Where are they now?

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My first effort at a website dealt with the history of the radio station (KBOA) where my father (and later, I) worked for many years. A visitor to the site recently wrote:

“I have been trying to find Norman Shainberg who was a college classmate and friend. I last saw him in Halloran General Hospital when he arrived from Europe on the Swedish ship “Gripsholm” as a repatriated prisoner of war. Being 83 years myself I naturally wonder if he is still alive and if so how can I contact him.”

I’m trying to help him find his friend. This is one of the things I like best about the Net.

Andrew Sullivan on blogging

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“The one wonderful thing about blogging from your laptop is that you don’t have to deal with other people. You can broadcast alienated, disembodied, disassociated murmurings into a people-free void. You don’t have to run something past an editor, or frame your argument to an established group of subscribers. You just say what the hell you want.”

— Andrew Sullivan in Slate

Why do maid make hotel beds as they do?

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Number One: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels in the U. S. (the world?) have never stayed in a hotel or motel. Number Two: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels really hate their jobs and transfer that hatred to the people who sleep in the beds they make up each day.

In every hotel I have ever stayed, the beds are made in such a way that when you turn down the bed, the bottom sheet (never fitted) is pulled completely free, forcing you to remake the bed. This is because the maid (or house keeper or whatever the politically correct term) insists on tucking the blanket, the top sheet and the bottom sheet together. You can’t turn back the bed without unmaking it. Problem without a solution? Hardly. Tuck in the bottom sheet and let the top sheet and blanket hand loose (except at the foot of the bed, of course). You know, like you probably do at home. Which explanation is more likely? I hope it’s number two. I hope every maid gets to stay in a hotel/motel at least once every year. And when they turn back the bed, I imagine them dropping to their knees one more time to re-make the bed. Good night.

May I have your autograph?

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I’m told they have these baseball “camps” where middle aged guys can pay to go hang out with real baseball players. That’s pretty much what Gnomedex was for me. Four hundred really smart, badly dressed, but very nice people (mostly guys). If they could tell by looking at me that I was not a true geek, they were too nice to mention it. We were summoned to the Des Moines Marriott by Chris Pirillo…the Lockergnome. Lockergnome is a person, a newsletter (300,000 readers), a website and an online community (called Gnomies). Chris put together an A-List of speakers that included some of the Big Names in the online world: Steve Gibson; Phillip Kaplan; Mark Thompson; Doc Searls; Evan Williams; and Leo Laporte. None of whom disappointed.

Cliff’s Buffalo Theory

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“Well you see, Norm, it’s like this….a herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, the regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

— Cliff Clavin (Cheers)

Gnomedex: Conference blogging

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I’ve been attending conventions, conferences and meetings of one sort or another for twenty-five years but this one is different. This one is wired. More to the point, it’s unwired. Many (most?) of the attendees have their notebook computers fired up and connected to the Internet via a wireless network. So, while the speakers were making their presentations, many of the people in the audience were “reporting” what was being said by posting (text and photos) to their personal blogs. Now, I don’t know if this is journalism or not. But I’m not sure it matters. Something is going on here. Steve Gibson is talking about Internet security and seconds later some guy in the audience hits the enter key and people all over the world can read about it (with photos). No networks. No editors. No filtering. How do we know that what we’re reading is accurate or fair? Well, there were probably a dozen people blogging today’s presentations. Pretty unlikely they’d all have the same ax to grind. Like I said… feels like something is happening here. [killed dead links in this post]

Gnomedex.

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If you don’t know, it doesn’t matter. More fanny packs than Disney World. Geeks galore and one wannabe. When TechTV star Leo Laporte showed up at the pre-conference party, I morphed into a 13 year old girl who finds herself on an elevator with the ‘N-Sync boys. A few minutes later Leo drags Megan Marrone (another TechTV star) over to meet one of her fans. You could see her mentally composing the restraining order.