"I have a mind like a steel... uh... thingy." Patrick Logan's weblog.

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Friday, August 29, 2008

Friends

It's good to be cared for.

http://twitter.com/mherrick66/statuses/902322599

Big Picture: Women Are Heroes

From Big Picture, "Women Are Heroes"...

View of the facade of some houses at the "Morro da Providencia" favela, one of the most violent of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taken on August 20, 2008. The French photographer identified as JR is launching a project called "Women Are Heroes", through which the photographs of women, relatives of the victims of clashes between the police and drug traffickers, were placed in the facades of the houses. This project already took place in Sudan, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Liberia, and will be taken to India, Cambodia, Laos and Morocco after Brazil...

Though Rio is blessed with natural beauty and climate, it still struggles with large disparities between rich and poor, and many of the six million residents reside in hillside slums called favelas.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Penny Arcade Expo 2008 in Seattle

Not much more to wait now. This will be my third year with my youngest
boy. I enjoy it. It's a trip to Mecca for him. Last year he was at the
Lord of the Rings booth correcting some of their phrases in Tolkien's
elvish dialects.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/147360.asp?source=rss

flash player now on linux-32 and -64 as well as freeBSD-32 and -64

http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2008/08/22/flash-player-10-platform-ubiquity/

How about a little MC5, shall we?

ok...

"Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!"
-MC5

"Thanks, But No Thanks"

"They want us to reward them for the last eight years with four more years."

-Bill Clinton

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Collaboration Components

From Ryan Stewart on Adobe's

"Being able to add collaboration components to your own applications.
That's where CoCoMo is going to come in. You can check out more at the
Collaborative Methods blog. We're exposing almost all of the
functionality from Connect Now into components that you can use inside
of your own Flex applications. Even better, CoCoMo will provide all
the hooks you need to add a real-time collaborative element to your
application. There's a recording available from a meeting with the
CoCoMo team if you're interested in more info."

http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1611

There will be hands on development events at the MAX conference...

"The first session is going to be more of an overview, really
highlighting the scope of functionality offered by Cocomo, along with
a few simple sample apps to get the audience started. For the second
session, we're choosing one big sample AIR app that ties a bunch of
functionality together, and using it as a framing device for diving
into some slightly more advanced topics. Both should be a lot of fun -
multi-user apps are so much more interesting to build than single-user
apps, "cloud computing" is a pretty hot topic these days, and you'll
likely walk out of either session with something.. actually working."

http://blogs.adobe.com/collabmethods/2008/07/cocomo_max.html

It's about time the collaborative software landscape started shaping up again.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Devil and Obama

We can't afford four more years of McSame...

Obama could have chosen the devil himself as a running mate and I'd vote for them over four more years of this crap.

Monday, August 25, 2008

"I'm not dead yet!" - the one-off data center

Dion Hinchcliffe writes...

The announcement this week of the launch of Amazon’s Elastic Block Store (EBS) has added another vital piece to the overall cloud computing picture. The EBS announcement is particularly significant since it takes the gloves off when it comes to meeting the demanding needs of enterprise class computing requirements. The Elastic Block Store finally makes it practical, cost effective, and relatively easy to put traditional storage and processing of very large amounts of data in the cloud from a credible vendor.


[clang]
Bring out your dead!
[clang]
Bring out...
[rewr!]
...your dead!
[rewr!]
[clang]
Bring out your dead!
CUSTOMER:
Here's one.
CART MASTER:
Ninepence.
DEAD PERSON:
I'm not dead!
CART MASTER:
What?
CUSTOMER:
Nothing. Here's your ninepence.
DEAD PERSON:
I'm not dead!
CART MASTER:
'Ere. He says he's not dead!
CUSTOMER:
Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON:
I'm not!
CART MASTER:
He isn't?
CUSTOMER:
Well, he will be soon. He's very ill.
DEAD PERSON:
I'm getting better!
CUSTOMER:
No, you're not. You'll be stone dead in a moment.
CART MASTER:
Oh, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations.
DEAD PERSON:
I don't want to go on the cart!
CUSTOMER:
Oh, don't be such a baby.
CART MASTER:
I can't take him.
DEAD PERSON:
I feel fine!
CUSTOMER:
Well, do us a favour.
CART MASTER:
I can't.
CUSTOMER:
Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won't be long.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Portland Confidential

Phil Stanford is a local columnist for the Portland Tribune. He keeps a pretty good tab on the local government, their past and present shenanigans, especially their involvement with the seedier side of Portland over the years.

See: "Did a city ‘hit team’ lower the boom on Cindy’s?"

He turned a collection of his Portland Confidential columns into an entertaining book, whether you are from Portland or just enjoy reading about the real underbellies of society that many folks would just assume you ignore.

See: "Portland Confidential"

What happens when all of Old Town becomes New? Currently it appears the underbelly is headed about 80 blocks east of downtown and beyond. Is that any better? I guess for the real estate developers downtown, it's out of sight and far away for a while. Does a healthy city need something of an underbelly?

I remember moving to Portland 20 years ago and all that is hip in the Pearl District and what's fast becoming hip in Old Town was really very rundown. Still in spite of all the improvements every block displaces more people living on the edge with few options. It's easy to say getting rid of this one adult bookstore is an improvement, but most likely, as Stanford lays it out, the builders and real estate developers are the low-lying movers and shakers in city politics, and they are on a mission that considers little more than how to keep their gravy train flowing. Another former "house of prostitution" closer to Powells' City of Books, if you know where that is, is about to become a McMenamin's hotel. Well, that could provide an entertaining motif.

One group of folks my family, friends, and I have helped with every now and then for the last 15 years or so is Potluck In The Park. David Utzinger works his butt off every week making sure everyone who can get downtown can get a good meal; every Sunday. No one knows the last time he took a week off, looking back well over a decade. Plus they throw a party every Christmas day, and a huge barbecue every summer. There's no better group I know of that's just bare-bones, keep people fed and give them a place to socialize every week of the year. Most people in this kind of need aren't homeless, but if Portland continues revitalizing its Old Town, and similar blocks, there will most likely be more people on the street who currently at least have a roof.

Oh yeah, the small O'Bryant Square, the original "Paranoid Park", they've barely been able to hold on to for their Sunday dinners is also up for "revitalization" and PLitP has been trying to maintain some visibility in the "visioning" process. PLitP had already been moved out of the nicer park blocks several years ago. There were no problems, it's just such a large, weekly gathering of so many people in need, is just a bit "unseemly" for many people.

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About Me

Portland, Oregon, United States
I'm usually writing from my favorite location on the planet, the pacific northwest of the u.s. I write for myself only and unless otherwise specified my posts here should not be taken as representing an official position of my employer. Contact me at my gee mail account, username patrickdlogan.