Two Cents and a Thousand Words

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m now employed at Sephone Internet Solutions in Bangor. Sephone has done some really great work in the past (see Governor’s and the National Folk Festival for two well-known examples), and I’ll be doing some development work there. It seems like it’s a really wonderful environment, and the people all seem great. I’m very excited about it; I shadow my friend Matt (who referred me) on Friday and then start work on Monday.

This comes at a good time. On the Russell Burnout Scale, I’m currently at a 1 (it’s a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being “bored bored bored” and 10 being like a just-exploded firework, for those of you not “in the know” or in my head 5 seconds ago when I came up with the thing). This has its ups and downs; while I’ve gone through all of my e-mail, news, and such for the first time in quite a few months, I’m also starting to get bored. I’m not good when I’m bored; I just sit in front of the computer and zone out while I carelessly browse the Web, suddenly glancing up to the clock to find that, unbeknownst to me, a few days have passed and I’m suddenly failing all of my classes (not “in the know” people: this is an exaggeration). I’ve reached an 8 on the scale in the past, and that was quite uncomfortable. With my classes and now work, I think the level will increase; hopefully I can maintain a nice, comfortable 4 or 5. I like being busy, after all. Being bored, after all is said and done, is just not good for me.

(by the way, it’s pronounced CEF-oh-nee)

There’s been some press lately about Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers saying something about how women may inherently be worse in math and science because they lack natural ability (full disclosure: if I recall correctly, I have some obscure personal connection to Summers). Now, I make a lot of jabs at Harvard, partially for fun and partially because after four years I still question the value of going to a private university over a public school, but I want to point out a few things about the AP article that’s being spread (keep in mind that I was not in attendance at the speech, nor do I know any possible history of Summers and gender issues). First, the article contains no direct quotes from Summers’s speech. Second, from my experience, any criticism at all about a sensitive issue such as gender, race, politics, religion, or *gasp* abortion will cause people to become uncomfortable.

As another point, I’d like to point out a few sex role socialization notes from my Childhood Psychology class last semester. Keep in mind that this course was taught by a female professor:

• Males’ brains are bigger (females have brains that are 11% smaller)
• Females’ brains are better organized
• Females have more gray matter (information processing)
• Males have more white matter (brain-body impulses)
• Corpus callosum is much thicker in females (intra-hemisphere communication)
• Stronger inter-hemisphere communication contributes to better verbal skills
• Hemisphere distinctiveness in males allows better spatial skills

While it may be disputed by some, there’s scientific research behind this. Would there have been as much of a problem if he had said males lack natural ability for communication? And wouldn’t his statements mean, in essence, that women studying math and science at an esteemed institution such as Harvard would have achieved a higher level of thinking than the males there?

I just want to make sure that the issue isn’t being shown as a completely opinion-based remark without realizing that there is in fact some biological evidence that supports that it may be the case.

(There’s a through Slashdot discussion going on about the issue, and Harvard’s Crimson campus newspaper has an article about it.)

Martin Luther King, Jr., 28 August 1963, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.:

text and audio – video clip

It appears as though somebody with 10 minutes and a desire to make some fast cash has written a little script to spamvertise in my comments. Well, I don’t take that lightly (putting hundreds of junk records in my database just doesn’t sit well with me). To attempt to block this, I’ve put an extra little check to make sure the commenter is human. This means you’ll have to check an extra circle (answer a yes or no question) when you enter a comment. Hopefully it won’t be too painful for you (it actually doesn’t even matter what you answer; they’re not stored anywhere).

Thanks for the comments so far!

So if $10,000 isn’t much, why not deal out a few of those to some of these people?

Idiot.

I don’t really like Apple suits, but I do love their products:

Mac Mini ($499+)
Shuffle ($99+)
iWork ($79)
Pages

Good move into the general market to silence all those “Apple’s too expensive” people, I’d say. (And cheaper for education people!)

I finally completed a good chunk of a project I’ve been working on (in design and in implementation) for a couple of months. The new redesign of justinrussell.com (version 7.0 by my count… can you believe it?) clears up a few things that have been bothering me about the old version.

