CogBlogged from ‘October, 2011’

cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by noii’s Since Michael Branson Smith’s ds106 class is moving into the audio portion of the course, I devised a new assignment for the audio section. And this is something I need as well in my own adventure to find the Center of the Internet. So here is the gist of the assignment. Like some people use special whistles to attract birds, your task is to create an 30 second or less audio file that might be used to “call” a particular character from a movie, tv, or real life. It cannot feature voices, but sounds only. Share a description why this sound would be attractive to the character (be inventive, write a story about it). So in my case, I am desperately trying to attract the attention of Dr Oliver, the character who is driving ds106 students on a Journey [...]

Before I left the railroad car I was trapped in, I had time to fill, so played around with the Triple Troll Quotes assignment again for ds106. Given my current situation, I found the perfect theme, and 2/3 are hitchcockian Got them? The answer lies elsewhere.

Good morning everyone and thanks for the stream of messages. It really helps me cope as I have yet had any contact with other people in over 48 hours. I want to send a big shout out to Rowan Peter who has taken on the search aid from Melbourne. I was going to say “From the other side of the world” but I do not know where I am yet. The good news is I escaped the train cair. After loooking all over the car, on removing that picture from the wall behind me I found a metal sliding door that led to a keypad. I tried a few random codes, but only got a soft buzzing. I went back to the last message I got from @0pcode49: Like the blue/red pill from the matrix, you do have options here. One is going forward in time, just as if nothing [...]

Hello everyone, I appreciate the concern and worry from the tweets sent over the last 36 hours. I am ok, and at least have had some communication with the people who brought me to this place. I think. This is somehow connected to the computer issues I have been having, I am thinking I have been tracked and spied upon. Here is what I have pieced together. I was at Gate 49 of the Nashville airport thinking I was headed for my vacation to Hawaii. I had scored a prime seat with electricity, and after striking up a conversation with this person (sorry for blurry photo, I was only only able to snap it at last minute): He had identified himself as “Ted” a retired Army Colonel, and he offered to get me the best cup of local coffee available. It is now I realize that the coffee must have [...]

Hmmm, I am not finding too many answers to some funky behavior on my MacBookPro. If I was paranoid, I might be taping up the windows, but am, more concerned about being able to continue to do my work on the haunted machine. For the last 2 weeks, I have noticed when using Tweetdeck, when occaisionally I minimize the app in my dock, there is a lingering back window that is labeled “Tweetdeck Update”. I’ve seen it but not paid much attention. But today, I noticed there was a different one behind the main screen, and I barely managed to get a screen shot before it disappeared: Some sort of programming code? functions, maybe memory addresses? is ts = timestamp?? Any clues? I really cannot afford to do anything like rebuilding the machine while on the road. I just want to edit photos, make ds106 MacGuffins, listen to ds106 radio…. [...]

Now this is getting cool. After posting of my plan to follow Dean Shareski’s learning project, I started with my video announcement of wanting to play blues harp (and not have it sound like dying dogs). Bryan Jackson, gifted with music and generosity, responded with a first video lesson for me. So I set out with the recorder on today (just Quicktime player on my MacBookPro) to follow along I also found some of the free content on Harmonica Lessons.com where I found some useful tips on breathing (it is not sucking and blowing, eh?). And now, in my second video, I tried to follow Bryan and practice the breathing too Getting that one note is hard, but I’m going to keep practicing. There are about 2 million videos out there, like OZHarp who starts with a tiny kid playing it better than most of us That’s all for now, [...]

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by blakie I’m getting a tad worried on the road- my MacBookPro seems to be acting up. More than its occasional inability to wake up from sleep, now it seems to go to sleep by itself, and oddly, it always seems to be about 10 minutes of the hour. There is a photo in my Aperture library that I don’t remember taking, but I have taken alot, The weird thing is that any time I select it to look at or try to edit, Aperture quits. It seems haunted: All I can do is look at the thumbnail which looks like a wall with some text and numbers on it. Then I got this e-mail from a “Mr Blank” asking me to meet up with him at Dukes when I get to Hawaii, he’s interested in the StoryBox and wants [...]

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by sgrah I’ve had mixed success at keeping up with geotagging my trip photos, usually when chided by someone like @windsordi ;-) Frankly, the technology seems 90% there, but for me, has always required just that smidgen of extra effort that makes it a barrier to be more consistent (I see the barrier in the mirror). In a few minutes, someone will comment with their perfect gps tagging tool. I believe you. Its baked into a few cameras, yes, and of course mobiles. I tried last year to use a photo tracker, but I would forget to turn it on, or found the process if exporting the data files and syncing with photos in Aperture cumbersome. I got a million excuses. Few valid. The map tool in Aperture defies me. Maybe I have not given it a fair shake. But [...]

Like many I was in disbelief that we are in a Steve Job-less world. It’s deeply sad to lose anyone of such influence, of course, but I am not quite to the point of religious fervor elsewhere. And I was going to avoid trying to write anything, but… I got an email from someone really really wishing to organize some world wide tribute act- it was a grand idea and might be interesting to see. I do not begrudge people doing this, but its not something I am invested in, because its just a spike of feeling- rather than a plateau. It seems more appropriate to act every day in the spirit Mr Turtleneck espoused in his Stanford commencement speech as an ongoing thing, without fanfare, then doing a one time act. Live each day like it might be your last? We need more than tributes. But that’s just me.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Ever since ds106 started, I’ve had this rabid obsession for photos with a 106 represented, starting December 18, 2010 (a month before the first open class launched), when I saw a pole along a canal in Mesa Arizona. This is the Illustrate 106 assignment It was a sign (well with some help of post production it got psychedelic) cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Since then I have tagged 63 ds106 photos. Recently Jim has remixed a 106 exit sign and Rowan has found an address marker Now finding them in a sign, an address is easy. It took me several months to find one in a license plate. I have also spelled them out with small objects, written it in dust, played an impossible guitar chord, eyeballed mile post markers, tested it with my glucose [...]