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Showing posts from 2010

SkyDrive offers 25 Gb?!?

I wonder if something like CrashPlan could be pointed to a SkyDrive share? Do they mean 2.5 Gb? http://scyuen.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/microsoft%e2%80%99s-free-tools-in-the-... Microsoft???s Free Tools in the Classroom | Learning Technologies

Delicious panic

An interesting post and resulting comment thread on the not-quite-demise of delicious.com (forever known in my heart as del.icio.us)... http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/is-yahoo-shutting-down-del-icio-us/

Save BIG Money!

[wpvideo d3HgFe6o] I really shouldn't buy one of these, should I?

Absent from the body...

Just heard a reference to 2nd Corinthians 5:8 at the basis for the famous quote "Absent from the body, present with the Lord" -- the theology that when Christians die they're instantly in heaven with Jesus. That contradicts the "soul sleep" theology of the Seventh Day Adventists, which we'll save for another day. Anyway, Paul's actual quote is "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." I don't see how you necessarily get "immediate transformation" from that. For instance, if I say, "I would prefer to be away from Minnesota and at home in Hawaii" (which, if I weren't okay with wintertime, might be the feeling right now)... that doesn't mean that the process of getting from Minnesota to Hawaii wouldn't involve long flights, invasive TSA agents, lost luggage, etc. So, what are the verses and arguments against a "soul sleep" theology?

My niche is me?

Haven't read a ton of his stuff yet, but it looks like I might have a kindred spirit in Sam R. Hall ( http://samrhall.com/) -- at least in terms of what he blogs about? (Hat tip to my new-found design model Ian for linking to him...)

Successfully minimalist design

I love Ian P. Hines' site ( http://ianhines.com/) as a clean, straightforward personal site. Not sure if I'd go with icons over text, but they sure are simple!

If you name it, they will come...?

Just found the new (to me) term “Web-Based Lecture Technologies”, which I like, even if the WBLT acronym is a bit awkward: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/preston.html “Web-based lecture technologies: Highlighting the changing nature of teaching and learning”

Calvinism and more

I just same across this blog and have got to read more of it – extremely interesting so far… http://www.inventingaplanet.com/are-you-a-sinner/ (And the post that started my interest: http://www.inventingaplanet.com/a-scientific-mythology-of-spiritual-facts/ )

A note on a ministry

Just heard about Urban homeworks ( http://urbanhomeworks.com/) -- interesting that they said they complement Habitat for Humanity because they'll do rehab for rentals. Probably too much risk to my back to get involved in this "on the ground," but worth looking into...

Fly, little butterfly!

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When we spotted a little chrysalis hanging on Mom and Dad's porch railing in the late summer, we wondered if anything was alive in there. This little guy (or gal?) emerged in... November! Not sure if it made it down to Capistrano (or wherever Monarchs go?)... But we can hope!

SMBMSP #31 de-brief

Not that anyone's interested in reading about me or my thoughts (that's not self-deprecating false humility; it's proof that I have a firm grasp on reality), but I figured I'd expand on a couple comments or lines-of-thought from this morning's Social Media Breakfast. And, if nothing else, you can learn something about the grateful (but reserved when not on Twitter) guy who won the MixMobi give-away. First, brief background: I've worked at the University of St. Thomas full-time since 1996 in one form or another of "academic technology support". When I finished my M.A. in Human Resource Development (a field that you can steer in the "career coaching" or "instructional design" directions -- I went with the latter) I moved over to the Web and Media Services department as a Business Analyst, where I first encountered the Social Media Breakfast (and attended meeting #3). I've attended off-and-on (mostly "on") ever since.

Differentiation in education

http://www.yoursocialmove.com/2010/10/26/social-media-is-a-valuable-tool-to-c... Social Media is A Valuable Tool to Create Differentiation in a Commoditized Industry | Your Social Move

Building a dream...

That's not as profound as it sounds. A year or so ago I had a dream about skateboarding down a hill at Camp Sacajawea (sp?) here in Eagan (heading down Pilot Knob southbound toward McAndrews... but I digress) and ending up in a cabin at the bottom; there was what looked like an electrified oil lamp with a red cloth shade that was "flickering". I wonder if something like that could be built with nitinol wires? A quick Googling from the Blackberry brought this up, and I'll need to ponder it some more... Caroline Saint Romain: http://spottedspeedlion.com/senior_project.html

Trickle-down thanks...

[wpvideo KxRCSDOn] For my coworkers Ruth and Tom...

Plagarism is bad

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/16/congrats-self-righteous-internet-mob-you-kil... I wonder if the incident did indeed deserve to kill the magazine...

Changing of the 'CCO guard

http://mobileentertainment.startribune.com/articles/202499291 Some of us (not many) remember when Don Shelby was "the new kid" on Ron Handberg's I-TEAM. Those were amazing times; the Twin Cities is better off because of their work.

The pace isn't what it seems...

Well put: http://marycomm.com/lessons-from-a-snowplow/

The art of "thankfulness"

Tusen.Tk was born from one of those random collisions of ideas that form a "synergistic moment" of some kind: Having read of Joel Comm's Project Grateful  I had that rattling around in the back of my mind when I discovered that the folks behind .TK domains gave them away for free. A memory of a visit from Norwegian relatives in 1983 and the reminder that "tusen takk" means "thanks a lot" or "thank you very much" (translated literally as "a thousand thanks") triggered the inspiration for the site. But what's Tusen.Tk actually going to be ?  I don't know.  Any suggestions? To keep the domain free, I need to generate some traffic to it.  (So "Cute Thankful Kittens!!!" could be an option?  Maybe not...)  And to "keep food on the family" (hat tip to a former president for that one) it would be great to "monetize the blog" as they say... but, to be blunt, I don't think there's much m

A mystery poem...

