mockriot

Dave Matthews GPS.

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:45:11 -0400

Dave Matthews GPS.

On Ruby and Porn

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:46:14 -0400

Matt What’s-his-name who did the now infamous “CouchDB/pr0n” presentation at the Golden Gate Ruby Conference? Idiot (it was unprofessional and lame). The brouhaha since? Bordering on annoying (it was unprofessional and lame - get over it). The worst part? People keep spelling “porn” with a 0 and a misplaced r. Seriously, people, it’s spelled porn. P-O-R-N. Stop spelling like morons.

So, last weekend Kate and I got engaged. That’s us...

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:36:00 -0400

So, last weekend Kate and I got engaged. That’s us (clearly). The ring, for those of you who care about stuff like that, was made by Tamara McFarland, a designer I located through Etsy. It was custom designed by me (with her input and help from my good friend Kelli), and has a fair trade sapphire, moissanite accent stones, and recycled 14k white and yellow gold. You can see pictures here. For anyone else out there in need of a kick-ass engagement ring, I’d definitely recommend Tamara! :)

These arrived in the mail today. I tried (unsuccessfully) to...

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:13:00 -0400

These arrived in the mail today. I tried (unsuccessfully) to get tickets to the Hampton, VA shows in March, and failed to get tickets to the Mansfield, MA show in June. Third time’s a charm, apparently. Hartford, CT in August, here I come! :)

Want to buy a blog?

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:33:33 -0400

So, last November, I started a blog about netbooks… mostly, because I wanted to buy a netbook and wanted to do more research into them and create a place where I could go for all the latest netbook news. Unfortunately, from the start I didn’t have enough time for it. So I hired a friend to do the actual blogging. And he’s done an absolutely amazing job (especially considering this was his first real blogging job and I wasn’t paying him all that much). But given my lack of time, and given that most my money now really needs to go into the web app I am bootstrapping with my friend Kelli, it’s time to try to sell Netbook Lounge.

Between paying Stuart (the writer), running a launch contest (top prize: a netbook, naturally), web hosting, and the minor promotion I put into the site at the start, I’ve probably put in ~$2,000. I doubt I’ll get that back. Anyway, if anyone is interested, you can bid at SitePoint (reserve is $100). For anyone who wants to blog about netbooks (a really hot market), Netbook Lounge would be an awesome starting point. It’s definitely a great library of content to build from and comes with a great blogger, if you decided to keep him on.

SXSWi Notes: Can Social Media End Racism?

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:37:35 -0400

By far the most interesting panel I attended at SXSWi this week was one called, “Can Social Media End Racism?” It featured Kety Esquivel of the National Council of La Raza, Phil Yu of Angry Asian Man, Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine, and was moderated by Latoya Peterson of Racialicious.com. I haven’t had time to really think about everything I heard and come up with something to intelligent to say, but I did take a bunch of notes. So I thought I’d sahre those here in raw form. If you find my notes half as interesting as I found the actual panel, then I think they’ll be worth taking the time to read. Apologies in advance for any typos or inaccuracies — I was typing fast to keep up and haven’t edited these.

e = kety esquival
s = jay smooth
y = phil yu
p = latoya peterson

“general experiences with racism online. favorite example?”

e: stopthehate.org … gotten a lot of hate mails, had death threats, etc. … recently sean hannity made an accusation against nclr that was completely made up and a lie, to us it was really exciting because we had over 20 bloggers come together and really attack [hannity’s] statement… exciting to see bloggers who weren’t in the latino community come out to support us. favorite case of racism because it showed how we were able to come together to combat this negativity.

s: no favorite racist moment, each is like a snowflake [laughter]. showing YouTube video: “how to tell people they sound racist” — let’s check out the comments — it’s a 15 month old video, 2 hours ago someone took the time to come and write, “I hate spicks”

y: a lot of people perceive asians in america as very passive … the name “angry asian man” is a provocative title. “never seen such anger in an asian man” … my attitude toward comments is “fuck comments” … when you give people a voice anonymously, it empowers them to spread hate (total paraphrase) … don’t want to bother with that.

s: [on not allowing comments] you should run your space in social media however that makes it safe for you.

e: pros and cons to opening blog up to comments … pros, we want to create engaged community, cons, have lots of antis and crazies coming after us in pretty horrific way … once got attacked personally and called spin doctor. at first I didn’t know how to respond since it was such a personal and nasty attack. peers said, hey you’re doing good work. if people are spending so much time to come after you, it means you’re doing good work getting truth out there. wear it as a badge of honor.

