My boss at ITS has a new blog and I have been mentioned in the notorious First Post.
Hopefully the trackbacks all line up and these posts will be linked together.
Ly’Nette has a new blog
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Problems with Pidgin and Google Talk (GChat)
Today I had some problems with using Pidgin for Google Talk. I was getting weird errors like “read error”. I don’t think it’s a Pidgin problem because that package hasn’t been updated recently.
Anyway I search around for a bit and found this solution: http://www.manast.com/2007/05/11/how-to-configure-pidgin-to-work-with-google-talk/
Scroll to the bottom of the post and read the update.
CollabTech 08: Blogs and Wikis
First breakout session, about blogging in general.
The panelists are talking about who blogs and why. Pretty interesting points. One thing the bloggers talked about was comments policies and Mano Singham posed an interesting question, “If you have a comments policy, aren’t you liable for the comments you let through. Doesn’t it look like you’re condoning those comments?”
Another audience member said that a blog that his friend runs changed the icon for anonymous posts to the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz.
Lastly, an audience member asks what the macro impact of blogging is: is it an additive or replacement activity? Some panelists think it’s an additive activity. I disagree, at least in the way that I use this blog. There are some things I record here so that I don’t have to explain them a second time. Other times I use it to announce things that I would like to announce once and reach my subscribers (most of whom are friends of mine) all at the same time.
CollabTech 08
Case is hosting a summit on Collaborative Technology in Higher Education, CollabTech, which I’ll be reporting on throughout the day.
First up is a panel discussion using next generation technologies like SecondLife to augment learning by bridging geography. Not too sure how I feel about that. The whole environment feels kind of cartoonish. I think that extra layer of “unreality” provides a sense of disconnect, especially in comparison with video chat. I demoed Adobe Connect in one of my classes this semester, and it was fantastic. Totally Flash based, so there’s really no extra software needed. Allows video and audio chat, screen sharing, shared whiteboard, private chats. I don’t feel like SecondLife, in it’s current version, allows the same kind of connection as a virtual “world”.
Migrating photos to Flickr
I’ve decided to move my photos to flickr. I did this for a number of reasons. For one, I think it will give my pictures greater exposure (no pun intended). Second, I like the flickr interface and features better than Gallery2 (what I was using previously). Third, most of my friends who themselves are amateur photographers are also on flickr and this is a nice way to stay on top of each others’ photos. And lastly, Facebook now added the ability to publish your flickr uploads on your mini-feed.
Here are some of the recent images I’ve taken. Some will look familiar because I’ve reposted them elsewhere.
I’ve also changed photos.alexhutnik.com to be a little snazzier gallery than the one before.
Done, for now
Also Incorporates The Mind
Funny Google Ad I saw today in Gmail:
The Decline of Facebook: Now Selling Paper at $1 a sheet?
Unless I’m missing something because I stopped watching MTV 5 years ago, why is Facebook selling paper as one of their cheesy gifts?:
Honestly, I think the idea of Facebook gifts is ridiculous. From a business standpoint though, it’s brilliant. Because, unfortunately, the company has made millions selling little icons to people for a dollar. How much does it cost to produce one? Maybe a hundred dollars or so in wages? You could probably crank out 2 or 3 a day, put them online, and the next day you’ve made a couple hundred thousand dollars or more.
OK, I Give Up. I Will Put Some of My Photos on Facebook.
But only if you promise to check out the larger, high quality versions in my photo gallery!
The Poverty Trap
Jeff Frankel (via Greg Mankiw):
“Despite the EITC and child credit, the poverty trap is still very much a reality in the U.S. A woman called me out of the blue last week and told me her self-sufficiency counselor had suggested she get in touch with me. She had moved from a $25,000 a year job to a $35,000 a year job, and suddenly she couldn’t make ends meet any more. I told her I didn’t know what I could do for her, but agreed to meet with her. She showed me all her pay stubs etc. She really did come out behind by several hundred dollars a month. She lost free health insurance and instead had to pay $230 a month for her employer-provided health insurance. Her rent associated with her section 8 voucher went up by 30% of the income gain (which is the rule). She lost the ($280 a month) subsidized child care voucher she had for after-school care for her child. She lost around $1600 a year of the EITC. She paid payroll tax on the additional income. Finally, the new job was in Boston, and she lived in a suburb. So now she has $300 a month of additional gas and parking charges. She asked me if she should go back to earning $25,000. I told her that she should first try to find a $35k job closer to home. Also, she apparently can’t fully reverse her decision to take the higher paying job because she can’t get the child care voucher back (the waiting list is several years long she thinks). She is really stuck. She tried taking an additional weekend job, but the combination of losing 30 percent in increased rent and paying for someone to take care of her child meant it didn’t help much either.”