Years ago when Ruth and I were first married and eBay was in the realm of "somewhat popular," I bought a set of inexpensive vintage Haynes prints of Yellowstone National Park. They were very nice (four still hang framed in our living room) and arrived with their original envelope... ...on the back of which was written an old "poem" of sorts, in all capital letters, pencil on brown paper: SMILE WITH ME MERRILY SING TO ME DREAMILY LOVE WITH ME THE COLOR OF HER EYES AND ENJOY WITH ME THE SMELL OF HER THIGHS AND GIVE TO HER THE SONGS OF A THOUSAND MINSTRELS THE CHIRPING OF BIRDS A SOFT BLUE LULLABY SMILE WITH HER AND I'LL BE SMILING TOO TASTE HER WARM LIPS SMELL HER RADIANT HAIR TOUCH HER SMOOTH WHITE SKIN LISTEN TO HER WORDS +        SHE'LL DANCE LIKE AN ENCHANTRESS WITH HER HEAD IN A RAINBOW AND HER FEET SURROUNDED WITH LILIES      AMONGST I'm no poet (though I'm pretty sure that lines like "smell her radiant hair" are... bad. Unless her h

Planning for a good day?

Words to live by... I think; I haven't had time to read the full post: patrickrhone / journal ?? Blog Archive ?? Good Day (A Recipe) http://patrickrhone.com/2010/11/01/good-day-a-recipe/

"Strategic Tutoring"?

An interesting reference at ~18:00; I need to re-listen and ponder... Plus the later reference to "Highrise" and CRM because tutoring conversations are "out of band" and the data/knowledge there is being lost... Podcast Title: EDUCAUSE | Podcasts Episode: E10 Session Podcast: Openness, Data, and a Sustainable Future for Education Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-fzIGCbigCC').show(); $('quicktime_embed-fzIGCbigCC').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-fzIGCbigCC').show(); $('flash_embed-fzIGCbigCC').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://www.educause.edu/podcast/30579/feed

Cafescribe

http://www.cafescribe.com/

"Attached"?

"In Buddhist terms, some of our students are very 'attached' to being busy." I need to look up that phrase/language; never heard it before.

College as "mandatory personal growth"?

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A friend said something interesting this morning as we had our weekly breakfast meeting to help steer what our church calls an "adult bible fellowship" (also known as an "adult Sunday school" though I think "Sunday school" has too much baggage and that title's acronym isn't one you want to use in church). As we talked about the challenge (for the class and for ourselves) of helping people engage in the material and stay motivated for personal growth, we realized something: At our stage of life (parents of young kids) we now have lots of competing time pressures and priorities. Conversely, our college years were marked by an externally applied "demand" that we learn and grow ; even if we didn't enjoy sitting through calculus class, we couldn't help ending that semester having been "changed" in some way. Today, we no longer have a mandate of personal growth imposed on us . Maybe it's just me, but I found this really

A Flavors.me ah-ha moment

I could be wrong (what a way to start!) but I think I "get" Flavors.me and why it's slow (sometimes really slow) for me. At the suggestion of someone replying to a Wordpress question on some site or another, I did a view-source of my Flavors.me page. All the feed content was loaded. I have a lot of feeds. So, what it seems to be doing is pre-loading the content, then displaying it "hidden" with CSS. What that means is that when my page loads, the server needs to grab a dozen RSS feeds, arrange them a smidge, then push all that content down to the browser. Someone who just wants to see my latest Tweet doesn't need several thousand words of blog writing dropped into their cache. So, I'm going to see if some type of "equivalent" could be built out of flatter pages, rather than handling everything within just one page. Maybe in Wordpress, maybe not. (I know that the "cool" way to do things is to push all the content down at once a

Good Adwords idea

HOWTO use Google AdWords to prototype and test a book title - Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/25/howto-use-google-adw.html Quote of the day: "There's almost a pathological sense of deceptiveness to some of his stuff." The covering up others' books does seem to cross an ethical line...?

What's an "educator"?

In "Twitter???s Golden Egg" ( http://www.alchemyofchange.net/twitters-golden-egg/) the author notes that "I???m using the term??'Information networker' to describe a group of people whose work centers on creating and connecting information." Wouldn't the same description apply to educators? What more (or less) do educators offer to society?

Why isn't podcasting easier?

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My first podcast was recorded in 2005. More than five years later... recording, editing and distributing a podcast isn't any easier. Isn't that a bit surprising? I've lamented the loss of GigaVox Audio Lite , which became Podango ShowBuilder Lite, which became totally nonexistent. I figured something would step up to take its place. Nothing has. Phone-to-podcast solutions came and went -- Gcast , Garageband, etc. I finally became excited about the idea again when I discovered that drop.io offered the service... only to find they discontinued it. (The phone number reference still appears on accounts but it doesn't seem to do anything.) The few I've come across so far ( UHaveAudio.com , ipadio .com -- which has nothing to do with the Apple iPad -- and Yodio.com ) don't seem to match the ease/simplicity of Gcast -- nor do they have the posting speed. (I don't want to have to wait a few hours to see if my call was successfully recorded.) Paul Colligan ima

Tweet from: @emlarson

From: @emlarson Sent: Oct 28, 2010 7:46a @C3POJones Mulling that insight in context of http://read.ly/Matt4.1.NIV (Odd phrasing in 4:1; does God lead us to temptation?) sent via ??berTwitter in reply to @C3POJones On Twitter: http://twitter.com/emlarson/status/28985284337

Another example of Satan "thwarting" Godly work...