“can social media end racism?”

y: no. social media itself will not end racism, but using it together across communities will help work toward ending racism.

p: social media is a tool, but there is no end racism app or we’d have pressed that button a long time ago. no one tool that will stop this system that’s been going on since the dawn of humanity. but we can use social media to reach out and find each other and change minds and hearts.

s: obviously, the answer is no. it’s the wrong question, though. we will always be imperfect as human beings and will always lean toward being prejudice at times. trying to counteract racism is like brushing your teeth, there will never be a point where you’ve done enough brushing your teeth and you’re finished with it. social media will be a great tool, but no finish line.

e: the other perspective is that this is a new space. there is a legacy and history that we can’t ignore, we can’t negate centuries of past history, but we can acknowledge the opportunity before us right now and say how can we use this new platform for engagement, and community. we need to take this space and make it different. if there is one thing I could leave this group with today, it is that we must really be aware so we can take it to the next level. I don’t think we can erase racism, but we can make massive strides. I think we have, but the answer can’t be no.

s: all of us are saying that we might not be able to be perfect, but we can do better. it’s a hopeful message.

“what social media can do to help end racism: spread knowledge, create refuge, mobilize base”

… spread knowledge …

y: I’m trying to convince my own community that racism exists. largely my community is about getting people to realize that things are happening. “this movie is whack, this guy on the radio said this, etc.” [the racism is] largely unchecked, and it shouldn’t be. much of the negative comments I have experienced in my community come from other asians saying, “hey, don’t rock the boat.” I’m not trying to say, “this gets my racist stamp of approval,” rather, I want to punctuate the point to make sure people get it.

s: one of the best things about social media is that every conversation creates a document. so there’s always a history you can go back and refer to. someone who’s new to the scene can go get that background education by seeing what’s been said before.

… creating refuge …

p: great to create a smaller space of people who are already anti-racist, so that’s one thing that we can take off the table. can’t take some of the conversations we have in our smaller spaces in the mainstream because there you get taken down the racism 101 level (“does racism still exist?”). small spaces = refuge for conversation.

… mobilizing base …

e: [shared example of her org. getting obama and mccain campaign to respond on record about latino issues during campaign by talking about it so much in local blogosphere it got attention of CNN and then caught attention of campaigns] we were able to do that by getting message out to base and having them keep carrying the torch and keep conversation going.

p: one of the best examples we’ve seen of mobilizing our base was the Jena 6… through blogs, sticking with it, documenting discrepancies, we covered it 9 months before it broke into the mainstream media and caught attention of more prominent activists. also, re: the Avatar movie, all asian main characters were cast with white actors… so lots of asian american communities have been keeping that kept conversation going… eventually they finally added an asian actor — as villain (“we’re always hustling backwards”)

s: [example about HOT 97 in NY playing racist song about tsunami victims, getting word out through grassroots networks on Internet, caused major response in blogosphere, so by next morning it got a half-hearted apology from radio station]

y: I live in LA, so never have a chance to listen to HOT 97 in NY. heard about it very shortly after it happened via web community. the movement went from local to national very quickly because of the Internet.

s: the web can take something local to global. easiest to get people to react to something with a compelling piece of media, but we need to find way to mobilize around substantive issues that are beyond just reacting to something racist someone said in the media.

audience question: “as we try to move discussion of public policy online, there will inevitably be racist comments … would you recommend that we try to moderate that?” (question is about tax payer funded site)

p: first question is, how diverse are you moderators? how you shape the conversation influences the image you project and what you get back. focus on outreach and make sure that people of color know about your forum. that will help with self policing.

audience question: “how do you get people talking when they are cross culture and don’t know the history of everyone in the room?”

s: no easy answer. defining the terms you use is a good first step. questions like “what is racism?” and “what is race?” have totally different meanings to different people.

y: it’s impossible to be all on the same page about any one issue. that is a whole other panel.

audience question: “definition of racism?”

s: beyond just what we feel, sentiment, it is important to realize there is the reality of centuries of institutional racism.

audience question: “what are the practices we use to encourage anti-racism? how do you promote the creation of a cadre?”

p: in terms of encouraging and creating best practices … trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon, all have our teaspoons saying, what do I do, what do I do.

e: the strategy that we have at nclr is to engage bloggers — both latino bloggers and pro-migrant bloggers — by sending them all the material we’re producing, and holding regular blogger conference calls. giving access and information to bloggers is important. can’t just be one voice.

Those who know me well know I am an Etsy addict. Anyone who has...

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:04:00 -0500

Those who know me well know I am an Etsy addict. Anyone who has dated me knows that I really like buying jewerly (almost exclusively of the unique and handmade variety). So, with that in mind, I recently attempted to make a ring for Kate. It’s a simple sterling silver ring made by twisting some silver wire around a ring mandrel. It came out alright (as you can see), though a bit smaller than I meant — so it’s unintentionally a pinky ring. I was following a tutorial from one of my favorite ring designers, Tamara McFarland, during my first foray into jewelry making.

