06 Mar
03 Mar
Time Travel via Wormholes…
http://www.flixxy.com/time-travel-national-geographic.htm
Wonder if this could help me get accross town at rush hour?
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21 Feb
“Back in the Saddle Again!”
To the “Faithful Few” who may sSTILL be checking my weblog for something new:
I’m back (again)!
It seems that getting up and running with Facebook (to satisfy my kidz, grandkidz and some good friends) completely distracted me from my already wimpy blogging efforts. Recetnly, after doing a semi-annual maintainance re-install of XP Pro SP3, I checked out some of my personal websites—including ChuckzBlog II.
To my horror, when I attempted to load the page, it wouldn’t load! Instead there was this goofy warning about having messed up my SQL database—that I had posted last tear sometime! OUCH!
Anyway, I’ve repaired my database, upgraded Wordpress to the latest version, and gotten the page back up and running. NOW all I have to do is get back in the habit of POSTING every now and then…riiiight!
So, if you BEEN checking back, keep it up…and tell your friends to click on over to ChuckzBlog II for my usual mix of the inspiring, the informative and the just plain bizzare.
I’m “Back in the Saddle!”
Chuck
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21 Nov
The Call to Sacrifice
The Call to Sacrifice
CHUCK COLSON
It’s November, and you now know the identities of our new President and Congress, something unknown to me as I write this in early October. But this message applies no matter who wins. I echo the prophetic address that Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave 30 years ago to Harvard’s graduating class. On that sunny June day, he warned that the West was losing its moral foundation.
“The Western world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, government, political party. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite,” Solzhenitsyn told his audience. People and governments, he said, need the courage to do the right thing.
Our Founders would have cheered.
They understood America to be a noble experiment in ordered liberty and self-government. But, they warned, the experiment could succeed only if individuals exercised restraint in governing their own behavior.
Solzhenitsyn’s prophecy has come true: The national conscience has shattered, eroded by relativism and postmodern deconstruction. The prevailing view today is not “What can I do for my country?” but “What’s in it for me?” This undermines the self-responsibility necessary for free governments to function, and it is at the root of our unprecedented financial crisis.
America is virtually bankrupt. Our spending binge created soaring personal, corporate, and government debt, causing an economic meltdown. The blame is with all of us. Someday credit cards have to be paid; mortgages come due; government programs have to be curbed.
We seem unable to face this reality. The polls show that the people still demand earmarks and entitlements without restraints— so that’s what politicians vote for. But if politicians won’t speak about the common good, who will rescue us from ourselves?
Congressman Frank Wolf proposes we create a bi-partisan commission called SAFE to examine all entitlements in a way that politicians dare not do, identify what we can afford—and slash what we cannot. The commission would submit its proposals to Congress for an up-or-down vote. (The only changes permitted would be those that leave the long-term budget impact unchanged.)
I agree with Wolf: If Congress cannot be responsible, we should take the matter out of their hands.
We can succeed if we take Solzhenitsyn ‘s challenge and sacrifice our self-interest for the greater good—as we did during World War II.
Our next president faces enormous challenges. We have to do our part. When you see your congressional leaders at home over the holidays, tell them you don’t want any more earmarks. You just want to see some honest-to-goodness civic courage from our political leaders. Here’s the bitter truth: Get serious about sacrifice or we won’t survive.
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21 Nov
Dealing with Cyberbullies
Cyber Security Tip ST06-005 Dealing with Cyberbullies
Bullies are now taking advantage of technology to intimidate and harass their victims. Dealing with cyberbullying can be difficult, but there are steps you can take.
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying refers to the new, and growing, practice of using technology to harass, or bully, someone else. Bullies used to be restricted to methods such as physical intimidation, postal mail, or the telephone. Now, developments in electronic media offer forums such as email, instant messaging, web pages, and digital photos to add to the arsenal. Computers, cell phones, and PDAs are new tools that can be applied to an old practice.
Forms of cyberbullying can range in severity from cruel or embarrassing rumors to threats, harassment, or stalking. It can affect any age group; however, teenagers and young adults are common victims, and cyberbullying is a growing problem in schools.
Why has cyberbullying become such a problem?
The relative anonymity of the internet is appealing for bullies because it enhances the intimidation and makes tracing the activity more difficult. Some bullies also find it easier to be more vicious because there is no personal contact. Unfortunately, the internet and email can also increase the visibility of the activity. Information or pictures posted online or forwarded in mass emails can reach a larger audience faster than more traditional methods, causing more damage to the victims. And because of the amount of personal information available online, bullies may be able to arbitrarily choose their victims.
