Home Page It is Thanksgiving day. I am boiling cabbage on the stove so Bonnie and I can make Gulumpkies for tommorow when a bunch of folk so up at my house. Today we are going over to Mom's house today for the turkey. My sister is there. She arrived from Florida yesterday. She is thankful that the rental car has indiana plates 'cause she doesn't wnat any grief about the political situation down there. My new Domain is coming up. I have a lot of work to do , but the space is there, the nameserver is working and I can start letting things rip. www.theguysatwork.com I still have a little more work on the Partnership for Onondaga Creek website ( www.ggw.org/onocreek ) and the Mitchell group website, but I will get there.
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Here is a submission I made to the ACM human interface list-serv
Victoria Sharpe Says:
>This very question leads me to expect an article very
>soon from the technical communication community. A
>similar one was written about maps in NY city and the
>Challenger disaster. Would you classify usability as a part
>of the field of technical communication or as a part of
>human factors? I am often confused as to where
>professionals place it.
I find that this issue is not squeezed into a label as easily as all of us "label makers" would like it to. The stance I take, watching most of the related disciplines, is that there is commonality. These problems are not easily corrected by technology alone. In the post war era (or perhaps the industrial revolution) our culture has become incredibly complacent that technology will solve our problems. And of course there is tremendous evidence to support the notion that technol...
Carmen Publishing's FrameMaker Site
rick@frameexpert.com
Well the news is out. I am leaving Performance Technologies, Inc. and taking a new job as Publications Manager at Raymond corp. in Greene NY
People ask where Greene NY is and I find the best answer is the two pronged answer...."It is the middle of nowhere, or central to everywhere." How true. It is outside Cortland. NY, if such a thing is possible.
I will be challenged at this new job. That will feel good
lista de precios de artÃculos
It is a great fall day today. The leaves crackle beneath your feet as you walk. There is a slight chill to the gentle breezes and the smells.... the smells are like pumpkin pie, new clothes, and all the feelings of the fall season rolled into one. The deer think it is an excitible time too. I nearly clobbered two bucks this morning on my way to get the paper. First I saw a doe run in front of me... and I slowed way down. Then two bucks came bustling out of the brush after the doe. Luckily, the first deer warned me about the other ones on their way. I had plenty of time to stop and watch the bucks pass in front of me.
MailStart - Your Email Anytime, Anywhere
This is a great site. It allows you to easily check our email account from a different server. I find it to be one of those web things that "goes right.".
I am still monkeying around with my job situation. I want this to all be over. They are still waiting on a signature for the counter offer here. I absolutely do not want to have to "change my mind" When I announce what I am doing, that will be it, no changes after that. A comittment will be made.
New Scientist: Plasma magic
The negotiations go on. PTI has to give me some better numbers based on a very sketchy contract about tuition reimbursement. Hopefully, all this will be done in a couple of days and I can strat concentrating on work again (whereever it is). This is going to start wearing on me.
CNN.com
I have an internal Interview today. It is the second one for this position. I have a job offer from the other company that expires tomorrow. It is an exciting time to be sure. On top of this decision tree I have a paper due on the "Bliss Classification System" and two web sites to finish for various organizations. Luckily, the speech I was doing for television has had taping postponed again this week... lucky for me.
At least the siding is done on the house. It sure does look different.
I fell down the basement stairs sunday morning. I didn't break anything, but I think I strained every muscle in my body. I was just trying to do too many things at once and I forgot about the basics of placing my feet appropriately on steps...DUH.
Onward and upward.
Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters
I sure have a lot of work to do at work. I can't remember having this many projects hot all at the same time. It is an incredible work load.
Sometimes I can't help think about the saying... "It is a scientific impossiblity that the bumblebee can fly. The bee violates the rules of aeronautics, and other scientific disciplines. However, the bee does not understand those scientific principles. Therefore it flys."
