Need or Want :: Necessity or Luxury

When a Cellphone Stops Being a Luxury

There are many times I have heard on "The People's Court" where the judge has said that "a cellphone is a luxury and not a necessity." Now I do know where she is coming from and agree with what Judge Milian is saying. However sometimes we must lift the brush we are painting with and make sure we are not painting too broad a swath.

It might seem strange, but perhaps the truly needy are the ones who need the "luxury" of a cell phone the most?

The people who are homeless and living on the street are people, just like you and me, who have needs and desires — and I am not just speaking of a desire to chatter with someone a block away on a cellphone.

If you are homeless and manage to land an entry-level job, you will hit obstacles because there are no regular ways to contact you. After failing to contact you a number of times through numbers at soup kitchens or shelter switchboards, your employer is likely to label you "unreliable" — costing you that job.

A pay-as-you-go or "no contract" cellphone might not cost very much for an inexpensive model and if you do not use it much, might not cost much to operate each month. But, it does give that important contact number for employers, potential employers, future employers, social agencies, and family to keep in touch with you. Some of this can be very important so that you don't feel like you've fallen off the face of humanity.

Granted when you are on the street and near cashless, your calls on the cellphone are likely to be short and to the point: "Hello...I'm fine...I'll meet you at the coffee shop on first and main in half an hour... see you there, you have my number." A person wants to minimize the minutes on the phone if you watch all the minutes you pay for in advance on the phone. Better to make appointments to talk in person for sure.

(image to right from Computer Finance)

...and then there are emergencies... have you noticed how far and in between the pay phones are now? How many folk would let a homeless person use the phone in their business or their personal cellphone even if they said it was a "911 Emergency"? That phone in the pocket could be a life saver.

So while a cellphone might be a luxury for the working poor who have homes and can afford a home phone, for the homeless... that phone might actually represent their home.

Later!
~ Darrell

160.

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"On D.C. Streets, the Cellphone as Lifeline" The Washington Post.

"That Homeless Guy Outside Starbucks? He Probably Has a Cellphone [Cellphones]" 23 Mar 2009 by Gizmodo; Computer Finance.

"Homeless find cell phones no longer a luxury" 23 Mar 2009 CTIA; Smartbrief.

"In America, Even The Homeless Have Cell Phones (Michelle Obama Edition)" 24 Mar 2009 by Nick Gillespie; Reason Magazine, Hit & Run.

"30% to 40% of D.C's homeless use cellphones" 23 Mar 2009 by Conner Flynn; SlipperyBrick.

A Little Bird

Tweet Tweet

I first opened a Twitter account a few years ago because I could never remember what sorts of music I listened to. This was awkward when friend would ask me, "What sorts of music do you listen to?" So I got the Twitty Tunes application for Firefox. This included setting up a Twitter account to go with it.

I now could have a widget to put up on Social Networking Sites (SNS), Blogs, and Websites which would show either the current song or the past 10 that I had listened to. Well actually it was the Twitter postings I had made, but when I first started I thought Twitter was all about the music you were listening to -- a side effect of getting exposed to it through Foxy Tunes and TwittyTunes. I used it to post my current listening list onto MySpace on my profile I have there -- so if someone asked what music I liked, I could point them at my profile.

To keep it current I just click my twitter button and then click post when it asks me if what it is suggesting is okay... that is because it defaults to the last type of action it took. TwittyTunes automatically fills in the name of the song I am listening to -- regardless of the music or video player -- and a link on Foxy Tunes that tries to find that song, album, track performer and other information. Now an important part is that it always asks you to confirm as not only does TwittyTunes allow you to this easily post what you are listening to, it also would allow you to instead post the website you are viewing in the exact same way.

When it asks you to confirm the post there is a ribbon selector -- one of those boxes with the arrow that allows you to make a selection -- for a few different ways to present what you are listening to as well as options for what page you are viewing instead; or even a plain text window like what Twitter normally has.

It is that simple to post the music, video, or web page you are viewing or listening to -- or other information -- without leaving the web page you are on or opening another browser window.

Here are your choices from the TwittyTunes box¹:

Listening to:
Listening a lot lately to:
Listening to a song I love:
Now playing:
@Foxytunes_DJ:

Browsing:
At:
@:
Reading:
Looking at:
Watching:
Free Text
Free Text + URL

It is very simple to use and with Firefox, Foxytunes gives you a very easy way to post to Twitter as well as a nice way to control your music player from the bottom of your web browser.

