RunawayJim.org

Makers, crafters, geeks, techies, artists, and pretty much everyone else… Maker Faire, held by MAKE Magazine, will be held in Providence this September! It’s very exciting news as something that has traditionally taken place in California (I think there were a couple in Texas as well). It’s great to bring an event held in such high regard to the east coast, and to Providence no less. Being a city of makers, this is the perfect location for this event.

The dates for the festival are September 12-19 with a special kickoff at the Rocktucket Block Party in Pawtucket on September 6.

Check the links for all the details. I’ll be attending most of the events (I’m not a maker, but I am a geek and find this stuff to be pretty cool). The best part is, aside from the fundraiser on September 12, it’s all free and open to the public.

Rhode Island Maker Faire and DIY Festival

Map of Location

If you’re on Twitter, you should follow @kippworks and @bjepson for info.

This post is in response to a post written by Erin Scott, aka The SMiChick. Her post, titled “What would you do if…” explains her views on how technology has forever changed, oftentimes for the worst, interpersonal relationships. It also goes into our dependence on technology. While I agree with quite a bit of what she has to say, I disagree with some of the basic premises she puts forth.

Erin starts off by saying we are dependent on technology. That we have lost touch with the each other and with the world. Part of that dependence, however, is necessity. Technologies that Erin doesn’t mention (automobiles, trains, and planes) have moved us around. She mentions a simpler time when people basically lived off the land. What she fails to mention is that in those times people did not travel. People stayed as close to a home base as possible. Sure, they wandered off in search of supplies, but only as far as their feet or horse could carry them. Would I like to see more people paying more attention to their local environment rather than worrying about what’s going on in the rest of the world or venturing off to far away cities to have fun? Of course I would. In fact, I think everyone should be doing that. However, technologies have allowed us to travel and travel we did. People never lived an hour drive away from work. They didn’t live a 2 hour train ride from their office. Instead, they lived within walking distance of the trolley or bus or even their place of employment. They lived within the same city, sometimes in a streetcar suburb just outside the city. But with the travel came a need for more technology to keep in touch with family and friends that were far away.

Do you see payphones anymore? I don’t even know where I could find one now. I used to always know where there was a payphone when I was out and about by myself. Now, they’re hard to find. That explains the dependency on cell phones and why parents get them for their kids (I’m still of the opinion that I will never pay for a cell phone for my kid, if he wants one, he can pay for it himself). My car broke down back in 1999 on my way to RI to pick up my brother for Thanksgiving break. I had no cell phone. I walked down to the commuter lot at the end of the exit ramp and used the pay phone to call my parents. It didn’t work. I took a ride with a random dude to a gas station even further away and found one that worked. I stayed there until my father was able to pick me up. Having a cell phone in that situation would have been helpful. I may have been crazy for taking the ride, but he looked like a nice enough guy (actually, he looked like a Phishhead).

I have heard people say that we have become out of touch with the world and each other because of technology. I disagree with that. I have a few personal anecdotes to explain my reasoning. I have met lots of people on the internet. When I first moved to RI, I didn’t know anyone. I went on a few dates through Craigslist and ultimately met my wife through that site. I made some friends through online postings. I met people in Providence through local forums. Since joining Twitter, I have met a bunch of people interested in Phish. We met up at shows in June. In fact, I am going on a trip to California to see Festival 8, a 3 day Phish festival around Halloween. I’m flying to Las Vegas, meeting 6 other people from Twitter, and we’re all renting an RV together and driving the 4 hours to the festival together. The Internet has brought us together. Finally, one of my closest friends was met online. I have never met her, but we met about 12 years ago in a chat room on AOL. I know it sounds super sketchy, but we have stayed in touch ever since. We have gone through ups and downs in our lives together. We have helped each other through rough times. It’s a relationship like no other, but it would not exist if it weren’t for the Internet.

People have come together to become more in touch with the world because of technology. Look at the phenomenon of flash mobs. Look at all the people who joined together to support the problems with the Iranian election or those who came together for the people of Darfur. Sure, most of that was meaningless gestures, like changing your Twitter avatar green. But there are many people who have actually made a difference because of it. Look at what social media did in our own elections. Barack Obama would not have won such a decisive victory if it weren’t for his creative use of social media.

Technology has changed the world. Sure, some of that change is not good. It has caused people to become more isolated. However, I think that it has brought more people together. It has led to meaningless gestures to show support for some issue, but it has also brought “doers” together to actually make change. It has helped people (to be super cliché) to be the change they want to see in the world.

