Sayonara Blogger. Hello, WordPress
I've been blogging here on Blogger for the past 3 and a half years. Now it's time to move on.

Why? Simply because I need more tools than Blogger provides.

Xeni Jardin, in an article on Wired News from October 27, 2005 comments that "When you invite the whole world to your party, inevitably someone pees in the beer." And to a degree that is what has happened here at this blog.

One unwelcome reader has insisted on posting comments that disparage and attack another reader often enough that I had to turn off anonymous posting, which in my opinion has diminished what I hoped to achieve with this blog. It restricted the comments on my posts to those who had Blogger accounts, and even though there are a lot of people who have Blogger accounts, many of my readers don't. And they aren't willing to create a Blogger account just to post a comment. I don't blame them.

What I needed was a blogging tool that permitted me to "moderate" comments before they become visible on the blog, so I went in search of a tool that gave me that ability. Blogger doesn't.

I found WordPress. And now I have moved my blogging to a new location. If you are a loyal reader, then please update your bookmarks to that location. I don't intend to delete this blog, because I may wish to refer back to it in the future, but this will be my last post here.

In the event that the folks at Blogger want some comments in a kind of exit interview, then I'd be happy to tell them that, for the most part, I have enjoyed the experience of using Blogger. It gave me the ability to get into blogging easily and to learn how to do it. I obviously enjoyed the exercise since I've been here for as long as I have. But, since moderation isn't possible here, it is no longer acceptable to me to use this service. Also since the public API for blogger makes it so easy for splogs to abound and since the reputation of Blogger has suffered so much from that, I'd just prefer to have my blog on a different, more respected service. And yes, I implemented the captcha test to prevent the splogging of my blog, but still I can't moderate comments of insensitive and cruel humans, who can circumvent the captcha system, and that is something I feel is necessary.

Thanks to those of you who have visited me here. You are welcome to migrate with me to the new location, if you wish, and if not, I appreciate your having been a part of the experience with me here.

So it's now, Sayonara Blogger. Hello, WordPress.
- posted by Perry @ 9:30 AM

 
Bowen's Alaskan salmon fishing trip.

In September of this year, Bowen Baxter (my cousin), made a trip that he related this way.

My son, Chuck, who lives in Newnan, GA and is a builder has a rather wealthy client and friend who happens to own a majority interest in a fishing lodge on Kodiak Island, Alaska. He offered Chuck three 3 day reservations at the Lodge and Chuck took my son-in-law, Joe Landrum and I with him. It was a great trip. We flew into Anchorage where Chuck's friend has a Condominium and an SUV. We were able to spend most of the day touring in and around Anchorage.

The next day we flew a small plane to Kodiak City where we boarded a still smaller plane for the flight to our destination, Old Harbor, AK where the Lodge is located. The only access to Old Harbor is by small plane or a one-and-a half hour boat trip. Old Harbor has a small gravel air strip, six miles of unpaved roads and a population of approximately 260 people, many of which are Alutiq Indians.

The fishing was great and the scenery magnificent. I was so taken with the scenery that I took 160 snapshots knowing that for me this was a once in my lifetime experience.

When I asked for more detail, he sent along this information from the Kodiak Sportsman's Lodge promotional sheet.

Kodiak Sportsman's Lodge in Old Harbor, Alaska is approximately 60 miles south of Kodiak City nestled on the protected shores of Kodiak Island on the Sitkalidak Straits. It is within the boundaries of the Kodiak National wildlife refuge and the Kodiak National Maritime refuge. Kodiak's tallest mountains provide a stunning backdrop to the village of Old Harbor, a small native village of 200 people. The native village has a fascinating history of Aluttiiq, Russian and Scandinavian influences. Sitkalidak Island sits across the strait from the Lodge and we fish and we fish within the strait. The north strait has 10 miles of fishing and the south strait has 12 miles of fishing. We never have to run into open seas and we rarely run more than 20 minutes before we drop lines. This allows us to fish in a comfortable setting.
- posted by Perry @ 5:54 PM 0 comments

 
David Steele's new blog
David Steele, a long-time friend and former client (from my consulting days), has decided to take the plunge and start a blog. He's at the very beginning of his efforts, but I like the name he has conceived of for himself -- the "heartland storyteller." Here's the link to his blog, spelled out in case you want to make note of it, http://heartlandstoryteller.blogspot.com/.

Good luck, Dave. I'm looking forward to your first post and all the ones that follow. Have fun.
- posted by Perry @ 10:06 AM 2 comments

 
Link Sharing at CEOExpress
Last night I received an email from Patricia Pomerleau who is the CEO of CEOExpress, my home page on the web. For a long time this site has permitted us users to create a page of links that we, and we only, can see so that we don't have to be at our own computer to access frequently used web sites from the list of bookmarks (or favorites) that are stored in our browsers. Just logging into our home page displays these so-called personal links, and I have found this feature to be quite useful through the years. Patricia's email was sent to announce they are now providing the ability to share these personal links selectively with others.

I spent the morning setting this up so that I could share links with my friends. However, when I sent out the first message inviting a slew of my friends to see the links, I unfortunately sent the wrong link. My thanks to Bowen Baxter for informing me of this. So I sent out a second email, noting the error, but again I sent the wrong link. Finally, I think I got it right with the third version.

This entry is to extend my apology to those of you who received that series of three emails. I didn't mean to spam you; it just took me three tries to get it right.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. -- John Kenneth Galbraith
- posted by Perry @ 12:44 AM 2 comments

 
Found by an old friend
When you write on the Internet, you expect that some people, usually only a few, will read what you write. Some may even be so loyal to your postings that they'll come back time and again. However, one of the surprises for me is that occasionally someone I don't even know will leave a comment or write to say they found a post of mine interesting, and equally surprising (though it shouldn't be) is that sometimes an old friend will "find" you.

