Author Archives: JustinLL

My Life, On The Line — Plurk

It’s just like Twitter, but it’s the new kid on the block.  Oh my.  Here we go again, and it’s called Plurk.com.  Now you can write everything you’re doing every minute and, if you have friends, they can comment back.  Sweet.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of time-wasting social communities like this.  It just cracks me up that there’s always something newer.  But is it better?  Maybe.

The real problem is getting all your friends and followers from twitter to follow you to Plurk.  Otherwise you’re just writing to yourself.  (I guess that’s not so bad.)  Once you have some friends and such, then you can get to plurking, whatever that means exactly.  I do enjoy having  another place to collect tiny faces.  I get a kick out of that.

The layout is more appealing, and you can earn karma, which is like pretend money used for buying enhancements to your profile page.  (Collecting things is great way to hook people with an addictive personality.)  So far there doesn’t seem to be a stand alone client (like twhirl for twitter,) so you have to keep a browser page open.  And they’ve yet to implement support for my mobile browser.

Anyhow, I don’t know the load to their system, but maybe the service will have a better uptime and fewer hassles than that other service.  In the meanwhile, we’ll probably continue to use plurk as intermittently as the others.

For The Cost Of A Dime

Every so often I’ll start thinking about getting rid of just about everything in my apartment that I don’t really need and that wouldn’t be a hassle to unload.  Essentially, I only need a computer with an Internet connection, and a place to keep food fresh.  Maybe a few other things, but not the point.

Thompology suggested I sell all my DVDs on Amazon.com.  When he sold his this way, it was a quick and painless process which resulted in some extra cash.  Sounds great.  I want the easy process with very little effort, and I could use the extra money to further expand the research of my vice.  (Whatever that may be.)

I grab a few DVDs from my shelf, figuring I’d try it with a few before bothering with the entire collection.  No point in listing these things if no one is going to respond, right?  The first was The Matrix, which, if I was willing to, I could sell for $0.46 plus $2.98 shipping and handling.  Wow!  Not going to buy too much with that.  So I skip that one figuring it isn’t worth my time for $0.46.  I list Dumb and Dumber, which I can sell for $2.50 + $2.98 S&H.  I figure this amount is worth my time to start clearing the shelf.  I start entering all the information to set up my account and post the listing, when Amazon tells me their commission fee for this sale is $2.17.  Are you kidding me?  A joke and a half, surely.  But no, it’s not a joke, this is what they will take from my sale.  Fine, I’ll take the $0.33 difference since I’ve started the process.

The listing posts.

An order is placed within a few hours.

I make my way to the post office the following day to package and ship the order.  After spending $3.41 on an envelope and postage, it tuns out I am $0.10 in the hole on this transaction.  All I could do was laugh as I paid the fee, I’d come too far to turn back.  Not to mention, I’d already written on the envelope.   I say, “screw you, amazon dot com.”

Maybe this is just their way of teaching me I don’t know how to make money.  I suppose that’s not a bad lesson for the cost of a dime.

Latest Addition To The BLOC: GV Hurley’s

I don’t know how to say this, but GV Hurley’s is probably the only place worth spending your time and money when it comes to nightlife on J street between 27th and 28th.  What can I say, I’m a fan of the place.  GV Hurley’s, with its classy and elegant style, fits in nicely among the other nearby eateries, but a wide swooping bar sets this place apart and above others on ‘The BLOC’ .

Let’s not forget to metion the staff is friendly, knows their game, and are familiar to boot (one of our favorite folks is now tending bar.)  The food is tasty and drinks are reasonably priced.  Normally you wouldn’t find me somewhere so far from the Streets of London , but this new restaurant and bar has my attention.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.


View Larger Map

Latest Addition To The BLOC: GV Hurley's

I don’t know how to say this, but GV Hurley’s is probably the only place worth spending your time and money when it comes to nightlife on J street between 27th and 28th.  What can I say, I’m a fan of the place.  GV Hurley’s, with its classy and elegant style, fits in nicely among the other nearby eateries, but a wide swooping bar sets this place apart and above others on ‘The BLOC’ .

Let’s not forget to metion the staff is friendly, knows their game, and are familiar to boot (one of our favorite folks is now tending bar.)  The food is tasty and drinks are reasonably priced.  Normally you wouldn’t find me somewhere so far from the Streets of London , but this new restaurant and bar has my attention.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.


View Larger Map

Content Battle Copy Copy Right Battle Content

I’ll admit, and you should be honest, who isn’t excited now that they’re understanding why it was important for google to buy youtube?  I’m excited, that’s for sure.  This whole Viacom vs Youtube thing could never have ended well in the old days, which isn’t to say that it will now, but it couldn’t be any worse than youtube going at it alone.  They just didn’t have the resources to fight such an important battle.  Now that google is involved with all its internet pressence and deep pockets, we can watch this thing unfold for years to come.  What we ought to hope for, or at least what I hope for, is that by the time any sort of final decision is made, it won’t matter.  But loads and loads of money will still have been burned.  Woohoo!  That’s great for someone.  Not sure who, though.
To be fair, I’m not a huge fan of Youtube.  Not to imply that I’ve never made use of the service to host a home video, but I haven’t been able to get into the countless hours of wandering through pointless videos.  It’s not the same as wandering through countless hours of pointless web pages.  (Countable hours are much preferred.)
Again, to be fair, I’m not entirely against Viacom.  I understand their want for protecting their copyrighted content.  The stuff that brings in the money.  (That other stuff.)
So let’s revisit this in a few years and see if there’s been any progress.  I think for now we should focus on how and where all this content is distributed, rather than what the content actually is.  Heck, there will always be content.  Whether or not it’s worthwhile, that’s a million other opinions.  Let’s all say, “billions of handhelds, millions of users, thusands of data centers.”  Think about that cloud and smoke it up.