Do I think we should all join the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps and travel the world to help others? Not at all. In fact, I believe we should start right at home with our own communities. I believe that change must start locally. I believe in the “think globally, act locally” sentiment. If everyone did just that, the change we should see in the world would happen. In fact, one of the things I use the Internet for is local issues. Technology has helped this movement.

Perhaps I’ve missed the point of Erin’s post, but it said 2 things to me. The first is that we have become too dependent on information technology (I disagree with the spirit of that statement, but not with the statement itself) and the second is that we need to step away from these technologies to experience real life, to learn to be happy without them, to really have a personal relationship (again, I disagree for the reasons listed above). As for that first part, look at dependency on older forms of information technology (they were technological for their time) – newspaper, radio, television. The computer allows us to experience other things that we wouldn’t normally experience in our lives. Not everyone is given the chance to visit other countries and see other cultures. Heck, many of us can’t even visit other parts of our own country. The computer and Internet allows us to travel without leaving our home. I have never been one to believe that to be cultured, you have to travel. I believe there is plenty to discover in your own backyard. You just have to seek it out, and technology can help you find it.

So I totally turned to the dark side and got an iPhone last week. I had been holding out for a decent Android phone on a decent network. Unfortunately, that’s not happening anytime soon. The MyTouch 3G is kinda neat, but not exactly what I wanted in a phone. Nevermind the fact that it’s also on T-Mobile, which isn’t bad here in Providence, but would be horrible once we go skiing. So I broke down and went with an iPhone after playing with one while I was at ResNet (mainly to see if I could deal with the keyboard).

I have to say… I love this thing. I’m a geek through and through and this phone is like a wet dream. I like being connected all the time (though I do enjoy my time away from technology). I mainly love that I always have Twitter at my fingertips. When they say there’s an app for everything, there really is. I have a Peanut Butter Jelly Time app, a farting app, a light saber app, a beer app (that actually gives descriptions of beer), and many many more.

If you weren’t sure about the iPhone for whatever reason, it’s definitely worth it. In addition to the phone, I had to get a case. At the recommendation of one of my Twitter followers, I got the Mophie Juice Pack Air. It’s an extra battery plus case. It does add some weight and size to the phone (mainly to the thickness and height), but it makes the phone easier to hold and type one handed for me. It has a nice indicator on the back to tell you how much life is left (similar to MacBook batteries when they still had removable batteries). It also has a switch to turn it on and off. The only downside for me (I don’t mind the extra weight or size) is that it covers the dock port because it needs to plug into the phone. It nearly doubles the batter life (I’d say it adds an additional 80-85% to the battery). It’s not cheap at around $80 (the Apple store had it for the same price as the website, I thought they might try to rape me), but I feel it’s well worth the money. Considering the most popular case (the InCase Slider) runs about $35, you’re paying only $45 for an extra battery. I will admit that I am considering the purchase of the Slider case as well, mainly to use when I’m at work or know the phone isn’t going to see quite as much usage and I won’t need the extra battery life. I just have to wait and see if it’s really necessary.

I won’t really go on any longer. I don’t really have anything to say about the iPhone that hasn’t already been said about it. I did jailbreak my phone. It allows for some nifty customizations and apps. I won’t go too much into it, but if you want app recommendations, let me know.

As I posted a while back, I ended up switching from Cox High Speed Internet to Verizon FiOS. There were many reason for that switch, but here’s my thoughts on FiOS so far.

First, I’ll start with my bandwidth. I have more bandwidth available to me than I would have with Cox. It’s a tough judgement here because it’s noticeably faster, but part of that is because it should be. I have 20 mbps downstream and 5 mbps upstream. It’s quite convenient, but difficult to compare to my Cox connection because it wasn’t supposed to be as fast. However, I will say that my connection has been more reliable with FiOS than it ever was with Cox. With Cox, I had been through 3 cable modems (granted I’ve only had FiOS for a few months now) and always had a problem with dropped connections. I suppose it could’ve been my router (which I plan on trying to use with FiOS as I’ve heard there’s a way). Now their router, while it works well and does what I need to (and even seems to give off a stronger wireless signal than my Linksys that had 2 antennae) has a really crappy interface (warnings everytime you go into an “advanced” setting, even after you’ve confirmed a change in an advanced setting). The advanced settings shouldn’t be called advanced. People should be able to set their wireless encryption to WPA or WPA2 without having to go into an advanced area (that scares them away). I can’t change the DNS server (I used OpenDNS on my old router) and if you mistype an address, you go to Verizon’s error page/search engine (a little shady if you ask me, I’d rather get a “page cannot be displayed” message). However, I need to use their router because it grabs the on demand and guide for the set top box.

