As Far As I Can Tell

There are tons of conferences I want to attend but I can’t for economic or other reasons, so I try to check into their website afterwards to see what kinds of proceedings I can find. Usually it’s a hand full of PDF slides that mean little without the accompanying talk but I’ve had much better luck following the Reboot 7 event that happened in Copenhagen last weekend. A wiki has been set up with post-conference info and an entire day’s worth of sessions from one of the conference halls was recorded and posted at the Internet Archive.

I particularly enjoyed the sessions by Chris Heathcote (blog, audio), Dave Weinberger (blog, audio), Regine Debatty (blog, audio), and Cory Doctorow (blog, audio). While not a substitute for being in Denmark and actually conversing with these folks it sure beats what’s normally available for non-attendees. Thanks to Reboot for being so open.

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In related “rebooting” news I’m back up to full productivity with my computer again after my hard drive crash earlier in the week. It took a day and a half of software and hardware wrangling but at least I didn’t lose any data. On the upside I’m now running the latest version of all my software that I’ve been too lazy to upgrade.

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While on the Internet Archive site today I noticed a new Creative Commons tool that I’d overlooked before. It’s called the Creative Commons Publisher and it lets you easily associate your audio or video with a CC license and upload it to the Internet Archive for hosting.

Archive.org will hosting anything for free that has a Creative Commons license and people are more likely to associate their work with CC if it’s hosted on the internet. This tool is the killer app for both of these services since it emphasizes that synergy and makes deployment easier for the content creator. I can’t wait to use it.

At 7:00am this morning I woke up ready for a full day devoted to work. My summer schedule is filing up and I need to make some headway on the freelance job I�m doing. As I sipped my morning coffee I noticed how incredibly slow my computer was running. It’s been acting up for the last couple of days, but nothing serious. I’ve had plans to completely rebuild my system into a new case with a fresh install of Windows, but I’ve been holding off until I have this job done. Unfortunately my hard drive is forcing my hand.

Yep, my computer is dead. The hard drive sporadically hangs and spins aimlessly, scolding its bad sectors who ignore the harsh treatment. I’m typing this on my old Windows 98 laptop, the longest running and most reliable machine I own. Luckily I don’t think I’ll loose too much since the drive is partially operational and I do nightly backups onto my external drive. It’s a pain in the ass though and will probably take me all day if not more to get back up and running.

This love/hate balance I have for computers tipped heavy towards the dislike side this morning.

Yesterday the weather showed some respect and only slightly sprinkled during Meredith’s outdoor graduation ceremony on the Kalamazoo College quad. That campus is beautiful, and seeing it full of people on a summer’s afternoon made that even more obvious. Congratulations Mer, I’m glad that our Chicago detour didn’t interfere too much with all of this. And now summer! Sweet, sweet summer.

See more photos from graduation.

In John Thackara’s latest Doors of Perception monthly report he has some straight talk about the Interaction-Ivrea move to Milan:

A brutal policy change by its main sponsor, Telecom Italia, has forced Interaction Design Institute Ivrea to move to Milan and effectively merge with Domus Academy. The two organizations describe the move stoically as “a great opportunity for growth”, but the fact remains that the Ivrea team will be broken up and funding for the combined entity drastically reduced. Telecom’s decision is short-sighted and represents a stupendous destruction of value: It is breaking up a hub, five years in the making, for a new community of practice in a subject area strategically crucial for telecoms.

This is the first time I’ve heard a critical view of the change since the school’s press releases are understandably putting a positive spin on it. It makes me feel better about not considering the program once I got the notice about the school moving.