They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom for trying to change the system from within. – Leonard Cohen
(for a friend)
from within
introducing baby kitty
Marble, my cat, has been quite lonely lately. Thus, we got a brilliant idea to bring a sister into her world. Of course, she hasn’t yet accepted this baby kitten, but we’re still hopeful. They say it should take 2 weeks. Marble has stopped hiding, but still won’t get very close. And while i was sleeping last night, Marble came in to sleep with me and found baby kitty and a little hissing fight broke out on my tummy. Introducing baby kitty….
While she looks like super kitty here, i should note that she’s a little bigger than my hand and curls up between my neck and shoulder. She’s super small.
I should note that baby kitty has no formal name yet. I’m inclined to call her Theo; my roommates are fighting for atrocious and disturbing names. She’s just too precious for that. Still not sure…
Oh, and out of complete cuteness, baby kitty woke me at 7AM by licking my eyelids. If it weren’t 7AM, this would’ve been very very very cute. Baby kitty though is a complete joy. She’s happy, relaxed and still spazzy enough to play at times. Now, i just need to convince Marble that this is her friend.
BlogOn: The Business of Social Media
UC-Berkeley will be hosting BlogOn: The Business of Social Media. An all-star cast of speakers are coming to talk about blogs, social networks, syndication and whatnot. Basically, it looks like a great gathering for those interested in social media.
Furthermore, they have discounts for bloggers and i’m very psyched to announce that they have scholarships for students and economically-disadvantaged bloggers. I wish more organized events recognized the importance of getting bright minds involved who don’t have the economic freedom to usually participate in these conversations.
Supernova?
This week is Supernova, my first non-academic tech event in a while. I realized that i have no idea who will be attending. I could be patient and wait, but i’m kinda curious. Who that reads this can i expect to see there?
Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 is to appear in theaters next Friday. Say what you want about Moore (i certainly have issues with his work), but get out there and support the film. His battle to get it to theaters has been rife with censorship and unnecessary drama due to the radical anti-Bush content contained in the film. Supporting a film on opening weekend is a political statement; it says to distributers and the public that this movie matters so much that we are willing to put our dollars where our mouths are. For that reason, i believe that everyone should get out there next weekend, see it and make up their own minds. Do not let censorship reign.
anyone here from Singapore?
I’m utterly fascinated with the CaPiTaLiZaTiOn that i see coming out of teen Friendster profiles and blogs in Singapore. But i so desperately want to know more. Does anyone know?
1) How does this work? Do people use the shift key to get that or is it somehow built in?
2) Why is it used? What does it mean?
3) Who all uses it? Age, location, etc.
Stanley Milgram’s biography
There are two researchers who i think absolutely everyone doing social anything should know: Stanley Milgram and Erving Goffman. Thus, i was overjoyed when i learned that there’s a biography on Milgram (tx David). Many folks know Milgram for his work on small worlds (later called “6 degrees” by others). Milgram also developed a set of psychological experiments (written up in Obedience to Authority) that helped show how people will always follow any orders they are given and that those in power are so removed from the situation that they can demand horrifying tasks that will then be executed (think Nazis… or maybe a prison scandal). In some of his lesser known work, Milgram wrote about ideas like familiar strangers where people who recognize each other build up a very interesting social bond. Some of his short essays are collected in The Individual In A Social World
the state of social software
You are who you know is a great article on the current state of social software, framed by Marc Canter’s collecting of friends. Of course, apparently, i’m a ubiquitous pundit. Not sure how i feel about that.
iPod fixed: why physicality matters
In the last episode, our heroine tried every idea presented by her kind audience, trying desperately to unlock her beloved iPod. To no avail. The telephone people said it would be $70 to answer a question. Our heroine was left in despair (well, not really, since a kind one from Apple volunteered to take a look at it if i could get to Cupertino).
On a lurch, our heroine wandered into the Apple Store, lured by the promise of an Airport Express (which won’t be in stores until July… foiled). She mozied up to the Genius Bar, drawn in by the big screens with interesting facts. After waiting as a poor man never managed to get his guitar to talk to his GarageBand on his particular machine, our heroine told the genius of her woes. He asked if she’d done this; she said yes and noted that she had done that and that and that. He was startled. He attached the iPod to his machine. No avail. It was closing time. He handed her a refurbished one and told her to be good to it. She was ecstatic.
To be noted: our heroine was also smiling because she overheard the best nugget ever from a random Apple employee:
… I had a different device from … oh, wait… err, i can’t mention them here.
::giggle:: I guess you can’t talk about competitors as an employee at the Apple Store.
library software and bibliographic tools
In the post-finals reconstruction of my life, i acquired a new bookshelf and reorganized all of my books into genre-specific clusters that make sense to me. I updated my excel spreadsheet of all books (and where they were lent). I mentioned this to a friend who suggested that i check out Library and now i’m frustrated.
There are so many things that i want a library tool to do for me, but keeping tabs on the purchase price and condition aren’t amongst them. In fact, these categories make me twitch. I’m a hoarder and my conditions are very personal and sentimental (“strawberry stains from best friend’s trip to France” are amongst them). There’s something psychologically tormenting about knowing that a tool could be made to suit my needs, but that it’s not worth the effort of converting from Excel because the actual tool for my purported use provides no advantages (and simultaneously reminds me that i don’t collect games or care about design-driven normative values about books like worth… although i did declare all of my rare books for my renter’s insurance). The secondary frustration is knowing that i could build such a tool for myself, but am too lazy and justify it by telling myself that it’s not a good use of my time or hands.
So, instead i’ll whimper and note my top two feature desires in case i get around to it later or in case anyone else is planning on building such a tool or in case i’m just clueless and don’t know of something else out there.
– Auto-fill from author name and/or title, not ISBN. How many people search Amazon based on ISBN? If i had that information, i would already have done the Amazon search. Make a good guess. And make multiple suggestions. And if you’re wrong, i’m probably just learning about a book that i needed to know about anyhow.
– Let me construct a bibliographic reference from it. The amount of time i spend manually creating bibliographies is horrid. And i never get them right anyhow.