We've Been Tracking You

It’s true, we’ve been monitoring your cruise using Google Earth and Google Travel, and probably some other Google products, with which we are unfamiliar, but are using nonetheless. The photos are from two years ago, but we’re certain it’s the same ship, and it’s going about in the same way. (Route and speed.) Sometimes we can see folks up on deck, waving, and singing, probably, thinking they are kings of the world. Which isn’t the same as being a street king. That’s more like being a rouge cop, or a gang member. Perhaps part of some organized crime cartel. You don’t hear a whole lot about cartels anymore. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t know where I’d be that I’d hear about them. I’m around online, and from time to time, but you know how it is, you start reading comics in the morning and then before you know it — it’s lunch, and, well, who has time for that sort of thing? Not me, my man. That’s all I’m saying.

Anyhow, there isn’t too much time left, although there’s plenty of space, so we’ll have to leave it at this. In the meanwhile, thanks for stopping by and having a few. We all back here hope that you enjoyed your trip over there.

We’ve Been Tracking You

It’s true, we’ve been monitoring your cruise using Google Earth and Google Travel, and probably some other Google products, with which we are unfamiliar, but are using nonetheless. The photos are from two years ago, but we’re certain it’s the same ship, and it’s going about in the same way. (Route and speed.) Sometimes we can see folks up on deck, waving, and singing, probably, thinking they are kings of the world. Which isn’t the same as being a street king. That’s more like being a rouge cop, or a gang member. Perhaps part of some organized crime cartel. You don’t hear a whole lot about cartels anymore. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t know where I’d be that I’d hear about them. I’m around online, and from time to time, but you know how it is, you start reading comics in the morning and then before you know it — it’s lunch, and, well, who has time for that sort of thing? Not me, my man. That’s all I’m saying.

Anyhow, there isn’t too much time left, although there’s plenty of space, so we’ll have to leave it at this. In the meanwhile, thanks for stopping by and having a few. We all back here hope that you enjoyed your trip over there.

GTC West – Governor Schwarzenegger Speaks

After being introduced by the CEO of GTC, and then again by California CIO, Teri Takai, the honorable Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed a room bursting at the seams with IT folks eager to snap photos and record video with their latest and greatest hand held devices. He cracked some jokes, warned us to keep an eye on elderly neighbors while the heatwave is passing through, and said a little about our great State and its current state. Pointing out that the State lacks the necessary infrastructure to adequately support its residents.

That’s it. There wasn’t a whole lot going on. Most of the folks left when Arnold left. I guess not everyone was interested in hearing Scott McNealy speak about…well, I’m not sure, because I left. Doh!

All in all, the conference is a good use of a few hours of your time if you have it to spare. It’s free to attend, so you can’t beat the price, and you’ll meet a bunch of new folks eager to sell you things for your business. They’re going to have to spring for some drinks at the bar, though, if they expect to get anything done.

GTC West – Wednesday Highlights

GTC stands for Government Technology Conference.  It’s a time for a large group of people working in the IT field to gather in one place with all their favorite vendors, as well as enjoy lectures from a few keynote speakers.  The most notable at this year’s confrence being California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (speaking tomorrow morning.)

OpenDNS.com — Perhaps the most useful thing I took away from visiting with a variety of vendors.  There are two server IPs they use, and after configuring my network to utilize these addresses, managing where my office network traffic goes becomes much much easier.  Management is a breeze once the online account is set up for tracking stats and configuring access.  I can easily block entire categories (adult themes, social networking, nudity, etc.) from being accessed by anyone using one of my networks.

YouTube — Offers up 10 hours of content every minute.  I don’t know if this is true, but I could believe it.  It came up in conversation while I was talking with a software developer from IBM who is currently working on a video-mining project.  (He writes code to search video.)  I had never given much thought to it, I just assumed there was a lot of data moving around, but 10 hours every minute is an insane amount.

Pay It If You Have It

I hadn’t given much thought to the taxes paid by other people until this week when I started talking about how I just sent mine in Sunday, and I was surprised with how many people told me they’d already sent theirs in, received a refund, and spent it. Which makes me think that if I receive a refund, then I need to spend it. I’m thinking gigantic party “down by the river on a Friday night. Pyramid of cans in the pale moon light.” Who’s with me?

Stupid taxes. Ah, not really. I can go either way on this one. It’s not very exciting. Except that today is the last day if you didn’t request an extension. It’s my understanding, though, that the extension doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay by today, just that you have more time to complete the paperwork. But, if you’ve completed enough paperwork to know you have to pay, why not just send in the entire package? Plenty of reasons, I’m sure.

All is well.