Cultural learnings of America's hat

Entries from April 2009

Thanks TED

April 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I loves my TED talks.  How can a technologist NOT get off on a conference full of brilliant, successful, idea driven folks delivering their visions of the future?  I’ve watched the new presentations religiously for probably the past year and made an effort to see any past talks on interesting topics.  Though the talks are always good in varying degrees (not always a home run), one thing has always bothered me about the videos: the adrenaline pumping, heart thumping intro!  Just this week the intro audio has thankfully been revised so the viewer isn’t helplessly forced to the edge of their seat.  Go ahead and compare for yourself.  Here’s the old, earth shattering intro. And the elegant revised version.

It seems reddit has similar praise for the editing.

Also as a side note, if you happen to be a TED fan and want more presentation goodness by a slightly lesser known but equally ambitious crowd, head over to see a few Terry Talks put on by the University of British Columbia.  I’m a big fan of this concept of giving students a chance to shine in the internet limelight.

A recent favorite TED presentation by Bonnie Bassler.

edit: I feel silly having plugged TED yesterday.  A fine example of a subpar presentation is featured today.  Concepts with useless or impractical applications still manage to slip through the cracks now and again.

Categories: Podcasts
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Chapter 2

April 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I’ve taken a significant hiatus from blogging (nearly a year) and I think it’s about time to gather my wits and pick up the ol’ keyboard once again.  I think the most significant reason for the break was that I really didn’t feel like I had a good subject to dive into. My former blog was essentially an aggregation of personal happenings, thimble deep thoughts, and occasional technical posts spanning various topics in open source.  It worked and it didn’t.  3/4 of the folks would visit to hear about my life and ideas.  A marginal fraction found a post via Google about a terminal hack.  Still others thought my sciency or philosophical expositions were worth a crap.  In any case, the blog didn’t cater to a particular audience and it was easy to see that it hadn’t turned into whatever I hoped it would.  Thus, I’ve landed here.

This blog serves no other purpose than being my personal soapbox and online diary if it must be labeled that.  I’ve decided that after a few years of Linuxing, I’m probably at the point where I have good enough technical knowledge to spread the word independently of my personal ramblings.  As such, badministrator was concurrently created for this purpose.

This blog will also be a bit different than the last one I had.  Not too sure if I mentioned it on the interwebs at the time but a couple of posts on my previous blog compromised my employment (in an unfair way mind you).  Lesson learned.  Either I need an employer who grants me a reasonable amount of free speech outside of the workplace or I need to choose my words a little more carefully.  Both are probably ideal.

Why start it up again now?  In turn I ask, “Why wait?!”  I’m a procrastinator of the highest order but once something is off to a start, I usually see little reason to stop.  My life is changing right now in both small and big ways.  I’m graduating from college in May with a Sociology degree and Mathematics minor.  My graduation is year late but I’m certainly not a marble short of most any undergrad I’ve encountered.  What really counts in the end anyway?

What else is a-changin?  I’m about to ditch my first and only car that I’ve owned for the past 7 years in favor of biking everywhere.  I’ve only become an avid cyclist in the past 18 months but it’s surely something I plan to do for the rest of my life.  Can’t wait to get my new bici after graduation :)

I may have also become a vegetarian in the past 3 months based on environmental, health and ethical concerns.  Make no mistake, people will criticize, laugh, and try to dissuade your decision as if the eating of meat is as essential to life as water itself.  Folks from the Midwest (at least many that I know) are generally not very veggie friendly, which is a very sad state of open-mindedness considering the altruistic nature of the act of avoiding meat. </rant>

Anything else I’m missing here?  Oh yea that little bit about packing up shop.  I’ve secured a position in a work program in Vancouver starting at the end of May so not only will I be waving goodbye to La Crosse, but adiós to Minneapolis as well.  It’s an exciting, sad and humbling realization that I’m essentially starting from scratch in a few short weeks.  Lots of world to explore out there.  I’m pretty sure the Midwest was never meant to cage me.  This blog will be a good way to keep those interested in the loop.  You didn’t think I’d just fall off the map that easily did you?!

Anywho it’s time to cut this short.  I forgot that blogging makes you a bit giddy.  I’ll surely ramble about the aformentioned topics soon enough.  Bear with me as the style and format will change from time to time while settling into the new webspace.  Posts will be scarce to start, but will pick up shortly.

Categories: General · blog update
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