Monthly Archives: February 2011

Some sympathetic remarks for “It Took Drama For Me to Realize How Cable TV Distract Cats From Doing for Self”

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In “It Took Drama For Me to Realize How Cable TV Distract Cats From Doing for Self,” Ed Dunn writes:

While I was extremely upset that the judge gave her the restraining order based on all those lies, I realized later after reading the order that I may be the one who came out in a much better position. The thing I lost in this case is a judge believing my wife lies were credible and validating her lies with a restraining order. But as a mature person, I realized I just got my freedom and independence and a clean new slate to start over. For the past 10 years as I tried to hustle, my ex-wife always got in the way with some garbage to try to pull me down. When I told you cats on this blog that I was dedicated to entrepreneurship in 2011, she pulled this bitter divorce move to try to disrupt me in the best way she can. She even said in court “I knew this would make him the maddest ever” revealing she been doing nothing but trying to tear me down instead of help build me up all these years.

This is an opportunity to express my sympathies for what I’m seeing in Ed Dunn’s situation. The children may not understand exactly what is going on but verily, verily they understand something. What’s very important to communicate is that children are supernaturally connected to their parents in particular and their ancestors in general. There is communication going on beyond words—beyond closed doors—it is their natural right to receive accurate information from family.

I’m sure that Ed Dunn will resonate with wanting to communicate to his children the concepts of authentic non-violent struggle against oppression. There are no people in the world that know oppression better than oppressed people. It would seem like common sense that oppressed people—especially people who are highly educated about their documented history of oppression—would hate to be mistaken for an oppressor, a liar, a dictator, a revisionist of history in order to control innocent children. “Common sense” is not always what it seems. The horrible events surrounding family law offer opportunities to set an example for how to behave in the face of oppression. It may take years but children blessed with the eyes to see will find the truth—and when they do we fathers need to a shining example of constructive consistency.

Just in case my words are too nebulous for the passion that whirls around this space, let’s try these fathers:

  • Never “go to war” on the mother of your children. I don’t give a f’ about how much of a sophisticated adult you think you are—any urge to do this that’s strong enough for you to plan “revenge” means you are immature and insecure in yourself—and you are probably going to make your children pay for these insecurities. You see, brothers, there are army men and there are family men.
  • Become the strong silent type. There is wisdom in saying as few words as possible to the mother of your children—since she is clearly “out of pocket.” Any desire that you have to speak to her at length about any subject other than about your children means you fail to understand that she is out of pocket—and you are slipping back into “revenge.”
  • Your goal is to gain access to your children. That’s it. Let her have the house as long as your children are living in it. Let her have the bigger (safer) car as long as your children are going to school in it (and you have another car). The ability to abandon these material things sets an example for your children. The ability for you to endure humiliation for the sake of your children might never be appreciated but that’s what this manhood shit is all about…
  • Do not get into “new relationships” too quickly after a serious separation. Most properly assimilated adults of this wonderful western world are essentially fascists, resembling jealous children from broken homes with a self-centered outlook forged like the mettle of sibling rivalry. They will not be impressed with your sacrifices for your children. Quite the contrary… Most small-time imperialists are only concerned about the sacrifices you can make for them and their children.

What’s foremost for me is my learning about two general categories of adulthood: there is the adulthood that is like the thoroughbred kicking at the starting gate eager to run with the other fully developed, well-trained horses; then there is the adulthood we all know very well: the “nation of wounded children seeking salvation”—adults who are fragile shells covering an incomplete childhood. These fragile adults would say, “nobody’s pefect.” But goddamn! “We” are not supposed to be so ridiculously imperfect either.

The impression I’m getting is that these adults will only recognize me as an adult worthy of respect and other fleshy attentions only when I participate in some thankless task related to their parenting. The earnest desire for “unconditional love” that definitely was very popular in latter part of the 20th century, often is a mask concealing an adult’s need for proxy parenting. What often makes you a “wonderful man” is the ability to care for other adults like children while superficially treating them like adults. This is a game that requires a Player—or just a co-dependent. That ain’t me.

I’ll straight Buddhist monk this mufukka…

“Virgin Announces MiFi Pay-As-You-Go” and other links…

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Truc Bui: “One of the main reasons I haven’t jumped onto the MiFi wagon is that I really don’t need such a device on a daily basis. I am constantly within WiFi range, so having a 24-month contract at $60 a month doesn’t make financial sense for me. However, Virgin Mobile (owned by Sprint) has an answer for the part-time mobile warriors in all of us with its own MiFi device. The device is the same Novatel unit we’ve seen before and sells for $150 without a contract. Tiered monthly access fees range from $10 for 100MB that expires in 10 days to the more familiar $60 for 5GB that expires in 30 days. Availability starts June 28th at your local Radio Shack, Best Buy, and online at Virgin’s site.”

