation.  I thought I would share. 

Otherwise not much to update here. I am working a lot as per usual and Steve and I passed the 6 month mark with much celebration. It feels silly and significant at the same time to mark 1/2 of a year, but we went out to dinner anyway.  ITS is doing well also.

Spring is finally here and Zeus is enjoying the open windows and birds eating right outside the window. 

I hope to finally get outside and enjoy some time walking again since it has been a long time since it hasn't been too cold to do that in the evenings. 

The other blog I have is doing well. It keeps gaining traffic and small bits of adsense revenue. So, I think I will keep plugging along at that. Check it out if you are curious about what I write there.

barbaraanne

05:44 pm - La Reina en su Nueva Camisa de Dormir

Algodón de Natori, baratillo de ebay, pero lo veo y no puedo resistirlo :-) Fotografía por Jamie. Cincuenta anos sera la Edad de la Belleza.

hfx_ben

12:00 am - Who will save the republic?

I write that as a socialist, knowing full well that "the republic" means the machinery in place to optimize exploitation. (The government is only the executive board put in place by the oligarchs.)

But it's an improvement over raw tyranny ... the alternative to democracy is slavery. We came out of slavery and serfdom, but that's where we're headed, so "fulfilling the bourgeois revolution" has always been my motto. You know, stuff like "rule of law". (Pressing for that brings to light just how corrupt things really are.)

But who will do the work?
Yuppies and their kids have learned that phony bullshit is how to make money, and that authenticity is most often subject to arbitrary punishment. (Most do-good organizations are headed by the most incompetent wannabes you can find.)
Who let Hurricane Katrina turn into an unmitigated catastrophe? Well-paid yuppies.
Who profited from corporations like Enron, and from financial schemes like phony low-interest mortgages? The same buncha yuppies.

So: the oligarchs are obviously sociopaths, and the yuppies are merely corrupt and hypocritical.

Who's left?

0_o

alexmoskalyuk

06:56 pm - Google Finance делает скринер акций

Я тут решил смотреть за поведением курса YHOO ввиду последних новостей, и заметил, что на Google Finance появился скринер акций, который уже долгое время существовал на Yahoo! Finance, но тем не менее в Google появились интересные штучки плюс, по-моему, более удобный интерфейс.

alexmoskalyuk

06:45 pm - WaterCooler - спортивные приложения для социальных проектов

VentureBeat рассказывает о компании WaterCooler из Маунтан Вью, которая делает спортивные приложения для социальных сетей, и даже утверждает, что последняя делает деньги, правда, не говорит какие. Спортивные проекты, помимо рекламы, могут заниматься продажей билетов на спортивные события и мерчандайзингом, типа маек любимых игроков и баскетбольных мячей, подписанных звездами.

У WaterCooler 700 приложений, заточенных под специфические спортивные команды, и 20 млн. пользователей (18 млн. на Facebook, 1,5 млн. на Friendster, 129 тыс. на Bebo, и чуть меньше на MySpace и Hi5). Финансы вроде как не разглашаются, но венчурное финансирование составило $4 млн.

alexmoskalyuk

06:37 pm - WordPress.com переходит на nginx

Один из самых популярных блог-хостингов Wordpress.com (сороковой глобально в Алексе, и 26-ой сайт в США, что больше LiveJournal) перевел все load-balancer’ы на nginx на прошлой неделе.

alexmoskalyuk

05:58 pm - Microsoft передумала в плане покупки Yahoo!

Microsoft опубликовала официальное заявление, в котором уведомляет всех заинтересованных о прекращении процесса переговоров с Yahoo!:

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc.

“We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole. Our goal in pursuing a combination with Yahoo! was to provide greater choice and innovation in the marketplace and create real value for our respective stockholders and employees,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

“We have a talented team in place and a compelling plan to grow our business through innovative new services and strategic transactions with other business partners. While Yahoo! would have accelerated our strategy, I am confident that we can continue to move forward toward our goals,” Ballmer said.

“We are investing heavily in new tools and Web experiences, we have dramatically improved our search performance and advertiser satisfaction, and we will continue to build our scale through organic growth and partnerships,” said Kevin Johnson, Microsoft president for platforms and services.

Ниже по той же ссылке Болмер отписал личное письмо Джерри Янгу, обьясняя тому, как тот предаст интересы акционеров Yahoo!, если в ближайшее время подпишет контракт на отгрузку поисковой рекламы через Google:

1. Контракт подписан.
2. Из Yahoo! уйдут инженеры, занимающиеся поисковой рекламой ввиду невостребованности своих знаний.
3. На подобную сделку наверняка внимательнее посмотрят анти-монопольные ведомства (и Microsoft, надо понимать, знает нужные двери кабинетов).
4. Заполучив столь значительную долю на рынке поисковой рекламы, Google пересмотрит процент, предоставляемый Yahoo!, в сторону себя любимого
5. Yahoo! окажется в еще более интересной ситуации, чем сегодня, плюс отношения с как минимум одним потенциальным партнером подпорчены.

asd

10:00 am

В самом центре весенней, очень красивой Праги, в двух шагах от Староместской ратуши, в очень красивом японском ресторанчике подают суши, которые потрясают основы мира — ( Read more... )

alexmoskalyuk

08:15 pm - Tesla открывает первый магазин

Tesla Motors открывает первый автомагазин в Голливуде, в котором планирует продавать Tesla Roadster - электроавтомобиль, разгоняющийся с 0 до 60 миль в час за 4 секунды. Максимальная скорость спортивного агрегате - 125 миль в час. У компании были какие-то проблемы с менеджментом и техническим составом, после чего оттуда уходил народ, но, надо понимать, все встало на свои места. Цена автомобиля, в зависимости от комплектации, достигает $124,000. При этом двигатель не гибридный - он именно электрический, и его нужно периодически включать в розетку.