Yeah, it’s on…

MilwaukeeDevHouse3 is Friday, November 21, 2008 at 6pm at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Join us!

We somehow managed to pull it off again, and BarCampMilwaukee3 happened without any unfortunate incidents, even though there was threat of desks being burned to the ground…

In the coming weeks I will try to follow-up on specific things about BarCampMilwaukee3, but for now I will just ramble on aimlessly…

Wifi seemed good and the internet connection worked. This probably sets a new record for Bucketworks.

I did not get to complete my robot, but it looks like Royce Pipkins may be starting up a Milwaukee Robotics Club. (Possibly meeting at Bucketworks.)

We had a desk building competition (sponsored by Bucketworks) and I did not win, despite building two (yes two!) amazing desks…

Blake Hall and I (mostly Blake!) started working on the new BarCampMilwaukee web site & infrastructure. We should be done before BarCampMilwaukee4…

We’ll be discussing what worked/what didn’t and ideas for future *Camps in Milwaukee, including some sort of “FoodCamp” and DrupalCampWI2, and WordCamp, and others I forgot about…

Discussing where? At Web414 on Thursday, October 9th, 2008… 7PM at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin…

So we decided to try an experiment… instead of everyone using headphones or listening to music on their own computer, we loaded up our Living Room Mac with a bunch of songs and turned it into a jukebox. It plays through the office sound system so pretty much everyone can hear it. Since everyone contributed songs, we’re starting to hear a good variety. But in order to solve that “What song is this!?” problem, I set up a last.fm account at last.fm/user/z2marketing. (It started with just my music for the first day, so the stats were a little screwy at first… well, they still are, but it will even out over time.)

So far it’s proved interesting… and it’ll be neat over time to see what the office collectively listens to. The new office is a lot larger, so this has sort of helped to pull things together and make it feel more comfortable and not as spread out, which it felt at first due to how much room we have now.)

Anyway, if you want to see what we are listening to, check it out at: last.fm/user/z2marketing

A few months back David from Korporate Media sent an email to a few folks titled “Dear Macintosh users, let’s talk apps” and a bunch of people replied. It took a while to compile, but here’s my list. Some of these I don’t use much anymore in Mac OS X 10.5 but still do in Mac OS X 10.4, and some of these I almost never use, but still think they might be useful to others…

• Adium - multi-protocol IM
• Audio Hijack - re-route audio, record anything your Mac can play
• Chicken of the VNC - VNC client
• CocoThumbX - nice thumbnailer
• Colloquy - IRC client
• Combine PDFs - handy utility to merge PDFs into one file
• Desktop Manager - like Spaces, but not… (yeah, I still use Tiger on some Macs!)
• EvoCam - awesome webcam/timelapse software
• ffmpegX - GUI front-end to ffxmpeg
• Final Cut Express - awesome video editor for under $200
• FontDoc - display fonts in their face (blows away Font Book)
• GarageBand - fun with music composing!
• GraphicConverter - can’t afford Photoshop? need to convert images?
• Growl - system notifications, including roll-your-own
• Interarchy - file transfers, ftp, sftp, Amazon S3 support, etc.
• iSquint - converts .wmv files to QuickTime
• iTerm - blows away Terminal.app, IMHO…
• jEdit - multi-platform text editor, no one likes it but me
• Linotype FontExplorer X - manage fonts the right way
• Mactracker - details on every freakin’ Mac model ever
• MetadataHootenanny - embed metadata in media files
• MPEG Streamclip - awesome video converter (easier to use than ffmpegX)
• MrDrum - simple drum machine app
• NeoOffice - word sucks, this is open source
• OmniOutliner - nice outliner, if you use an outliner
• OmniGraffle - nice grapher, if you use a grapher
• Parallels - run that crappy Windows thing
• PsyncX - automate backups on the command line
• Senuti - move music from iPod to iTunes
• SWF & FLV Player - free player for weird formats

(Oh, and Perl, which does everything else.)

It’s off… The progress splint I was using to help my dislocated elbow heal has been removed, and I am now free of all splints, slings, and other such contraptions. But I’m not healed…

Right now I cannot straighten my left arm. It gets to about 35 degrees and just stops. It’s too painful to move it anymore than that. I’ll be starting therapy in a week and a half (that too is worrisome, as I would have liked to have started right away, but some miscommunication slowed down that process.)

I’m also supposed to “take it easy” which is something I have a hard time doing. I’m pretty conscious of my arm, and if I try to extend it too much I get a (slightly) painful reminder that I can’t. You’d be amazed how many times I look at something that used to be within my reach, and then reach for it, and realized I can’t quite get it. It’s this sort of disappointment/failure thing, and it’s a bit depressing.

Of course the most painful part of all of this just started. I got the first (of many) medical bills from this injury. Ouch… I’ll probably be paying this one off for some time… hopefully my arm will fully heal before the bill is fully paid off. Who knows? Maybe we’ll soon see a change in the U.S. and we’ll get a president who cares enough about people who cannot afford good health insurance and does something about it.

