It's time to pay attention to your attention
Jim Cuene points out that: "Your Attention is What You do On the Web," and that, he concludes is something valuable that you own and something for which you should be compensated.

In his post, he explains it like this:

"Think about, for example, the OPML file that contains your RSS feeds. Or, the list of tags you've generated at Delicio.us or Flickr. Or, your My.Yahoo page preferences. Or, your Google search history. Or, the emails you get in Gmail. Or, the list of recent MS Office documents you created on your desktop. You're leaving tracks all over the internet, sometimes intentionally (the sites you comment on, the ratings you give in Amazon), sometimes unintentionally (the headlines you click on CNN.com). All those tracks are evidence of your interests, what you are paying attention to."

This whole subject of the value of your attention has been under discussion for about the last year and is likely to be so for the coming year. However the thing that strikes me as interesting or significant is the thought that it is YOUR attention and that you should be bartering it rather than giving it away, as most of us are now.

Here are a couple of other links that relate to the subject that I found interesting:

AttentionTrust.org Explained Better

From that link comes this quote:

"As we use the web, we reveal lots of information about ourselves by what we pay attention to. Imagine if all of that information could be stored in a nice neat little xml file. And when we travel around the web, we can optionally share it with websites or other people. We can make them pay for it, lease it, scream for it "show me the money", barter for it, whatever."

And from August 20, 2004 here's a Podcast on the subject by the Gilmor Gang that is a little over one hour in length.

I find all of this interesting stuff and an example of how the rules are changing because of our increasingly connected and documented life in this new century.
- posted by Perry @ 10:06 AM 0 comments

 
The latest photo of me
When I went over for Sunday dinner with Mike and Cheryl, he took this photo of me and just this morning he uploaded it to his Flickr site. I liked it a lot, so I thought I'd set aside all false modesty and post it here. This was taken on September 11, 2005.

- posted by Perry @ 9:11 AM 4 comments

 
Overwhelmed? Join the club
This article, The Upgraded Digital Divide: Are We Developing New Technologies Faster than Consumers Can Use Them? from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania says: "Complexity among consumer technology products has never been greater -- a good thing if the complexity means product improvement. But Wharton experts say new bells and whistles pose challenges to businesses and consumers alike. Complexity -- along with choice -- can have a big impact on how firms make and market new and improved gizmos, and on the decision processes of the people expected to buy them."
- posted by Perry @ 9:30 AM 0 comments

 
Seventy Two Days
What began as a nothing-better-to-do fill-in during my cable outage back in July has now continued for seventy two consecutive days without interruption. I've just come back from my morning walk around the neighborhood. I'm surprised that I haven't encountered heavy rains or some other weather phenomenon that would interfere with my walk, but I haven't. Perhaps it's because of the time of the year when this bit of exercise has occurred. The autumn and winter will be more of a weather challenge, I'm sure.

Although I've continued to exercise, I'll allowed my blogging to fall off during the last couple of weeks. In part that is accidental and in part it is intentional. I have some things brewing that I don't want to talk about until they are complete. Talking about what has already happened is always a safer strategy than talking about what is going to happen. When I have more to report, you'll hear it first right here. Stay tuned.
- posted by Perry @ 8:04 AM 0 comments

 
New Google Search Engine Boosts 'Blogging'
Yahoo! News reports: "A new Google Inc. specialty search engine sifts through the Internet's millions of frequently updated personal journals, a long-anticipated development expected to help propel 'blogging' into the cultural mainstream.

The new tool, unveiled Wednesday at http://blogsearch.google.com, focuses exclusively on the material contained in the journals known as Web logs, or 'blogs.'"
- posted by Perry @ 7:25 PM 0 comments

 
Social Security application filed
This morning I went for my appointment to file for Social Security at 10:30 am as scheduled, and the application process was relatively painless and even efficient. I had all the required documentation. I was called for my interview at about 10:40 am and by 11:10 am it was done. I should receive my first Social Security check the second week in October.
- posted by Perry @ 12:00 AM 1 comments

 
Blogging's uses and shortcomings
The other day I had an email from my friend, Stan Herman, in which he asked me to give him my current take on blogging's "uses and shortcomings." He is thinking about starting to blog. Although I wrote him a response, his question has caused me to think about why I blog and what possible value there is in it. So I thought I'd use his question as a reason to think aloud about what I think about blogging after having done it now for over 3 years.