Cyberbullying may also indicate a tendency toward more serious behavior. While bullying has always been an unfortunate reality, most bullies grow out of it. Cyberbullying has not existed long enough to have solid research, but there is evidence that it may be an early warning for more violent behavior.
How can you protect yourself?
* Be careful where you post personal information - By limiting the number of people who have access to your contact information or details about your interests, habits, or employment, you reduce your exposure to bullies that you do not know. This may limit your risk of becoming a victim and may make it easier to identify the bully if you are victimized.
* Avoid escalating the situation - Responding with hostility is likely to provoke a bully and escalate the situation. Depending on the circumstances, consider ignoring the issue. Often, bullies thrive on the reaction of their victims. Other options include subtle actions. For example, if you are receiving unwanted email messages, consider changing your email address. If the bully does not have access to the new address, the problem may stop. If you continue to get messages at your new account, you may have a stronger case for legal action.
* Document the activity - Keep a record of any online activity (emails, web pages, instant messages, etc.), including relevant dates and times. In addition to archiving an electronic version, consider printing a copy.
* Report cyberbullying to the appropriate authorities - If you are being harassed or threatened, report the activity to the local authorities. Law enforcement agencies have different policies, but your local police department or FBI branch are good starting points. Unfortunately, there is a distinction between free speech and punishable offenses, but the legal implications should be decided by the law enforcement officials and the prosecutors. Depending on the activity, it may also be appropriate to report it to school officials who may have separate policies for dealing with activity that involves students.
Protect your children by teaching them good online habits (see Keeping Children Safe Online for more information). Keep lines of communication open with your children so that they feel comfortable telling you if they are being victimized online. Reduce their risk of becoming cyberbullies by setting guidelines for and monitoring their use of the internet and other electronic media (cell phones, PDAs, etc.).
_________________________________________________________________
Author: Mindi McDowell
_________________________________________________________________
Produced 2006 by US-CERT, a government organization.
Note: This tip was previously published and is being re-distributed to increase awareness.
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04 Oct
Chinese snoop on Skype, but are they alone? (AP) by AP: Yahoo! Tech
Read it all here…
Chinese snoop on Skype, but are they alone? (AP) by AP: Yahoo! Tech
NEW YORK - A Canadian researcher has discovered that a Chinese version of eBay Inc.’s Skype communications software snoops on text chats that contain certain keywords, including “democracy.”
The revelation is not only of interest to rights groups that monitor Internet censorship. The discovery also likely intrigues law enforcement and intelligence agencies in other countries, because they have been bothered by the growing use of Skype, which claims 338 million users across the world.
By its very nature, Skype is difficult to wiretap. Skype routes calls and chats between computers over the Internet, avoiding traditional phone networks. And the contents are supposedly encrypted, raising concerns in law enforcement that Skype could let criminals communicate without fear of eavesdropping.
The FBI has argued for applying U.S. wiretapping law to Internet phone calls. The bureau got a favorable court ruling in 2006, but it’s not clear whether it applies to systems like Skype that skip telephone networks.
In the other camp, privacy advocates and security experts are concerned that Skype, while presented by the company as a secure channel of communication, has some kind of “back door” that allows eavesdropping. Whether Skypetapping is already going on in the U.S. and Europe is a matter that the company has equivocated on for years.
“For a couple of years, maybe more, people have had the suspicion … that Skype pretends to be secure but actually isn’t,” said Bruce Schneier, the chief security technology officer of BT Group PLC, the British telecom carrier.
Chinese snoop on Skype, but are they alone? (AP) by AP: Yahoo! Tech
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02 Oct
‘Feeling the Love’ (or Anger): How Emotions Can Distort the Way We Respond to Advice - Knowledge@Wharton
Read it all HERE:
‘Feeling the Love’ (or Anger): How Emotions Can Distort the Way We Respond to Advice - Knowledge@Wharton
‘Feeling the Love’ (or Anger): How Emotions Can Distort the Way We Respond to Advice
Published: October 01, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton
Here’s a piece of advice: Don’t read this story if you have just had a fight with your spouse or a co-worker. You will probably ignore it, despite its grounding in solid academic research. At least that’s what Maurice Schweitzer, a Wharton professor of operations and information management, would most likely suggest. In a recent paper written with Francesca Gino of Carnegie Mellon University, he shows that emotions not only influence people’s receptiveness to advice but they do so even when the emotions have no link to the advice or the adviser.