Good gosh, we’re this close to BarCampMilwaukee3! The whole thing goes down October 4th/5th, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Bucketworks.

There’s also a Friday night pre-BarCamp party event being planned that we need to spread the word about. Details should be available soon.

This is our 3rd BarCamp in Milwaukee (hence the “BarCampMilwaukee3″ title!) and it feels like we’re in the groove of getting these things up and running. This year seems so much more mellow than last year. I’ve been keeping an eye on registration, and I’ve seen some interesting people sign up. As of writing this we’re at well over 100 people, and I’m guessing we’ll see that shoot up in the next week, and get more people who didn’t even sign up attending.

Remember to check out the proposed sessions to see what people are interested in doing. I’m pretty excited about the Hobby Robotics Make’n'Take Session and of course the The Future of Microblogging session looks amazing!

And have you see the shirt Mike Rohde designed? It incorporates tagging! How sweet is that?

So join us! It’s not too late to sign up… head over to barcampmilwaukee.com and use the signup wizard to register… We hope to see you there.

John Resig shows us the right way to complain about something… by not even making it appear you are complaining, and offering solutions.

His post on Easy PDF Sharing nails it by saying he loves something (SlideShare) but then asking how it could be improved, and and offering a solution as well (with working code.)

To SlideShare’s credit, they are pretty open to people’s suggestions. When I mentioned them last year, they commented on my post right away, which is always great to see.

I’m really liking what John did, and I’ll see if I can tie into it with my workflow of using S5.

Don’t ask me how I got this, cuz I can’t tell you… but reliable sources tell me this is John McCain’s playlist…

1. Kill the Poor - Dead Kennedys
2. Let’s Start a War - The Exploited
3. You’re My Miss Washington, D.C. - Nation of Ulysses
4. War Pigs - Black Sabbath
5. Cops of the World - Phil Ochs
6. Mount The Pavement - Born Against
7. My War - Black Flag
8. Night of the Living Dead - The Misfits
9. Suspect Device - Stiff Little Fingers
10. They Must Want to Die - D.I.
11. Hate & War - The Clash
12. Is She Really Going Out With Him? - Joe Jackson

Who knew he had such good taste in music?

I’ve got a new splint. This one limits the range of motion of my arm. I can bend my elbow all the way up, well, as far as it can go right now, but I can’t completely straighten it. This is to prevent it from coming out of joint again, as the ligaments still need to tighten up.

I’ll have this for at least two weeks, and need to work at keeping my arm moving, as it’s pretty stiff from being stuck at 90 degrees for the last two weeks. We’re still not sure if I will get my full range-of-motion back, but I’m hopeful. This is the first “real” injury I’ve ever had, besides breaking the tip of my pinky finger twenty years ago, and various sprains throughout the years. It’s not fun.

Update: Two weeks turned into three…

It’s been a week, and oh what a week it’s been, since I first dislocated my left elbow.

Sunday I got a bit of rest, but Monday was back to work, though I took it fairly easy and just typed with one hand. Tuesday it was off to the orthopedic doctor, who removed the split, explaining that it would just make my arm stiffen up. He said to use the sling, and showed me some exercises for my arm. All seemed well, and Wednesday I headed to work with just the sling, and the ability to move my arm. I still took it easy, I was able to type, but didn’t want to do much else.

Wednesday turned bad quickly. I was going to the bathroom and just sort of twisted my arm a bit and POP! my elbow came out. I shouted an expletive and walked slowly into the office sort of yelling/swearing and then co-worker Eric drove me to urgent care to see the same Doctor that removed my splint less than 24 hours earlier.

So they gave me a shot, and popped it back into place. I also got some x-rays to make sure it was all good. I then went back to work, got my car, drove home, and rested for a few hours before my next appointment to have a splint made.

I got a splint to keep my arm at 90 degrees, and need to keep it in the sling. It’ll be like this for another week. They will then adjust the splint to an angle greater than 90 degrees. It’s extremely annoying. It’s hard to shower, and hard to go to the bathroom, and hard to put pants on… an all around pain.

Right now I’m just really hoping I can heal quickly and get my full range of motion back…

Ok, well, I’m typing this with one hand, cuz my left arm is in a splint and pretty much useless. I was painting a wall at Bucketworks, when the ladder slipped and I got to ride it down to the concrete floor. I think I minimized the impact, but I hit the floor pretty hard. I think I stood up, or someone helped me up, and I noticed my arm was all going the wrong way at the elbow. Also, I couldn’t move it, and it hurt. I also asked James to take my shoe and sock off, cuz my big toe hurt like hell. It was all pointed up the wrong way.

James took me to urgent care, and the doctor there snapped my toe back in place after numbing it up, but they couldn’t fix my arm there. Oh yeah, also got a bunch of x-rays done before all of that, so they could see what the damage was… luckily nothing was broken.

