DygiScape

This Memorial Day weekend, Sarah and I decided to take a small vacation to Williamsburg, VA. We joined the thousands of drivers on I-95 to reach our destination. I recount the details of our escape to Busch Gardens.

We weren’t sure what we wanted to do this weekend. For the past couple weeks we were determining which local (statewide) attractions would be good to go to. I was mildly interested in Colonial Williamsburg, but I didn’t realize that Busch Gardens was so close. At this time, I finally realized that Sarah successfully sold me on it. I proceeded to look online for hotel prices near the park, and I used my corporate discount on tickets.

Two hundred fourty seven dollars later, we scrambled to prepare a day’s rations and quickly anticipate the next day’s events. Tires at 45 PSI, coolant at the “normal” level, cleaned out the backseat, loaded our cooler and two days-worth of clothes. Since the weather has been considerably more humid, I squirted Fabreez in the back seat to combat the awkward smell emanating from there. Everything was ready.

We used our four hour drive (everyone and their boat was on the ‘95) to chat about our professional work lives and whatnot. I found it interesting that her and I have similar work dynamics, and we have a unified goal to helping people. Anyhow, the conversation was helpful at understanding why she’s stressed when she comes home sometimes.

We arrived at our hotel which was rated three stars on Travelocity and five stars from 11 users. So far, it seemed good. I was pleasantly greeted by the woman at the front desk. She confirmed my reservation, coded my mag-stripe room keys. We arrived at our room and attempted to swipe the room key and burst in. To our disappointment, the keys didn’t work. I went to the front desk to ask them about it and even provided them the helpful detail of explaining what I’ve done to reproduce it, and that it blinks a red light once. Five minutes later, we were helped by a friendly maintenance worker who brute-forced his way in the room with his room key programming unit. I was intrigued in it because it was like what you’d find in a movie. It even made beeps for every key code it attempted. After about 15 minutes, he advised us that the door’s lock may not unlock, but verified the other door was usable.

Other than that, I resumed my normal inspection of the room, as if I was going to really worry about it. Overall I was pleased. Figuring the room lock was a minor mechanical issue, I would give the room 3.5 stars. I mean for $147, on a holiday weekend, you can’t ask for much.

We now had some free time so we went to the local shopping outlets, as Sarah loves finding deals but it mainly served as a browsing opportunity. She was interested in some Converse All Star shoes that were brightly orange colored with some other designs on it. They looked cool, but we decided that none of her clothes would go with it. That is, unless she had a state-provided orange jumpsuit that I didn’t know about.

We also found our first mini-golf attraction since Tucson and a Dairy Queen. Conveniently, we got some tasty Blizzards and went to the pirate-themed miniature golf. They had a donation container for the troops and their families, and in a patriotic spirit, I donated to it. (I almost never donate cash in those containers). We played some golf and had a good time. I forfeited on the sixth hole when I ricocheted my ball into the simulated river. It was all good though, Sarah and I had a good time.

We arrived back home and enjoyed ourselves watching extended-basic cable. Having only local channels at home, we were entertained and watched a combination of the Myth Busters and some Court TV. After about 11PM, we got some much needed sleep and decided to set our alarm for the next morning at 7AM.

We had our complimentary breakfast. The cliche of “you get what you pay for,” couldn’t be any more prevalent. So we had some cereal, OJ, and I had some toast. We checked out and loaded up the car in a secure manner anticipating a day of abandonment of the car. We advanced to finding good breakfast food. About a block away, we arrived at IHOP.

If anyone has ever had dinner with me, you know I drink a lot. I usually require more than three glasses of the said beverage. I understand my liquid needs are more than others, but I at least would like servers to refill me once or twice. So, we ordered our breakfast, and that’s it. I didn’t interact with our server for the rest of the morning. Not being sure of restaurant employee dynamics, I asked Sarah if it would be appropriate for me to ask another server for refills, which she said it’s fine but it throws them off their pattern of taking care of their patrons. After I asked for a refill, our server reappeared with refills. After that, her abandonment resumed. We left a below-average tip for below-average service, and finally consulted with the cashier to run a check for our table and left.

