Aliens

E and J visit the Monk's Kettle and order hamburgers. Some way into the meal...

E: Can I have a french fry?
J: What happened to YOUR french fries?
E: Aliens. Very dangerous. They came all the way from Mars.
J: [elbows him in the ribs] Fine. You may have a french fry.

Several moments pass.

E: [reaches for fries again]
J: It's not my fault you let aliens steal your french fries!

The Great Dictator

Just watched The Great Dictator for the first time. It is an interesting film for a variety of reasons, but what is resonating for me at the moment is how in the final speech Chaplin touches on the idea that technology can either turn people into "machines" or bring them together. His specific example is radio, but it struck me how much we wrestle with the same idea today, with the internet. It allows so many wonderful things, and it is so easily turned into a tool to make people lash out rather than reach out.

Not much else to say for myself at the moment. Jury duty is done, but I've caught a nasty cold. It's hard to be reflective through congestion, so perhaps I'll just go back to building the Middle Kingdom.

Reflections on SXSW Interactive 2009

I took, no exaggeration, 44 pages of notes from the panels at SXSW Interactive conference in Austin this year. This was in large part due to the high quality and relevance of the sessions I was able to attend. This was one of the best SXSWi for me so far, from a panel perspective. From a social perspective, it's hard for a conference that has grown so much to have the same ease and opportunity for making personal connections as it once did; especially for those like me who are more comfortable in a small group than in a massive crowd. But the opportunities are still there if you made the effort to look for them.

It is the energy I was able to catch from the conference this year that was the very best thing about it. A lot of people there were struggling with the same issues I am - to wit, how to stay motivated and proactive when the economic and regulatory climates seem so dire. However, I came away refreshed, hopeful, invigorated. I have some new projects in the planning stages, some of which you'll see evidence of here on the blog very soon.

Highlights of the conference included several panels dealing with audience management and crowd sourcing, a full day of panels surrounding issues of copyright and fair use, and two extremely helpful panels about changing jobs in the current economy. Overall, I thought the panels were well selected and scheduled; in the past there have been several time slots where I wanted to be in four places at once and others where I was interested in nothing; this year there was only one session slot in which I found myself free, and I used it to visit the trade show floor.

In addition, I saw a number of great folks I usually only see once a year in Austin, and as usual, met some great new people who turn out to live practically in my backyard. SXSW Interactive 2009 was a great conference for me, and I feel lucky to have been able to attend.

And if anyone has insomnia or a vast amount of time on their hands, I'd be happy to share my panel notes. Just shoot me an email.

Upcoming: SXSWi

This week I sat down and took a really good look at my calendar for March. For a girl whose time has been pretty unstructured lately, March is FULL.

Perhaps most important is my trek to Austin for South by Southwest Interactive. I've been going to this conference since 2002 - it's changed quite a bit in that time, from an intimate, transplanted-SF feel to a full-sized widely recognized conference for web and software technology professionals. (Note that I am speaking specifically of the Interactive portion of the conference - the Music and Film portions have been widely recognized and attended for much longer than that!)

I spent some time going over the conference schedule today. Below is my tentative game plan. Items in parentheses are alternate panels that I may attend as crowds and whim of the moment dictate. In general, I thought that the scheduling of panels was far more balanced than it's been in years previous - kudos to the planning team!

I'm posting this partly for my own reference, as evidenced by the room numbers next to the panel names. I also intend to be better about blogging my impressions about the various panels than I have been in previous years. We'll see how that goes.