“We focus on incidental emotions, emotions triggered by a prior experience that is irrelevant to the current situation,” the two scholars note in their paper, titled “Blinded by Anger or Feeling the Love: How Emotions Influence Advice Taking.” “We find that people who feel incidental gratitude are more trusting and more receptive to advice than are people in a neutral emotional state, and that people in a neutral state are more trusting and more receptive to advice than are people who feel incidental anger.”
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29 Sep
Mourning the passing of Sonific!
April 21, 2008
In music, the LongTail still won’t work without a head and a body: Announcing big changes at Sonific (Over & Out)
Update: Sept 10, 2008: Sonific is over, for good. Thanks for waiting.
My music widget startup, Sonific, just announced that it is going offline on May 1. Below are some snippets from my announcement, all other details are on Sonific’s blog, here. This obviously a tough development but we are hoping that while this door may be closing now another may open up.
Sonific.com will go offline on May 1, 2008 A message by Gerd Leonhard, Co-Founder & CEO
As a consequence of a the unworkable music licensing situation and the resulting lack of solid revenue modeling Sonific’s founders and investors have decided to temporarily take Sonific.com and Sonific.net offline. While we are looking for other ways to realize our vision we are also open to talking to any interested party that may have use for Sonific’s user base, content relationships, technologies or distribution network (please contact us anytime to find out more). Together with some other partners, we may also investigate the concept of making Sonific a paid-for service that is provided to artists, record labels and other content providers on a white-label basis.
Here are some background details on our decision:
1) There are countless startups providing access to any and all music streams without any license whatsoever. However, when we approached the major record label decision makers in order to obtain licenses for some of the music in their catalogs we have routinely faced demands for very large cash advances and fixed per-stream minimum payments, pressure to give them ‘free’ company equity, and requirements of utterly bizarre usage restrictions. It seems that the industry’s major stakeholders still prefer this turf to remain unlicensed rather than to allow real-life, workable and market-based solutions to emerge by working with new companies such as Sonific. This is not the way forward.
2) We therefore had to realize that a company that wants to provide interactive streaming music services must either a) risk the constant complaints of their users, due to the lack of hit content b) proceed to use any and all music (this is routinely done by allowing users to upload their own MP3s) without the required licenses, and therefore be at the total mercy of the record labels at some point in time, and c) build a huge audience very quickly, based on having the content available - permission or not -, and then very quickly sell themselves to a large company that will take care of placating the labels while the money is plenty and the pockets are deep.
Unfortunately we don’t like any of these choices.
The bottom line is that this industry is certifiably dysfunctional and that we do not see a plausible path to take at this time. We neither want to engage in so-called copyright infringement nor do we have millions of dollars available to buy our way in when it is abundantly clear that doing business under the existing rules of the major labels will simply amount to economic suicide.
Almost a billion people now use music to stream on their blogs, social network pages, home-pages and user profiles – this is indeed a veritable gold mine for music marketing and selling, and it can make serious money for artists and composers. Yet, the established players in the music industry are still looking to simply squeeze ‘permission fees’ from companies that want to serve this market, instead of building new opportunities together. Maybe, just like Radio over 100 years ago, a plausible conclusion may just be that this must apparently be done without permission while the industry catches up - but we shall leave this for others to explore this theme.
We want to thank all our partners and the many artists, independent record labels as well as the few major label new media people that dared to try us anyway, and the leading music aggregators that have provided the over 200.000 songs that Sonific has offered until now. We also want to thank our faithful users that played our music every day, and the over 80.000 people hat have signed up for our service, and we apologize for having to pull the plug on you. We hope to return in a different incarnation; please stay tuned via our blog.
Gerd Leonhard
Co-Founder & CEO
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26 Sep
Who am I?
Who Am I?
I am under 45 years old, I love the outdoors, I hunt, I fish, I am a Republican reformer, I have fought big business monopolies in my home state, I have taken on my own Republican Party, I have quite a few kids, I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years experience as a State Governor. WHO AM I?
Scroll down……
There were those who thought I did not have enough experience to run for Vice President.
I am Teddy Roosevelt!
I took over the Presidency when McKinley was assassinated; over the years I have been ranked within the top three presidents of all time, and my bust joins George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. I didn’t do too badly for just having the experience of being governor of a state smaller than Alaska!
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