Two Cents and a Thousand Words

According to this article (found on Slashdot), there’s now a wireless connection that spans 72 miles – over water.

Meanwhile, I have trouble with my wireless connection once I get outside the Union. 🙁

You might have a web page, but do you know your web age?

After thinking about how long I’ve been on the Web versus how long it’s been around, I came up with an idea for a new PHP script. You may have noticed the ‘Web Age’ figure down under the copyright and stuff on the right column of the main page. That number’s simply the percentage of the age of the Web that I’ve been online. I wanted to share the wealth, so you can go and find your own web age. And you can get the PHP script to put on your own blog or page… ya know, just like the active webcam thing.

Maybe this’ll get to be as big as The Blogger Code. 🙂

So that stomach cramp turned into something worse – the first time I’ve been sick in a really long time, and the first time I’ve been this sick in years. Oh, well. After an uncomfortable last night I’m feeling better today, but I’ll probably stay here until tomorrow morning.

Thank goodness I decided to come home this weekend.

Project Gutenberg… putting books in the public domain online. One or two people doing it is good. Thousands are better.

Distributed Proofreaders: letting Internet users help proofread books. One of the coolest services I’ve seen online. I’m going to help out when I get some time. And hopefully people are good at rekognising speling and grammer.

Here’s an example of a benefit, courtesy of someone’s favorite television show.

I had a stomach cramp today. Blah. I get those every once in a while, and they usually last about a day then just go away, but they’re a bunch of trouble when they’re around. I should probably eat slower – darn high school conditioning from having 12-minute lunches.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking lately about thinking. A few classes ago in new media we talked about how Einstein got many of his ideas from watching ‘cats at play’, and I kind of wonder if daydreaming could be very productive if done in pretty large spans of time. It got me to thinking; if I had a day with nothing to do at all and just spent 12 hours daydreaming, what would happen? I don’t know that I’ll actually do it anytime, but I thought it was interesting to think about. I’ll probably take an hour one of these days and try it, kind of like meditation but a little different. Sometime.

Yay! No more classes this week!

Us Russells have to stick together.

I’ve been doing a lot of extracurricular stuff in college, but I haven’t been doing as well (grade-wise) in my classes. I’m doing fine, but it’s not the straight-A thing I had going on in high school. Why am I going about college this way?

One of the goals of the Portfolio Server is to provide future employers access to actual student work instead of just numeric grades. In my honest opinion, the worth of a student should be judged not only on how they do on tests but what they produce for the class. I’d actually really like to see a project-based curriculum in all of my classes with a certain amount of creativity and student interest involved. If a student is interested in a topic, they’ll learn more and do better. I know it wouldn’t work for everyone, but I know that’s how I learn and feel.

Anyway, the Halloween edition of the Maine Campus included an op-ed column by senior journalism major Eric Russell. In a pretty casual way, he echoed almost all of my opinions about the current grading system used by colleges and employers. Be sure to read his article at mainecampus.com. (Note: If you want to register for the e-mail newsletter, go ahead; if you don’t, just use Justin.Russell@umit.maine.edu as the e-mail address.)

For new media we had to find a way to make a ‘sense map’ – a map involving more than just a visual representation of a place. Basically, I got the idea to film a golf hole from the perspective of a golf ball. Hopefully you get the idea when you watch it. It’s a biggie, though (it’s on the Portfolio Server).

Par 3 [30.3 MB MOV]

Yes, I voted today, and not just for Democratic candidates, if you’re wondering. The Democratic ways often line up with my views, but not always.

I also got to fill out a survey about public safety in Hampden and sign a petition about a referendum. Even if I don’t agree with them, I almost always sign them because I think they have a right to be put on the ballot.

Going through the new town office got me thinking – what happened to Hampden? It’s become more of a high-class place, and that’s fine; I just feel really disconnected. Granted, a big part is that I don’t live there any more, but even beyond that it seems like there’s something missing. In my opinion the quality of the high school is going down; a pretty big issue for me because that’s why my parents moved to the town in the first place. I kind of wish I’d been more social when I was a kid. I like saying hello to the police officers and my neighbors, but I feel as though the town’s become less friendly. How could a town become more community-oriented? Is there a better way than just meeting people in church, the supermarket, or the school? I bet there is. It’s just a matter of someone thinking of it.

I finally was able to get PHP, CGI, and SSI to work on the Portfolio Server. That’s a relief. I tried following some tutorials on the Web, but there were a few differences in how ours was set up.

If you’re on the PS, drop me a line if you can’t get something working.

Fark‘s found some really cool stuff, but it led me to this page which is probably at the top of my list:

Japanese switch ad … people who translated it say she’s just like the American Ellen Feiss.