But, you do have to be careful... You have to make sure that the last thing you put up wasn't "I'm browsing:" with the url for the current web page or it might be embarrassing if you were really planning on telling folks you were listening to Bach and you were looking at RacyWomenoftheSmithsonean.com.

Later!
~ Darrell

159.

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¹ I have discovered recently that posts starting with "@username" can be used to bring attention to the user whose name you include. The Twitter software will recognize it if you are looking for Twitter messages directed at you. I have noticed this being used on comment area of blogs and in forums as well lately. So on Twitter if I am following you and you start a message with "@Belgnorman" twitter will make it so that I can sort those posts out.

DWP - Futurist At Large

A Direction for Near Future Tech

With current technology there is a trend towards the combining of functions and technologies. Perhaps it is not a "Swiss Army Knife" of technology we are looking at, but when you look at all that is being included in some items like your typically carried Cell phones -- there is a lot there.

I believe that all Cell phones include a phone book in them to record the numbers of calls coming in or going out. This is of course more convenient when tied in with the service of call display which many if not most subscribe to or have included in their service. Most if not all the phones also have some sort of calendar function in addition to a watch function and at least rudimentary alarm function if not one that can be programmed in conjunction with the calendar. Combining these they often have a virtual appointment book ability which would have been the envy of any business executive 20 years ago.

Nearly everyone could if they wish, have access to voice mail as well for missed calls or be able to forward calls to or from a regular phone service to their mobile one. They also have options to send or receive text messages. The price for them of course varies depending on service contract and location. (Not to mention date, phase of the moon, tide, which direction the last dark bird flew past your gaze...)

Those are pretty well standard sorts of communication things you might expect.

A bit more than that are Internet capabilities including being able to access eMail, Internet Chat services, and actual World Wide Web access. You might pay a bit heftier dollar for that ability and even more if you would like to be able to plug your portable computer into your cell phone whether it is a Notebook or Net book computer.

Beyond that... many of not most cell phones have the ability to take digital photographs if not short digital videos. It seems to me that the 1 Megapixel resolution level is very common if not greater. That is a log greater than most people might need for use in digital images for the Internet. Of course we are not talking about the needs of photographers here.

The phones -- and we aren't talking about the expensive sort really -- very often include the ability to download and play games in addition to other things like "ring tones" and background art for the control screen that nearly all phones have. That is the same screen you screen your digital pictures and videos on as well as check your messages and everything on.

The phone as well can often be used to play music on and can do well as an mp3 player with only the addition of decent headphones or earbuds.

All those things on fairly normal cell phones.

Then we get to the "smart phones" which are virtually tiny computers with complete keyboards or alternate methods for data entry. Some have nearly gone away from keys completely opting for total touch screen control -- that allows for the entire top surface of the device to be used as the device screen. Those can act as total digital assistants... or PDA -- Pocket Digital Assistants -- like the Palm Pilots of all. They seem to have superceded the Palm Pilots if you ever try go shopping for them.

The mp3 player has expanded as well to include the abilities to record sound like a portable voice recorder. The mp players also routinely include FM radio recievers and have enough memory to allow them to carry digital computer files within -- thus acting as "pen drives" or "memory sticks". Of course the mp3 players themself can use memory cards which gets sorta circular. The mp3 player also expanded into playing video and being an mp4 player. This is where they overlapped or became or inspired or...(?) the portable video player. The really nice ones also forgo the buttons for touch screens... and are nearly identical to the cell phones with the same screens. They just don't have the cell phone function. Though the mp3/video player ones did gain the wireless networking capability tha allows them to comunicate wirelessly and hence the good ones can access the Internet and do everything else those cell phone ones can do. They even play the same games in the same ways... and I believe from the same sources. Did I mention the phones can download and play the same videos the video players can?

Then there are the portable game players -- they have gotten more and more powerful and gained the ability to network wirelessly as well, and you can access the Internet as well as computers with them. Many of them have touch screens and they can be used to play videos or watch pictures on -- much like the mp3/video playes I have mentioned and the cell phones.

There are also eBook players out there whose purpose is to hold and display eBooks in various formats. They connect either through networking cables or more commonly now through wireless networking.