Blogging is first and foremost an egotistical activity. Anyone who posts his thoughts on the Internet for the whole world to read, if they should choose, has to be a bit audacious. One of the quotes in my tagline files says, "An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations." -- Charles de Montesquieu. I suppose the same could be said of a blogger. But as with books, blogs are just on the menu, one of billions of websites, that a surfer can choose to read or not read as he or she sees fit.

So I write, not for the reader so much, as for myself. And I like the discipline of attempting to say what I say in an intelligible manner. For almost as long as I can remember I have written for my own benefit as a way of sorting out what I think or how I feel. Someone once referred to it as bibliotherapy, I think. It's like lying on a couch and pouring out your soul to a therapist, except that there is no therapist there to hear you. But I have kept journals that were handwritten and then once I acquired a computer, I have kept individual text files in which I merely wrote down my thoughts, a diary of sorts, of the paths down which I strolled mentally. Occasionally I go back and read what I have written, but I don't spend much time doing that. Mostly I write to get things out, not to have them for posterity.

One of the uses of blogging, for Stan's benefit and for anyone else who may have an interest, is that it gives you a way of publishing what you have written instantly. No waiting for an editor's approval. No soliciting the input of collaborators. No waiting for the publication of the finished product. As such, of course, blogs suffer from one person's idea of what is acceptable and lose the benefits that most books have where there is an editorial board or team that keeps the author on the straight and narrow. So immediacy is one of the primary benefits of blogging.

And when they are done well, blogs provide one's immediate reaction to things that are happening in his life or in the world as he sees it. Usually for me that is about technological things that I notice or find interesting. Others, of course, comment on the political landscape, and though I have my own private thoughts about those things I choose not to participate in that discussion. Most of the blogs that have high visibility though are those that become a part of the "news" of the day by making such comments. That's just not a part of what I want to do, even if I could.

By way of example, one of the things that I have been playing with this morning is a set of tools on Flickr called Flickr Toys that permit one to create some interesting things like magazine covers, calendars, mosaics and slideshows of images that he has posted to Flickr. Here's an example of one I created this morning. And this example illustrates that I'm more into proving that I can do it than because I have a use for it. Like the digital photography I post on Flickr, I don't think of myself as a great writer here at my blog any more than I think of myself as a really good photographer. I do these things because I enjoy doing them, and for no other reason really.

So I use blogging and posting my digital photographs as a way of sharing what I do with my time with those who might choose to pay attention. When I learn that someone has chosen to pay attention, I am usually surprised ... and pleased, I must add, but I don't do it to see how many people I can draw to my site.

I also use this site to alert people to things I think they may need to know, such as in this post recently. And for those who rely on my "support" I will occasionally alert them to such posts, as I did recently about that post for my friend Paul Moor. So instead of sending a widely-broadcast email and imposing my messages on my friends, as I used to do when I first discovered that I could send an email to everyone on my contact list, I post instead to my blog and if they want to read it, they can. If they don't, then I haven't loaded down their inbox with things in which they have no interest.

As to blogging's shortcomings, I suppose there are many. One is, as I have said, that they are the product of one individual's point of view and aren't edited. However, perhaps the biggest shortcoming is that they are not a source of revenue, as many who come to them hope they will be. Oh, I know there are ad revenue schemes that one could employ, but I don't choose to participate in those either. I don't expect to become rich by blogging, so I am not disappointed when there is no compensation. My blog is a labor of love for me.

