Text: We are working on an Alternative to Facebook. Thanks for reserving your username, we will email you when Altly launches. 1,096 people like this. Be the first of your friends.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Apparently you can’t build an alternative to Facebook without Facebook integration… #etc #altly #facebook Altly prepares to launch an alternative to Facebook... and it has a Like button! )
After decades of ethnographic and quantitative research into the medical skills of Canis lupis familiaris I can finally publish a detailed guide to canine medical lore:
Universities wishing to bestow an honorary DVM should contact me at @ithcwy.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Dog First Aid #etc #dogs A detailed guide to dog first aid (from the perspective of dogs, not vets). )
Speaking of Gaia, I read Michael Lind’s Why we should embrace the end of human spaceflight on Salon yesterday with horror. He marshals a bunch of straw man arguments against humans in space, the worst of which is dismissing the threat of a planetary catastrophe:
“A sufficiently large asteroid or comet impact like the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs could do the job. But if a massive bolide threatened the Earth, we would send unmanned spacecraft, not Robert Duvall or Bruce Willis, to steer it away or destroy it.”
That’s a little complacent. Even if we ever get perfect asteroid defenses cracked you’ve still got to worry about cosmic strings, strangelets, radiation storms, Von Neumann probes, DNA hackers, the Yellowstone super volcano and anything shown on a Saturday afternoon on SyFi. All of our eggs are very much in one planetary basket.
Take the Gaia hypothesis to its ultimate conclusion: if the planet is a super-organism then humanity is the reproductive system. We’re the best bet to spread life beyond Earth and ensure its continued survival. The asteroid scenario may trigger panspermia but that would be for a lucky few bacteria, not Homo sapiens sapiens.
Colonizing space is difficult, expensive and for most people unappealing. But stop thinking about the planet you’re leaving to your children and start thinking about the universe you’re leaving to whatever our DNA based planetary ecosystem may evolve into.
A real environmentalist would focus on making this planet uninhabitable so we escape before it’s too late.
;)
(Published to the Fediverse as: Extreme Environmentalism #etc #gaia #environmentalism #dna #vonneumann #syfi #yellowstone #radiation #panspermia #space A real environmentalist would focus on making this planet uninhabitable so we escape before it’s too late. )
I love that Radio 4 is available outside the UK on iPlayer. It’s an essential link to home. But why, oh why, oh why is each program episode only available for a few days? It’s so frustrating to find an interesting looking series and then discover that it’s halfway through and you can’t listen to the first episodes.
BBC, I’d be happy to send you a new hard drive if that would help. It really can’t require that much space to keep the content around for more than a week.
While you’re at it: per-program RSS feeds and more podcasts please.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Radio 4: Can I buy you a new hard drive? #etc #bbc #radio4 #rss #podcast #iplayer Why does Radio 4 only make programs available for such a short time? )
The National Park Service has posted their draft dog management plan for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The plan is open for public comments until April 14, 2011.
For my comments and response see Response to GGNRA Draft Dog Management Plan on my main blog (I Thought He Came With You).
The current pushback on the nasty choice between nude backscatter photos vs. ‘enhanced’ TSA groping got me thinking.
If I really wanted to blow up a plane (which I don’t) I wouldn’t mess around with printer cartridges or shoe bombs. I’d combine some explosive containing breast implants with a trigger disguised as a pacemaker. Some terrorist cell somewhere must be working on this or something like it.
How would the TSA respond? Would we need an MRI before boarding?
I think the radiation scare is overblown – far lower than the risk from hanging around at 30,000 feet. But it’s not ridiculous to refuse and getting to third base with the TSA doesn’t seem like it’s making us much safer.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Boob Bombs #etc #tsa #mri Would it be possible to build a bomb out of breast implants and a pacemaker? How would the TSA react? )
I (used to) use Facebook for people I know well, LinkedIn for weaker ties and Twitter mostly for people I don’t know at all.
Over time though I’ve created identities on pretty much every network. With the increased interconnectedness of such sites when I stop using them I don’t stop posting…
I just discovered (in a spam filter) that someone was having a one sided conversation with me on Plaxo Pulse. I’m also actively posting (but not paying attention) on Buzz and goodness know how many other networks. I’m sure this inflates their active user count admirably but I’m now worried that undead me is being rude.
The social graph needs to work better in the other direction. Everything I post and comment on syndicates out like crazy but keeping track of responses just isn’t working.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Zombie Robs #etc #facebook #linkedin #twitter #plaxopulse #buzz #socialgraph Zombie Robs (how not to follow one - you can reach me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or preferably just here). )
Don’t tell me to think before printing your email.
Firstly, it’s not that special. You’re lucky if I’m reading it at all. Do you really think I want a copy for posterity? Am I going to have it framed? Let’s face it, your target audience is pre-Internet execs who have their secretaries print their emails out so they can dictate a reply back later.
Secondly, do you think your sanctimonious footer comes at no cost? Using the power of randomly Googling facts each bit takes 4.6µJ and 2.8 million emails are sent every second. Assuming a 60 character nag if everyone indulged that’s over 12kW of smugness. For approximately no pages of paper saved.
And don’t get me started on lawyers. We could probably stop global warming if they’d just skip the fifteen page footer explaining how it’s somehow your fault if they send their emails to the wrong address.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Think before you print? #etc #globalwarming #email Do you really imagine that I might care enough about your email to print it? )
AT&T's MicroCell extends their famously inept network into your home or office. It does a tragically good job — you can use your broadband connection to not make calls rather than not making calls through an AT&T tower.
It's actually worse, because at least on the actual network you know when your signal sucks. With the MicroCell my phone shows five bars but will often refuse to make or receive a call. The first clue is often leaving the coverage of the device and finding out what you've missed. In fact, I think it might even be illegal under the Communications Act of 1934 as it's effectively a jammer.
Even if I can make a voice call the wretched thing screws up geolocation. In order to comply with E911 the device is registered to a specific address AND requires a GPS lock to function at all. Despite this it tells my phone that it's in Berkeley. Switch the MicroCell off and I instantly get the correct location in San Francisco. Switch it on and I'm teleported to Telegraph Avenue. My Google Latitude history has whiplash every time I leave the house.
Reading the AT&T forums I'm lucky. Other users are located in the wrong state, and have choppy voice when they can make a call at all.
(Published to the Fediverse as: AT&T MicroCell Woes #etc #at&t #microcell #geolocation How AT&T's MicroCell cure is worse than the disease (the disease in this case being AT&T's regular network). )
Accessing Printer Press ESC to cancel
International Date Line Longitude, Latitude Coordinates
Is it safe to open securedoc.html (Cisco Registered Envelope)?
3D Printing a 72-58mm step down Camera Filter Adapter
Global Cloud Cover 48 Hour Video Updated Hourly
3D Printing a discreet wall mount shelf for the Aura Carver Mat
How many people don't read this blog?
