Twitter / @CivilWarwp/Tweeting the Civil War

Twitter / @CivilWarwp/Tweeting the Civil War:

The Washington Post is tweeting the Civil War, using the words of contemporary observers. It looks like you can get tweets by following the discussion or simply navigate to the linked page to read these short messages.

A New Year and a Look Back

It has been a little over a year since my last real blog posting, and I thought I would summarize the last year in my (and my family's) life. Sort of a New Years Letter, if you will.

Liam achieved the first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, which is no mean accomplishment. But he didn't stop there. He also earned his Eagle rank in Boy Scouts with time to spare before he turned 18. He even completed two additional merit badges during his last week as a youth member of the BSA. Now that he is 18, he is an adult leader in the troop and finishing his senior year in high school. He has been active in FFA and has joined the wrestling team. His plans for the coming year vacillate between college, the military, or a job. It is hard to realize that he is now a man, but he has begun well.

Siusan continues to grow research corn for the USDA in Columbia, and will be making her winter nursery trip in January, this time to Puerto Rico. A potential destination was Mexico, but that fell through for a variety of reasons. She continues her volunteer work with the Tree Keepers and the Wild Ones (a native plant society). She has given programs for the Cub Scouts and guided several Boy Scouts in various science-related merit badges.

I have continued to work with th Research Support Computing group at the University of Missouri and have had the pleasure of working with good colleagues. They actually pay me for doing what I enjoy. The travel budget was one of the first things to be slashed locally, but I really don't miss it too much. We haven't gotten a raise in several years. but we have jobs. I remain active with the Boy Scouts, although my outdoor involvement has been inhibited by health factors

We all had a shock last month when my father died on December 11th. He was 81, but still making plans for travel to see his scattered children. He sang a solo in church on the previous Sunday, was at choir practice Wednesday, picked up his AAA Triptik that week and was preparing to drive with his granddaughter to the East Coast to visit my brother and his family, as well as visiting another brother on their way back. The entire Hancock family, including grandchildren descended on Houston and met up with my mother's sister's family and together we celebrated my dad's life. This was particularly rough me, as it was on all of us, partly because Dad was the last of his generation of Hancocks. Houston has been, for the past several year, a central point that we could all go to. Now that that is no longer the case. We are all going to try and keep in touch.

I stayed behind for a few days and help my siblings with the sorting of of Dad's effects. I was initially named executor in Dad's will (as well as being a contingent executor in Mom's will). All four of us siblings met with a lawyer to begin the process of carrying out the will and I ended up declining the serve as executor, and we all settled on my sister, who actually lives in Houston, and who has willingly taken over the task of not only executing Dad's will, but my mother's as well. Both Mom and Dad had things organized, and the paper trail, while not indexed, seems to be complete and in one place.

Dad was entitled to a flag for his coffin, and the funeral director said that the National Cemetery in Houston would probably send two soldiers to serve as an honor guard. As we arrived at the cemetery for the interment, the director informed us that a full honor guard had been sent to serve as pall bearers and to provide the customary military honors. We were told this was unusual, but apparently some entries on his discharge papers caught their eye, not the least of which was that he was awarded the Legion of Merit toward the end of his active service. Three volleys were fired by four riflemen, and Taps was played. Military honors at a funeral are always a moving experience, but to see it in this situation was extremely emotional.

As we went through his papers we found a folder with his award citations dating back to 1953 in Korea, when I was not even walking. His first Army Commendation Medal citation told us more in one short paragraph about Dad's service in Korea than he ever told us.

On a personal note, I have been dealing with health issues for the past 5 years. Initially it was a persistent infection in my left foot. Several hospitalizations, surgeries, and three courses of IV antibiotics failed to clear up the infection (which was in the bone, not the soft tissue). I ended up losing the little toe off my left foot, and the infection cleared up and has not returned. During all this time my hemoglobin dropped to a point where I was getting epogen injections as well as IV iron infusions. My kidney function dropped to the point where I had to begin dialysis in early December. The good news is that I feel MUCH better now. I am no longer always cold, and people who know me have noted that I am a lot more peppy than before. I still have anemia, but alt least I can function better. I hope to be able to resume an outdoor lifestyle in 2011

I do not intend to turn this into a medical blog, but I just wanted to let people know some of what has been affecting my life over the last year and a half.

