lyle e dodge

I support an open society.  I believe that the more open people are and the more they share with the world, the better they become.  Of course, it puts one in a vulnerable place by exposing too much.  On the flip side of being "open" I also support personal privacy.  I think the direction the internet is going will allow more people to intercommunicate in a semi-free and semi-private environment.  Self-expression is important and this latest artform is really exciting to me.

As part of this open concept and something that’s exciting to me is that I’ve accepted a position with Terra Resource Group in Everett, WA.  I’ll be reviewing a formal offer letter in the next few days and negotiating the finer points.  My work with Terra will include pretty much everything related to Information Technology. At this point it’s part-time but I plant to continue working part-time for WWC remotely. 

Using an alphabet soup of technolgoy like VPN, VoIP, IM, Email, and Video Conferencing I can virtually be on campus.  In addition we make extensive use of BaseCamp (for project management) and Eventum (for issue tracking) so we can more easily mange a workgroup spread across the globe—we even have a student working from Moscow. 

Lots of work to do to get ready for this move…some of which I enjoy other parts I loath.  All the best,

Hate is a strong word, but I loath the concept of a "first post". I read Slashdot a fair bit and everyone thinks they’r so cool when they make the illustrious "first post". Rah rah. And sure, this is my "first post" using a blogging client that’s integrated into a new "web browser" (Flock, which you really should checkout: http://www.flock.com/).

The term "web browser" should be used loosly here, as I consider Flock to be a "hybrid browser" combining the best of weblogging in the form of photos with flickr, blogging (several flavors) and a really advanced RSS feed and agregation system along with a really neat way of managing favorites. Oh, and slick integration with del.icio.us—I guess the list goes on, and I’m especially happy to see this browser come from the Firefox codebase. Rah rah.

Ok, so this "first post" was really just a weak attempt at having something to say. I post so rarely here that I’m not sure it’s worth it. But maybe antrhopologists will find these old blogs on old crashed hard drives when they dig us all up hundreds of years from now and wonder what in the world we were blathering on about. Speaking of blathering…good luck, and good night.

My latest fun project was setting up MythTV which is a really neat system for managing all your media right on your television. Basically, a TiVO on performance enhancing something-or-others. Allows me to watch, pause, rewind, and record Live TV through a tuner card in the computer. It also features a very easy-to-use scheduler for recording shows you like and it handles all your pictures, music, arcade games, weather, news, etc. It’s pretty swank. I hope to add multiple tuner cards so I can record 2 or more shows at once. We’ll have this moved into our swanky living-room soon so we can actually watch it on the TV. Right now it’s just on the computer cause I’m testing and have been for the last day or two. It’s fun.

For the curious, I installed Redhat Linux Fedora Core 4 to one of four 120 gigabyte hard-drives, so I’ll have at least 450 hours of video storage and that’s before any sort of tight compression. If you’re ever around my place, ask for a demo—it’s cool.

I’ve been thinking about the idea of "VideoBlogging" lately…basically a megamedia convergence of text, video, audio, and pictures.  Maybe fun, maybe lame but we’ll see how well I can put it together and if I can come up with any compelling content.  And this is the key.  PodCasting is fun…but not when the content is lame, and there’s plenty of that. We’re on the verge of a redefining of what is media as we know it.  The landscape is changing and it’s good to at least stay aware.

To that end I’m tinkering with a WebCam and would like to place it here on the site…but I need some better tools so this is just for fun experimentation now.  Add me to your IM and ping me if you have a comment on any funny face I might be making.

live.lyledodge.com

So, I love my linux experience. Frankly, Windows and Microsoft in general can go to hell. But…in all my forays into Linux I’ve come to understand something I’ve intuitvely known. As each new operating system “innovation” (for which Microsoft deserves no credit) there is a push-pull that just makes them all better.

So far now we’ve said “there will be no mainstream desktop linux” which is bull, but the pressure from Windows and OS X is certainly making all the linux systems more palatable. Anyhow, I’m rambling so i’ll conclude with the note that Mac OS X is “darn tootin cool”.

I took a 6 hour ‘nap’ tonight, it was great. But it reminded me that I’m not getting rest like I should. I’ve often tried to aim for an early enough bedtime to be functional the next day. And it seems the older I get, the more sleep I need to be useful. That stinks, but hey—it’s reality. Of course improving my health helps in that regard so we’re working on that too.

But this nap got me thinking about the concept of “sleep deficit” so I googled it and found an interesting article, albeit 5 years old, that you might like reading. It gives slackers everywhere hope!

I had this theory that I was going to post to my blog at least once a day this week.  Apparently yesterday I didn’t have much to say.  That and I was in front of a computer for only a few hours—instead of all day.  The rest of the day I was racking up gear for Campus Sound.  We just got a virtual ton of gear recently and getting it all racked up and wired is a big task.  Since Spring Jam is this weekend we’re getting things all ready for that—should be a good show.

Its nice when things at work go better than planned, yeah…rare, I know, but it happens.  Just recently, behind schedule, I started working on Cybersource (our new credit card processor) and it’s amazingly easy compared to what I anticipated.  I might even make some upgrades at the same time—dangerous but I like to live on the edge.

Oh, can’t miss it tonight—The Apprentice Finale.  We all know who’s going to win and I’m going to be pretty surprised if my pick fails to wrap it up.  As of late she’s just been a stellar performer, but we’ll see what tonight holds.  Why do I care about TV so much.  Probablly cause I was raised on He Man and Sesame Street. 

I just read an amazing article about how our new "always-on" society is starting to cause a glut of email, so much so that it rots your brain worse than pot—some say.  My good bud Nathan Redberg IM’d me the story link from SFGate.com.

If you’re not a fan of WordPress I think you’ll like what you find.  I’m going to be launching free, yes that’s right ZERO DOLLARS, WordPress hosting as part of my growing empire of hosting products.  Look for that announcement on Incosy.net, my company website.  Still unsure what to call it, like…I want a cool domain name that means something and is easy to remember…I have one in mind, where I can get the .com, .net, and .org of it.  That seems important to me, too bad I let incosy.com slip through my fingers.

Have a peaceful week!

The mystical ‘they’ always say that intense heat and pressure turns coal to diamonds.  Perhaps not true of humans.  Time management is a tough task, and something I’m not good at is saying no.  I hate to see people spend "too much money" and I hate to see them struggle so I often offer to help out when I’m already way too busy.  So on top of prioritizing things that are important to me, I should work to say no more.

Completely off topic from that little mini-rant is an article I read on pbs.org. Bob Cringely is a really interesting technology observer and I always enjoy reading what he has to say.  This week it’s on concept he calls inflection point.  He takes a fascinating look at how a few large tech companies have just recently changed the media landscape forever.  They’re subtle on their face, but important in the grand scheme.

Now, I’m off to make good on improving my time management skills. 

I spent 7 hours at WWC’s Fine Arts Center yesterday helping with the setup for a concert, running some of it, then tearing it all down. I’m beat—thankfully I had help. But, it was a pretty good show and I got to try out a bunch of new gear we bought for Campus Sound. Nice sounding stuff, I’m pretty jazzed about that aspect.

The band that played is called Daydreamer. They’re from Bellingham, WA, and play in the northwest mostly. Check them out.

So much to do today, I should quit playing with WordPress. I’m trying to find nice themes and cool plugins and it takes a fair bit of time—addicting in fact.