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I should be working on my paper but I am not. I received a job offer today and I am really preoccupied with the decisions surrounding the offer.
I received the Henry Bliss book from my Aunt today. It is fabulous. The poetry is fantastic! There is a quote as the frontispiece. It reads as follows:
"If science be regarded as organized knowledge and philosophy as organized thought, grounded on scientific knowledge, tho extending beyond it to speculative realms, the structural organization for knowledge and thought which has been outlined... may be regarded as the logical fabric of a microcosm, mental, intellectual, and scientific, which is consistant with and correlative to the intrinsic physical organization of the cosmos, the macrocosm. Henry E. Bliss
I love it. This is a great quote.
R News: News Front - Monday, October 09, 2000
Here is a quote I came up with thinking about my current situation at work:
" There are only two different ways to form relationships with others and to form cultural norms. One method is to suppress, limit, oppress, disregard or stifle. The other method is to inspire, encourage, listen and collaborate. There is no in between."
Charlie Dowdell
>
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I had kind of a crummy day at work today. I am glad it is over. The agenda tommorow is as follows:
Load truck and head down to Greg's house. Meet Greg at 6:45. Load truck some more. Head to scrap metal yard. Sell scrap metal. Have breakfast, I am having steak and eggs. We are then heading to Doug's house. Since he had back surgery and she (shann) broke her leg, I figured we could help these two out on the their farm. I hear we have to move some heavy equipment around, close the pool and perhaps a few other things.
After that, I have to practice my speech for 6:00 pm delivery at the Toastmasters area 6 contest. I hope I win, but it is fine if I don't. It is tough competition. I still may have some time to work on the house, I got the J-channel I needed for upstairs Friday afternoon. There are so many things to do. Arrgghh/..
I had an job interview yesterday (the second one) things seem pretty good. We will have to wait and see where this goes.
I scoped out a couple of old mills in the country as well. I located the Solon Pond Mill (in my book) and the Smithfield Flats Mill (not in my book). The Smithfield one is a large mill with a very good sized wood dam. It appeared to be in reasonable condition, albeit wood construction. It is definately a cool place. I took a few digital photos.
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The Elmira hamfest was yesterday. I loaded up the truck on thursday night which took about 3 hours.
Greg Mills and I left Rochester for the hamfest and it took about 2.5 hours to get to Elmira. We set some stuff up then went to this weird chicken place. The layout was weird, the people were weird. It looked like a setting for the begining of an X-file program or something. The chicken was dry. VERY disappointing. I like to try weird places... often they have great food, not in this case however.
The hamfest went off after I got 4 hours of sleep in a tent. There was thick frost when I got up and people started buying stuff at 5:30 am. We packed up and went home about 3 pm. All in all it was a good time.
Welcome to Wegmans Food Markets Inc.
We went to Wegmans in Pittsford today for lunch. They have a great selction of tasty sandiwiches and and sushi and all sorts of other interesting foods.
When we were there, a gentlemen was overcome and an ambulance crew tried to revive him. I am unsure what happened to him. It was weird watching all these people gather their lunches and poke around the food with this guy fighting for his life. It is a weird culture we live in. What a contrast in the same scene.
eBay - Your Personal Trading Community
I had my community TV producer's training this evening. We went over the Camera controls, Super VHS. The cameras are kinda cool. Big fancy camcorders. I am looking forward to producing some stuff on the TV.
Someone at work gave me a half a dozen Estes Rocket Catalogs from the the 1970s. I suspected they were collectible... and it appears they are. There may be over a hundred dollars there. He said he didn't want a cut unless the price gets over 5000 dollars. These kind of people make my day.
Things moved OK on ebay this week for me. It is incredible exposure. There is no other way to market something so small to so many for so little.
A friend of mine at work told me today his wife broke her leg. That would be bad enough but, he is still getting over back surgery. He is in a back brace. They have 4 kids. I told hime if he needs me to move anything.. just let me know I'll come over.
