I’ve been thinking about what would happen to my online stuff, when I eventually kick off (hopefully not for several decades, but still…). This whole Reclaim stuff would mean that my online artifacts would disappear rather abruptly. That’s partially mitigated through things like the newly-minted Hippie Hosting Co-op, but what happens to my various account info? How would I hand that off, and send a message after, well, you know…
That’s where the idea of the internet deadman’s switch comes in. A bit of code that monitors for signs of life from me, and after I stop doing stuff it assumes I’ve kicked off, waits a predetermined period of time, tries to nudge me by email, and then sends off an email to my family.
My niece got married on the beach in Playa del Carmen last week, so we tagged along. So nice.
The bride asked me to photograph the wedding, but my DSLR is a bit under the weather. I wound up shooting it on a borrowed DSLR - the first real DSLR photos I’ve shot in about a year. I need to pull mine out of the basement and get it back in working order again. I still haven’t seen the photos, but the ceremony was beautiful and fun. I think my fave shot of the entire thing might have been a quick Instagram I shot on my phone, though…
If you’re seeing this, the move is complete. My site is now powered by the freshly-hatched Hippie Hosting Co-op, thanks to Timmmmmmmyboy (Tim Owens) for getting the ball rolling.
I’m sure more info about the co-op will be coming soon. I’m making the move to help test things out and see how it will handle adding users. Once things are settled, I’ll be closing my MediaTemple hosting package and transferring the balance into the server hosting package used by the HHC (which is also hosted on MediaTemple, so I’m not really leaving MT - they’re fracking AWESOME web hosts. Glad to be with them!)
What a fantastic series of posts by Dr. Ben Cowie, a geology prof here at the UofC. He worked with his first-year undergrads, on going to primary research lit, rather than just settling for teh wikarpedia.
Part 1: the motivation and desire to initiate this program
It was not an isolated incident. As other professors he met described their plans to follow his example, he suspected their classes would also flop. “They would just be inspired to use blogs and Twitter and technology, but the No. 1 thing that was missing from it was a sense of purpose.”
(emphasis mine)
You can’t just bolt on techy techtech and be a good and innovative teacher (or student). There has to be a reason. A purpose. A genuine, authentic need to use a tool or technique. Otherwise it’s just distracting busywork. Sometimes, no techytechtech is the best way to do something.
An awesome documentary on finding what you enjoy, and being brave enough to step up and learn. Even better, it was written, produced, directed, and stars my bestest friend Kim Faires as part of the NUTV Doc School program on campus. So good.
I tried an experiment, where I took a photo every hour on the hour (or as close to it as I could manage/remember) to see what documenting a full day might look like. It was surprisingly fun to do. Might make an interesting @ds106 daily create project…
Instagram’s CEO, talking about the awesome plans for ramping up ads in their service:
“I think the advertising experience is going to be extremely engaging,” Systrom said. “It’s much harder with text,” but Instagram offers photos, and brand names such as Audi, Kate Spade, and Burberry have joined Instagram.
“They’re sharing pictures of products and the message of their brands. That shows we’re at the beginning of what will come with brands,” he said.
Matt Gemmell just posted a great summary of some of the recent discussion about comments on blogs.
One line in his write-up stuck with me, because it’s basically what I experienced as well:
For most people in this discussion, the main worry about switching off comments has been a fear of reducing engagement or conversation. For me, that was about 50% of my concern; the other 50% was that I really, really liked getting those comments each day from people who (for the most part) agreed with what I’d written. I was in the absurdly privileged position that disabling comments amounted to switching off daily reassurance and validation. Accordingly, any accusation that I’m hiding from disagreement is frankly ridiculous.