The TV service is also good. I like having HD service, though I’ve noticed that I can only get 1080i (my TV does 1080p). I don’t know if I have something configured wrong, if I have a crappy HDMI cable (came from Verizon and Gizmodo says it doesn’t matter), or if HD cable service only goes as high as 1080i. It really shouldn’t matter because based on the size of my TV and the distance it is from where we sit, I shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p. However, I can’t really compare it to my Cox service as I didn’t have HD with them. From time to time, I do notice some digital pixelation, but that can happen with any digital cable service.

The DVR, however, sucks ass. It had to be said. There are 2 reasons I’m using their DVR. The first is because I can’t afford a Tivo HD. The second is because even if I could afford a Tivo HD, I wouldn’t have the Verizon guide and I wouldn’t be able to use any of the on demand features (I may even lose out on the music channels, but I’m not sure on that). That being said, Tivo’s interface blows away the Verizon DVR. I’d also get a whole lot more storage from a Tivo and better multimedia capabilities without having to pay an extra fee (as with what I’d have to do do get those from my Verizon DVR).

So it’s not all roses over here in FiOS land, but it’s better than my experience with Cox. Cox’s support system was a whole lot better. They have phone numbers listed for easy access on their webpage. They had realistic hours (Verizon stops answering their phone at 6 pm). But the extra bandwidth and reliable service make FiOS better for me.

Update: Apparently, after doing a little research, the set top box is only capable of 1080i.

Now that I’m in my own house, I was finally able to make a choice between Cox and Verizon for my Internet/cable TV/landline phone needs.  I chose Verizon FiOS (though it has yet to be installed).

While Cox offered me a better deal, there are a few reasons I went with Verizon.  The first is that I screwed up when I chose Cox.  I didn’t have them fix some of the coax wiring in the house so that the splitter was inside the house.  There’s probably a good reason it’s outside, considering the house was built (and the walls haven’t been renovated) in 1935.  It just made it difficult for me to go in and hook up a new cable drop when I got the new TV.  I should have re-thought my plan for the TV when I moved in.  But regardless, I was able to hook up the new TV.

The main reason I’m switching to Verizon is because of the alarm system that will be installed.  They need to connect to the main phone line in the house.  With Verizon, that’s at a main junction in the basement.  With Cox, it’s wherever they put that cheapo cable modem with battery backup (which is upstairs in our office).  I don’t want the ADT installers drilling through floors and ceilings if they don’t have to.

I’m also going with Verizon to get the cable re-done to the new TV (I did a totally ghetto job terminating the coax).

It’s more expensive, but I’ll have faster internet speeds (I went with the 20 Mbps down/5 Mbps up package) and I’ll actually have HD service on my TV (had to go with the more expensive package so I could get more HD channels than just the regular networks).  Cox would have given me HD service, including HD channels for every channel I had that already had an HD equivalent and a DVR, for $25 more than I pay now, including taxes.  Verizon is gonna cost me about $135/month before taxes, but the DVR is free for the first 6 months, so it’ll be $120 before taxes, likely being cheaper than Cox for the first 6 months.  I also have the added benefit of unlimited long distance on the landline (not that I need it with my cell phone).

Once it’s installed and I’ve had time to play around, I’ll post again about my thoughts.  If they can give me a more reliable internet connection, I’ll be happy.  Cox has been spotty recently (unless it’s my Linksys router that’s dropping the connect, but I’ve never had a problem with it before).

I’ve been using Google Chrome as my main web browser on my home computer, which runs Windows XP.  While I will say that I really like it, there are some features I miss from Firefox.  I miss my extensions and plugins.  That’s the one nice thing about an established browser, even if I do have to add on to it.  I have that option.  Specifically, I miss the Gmail notifier.  I suppose I could just download the one from Google to run in Windows, even when the browser isn’t open, but that’s one more thing running and I like to keep as little running as possible.  I also miss Twitterfox, my Twitter client, though I have downloaded Twhirl, which seem to work pretty well, though I find it to be a bit more than I need.  I like the simplicity of Twitterfox.  Other than that, I don’t really regularly use the other extensions I have installed (web development stuff, FireFTP, etc).