Syracuse University
I have homework to do today. I also have to work on the house. Drywall (my favorite) BAH!
The Elmira hamfest is next weekend. That should be a lot of fun. Doug McManus and Greg Mills and I are going down Friday night and camping out. I have to load the truck to the gills on Thursday night. I will have to remember to get a photo of the truck all loaded up.
The new computer is working well. I just spent some time mucking around with the network here at home so douglas can use the printer hooked to my machine. I will be doing alot more screwing around with the network stuff sonn enough. The Linksys Router/switch I bought is definately cool. It is amazing that the functionality that thing has recently cost thousands of dollars. The linksys box cost 150 bucks. Amazing.
Performance Technologies is a global supplier of telecommunications and networking products
We had a meeting at work this morning regarding the new building they plan on building. They were originally going to build just up the street but I guess the lease holders aren't happy about the detention center planned to be built adjacent to our site. The mayor is supposed to sho up here Monday. I guess he is going to try and ply management.
They are planning a two story building. I have suggested to them that for a team environment, two stories would not be best. I just have a feeling that I will be stationed on the ground floor while the people who have important things to do will be on the second floor.
As a technical writer for over 10 years, I am so incredibly sick of other employees considering my job as secondary or fluff. They consider information as a "fill" or "something nice to offer our customers". These people don't understand that infor...
Well I forgot to log that I did win my speech contest at the club level. I participated alone.
Now it is on to the Area Competition, Area 6 that is. I expect approximately 60 or so people to attend. I hope I can be funny. I taped my last effort... listening to it, I can see that I need to relax a little more. No one thinks a person is funny if they seem uptight.
Cheese is the word of the day. I am working on a class assignment on the classifications of cheese. It is very interesting. I only left a few cheese books in the main library in rochester, just a few. Just thinking about all that great cheese makes me reach for the fibercon.
I have an internal interview at work today, for a marketing position. I am curious, to say the least.
I got all my computer parts together last night and got it up and running. It is nice to have a big 19 inch screen at home. I have a lot more stuff to do to get the network the way I want it and get my development environment set up.
It lokks like my "Theory of Classification" class is finally starting to go.
The brew club Oktoberfest was a lot of fun yesterday. I ate 5 dozen clams, bratwurst, a few different chilis and of course some very good beed, mead and barley wine.
All in all, it was a good time. I am kinda tired today. There certainly isn't much activity in my distance class at SU. They seem to be having server problems again.
I have a speech to write (humorous), attend TV production training, buy snow tires, plan for tommorow's toastmaster meeting, go to the library to return books, and do homework.
I am going to take it easy this weekend. Bonnie and I are going to an antique store and a used book store. I will also do some homework (classifications systems research) and get some stuff listed for sale on ebay. Sunday it turns out is the brew club oktoberfest. I think I will be going to that for a while as well. Of course, this time of year I have to work on the house. I am working on drywall and insulation in the upstairs sitting room.
I am sure I am missing a few things... I am just burned out this weekend.
Performance Technologies is a global supplier of telecommunications and networking products
I have been really stressing out over the last couple of days regarding work and other items of concern.
It turns out the power was off Wedneday night for a reason. A car driven by Alison Christian (17) smashed into a utility pole about a mile from my house. The passenger, Krista Mileo (28) was pronounced dead at the scene.
Lord help us all when we get behind the wheel. We have had our share of nasty wrecks in my neighborhood. When are we going to do something comprehensive about the fatalities caused by kids in cars?
I can't remember feeling this bad in a long time.
Last night I started my first of five training sessions to obtain my Producers Certification to produce Public Access television programs.
WHY?
I have no idea why. I just am. For twenty dollars I am learning all sorts of neat stuff about TV production.
http://www.mediaalliance.org/rg.pubaccess.html
.
Well it is saturday Morning and I probably should be working on the house. I plan on making a large addition to my website regarding the house project that has followed me around for the last 5 years.
