The Digital Cobbler

I’ve decided that we can distill the definition of the problem with the IOC down to one person: Prince Hubertus.

I know that what’s wrong with the IOC can fill (and has already filled) several books but I say that if you want the short course, look no further than Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg: a European aristocrat playing ski racer (and “pop singer”, no less).

Oh, I know Hubertus himself is not a member of the IOC. But just look at the list of IOC members. Look at the members representing European countries. Some of them don’t even have names, just titles. They probably don’t have any idea what that looks like to us over here in this part of the world.

So I was able finally to try out scoopler. Okay. Pretty handy.

In fact, it taps a thread that I’ve been thinking about for a while: the idea that the “standard” supply of  information content that means something to a given community has to include comments, criticisms, posts, and blogs by the very members of the community. And these posts and comments are now, increasingly, on these social networks that are hard for traditional information-agglomerating tools (website search (google), catalogues (library), listserv archives and digests, and so on.

Last time I tried to use it, scoopler were having some reliabilityi issues. But this time, while I think there’s still a few speed issues, it works pretty well and, in fact, it’s pretty handy to have. Especially for info on events and ideas that are moving fast. It’s worth checking out.

A good camera makes a difference, no doubt. This taken with my Oly E-1, not w/ that iphone. But this camera is also kind of big and conspicuous. I think this guy grumped at me when he figured out I was taking his picture. iPhone doesn’t (so far) seem to get that reaction. Or maybe it’s just messengering on a miserable day is pretty grumpy work.

My neighbour put these down on his sidewalk during the snow. They’re still there today.

I have no idea why.

Really.

Any conjectural suppositions are welcome.

I know I’m a curmudgeon about the snow. I just don’t like it on the ground down here where I live. But, I’ve gotta say, the dog sure likes it. That’s a picture of Shea, our 10-year-old dog, and she loves the snow and the cold weather. She plays in it like a pup. It’s almost enough to soften my grumbling. Almost.