• Search

  Enter your search terms Submit search form

  Web Rusted Bicycle

• Admin

  • Login
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML

For the past four months, my main job included taking care of the boy a few days a week and catching up on episodes of Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, and Torchwood. And keeping up with the Internet.

So I started a new job this week and found myself effectively unplugged. Without realizing it, I’d come to dread the daily trudge through my ever-growing list of RSS feeds. There is some truly interesting writing and insight online. But there is also a lot of recursive linking and repetitive information. I probably wouldn’t read an article about thirteen ways to show Facebook contacts in the Windows Vista sidebar. I definitely don’t want to see the same link on four different sites.

After a few days off the Interweb, I felt refreshed. Liberated. Much better. Better enough, in fact, to venture back online to see what I missed. I opened up Google Reader and found I just wasn’t interested. The spell had been broken.

The saying goes that a project will expand to fill out the time allotted. For me, I’ve found that without Real Work, I’ll fill that node of my productivity with trying capture a ton of online content. I like the fact that I can keep learning things about myself–even if it’s not positive.

I dug a little deeper over the weekend. I had a bookmarks folder entitled “Good Reads” for a bunch of blogs that I had found interesting, but not compelling enough to add to my RSS feeds. I started poking through this list a bit and found a series of snapshots of my online life. I could remember what had drawn me to each site, what particular project or hobby had put the site on my radar. And I could also remember exactly why I wasn’t interested in these subjects any longer.

There are a few things going on here that make me think the web is starting to evolve a bit. We’ve had an explosion of voices online thanks to all the well-equipped publishing tools. Everyone has a venue for their opinions, and everyone has a choice for inputs other than mainstream media. Myself included. But perhaps the novelty may be wearing off. I can imagine how other may be experiencing the same fatigue under the burden of all this content. Maybe the whole thing will collapse. Or maybe a few strong voices will emerge, effectively becoming the mainstream of the web.

Regardless, it’s a true first world problem when we need a word for those sites we find interesting, but not interesting enough to add to our RSS feeds.

Or maybe it’s just winter in Ohio and I’m ready to go outside.

There’s been a bit of buzz recently about The Commons Flickr pool from the Library of Congress. The Library has posted some of its collection on Flickr so people can access part of the archives and also help in tagging the photos. I like this idea. Not only do we get to see some pretty amazing historical photographs, but this effort is a great example of what the web is good for.

Personally, I’ve been pretty blown away by these pictures. In particular, I find the 1930s-40s in Color collection astounding. I’ve seen plenty of Depression and WWII era photos before, but all in black and white. These images pop in color, the people moving from Historical Subject to Real People. Kind of makes it all hit home. These were all real people, and they look pretty much like we do now.

Anyone with a significant amount of digital photographs and an organizational preoccupation will know what kind of effort can be involved in organizing a collection can be. Imagine having millions of pictures. Imagine having millions of pictures that you didn’t take, of people you don’t know, of places you’ve never seen. How do you organize that? So the Library of Congress has outsourced the work to a group of digital photography enthusiasts. This is harnessing the collaborate nature of the current web in a manner we don’t see much, especially with government institutions. And Flickr users are, on the whole, a communal and friendly lot. Everyone wins.

However, some people are idiots.

Take a look at this picture. Or this one. What kind of person would leave insensitive and rude remarks on photos like these. It’s almost as if we need some oversight to block this kind of digital defacement–but that kind of goes against the spirit of the network, right?

Here’s the thing: We have all these new open communities on the web. People interact with one another in ways thought impossible just a few years ago. Especially young people. The freedom and lack of rules really foster this type of communication. But when the freedom is abused — as in making off these off color comments — it makes our entire society look ignorant. When you see a picture of a guy whose face is black with coal dust from working 12 hours in a mine with inadequate safety equipment, and then proceed to make a joke about the guy’s outfit, the entire group suffers. Suddenly, anyone using Flickr looks like a self-absorbed dolt with absolutely no sense of history.

Those of us on the web today are a pretty lucky bunch. On the whole, we have a lot of the things we want, get enough to eat, don’t lose sleep over bands of marauding raiders. But this wasn’t necessarily the case for people in these photos. This isn’t necessarily the case for a lot of people in the world today. We probably shouldn’t forget that.