Dana and the kids joined me at urgent care, and took me to the hospital where they could fix my elbow. But wait… yes wait. While “sitting in the waiting room” is great lyric from a Fugazi song, doing it for hours sucks. My mom and brother showed up as well, since Dana had to get Maddy to party. Now, I didn’t want to be the jerk who keeps asking the front desk when it’s my turn, but after like 3+ hours of waiting, we asked, and they seemed surprised we had not been taken, and I went in right away.

Marty the nurse stuck a lot of needles in my right arm, which sucks cuz all my good veins are in my left arm. After the “conscious sedation” had effect, Marty and the doctor wiggled and snapped my elbow back in place. We hoped. It was off to x-ray to make sure… and yeah, it was all good. I do remember grunting and swearing a lot while they reset the elbow…

One of the funnier things that happened was when Marty the nursed asked if I could get my shirt off, or if it needed to be cut off. I was totally against that idea, cuz I was wearing my BarCampMilwaukee shirt, and even though it had paint, and floor glue, and sweat, and dirt on it, I just couldn’t see it being destroyed by a pair of scissors.

So… now I need to figure out how to “take it easy” but also move an entire office, configure a server and other systems, tell someone how to silk screen shirts, prep for BarCampMilwaukee3, and a few other things I probably shouldn’t do… all with one working arm. Whew….

If you remember my quest for a decent video installation, here’s the conclusion.

We ended up getting a TV with VGA input, and connecting an old PowerMac G4 to it. From there I loaded videos into iTunes and played them full screen. One problem, iTunes does not support looping in a video playlist. The solution: make a “smart playlist” which contains your videos, as smart playlists do support looping. I just tested this, and it all seems good.

Thanks to all who made suggestions. If you’re interested in seeing the display, and are available the evening of Friday, September 12th, 2008, let me know…

It’s on! BarCampMilwaukee3 will happen Friday, October 4th through Sunday October 5th, 2008. It’ll be at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

We’re in the process of preparing the web site, and soon you will be able to register at barcampmilwaukee.com.

We’re also looking for sponsors. While Bucketworks is providing the venue, they’ve had a few setbacks this year due to flood damage, and they are also looking to up the bandwidth for BarCamp events held there. If you or your company wants to sponsor BarCampMilwaukee3, please get in touch with me. We’ll make you known to all the passionate technology leaders in South-Eastern Wisconsin.

Here’s a list of our current sponsors:

• BarSpecials.com
• Ryma
• Social Helix
• Fireseed
• Hentzenwerke Publishing
• HelpSpot
• Northwoods Software
• Microsoft
• iit/SourceTech
• WI .NET Users Group
• Google
• Korporate Media
• Milestone R/D Labs

We’d also like to mention Web414 (organizing group) Distance Software (hosts the web site) and Fresh Coast Ventures (our fiscal sponsor.)

I’m sure you’ll see a lot more about BarCampMilwaukee3 in the next month, as it promises to be a great event… and who knows, we might even have a few surprises to reveal along the way. :)

Look, I want a competitor to Google just as much as anyone else who is against one company dominating a space. So along comes Cuil.

Like all web nerds, I went there and searched for my name… and I got this.

Now don’t get me wrong, John December is a nice guy, he’s a friend of mine, but I don’t really want to see his photo come up next to search results for my name. It’s like the time someone mistook me for Mark Mallman all over again. (Well, that was before he rocked out harder than anyone you know.)

Anyway, others are seeing this too…

I mean, did these guys not try searching for themselves with this thing!?

Alright, it seems people just aren’t getting it. It’s not that I want to see Twitter die, or go away, or fail… and I don’t just want identi.ca to replace Twitter. That’s not the idea.

The idea is to further MicroBlogging.

That’s it.

Or more specifically… OpenMicroBlogging. Here’s a bit from the spec:

To allow users of one microblogging service to publish notices to users of another service, given the other users’ permission.

So what this means is, opening up the world of MicroBlogging to all… Having Twitter interact with identi.ca with your own server running Laconica (or some other new software yet to be written) or Facebook or Myspace, or whatever. Any site/software that follow the standards of the OpenMicroBlogging spec would be able to participate… and as a user of any of these sites, you’d be able to communicate across services with others. So maybe you prefer how Facebook integrates the OpenMicroBlogging spec into it’s platform, you use them… meanwhile, your friend uses Twitter, and that’s ok, you can still talk to each other as if you were on the same system.

You may or may not remember the old days of silos, when systems could not easily interoperate with each others. Sadly, that’s where we could be headed unless we decide otherwise. I am interested in open source, and open data, and open systems. Freedom from lock-in, freedom to control your data, freedom for new services to come along and challege the establshed services.

How would the world look today if all blogs depended on Blogger? I’m thankful that projects like Movable Type and WordPress (and others) exist, so people have a choice, and the ability to innovate.

I often fear that most people just don’t care about these things, and to those people, I don’t know what else to say. There is a chance you use open source software in some way and may not even realize it, or care. Do you use Firefox? Mac OS X? Google? All of these depend on open source software.

So in the end, I care about MicroBlogging (OpenMicroBlogging to be exact) much more than I care about Twitter or what ever comes out next week.