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August 22, 2005
3 x 5-7-5
Content management --
Both my headache and savior;
I think in objects.
Style sheets, data,
Users, news, syndication;
What is sanity?
Long week, long hours, lights;
The even longer weekend.
I need air, tea, sleep.
Posted at 02:18 PM | Life and Work | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
Minute Confluence Geo Tagging
Can you see the spot? There's a minute confluence point right there. (Well, to be technical, the picture is taken from the supposed confluence point, but considering there's a margin of error of 6 meters, it could actually be in the photo.)
So what's a minute confluence point? Lattitude and Longitude degree lines were devised to divide the earth into more consumable chunks. Because even these chunks are large, the degrees are further split into minutes and seconds. A minute confluence is where these minute lines intersect. Read GeoProjectUSA.com for a better description.
Anyway, on to answering the next question; geo tagging is the visiting of these confluences and documenting what's there. This involves looking at maps, more maps, and of course, google maps then traipsing about with a GPS, camera, and umbrella (being Hilo and all) playing a game of find-the-zeros. After a bizarre dance of side-stepping and spinning about, success can be attained with golden numbers such as 19°42'0"N 155°5'0"W.
Isn't that exciting, kids?
Actually, it was rather entertaining. The sloughing through streets and brush and traffic, was tempered by the mesmerizing dance of liquid crystal 42.001s and 41.999s looking for the lovely triple zero. The triumph may be minor and a complete mystery to the myriad of the various onlookers, but that was all part of the strange new geo tagging game.
Posted at 05:17 PM | Life and Work | Comments (0)
August 08, 2005
Change is Relative
Change is relative, and I'm not talking about the stuff rolling around between the couch cushions. For me, this weekend has been very much a visit to the past.
Ben Discoe, a good friend from Parker School, visited with his new wife, Debra. I hadn't seen him in ages and many memories of high school were discussed or triggered.
On Sunday, Sherrie Ann and I took a round-the-island trip with stop-overs at Hapuna beach and south Kona. Hapuna was quite nice with low surf (but choppy); body surfing and otherwise frolicking in the sand and waves further drew images, smells, sounds, and feelings from my childhood spent on that side of the island. South Kona deepened the experience as I met people whom I'd either not seen or have known for two-thirds or more of my life.
And yet, all of this nostalgia was sprinkled with the salt and pepper of change. A healthy dash of new housing development here, a speckle of new stop lights and stores and roads there. However, besides being more crowded and less open than before, the Big Island hasn't changed much over the past 30ish years. Of course, any of us who've spent time here could site specific points at every turn as to how it's different, but the overall feeling is much of how it was back then.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that not only has everything changed, nothing has.
Posted at 03:42 PM | Life and Work | Comments (0)
August 01, 2005
English 101, Session 2
Last week it was two [#2] homonym triads: there, their, they're [they are] and your, you're [you are] and yore. As promised, here's [here is] the next round of English for dummies. We'll [we will] discover how to use two, too and to as well as break from the hat trick tradition and explore the then and than dyad.
This is easy stuff folks; live it, love it, and most of all, learn it.
* Two is simply the number. Unless you can replace the word with the numeral 2, do not use two.
* Too indicates addition. Unless you can use the word also instead, or you mean more or excess, do not use too or you will cause too [excess] much confusion. Wow, we get two [number] references to [direction] math in discussions of English. What is this world coming to [state]?
* To, most of the time, indicates some sort of motion or state. Rather than cover to's seemingly infinite uses, let's [let us] just say that if you're [you are] not talking about the number two or the word also, use the word to.
* Then, like yore, is a period of time. Unless the subject exists in or as an element of time, do not use then.
* Than is used in comparisons. Unless you are speaking of differences, do not use than.
Ask yourself, "when is than better than then?" When it is not, did not, or will not happen then, then it is than. I hope that cleared it up for you.
Learning the differences between these words' meanings can save innumerable brain cells from self-destructing upon encountering incorrect usage. The collective intelligence of English-speaking and -learning people appreciate it greatly. Oh, and I'll [I will] feel better too [also].
Posted at 10:39 AM | Rants and Opinions | Comments (0)