I might finally mention the digital picture frames which are very limited and the PDAs that I think morphed into the "smart phones" and mostly disappeared.

Perhaps the edges between these things are very much blurring -- especially if you take into account the notebook/laptop computers and their slightly smaller cousin the net book. I do see a direction that things might take with this blurry tech fog.

I think that people will start thinking of what their primary focus is and then go for the device that handles that best. Then they will purchase a device that does that best -- meaning with all the features of that dedicated device -- and have that device fitted with all the other features that would be convenient not to have to carry as separate devices.

Here is an example of what I am speaking:

Let's say I have a hobby that is photography. I would go to a camera shop and purchase a nice camera. It would have the lenses or a lens system that I would want. (I am not a photographer, so please bear with me as I am not so conversant with the terms and stuff.) Having chosen the camera I would also have a camera that would have digital memory for digitally recording the images as well as recording them on film. (Providing it took film photographs as well as digital ones.) It would be able to record sound and some video as well. The camera would be able to play mp3 files as a music player through headphones or ear buds although they might be bluetooth wireless ones. I would also be able to watch video content on the display screen of the camera if I should so choose. The camera would also have wireless networking to connect with WiFi hotspots or my computer and if I should choose I should be able to activate it to a cell phone plan and use it as a cell phone with a handy blue tooth headset. Not to mention using the camera for "texting" messages or as an address or date book.

Conversely if my prime usage were as a student, perhaps all of these functions might take place through a portable computer -- probably a net book for portability -- that I would use for all those functions.

I guess the idea sort of falls apart if you don't want to carry the large item everywhere, like when you don't want to carry the net book to everything, or the camera, or the digital tape recorder, or the electric guitar (with the phone etc. built in...)... But for the photographer, videographer, reporter, author, or other person who always carries their tools around with them...

Hmm, I guess they aren't building them into paint brushes or pens quite yet... but how about those scientific or engineering calculators... they still make calculators don't they?

Later!
~ Darrell

158.

A Different Perspective

Looking at Things From a New Angle

I think there has been a change in how many people look at things in the Western World. For much of the 20th Century -- up until the 1970's or 80's we were very much driven by paper. If we were doing a report or take notes we would write it on paper that was oriented vertically. Our TV's and movie screens however were oriented horizontally. The current terms used for these orientations -- at least in the world of the Internet, so far as I know -- are "Portrait" (image to left by DWP¹) and "Landscape" (image to right by DWP¹).

Where this comes important is when video digital terminals and later personal computer monitors came into common use. The terminals and monitors were nearly all in landscape orientation. There were a few notable exceptions I'll get to. This wasn't of great importance until people began to be able to compose documents on the computer or electronic word processor. The screen just didn't fit the printed word on paper. Paper of course normally in publication is in the portrait orientation.

To begin with there was little issue because people wrote on the computer and what they wrote was really not in the same format as what they expected to see printed on paper. Good "word processors" would have a tool for previewing what the printed document should look like and it was okay if this just took up a portion of the landscape oriented screen. Later word processing software and office suites -- to be joined with actual "Desktop Publishing" software -- actually was WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). That meant that what you saw on the screen more and more resembled what was actually going to be seen on paper and at full size. Of course the screen went one way and the paper the other. For the most part that has just been accepted and programs have included modes that let you see shrunken versions that will fit on the monitor screen or just let you see a part of the page. Sometimes it is nice to see a two page or even multi-page preview on screen to see how things fit together as a whole document.

Apple did take a step forward with their Portrait Display for the Macintosh²³ (image to right - image from "myoldmac.net"). It was monochrome like the original Macs and since so were printers at the time, black print on white screen was just fine. (or many shades of grey) There also was pride on very white screens if I recall the term "paper white screen. There were also monitors developed that would rotate from landscape to portrait orientation. I think that the portrait oriented monitors were/are mostly used by people who do a lot of desktop publishing.

With the ability to have multiple monitors hooked up to computers now and shared desktops and so forth, there is a resurgence in use of portrait oriented monitors. (image to left - image from "MacNN Forumsª")  Probably the new thin designed screens also makes it easier to design and implement considering the lighter components inside without the hefty cathode ray tube (CRT) and transformers.

Note how the second portrait monitor fits so nicely to the left of the main, quite large monitor.