My resolution for this New Year is to resume regular blogging.

PC(USA) - Presbyterian News Service - Cyberspace bloggers get 10 commandments

PC(USA) - Presbyterian News Service - Cyberspace bloggers get 10 commandments:

"LONDON — Christian Internet bloggers have received 10 commandments to help them avoid the danger of writing in haste what they might later regret at leisure.

Unlike the Ten Commandments of the Bible, the cyberspace injunctions have not been written on tablets of stone but on the Web site of Britain’s Evangelical Alliance.

Bloggers — writers of Internet diary and comment pages — are told not to murder someone else’s reputation, or steal their content. Nor should they give false testimony against another, commit adultery in their mind, or make an idol of their blog. ..."

Something to keep in mind, especially considering how easy it is to publish information these days. For better or for worse, we have an effect on the debates going on around us, and as Christians we have an even greater responsibility to, as we Presbyterians put it, "exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world."

Ten Blogging Commandments is the name of the original article, and can be found by following the link. There is much more in the original article, and it worth considering.

Busted! By My Own Mother....

Mea culpa.

I got a call on my cell phone today from my mother in Houston wanting to know if I was OK. It seems like she noticed a drop-off in blogging over the past week and she was concerned that I was feeling under the weather.

I assured her that I was feeling just fine, and that I really didn't have much to say.

Her response: "That doesn't seem to stop other bloggers from blogging..."

Actually, I started a posting a few days ago and deleted it before I hit the "publish" button. It concerned a 17 year old girl who was, in turn, accused of having a child 4 months ago and having her mother claim it as her own. When that was shown to be demonstrably false, it then turned out that she was, indeed, 5 months pregnant, and the press had a field day. A 17 year old girl who had been facing the consequences of her choices in the context of a loving family and small community was now a nationwide object of scorn and ridicule. This speaks most eloquently regarding the character of those in the media and political realm who feel a young girl is expendable when there is an election to be won. And people wonder why I dread years evenly divisible by 4....

OK. I got that off my chest.

And I hope this is the last time I stick my nose into the stench of politics.

Annual Observances

Three years ago (on August 12, 2005) I started this blog. This will be the 757th post over those three years. So much for trying to do one posting a day....

It has been fun, and I have made many new friends in a virtual sort of way as well as reforged connections with people I knew 25-30 years ago, who are also blogging. To me that has been the most rewarding aspect of blogging.

Today is also my birthday. Since I an a computer system administrator, I do a lot of work using base 16, so my age in that system is 38. Determining my age in base 10 is left as an exercise for the reader....

Blogger Implements delayed posting

Or not...

If the delayed posting worked, then this will have a time stamp of 5:00pm.

[UPDATE] Finally! Blogger has implemented delayed posting (you have to go to draft.blogger.com to try it out). This has been on my wish list for some time.

Net Neutrality Divides Christian, Conservative Groups | Liveblog | Christianity Today

Net Neutrality Divides Christian, Conservative Groups | Liveblog | Christianity Today:

"For people who frequent YouTube, Facebook, and Google, net neutrality is a hot topic. For Christian and conservative groups, it became a divisive topic today.

While the Christian Coalition supports net neutrality, 12 politically conservative and Christian conservative groups today began lobbying against net neutrality, according to U.S. News & World Report."

Sarah Pulliam summarizes the Christian responses to this important issue. Net Neutrality is a response to the idea that internet service providers could partition the internet into premium and basic service levels, based on amount paid. This unites people from all points in the political and social spectrum in the common goal of ensuring that all information providers (news, bloggers, universities, organizations, etc.) would have equal access to the internet.

The main objection some groups have to this is that pornography would be unfettered along with most other content. Of course, we already have that. The question is whose responsibility it is to control access to objectionable content. Public schools and libraries often filter content on their networks. Parents can install software that does similar filtering.

Blocking content at the ISP level would possible, but not a particularly smart thing to do. Who will decide? Will Democrat's blogs be filtered out while Republican's blogs pass through unfettered? Will evangelical web sites be sent to the slow track while more liberal church web sites run at maximum speed? There is much opportunity for mischief here, and trusting the ISPs (or even the government) to make such decisions is not necessarily prudent.

