Wonderosity

Many of you know the odd fact that, despite my geekiness, our family has chosen (at least for the last year) to not be connected to the net at home (see below for why.) So, for the past few months (since leaving my place of work, and thus my net access) I have trotted off to various internet cafe’s and our community’s local computer repair shop (where I finally started to get to know and love the locals -geeks and falshing 12s included.) Anyway, because of some upcoming lifestyle changes I am now back online with a speedy comcast connection (6+ mps). Expect to see more from me here, at www.wonderosityshow.com , and other places.

My only fear is that I will, once again, have a ‘net-effected consciousness as around the house (”Hmmm, I wonder if I have any new email…I wonder my stats are…Oh, I could blog about that…etc.” “What was that honey?”) My main plan is simply to have hours/boundaries when I just don’t use the computer at all. So, please feel free to keep me accountable to my boundaries and primarily to trying to be truly present when people are around.

Tags: wonderosity, geeekingoutloud, leifhansen, skeptech

Powered by Qumana

A friend of mine, John Clancy from Orcas Island, tipped me off on an excellent resource that some of you may already be familiar with -its the “Technology and Human Responsibility” section of a site called the Nature Institute. I’ve just started reading some of the articles, but really like what I’ve read and am excited to find a community that looks like they have been doing some deep thinking about these topics. Here is the introduction from their Tech page:

“When science is governed by a conviction that the world is a machine, the distinction between science and technology naturally grows tenuous. Indeed, the influential philosopher, Daniel Dennett, has argued even of biology that it “is not just like engineering; it is engineering. It is the study of functional mechanisms, their design, construction, and operation.” And the University of Texas historian of science and technology, David Channell, argues that we should no longer think of technology as applied science; rather, “science is just applied technology.”

The study of technology is therefore essential to an understanding of what science is becoming today. You might say that all the work of The Nature Institute relates to technology—that is, we are concerned to rise from a technological or mechanistic view of the world to a living, qualitative, and contextual understanding of it. In order to achieve this, we must understand the character of technological thinking as deeply as possible, and learn how to transform it.”

Tags: geekingoutloud, wonderosity, leifhansen, natureinstitute, technological stewardship, responsibility

If your reading this blog then you likely, like me, have a number of unused or half-used gadets lying around your house waiting to find their usefulness in your life. Its hard to ignore them because they must have SOME use right? Its hard to sell them because they’re now outdated or scratched up. And its hard to trash them because, well, they still have some coolness and besides, you paid a good chunk for it. This is a list of some of my current gadget and PIM/organizational items and how I’m struggling with which ones to use.

After listing it like that, I think I’ve come to some conclusions:

1) I’ll give the iriver to my wife with a bunch of music on it and she can just press play when working out (but but but then I won’t have a small ‘emergency’ recorder!)

2) I’ll obviously use the Microtrack as my main recorder, I just need to start really doing some field recording.

3) Until the iphone comes out, I’ll continue to use my Ipaq for contacts, tasks and other info like instant wikipedia info.

4) I think I will switch back, for now, to a paper calendar –its just so much more practical and socially acceptable still. Not totally sure why, but seems to be true.

Well, the rapidly shrinking size of my 120 GB hard drive tells me its time to stop sucking down freebie mac apps from the net, and to take a break for a while. Here are my favorite finds so far, let me know if you know of any others. I’m leaving out a few great apps (like Firefox, Sype, & Gizmo project, Google Earth, Audacity, etc) as they are already fairly well known. There is no order to the following apps, just off the top of my head:

1. Journler –a very robust journeling application, complete with ilife integration, media creation and insertion (pix, audio, and video) and even the ability to upload content to your blog, iweb, ipod or to email it. Sweet!
2. Adium -handle all your IM and chat clients in one tidy place, with lots of fun goodies hidden inside.
3. Neo Office -so far, this suite has been able to do everything MS office could do, as well as read all my old
4. TimeOut -a great little app that gently reminds you to take a break at pre-set periods while launching various apps or scripts if you choose.
5. SideNote -an immediately accessible note-taking app that slides onto the page when triggered by mousing over to the side of the screen.
6. CyberDuck -Great FTP client with cute icon.
7. VirtueDesktops -Basically already does what the next Mac OS spaces will do, providing multiple desktops for diff. working environments/apps.
8. Stellarium - A beeeeutiful virtual sky and planetarium, my space-cadet daughter Zinnia loves it.
9. HandBrake -for ripping DVDs (you own of course.)
10. Widgets I’m using and loving: Wikipedia Widget, iStat Pro (Vital Computer Stats), Word of the Day, DoBeDo (Great name! Summarizes iCal Tasks), iCal Events (Summarizes iCal Events), Twitter Widget (update your twitter status and see friends twitters),
11. A few others I have a hunch will grow on me soon (Soundflower, QuickSilver, SeaShore).

I’m sure the list could go on, but these are the ones I’m actually using and will probably continue to use in some capacity. Hope you enjoy them…many of them I found, of course, over at www.opensourcemac.org

Oh, and if you, like me, have a hard time focusing on the window at hand –check out this cool app THINK.

Tags: wonderosity, geekingoutloud, leifhansen, free software, opensource, mac, skype, firefox, journler, adium, neooffice, timeout, sidenote, cyberduck, virtuedesktop, stellarium, handbrake, widgets, quicksliver, seashore, soundflower, think

Powered by Qumana

Today’s show is an interview with Todd Fadel, who is hosting a creative collaborative experiment in Portland, Oregon on February 17th, 2007. We talk about the event, its origins, inclusivity and community building through creativity. Audio quality was semi-suck, sorry about that.

As promised, here are some links to sites related to this event, as well as Todd’s creative online happenings:

• Register at EventBrite
• The Beauty (Todd’s R&B band)
• Agents of Future (Todd and his wife’s music)
• The Big Bashed (songwriting project with his kids)
• Todd’s personal MySpace page

I take no personal responsibility for the content of any of the above links, so if his SICK AND TWISTED mind offends you, please don’t blame me.

Tags: wondersotity, leifhansen, interview, podcast, toddfadel, agentsoffuture, arts, creativity, whirrship, portland, inclusivity

Powered by Qumana

• New show format, and yay Mac/GarageBand
• Quote from GK Chesteron -The Ethics of Elfland, via ‘Orthodoxy’
• Various Announcements and Life-updates
• Have a nice day

Powered by Qumana

I’ve been having a blast with my new Macbook, especially with GarageBand. Though I haven’t produced a podcast yet (laziness), I did manage to take an old school rap of mine (yes, I rapped in HS in the late 80s) and add some funk. Check this out and tell me what you think. I’m posting this as a Tech Review because I created this song in about two hours, shows how easy Garage Band is. Hopefully it doesn’t also show a lack of talent on my part. (:

Powered by Qumana

Well, something a little different. All just to say how much fun I’m having with my new MacBook Pro and Garage Band. This is the rap I wrote back in High School (1988!)…let me know what you think (:

Tags: garageband, mac, rap, whitebot, oldschool, wonderosity, bleedingpurple, leifhansen