...Or was Paul's desire sufficiently not "of God" because, had it been, Satan couldn't have stopped them? "For we wanted to come to you???certainly I, Paul, did, again and again???but Satan stopped us." http://read.ly/1Thess2.18.NIV

Bill Irwin and mime

In the latest Ericast (repeat episode) Mikael Rudolph mentioned Bill Irwin and some of his performance art that explored the "space" of television. I need to read up on him...: Great Performances . Bill Irwin, Clown Prince . Essay . Bill Irwin | PBS http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/billirwin/essay3.html

The "friendship paradox"?

According to this interview, "your friends have more friends than you do" -- I need to figure that one out. Hmmm... (They're talking about tracking flu outbreaks with that, using "network mapping") Podcast Title: APM: Marketplace Tech Report Episode: 09/20/10 Marketplace Tech Report Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-vCgkoqpgAj').show(); $('quicktime_embed-vCgkoqpgAj').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-vCgkoqpgAj').show(); $('flash_embed-vCgkoqpgAj').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/podcast/tech-report.php

The game-changer of opening classical music

An interview with Aaron Dunn of Musopen and his project to create public-domain recordings of classical music. The more we engage in classical music, the better off we are... right? (This episode was also my introduction to the Looxcie...) Podcast Title: APM: Marketplace Tech Report Episode: 09/16/10 Marketplace Tech Report Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-xFeIrHklAi').show(); $('quicktime_embed-xFeIrHklAi').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-xFeIrHklAi').show(); $('flash_embed-xFeIrHklAi').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/podcast/tech-report.php

Disruptive sousveillance

A good summary of Clayton Christiansen's notion of "disruptive technology" and surveillance; what happens when we turn that toward ourselves? Podcast Title: APM: Marketplace Tech Report Episode: 10/18/10 Marketplace Tech Report Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-mrvAEAjxin').show(); $('quicktime_embed-mrvAEAjxin').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-mrvAEAjxin').show(); $('flash_embed-mrvAEAjxin').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/podcast/tech-report.php

Pondering Pachyderm

I always saw this as a "solution in search of a problem" (which I'm ordinarily fine with) and it looks like they're no longer offering hosting to the general public... But I wonder where/how this could be used. The "what's it good for?" question. Ideas? What does "digital storytelling" look like today, five years after I first saw Pachyderm? ASSETT ?? Pachyderm: A Tool for Digital Storytelling http://assett.colorado.edu/post/1114

A recycled economy?

It doesn't keep me awake at night, but I'm still pondering what seems to be a big issue: buying used and recycling/repurposing things only "works" (i.e. is only dramatically cost-saving) because so few people do it and society is so wasteful. That is, if everyone shopped for X used on Craigslist, the cost of X would go up because of high demand and limited supply. As it is, you can buy X cheap because most people are buying Y at retail instead and are just trying to get rid of X to make room. With me so far? Thing is... This is great for those of us who shop used... but by definition you can't build a society on these principles because they break once everyone starts doing them. Kant wouldn't approve. Personally, I can leave that as "Oh, well; too bad for the others!" I suppose... but something doesn't seem "right" about the situation. Are there any economic models or theories that address this?

Ask and you shall re-meme

I respectfully charge that this isn't really a "mashup" but is more like a "medley"... and, even then, it's really just two songs next to each other in different keys... but at least someone else spotted that "King of Anything" and "King of Wishful Thinking" really belong together... [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PY7g9xz7to?wmode=transparent]

FABbing?

I hate to admit my stupidity and lack of vision... but I don't get how popular "making stuff" is going to be. Am I just in the wrong field and there's a "silent majority" of people who want to build little 3D thingies? Other than "art" (sculpture, scrapbooks, etc.) and engineers who need to build little nuts and bolts and assemblies... What is there? http://ng.cba.mit.edu/

What is "Truth"?

Put this one in the "to read" category (when I get the chance, am thinking clearly, etc. etc. etc.) "Inventing a Planet ?? Blog Archive ?? Truth" http://www.inventingaplanet.com/truth/

Creating a worldview...

In the "give me a cause..." category, I think there are some good insights in "Inventing a Planet ?? Blog Archive ?? Weird People Terrify Me" http://www.inventingaplanet.com/weird-people-terrify-me/ I'm not sure if the premise of "...because we're afraid of dying" is necessarily correct -- the same conclusion could follow for other reasons, no? -- but the observations seem accurate...

Mashup Request

http://us.m.yahoo.com/w/search?submit=oneSearch&p=king+of+anything&.intl=US&.... Someone needs to do a mashup/remix "duet" of "King of Anything" and the circa 1990 "King of Wishful Thinking"

foursquare venue info - Intergenerational Learning Center

I wonder what this is? Hmmm... Intergenerational Learning ... address: 3386 Pilot Knob Rd. phone#: 6514569101

Two reasons to work at home...

"Growth Maven vs. Lifestyle Guru" -- interesting distinction! Podcast Title: Blog Business Success | Blog Talk Radio Feed Episode: Jeffrey Landers: The Home Office from Hell Cure - Apr 18,2008 Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-zEHsilcgBn').show(); $('quicktime_embed-zEHsilcgBn').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-zEHsilcgBn').show(); $('flash_embed-zEHsilcgBn').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/feeds/WayneHurlbert

The Battle of Algiers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache :sN5TjHJolG8J:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers+battle+of+algiers+film&hl=en&client=ms-rim&gl=us&ie=UTF-8&strip=1 I find I'm using Posterous as a remote bookmarking service, which is fine but not really its best use...

Komar and Melamid: The Artists and the Project

http://awp.diaart.org/km/intro.html What a brilliant (and entertaining, and informative) idea. Just encountered it as an example from an art history professor.

VHL Technical Support Center

http://support.vhlcentral.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4502&task=knowle... I'm wondering how many disciplines this could relate to? Hmmm...