What do you think?

New job

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:51:17 -0500

So, today I am starting a new job. I may still blog from time to time at various places around the web (I am a writer at heart, after all), but blogging is no longer my full-time gig.

As of today, I am officially the Community Manager and Product Evangelist at DandyID, an identity management startup based in my hometown of Providence, RI. It’s surreal to have a job with a real office — I have’t had one of those in a few years.

ReadWriteWeb (my old stomping grounds) has the scoop.

Expect me to do some pontificating here in the near(ish) future as I get my head into the identity space.

Some sort of stir fry sauce

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:40:00 -0500

I came up with this sauce for a stir fry the other day using what I had in the house. It was quite tasty, so I thought I’d share.

Just mix together the following:

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. corn starch
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch black pepper

You can use this sauce over whatever you want to stir fry. When I made this, I used a mixture of veggies: asparagus, snap peas, carrots, yellow onion, and yellow pepper. I chopped up the vegatables into bite sized pieces stir fried them in peanut oil in a wok. I poured the sauce over everything at the end and cooked a few minutes more.

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed...

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:11:00 -0500

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon’s “bed-in” phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it.

Via.

Creamy Wild Rice and Barley Stew

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:44:42 -0500

I made up this recipe tonight for dinner, and it came out well, so I thought I’d share. Feel free to let me know how it went to suggest any changes.

1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup pearl barley
1 cup long grain and wild rice
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 cups water
1 vegetable or chicken bullion cube
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil or butter until translucent. Add barley and cook for 1 minute. Add broth, water, bullion cube, cream of mushroom soup, rice, parsley, basil, and pepper flakes. Bring to boil and stir to combine. Reduce heat and let simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally (or until rice and barley is cooked). The soup will reduce and get very thick, so if it reduces too quickly, you can add more water (or a little bit of milk). Salt and pepper to taste.

(Note: The only wild rice my supermarket sold was in a long grain and wild rice mix kind of like rice pilaf. I just used that and tossed the seasoning packet.)

Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:15:00 -0500

Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing: If you like funny things, then read this. It’s probably funny, and definitely a thing.

Don't sneeze. Smallest. Sculptures. Ever.

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:44:22 -0500

Don't sneeze. Smallest. Sculptures. Ever.

TigerLaunch is cool

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:17:00 -0500

A few days ago I posted about my experiences with my new(ish) Mac. I wrote a long list of things I really dig about it, and things I am not so keen on.

One of the things I was less than thrilled about is that there is no easy way to access all of your applications. Browsing the Apps folder is clumsy, and the Dock quickly gets overcrowded. (I especially don’t want launch icons cluttering the Dock for applications I only use once every few days or so, such as Skype or VLC or iDVD or Transmission. I want my Dock reserved for the applications I use every day: Thunderbird, Vienna, TextMate, Firefox, Photoshop, Adium, Preview, Word, etc.)

A lot of people suggested that I use QuickSilver, which is a text-based app launcher. However, instead I ended up giving TigerLaunch a try. TigerLaunch comes from the NewsGator folks and adds an editable applications menu at the top of the screen near the clock. Perfect! Just what I need.

QuickSilver seemed like overkill. I don’t need a way to more quickly launch apps — the Dock works fine for my needs since once I have my core set up apps open I generally leave them open all day. What I needed was a way to more quickly find and launch the apps that I only use once in awhile. TigerLaunch fits the bill.

Now, my only gripe — TigerLaunch has no built in option to have it launch automatically on startup. I am sure there must be a way to tell OS X which programs to launch when the computer starts up, but that’s not something I know how to do. Anyone out there have an idea?

Update: Kelli showed me how to do it. :) Thanks, Kelli!

I knew she was up to something.

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:54:21 -0500

I knew she was up to something.

What I must be for Halloween next year. (The giant gnome, not...

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:20:00 -0500

What I must be for Halloween next year. (The giant gnome, not either of the people next to him.)

Via.

Video

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:12:48 -0500

My Mac

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:21:00 -0500

I’m hesitant to call myself a “Mac convert” — I used Macs when I was film school at Ithaca College and was the “support guy” in the Mac lab at the Unversity of Rhode Island, plus I have not developed any sort of fanboyism or brand loyalty to Apple. I did, however, recently purchase my first Mac. I early September I bought a Macbook (a plain vanilla white one with an extra gig of RAM, a couple of weeks before the refresh). Now that its been a couple of months I thought I’d put a few impressions down on paper.