Consider this though: will there be a bias when people design pages, for them to design to the landscape page more often now than the portrait? I got to thinking about that a few years ago when designing event posters for the museum I volunteer at. (The Port Moody Station Museumº) I was designing the posters to fit on regular "letter" sized paper and thought about how we orient such stuff on the paper. Often maps will go landscape while small posters go portrait. When people put together websites although the screen tends to be landscape, the pages tend to either be designed to fit one page landscape or extend portrait style.

I was wondering if people seeing more and more things in text on a landscape screen would be tending to design documents on that landscape orientation? I know some things just fit better one way or the other. Many people do read things more easily in narrower columns so a wide page is a problem. (Sorry but I can't cite a source at the moment on that, it is something told me by teachers and I have read in articles on learning disorders. It has to do with the eye skipping up or down a line more easily on long lines.) But a wide page can take multiple columns like the news papers have.

Still I think people are more used to scrolling down a long web page than across one. Though the trackpad on my Macbook and the MightyMouse I bought for it can scroll horizontally with equal ease, most mice I have come across are intended to scroll vertically. I wonder though if younger people have less bias against horizontal scrolling and horizontally presented pages? Of course... do people have any bias at all in either direction? .

Later!
~ Darrell

134.

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¹ "DWP" -- That's me.

² "myoldmac.net -- Apple Macintosh Portrait Display -- Buy it!"

³ "Apple Portrait Display" MonitorWorld.com.

ª "The New Power Mac Picture Thread -- Page 13" blakespot; Sept 29, 2006, 6:00 pm: MacNN Forums

º "The Port Moody Station Museum Blog" 2734 Murray Street Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada (604) 939-1648 run by the Port Moody Heritage Society

Everyone Wants Our Membership!

Of Course You Want to Make Up Another Account.

Have you ever noticed that no matter what you want to do on the Web someone is asking you to register? In the very least they want you to enter an email address.

Having created and managed Boards, Blogs, Forums, and Groups I can understand some of the necessities for this. I have a Board actually for general socializing and discussion called "The Gnome's Garden" which there is a link to in the Links area of this Blog and I actually had to change its URL -- Web Address -- because I had too many "Spambots" calling and trying to make accounts on it or post in areas that unregistered members might make posts. I ended up spending a half hour a day simply sorting through the Spam posts and Spammer accounts before taking any enjoyment from the board -- and there were less than a dozen actual members on that Family oriented board.

Anyway requiring registration and confirmation with a valid email address was the only thing that could be done at first... but that was not even enough as even with optical character recognition there were problems. So I created a screen door to screen out the spambots. It did work but the only members I attract are friends I directly attract.

Still... I am constantly searching out interesting topics on the web and that means finding places to comment in and things I just really want to comment on. I know some places just want an email address and never use it. I mean many Blogs looking for comment and many have it set so that the owner has to okay any comments before they are published.

But still, it seems every day there are one or two sites that want me to register. Probably 90% of those places I might never come back to and perhaps only want to ask a simple question of the person who made a post or comment. But it adds up to over 700 sites registered to a year... Those might be places wanting a password too and how many passwords might a person use. I guess a person might have "throw away" passwords just like they might have "throw away" email addresses.

I know that some of these places might actually be farms wanting to harvest lists of email addresses to sell... it makes me consider misspelling my name in different ways so that I can tell just who is selling my name to who. But my name is in enough places and in actuallity... I really do not get tonnes of spam... I think perhaps only 5%-10% of my email is Spam... that includes both what is caught by my spam filter and that which isn't.

I don't sign up nearly so often... I am tired and burned out a bit. Perhaps that is why I get less Spam? Can you wear out your Spamworthyness?

Later!
~ Darrell

124.

My Speech is Freer than Your Speech!

Does One Person's Right to Speak Supersede Another's Right to Hear?

I do believe in the right to free speech, though I am not American and my rights come from different roots than the American Constitution. Still I have started wondering at the expression of the right to be heard as used by some groups in our society.

I might disagree with some policies put forward by government or by crown corporations. I might dislike fare increases by public transit. On the other hand, I might agree with some of them. I do know that when I go to a public hearing to hear what the politicians and other groups have to say, I want to actually hear what they have to say and watch their presentation. I want to know what the various politicians have to say and what the assorted boards which are making policy are up to. I want to see their arguments to defend their positions.