“AT&T Sued For Systematic iPhone Overbilling”

Hugh Pickens writes writes “UPI reports that AT&T is facing a lawsuit that says AT&T routinely bills for 7 percent to 14 percent more data transactions than normally take place, which could blossom into a costly class-action case. Court papers claim that attorneys set up a test account for an iPhone, then closed all of its apps and left the device unused for 10 days. AT&T still billed the account for 2,292 KB of usage. ‘A significant portion of the data revenues were inflated by AT&T’s rigged billing system for data transactions,’ say court papers filed on behalf of AT&T customer Patrick Hendricks. ‘This is like the rigged gas pump charging you when you never even pulled your car into the station.’ Attorneys say they would file to have the case moved to class-action status, which makes the outcome relevant to all of AT&T’s iPhone accounts.”

“Windows Phone 7 to get Live Messenger, but not from Microsoft?”

Mary Jo Foley: “A Microsoft-developed WLM was not mentioned at all in a blog post this week from Corporate Vice President Chris Jones, as LiveSide.net noted. Jones highlighted Hotmail, SkyDrive, OneNote and Find My Phone in his list of Windows Live-related services that would be available for Windows Phone 7 devices. The “People” hub in the new phones has the same kind of activity stream interface that the new Windows Live Messenger (Wave 4) does.”

“Sprint Samsung Epic 4G first impressions shows it can’t beat the EVO 4G”

Matthew Miller: “I used to be a major hardware QWERTY keyboard fan, but software keyboards like Swype are turning me into a touchscreen fan so I don’t always need one. I bought an EVO 4G just a couple of months ago and when I heard that the Samsung Epic 4G was launching with the fantastic Galaxy S specs and QWERTY keyboard I reserved one for the 31st of August.”

“No Twitter on Windows Live Messenger—not Microsoft’s fault”

Steven Hodson: “When the new Wave 4 roll-out of Windows Live began the one part of the package that got the most attention, and deservedly so, was the revamped and social Live Messenger. There was only one problem – there was no Twitter integration which caused more than a few people to go WTH.”

“For the developer: 31 days of Windows Phone 7”

Paul Thurrott: “Not sure how I missed this, but Microsoft’s Jeff Blankenburg wrote an interesting blog series called 31 Days of Windows Phone 7 back in late September/early October, in which he focuses on one developer topic each day for a month. Very nice!”

The Telecommuting Experiment

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jon udell

The last time I wrote the word telecommuting in earnest was in “The Sincere Innocence of Jon Udell”—in 2006! Before my contract at Amgen ended this Friday, two telecommuting opportunities came to me (in quite an active IT market). I accepted an offer for one of them. Clearly I have been “waiting” for this opportunity for over four years.

In “Careful Remarks about My (Microsoft-based) IT Job Market,” I deliberately did not use the word Amgen as I wrote, “So far, I have surrendered myself to Thousand Oaks—about 40 miles north of Santa Monica as the crow flies.” I dared not to speak of Amgen in part because of all of those non-disclosure agreements and security clearances but also because of the location of Amgen—a grueling commute from Culver City to Thousand Oaks for nine months!

Driving to Thousand Oaks was worth it. Amgen has the best Microsoft shop I have ever experienced personally. And I am very, very confident that one can draw a circle with a 30-mile radius centered on Culver City and every business enterprise using Microsoft products are nowhere close to what is going on at Amgen—and Amgen has lots of room for improvement. I have written this flippant statement being fully aware of Sony, William O’Neil, Canon Communications, 20th Century Fox Filmed/Home Entertainment, MySpace.com (Beverly Hills), Universal Studios, CCH Computax, Inc., UCLA MCCS (obviously), etc. So my asinine point is that you should find decent Microsoft shops closer to Ventura County and Orange County—nowhere near the heart of Los Angeles County. I am very curious about what an informed Microsoft representative would say about this—Bill Gates would demand numbers, real data on what is going here.

I’m not ready to move closer to Ventura County or Orange County so telecommuting should help me get ready.

So: what makes journaling fun (for me) is listing a few wild assertions and see what happens by reading them months later…

  • I will get at least two hours a day back from commuting.
  • This telecommuting position should introduce me to serious home office habits. I’m talking new lights, chairs, social media tools and work habits.
  • Working at home should vastly improve my already improved cooking skills.
  • It is possible that I can reduce the need for bottled water by developing water purifier practices.
  • I will learn to turn various locations in a city into my office being quite creative and productive—and healthier (e.g. getting more sun).
  • I will have the privilege of being in actual need of human contact such that family and friends are more accessible but at the same time not hindrance to my work.
  • I will be able to visit my eye doctor, dentist, barber, etc.
  • I will save money. Seriously.