Now full, and somewhat thirst-quenched, we drove to Busch Gardens. We came from a bypass road, but we caught glimpse of the highway with a four-lane exit into the toll-booth style parking fee. The highway was a complete parking lot, and everyone was bumper to bumper. Being ‘leet and in the bypass road, we jumped in our spot and entered the Busch Garden’s parking premises. We got a nice parking spot, up in the front right next to the tram that would take you to the main gate. We loaded up on sun screen, and I chugged down a bottle of water from the case of 12. Tickets in hand, and pockets as empty as we can, we hopped on the tram and proceeded in front of everyone purchasing tickets. I love the Intarnetz!

We had a great time in the 4D-theater. Sarah pointed out many similarities between this theme park and Disney Land. We had a fun time on the rides. I need to pace myself when it comes to coasters, so we did the “easy ones” before doing the more thrilling ones. We didn’t do the “Griffon” coaster, because that was just too death-defying for us to try. It stops at a 90 degree angle, and drops you 300 feet. Nah, I’ll pass on that. Feet sore, legs tired, and feeling very fatigued we left around 6:30. This time, I drove back, as Sarah attempted to take a nap.

I was satisfied with 80+ MPH traffic. It seemed as if everyone finally agreed to get home, fast. We all did. It’s interesting the the way people react to a police cruiser in the median, everyone drops about 10MPH instantly, but they regain it a 1/4 mile later. Realistically, one cop can’t ticket 17 drivers. He’s looking for the kid who does 130 in his red Corvette. Regardless, I maintained about 90 MPH the entire way until the 295/395 junction. It was mildly foggy and it was very congested, but it was moving, and I was thankful for that.

We had a blast and it was considerably inexpensive to drive there and stay overnight. This was a much-needed vacation and I’m more pleased knowing that Sarah had enjoyed herself. Although there were a couple snags, I’m used to it, so it was no big deal and we had a fun experience visiting Williamsburg and will be returning in the future to check out the Colonial stuff too.

I support the troops and celebrated our nation’s freedom by liberating ourselves from home. That said, here is a counter in this entry is counting the number of troops who paid the ultimate price in Iraq.

Blogging, Bragging Rights, Personal I-95, Travel, Vacation, virginia

This morning I wake up to see that MySpace is releasing their sex offender data to authorities. This is great news but people need to understand a few things before they start chanting to restrict age on social networks.

What classifies as a sexual solicitation attempt? How is it reported and how is it qualified? These questions fall into “grey” area and it would require a lot of time and research before one can easily accuse that someone is a pedophile.

FTA, there is also some state attorney generals who are urging to make MySpace and other sites do age verification. This request is almost impossible, and would completely collapse MySpace and other social networking sites. How can you verify the age of a minor? Would parents really want their children’s information available to a private company? How does age verification prevent other (pedophiles) from exploiting the system and making up a “John Smith” and being 13?

I know why.

People want a simple answer for a complex problem. It’s not a bad idea, but it’s not the right answer to it. All this would do is make it bureaucratic, slow and a pain to use those sites for the 99% of legitimate users and make it just one obstacle that abusers will get around.

The solution is to educate your children that there are potential criminals on these sites and to not respond to any requests luring them in. Parents need to acknowledge the issue with their kids, and not turn a blind eye to it. I’ve listed my social networking safety tips before, and I encourage parents to have a look at it as a reminder.

I know it’s more difficult, but you (as a parent) need to address the problem first hand.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Blogging, Geeky, Safety, Social Networking internet, myspace, Safety, Social Networking, web

The battle wages on. This time, Microsoft is claiming patents on various features and functions of the Linux operating system.

This must be a sign of Redmond’s severe lack of innovation and development. When you can’t beat your competitor, just sue them. Not that I believe that Linux is a competitor, it is just another alternative to the Microsoft way. I don’t see Apple suing FSF, probably because of the billions they’re gonna roll in with the iPhone. Oh, snap.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Microsoft battles Linux, as their propagandized advertising campaign of the true “cost” of owning Windows Server versus Linux littered Magazines and TV sets nationwide. That resulted in an uproar about their sources and ultimately the pulling of the ads. Nice try, Balmer.