But, now at civic meetings and such I see protesters coming in as organized hecklers -- shouting over the speakers and everyone else with every intent to disrupt the meeting it seems. It seems for the simple reason that they disagree and they want their message to be heard. They are asserting their right to free speech... but I think perhaps this is not what is meant by freedom of speech.

I think that the protesters have every right to speak out and every right to protest, but I somehow think there is something wrong with their preventing others from speaking out whether board member or simple citizen.

I am seeing more and more of this sort of thing. There are too many times when the protests are outshouting the presentation and I do not think the fault is that of the organizers for not providing louder sound systems. I am sure that protesting voices are heard even if at organized protests. We are allowed to do that here. There are other places where they don't have the freedom to organize a protest event.

I might not agree with what someone is saying at a presentation, but I do agree they have the right to say it -- say it and be heard.

Later!
~ Darrell

123.

Walk the Walk -- A Dolphin Tail

Culture in Dolphins

It seems that like Humans and Apes; Dolphins share culture among themselves. Near Adelaide on the south coast of Australia is a group of dolphins is learning to "tail-walk". (image to right -- image from BBC NEWS) Tail-walking is not a typical behaviour found in dolphins in the wild but is one taught to them in captivity. A female dolphin in that group, Billie, had spent a short time in a dolphinarium 20 years ago¹.

Twenty years ago Billie had been trapped in a marina lock and was suffering from malnutrition and sickness so they put her in a local dolphinarium for a few weeks in the 1980's. She was never trained while their, but apparently she had seen other dolphins at the dolphinarium tail-walking. It is inferred that with other females in her group having picked up the behaviour of tail-walking that they have learned it from Billie.

Mike Bossley-Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society²

"It would seem that among the Port River dolphins we may have an incipient tail-walking culture."

Sharing cultural behaviour is something that is known in apes and it has been documented that dolphins off Western Australia are known to use sponges as an aid in gathering food and to teach their young how to use them². Tail-walking would be considered a "cultural behaviour"² like language which helps define a group. "we may have an incipient tail-walking culture."²

I know that many species of whales, dolphins, and their kin have differences in "language" between different populations that are different enough that the part of the world an individual is from can be told by the dialect/accent of their speech-song-voice even while they are physically the same species and I believe it has been shown that this is learned behaviour

It is interesting that a skill that probably was learned by one individual in a few weeks by observation by one dolphin has now been mastered and is being taught in her family group. I think it is very interesting how many things we think of as definingly "human" is within the scope of some animal we have studied. Of course dolphins are very intelligent creatures that are very social.

I even recall seeing that sometimes dolphins and whales might even cooperate with feeding... We should try be more like dolphins.

Later!
~ Darrell

120.

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¹ "Wild dolphins tail-walk on water" Richard Black 19 August 2008, BBC NEWS | Science/Nature.

² Dr Mike Bossley, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, scientist monitoring the group on the Port River estuary.

Button Button

Click On This, Drag That

While navigating my browser a moment ago I realized how used to pushing buttons on my computer I had gotten. It is bad enough with the mouse and with the track pad on my MacBook I feel even more like I am just moving my finger on the screen. I fully realize there are tablet PCs, iPhones, Ipod touch, PDA, and other devices with touch screens which are even more directly tactile for pressing and moving things in a virtual environment. I am not even going to get into the VR Visors, helmets, gloves, globes¹, touch tables, and performance art touch screens or the projected interaction advertising systems where you can touch an image projected on floor or wall... or the projected keyboards and screens experimented with that project keyboard and screen on any actual desk surface or tabletop. ...or did I just get into them?

The thing is we have gotten very used to manipulating virtual items. We are used to on-screen controls for things like the VCR and DVD or the Cable-box or... Even the monitors we use most often have on-screen controls even if not touch screen.

Have you ever wanted to use your remote control like a mouse on your TV screen to move things around, like to move a TV logo out of the way so you could read the important subtitle it is blocking? Perhaps you can do it right now and if not you might be able to in future. I am just making an observation about how some of the more technologically comfortable of us might be getting very comfortable with the idea of pushing virtual buttons on a web page or other piece of software. I really look forward to having an electronic desk top... not a desktop on my monitor, but a monitor surface as my desk's desk top. Of course there will be the issue of having real objects placed on top of the virtual objects and I would imagine coasters with felt bottoms would be a must. ...or coffee Verboten! Personally I think any tabletop surface intended for touchscreen monitor use, other than something for the drafts man or equivalent should be designed to cope with things like beverage or spaghetti spills.