Before explaining those, though, I want to just mention a couple of small tech details. The new site is completely done with div elements and CSS instead of using tables. Most people reading this right now probably don’t know and/or care, but CSS allows for some powerful new functionality. I might play around with it if I get bored sometime. Also, the site is W3C validated. This means the code is clean, and there’s a better chance it will work on most browsers. I’ve checked it on Firefox 1.0 on Mac and Win, Safari 1.0, and IE 6 on Windows. IE has some very slight alignment problems with it, but hey, if you’re not using Firefox already, go get it.

The design changed, first of all. I didn’t have any particular problem with the old design, other than it hadn’t really been changed in a while. This one’s simpler. The first non-design-related thing you’ll probably notice about the site is that I’ve combined my portfolio with my main site. I wanted there to be one central source for anyone interested in me and what I’ve done; while the Portfolio Server is a great resource, I figured it made sense to put everything on my own page. Also, you’ll see right up front that there are links to external sites (including my items for sale at Half.com and my links on del.icio.us). These will change over time as I gain and lose interest in different services and sites, but they’ll always be in the same place. Once again, I’m trying to realize that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every service out there. I’m playing nice with standards, so I’ll play nice with other sites, too.

I’ll tell you, it’s a relief to get that off my chest. I wanted to launch it with my blog at the beginning of the year, but… close enough.

(Before beginning this post, I must remind everyone that I Am Not An Artist. If anyone would like to send me better graphics, by all means do, and I’ll put them up here. The graphics are, of course, under a Creative Commons Attribution license and anyone is free to use them the idea itself in any way as long as they mention where they got them.)

In honor of Macworld Expo next week, I thought I’d come up with a product that I thought would be Mac-worthy. Steve Jobs has always been known to show off new products and technologies during his keynote (Tuesday), so this seemed like the perfect time. My idea: AirPhones.

Simply stated, AirPhones are a pair of around-the-back headphones that would be powered by a rechargable battery (like the iPod) and would utilize WiFi (like the AirPort Express). These completely cordless headphones that would primarily work along the same lines as the pairs of Bluetooth headphones that have appeared recently, but they would add a few features.

AirPhones would use rechargable batteries placed just in back of the ears. To charge these batteries, the AirPhones would use a connector of the same variety that is used on the iPod.

To charge, the AirPhones would rest on the top of a special docking station. In addition to charging the AirPhones, the dock would also charge an iPod by using a similar connector placed in front of the stand. The dock would be powered by the same FireWire connection that is used for iPod charging.

The iPod connector would not simply be used for charging, though. In addition to providing simple streaming with WiFi, the antenna, in combination with a rudimentary setup program available when charging, would pick up signals using Apple’s AirTunes technology. iTunes users could then choose which pair of AirPhones would be used to listen to their current stream. AirPhones could be password-protected so allow for some privacy or could be left open in order to have some fun with your AirPhones -owning neighbors.

I want a pair.

Bill Gates says that free software people are communists on Tuesday, and his presentation crashes in his CES keynote presentation Wednesday. Coincidence? I think not.

He was running Windows, after all, that fine piece of commercial monopoly software.

I recently received what appeared to be a bill from the “Internet Corporation Listing Service”, or ICLS. The sheet of paper listed one of my domains: zipboards.info. Strangely enough, I didn’t even know I own that domain. I don’t think I do, because I don’t recognize the holder page for the domain right now. The whois info shows that it’s mine, though, so I guess I’ll just proceed as if that’s a given.

Looking over the bill I found something quite peculiar: it wasn’t a registration request. In fact, it was simply a chance to “remit payment” for listing on “14 MAJOR search engines” for the wonderfully overpriced charge of $35/year. I laughed when I saw it, and then I started to panic a bit due to the paper’s bill-like nature, I recommend you these accounting tools for small companies. Fear not, though, because above the tear-off payment stub, these words were printed:

Gee, thanks.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Verisign and Network Solutions (along with Qwest for telephone soliciations) both used this kind of tactic. It was even the basis for a class-action lawsuit. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that I’m not alone.

Be careful of what you get in the mail, especially if you own domains. Yay for reports to the USPS, FBI, and FTC.