My wife is an extremely hard worker. Recently she was awarded an iPod Touch from her company for her work on a difficult project. With this, my wife has taken a decisive lead in our household iPod arms race. My third generation iPod is getting a little long in the tooth, so I’m auditioning for replacement in the not so distant future. This little thing goes with me everywhere, making commutes and waiting rooms enjoyable. It would be nice to be able to watch video and maybe look at some pictures once in awhile. However, I seem to have trouble committing to a new model.

On one hand, I like the idea of packing up every media file I own to cart around on an 160Gb iPod. But do I need to carry everything with me all the time? Don’t I have a lot of music that I never listen to? And how often am I away from my computer for syncing anyway? Wouldn’t the sleek form factor of a new Nano much more convenient?

My wife complicated this first world problem further when she walked in the door with this new iPod Touch. To be honest, I never really considered the iPod Touch. Until I touched it, that is.  I just didn’t get it. But once I started flipping through album covers on this device, something clicked. This little object had been solely a music player a few years ago. But now it’s evolving into something much more.

It’s tough at times for our analog brains to make the leap to digital. What was once a music player has evolved into a music and video player, photo viewer, email client, web surfing tool, online mapping, etc. While I was preoccupied with the device as a media player, I was missing out on the idea that devices like these are going to move into a more central role in the lives of many people. Instead of something attached to our computer, these devices become what we use instead of our computers. The relationship between our devices has changed.

What made me pause when I first ran a greasy finger across the iPod Touch’s screen was that it reminded me of something: one device to rule them all. For years, I’ve fantasized about a portable device that would become the center of our computing world. The idea of a work computer and a home computer always frustrated me. This is all my data, so I should be able to get at it anywhere, right? I was totally surprised when someone had created this device while I wasn’t paying attention.

The environment I envision looks like this:

• All your data (documents, music, pictures, etc) exists on the device.
• While on the go, you can access the data in limited ways: listen to music, view pictures, go online, edit text and spreadsheets, enter contacts and appointments, etc.
• Once you plug the device into any computer, the device becomes an attached drive. You can use the applications on the computer to do more advanced file manipulation: edit photos, advanced word processing, watch movies on the larger monitor, etc. You also back up the device while connected.

This vision appeals to me so much because it would allow one to carry one’s whole digital life in a small package. You could use any available computer without ever leaving your own little environment. What’s more, you could actually pull out the item on the bus and access the data. How very Cory Doctorow!

More classic PDAs got close to this. Very close. But not with the grace and UI of the iPod Touch. Even if you can’t edit Word  documents on the Touch — or even access it as an external drive — the UI metaphor still comes closer to my vision than any PDA I’ve used in the past.

The iPod Touch isn’t the end all. There are still significant hurdles. There is no file manipulation on the Touch. And all the music is locked away in iTunes. And  even 32 Gb isn’t nearly enough room for everything. Further, flash memory isn’t well-suited for lots of read/writes. Still, with the software development kit coming from Apple this month, it may not be long until we see a word processing application for the Touch. It may not be long until we truly have a device from Science Fiction in our hands.

I like to see to see people who are way into something. Maybe it’s model trains. Maybe it’s political punditry. Whatever flips your switch, I say go for it. All the way. Too far is where you always want to go, to paraphrase Patton Oswalt. We have enough people in this nation hanging out in front of the TV, never following a passion for anything.

The downside if this can be a loss of perspective. It’s easy enough to forget that the rest of the world doesn’t care that there were significant storyline anachronisms in the final season of Farscape.

This is why I want to applaud Leo Laporte. TWIT (This Week in Tech) is Leo’s wonderful podcast featuring a number of minds sharing insightful views about weekly technology news. But even these folks can lose sight of the larger picture at times. However, I was pleased to see the panel in TWIT #129 step outside the fold a bit. The group was discussing the new Mac laptop, the ultra thin MacBook Air. In general, they were unimpressed. But the interesting part came when Leo noted how the current economic downturn puts such a fetish device in perspective. It’s not often that you see people downplay the role of their interests in the bigger picture, especially people who make their living in these fields.

Perspective is always good to see, especially in journalism.

But I still want a MacBook Air.