...hmm I would imagine that a really good touch screen desk would work around things put on it. Can you imagine your information doing a word wrap around the coffee cup sitting on the desk at the moment so that none of the words end up under the cup? Well, maybe not, but the desktop software would avoid place documents under lamps or stacks of paper if possible... I can imagine the warning message:

*** Warning Desktop Is Dangerously Covered Some Documents Might Be Hidden Please Clean Desk ***

I am sure they could use one of the trademark "you done something naughty" Windows sounds for it.

Later!
~ Darrell

118.

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¹ I wrote about a virtual reality globe the Virtusphere July 20 2008.

Is it Magic?

Is Reading Magic?

You might not know the sound of my voice, but you know what I am saying. You would be able to repeat my words to another even if you had never met me. If you are reading these words 200 years after I have passed on from this mortal realm, you would still be able to hear what I have said. You could paint them on canvas, carve them into wood, scratch them into stone, itch them into skin... and still the words could be passed on and heard by others so long as they know the "magic of reading".

...and of course understand English or something equivalent.

I would say it is something pretty magical. We could be sitting -- or standing -- here communicating, by me having recited this into a microphone and recording it as an mp3 file or podcast and you playing my spoken words, but that would require some sort of technology to duplicate. If you print this on paper you can carry it with you and anyone who can see and read English will be able to understand it simply by looking at it -- anyone who understands this magic.

It strikes home with me at times more strongly than others. I researched "runes" -- the primitive letter system used by cultures such as the Norse -- in local and university libraries and one of the articles referred to runic writing found in Kiev. This was the ancient city of Kiev from a time when it was inhabited in part by Norse Traders before 1000 AD. There were bits of writing found on scraps of bark which were found in odd places where they might have been lost or stuck. Places like where they might have gotten between floorboards in wood walkways or in cracks in walls. I am not talking about ancient scrolls here. What struck me was that some were notes saying such things as "pick up three eggs on the way home" or "meet me after class" or "I like Ivan. He is cute." -- things that you might find on notes in any school child's pocket today... or do they only "text" now? I can not remember the exact content of the few notes that they made example of as it was over 20 years ago, but could find it probably. What was said in the article in "Scientific American" (Probably from the 1980's) was that this showed the people used runic writing in their everyday lives.

What I want to say with this is that when we read this -- or could if we were runic readers and understood the language of the Kievian Norse traders -- we are reading the words of a parent or child from over 2000 years ago! ...not some priestly incantation on a pyramid or other monument, but from the scraps of bark from a child's pocket.

We might do a lot with computers like here on the Internet -- I really love using my notebook computer, for instance -- and I would like to get an eBook reader of some sort and perhaps an even more portable way to take notes and write* -- but I can take a book anywhere and read it so long as there is light for my eyes and the environment wouldn't harm the paper. (Reading in swimming pools can be hard on books.) But I don't need a "reader" to read a book once it has been printed.

Reading and writing are very important arts and to someone who does not know how to read, must be a bit like magic. I think to a primitive culture that isn't literate, reading and writing would indeed be "Magic" as much as anything else could be. It is a magic that can be learned and taught of course.

It is also a magic that can open whole worlds!

Later!
~ Darrell

114

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* Notepads and pencils are wonderful and portable and while I do use them, I have problems with handwriting due to learning disorders and so I tend to rely on typing and other methods of writing that take handwriting out of the equation. I would rather use a trusty notepad when out and about.

Gnomestead Stump: Coming of Age

Have We Come of Age? -- First Spammer in Comments

I wonder if "The Gnomestead Stump" has come of age? We had our first Spammer come and Spam us with an unsolicited advertisement in our comments section for one of our articles! Now I could like a good adman make you search for the article with the comment in it -- that way you would have to look over more of the articles -- but instead I shall provide you with a link to the article which will open up on its own page. That way it will show you the comments section right away too as a bonus. It is in the "Tickets Please - Fair Transit Fares" article from July 13, 2008.

I was tempted to immediately delete the ad and perhaps in future I shall do so. I did add a comment of my own afterwards. I am leaving it in place for a couple of reasons. The first is that I planned on writing this article I am posting here, and it is an example of what I am writing about. It is also fairly innocuous other than wasting bandwidth for you and blog-space for me. The Spam also wastes server space for Blogger/Google and resources for the whole Internet community.

