26 March 2011

baskins–er, grotto falls

cmac organized a guyz hike to baskin falls…only we couldn’t find baskin falls while following the directions. since we couldn’t back up or turn around on the road, we decided to take the path we found and trekked out to grotto falls. it had rained before we arrived leaving the whole area foggy. it was an easy hike to the falls.



while we were leaving, we found the trail head to baskin falls.  so, maybe next time.

16 March 2011

fedora swag at pycon

i attended my first pycon just last week.  along with a few colleagues, we hit the ATL and enjoyed tutorials and some very interesting sessions.  there is so much to python i feel i don’t really know, and this type of conference whets the appetite to explore the language as it has evolved.

toshio sent out an email to the fedora mailing lists asking who might show up at pycon.  dave malcolm was there giving a couple of talks, one of which i attended.  (it was a very good session.)  along with toshio and david, i met neville.  (luke was there too, but i never actually spoke to him.)

ben sent the box of swag to toshio who in turn gave it to me.  on friday, which was first day of the main conference, i located the free grab table and put out some media, pens, pins, and balloons right before i walked into a session.  when i came out of that session, the stuff was gone.

wow.  next morning, i brought down more of the fedora stuff and put it out on the same table.  again, next break for the sessions, it was all gone…except for maybe one pen.  sunday morning, i put out the rest of the media, pens, pins, stickers, and balloons.  i didn’t check back later, but given the response the first couple of times i think it all might have found a home.

in all that saw, fedora was represented.  one of the network sessions i attended included a live security spin with the speaker’s scripts.  of course, dave malcolm highlighted the fedora blue.  and those of us who did attend wore our fedora shirts at some point during the time.

i don’t have any pics.  it was good to meet toshio, dave, and neville.  (luke, next time i’ll have a convo with you.)  it’s good to be part of the fedora community.

fedora events: pycon 2011

13 March 2011

facebook messaging is not email

facebook messaging is not email.  i knew this was bound to be confused on a personal level at some point.  the discussion about this at work occurred over a year ago.  my colleague pointed out that kids of this coming generation wouldn’t know what email really was because facebook’s messaging would be their norm.  i have an email address.  i check my email constantly.  i don’t always check facebook.  i wouldn’t consider that a reliable source of contact for someone i wanted to reach.  email and sms would be my initial weapons of choice.

i recently saw alex albrecht’s take on facebook events, which coincides with this philosophy, and i totally agree with him.  the clip from the episode is below, but be warned that as is typical with every diggnation episode there is some offensive language.

Bearish on Google & How to Secure Your Facebook

should you stop using facebook?  no.  should you not message me via facebook?  no.  if you do message me via facebook, should you expect a timely answer?  no.  i have missed events because people assumed i would see it in facebook.  that’s why email will always win over facebook.  (also, facebook is not the internet either.)

04 March 2011

healthy yolk [egg white myth]

i have a few friends who have been all about the “healthy” egg white eating.  but i had a conversation with an optometrist friend who had mentioned that recent studies had discovered vitamins were really in the yolk, including some nutrients potentially helpful to eye health.  i decided to do a search on the interwebz to see what it all about.  and i found this entry:  “the incredible, edible egg yolk.”

according to that report, the yolk contains all or most of the vitamins in eggs.

As you can see from the table, the yolk contains 100% of the carotenoids, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, E, D, and K (6 items). The white does not contain 100% of any nutrient.

in addition to all that, the yolk also contains the good, fatty acids which are healthy.

Egg yolks contain the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA, which is necessary for the brain and proper retinal function in the eye, and the long-chain omega-6 fatty acid arachidonic acid, which is required for the healthy skin, hair, libido, reproduction, growth and response to injury. These fatty acids are primarily needed by young children, pregnant and lactating women, and people with degenerative diseases involving oxidative stress, especially those of the nervous system such as Alzheimer’s.

whites don’t have that.  when you dump the yolks for the whites only, you lose all the good stuff.  i’m finding that keeping the whole egg in my diet has been the better choice for my health.  check out the rest of the report.  you’ll be surprised how little the whites have going for them.

watching nasa

watching nasa tv is so stinkin’ awesome.  i mean, you can watch them work in space!  check out these pics!  the app to the left of the stream is called gpredict, which track satellites including the international space station.  with the shuttle docked, tracking the iss is tracking both.  fun app.


space-walk
space-walk-2
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03 March 2011

restored

after having my site hacked by some kid with downloaded program, i’ve gotten things back up.  backups are now in play to avoid the confusion from last time.  i was able to get my data back thanks to google reader.  it was a lot of cut and paste, but it was all i had.  i should have been backups long ago.  it really only takes once of losing your data to start the habit.

so, now with the latest wordpress installed, i have some catching up to do.