Surprises Revealed

Cross posted to withoutletters.com 

A little while back I alluded to a "Surprise to Come".  Well the time has come my friends. 

I'll be moving my digital house to a new spot with a new address.  I purchased two new URLs www.withoutletters.com and www.nathanbaron.com, both of which will take you to my new home.

For those of you that are subscribed to the RSS feed, you will need to change it to the new one.  http://withoutletters.com/feed/  Sorry, I could figure out a way to post to both simultaneously.

If you make the crossing, you'll see that there is still work to be done, and I hope to get some more graphics set up and sort out some things in my side bar.  I have been able to import all of my past posts but unfortunately I wasn't able to bring comments across to the new blog.  I will keep this space open  for as long as WordPress.com will let me, so if you are in dire need of view past comments you can check back here.

This also seems like a good time to thank all of you.  I've really enjoyed watching the traffic go up and hearing feedback from people.  I must admit that I would probobly keep doing this even if no one decided to read, but I am so happy that people find what I have to say interesting enough to keep coming back.

So thank you my friends.  I hope you will keep on reading the thoughts of this man without letters.

Traffic Surfing

I love getting around town.  Kingston is not a big place and you wouldn’t think of it as a traffic-ridden place, but at the right time of day, it gets pretty busy.  It sounds wierd, but I love my modes of transport.  Bike, walk, bus, to a ride with a friend.  I have started to make a sport out of how fast I can get from one place to another, without using cars.

Earlier this year I got my old bike fixed up and read up on riding in the city.  There are a tonne of great resources around for the urban cyclist.  (Pedestrians should also read some of these resources; I really hate watching people manoeuvre traffic in such an unskilled way.)

Yesterday I was on foot.  After dropping by home to feed, water and air out the beasts, I ran out the door to grab a bus on Princess Street.  Kingston is so bad for crappy light timing.  You get a good ten seconds of walk light, then five of flashing yellow, then the vehicles start flying and you’d better be out of the way.  Kingston is also bad for crappy, clueless drivers who are making a right turn at a light while your are in the cross walk and almost always curse you because they actually have to slow down during their turn.

Anyway, I’m moving fast trying to get to the bus stop which I know I am currently about a minute-thirty seconds late for.  (I have this fairly well timed from the house.)  I can see the bus coming down the hill.  Dodge right to avoid an inconsiderate “right turner” and break out into a full run. 

When I’m 20 feet from the stop, I hear a honk through my headphones, and with a quick glance right I see my friend Rob in the middle lane holding up traffic trying to get my attention.  Cool, wait for a hole, and make the dash.  (I spot a cop two cars back from Rob tapping the wheel impatiently.)  A nice lady slows down in the inside lane, and I make the dash.  I opened the door as Rob hit the gas, and all of a sudden I’m sitting in the leather interior, nicely air-conditioned space of his Accord.

 Who would want to own a car when you can surf traffic?

I Love My Life:-)

i’m sitting in my backyard after work and Kelly is rolling around in the shade, Rudy is hunting butterflys on the porch, and Jorge is basquing in the sun. I am sitting reading a wired and having a quiet moment before heading off to go sailing. wow. that’s good livin.

Nathan Baron,
Blogging from the Treo

The Second Life Economy

There has been some interesting discussion lately about the economy in Second Life.  For those of you who haven’t visited SL, Linden Labs has it’s own currency called Linden dollars, and each resident gets a stipend every week.  (Free accounts get $L50 and paid accounts get $L500.)  You can buy currency in world, or you can earn it by generating traffic to a site, selling goods that you’ve made, or by providing services. 

 

As cool as it is that LL has developed an economy out nothing, some problems are starting to appear.  Inflation is rampant in SL, as the LL are creating currency as people sign up as well as making payments for generating traffic.  As in the real word, creating money out of nothing leads to devaluation.  if you flood a market with currency and don't take any out of circulation, it is inevitable that inflation will be a problem.

 

There are quite a few people who are operating businesses in SL and the problem is that it is hard to cash out and make any money.  People are also experiencing raised rates and prices because of the devaluation of currency.

 

I simply don’t have the time to hangout in SL very much, but I am intrigued by the metaverse as it is developing here.  LL are dealing with social, economic and technological issues as the world grows and develops.

 I’m still waiting for a SL application for Palm OS so I can go in world over lunch.  I suspect it is a few years out though.

Keitai Culture

I've decided to embrace Keitai culture and do more blogging from my phone.

I still find it totally amazing that I can so easily update my blog from anywhere. I will definetly have to look into a global spell check for the palm though, as my spelling sucks.

I'll try to set up a signature for my palm entries so you'll know when I'm posting from parts unkown.
Nathan Baron,
Blogging from the Treo

R.C.Y.C. Trillium Regatta

Well things have been super busy and once again, blogging is the first thing to be pushed aside.

This past weekend I was in Toronto sailing the Trillium Regatta with Paul Davis and Hal Ebert aboard Shagreen (Peter Van Rossem's most excellect shark).  This was the first time that Paul and I had sailed with Hal, and I think it went pretty well.

The trip down was uneventful and we managed to get registered and have a few beers, before getting a 9:30 launch back to the main land.  I really love hanging out at RCYC.  The facilities are amazing and the sense of history around the place is so strong.

On Saturday we got in three races in very light and variable breeze.  As you would expect the three of us were working out the kinks in our boat handling, but the talk on board was really good.  Paul and Hal are both great big picture thinkers and we had solid strategy.  We were finding that boat speed was a bit of a problem in places, but it wasn't that big a deal.