As I walked into the BMV, I remembered that they only take checks or cash. I’d thought about this the other night and reminded myself to take along the checkbook. Then I promptly forgot.

I don’t like checks. I pay everything I can electronically. The whole act of writing checks feels arcane. The idea of sitting down with a pile of bills and book of stamps, of making tiny ledger entries in the check register, of doing addition and subtraction, feels completely inefficient. It feels like a ritual. A chore of adulthood. Something you’d do in the 1970’s: sit down at the kitchen table after work, loosen your wide tie, run the numbers, argue with the wife about money, and then suck down a scotch in a really ugly glass. Not really my style.

Likewise, I don’t carry much cash. I don’t spend a whole lot of money in my day to day routine. And due to my legendary lack of self-control, I find that if I do have cash, I’ll probably spend it. Most places where I might partake in a little commerce take debit cards these days anyway. There’s a threefold benefit for me. One: If I have to take out the card, I think about the purchase a little more and am less apt to spend frivolously. Two: All transactions go into Quicken, where I track them by category. I can analyze our spending patterns and budgets like the organization freak I am. Three: Until I spend it, the cash remains in our bank account, soaking up .0000115% interest. Hey, every little bit helps, right? These days, everyone should be as fiscally responsible as they can.

Beyond these benefits, I see checks and cash as old and insecure technology. People have been counterfeiting bills and washing checks forever. Say what you will about hackers snatching money out of your online bank account, you have to admit that there is a higher level of skill with techno crimes than with someone mugging you for your folding money. And when something is more difficult, you have fewer potential players. And with a smaller pool of thieves, less risk for each individual to be victimized.

I’ll never be a cash-only luddite. Not until the grid goes down, anyway. And then currency will be gunpowder, children, and flour.

So I was a little annoyed at the BMV. I couldn’t understand why the county would not embrace a modern banking method. I can walk into most fast food restaurants and use a debit card, but not a government agency? Wouldn’t they get their money sooner from card transaction instead of check? Wouldn’t this result in an extra $0.004 in their coffers from some banking wizardry?

I received my digital comeuppance later that same day. A letter from my school informed me that my private information, including my Social Security Number, may have been compromised. I may be open to identity theft.

Ours is a more technological age. But still vulnerable. Efficiency has a price, it seems. The crimes are more complicated–and damaging–than robbery and forgery. Our system hasn’t quite figured out what these crimes are, let alone how to stop them. Let alone how to prevent them. On one hand, I have to believe that an electronic transaction between two banks with no human interaction is safer than a paper document delivered through the mail.

On the other hand, I want to crawl into a hole and come out when it’s 1910.

There was a lot of talk about the national ID cards this week. There’s an argument against these cards based on civil liberties, that our country is one where no one has to “show their papers”. But I’ll go one better: these cards won’t work. Our government is not equipped, at any level, to make any kind of secure identification document. The systems between different bureaucracies are not integrated, not standardized. Any attempts at communication between these systems will introduce more risk: more connection points for intrusion, more contracted software work from private firms, more replication of data on more servers. The very likely result is to expose personal data for every citizen in a one-stop shop for identity thieves.

Should we believe that unrelated agencies can secure data when the BMV still won’t process debit cards?

Think about your Social Security number. These numbers where introduced in 1936. This was before television, let alone online consumer databases. Over the past seventy years, these numbers have been used for everything from tax forms to hospital records. When you get a new job, what do they ask for? These numbers have been made useless by their ubiquity. And think about the card itself. No picture, no identifiers, no laminate. And delivered through the U.S. Postal Service. These numbers are ruined.

Despite the complete insecurity of Social Security Numbers, these numbers remain the significant identifier for us as U.S. citizens. I remain unconvinced that our bureaucracy can create a truly secure and useful document. Fix these numeric identifiers (scrap them and start over), and we would be a big step closer to securing everyone’s identity. Fix these, and maybe we’ll see if the government is capable of organizing a new ID system.

That is, right after we can get the BMV to accept debit cards.

• Categories

  • Books
  • Games
  • Links
  • Music
  • Obliques
  • Organization
  • Site
  • Technology
  • Television
  • Uncategorized

• Archives

  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008

• My Photos

  www.flickr.com
  

  This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from mgdennis. Make your own badge here.
• 
•