The average person has unprecedented access to information of all kinds -- sometimes "too much information." The proliferation of Presbyterian blogs, nearly all of which are independent of PC(USA) control, have provided members in the pews access to information that, 10 years ago, might take many weeks to propagate to the congregations, if at all.

Of course, it really isn't about politics, religion or morality -- it is, at its core, about money. We have been using the Web for information, email, buying stuff from Amazon, and so forth for many years.

All during this time companies have been looking for ways to put a meter on the network, and establish a "pay-as-you-go" financial model (above and beyond the basic cost to have broadband in the home). That, in and of itself, should cause people to think hard about what freedoms they are willing to give up.

My Readability Level

I saw that Mike Kruse's blog was at a High School reading level, so I tried mine, using the same site.

This surprises me, as Mike's writing is quite rich in content.




I suppose the take-home lesson is that reading level and content are two different things.

The church is flat

The church is flat:

"The world has changed. The old rules are out.

It was bad enough when the World Wide Web made it possible for the voices of peoples long silenced to broadcast their ideas – crazy and eccentric as many of them are – without having to raise thousands of dollars to self-publish or to convince an editor-publisher to invest the capital to do so. Standards of grammar and communication ethics went out the window.

Now it’s worse. Web 2.0, the second generation of Web development, has turned every computer into a publishing house, an editorial department, a photography studio, and a movement rabble-rouser.

The world really is flat, as Thomas Friedman proclaimed in his book by that title."

It's not that bad, Mr. Haberer -- There will always be a place for good editors, and you are among the best.

We have a diversity of voices in our denomination, but it hasn't been that long since most voices were effectively silenced; not through a concerted effort to stifle such voices, but simply because there was no way to get the word out effectively. Word trickled out slowly from General Assembly, and when the mainstream press reported it, it was often misleading. It was not unusual to hear what actually went on at a given GA weeks after the fact.

In the early 1990's email lists and web sites began to provide information as it happened. Still, though, the average person could only read email or navigate to a web site for information provided by others.

The 21st century has seen an explosion of technology that has empowered just about anyone with a laptop and an internet connection to publish views and reactions to what is going on in their local churches, and all the way up the hierarchy to Louisville.

Not all voices are equally useful. I read blogs and web sites on the right and the left of the PC(USA)that leave me wondering just what people are thinking of, when they use ridicule and hate speech against their fellow Christians. Thankfully there are only a very small number of such sites.

Most of the "ordinary" people provide useful perspectives and I value them. Check the sidebar for links to blogs that I try to read on a regular basis, both Presbyterian and other Christian offerings.

One thing that Jack Haberer did not touch on in his article today is the amazing access that people all over the country are able to get during the General Assembly. With streaming video and Les (the business tracking software) people all over the world can see what happens in real time. The PC(USA) deserves a great deal of praise for its providing the means for people in their communities to see how bills and overtures become church policy. It may be a little like watching sausage being made, but shining a light on the process really helps.

Publishers See a Way to Track Their Content Across the Net - New York Times

Publishers See a Way to Track Their Content Across the Net - New York Times:

"Copyrighted work like a news article or a picture can hop between Web sites as easily as a cut-and-paste command. But more than ever, as that material finds new audiences, the original sources might not get the direct financial benefit — in fact, they might have little idea where their work has spread.

A young company called Attributor says it has an answer, and a number of big publishers of copyrighted material say Attributor just might be right.

The company has developed software that identifies an electronic “fingerprint” for a particular piece of material — an article, a picture, a video. Then it hunts down any place across the Web where a significant chunk of that work has been copied, with or without permission.

When the use is unauthorized, Attributor’s software can automatically send a message to the site’s operators, demanding a link back to the original publisher’s site, a share of revenue from any ads on the page, or a halt to the copying."

This was in today's online version of the New York Times and raises some interesting questions about how bloggers employ material on their sites.

First of all, the Fair Use Doctrine protects bloggers, journalists, teachers, and a variety of other users when they quote portions on another's work, which can consist of writing, sound recordings, or images. The relevant portion of Title 17 of the US Code, as provided by Cornell University Law School's web site reads as follows:

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

How Current is This?

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

[web links were preserved, and go back to Cornell Law School's web site. In addition, I reformatted the bullet points, which had been trashed on copying and pasting]

According to the Wikipedia article on Fair Use, a general rule is that a quotation of 400 words or less is "fair use". But all this is subject to legal interpretation. Obviously quoting 400 words from a 400 word essay would be wholesale copying. Beyond that obvious case, it depends on which 400 words you extract.