Last night I was pleased to receive an email from Robert McMillan with whom I worked at ClientLogic. Robert had found my blog while googling randomly. He pointed me to his own blog, which is located here. He confessed to having allowed a bit of time to pass since his last entry at his blog, and I had to acknowledge that it had been a while since I had posted an entry at mine. His message gave me something to comment on, so I appreciate the nudge that got me back into posting. Thanks, Robert.
- posted by Perry @ 9:17 AM 0 comments

 
A conversation with Bill Gates
Robert Scoble on Channel 9 has a 16 plus minute interview with Bill Gates that is quite interesting. If you have a few minutes, I think you might find it as interesting as I did.

To open the video you must click on the "launch the streaming media" icon in the lower left hand corner of the picture. Doing that will open Windows Media Player and play the video.
- posted by Perry @ 11:50 AM 0 comments

 
A milestone
Today is the 284th day of the year. I began my exercise program on the 194th day of the year, July 13th, and I've not missed a day since I began. That means that the walk that I have just completed is the 90th consecutive day of exercise I've gotten, a milestone.

Thanks to Juan's pointing me to this pedometer, I have calculated that my exercise route is between 1.5 and 2 miles around my neighborhood. This morning I completed that walk in 34 mins and 52 secs. Although I'm not setting any land speed records, I am walking at a pretty good clip, and I've noticed that my ability to negotiate the hills easily has improved and my legs aren't nearly as tired at the end of my walk as they were when I began all this. As I said at the outset, it is just a matter of one foot in front of the other, one day at a time. We'll see how long I can continue.
- posted by Perry @ 9:24 AM 1 comments

 
Yeah, FTC!
In an article yesterday titled, "Spyware Purveyor in Cross Hairs," Wired News is reporting that the FTC has (finally) filed a complaint against a spyware producer from New Hampshire.

I can only say, "Thank God! It's about time."

The article also reveals one of the favorite tricks spyware makers use to sink their claws deeper into the system, which is that they provide what is purported to be a removal tool that turns out to be only another means to install other spyware on the user's computer. Sometimes they even have the audacity to charge a fee for the "removal tool."
- posted by Perry @ 9:17 AM 0 comments

 
A verbal scavenger hunt
Here's a little educational game for you today.

Did you know that "Each of the letters in LASER actually stands for a word?" Click on this link and then follow each of the links you find there in succession and you'll learn something about lasers. Actually this is fairly fascinating, I think.
- posted by Perry @ 7:38 AM 0 comments

 
Continuing Education: Channel 9
This post may well only appeal to my fellow, former tech support friends, though I would argue that not only they, but you too, whoever you are, would benefit from reading it and taking to heart what it contains. I think I have blogged before about Channel 9. However, today I want to reemphasize that I think this web site is a great way to "catch up, keep up, and maybe even stay ahead of the learning curve."

As we all know, and as some of us lament, technology is changing so fast that it is almost impossible to know everything you might wish to or think you need to know. A part of the problem, of course, is that most of us aren't programmers and though we may use computers, we don't really know what makes them tick. Yet I believe the only way to know about them is to plunge right in where we are now and try to assimilate as much as we can about how they function and where they are going. It requires a willingness to tolerate ambiguity, which is to say to allow yourself to read, listen to or watch (in the case of the Channel 9 site) even though you may not totally understand all that is being said. Using this approach, you may be surprised how much you do pick up from devoting the time, or at least this is my own experience.

You know, no doubt, that next year Microsoft is introducing the next version of their Windows operating system and that it is now called Vista. (Formerly it was known as Longhorn.) I have just finished watching one of the Channel 9 videos (about 40 minutes) dealing with the networking innovations that the new OS makes available. Robert Scoble interviews the Microsoft Vista networking team that consists of Abolade, Sanjay, and Ali, and the team illustrates how international the staff at Microsoft is. In it they refer to such things as IPv6, CTCP (which is compound tcp, or compound transfer control protocol), and network stacks. If you are already familiar with such terms as that, fine, but if not, then you may want to read those links to familiarize yourself with them after you've watched the video on networking innovations I've mentioned above.

I've been watching videos such as this for the last couple of years and I think they are a terrific way to be become familiar with some of the issues and to be informed of the directions that Microsoft is taking. Here is a 15 minute video, done at the beginning of the Channel 9 project that introduces the participants and some of the objectives they set out for themselves and their rationale for doing these attempts to communicate more directly with their customers and developers. (I highly recommend that 15 minute video because it helps to understand why they are doing these videos.) And here is the Channel 9 Doctrine, first published on March 25, 2004. I would encourage you to bookmark the Channel 9 link so that when your time permits you can watch the latest video that the team makes available. Most are very informal but also very informative.

One final point. You need to start the video by clicking on the launching icon in the lower left hand corner of the picture (which is actually an embedded version of the Windows Media Player), and because the volume varies in these videos, I recommend that you watch and listen while wearing headphones because it significantly improves the audio quality.
- posted by Perry @ 10:11 AM 0 comments

 
Publicity photo for my novel
Mike took this photo of me yesterday (October 2, 2005) and suggests that it would be an appropriate picture to use on the black flap of my novel, which of course isn't even in the works. But he's right it does have the look of the kind of publicity photo that would appear in such a place. But I am reminded of this quote from my quotes file: "Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it." -- Russell Lynes

- posted by Perry @ 11:04 AM 0 comments