What will be the result of these frivolous lawsuits? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Geeky, Tech News Linux, microsoft

I was reading the story that NY Times ran on Pandora and the impact of Copyright Royalty Board’s royalty rate increase. I predict that the Internet Radio Equality Act will die in the House. There is just too large of a gap between politicians and Internet users. Don’t believe me?

…Ask Senator Ted Stevens. Alright, I’ll keep off the Series of Tubes meme…

Never fear. Restrictions like this force innovation. It happened with Napster, Suprnova, and now Internet Radio. Well, if you were a good musical thief, you should have gigs and gigs of music to share with other people. Winamp (has finally) caught up to making it easy to remotely broadcast over your broadband connection with Winamp Remote. This allows you to listen to your collection of music for free via the internet. The caveat is that its intended for single-use.

Setup your own online radio station (albeit soon to be illegal) with Shoutcast. You can queue up all your music and let listeners find you. This takes a little more skill to setup and more bandwidth to run, but hell, go for it. At least you are fighting for your digital freedom.

Now, if that isn’t for you, you can try downloading music of course from Limewire (Gnutella network). The only thing there, is that you run the risk of getting a ‘DMCA Takedown Notice’ and possible termination from your provider. You are essentially biting the hand that feeds your downloading if you go that route.

Finally, you can also go old school with burning it and trading it with friends. The updated way of doing this so it doesn’t look like you’re a birdman, is to lend your iPod to a buddy and load songs with iTunes. It’s fast, friendly and is somewhat cool.

Anyhow the purpose of my semi-educational/mischievous entry today is that no matter what restrictions are placed, the average person can still circumvent them. This is the Windows Genuine Advantage of Internet Radio, it will slow it down but not eliminate it. I mean, it was only hours until WGA was bypassed. We don’t need to panic.

Leave me your reactions to this, as I compare prices on DVD-Rs.

Blogging, Geeky, Politics Government, internet, music, Rants

If it weren’t for IRC, FTPs and our favorite — KaZaA, would we know about how great Adobe Photoshop is? The $700 professional photo-editing application was (and is) widely available on piracy networks. Same for the beta copies of Windows Vista and formerly XP. What if software companies embraced early adopters instead of fighting them?

I know I used Photoshop when I was younger, and I assure you I couldn’t afford it at the time. Since I became “hooked” on the Adobe and Macromedia series of software applications, I used it all the time and recommend it to friends and family. In turn, my momentary loss of a sale turned into prospects and sales simply because I used the software.

What if a software company released their software to the seeders on a pirate network? No cracks or keygens needed, just a private release for that network. For example, a special copy of that favorite graphics program just for The Pirate Bay. Allow the folks to spread it, use it will in turn recommend it. This can potentially spread the buzz about that product by enabling the influencers to use it, without them paying a dime.

The business folk might ask how to monetize it. This can be a tough choice, but you can limit certain features of the software and prompt them to upgrade to a full license. This can lead to potential sales as people require more heavy duty uses of the program. Another option is embedding an optional advertisement window into the software. Nothing intrusive or would upset a user, but something balance the “free” user out so you can churn some dough.

This might not be feasible for large software corporations like Microsoft or Adobe, but perhaps the lower-tiered ones have a chance to get their software out there, in front of the people to spread the word. I know that I’d try a program that was meant to be free versus one that isn’t.

A very timely blog entry from CrunchGear explains the history and the aspects of piracy in simple terms. Is this something that the “elite” lost their domination of? Are simple users (aka, n00bs) getting into it? This is probably the biggest fear the RIAA and MPAA have is when the average person is ripping, seeding, and burning seamlessly. Oh, wait — that was years ago.

That said, I discourage software piracy, but I do support companies embracing their “threats” and finding innovative solutions for them. This can happen with software, music, games or even movies. Just think if that hot new movie you downloaded was sponsored by Verizon?

