Digital Impulses

1,000 posts

Well.

A milestone (for me) to celebrate.

Some Stats to consider:
I started this blog on Friday April 2, 2004 and here I am, just over 4 years later and this blog post you are reading marks the 1,000th blog post I have made on this blog. There have been 1,558 days between 4/2/04 and today.  So, it took me 1,558 days to enter 1,000 blog posts into this TypePad blog.  Or, 222.57 weeks. Or, 51.22 months.  That is an average of .64 blog posts per day or a blog post every 1.558 days.

However you want to look at it, 1,000 blog posts is pretty cool.  Just being able to do a search across this blog for key events in my life has been absolutely invaluable.  I look forward to reaching the next milesotnes like 2,000, 2500, 3000, 5000, etc in the future while still here at TypePad.

Subscribing to the blogs of Robert Bruce Thompson & Jerry Pournelle

Just finished signing up as a Patron Subscriber to Dr. Jerry Pournelle's web site, Chaos Manor and also as a basic subscriber to Robert Bruce Thompson's on-line journal at ttgnet.com.

I have been reading the blogs of these two exceptional writers since 1998 when I was working at Toyota and I figured it's high time that I give them back a little for all of the excellent information they have provided me with over the last 10 years.

Paying it Back, as they say.  Cool.

Well, I just purchased my ticket to Gnomdex 7.0, the premier tech industry conference for bloggers, podcasters, Vidcasters and all manner of Web 2.0/Social Media influencers.

Gnomedex this year is going to Rock!  See you there...

HD-DVD Key

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

Does the MPAA know I exsist?

Microsoft: Launch Across America

Took a day off from work today to attend an 'IT Pro Track' Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 System launch in Anaheim, CA.

The main lure to trudge the 35 miles out to Orange County in the rain and fog was the FREE copy of Office 2007 Professional and Microsoft Office Groove that we got just for attending the 4 hour session. As it was, they started handing out the copies of Office 2007 at the 11:00 AM break, so I was able to scoot out of there early and het a jump on the traffic.

They presenter was nice and funny enough to avoid total stupor, but he did seem a little ill prepared.  Regardless, the info presented was good to file away for later.

At 13:31, I am sitting at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhattan Beach using the AT&T WiFi connection ($3.95 for 2 hours) to blog about the event I attended.

It was a good day today.  :>)

Cory Doctorow launches "OverClocked"

Cory Doctorow, the SF writer, co-founder of BoingBoing, blogger, former European Affairs coordinator for the EFF, current Wired Magazine correspondent, Fullbright Chair at USC, 'Net activist and the leading Anti-DRM authority on the planet, launched his latest novel, 'OverClocked: Stories of the Future Present' at The Secret Headquarters comic book shop in Los Angeles this evening.

Aside from being mis-lead for the first time on record by Google Maps and getting there 15 minutes late, I had a wonderful time. 

I was able to purchase two copies of 'OverClocked: Stories of the Future Present' (one for reading and another that I got Cory to sign which I plan to put away in a safe somewhere) and then I mingled and perused the awesome selection of comic books and science fictions tomes that The Secret Headquarters had on display.

Here are a few pictures that I snapped while waiting for Cory to read one of the stories from his new novel:

Around 8:00 P.M. or so, Cory read the 1st short story in 'OverClocked', an 800-word vignette entitled 'Printcrime'' that he put together for Nature Magazine a while back. To get an idea of the cool ambiance at the event last night, click on the following link to watch a small quicktime movie:

All in all, I am glad I took the time to go see Cory launch his book.  To purchase the book, click on one of the following links:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble

Highly Recommended.

Robert Scoble interviews the "Wifi Guy"

Below is a fascinating interview from the ScobleShow done by Robert Scoble with Ed Saenz, the creator of many of the most recognizable brand names in the world.  Watch and learn how  names like "WiFi", "X-Terra", "Armada", etc are concieved.

Amazing stuff.

TechTV family member James Kim is MISSING

James Kim, former TechTV alumni is MISSING.

From Leo Laporte's VOX Blog:

James Kim, former TechTV alumni is missing with his family somewhere in
I just received this disturbing news. If any of you knows anything please help...                                                                                                            
James and family

CNET editor and former Fresh Gear contributor and Lab analyst James Kim has been missing since Saturday. ANY word, especially from people in the Oregon area is appreciated. The information is all below from the official investigation by the SFPD.

Missing Family Includes: James, Kati, Penelope (age 4.5) and Sabine (6 months). Last name is Kim.

Overview: The Kim Family left San Francisco on November 17th on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. They had Thanksgiving in Seattle with family and then drove to Portland.

They were last seen by their friends in Portland whom they had brunch with on Saturday, November 25.

According to their friends, their plans were to drive out to the town of Gold Beach on the Oregon Coast and then make their way back to San Francisco. James was expected back at work on Tuesday, November 28th.