I am willing to admit that I really like the Macbook — I am not willing to say I am a Mac users for life. I fully intend to check out Windows 7 for my next laptop, and from reading early reports I’m pretty excited about it.

Things I love about my Mac

It wakes up from sleep mode almost instantly. Vista and XP — not so much. Coming from the PC world I am used to having to wait 30-60 seconds for my PC to rebuild the desktop from saved data and then about 15 seconds to connect to wifi. With my Mac, as soon as I open it, it wakes up from sleep mode in an instant, and connects to the nearest wifi network in just a few seconds more.
Spaces. I only just found out about this feature, which I guess comes from Linux. I haven’t had a chance to use it too much, but what I have done has been very useful.
Hot corners. As nice as alt+tab (er cmd+tab) is for switching windows, I am finding that the show and hide windows hot corners are great. Use them all the time and miss them when on Windows.
Battery life and wifi. This isn’t Mac specific, but compared to the Sony laptop I was using, my new MacBook has a much better time getting (and staying) connected to weak conference wifi and has awesome battery life (about 3.5h on average — compared to 1.5h on the Sony). That was a godsend at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York in September.
Cool software. There is definitely some cool Mac only software (like Scrivener and Textmate) that Windows users miss out on.
MagSafe power connector. That really is quite nice.
Two finger scroll. Also really cool. And I am guessing that the multi-touch on the new Mac laptops is also pretty awesome, but I haven’t had the chance to duck into the local Apple store to check it out (the mall is really crowded this time of year and no fun to be in).

Things that I don’t like so much about my Mac

No Start button. There’s no easy access to all your applications on the Mac. The dock gets cluttered really quickly if you add too much to it, and accessing the Apps folder isn’t quick. Yeah, I guess I could add an icon for the Apps folder to the Dock — but that’s messy. The Start menu is very handy and easy to miss when you don’t have one.
Dock gets in the way. I find myself accidentally clicking on icons on the doc and opening programs I don’t mean to open all the time. Maybe this is a learning curve thing — just training my brain not to click on that side of the screen until I am sure what I am clicking on — but that doesn’t happen when you launch programs from the Start menu. I didn’t happen with the Quick Launch bar either, since windows never occupied the same space as the task bar, as they can with the Dock. The same accidental activation thing happens with hot corners as well — thankfully, their use out weighs that annoyance.
Can only resize windows from the corner. Really, that gets annoying, though it’s a very minor issue.
Not enough cool software. Yeah, there are some great Mac-only programs I wish I had on windows, but also some great Windows only programs I wish I had on Mac. I still haven’t found a feed reader to replace FeedDemon (NetNewsWire sucks, trust me). Right now I am using Vienna, but it’s not as good. I have Parallels installed, and it is okay for occasional use, but was too much of a pain in the ass to get working (i.e., getting links in FeedDemon on Windows to open in Firefox on Mac consistently, or getting images saved in a graphics editor on Windows to appear on the desktop on Mac).
On the topic of software, Word 2008 on Mac is nowhere near as nice as Word 2007 on Windows. And Excel is barely usable. Good thing I have a couple of Windows machines and Office on all my computers.
Hovering the mouse over images doesn’t give information about them. Another minor one, but something I do miss from Windows.
No true Home/End/PgUp/PgDwn keys on the MacBook = stupid.
Case scratches if you look at it funny. Seriously, what are these things made of, butter? I guess this has been fixed with the newer aluminum model, but my previous generation MacBook was covered in scratches almost as soon as I got it home.
Less of a minor deal: one button is not as good as two buttons. Why can’t Apple learn that? I miss my right button. Two fingers + click is not the same thing. Cmd + click is not the same as middle click. They’re usable, and I am used to them, but it’s not the same, and not as good.
Lack of “Show Desktop” button. The hot corners thing to hide windows is, as I said, awesome. But it just slides the windows off to the side. Sometimes I want to minimize all windows, so then I can easily maximize a single window and interact with it and the desktop (like drag files between a folder and the desktop). I haven’t found an easy way to minimize all windows on a Mac (and without grouping on the Dock as there is on the taskbar, I am not sure I would always want to!). Instead, the best solution I have found is to use Spaces and open another desktop and just open the windows I need over there.

There are are probably other pros/cons that I am just not thinking of right now, but that’s a quick list.

Suffice it to say: I am happy with my new Mac, but certainly not a “convert” yet. :)

Um, who was the maverick? Obama won “Maverick”...

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:50:00 -0500

Um, who was the maverick? Obama won “Maverick” county in Texas in a landslide.

An unfortunate ad on YouTube. (The video is of Noel Gallagher...

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:40:30 -0400

An unfortunate ad on YouTube. (The video is of Noel Gallagher of Oasis speaking about how awful Britain’s growing knife crime problem is.)