This ‘experiment’ is slated to last for six months. Let’s see what happens…

From Julie Dash: A Juried Art Exhibition and Poster Art Competition, August-September, 2011

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#224 Gullah

Call for Submissions: We Carry These Memories Inside of We: Celebrating the 20th Year Anniversary of Daughters of the Dust and the Black Art aesthetic of filmmaker Julie Dash

A Juried Art Exhibition and Poster Art Competition
August-September, 2011
Hosted by
The College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture

Twenty years ago, filmmaker Julie Dash broke through racial and gender boundaries to become the first African American woman to debut a film with wide release across the country. Daughters of the Dust is a highly artistic film that introduced many Americans to the history, opulence, and complexity of the South Carolina Gullah-Geechee culture and contextualizes it within wider discourses on race, class, gender, and skin-color at the turn of last century. Here Dash turns the camera’s gaze onto her ancestors and their rich culture that thrived for centuries and continues to do so today.

At the heart of the film is the story of a family that must come to grips with both its past and precarious present. The film opens as the Peazant family contemplates and celebrates their decision to leave Ibo’s Landing to embark upon a new life on the main land. Yet, Nana Peazant, the family matriarch and part African griot and high priestess, refuses to leave because of her deep reverence for the ancestors and sense that the north will not be “the land of milk and honey,” her progeny believe it will be. Here Dash employs the conflict between modernity and cultural tradition as one of the central tropes of the film. Other tropes include cultural memory, notions of home and belonging, the conflict between Black female identity and the Cult of True Womanhood, and the dialectic between Christianity vis-à-vis The Black Church and pan-African religious expressions. Additionally, the film’s central concern with Black identity and agency during the tumultuous Reconstruction years yields great parallels between the struggles for civil rights and contemporary issues surrounding broader human rights.

As the title suggests, Black women’s struggles, hopes, dreams, and place within society are at the core of the film. For these “daughters”, life is complicated by limited access/opportunities to education, work, and mobility. Additionally, the threat of being “ruin’t”—raped– looms largely in the minds of all of the women. Eula has been raped by a White man and is subsequently rejected by her husband who feels his manhood is now in question since he could not protect his wife from her oppressor. Yellow Mary returns to Ibo’s Island with her partner, Trula, after suffering countless abuses as a wet nurse and prostitute. Thus, she has become the family pariah, having abandoned her family and adopted a lesbian lifestyle. Nana Peazant navigates the spirit and natural realms and holds sacred the family’s history and the memory and power of their ancestors. The spirit of Eula’s unborn daughter navigates the film and symbolizes the deep connection between the ancestors and the “womb”, or unborn children.

Dash’s cinematic post slavery narrative gives us a unique prism through which to examine South Carolina Low Country culture, namely that of the Gullah Geechee traditions, Black women’s rights, and race relations at the turn of the 19th century. Furthermore such dialogue provides insight about the rich cultural contributions of the Gullahs to American art, cuisine, and history.

The College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center, Carolina Low Country and Atlantic World (CLAW) Program, and African American Studies Program (ASST), The International African American Museum (IAAM) and the South Carolina Historical Society plan to examine the lessons learned from Daughters of the Dust and its influence in the academy and society. The 20th Year anniversary of Daughters of the Dust provides the space and opportunity to reflect on converging discourses of race, gender, and class and the impact they had on Black women’s lives, identities, and agency at the turn of the 19th century during a two-day symposium on September 16th & 17th, 2011. Furthermore, we hope to give thoughtful consideration to the special place Daughters of the Dust occupies within the academy—as a source of inspiration to African American scholars, students, and artists, an homage to the Black art aesthetic in the post-modern and post-Black arts eras, a creative expression of Black feminist criticism, and the untold story of a rich, but forgotten cultural legacy of our shared American heritage.

The Juried art exhibition and poster art competition encourages artists to examine the central themes of the film including, but not limited to Black female identity and agency, Black love, the Black family, and of course, Gullah-Geechee cultural traditions. The first-place winner of the juried art competition will receive $1000 and his/her piece will be featured as the poster art for the symposium. Additionally, the first place winner will be featured in an exhibition at The Avery Research Center in 2012. There will also be winners in each of the four (4) categories—each of whom will receive $250. Winners will be announced at the opening symposium plenary session.