When no one had heard from him by Wednesday morning employees at the Kims' two stores and his colleagues at CNET began to make phone calls to his family and friends to inquire of his whereabouts. Presently, the SFPD is investigating the case.

The family was last heard from at around 5:45 PM on Saturday. A hotel clerk at the Tu Tu Tun lodge in Gold Beach, Oregon took a call from James. He said he was about five hours away. The hotel clerk said she would leave the keys out for them as the lobby would be closed after 10.

The keys were still in the same place the next morning.

The clerk believes James referred to being near Salem, Oregon at the time. They were driving a 2005 silver Saab station wagon with California personalized plates of “DOESF”.

More details and pictures of the family are available on CNET's Crave Blog.

If you know anything about James' whereabouts, you can contact the SFPD by calling 415-558-5508 during normal business hours and 415-553-1071 after hours.             

The SFPD has opened a missing person report and Engadget, TechMeme, Digg, Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Chris Pirillo, CNET and a bunch of other people are blogging about it to try and raise awareness and get the word out in trying to find James and his family. 

Pleas blog about this if you can to see if we can help find this guy and his family safe and sound. Please keep James and his family in your prayers.

Hopefully, these folks are OK and just got sidetracked somehow.

Canada Fulbright Chair Lecture Series: John Gilmore & John Perry Barlow

USC Annenberg
School for Communication
Center for Public Diplomacy
3502 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Room 207
Google Map

Tuesday, November 14, 2006
1850 Hrs

John Perry Barlow & John Gilmore on the continuing erosion of Civil Liberties

Between them, Gilmore and Barlow co-founded EFF, Greenpeace and Earth First; co-developed the compiler that runs almost all the code you've ever used; wrote the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace; founded the first great dial-up ISP and invented the alt. hierarchy; wrote the Grateful Dead's best lyrics and much more -- Gilmore philanthropic work includes relief for victims of Guantanamo Bay, lawsuits against the Attorney General over the right to fly anonymously, and much more.

1849: Cory Doctorow, John Perry Barlow and John Gilmore just walked into the room.  I am amazed at how completely unassuming these guys are.  They look like anyone else sitting here in this room.

1900: John Perry Barlow has launched into a background talk on the beginings of the EFF.

1940: John Gilmore has just explained how he made a pile of money by creating a set of tools and giving them away, charging large companies on a support package for these tools lik the gnu compiler, etc.  His company was sold to Red Hat in 1999 for 675 millon dollars.

2000: John Gilmore has just stated that all commercial / consumer printers embed a series of dots in any image that is printed by the engine in that printer that can be used to tie that print-out to the  serial # of the printer that printed it.

So, when you buy a printer or copier anywhere they really would prefer that you pay for it with a credit card so that they can trace the sale of the printer or copier to you directly via the CC transaction.

Here are a few images of the event:

John Gilmore on the left and John Perry Barlow on the right:
   

John Perry Barlow & Cory Doctorow:


Cory Doctorow:

This room is PACKED like I have never seen it before.  They are bringing in extra chairs as I type this.  I am very glad I got here 90 minutes early. 

It's a little surreal to be sitting directly across from John Gilmore and John Perry Barlow, true living legends of the computer industry... 

John Perry Barlow is wearing an Osama bin Laden t-shirt that says "He's still free.  How about you?"

I am really enjoying these talks, and seeing as to how Cory is scheduled to be the Fullbright Chair at USC until July of 2007, here's hoping he keeps inviting interesting people from around the Tech industry to come and speak at USC.  I will be at each one, time permitting.

If you are in the Los Angeles area, drop by USC when one of these talks are scheduled. Highly recommended.

Canada Fulbright Chair Speaker Series: Cory Doctorow

USC
Annenberg School Center for Public Diplomacy
Room 207
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
1837 Hrs

I am sitting at USC in the Annenberg School for Communication waiting for the talk by Cory Doctorow to begin at 1900 hours.

Because the original speaker slated for this evening had to cancel and subsequently Cory did not promote this event, only 4 people showed up aside from myself and so we had the whole room to ourselves and got to listen to Cory give a really interesting talk on the evils of DRM, Intellectual Property rights, his work with WIPO  Copyrights, Trademarks and how all of this affects the developing world.

As usual, Cory was at his articulate best, riffing on a wide-ranging palate of topics and kept me engaged from beginning to end.  I attempted to record the talk via Audacity on my IBM Thinkpad T60 but the integrated speaker was much to weak to pick up Cory's un-amplified voice from across the room.

So, that part of the evening didn't work out so well.

I am really enjoying these talks, and seeing as to how Cory is scheduled to be the Fullbright Chair at USC until July of 2007, here's hoping he keeps inviting interesting people from around the Tech industry to come and speak at USC.  I will be at each one, time permitting. 

If you are in the Los Angeles area, drop by USC when one of these talks are scheduled.  Highly recommended.