RasterWeb!The folks over at the Oconomowoc Focus got in touch with me to ask a few questions about the popularity of stories on the interweb, all in relation to the crazy man threatens neighbor with sword after watching porn movie story…
The follow-up story, Nine-hour gap from ‘sounds’ to sword has a few bits from me mentioning page views and how news travels around the net.
I managed to mention Technorati, Boing Boing, and my old pal James Romenesko.
Ok, with less than two weeks to go before BarCampMadison, I think we’re really on a roll.
As of my posting this, we’ve got 99 people signed up (I’m sure this will break 100 shortly) and 39 sessions planned.
Some of the interesting topics: Drupal – Intro, Development, Bootstrap your site; How To Burn Your Business Into The Ground – Lessons in Entrepreneurship; How to get Angel and VC funding for my new venture?; Cyberpunk Philosophy.
It’s not all heavy lifting, there are also things like: Nintendo DS Meetup, a possible LAN party, and (if all goes well) Wii Fight Midwest!
If you haven’t signed up for BarCampMadison yet, do so now!
More appropriately, I’m back using Linux on the desktop. (A subject that was written about in many posts, many years ago…)
So today was my first full day using Debian as a desktop OS and it went pretty well. I still prefer Mac OS X for the desktop, but Linux still beats the hell out of Windows. My editor (yes, I am still using jEdit) worked quite well. In fact, it probably works better on Linux than on Mac OS X. Firefox (er, Iceweasel) is my browser of choice, and Gaim is, um, not Adium but it will work. And terminal is tabbed, like iTerm, so that’s good.
I don’t have to worry about audio/video stuff since I’m just doing development (and my iBook is always handy) but I’m guessing I may have to fire up The Gimp at some point…
Luckily, for my main tools (web, email, editor, terminal, etc.) I’ve typically stuck with things that are open-source and cross-platform. Firefox over Safari, jEdit over TextMate, and so on. This has allowed me to be put in front of a Windows machine, a Mac, or even a Linux box, and been able to use familiar tools. It also helps since I typically use 3 or 4 different Macs, so licensing isn’t a big concern.
Don’t get me wrong… If I had a choice, I would have chose to have a machine running OS X. Not because of the eye-candy or the (supposed) sex appeal, but because my productivity would be so much higher. I’m just an OS X user, having used it daily for the last 6 years or so…
I will miss Interarchy for file transfers though! Any recommended clients for Linux?
WhereCamp is the unconference for geohackers. Think of it as the open-source version of the Where 2.0 conference.
It’s happening in London, but we are hoping to also have it happen in the US at the same time.
It’s all still very early, but if it interests you, check out wherecamp.pbwiki.com
And if you have an idea for a logo, see the Logo page. Below is my contribution…
I’m still convinced that geolocative services are on the verge of getting huge. It’s just a matter of time…
Emma wanted to use the gift card she got for Xmas to buy a GameCube game, and she just randomly picked Animal Crossing… We had no idea what we were in for.
Since Animal Crossing is pretty much a one player (at a time) game, her and Maddy take turns, and sometimes play each other’s character, so it’s building cooperation skills, +1 for that.
I’ve mainly been watching, and not playing much, but the game fascinates me, and I wanted to learn more about it, so I read the Wikipedia Animal Crossing (GameCube) article and told the kids what I found there. Now they are shaking every tree and trying to avoid being stung by bees. Last night Emma asked if she could get up at 5AM and start playing. I told her 6AM would be early enough, sadly she discovered that Nook’s Cranny was not open that early.
I keep asking the kids if they can jump off the cliff or hit other characters in the head with the shovel, but so far neither has happened.
There is an Animal Crossing Community site, and it looks like the original game site is still around, but there is a new version for the Nintendo DS called Wild World. (Both Schlomo and Phil Wilson seem to be DS Animal Crossing fans.)