Denominations?

Quick poll of a deep question I'm pondering; help me out here. "Denominations are..." A) "...evil works of Satan trying to divide the church and draw people away from the One True Church (which is perfectly represented in _____)" B) "...healthy opportunities to engage with different spiritual truths which, while contradictory and thus one is 'wrong,' are not 'salvation issues' (e.g. Calvinism vs. Arminianism)" C) "...fine as reflections of stylistic preference but dangerous if they stray from right theology (which is represented in _____)" D) "

Still trying to collect my life

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I mentioned in passing on a recent Ericast that I've owned emlarson.com "since 2002". I have... but I bought it in December of 2000 so I've owned it for longer than that. Why was "2002" stuck in my brain? Because it's this Blogger blog that I've "owned" (have been writing at) since then. But what should I write here? This "home" pre-exists Posterous , Twitter , Facebook , etc. etc. etc. I bumbled into the popularity of mentions of Kari Byron and Ginger Alexander (which I moved over to att.ention.ne t once I realized that there were people out there who were searching for them) which really have nothing to do with me as a person, but which became hyper-popular. I've dabbled in Google AdSense here... and found that people might read about TV starlets but that doesn't mean they're motivated to buy anything that someone might want to advertise with those starlets in mind. Looking back eight years, this blog started

Big Tent Christianity

Have to ponder this one a bit... http://blog.tonyj.net/2010/08/a-plea-for-big-tent-christianity-dont-suck/

The more things change...

Just came across an interesting quotation from Peter Coffee -- a decade ago, when the conversations about the value of PCs on the desktop were ramping up. This was a good reminder at the time; now, the "cost pendulum" seems to have swung the other way? Peter Coffee, ???Pernicious Patents Imperil Programming???, PC Week, February 14, 2000: ???We didn???t need PCs to deliver end-user applications, a task that was once performed by time-share terminals and that will be performed by Internet appliances. We did need PCs to let people experiment without justifying machine time and without concern for disrupting ???production??? programs.???

201008 Karis Ge1

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- - - - - - Typed by thumb and sent from my St. Thomas BlackBerry Wireless Device

201008 Karis Gw1

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- - - - - - Typed by thumb and sent from my St. Thomas BlackBerry Wireless Device

But what IS it?

http://pushthefuture.org/ : The Push Institute ??? Push the Future Gotta read up on this site when I'm not stuck on Blackberry...

Can Christians make "commands"?

Apparently, Rick Warren has gotten in trouble.  Here’s a blog post about it: http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2010/08/quick-hits-8.html Warren Tweeted: I challenge any church in America to match the spiritual maturity, godliness and commitment of any 500 members of Saddleback. The blog author (Jared Wilson) argues that: Stating (unsinful) pride in one's church, however, is different than challenging others to measure up to its awesomeness. "I challenge" you "to match" us? This is beyond pride in one's church and into boasting in one's superiority over another. Yet the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 boldly asserts:  “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Note that Paul  didn’t merely say “Follow the example of Christ” (though I would argue that he does make that clear elsewhere) but says quite plainly “Follow my example”. Isn’t that a challenge?  So… our possible options: Paul was wrong to make his challeng

How do you answer this theology?

From: @jamesshelley Sent: Aug 10, 2010 12:54p RT @martyryl: God loves you unconditionally and can do anything, except forgive your sins, apart from the "condition" that you believe he killed his son?! On Twitter: http://twitter.com/jamesshelley/status/20813400940

Post-Inception dreams

I survived last night without anything _too_ weird, though the rabid penguin was a nice touch. For no particular reason other than entertainment, here's a summary of last night's dream: Set in a house w/ elevator Some sort of group event/tour going on 4th floor closed Rooms more cluttered as dream went on At end, a tour bus was going to take us to dinner at a town 15 minutes away rather than the usual "dinner on the train" that the group had been experiencing. I was sitting about halfway back on the driver's side. Can't remember the destination name but I knew it in the dream and it felt like it was down-river from Red Wing (maybe a mental corruption of Winona or Red Wing itself?) Segment in a recycling yard (unrelated?) that felt like it was located near 280 and Como (on the west side, near the Goodwill?). Garbage trucks were backing up and pulling in; different people were around sorting construction debris off trailers. There was a pile of corrougated fro

"Social Capital"?

Does "social capital" motivate people who aren't Words of Affirmation people like I am? Because I don't know about you, but I'd be happy to kill time in an I'm world helping out my friends. (It's like Yahoo Answers, but with friendship and social connections...) Podcast Title: APM: Future Tense Episode: What will be search for tomorrow? Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-BkpgmiCJcg').show(); $('quicktime_embed-BkpgmiCJcg').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-BkpgmiCJcg').show(); $('flash_embed-BkpgmiCJcg').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/podcast.xml

Communities of Practice

http://www.ewenger.com/theory/ Something to read up on...

The Kodak Zi8 has a mic jack, which is a start...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HOPUPC/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=photo

A wireless mic option?

But what camera(s) would this work with? http://www.videomaker.com/article/14386/ Sony ECM-HW2 Bluetooth Wireless Microphone Review

Why doesn't this exist?!?

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2010/04/09/best-camcorder-with-built-in-wi... Philip Greenspun's Weblog ?? Best camcorder with built-in wireless microphone system?

201007 Karis FR1

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It appears this shelf hasn't yet been fully cataloged in LibraryThing .

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Non-profit "gimmicks"?