Artists may submit work in the following categories:
• Painting/Drawing
• Sculpture
• Fiber Art
• Mixed Media
Important Dates and Guidelines to remember:

• Submission Format and Deadline: Jpeg images must be received by May 27, 2011.
• Submission Fees: $25 for 1 image; and $15 for each subsequent image up to 5 total
• Artists notified of selection status by June 17, 2011
• Art shipped or hand-delivered to The Avery Research Center by July 22, 2011
• Exhibition runs August 1-September 23, 2011.

Please send all submissions to lessanepw@cofc.edu , Curtis Franks, Curator, at franksc@cofc.edu, and Karole Turner Campbell at ktcsart@gmail.com with your name, institution, title, email address, submission title and format, along with an artist’s statement, and recent cv. Please put “Daughters proposal” in your subject line.

Artists are responsible for getting their work to Avery, as well as the return for all accepted pieces.

Information regarding registration, lodging, and symposium schedule will be available on the Avery Research Center’s website beginning in March 2011.

Contact information:
Patricia Williams Lessane PhD,
Executive Director
The Avery Research Center at The College of Charleston
125 Bull Street
Charleston, South Carolina 29424
(p) 843-953-7234

“HTML 5 Parsing” and other marked up links…

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John Resig: “One of the biggest wins of the HTML 5 recommendation is a detailed specification outlining how parsing of HTML documents should work. For too many years browsers have simply tried to guess and copy what others were doing in hopes that their parser would work well enough to not cause too many problems with HTML markup found in the wild.”

“jQuery 1.5 RC 1 Released”

John Resig: “We want to encourage everyone from the community to try and get involved in contributing back to jQuery core. We’ve set up a full page of information dedicated towards becoming more involved with the team. The team is here and ready to help you help us!”

“PHP 5.3.5 and 5.2.17 Released!”

php.net: “The PHP development team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.3.5 and 5.2.17. This release resolves a critical issue, reported as PHP bug #53632 and CVE-2010-4645, where conversions from string to double might cause the PHP interpreter to hang on systems using x87 FPU registers. The problem is known to only affect x86 32-bit PHP processes, regardless of whether the system hosting PHP is 32-bit or 64-bit. You can test whether your system is affected by running this script from the command line. All users of PHP are strongly advised to update to these versions immediately.”

“Creating PHP Websites with WebMatrix”

Brian Swan: “As I read those posts (and others), I was left wondering about the extent of PHP support in WebMatrix (which is what I’ll look at in this post). As it turns out, PHP is fully supported, but it requires a little bit of work up front in this beta release of WebMatrix (a smoother experience for PHP developers is planned for the final release). If you want to work on any of the PHP applications that are available in the Web Application Gallery, the experience is very smooth—just follow Ruslan’s blog post. However, if you just want to see how WebMatrix works as a PHP IDE for building your own sites (and you don’t want to install one of the PHP apps in the app gallery), then here’s what to do…”

“jQuery Performance Tips And Tricks—A Free 30 Minute Talk”

Addy Osmani: “Hey guys. Today we’re going to take a look at best practices, tips and tricks for improving the performance of your jQuery code. Performance optimization is a crucial aspect of building ‘snappy’ client-side applications and something which all developers using jQuery should bare in mind.”

“Announcing HTML5 Labs”

Jim O’Neil: “As you hopefully know by now, despite the hype, HTML 5 is not a completed specification. In fact, back in 2008, the author of the specification, Ian Hickson, estimated HTML 5 wouldn’t be a Proposed Recommendation until 2022! Indeed, the W3C site shows there are still significant aspects of the HTML 5, CSS 3, DOM and other specifications being fleshed out – just take a look at the ‘warning’ in every W3C Working Draft: Implementors should be aware that this specification is not stable.”

“HTML Video Codec Support in Chrome”

Mike Jazayeri: “We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media platform in the coming year and are focusing our investments in those technologies that are developed and licensed based on open web principles. To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 <video> support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.”

“Guide to Bing Query Language Published”

Bing.com: “Bing offers several ways to augment a basic Bing query. For the most part, we’ve talked about using the Bing API to tailor requests. However, there is another tool that you can use in either an API request or a Bing box: Advanced Query Language. We’ve just published an extensive list (with descriptions and examples) of the operators, or syntactical units, that comprise this language.”

“The Future of HTML 5”

Bruce Lawson video: “Full transcription available at joeloverton.com/html5. We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to @joeloverton for doing this transcription!”

“Modernizr”

“Have you ever wanted to do if-statements in your CSS for the availability of cool features like border-radius? Well, with Modernizr you can accomplish just that!”