Christopher Merle

Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, but first I need more coffee.

Category: LiveJournal (Page 17 of 27)

These are my posts imported from LiveJournal.

Tech Tuesday

May 12, 2011 /

 When I first moved to Tucson I used Twitter to find people. And it’s been a boon. I ended up meeting a lot of great tech people and got some contract work out of it. One of things I enjoyed the most was called Tech Tuesday. A group of IT geeks would get together at a local coffee shop on Tuesday morning’s. It was a sort of test for freelancers or those who could make their schedules flexible. We eventually shifted it to Thursdays. As more people started to join in they started to complain about the time and place and wanted to start meeting in the evening for drinks. I went along with it but I already meet for drinks with other tech groups. So why do another?

I like the coffee meetups. It’s different than going to a bar. It’s not as noisy and you could have good conversations. The people that co-opted Tech Tuesday are nice smart people and worth knowing but their idea of a meetup is different. It’s less organic than the Tech Tuesday. I’ll probably start up the Tech Tuesday again. 

 
I’ve also decided not to friend everyone on all the same social networks. If I want to kvetch about something, however minor, I can’t do it. Fortunately, LiveJournal is one of the few that isn’t like that. And those few that are on LJ and on Facebook and/or Twitter won’t care because it’s not directed at them. 

Milestones

May 1, 2011 /

 I wish I could say I was happy about this evening’s news. It is historic. I take no joy in it because the US will not bring the troops home from Afghanistan, will not close Guantanamo, will not dismantle Homeland Security, and will not dismantle the TSA. Just think of all the bloodshed that could have been avoided (not to mention the trillions of dollars spent) if Charlie Wilson got a few million dollars to build schools in Afghanistan after the Soviets were driven out.

Tchooka tchooka tchooka. Kerchunk

April 25, 2011 /

I just read that the last typewriter factory shutdown. It was in India. It’s been many years, probably more than a decade since I’d last used a typewriter, manual or electric. I even had an electric typewriter in the 80’s. There was a point in the 90’s when I’d gone completely over to computers for all my typing needs and wanted to give a typewriter a try again. For old time’s sake.

The first thing I noticed wasn’t the speed. It was slower, but the hard return. You are typing along and then you reach the end of the line and you have to hit the return. There is a noticeable delay. It wasn’t anything I’d noticed before. With computers you just keep on typing and it wraps automatically. No delay. On my first Macintosh I installed Underwood typewriter sounds so the keystrokes sounded like a typewriter. It was amusing for a few minutes.

My mother had a manual typewriter and if you typed too fast, the keys would bunch up and you’d have to pry them loose one by one until the clump fell apart and the remaining keys fell back. 

Like so many other eras that have ended few will mourn it’s passing or noticed that had even come to an end.

Social Media

April 13, 2011 /

I really don’t know what the term means, but I do know this. It is a mistake to have your friends using all of the same social media that you do. I’ve offended someone on one of them, but I can’t go to the other social media to vent because they are on it as well. Fortunately, they are not here. I should probably apologize, but what I posted wasn’t that bad… in the grand scheme of things.

I recently posted on Facebook about it’s fine grain control of what your FB friends see and what you see. I hide most people from my status feed, because for the most part I don’t know them or haven’t had that much contact with them online. I’ve also created groups that only certain people can see what I post.  If I post something a little off color, I don’t want my father-in-law seeing it. Although I mostly group people into ultraconservative, conservative, and normal. I’ll occasionally make political posts to the conservative group. Normal sees everything.

I know that I’ve offended my conservative friends from time to time (and deliberately so). What I don’t understand is why they either don’t unfriend on Facebook me and maintain contact via email or hide me from their feed.  I’ve even explained in so many words how they can control what they see and who sees what they post.

Cabin in the Woods

April 12, 2011 /

 Before Facebook and Twitter there was LiveJournal. I rarely used it. And still I don’t post much here. It doesn’t feel as active a community as those others. And that’s the way I like it. It’s my cabin in the woods, my retreat. There are occasional visitors, but for the most part. It’s just me and the journal. There’s more room to spread out. And there’s not as much shouting as there is on Facebook. Facebook are places in the city you hang out with friends and Twitter is like the streets where you can chat with your friends but strangers can join in too.

It’s nice to come here and visit from time to time and post my thoughts.

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