Sent this note to a local social-media contact of mine for opinions... but heard nothing back, which may or may not mean anything... so, here's what's on my mind: ...the whole topic there [at the July Social Media Breakfast in Minneapolis/St. Paul] rekindled my "how do you get people plugged into a good cause" questions. The Dream Team 2010 concept is great at first blush (or second or third)... and then I started thinking about it and realized that it's actually pretty strange. I wonder if this "celebrity"-endorsed contest-type thing is a sustainable fundraising/engagement model, or if it's going to be like the Old Spice personalized YouTube response videos (where the first agency to do it is wicked-clever and the second one to do it is a lame copycat). Anyway, here's the strange part: Common sense would dictate that if, for example, Land-O-Lakes really wanted to give $25k to end hunger... why don't they just do it? Why the "game"

An UnSundaySchool?

Don Ball of the CoCo collaborative workspace in St. Paul has a great summary of the principle of "unconferences". --- "The whole model of an unconference is based on everyone answering the big questions themselves, whereas a traditional conference model is based on everyone listening, often quite passively, to a few peoples??? conclusions. It???s centralized planning versus democracy." http://cocomsp.com/2010/07/bring-it-un/ --- It made me realize something: This is the structure I've been unknowingly following for the adult Sunday School I lead. It's a learning style that's not cut out everyone -- Grow's learning/instruction model makes that clear -- and that's a value-neutral statement; if it works, great, and if not that's okay too. The thing that excites me is that I think it's a model not often found in churches. Let's try it! One last note: We're talking about class format here, not curricular authority. A Bible study

Backup Overview | dpBestflow

http://www.dpbestflow.org/backup/backup-overview#321

So, exactly what (if anything) are "demons"?

Haven't read this enough to know if it's enlightenment or heresy... So more reading's ahead. :) Origin of Demons: http://www.tbm.org/origindemons.htm

Grandma memories...

Vi mentioned fond memories of going up to a cabin on Ann Lake as a girl... Ann Lake, Sand Dunes State Forest | Zimmerman Minnesota Hikes | Trails.com http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGM064-002 - - - - - - Typed by thumb and sent from my St. Thomas BlackBerry Wireless Device

On the light topic of sexual ethics...

Brother-in-law mentioned this article and rather than reading up on it, I went straight to the critique. Hmmm... "Of food and sex, and how Mary Eberstadt gets both history and ethics quite wrong at Hugo Schwyzer" http://hugoschwyzer.net/2009/03/02/of-food-and-sex-and-how-mary-eberstadt-get...

Can Windows Search be fixed?

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Google Desktop isn't perfect... but I've never had such bad luck as I do with Windows Search. Bad, bad, bad! And at this point in my life, it's getting to be a big detriment; when a computer tells me that a file doesn't exist, I tend to believe it, and in this case I end up going off on a wild goose chase until I come back to my laptop and sort through my folders one-by-one until I find it. Can Windows Search be fixed, or is it beyond hope? (I have it installed so that Outlook mail can be indexed... but should I trust it for that, even?)

Issues in the Holy Land are never clear-cut

More than a "free speech" Twitter issue... How do we untangle complex and layered political (and human rights) issues? Hypothetical question: Is it "respectable" to take a stand and be less evil than your peers, even if you're still pretty evil? If not, then how "pure" or "sinless" do you need to be before we can "respect" you? From CNN, "Nasr explains controversial tweet on Lebanese cleric": http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/06/nasr-explains-controversial-tweet-on-leb...

Another article to read

I'm not a Patrick Rhone groupie (really!) but I was impressed with his talk and historical perspective and I keep running into references to him since UnSummit4 -- here's another one I need to read through: Talking Tools: Patrick Rhone of MinimalMac.com | Bridging the Nerd Gap http://nerdgap.com/post/785571607/talking-tools-with-patrick-rhone-of-minimal...

Silent majority of innovators?

Notes to myself from the EduCAUSE Live presentation today: I wonder if I have a bunch of faculty who are using cool "Web 2.0" tools - Twitter, delicious, Skype, Posterous. I doubt it, but I'll need to ask around to find out. Accessibility? ADA? (And FERPA? Like Copyright, these are external impositions and faculty rarely have a motive to focus on them -- they're usually "just hindrances"...) Pragmatic or ethical issue with forcing students to register at 3rd-party sites? Site obsolescence? What if Click.TV goes under? (Which it did.) What's IT's responsibility if it breaks? Engage. Write. Collaborate. Define "newer" faculty. Age? Time teaching? http://ycedu255.blogspot.com referenced "added threaded discussions and gradebook" -- how? Modeling use of new technology in "ed tech" courses is very different from "operationalizing" them for other classes across the institution. Winona State "faculty te

5 Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Identity

From Mashable... This might have some good advice for me... http://mashable.com/2010/07/06/clean-social-media-identity/

KAPS?

Hadn't heard of KAPS but it sounds like a great idea to pursue/ponder... Do Your Customers Appreciate You? ??? Todd Youngblood's "SPE" Blog: http://ypsgroup.com/blog/differentiation/do-your-customers-appreciate-you/

Witnessing Effectively from "Heaven and Home"

I finally got around to tracking down that clip from the little radio show I heard earlier this month, in the "How to Witness Effectively" series from Dr. James Christensen ( http://www.heavenandhomehour.com/) if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-kzqspCywxa').show(); $('quicktime_embed-kzqspCywxa').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-kzqspCywxa').show(); $('flash_embed-kzqspCywxa').hide(); } Starting at about 7:00 into the recording there's a great take on John 4. Christensen summarizes that we should be "active, going out, looking, and then being moved with compassion and then taking action" 1. Jesus made contact with the woman at the well 2. Find a common interest; "preludes" aren't a waste of time 3

Clay Shirky on "the logic of collective action"

I found a recording of that AllVoices webinar I keep talking about! http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/5922157-allvoices-hosts-online-symposium-with-clay-shirky At 2 minutes and 40 seconds into the recording, Clay Shirky is talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ram_Sena ??and their Valentine's Day threat; those fighting against it wanted to defy the warning??in response but faced a challenge because, Shirky says: "...the logic of collective action has historically been that people opt out because they don't know if they're going to be coordinated enough to act as a group" Can anyone give me some information on "the logic of collective action" and what experience/studies/papers/books/writings would indicate this "opt out" tendency?