Class is over for now. We go into distance mode for the rest of the semester. The proffessor seem good and the material looks interesting.
Bonnie and I looked for old water mills to rehab/restore in chenango and surrounding counties. We found one.. but it was too far gone (besides the one that was recently torn down) the search continues. It was a busy week.
I have to box up stuff that I sold on ebay this week. It is always a pain, but worthwhile.
Still in school. We worked on the ethnographic classifications today.
This just in from my friend in Japan, Nostril.
Boss 7 is a brand whereas 250 as you guessed is volume in ccs. The general
rule to remember about canned coffee is that the smaller the can, the
better the coffee. They're all too sweet, but they've gotten a lot better.
And they all give you a fairly decent caffeine rush. From vending machines
they go for Y120, and a tad bit less at convenience stores.
With the canned coffee report, I'm Mike Deininger, TrivialNonsense, Tokyo.
nOsT
>What the hell is the difference between boss 7 and boss 250? Can size?
>Caffine content?
>
>
>
>
I had a chat with a info-type person on email and I produced the following paragraph that belongs here. This industry that we are talking about (that really doesn't even have a name yet).. is the future similar to the industrial revolution. The use of information is the future. There are cultural issues, technical issues, economic issues all culminating around a core set of ideas. I am excited (can you tell?). At lunch, Greg Mills and I went and looked at the bridge that was hit by a truck. Actually, a truck carrying an excavator (with the boom not lowered well enough) smashed into the bridge in Genesee Valley park over I-590. One of the I-beams (6 or 8 foot high) was bent by 2 feet. I am glad I wasn't close by when it happened. I can only imagine what the manager said to the driver of the truck. "Why don't you take tomorrow off" or something just as catchy perhaps.
Well the new bed arrived... and somehow we didn't get the frame I ordered. I mean does anything go right. I say no. It only goes right in the model state, and when people try and consider the model state as the reality state only frustration exists. Piss me off.
I have a couple of new job opportunities come up. Too early to say what exactly is going on... but it looks like change is in the offing.
eBay item 421420537 (Ends Sep-03-00 14:31:38 PDT) - Socket7 M/B with CPU, 32M RAM, Audio/Video
I am thinking about bidding on this ebay item. I need an AT style mother board for the Linux/apache webserver I am putting together.
I powered up a 486 mother board the other night (out of the garbage) and it smoked... wierd. I am unsure what happened. I know I had the power connectors on right. I know which mother board I won't be using.
Aping Biology, Computer Guides Automated Evolution of a Robot
For the first time, computer scientists have created a robot that designs and builds other robots, almost entirely without human help.
In the short run, this advance could lead to a new industry of
inexpensive robots customized for specific tasks. In the long run -- decades at least -- robots may one day be truly regarded as "artificial life," able to reproduce and evolve, building improved versions of themselves.
Ya know, as a student of information science and a legacy of philosophers and technical folk. I think some pretty weird stuff sometimes. I mean, for instance, It seems to me that we are (as a human society) on the verge of a new enlightenment.
The older methods of experimentation, observation and exposition of conclusions are pretty much out the window for practical science. Today, it seems that we take a shot, miss and kinda guess. We will make it up as needed in the future. Our older procedures have overrun themselves and we don't have time to reflect or correct (and of course we gave up years ago on documenting the whole mess).
Today we must have faith in chaos, abiguity and failure.
Some of the thoughts I am having lately are born of the notion that information and science and philosophy are the same thing. (there is a lot more on this, standby) The very nature of scientific thought is subject only to the confines of protocols set hundreds or thousands of years a...
It all seems to work now. Cool. My truck is the shop today for an intermittant stalling problem. Hopefully It can be rectified easily. The diesel has a 100k mile warranty on it and my truck only has 44k on on it. It is hardly broken in. I took it into Farnsworth Chevrolet in Canadaigua, NY. The diesel guy's name is Bill Walton.