FRIDAY
2pm
User Generated Content: State of the Union - C
(Core Conversation: the Conference Networking Catalyst - 19B)
3:30
The Ecosystem of News - 12AB
4:30
Book Reading: Career Renegade: How to make a great living doing what you love - Day Stage
5
Screenburn: That Doesn't Suck! (Spore) - C

SATURDAY
10am
Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet - 9
11:30
Curating the Crowd-Sourced World - C
(Not the Same Old Story - Hilton C)
2pm
?
3:30
Kicking Ass with Controlled Metadata - 8
(Connecting Interrelated Design & Dev Workflows - 10)
5
Collaborative Filters: Evolution of Recommendation Engines - B
(Building a Bridge with Barcodes - the QR Code Invasion - Hilton A)

SUNDAY
10am
Version Control: No more save as... - Hilton B
11:30
Design for the Wisdom of Crowds - A
(EA Dead Space: A Deep Media Case Study - 6)
2pm
CSS3: What's Now, What's New, and What's Not? - 6
3:30
What Do I Do... Economy Collapsed? - 9
(Post Standards: Creating Open Source Specs - Hilton C)
5
How Social Networks Are Killing the Revolution - 8

MONDAY
10am
The Invisible Web and Ubiquitous Computing - 9
(Shift Happens: Moving from Words to Pictures - Hilton C)
11:30
Ultimate Showdown of Content Management System Destiny - Hilton B
(The Future of the DVD and Digital Distribution - 12AB)
(What Can We Learn From Games - A)
2pm
Keynote: Virginia Heffernan / James Powderly Interview - A
3:30
Using the New Digital Social Media to Accelerate Sustainability - 8
(You're Living in Your Own Private Branded Entertainment Experience - 6)
5
"You May Also Be Interested in..." - 9
(Evolving Digital Technologies and Profitable Green Building - 8)
(Girl Gaming Goes Mainstream: Cliches, Reality, and Community - 12AB)

TUESDAY
10am
New Threats to New Media: Fair Use On Trial - Hilton B
(Rethinking the Digital Prototype - 6)
11:30
Online Content: Transforming Piracy Into Profit - Hilton B
2pm
Tuesday Keynote: Chris Anderson / Guy Kawasaki Conversation - A
3:30
Policy Trainwreck: How Copyright Law Failed the Digital Age - Hilton B
5
Are Virtual Worlds a Refuge from the Recession? - 5C

Too many channels?

In the car last night, I was composing a blog post in my head about the gorgeous sunset and fog-rainbow that I experienced last night driving over the Santa Cruz mountains. The mood was somewhat jarred by the fact that there was a car on FIRE at the summit - not smoke, actual flames.

And when I got home, instead of blogging about it, I updated my Facebook status.

Instead of blogging my concern about California's water situation and the wish for rain, and my disappointment when it fails to come and my happiness that we're finally getting some this week - that all went into my Twitter and Facebook statuses too.

The only thing I've been using the blog for with any real consistency is for my knitting projects. And then I joined Ravelry. I find I'm using my project notes sections on Ravelry like a mini blog! For example, here is part of my project page for my Calorimetry:

(Click for a bigger image.) You'll see that I made some notes when I started the project, and then made dated updates as I knit the pattern. Excerpt follows:

I’ve been meaning to make one of these for a while. Shockingly, I did the full gauge swatch as indicated and am exactly on. I actually would prefer to be a bit under, so I’m going down a needle size...

Jan 16
Done, except for finding a button for a fastener. I actually went down 2 needle sizes, and while the length ended up right, it’s wider than I’d like. I think I’ll leave it, though - it definitely fits, it’s just more hatlike than I’d anticipated. At some point, I’ll probably knit another and eliminate some of the rows for a more headband-ish look.

Jan 19
Buttons purchased & sewn on. The wood matches just the way I thought it would. Pity the weather is so warm, I have no cause to wear this for now…

There is the relevant information, targeted to those specifically interested (any member of Ravelry who is interested in me, the yarn involved, or the pattern can find this page). And it's not on my blog. Because face it, not very many of my friends knit (and those who do, I encourage to join Ravelry!), and therefore are most likely not interested in the minutia of how I created a given project. They might be interested in the pictures, but those can be found on Flickr.

I can't decide if this is a good thing. My blog is starting to feel a bit obsolete. Reserved for only the things not targeted to a specific (knitting) audience or more than 140 characters long, I find I am not often drawn to make entries.