Another shortcoming of blogging is that, if you choose to allow comments, you occasionally have to deal with people posting comments that may be hurtful or offensive to some other readers. I've had to deal with that occasionally, and for a time I turned off comments because of it. Then I decided it would be easier to simply delete those comments that I find unacceptable for whatever reason I see them as such. Fortunately, I haven't been beset as some have by what is called "comment spam." However, now that I mention it, I suppose I may have to deal with it at some point in the future. Others have, so why should I be spared? But that's a bridge I'll cross when I come to it.

Fortunately for me blogging has been primarily a joyous experience. It gives me a way to post information on the Internet easily and for those few friends who choose to read my blog, it provides them a way of keeping up with what is going on in my life. I don't expect a lot from blogging and therefore I am seldom disappointed by it. I like having a place where people can go and find out what old Perry is saying these days. So that's why I blog and why I am likely to continue to do so as long as I have the ability.
- posted by Perry @ 11:40 AM 0 comments

 
Yahoo IM users get more than they bargained for ...
Read this warning from CNET News.com: "If you're one of the tens of millions of Yahoo users asked to upgrade your instant-messaging software this week, be on your toes: The update can open the door to unwanted PC houseguests--and setting changes--by default."

Although this kind of marketing strategy is becoming increasingly common, I recommend that you either not install the upgrade or if you insist on installing it, at least do a custom install and elect not to have the more objectionable features installed on your computer.
- posted by Perry @ 7:53 AM 0 comments

 
Update on my exercise regimen
For those of you who are interested, I have continued my morning routine of walking around the neighborhood since July 13th without interruption. I have just returned from today's morning walk, and since I retired recently my schedule has become a bit more predictable and regular. I have my radio set to come on at 6:00 am and after the usual required first activities of the day, I begin my walk by about 6:15 am each day. That means when I begin the walk it is still dark. As I walk, dawn begins to break and with each step more light is available to me. I have always enjoyed seeing the sun rise, so I really enjoy this time and this routine.
- posted by Perry @ 6:55 AM 0 comments

 
Perry's Podcast #2
After much delay, Perry's Podcast #2 is now available for you to hear. Click on this link to listen.

In this podcast, Juan Gutierrez, who brought me to Knoxville in 1979, and I talk for about 45 minutes about his activities since he left Vernine and Associates in 1988 and his plans for the immediate and the long-term future. This podcast was recorded on September 1, 2005, but because of my problems in being connected to the Internet over the last several days, I've only now been able to get this podcast uploaded to BigFeeder.com.

As always, if you have feedback, you can write me at talktoperry (at) gmail.com. You are also welcome to send me an audio file (mp3) with your comments, and I may be able to use them in a future podcast.
- posted by Perry @ 5:38 AM 0 comments

 
Connection restored
Today I took my old RCA modem back to Comcast and exchanged it for a new one, a Terayon modem, and when I came home and installed it using the installation software, it would not connect. So I called the tech support line and was told that it had to be provisioned before I would be able to use it. We attempted to do that via their standard process, but that didn't work. Therefore I had to wait for the issue to be escalated and provisioned remotely. I left the modem on and walked away to watch the football game.

I have just come back to test to see whether it had been done, and to my surprise and delight, it had. I'm now back to being connected again, I believe.
- posted by Perry @ 6:56 PM 0 comments

 
Flaky Internet Connection
Since Thursday, the 1st, my connection to the Internet (Comcast) has been erratic. It appears that activities that don't place too much demand on the connection usually work, but if I call upon the service to do something that places a sustained load on the system, then the connection drops for a minute or two and then reconnects after "getting its breath." Therefore I've been unable to upload the podcast that Juan Gutierrez and I did on Thursday, though I've tried at least 10 times to do so, and I can't sustain a conversation with Skype because of the connection dropping. Even surfing to different web sites causes the connection to drop. Since I have my email program set to check for new mail every 10 minutes and since it only checks 3 accounts, that doesn't seem to cause the connection to drop but anything that requires sustained use does. In fact, I'm not sure this post will be successfully sent to Blogger, but I'll soon find out.
- posted by Perry @ 7:47 AM 1 comments