Taking a break. (No, not really)

I have to read up on this one... http://makeyourbreakaway.com/

Living the Lightbulb?

Some people are "adrenaline junkies" and do bungee jumping or rock climbing for the thrill of it. I'm not one of those people. In fact, I'm WAY not one of those people. I'm an anti-adrenaline junkie; I like things peaceful and quiet. But... I think I get the same feeling as those "junkies" from "learning new things" or "exploring new ideas," and by helping others to do the same. For me, there's a tingling emotional rush when "the lightbulb goes on" -- when you're pondering or struggling with a concept and you "get it." I see it in myself, and in my daughter, and in my clients... I guess this is why teachers like teaching, right? So, if I'm right about myself and that's true... how can I structure my life to experience more of that? Conversely, how can I structure my life so I'm not just "living for a high" -- that I maintain a healthy and realistic balance?

Player/Coach Syndrome?

http://www.hrtools.com/insights/bryan_wempen/recruit_and_develop_sales_champi... Heard this mentioned in a podcast - rang a bell from a reading somewhere else?

Our Children's Hospital Minneapolis billing experience

While everyone who asks me has then turned around and shared a horror story that's equally bad (some much, much worse), I'm getting tired of explaining this over and over... so I'm going to write up the state-of-the-state and point folks here when anyone wants details of our billing limbo at Children's Hospital. Here's the personal backstory as to why I get ticked off in the midst of receiving the world's best health care: I'm a customer service guy at heart. Anyone in customer service has plenty of opportunities to be stuck with (or to even perpetrate) some major screw-ups. So I usually give people a lot of latitude. But when something that ought to be trivial becomes impossible to solve, I get frustrated . And when that something is grounded in a power differential that has the capacity to really victimize an innocent citizen (typically found in cases of police misconduct, but also in unethical billing practices that corrupt credit ratings and land people

Clay Shirky on content creation

I really love Clay Shirky and I need to listen to the full 20 minute interview Podcast Title: APM: Future Tense Episode: Clay Shirky and Cognitive Surplus Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-ksnhGjFEcf').show(); $('quicktime_embed-ksnhGjFEcf').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-ksnhGjFEcf').show(); $('flash_embed-ksnhGjFEcf').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/podcast.xml

Technology in the church?

If I got my episodes right, there's an interview in techtherapy_2010-05-11 that emphasizes the need to really integrate technology throughout an organization as championed by the CIO at the board level, rather than saying it's so common that it should be treated as a utility. Hmmm...

Abundance Management?

In a Tech Therapy episode from the Chronicle, Warren mentions that he's fleshing out the concept of "abundance management" techtherapy_2010-06-09 e.g. We don't have the paperless office; we have paper plus computers. VHS tapes didn't replace movie theatres -- not even DVDs did. My question is how do discern between things that were a necessary evil (e.g. Manual typewriters?) and things that have value and will remain (e.g. print books)... and things that remain merely for sentimental reasons (e.g. horse-drawn carriages)

Tonight's morbid topic: Body Temperature

[wpvideo S3A1kEv2] Candela decided to ponder fevers and hypothermia. Hmmm.

Baylor_NMS_S10 - Dr. C.'s WikiCentral

http://gardnercampbell.wetpaint.com/page/Baylor_NMS_S10 Susan Simon Tweeted this; didn't know the author but if it's Gardner, it'll be good.

Evangelism series from "heaven and home" on kkms - Google Search

http://www.google.com/search?client=ms-rim&hl=en&q=%22heaven+and+home%22+kkms... I've got to look this one up -- the end of "part four" had a seven step process based on Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well. The best part was the explicit statement that Jesus didn't condemn the woman (even though, of all people, He could have). That point is lost on a lot of today's evangelicals.

SpringShare and Dapper

Just learned about these two -- more fun stuff to explore! Wow!!! I wonder if there's a personal homepage site/app that behaves like SpringShare does? Hmmm...

A couple educational URLs

I should throw these into Delicious, but they look even more promising than to just get buried there: http://blog.oer.sbctc.edu/ http://www.drbrianbeatty.com/wordpress/ http://www.col.org/resources/crsMaterials/Pages/edDigitalWorld.aspx http://www.educause.edu/blendedlearning

What is a "church"?

Berean friends (or others) should listen to this overview of the new Awaken plant: - theological distinctions between BGC and Covenant - the role of a "missional church" - the audience of "cultural creatives" - when to hold church - what does 5:00 p.m. get you, what does it not? - why keep these plans a secret and then spring them on the congregation? As frank and open as any on-the-record conversation could be, I think. Podcast Title: Soulstice Podcast Episode: Awaken_Q&A Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-BjdAaxpqFw').show(); $('quicktime_embed-BjdAaxpqFw').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-BjdAaxpqFw').show(); $('flash_embed-BjdAaxpqFw').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://downloads.bereanbaptist.com/X

Gaming for learning (and related ethics)

I need to dig up the podcast (EDUCAUSE, maybe?) where a speaker discussed gaming as "crowdsourcing" to end up gaining data for one purpose or another. It's all about marketing (or worse), right? Podcast Title: APM: Future Tense Episode: The Coming Gamepocalypse Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-weufvdgxEH').show(); $('quicktime_embed-weufvdgxEH').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-weufvdgxEH').show(); $('flash_embed-weufvdgxEH').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/podcast.xml

Google Tries to Simplify Fonts on the Web

Gotta look into this one... http://mashable.com/2010/05/19/google-font-api/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_med...

