Month: May 2008

Peace Corps?

I’m seriously considering going into the Peace Corps after I graduate. The thought has occurred to me off and on for the last year or so, and some of Barack Obama’s comments on service at his Wesleyan commencement address brought it back to my attention today:

I also began to realize that I wasn’t just helping other people. Through service, I found a community that embraced me; citizenship that was meaningful; the direction that I’d been seeking. Through service, I discovered how my own improbable story fit in to the larger story of America.

Now, each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because, as President Roth indicated, you won’t have to take it. There’s no community service requirement in the outside world; no one’s forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and the other things that our money culture says you should buy. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although I believe you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get to where you are today, although I do believe you have that debt to pay.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role that you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in the American story.

The Corps has a program specifically targeted at CS and IS graduates – helping people in developing countries to increase their skills and access to technologies, building labs, helping schoolchildren gain job skills, helping adults with business development.

I have no idea of where I’d go, but my guess is that my Spanish experience might have something to do with it.

The only part that intimidates me, rather than exciting me, is the thought of leaving for over two years. But it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I’m going to look further into this and see if it’s a possibility.

Hillary: Get Out.

“Outraged” doesn’t even begin to cover it.



(link to video)


Delaware Dem at Daily Kos gets it right:


And surely you would have known that it mattered not if you had previously suspended your campaign.  Hell, even if you had conceded to Obama, and Obama died, you would have been tapped to be our nominee.


But you decided to stay in the race anyway, and you decided to advance this notion of assassination and other bad calamaties befalling our presumptive nominee not once, not twice, but FOUR times.  Going back to March.


So I cannot give you the benefit of the doubt.


It is now obvious you have considered Obama’s murder as a political possibility and a reason to prolong our disunity.


And that makes you immoral.   And unfit to lead.  It reveals that you have no character.


Simply unacceptable. Her campaign is already running on the fumes of racist undertones. To make such comments, four times, is deliberate and unacceptable. Simply unbelievable.

	


	
	






	
	

		
Project Management is a Crock.
	


	

		
Actual test question:


“You are the project manager of a project that is executing. You are working on ensuring the application of systematic quality activities that were planned in the quality planning process, and ensuring that the project will employ all the processes needed to meet the requirements. Which are you performing?”

a) Quality Control

b) Quality planning

c) Quality assurance

d) Testing


For some reason, people with Project Management Professional certifications make six figures. Because of nonsense buzzwords like “ensuring the application of systematic quality activities”. I am calling foul.


Sometimes I hate being a business major.

	


	
	






	
	

		
Summer (an overview)
	


	

		
This is finals week. Starting to get things in order for summer, here’s how they look so far:


    

  • After finals week, I’ll switch from the security team to the development team at work. I’ll be working on a large-scale content management / document collaboration website migration.
    • 

  • For the first four weeks of summer (until mid-June) I’ll be taking an accounting class on campus. Two hours a day for a month. While I despise accounting, summer is a really good time for classes I’d rather ignore.
    • 

  • I might get some June visits from my dad and from my uncle John’s family
    • 

  • In July, there are possible trips to Arizona or Brigantine, New Jersey
    • 

  • In August, I’ll be moving into the Plum House where a bunch of guys I know through RESET live. It’ll be a great spot- everyone there is awesome, and the house is just a block away from campus.
    • 



I’m looking forward to all of it. The only thing standing between me and summer is an evil final and a take-home project. Frustrating.

	


	
	






	
	

		
Crash
	


	

		
I crashed my bike today. It was hilarious.


I’m fine – save for a few cuts and scratches… But for the record, trying to upshift on the right side of the handlebars with your left hand, while holding a McDonald’s bag and 32oz. soda in your right hand, is a bad idea. I hit the curb and went straight into some rocks.


The worst part was losing the meal. Oh well, at least I can laugh about it…

	


	
	








	
	

		
Second NIN Album in 2 Months- This one’s free
	


	

		
I wrote about Ghosts I-IV a couple of months ago. Nine Inch Nails made the first 25% of their new double album available for free on P2P and BitTorrent, and offered the rest for just $5.


Today Nine Inch Nails have released yet another album. This time, payment isn’t even an option. It’s all free, in everything from MP3 to 24-bit/96 KHz WAV files (higher quality than Audio CDs).


I’m surprised by the speed of production here. There are a few things that make it a bit less than amazing in my eyes:


    

  • Trent Reznor is free of almost all institutional/corporate ties. Very few steps lie between his studio and getting the album everywhere online.
    • 

  • Nine Inch Nails became popular in the old music industry. Ghosts I-IV pulled in lots of cash because it marketed itself and tons of people bought it. This wouldn’t happen similarly for a new band, since they need both income and promotion without sacrificing one over the other.
    • 

  • If there is minimal monetary risk involved in the recording process, I wonder if less caution is thrown towards the quality of the composition / performance / recording. Or maybe the lack of that stress helps artists loosen up more and be creative. I haven’t listened enough to the new album to make a judgment one way or another on this, but regardless of the artist, it’s something that deserves some scrutiny.
    • 



In any case, anything that proves to consumers and music executives that new distribution methods are indeed possible is a good thing in my book.