I find myself wondering if engaging in all the various social media outlets, we are spreading ourselves too thin? I certainly feel like my blogging efforts in this incarnation are nothing like what I was creating in 2001. Part of that is maturity, both of personality and internet savvy, but some of it was that blogging was the only way I had to communicate with the internet world. Now I am flooded with options, and it feels like there are too many channels available to do all of them justice.

End of Saturday

Well, the high tech craft panel was a disappointment. They weren't talking about everyday people crafting - it was four women who were working in fashion design using physical elements of technology (circuits, etc.). It turned into one of those "look I did this awesome thing!" panels - no philosophy of craft and how technology might influence it or anything that I would be interested in. Esin and I left about 20 minutes in. It was disappointing.

We skipped the last panel and hung out in the hall with Kristin and Wes, people watching. That was fun. Then Cuban food for dinner, an abortive attempt to find the 16bit party, and a lovely time with Dinah in the Hilton hotel bar.

Now I am tired. In the second Sunday panel, which is about to start.

Saturday @ SXSW

I have 15 minutes to kill before my next panel, so here's a quick rundown of the day. (Maybe I'll edit later to pick up the later bits.)

* Woke up earlier than intended, so lots of time to get ready, have some breakfast, etc. before heading to the convention center around 15 minutes before registration opened. More people had this same idea than did last year, but oddly enough I ended up standing in the line right next to someone I stood in the same line with last year. Small world, isn't it?

* First panel - Findable Rich Media. Can be summed up: don't be stupid, use language that bots can crawl behind all your pretty flash, and make sure the content is the same in Flash and crawl-able mediums.

* 2nd panel - Contextual Web. It was a quick idea of the concepts to consider while designing for the textual web - all correct and good but nothing new or in depth at all. It was really a very high level overview.

* Lunch with Esin/Wes/VJ @ the Hilton. I was low blood sugar girl, so eating was definitely good, and my sandwich was tasty.

* 3rd panel - Taking Your Web Talent to the Gaming Industry. Just thought it might be interesting to see what they had to say - the game industry is, as someone pointed out, one of the most romanticized places to work. Thought it was great that they solicited direction from the audience interests, and amusing when that led to, "If you aren't interested in A, B, or C, why are you here?" The panel was a bit unbalanced - and I found some of it kind of tedious. Ended up playing Chain Factor to amuse myself - O the irony!

* Roamed the halls before the high tech craft panel, and found the room by the girl with the wristwarmers knitting in the hall. Heh. Was interviewed by someone for a radio program about what sort of craft did I do, and how did I think technology could be incorporated into it? She really wanted to talk about incorporating actual physical technology into craft, but I think the strongest connection for me personally is the craft communities that interact via the web.

* 4th panel - High Tech Craft.

--= That's where I am for now! The panel should start in just a few minutes. =--

At SXSW! Knitting!

So I've made it to SXSW - sitting in the conference center with Esin and Wes, franticly working on the laptop cozy. Was hoping to be done by now. Am not. See?

Now must run to panel.

Macbook Pro did not automatically adjust time to new timezone - says it is 7:51am.

*stabs self*

So I was going to wipe my mother's computer, which is a virus-ridden piece of crap, so slow as to be almost unusable.

I can't get the files off it. Seriously. It refuses to recognize either of my memory sticks ("the location cannot be found"), crashes when trying to upload to internet sources, and I couldn't even get Ad Aware to run without hanging (98 infections found). I've been working on it off and on for days, and today have spent almost 3 hours pounding at it.

At this point, rather than divest more of my time and anguish into the thing, I think we should BUY A NEW ONE. This machine was a piece of crap to begin with - now it's an old, virus-infested, glacially moving piece of crap. With my parents pictures and TurboTax data on it.

Contemplating driving to Fry's right now.

Unleashing my Inner Luddite

Loki was just making window-friends with the stray kitten who lives in the shed, but she ran away when I came to the window. I have to say, the view from my desk is gorgeous -- full of lemon trees, if not kittens. Hello green! Hello sky!

Everything on the non-technical front is going great. However, there have definitely been problems on the technical side - have to work out the whole phone/internet thing ASAP.

But if I'm looking to get away from it all? This is paradise.