I love the homepage feature of Chrome, showing the most frequently visited pages.  I also like the speed.  It seems very streamlined and small.  I like the multi-threading with a new instance for each tab.  That makes buggy sites easy to kill without killing the whole browser.  It’s a promising browser. That being said, it can be a little buggy and sluggish at times.  For the most part, it’s quick.  I like that it uses Webkit, because Gecko just isn’t as standards compliant as I’d like it to be (for instance, my blog looks noticeably better with a Webkit browser than a Gecko browser).

I hope Google keeps up development on Chrome and that it becomes more mainstream with support for extensions or plugins.  I wish there was an option to open or save certain files (Quicken files for example want to be downloaded and not opened directly).  I like how it uses Windows Media Player as a plugin right inside the browser.  It could be a real contender and it’s kind of fun to have browser wars starting up again.  Now if only they’d release a Mac version (as I type this in Firefox on my MacBook Pro).

I’ve been using my Mac for quite some time now.  I’m a bit more acclimated with it, and while I’m no expert, I’ve seen enough to safely say that Macs are no better than PC’s.  Here are a few reasons why:

• My MacBook Pro crashes with the Apple’s version of the BSOD more often than I’ve had Windows BSOD on me… and it does it on shutdown!
• Today, for instance, an application locked up on me. Tried to Force Quit to no avail. Killing it from the Terminal didn’t even work. Decided to log out and it froze. No BSOD or anything, but it sat there displaying my wallpaper and nothing more.
• The “beach ball” shows up more often than Windows would ever hang up on me. It shows up randomly and applications hang and even OSX hangs. It’s quite annoying.
• You can’t highlight a file and hit the Delete key on the keyboard to move the file to the trash. The mouse is not always better.

That’s just a few, but the first 2 are big ones. Everyone whines about how Windows is always crashing and needs to be rebooted. I haven’t had a better experience with MacOS X. The only operating system I’ve had fewer crashing issues with is Linux.

So to all you Apple fanboys out there… It does not just work.

Apple had recently filed suit against clone-maker, Psystar, that was packaging OS X with their computers for being in violation of the OS X EULA, which restricts OS X to Apple hardware.  How did Psystar respond?  In the only reasonable way possible, they filed a countersuit saying that Apple is engaging in anti-competitive behaviors by tying their operating system to their own hardware.  I’ve been waiting for this day as that is my number one complaint about Apple.  I like their products, but I wish they were a bit more open (you can arguably say that they are more “closed” than Microsoft, though fanboys will say that Apple is a hardware company while Microsoft is a software company).  No matter how you spin it, Apple is both a hardware and a software company since they do make both.

I like OS X.  Heck, I’ll go as far as saying I love it (though it crashed on me this afternoon when I was shutting it down, as it does every few weeks… which is more often than Windows crashes on me, including Vista).  I just hate that you have to buy overpriced hardware to use it.  The hardware in Macs is no different than the hardware in a decent business class PC, which can be had for a lower price if you know where to look.

I hope Psystar can make some headway with this countersuit.  It’s everything the tech world needs right now.  Apple’s lock-ins (the iTunes/iPod lock-in, which is partially gone with their DRM-free music, even though they charge more for it, and the OS X/Mac lock-in) have lasted too long.  Everyone loves to bash Microsoft about their anti-competitive behaviors, and I’m not saying they don’t deserve some of the bashing, but Apple has been ignored for too long.  Having a smaller marketshare should not exclude you from scrutiny.

The title should be “What is up with music sites and lack of RSS?”  I’m in the process of extending my regular web reading material outside the beer/Providence world and since I do have a thing for music, I was hoping to add some feeds to Google Reader.  I started with phish.com and clicked the RSS link they have on their news page.  It brings up a blank page.  I wrote to the webmaster to have it fixed because I want to be kept updated on any new developments in the Phish reunion thing.  I then went to Jambands.com as there are a couple columns there that I enjoy reading.  No sign of RSS at all.  To continue down the Phish reunion thing, I checked the Phantasy Tour Phish page for the news and rumors links and again, no sign of RSS.  Finally, I went to Relix (knowing they do have feeds) and subscribed to their daily news and rumors feeds (the others just point to articles that are actually in the magazine, which I get at home).

Why is it, in this day and age of information flying at people, that some websites, posting constant updates, don’t have (working) RSS feeds?  Can someone answer this for me?

Are there any music feeds that I should start reading?  Things I enjoy… Phish, new bands, Providence/RI area bands, or just about anything (see my music links on my Links page for a good idea of the type of music I like).