	


	
	






	
	

		
Long Hair, Long Time
	


	

		
I just noticed that my bangs get in my eyes when I tilt my head down to read a textbook. This means one of two things:


    

  1. I am due for a haircut
    2. 

  2. I have been due for a haircut for a while, and just haven’t noticed because it’s been so long since I last read out of a textbook.
    3. 



Either way, it’s not good.

	


	
	






	
	

		
Motorcycle Driveby (Third Eye Blind)
	


	

		
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRLEyIoJZA&w=425&h=355]


Motorcycle Driveby on YouTube


Summer time and the wind is blowing outside

in lower Chelsea

And I don’t know what I’m doing in this city

The sun is always in my eyes

It crashes through the windows

And I’m sleeping on the couch

When I came to visit you

That’s when I knew

That I could never have you

I knew that before you did

Still I’m the one who’s stupid

And there’s this burning

Like there’s always been

I’ve never been so alone

And I’ve

Never been so alive

Visions of you on a motorcycle drive by

The cigarette ash flies in your eyes and you don’t mind

you smile

And say the world it doesn’t fit with you

I don’t believe you

You’re so serene

Careening through the universe

Your axis on a tilt

You’re guiltless and free

I hope you take a piece of me with you


And there’s things I’d like to do

That you don’t believe in

I would like to build something

But you’ll never see it happen

And there’s this burning

Like there’s always been

I’ve never been so alone

And I’ve

I’ve never been so alive


And there’s this burning

There is this burnin


Where’s the soul I want to know

New York City is evil

The surface is everything

But I could never do that

Someone would see through that

And this is the last time

We’ll be friends again

And I’ll get over you

And you’ll wonder who I am

And there’s this burning,

Just like there’s always been

I’ve never been so alone, alone

And I’ve, and I’ve

I’ve never been so alive


So alive


I go home to the coast it starts to rain I paddle out on the water

Alone

Taste the salt and taste the pain

I’m not thinking of you again

Summer dies and swells rise

The sun goes down in my eyes

See this rolling wave

Darkly coming

To take me

Home


And I never been so alone

And I’ve never been so alive

	


	
	






	
	

		
Social Network Overload
	


	

		
While technology has generally done huge things to help people communicate, I’m starting to feel like the internet has reached a kind of “saturation point” where the technology- or lack of integration and accessibility of information across applications – has become more of a limitingfactor in how I can take advantage of these communication channels.


Point in case: instant messaging. In the ’90s, AOL and Yahoo were king, and everyone was on. Now, I have to run a multi-protocol IM program to keep me logged into AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and Jabber. On top of that, I have to log into Office Live Communicator for my work contacts, Skype because it doesn’t work with my multi-protocol program…. What a mess!


Point in case: cell phone plans. Everybody has a “free mobile-to-mobile calling” plan to get existing customers to draw others in their social network to that cell service provider. Verizon has an amazing marketing term for this – you are “in.” Back in Arizona, it was very important to be “in,” because otherwise my friends would be more worried about calling or texting me. Now, providers are starting to let people choose a few numbers from other networks to add to the unlimited calling for an extra charge.


Point in case: social networking sites. Some people are on Facebook. Some people are on MySpace. Some people are on both but really would prefer that you use one over the other. If you’re not on one, you’re missing out on your friends’ activities and whatever they have to share. If you take pictures, are you going to publish them to Facebook? MySpace? Flickr? Are you going to take the time to upload them everywhere so that everyone sees them?


What it comes down to is competing products with the same basic functionality. Because most of these products/services lock your data into their network, it is hard to upload a photo or blog post and have it simultaneously show up everywhere: your social network profiles, photo galleries, your friends’ news feeds, your personal website. On the technical side, a lot of this could be improved by decentralizing data storage and making everything both publish and import RSS like crazy.


From a business perspective, I think that companies thriving on their social networks need to be wary of what happened to the record industry. At first, labels did extremely well because they controlled the distribution methods. Without their power to manufacture and distribute, artists were powerless. But technology improved and now the means to both produce and distribute music are much more accessible to everyone. Likewise, today much of the focus is on the site itself – are you on Facebook? Are you blogging on the same service as your friends? With time, this too will be come irrelevant, individual sites becoming homogeneous while technology still improves our ability to communicate.


On a much more practical level, I am frustrated by the need to keep up with everyone on different sites. I wish I could write my blog here, post my photos here, IM from one application, and have it all get to my friends. I don’t care about the transmission medium. I just am tired of all of the effort and upkeep involved in using many different apps that do the same thing. But if I don’t do it, I can’t reach everyone! Grr.