The advertisers are obviously not paying for the advertising space and while Blogger does offer free space, the purpose of it is not for third parties to make use of -- unasked for -- for advertising their wares. If I chose to I can have advertising on "The Gnomestead Stump" which actually would pay "Me" money when people followed the links advertised.

Someone I am sure is getting some sort of remuneration for the ad -- possibly based on each click on the links in the comment unless you have a script blocker in place. I actually do cruise the net with a script blocker in place. To allow for safer surfing I use the "NoScript" Application for Firefox, even though it means I have to activate scripts when I determine I trust a site.

If I could, I might disable the links in the comment so that nobody would be tricked to follow them to the travel site they link to. If someone did want to use their services... I can not say that they are bad... they could follow the links. I don't recommend it personally. I can say that if this is the sort of advertising technique they use, I would not want to do business with them.

On-the-other-hand there are people who pretend to be someone else just to discredit them. Someone might be pretending to be them. I have gotten sever emails purporting to be from MSN lately saying they are about some news reader service or some such... But I know the email does not originate from MSN. It is just another one of those Viral emails that say they are one thing when they are another. They even use return addresses that are not their own. I think in a way they are spoofing and phishing for information or trying to hurt MSN's reputation?

If someone has decided to try to Spam this column, I guess that means we have "made it". Now of course I also have seen them Spamming Forums with only a dozen members... If they send out 1,000,000 pieces of bait and get one nibble, those responses have paid for themselves many times over -- for they pay next to nothing to go fishing.

But, does that mean "The Gnomestead Stump" has passed a right of passage?

Later!
~ Darrell

113.

Here's the Caboose!

What's a Caboose?

When I grew up any child -- at least in Canada and the USA knew what a Caboose was. I figure most folk who spoke English natively might know that. The "caboose" was the special train car that came at the end of a train. In fact it confused me that passenger trains didn't have them!

Now they no longer put cabooses at the end of freight trains, they have been replaced by electronic boxes of some sort they put at the back of the last car in the train. The function of the caboose as a car for the train crew no longer exists and the entire crew is -- I imagine either in the engine or in the various railroad offices.

Perhaps cabooses have become "extinct" on today's railroads, but what does this mean for the caboose in the English language? I don't imagine that many will miss it and people will simply think that those who talk about getting a "swift kick in the caboose" are a bit eccentric. They might wonder at some of the children's books that talk about trains and mention cabooses. (image of CPR caboose to right -- image from "Railway Photography by Chris vanderHeide") Of course "caboose" might not be the only word that gets you weird looks. What do you think kids today make of "Choo choo train"? Other than special tour trains and museums and in movies and on TV they might not see a steam engine or even if so not equate it with "Choo choo trains".

It is something that has happened again and again with changes in society and technology. When was the last time you talked about a "Hi Fi"? "Gramophone" "Victrola". I wonder how long before "record player" disappears from our normal vocabulary and is relegated to Scrabble games or Crossword puzzles?

I hope that doesn't happen with something like "polar bear".

Later!
~ Darrell

112.

Piracy on the BC Seas!

Fair Ferry Fares or UnFair?

Fuel prices are increasing all over and the West Coast of BC is not immune. Those large car ferries which carry people, cars, trucks and freight back and forth between the mainland and Vancouver Island -- as well as the smaller islands and isolated island communities on the coast -- use a great deal of fuel doing so.

With the increasing fuel costs there have been constant annual fare increases and fuel tariffs added to the price of the ticket to use the services of BC Ferries, the Crown Corporation which runs this largest of ferry services in BC. There have been smaller private services which have started, but none have been able to find the recipe to make it work so far.

In the mean-time the prices just keep going up and the people who live in these remote communities and these islands in the passages off the British Columbian Mainland are starting to complain about the high costs involved not only for travel too and from their communities, but also of the goods which have to be ferried to their communities.

The Provincial Government does have some obligation to provide the ferry service to these islands here in BC where it seems to me the Federal Government does on the East Coast... I think that might have to do with the fact that the ferries on the East Coast tend to connect one province with another. Why it is one way here and another way there really is not the main theme of this article though.

What I sometimes wonder -- inspired by some of what my Father has argued at the dinner table -- is why the folk who live in isolated places should be subsidized for their transportation by the rest?