We bloggers tend do a lot of quoting, and most of us ensure that sources are properly acknowledged and that links are provided to the original source. Personally, I strive to have more of my own commentary than quotations, but occasionally I will link to an article without comment. After all, my blog is primarily about my feelings, perspectives, and opinions. If you want a news aggregator, there are plenty of those around.

We'll see if this portends a crackdown on pesky bloggers, but I rather doubt it. Many newspapers, including the Washington Post and my hometown newspaper, the Columbia Tribune, link to bloggers who have commented on particular articles.

It's my Blogiversary!

Well, sort of.

I set up the blog on August 12, 2005, but my first serious posting was August 14th, 2005.

It's been a fun trip, and I look forward to continuing the journey.

Time for blogosphere to get real about church and state | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Time for blogosphere to get real about church and state | Tech news blog - CNET News.com:

"As they are wont to say back where I grew up, Chas Edwards is a stand-up guy. Full disclosure: Chas is a former CNET colleague who left the company more than a year ago to become the publisher of Federated Media, which has become ground zero in the storm over 'conversational media.'

So it is that Chas has now published his thoughts on the affair under the heading 'Does relevant advertising mean selling out?'

But first a brief recap: On Friday, Valleywag reported about a site tied to a Microsoft ad campaign where several online publishers and venture capitalists lent their support to Microsoft's 'People-Ready' advertising slogan...."

Well, this brief excerpt should make it clear that this is not really about the First Amendment. But is is a good metaphor for the somewhat cozy relationship between the computer companies and the writers and users who evangelize for them. Of course it has nothing to do with the extended loans of equipment that keep appearing on their front porches. ...

I have been a reader of computer trade and hobbyist magazines for nearly 30 years, and this is something that has been known for most of that time. Jerry Pournelle, who wrote for Byte Magazine, occasionally found it advisable to remind his readers that he did get the use of a lot of cutting edge merchandise (like those new-fangled 5 megabyte hard drives, and 5 1/4 inch floppies that were starting to supplant the 8 inch floppies).

Bloggers need to be scrupulous about disclosure, especially when it may call their objectivity into question.

For the record, no computer or software company has ever offered me hardware or software. Darn it.

Politicians weigh renewal of Net access tax ban | CNET News.com

Politicians weigh renewal of Net access tax ban | CNET News.com:

"WASHINGTON--With only months left on a moratorium restricting state governments from taxing Internet access, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday began a debate over whether the ban should be made permanent or allowed to lapse.

At issue is the scheduled expiration on November 1 of a law, initially enacted in 1998, that says local governments generally cannot tax Internet access, including DSL (digital subscriber line), cable modem and BlackBerry-type wireless transmission services. The law also prohibits governments from taxing items sold online in a different manner than those sold at brick-and-mortar stores, but it does not deal with sales taxes on online shopping."

Warning -- politicians involved.

This is a recurring issue, and one that I am of two minds about.

I remember the initial arguments that this would help the Internet get on its feet. Well, that has happened, and the Internet is doing right well.

Of course, legislatures are always looking for ways to keep the meter running, and I have little sympathy with that in view of the documented waste in our state government.

The issue of sales taxes is addressed by existing state laws requiring sales taxes to be paid on items bought out-of-state and shipped to your address. We all do that, right?

How would internet access be taxed? The existence of a line? Bandwidth capability of the line? Actual bandwidth used?

Another issue that an informed person should be aware of is Net Neutrality, which has been a bit of hot potato for a year or so.

Oh well. Something to look forward to in the Fall.

U.S. senator: It's time to ban Wikipedia in schools, libraries - Computerworld Blogs

U.S. senator: It's time to ban Wikipedia in schools, libraries - Computerworld Blogs

by Preston Gralla

"Here's the newest from Sen. Ted Stevens, the man who described the Internet as a series of tubes: It's time for the federal government to ban access to Wikipedia, MySpace, and social networking sites from schools and libraries.

Early in January, Stevens introduced Senate bill 49, which among other things, would require that any school or library that gets federal Internet subsidies would have to block access to interactive Web sites, including social networking sites, and possibly blogs as well. It appears that the definition of those sites is so vague that it could include sites such as Wikipedia, according to commentators. It would certainly ban MySpace. ..."

