CogBlogged from ‘September, 2011’

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by cj berry Every other sentence in this post is going to be a disclaimer that I am NOT criticizing the newest efforts of the ds106 course being drawn out by Michael B Smith. Can I repeat– I am NOT criticizing the newest efforts of the ds106 course being drawn out by Michael B Smith. Once more– I am NOT criticizing the newest efforts of the ds106 course being drawn out by Michael B Smith. One can tell from the opening that Journey to the Center of the Internet is going to be something cinematic, weird, and open ended, all of my favorite ingredients. It is everything that your typical online course locked inside a Bbox is not, everything that most other of these spray of newly minted MOOCs are not. At the same time, I could only follow the [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog That is Alan 1.0 as in 1.0 years old. I’ve had a bittersweet time revisiting the boxes and carefully organized albums, envelopes of stuff Mom had hung on to. Here I think I am some hot shit for collecting media, and Mom has been doing it for decades. First of all, I did not even remember this Mother’s Day card I made for her cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Why I Love My Mother I love you because you’re sweet And you make good meat. If I get stung by a bee you will help me. I love you because you take care of Who? Me of course! Maybe some day you might get me a horse! I love you do you? Guess who gave this to you? I, the person who LOVES YOU! Alan [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog This cassette tape came zooming out of the past, right from 1976, to me at my sister’s house– she had found it this past summer while cleaning up at my Mom’s house. Yep, on these slender piece of ribbon, 35 years old of magnetized particles, stored the audio of my squeaky punk 13 year voice doing my bar mitzvah performance in Baltimore. This surely needed to be aired on ds106 radio for 6 people to hear. I did not have access to equipment to digitized directly, so I had to set up my mp2 recorder in front of the speaker, the audio volumes were way over. Big deal. Here it is right out of the 1970s! cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Alan’s Bar Mitzvah (1976) When I played it back, I had to listen a [...]

In our family lore is the battle of the grilled cheese sandwich, waged between my sisters and I one summer day when I was maybe 8. The record is muddy as the accounts of the conflict disagree. Mom had preserved some of the artifacts, which now come to light and judgement. The evidence is found in a special envelope… cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog The details are still vague; I believe our mother asked us to each write a recording of the events. My sister’s account, typed out on a full page letter, paint a side which I still dispute. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog The letter, un-edited– Mom, I’m writing this letter on behalf of your loving (?????) bratty son. He has’nt stoped being a brat all day. I can honestly say (and this is not a lie) that [...]

Just to prove to Andy Rush that you can publish from storify to your own blog and have all the content there. This was done with the One-click publishing at storify that I connected to my blog. This is how a business can make a customer feel valued- tweeting back in a way that you know it is a person behind the tweet. My sister and I were at BWI airport and opted to eat lunch at Phillips Seafood. Growing up in Baltimore and going to Ocean City every year, the old restaurant there had many good memories. It seemed like a natural choice to have lunch at this place inside the Southwest terminal. So I checked in via Foursquare… “ Crab cakes, Hon (@ Phillips Famous Seafood) [pic]: http://4sq.com/nC3Xko cogdog September 7, 2011 Imagine my surprise when seconds later I got a reply from @Phillips Seafood “ @cogdog Yum, [...]

Do you remember the Negropontism of bits vs atoms (from Being Digital) The best way to appreciate the merits and consequences of being digital is to reflect on the difference between bits and atoms. While we are undoubtedly in an information age, most information is delivered to us in the form of atoms: newspapers, magazines, and books (like this one). Our economy may be moving toward an information economy, but we measure trade and we write our balance sheets with atoms in mind… In the information and entertainment industries, bits and atoms often are confused. Is the publisher of a book in the information delivery business (bits) or in the manufacturing business (atoms)? The historical answer is both, but that will change rapidly as information appliances become more ubiquitous and user-friendly… Other media will become digitally driven by the combined forces of convenience, economic imperative, and deregulation. And it will [...]

In this case, Calvin is Google and I might be the target. Let’s say, if you own a Chevy or Ford truck (I am the latter), you may have your preference for Calvin Peeing Stickers. It long predates Mac vs PC, so don;t f**** with me by giving me Chevy when I seek Ford. Huh? It starts with my own stupidity. At one of my stops, while borrowing a hosts washer dryer, I managed to fully wash and dry my electric key, and it was fried. Horrors, I had to go old school analog key these past few weeks! With a free afternoon here in Baltimore, I decided to look for a Ford dealer, so I used my iphone to search for Ford near Catonsville MD (where I am). The closest result was labeled “Miller Brothers Ford, Inc” Imagine my surprise, after driving through some nasty heavy rain, to find [...]

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by Christian O. Harris I marvel that people still get regular use out of a small hack I started back in 2003, when I was first learning about RSS– Feed2JS keeps on humming. It ran a number of years on an Apple XServe in the IT rack at Maricopa Community Colleges as jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu (ugh long URLS). I talked to someone who still works there back in May and Rod said the thing is still on the rack. Anyhow, some nice folks (Aaron Axelson) lent a hand for years by offering me free hosting at his ISP. They were bought out by a larger fish, and last Friday I got messages asking me what was wrong with the site. Apparently the new owners want to yank the server, and end the free lunch. Thankfully they were willing to spot me a [...]

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by miuenski “Who are we when we write online?” asks Claudia Ceraso in Some Thoughts on Identity- Particularly Mine. This timing is interesting, as tomorrow I am scheduled to talk to Claudia on Skype for the first time. We’ve connected online since 2007, but only via twitter/blogs etc. It was a really touching email she sent after the new of my Mom’s passing that, in the middle of my own travel odyssey, I wanted to know better this colleague/friend/compatriot in Argentina. Only via the web does this happen, folks. If there is one huge lesson about my trip, it is the value of this virtuous circle of good that happens when I get to spend time with people I’ve known through online activities, and in person feeds the online experience which feeds the in person experience… and more and more [...]

I cannot say much more than thanks for the wave of cookie making/sharing that occurred yesterday in honor of my mom (see http://bit.ly/cookielove). I saw activity everywhere from Calgary to Buenos Aires, from Vancouver to Florida, from Portal AZ to London, sharing with dog walkers, roofers, homeless in San Francisco, garage sales in Guelph. There were heart opening sharings of connections to moms, grandmothers, and Aunt Grace’s. With friends like these, who needs Facebook? I’ve tried to assemble all of the cookie stories in a storify [View the story "Cookielove" on Storify] If you have other things to share, especially recipes, I have a StoryBox for you. September 4 was a beautiful day thanks to all of you who baked and/or gave cookies. Do it whenever the mood strikes you. Carry my Mom’s attitude every day, I am trying it myself. I love #CookieLove