Yes, I have put forward arguments to do with the public transit system and why people in the remote areas should not pay higher amounts for poorer service in past articles. Perhaps those arguments come into play here as well, though there are some differences. People who are living on many of the islands and remote communities are often doing it for the very remoteness and benefits of that isolation from the rest of the world. There are many who might want to live that far off the beaten track if they could afford to either because of travel difficulty or because they simply would not be able to find work or afford a nice place out there. In the suburban areas of the metropolitan area, the people are still choosing to live within the city so-to-speak but are having to live a bit out from the core for economical and other reasons.

That really pulls in my Dad's argument. Most of the people with property on the islands -- other than those who are working in industries based on those islands and remote places like in the forestry, fishery, and timber industries -- are their for the advantages of being away from things. They are reaping the benefit of living on an island in a small community where they can practise whatever they do. Many are artists and craftspeople and some do crafts that might be awkward in a city in any case. -- raising sheep to harvest the wool so that you can create woollen work from scratch in a natural way is not easy to do in the city. It might be easier to fire raku pottery in a rural setting as well, or tanning your own leather, or welding metal sculptures or finding the peace for painting away from the hubbub of the city. Perhaps added cost to travel too and from where you live might be the price of that peace and solitude?

It is just as a person who might want to live in a house rather than a condo apartment or townhouse pays more for that slightly greater peace and solitude not only with higher initial price but higher upkeep and taxes -- forgetting those paying a premium to be in the downtown core in a condo apartment in a luxury high rise... who are also paying more for those benefits.

Granted, perhaps there should be some moderation in the transportation costs, especially when it comes to shipping of the necessities like groceries and so-forth. I am no expert on budgets or balances.

I do know there are folk like my Dad who have always wanted to live in a cabin on an island, but just were put off by the costs involved while they were working and some of the dangers of the isolation after retiring.

They are looking at linking a number of the islands with a chain of bridges and highways and in the end very much reducing costs of transportation. The plans even talk about a link between the mainland and Vancouver Island...

...it makes me wonder... if those plans become more than dreams and become concrete plans which budgets start being put together for... how many folk in these places will cry "foul" because their isolation might be disrupted?

Later!
~ Darrell

97.

No Degrees of Separation

How Connected Do We Need To Be?

I just was reading about a "Rehab Resort for Crackberry addicts" which I cam across on a canada.com Technology news feed*. It talks about a new resort plan where people sign a waiver and pledge to go off-line for the duration of their stay while handing over their cellphones, BlackBerrys and other mobile devices. The devices get locked up in the hotel safe.

The package includes all the amenities of the resorts -- and we are talking the Fairmont Hotel and Resorts with the hot springs and other facilities included. The resorts are in Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, and Whistler.

All that to get away from their electronic umbilical cords for a short while. Of course people start young with their dependence on mobile devices with even special cellphones for children. I think a larger percentage of teens have them than not -- enough that there have to be regulations about cellphones and cellphone usage in school and on school property. All the time looking out the windows at the Gnomestead I see teens in the 7-11 parking lot talking or texting as if the rest of the world did not exist -- oblivious to the fact that they are actually standing in a strip mall parking lot with life streaming past -- they'd never notice the mountains around them or the bald eagle soaring overhead.

Adults who can't seem to be away from the office or other job site without being "attached" somehow are a similar issue though different. Are they so important that they are not allowed to have a life other than for the corporation? Can the company not function without their input while they are not actually working on shift? If the company does operate 24 hours or 16 hours a day, perhaps there should be supervisors that can be trusted to watch over it without needing constant referral to the people who are home?

Or... perhaps those who are glued to the hip to the phone or BlackBerry simply are so dissatisfied with their life that they would rather be with whomever is on the other end of the line than the person the are with in person? If someone is on a date and constantly talking or texting someone during it, perhaps they would rather be with that person? -- or at least someplace they can talk and text without the constant interruption of feeling they should be making conversation.

Or is that the point of standing in the corner store parking lot with the strangers streaming past? -- the privacy of a public corner in order to always be in contact with someone, someplace, anyplace, but where they are.

Later!
~ Darrell

90.

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* Rehab resorts for Crackberry addicts - Sarah Mc Ginnis, Canwest News Service - published July 17, 2008 - © Calgary Herald 2008