Faculty as Curators

Joseph Rueter gave a great conceptual overview of curation at today's MinneBar -- one that had no overt push for his company CurationStation.com. Instead, it was a great look at the role of curation in society (I have no hope of summarizing the deck and presentation here; trust me, it was good) and it got me thinking about the role of faculty. Some get worried in the face of MIT's OpenCourseware and such -- "if the content is freely available, what good am I?". But someone needs to steer/guide students rather than dumping information on them (or letting them dump it on themselves). That's the role of a curator! Nothing magical about the name and role has been around forever but, just as "podcasting" gave rise to distributed on-demand audio content merely because people had a concise name to attach to the concept, "curation" as a term can have an empowering role in the conversation.

Promoting social engagement?

Question I have based on a social media session: how do you use social media to move people "up the ladder of engagement"? The @ignitus mission, if I got it right, is "connecting non-profits with passionate supporters"... But what about your supporters who aren't "passionate"? Yet? Notes from the session on this concept: @RachelJeanMpls touched on the concept early on -- that there are levels that people move along. Lisa @footenotes said you can have the infrastructure in place and then react when a news event gets people thinking about your issue (but not pouncing as an ambulance chaser) @AlanHill8 talked about entertaining/celebrating, and maybe that helps reach Lisa's goal without doing it in a negative environment?

A YouTube alternate

I have to read up on this one: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/miro_20_review.php

Leadership podcast episode

Oops -- independent vs. "interdependent."

Leadership podcast episode

This is a really interesting episode -- especially the independent vs. integrated teams idea. Some "teams" really aren't, and the people on the "other" team (who you depend on to do your job) are really on _your_ team. Podcast Title: Blog Business Success | Blog Talk Radio Feed Episode: Kevin Eikenberry: Remarkable Leadership - Nov 02,2007 Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-yqqqcwzzso').show(); $('quicktime_embed-yqqqcwzzso').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-yqqqcwzzso').show(); $('flash_embed-yqqqcwzzso').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/feeds/WayneHurlbert

The struggles with "rewards" programs

I heard back from the good folks at StaplesTweets who asked for details on the problems I've had with rebate programs, since I mentioned them as part of a tweet on my less-than-fun experiences: "I'm amazed at how companies (@ bestbuy , @ officedepot , @ staplestweets ) make their "rewards" programs so convoluted & frustrating" So, in brief (but not as brief as 140 characters that I'd be limited to on Twitter), here's my Staples experience in particular: In March, I had two "Staples Rewards" certificates -- 20-some dollars that expired that month, and 30-some dollars that expired a month or two later. I made a $30-something purchase and paid by handing over my $20-something certificate to pay most of it, then handing over my $30-something certificate to pay for the few dollars on the balance. When I got home, I took a close look at the receipt; instead of there being nearly $30 left on the certificate, it said that there were only $4

Politically incorrect advice

http://www.quicksprout.com/2010/05/03/do-business-like-a-prostitute/ Neil's article "Do Business Like A Prostitute" isn't a very "polite" topic... But I think his observations are spot-on!

Basecamp plans, pricing

Been told it's "like Sharepoint in the cloud" http://basecamphq.com/signup

fs200 canon - Google Search

http://www.google.com/search?client=ms-rim&hl=en&q=fs200+canon&ie=UTF-8&oe=UT... Has a mic input; need to play with one of ours...

A solution to the Adobe Acrobat Error 1500 when updating

Just had a bunch of problems with trying to update Adobe Acrobat in a computer lab; I'd get the error: Update Failed Cannot install the update Please run Adobe Acrobat Repair Error: 1500 Running the Adobe Acrobat Repair from the Help menu gave me an error that my U: drive couldn't be found... which is what gave me the solution. Long story short, our computer labs map the My Documents folder to a network drive but my administrative account doesn't have a network drive so its "My Documents" folder is invalid. The problem is that the Adobe Acrobat update requires a valid My Documents folder. Right click My Documents on the desktop, choose "Properties," choose "Restore Default" and get a working path to My Documents, adn the update ran fine -- I didn't even have to run the Adobe Acrobat Repair utility.

On the topic of "what I am"...

I'm not sure I would qualify as (or limit my creativity to) being a "good curator"... But this has some insights for me: patrickrhone / journal ?? Blog Archive ?? Why I Curate http://patrickrhone.com/2010/04/27/why-i-curate/

Folding up the blog?

It's been... quite a few years (7? 8?) and I'm pondering whether I should basically "archive" off the Blogger blog here and move to something different like Posterous (which I'm using at the moment for my "random thoughts that don't fit into Twitter" -- emlarson.posterous.com , if you really want to take a look). I've also put out a call on Twitter for design advice on emlarson.com in general; it always was an "aggregate of various things and interests" but, at this point, all of those things and interests will fall under a different site (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Posterous, PicasaWeb, YouTube, att.ention.net, etc.) or not at all... right? Any ideas or suggestions? Drop me a note or leave a comment here... not that it's easy to find the place to comment given how much I've broken the template to get it to conform to the old emlarson.com look-and-feel... but that's a different issue. :)

Vision (or lack thereof)

Just a quick post on something I've been pondering, which might related to my old "leadership" topic. I think there's a progression from innovation/facts/ideas to possibilities to trends to vision.?? I reserve the right to change those terms later... but they'll do for now. I'm good with the first two.?? Probably really good, if I do say so myself.?? But moving to "trends" has a predictive element that requires not only a deep knowledge of the topic, but knowlege of people's responses to it (or dumb luck). And "vision" then takes that one step farther, and says "Now that we believe we know what direction this might go, I'm making the value judgment that we ought to go with (or against) it." Innovation: ??Autosereoscopic Lenticular Displays Possibility: Using??such displays??in chemistry labs to model molecular structure Trend/Belief: Schools will be reluctant to adopt before appropriate software is developed and will be wi

So THAT's why death is bad!