Sigh....

Technorati tags: blogging, technology

A Cool Firefox Extension

When Blogger started up its beta version, one of the things that it broke was the ability to use "XBlog This!", which allowed you to highlight a paragraph or two from an article and post a blog entry on it. Considering the other features of the new version of Blogger (which this week officially emerged from beta status) I thought that was an acceptable price to pay.

When coupled with Firefox 2.0 (with its on-the-fly spell checker), I thought I had a pretty good combination. One of the features of Firefox is its ability to use plugins and extensions. One such extension is the Performancing for Firefox utility with provides a WYSIWIG editor (quite similar to the blogger editor) in a split screen that allows you to cut and paste from a web page to the editor. I have been using this for a few days now, and I like most of what I see.

One thing that they could do better is not to insert so many line feeds between paragraphs. In this sense, it is not fully WYSIWIG, as I tend to edit it again with the blogger editor to format it the way I want to see it. It would also help if it supported Blogger's labeling facility. Again, if I want labels I go back into the blogger editor and add them.

Whether this will prove to be as convenient and efficient as the "XBlog This!" button I grew to depend on remains to be seen, but so far the features of Performancing for Firefox outweigh its shortcomings.

powered by performancing firefox

CNN: Catholic cardinal tries his hand at podcasting

Catholic cardinal tries his hand at podcasting:

"BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley is
going high-tech. He already has his own blog, now he plans to start
podcasting to the masses, beginning with downloadable Christmas
messages. ..."

Cardinal Seán' Blog is fairly well laid out, chatty, pastoral, and at present there seems to be about one posting every week -- but it is interesting thing to see how a cardinal/archbishop of the Catholic Church is able to use blogging as a way of communicating with the people of his archdiocese.

The CNN article points out that Cardinal O'Malley, being a member of an order that requires vows of poverty, is not one whom one might expect to embrace newer technology. It is about communication, though, and the Archdiocese of Boston is looking toward using the internet to enhance their communications.

His first podcast will be available following the Christmas Eve service.

powered by performancing firefox

Grace and the Angler

Coffee Groundz in Sugarland, Texas was the venue for a pleasurable meeting between Quotidian Grace, her husband El Jefe, and Mr and Mrs Reformed Angler. (I know, anybody who pays attention knows our real names, but we'll go with the blogging names).

QG and El Jefe had flown in from Florida about noon, so we set the rendezvous for 4:00 PM in Sugarland. It was a simple drive from my parents and we converged on the coffee shop within minutes of each other.

Our conversation ranged widely on topics as diverse as sports, renaissance festivals, our respective families and, of course, the PC(USA). One regret is that we never touched on one of El Jefe's and my mutual interests -- the Civil War -- but I hope that if we meet again we can remedy that.

I have now met three Presbybloggers -- Mike Kruse, whom I have known for over 20 years; Beau Weston, whom I met a few years ago before either of us were blogging; and Quotidian Grace, who is the first blogger I have met first through blogging activities. It is certainly a pleasure to be in such company.

CNET: Rights group names 'Enemies of the Internet'

CNET: Rights group names 'Enemies of the Internet':

"Civil liberties group Reporters Without Borders has released its annual list of "Enemies of the Internet"--regimes the group claims restrict freedom of expression online. ..."

This list includes many of the usual suspects, and some surprises. For example, Libya, an obvious suspect and a member of this list for several years, was taken off this year since no apparent censorship is currently taking place and and "cyberdissidents" are not being jailed. Muammar Gaddafi is still viewed with some suspicion, and will, no doubt, be watched closely.

Other issues of concern are the relationships between hardware manufacturers and information providers. Cisco routers, which are a key element in the world's internet infrastructure, is also the provider of the firewall that walls off China from the rest of the world. Yahoo! and Google both have made accommodations to China, and Yahoo! in particular provided email records to authorities that resulted in a ten year prison sentence for a Chinese journalist.

Reporters Without Borders deals with press freedom issues worldwide, and includes bloggers in their concern. They recently had a 24 hour vote on the "Black Holes of the Web" which shows in stark graphics where the major problems are:



Clicking the image will take you to the original site, which will probably be around for a few days.