Unfortuneatly, we had a couple of very unlucky shifts or wind appearing and disappearing at just the wrong times.  In the last leg of the last race we worked our way into a great position on the left side of the course which gave us a commanding position on the rest of the fleet.  But we ran out of breeze and when we tack for the finish line, we found we were headed and almost mid-fleet.  Whatever, you win some and you lose some. After the first day we were sitting 6th in the fleet of 35 boats, with a 6, 8, 15.

On Sunday we were greeted with thick, thick fog that prevented the race committee from sending us out.  We sat around on the veranda and chatted.  It was nice to hang out and talk with people.  I got a chance to meet Martha Henderson, former ISAF president Paul Henderson's daughter, who is in the middle of an olympic campaign and is working with Paul.  Really nice women, really keen and into her program.  Also got hang out with a few of the Defiant crew (Farr 40 that won the Canada's cup), which is always educational. 

As the mist burned off, the wind completely died.  The Race Committee finally called it a day around 1230.  We packed up the boat and won the most important race of the day:  the crane race.  We yanked the boat, took down the rig and hit the road around 1400 and had another uneventful trip.

Sailing with Paul and Hal this summer is going to be a really great learning experience.  Paul's experience with boat to boat tactics, and Hal's insane knowlege of weather systems and strategic talents, are certain to rub off a little.  I feel a bit under qualified to be sailing with these two, but I suppose I have my talents too.

I also wanted to give a shout out to Andrew Morgan and Daina Vagners who not only hosted a great regatta, but also provided a really comfortable bed over the weekend. 

Another big thanks go to Peter Van Rossem for so selflessly lending us his boat and getting everything ready to go.

Shrub the Coward

Well it is finally happening.  Canadians get to see what a Conservative government is really like.

This week Stephen Harper made a statement that his government would pick and choose which reporters questions they will respond to.  Harper went on to say that some reporters/ news outlets had a “vendetta” against his government.

How the story has changed.  From the beginning of the federal election campaign, Harper has talked about accountability.  He has beaten the message to death; government must be accountable to the people.  But when it comes time to be accountable in the media, Harper and Co. are singing a totally different tune. 

Mainstream media has a political slant.  This is axiomatic truth.  Every government that comes to power must deal with both sides of the media.  If the government is given the choice of which media outlets they are going to answer, they are effectively removing the press as a safe guard.  They are taking away the presses right and obligation to ask the hard questions and put the leaders on the hot seat. 

What makes a good politician?  A good politician can take questions from both sides, using friends to reinforce messages and using foes to discredit alternate theories and/or courses of action. Funny that Mr. Harper is so uncomfortable answering questions, as he touts his fine debating and speaking skills. 

I am incensed that our government would choose to avoid the hard questions.  Politicians deal with media.  This is how they communicate with citizens and the world.  If journalists cannot ask challenging questions, then we have just lost a key component of our democracy.

The Conservative party are like the school yard bully:  they are all tough when they are beating up on the kindergarten kid, but start crying as soon as they are called into the principals office. 

 Cowards.

Bush’s Words

If you have spent more than an hour with me, you'll know that I am no fan of George W. Bush.  I frequently mumble about self-interested foreign policy, racist domestic policy, and economic dunderheads.

I get a newsletter from Rob Coddington on speech writing, and in the current edition there is a link to an article on Bush's speech writer, Michael Gerson.  He is a very interesting man, and a very good speech writer.

As much as I dislike Bush, I am always very impressed with the quality of his speechs.  This article is an interesting look at how the Bush administration frame it's policy and agenda around the moral and ethical questions that must totally consume senior staff at the White House. 

From a communications perspective, watching the administration try to manouver around the moral and ethical debates that are raging in the US, is a very interesting case study in implementing a plan that they think is morally correct but which half the country disagree.

You may not agree with the politics, but the words are exquisitly framed to communicate what "the Bubba" believes is the right thing. 

Da Vinci Code Protests

At the risk of pissing off a lot of readers, I just have to make a comment on the recent protests surrounding the movie release of the Da Vinci Code.  

BBC is reporting loud protests in India, South Korea, and of course, the Vatican.  They claim that people who see the film are twice as likely to believe the fictional premise that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child.

Isn't any kind of engagement with religious doctrine good for discussion?  Even if Hollywood completely distorts factual events (like this is the first time), isn't it a good thing that people are exposed to the subject matter and hopefully come to their own conclusions?  Any publicity is good publicity, so the saying goes.

What makes me really angry is the censorship that the Christian right would like to impose on people.  Banning art and/ or a different perspective of events cannot simply be banned because it is blasphemous.  This is 2006, blaspehmy is totally not a valid reason today.  Open discourse is a tool to find the truth.  Who doesn't want to hear the truth?

Even if Jesus did marry and had a child, would that make a big difference?  Would it really change the structure of the Christian belief system that much?  I always thought that there was a huge disconnect between the teachings of Jesus, the man, and the churches doctrine.  This just proves me right.

So let's say the South Koreans manage to ban the movie.  What's next, a good old fashion book burning?  If the Christian right manage to snuff out an artistic work because if posed a threat to their religious construct, what will be next?  I can think of a dozen books that fall into this category. 

We must have faith.  Faith that people will look into things for themselves.  We must have faith that our religions will not topple when someone expresses a contrary view.  We must have faith that people will allow others to speak their minds, because it could be your speech that snuffed out next.

Surprises to Come

I know it has been very quiet around here for quite a while now and I just wanted to let my faithful readers (all six of them) know that I not "blog fading". 

I've been working on something new and I want to get all the bugs out before I go live with it.

I should be making an announcement by the end of the month, so check back.