Just heard the Easter message from Micah Witham at Soulstice and he said something that, believe it or not, I'd never heard explained this way before: Podcast Title: Soulstice Podcast Episode: Death Does Not Win Media URL: if (FlashDetect.installed) { $('flash_embed-nrrffIqkoJ').show(); $('quicktime_embed-nrrffIqkoJ').hide(); } else { $('quicktime_embed-nrrffIqkoJ').show(); $('flash_embed-nrrffIqkoJ').hide(); } Podcast feed URL: http://downloads.bereanbaptist.com/XmlFiles/SundayEveningPodcast.xml The key point is that God is the only One who can create life. Therefore, the ultimate anti-God thing for Satan to do is to bring death. That's why death is such a bad thing, even though we know it will result in an eternal life of the soul in heave

What is the purpose of life?

"You find it more comforting to believe that this is it?" "I find it more comforting to believe that this... isn't simply a test" (House)

Unbundling church?

Super-profound thought here! There's been lots of talk lately about "unbundling" higher education. The metaphor given in the conversation is the record industry, where songs were "bundled" into albums -- you bought all the songs at once, mixing in the good with the bad (where the former subsidized the latter). The latest observation is that at universities, you can't just join the chess club or take one class -- you "enroll as a student" and get a whole bunch of "services" like free campus comedians and basketweaving classes and weight room access, some of which you take advantage of and some of which you don't, but all of which you really pay for. The talk now is about "unbundling" university services -- e.g. let students take one class for a fee -- because if you don't, they're going to figure out a way to do it (e.g. take a class from University of Phoenix and then transfer the credit to a university that's

By a thread...

I've found that physically challenging times bring me closest to the "spiritual" -- not simply because they trigger "God, I want the pain to end" moments, but because they're a tangible, inescapable reminder of just how fragile and fleeting our lives in "earthen vessels" are. Jonathan Edwards wrote in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" of dangling over the fires of hell like a spider on a thread. But we all dangle just as precariously over a life after stroke, aneurysm, ruptured disc, cancer diagnosis, or hundreds of other challenges. I remember visiting the Body Worlds exhibit with a doctor friend of mine (who eagerly brought along his anatomy textbook for reference). It was in 2006, during a sciatica flare-up, so my ears perked up at a woman and her 30-something daughter examining a skeleton with spinal nerves suspended in air, intact. "Right there, that's the disc that's causing it" they said, marveling at the i

Wondering about Foursquare's future

"Dear Foursquare, I've Checked Out" from Pattern Interrupt http://bradoneill.com/dear-foursquare-ive-checked-out

Tweet from: @jeffpulver

From: @jeffpulver Sent: Mar 31, 2010 6:13p A Nikola Tesla quote about Social Media and Presence - http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/009170.html sent via web On Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffpulver/status/11392210215

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table"

More on church community (and how to build it)

http://jeremypryor.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/driscolls-great-commission-magic-... Favorite quote in the comments: "I don???t want pesticide on my fruit of the spirit"

In Pursuit of Community: What Can We Do?, Pastors, Church Ministry Leadership

http://www.crosswalk.com/pastors/11573679/

The Chief Purpose of Universities: Academic Discourse and the Diversity of Ideas

http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=6259&pc=9 I need to read this book: "Bowen and Schwartz begin by reminding us that universities exist first and foremost 'to create, preserve, transmit, and find new applications of knowledge so as to enhance free choice throughout society.'"

What's a "university"?

http://outreach.msu.edu/capstonesymposium1995/prologue.html "Universities exist to generate, transmit, apply, and preserve knowledge." Are those qualifiers necessary? Sufficient?

What's a yellow cross mean on a WWI uniform?

Image
UPDATE: We found the answer -- in less than 15 minutes, thanks to friend and colleague Jess who apparently knew the magic keywords that I couldn't find. The remaining mystery is why Chuck, who grew up in Minneapolis, was tied to a division based out of Illinois... This is Ruth's great-uncle Chuck. Chuck didn't have any kids so when the old photo eventually ended up in our hands, we sold it off for the frame. Maybe a good idea, maybe a bad one. But what are you going to do with a big picture of someone who nobody really knows (or knew)? Anyway, from a geneology perspective the mystery is: what does the patch on his shoulder represent? It was a yellow cross on a black background, which seems rather unusual.  

40 Tips for a Better Life

24 of these were posted on a faculty member's wall... http://craig.typepad.com/common_ground/2010/01/40-tips-for-a-better-life-in-2...

Whatever happened to Greg and Heather Mroz?

This was a big story back in October: " I Thought I had Insurance " But whatever happened to them? United Healthcare admitted it was wrong... but did it ever "fix the glitch," or are Heather and Greg Mroz still on the hook for a half million dollars of costs that they don't really owe? According to a cached copy of a page from Health Care for America NOW , Heather Mroz, 24, Coconut Creek, Florida, and her husband, Greg, face $480,000 in medical bills after United Healthcare canceled Greg’s $1,260 a month policy he had through his construction job for “failure to negotiate” new premiums prior to the premature birth of their twins, Hannah & Wyatt, in June 2009. Greg‘s company went out of business in March, and the family arranged to pay UHC directly while COBRA was being worked out. UHC gave the hospital approval in writing, saying it would pay for everything connected with the pregnancy even if it was high risk because she was having twins. Heather was hospi