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

[tags]warez, software, appz, gamez, movies, solutions, business, piracy, consumers[/tags]

Blogging, Geeky music, PR, Software, Torrent, videos

I was thinking about how we manage our various online user names and identities. Adding all the numerous sites I use, plus my work’s credentials and I have more than a hundred accounts to memorize in my head. This can be a real problem, even for a native geek.

I must have more than 45 74 unique AOL and AIM screen names. I also have accounts across various social networking sites. I also have three Yahoo accounts, four Hotmail accounts, two Gmail accounts, one Myspace account, one Netscape account, one Digg account, and one Twitter account.

Ironically, despite all the security tips I give, I use the same moniker for the various sites I participate on. This also poses a security risk because I only use a few different types of passwords. With that said, I’m in the process of “auditing” all my credentials with Web sites and updating with newer passwords.

Is this just a fruitless effort to simplify my online verification?

I’m not sure. Perhaps someone who manages multiple online identities may have insight on this issue. I’m exploring the possibilities with Open ID and discovering how it will help me in my day-to-day usage of the World Wide Wow.

[tags]Internet, Web, Authentication, ID, Identity[/tags]

Blogging Identity, internet, Security, web 2.0

Some of you may have heard about the recent drama that occurred on the popular social news website, Digg. Well, I’ll share my two cents about it, at least from my perspective with community management.

Essentially it started out when there was a story about decoding HD-DVD with a code (hex characters). The social news service was issued multiple cease-and-desist orders to remove those stories. In response, Digg momentarily shut the site down to remove the said stories that users posted. It didn’t stop there.

Once the site was re-opened, users grew infuriated. A mass of users was commenting on every story they could find in an effort to raise the awareness of Digg’s actions. Since the crowd spread the word virally, it was only a matter of minutes before the front page was sacked with anti-Digg and HD-DVD anti-piracy code related stories.

I thought the community reaction was amazing. For all this time, I figured people practically pledged allegiance to Digg considering there were numerous other pro-Digg stories in the past that garnered thousands of Diggs.

As you would expect, the crowd (or rather, mob) won. In a statement [blog posting] by Kevin Rose, he concedes his position in a unusual PR-style in his blog. He appeased the angry mob, while explaining why Digg removed such stories. This proved valuable since he communicated with his users.

The Consumerist has more details on this, in a live-blog style with before and after screenshots. As you can see, users were peeved.

So I thought, what if the users I manage did this to me — convince the crowd to fight back against the enforcement or removal of content? I firmly believe that it is about expectations that are set. The users don’t expect stories that are “grey-area” illegal to be removed. This conflict of interest between Digg’s legal/business needs and the users’ interest for technology has climaxed with this event.

Another thought comes the legality issue. Why would Digg be held responsible for their user’s content? Could they really be shut down? In a legal precedent in the past, AOL was found not legally responsible if users author offensive content. I’m no legal expert, but as long as reasonable action is taken, then the provider can not be held responsible. The users are.

I suggest that Digg re-evaluate their Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy, making clear some expectations regarding removal of stories. Then, to remind the users of the changes, make an informative blog posting on why the changes were made and send a message to users after they sign in about the changes in the TOS/AUP.

The fault in this matter was communication. If Digg appears as if they are arbitrarily removing articles without communicating it, it’s no question that users will be upset. The key to managing the response is to anticipate the response. When you anticipate the community response, you can effectively respond to it citing both sides of the matter instead of appearing on defensive.

What do you think about Digg removing stories? Share your feedback in the comments.

[tags]Digg, Community, Technology, People, Censorship, Management, OpEd[/tags]

Blogging, Geeky, Social Networking, Tech News community, Engagement, internet, social media, web 2.0

If I’m not answering my calls on my cell phone, it’s not because I don’t like you.

My phone is just missing in action. While I’d like to find it, I think I may use the opportunity to switch to Verizon.

We shall see.

Blogging, Personal cell phones, Help