Rockwells Retro Encabulator

Geek/nerd humor. I’ve seen this before somewhere and I’m glad to see it again. I’ve certainly sat through my share of presentations like this. You wonder how many takes it took to get it right.

Funny: Rockwells Retro Encabulator

The yin to Common Craft’s yang:

I wish I knew more about this, the YouTube pages offer little info.
Thanks to Paul Ingram and Ryan Turner for the pointers.

Updated:  Here it says “This is a hoax video produced by Rockwell
for a sales meeting. See also:

Turboencabulator
” Thanks Bill

Tags:

Sad News about Marc Orchant

Marc and I had been traveling in the same blogging circles for the last several years and trading emails from time to time. We finally had the chance to meet face-to-face in San Francisco earlier this year and that built readily on the friendship we had already established. I count myself lucky to have known him; even if for too short a time.

Update: 2:56PM Pacific Time December 9th, 2007:

It is with great sadness that I report that Marc Orchant, Husband to Sue, Father to Rebecca and Jason, and friend to so many, passed away just a short time ago. I was notified by Marc’s brother Craig.

His family and closest friends were at his side and his favorite music was playing. Craig said that Marc’s passing was as peaceful and easy as anyone could have hoped and he left this world surrounded by love from so many people that he couldn’t possibly have failed to know how many people cared for, appreciated and respected him.

Anyone that knew Marc also knew how much he loved music; especially the Grateful Dead. The excerpt below is from one of the songs that helped the family say goodbye to Marc and helped Marc move on to the next world. I talked to Marc almost every single day for the past couple of years. I’m sure that I’m not alone when I say that I am going to miss him so, so much.

To allow for people that may need to travel and take time of work, services are most likely going to be held this coming Wednesday afternoon at the Temple where the Orchants are members. I will provide more specific details as soon as they have been provided to me. Marc’s family expressed once again their gratitude for the outpouring of love and support that the technology community has shown in this very difficult time. Your warmth, concern and friendship will not be forgotten.

Marc Orchant Updates and Information | StarrTrek.

One Laptop Per Child: donation period from now through Nov 26th

I got an email on this from my old friend and colleague Chunka Mui. I was going to write it up and post it, but the lazy web comes to my aid once again and Ed Yourdon has done the heavy lifting for me.

One Laptop Per Child: donation period from now through Nov 26th

My calendar popped up a to-do item this morning, reminding me that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) donation period begins today, and runs through November 26th. In a nutshell: you spend $400, which purchases two of the open-source, highly innovative machines known as XO . One laptop gets sent to you, and the other is donated to a child somewhere, in a developing country. Not only that, you get a $200 charitable contribution on your income tax (well, at least that s true in the U.S.; don t know about other parts of the world).

XO machine

I ve now ordered mine, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival (though the website makes it clear that I shouldn t expect overnight delivery a la Amazon). I ll let you know what I think of it once I get my hands on it; in the meantime, check out the OLPC website, and consider making a contribution of your own.

There are certainly lots of opportunities to make the world a better place. This is one of the ones I’ve opted to support. So, as Ed suggests, check out the OLPC website.

Six years at McGee s Musings

The experiment continues. Today is my sixth blogiversary.

When I started this I was teaching information technology and knowledge management topics at the Kellogg School. Today, I’m helping clients deal much the same set of issues. We have powerful technology and new services that promise to make us more effective and productive. Sometimes they actually do.

This space is a place where I try to get my own thinking straight and a way to immerse myself in the ongoing conversation of others trying to get their thinking straight. Some of them think in like-minded ways, others in very different ways, and all are important to the journey.

This particular set of social technologies must be lived in to be understood. I think this is one of the impediments that larger organizations face in managing adoption. They are comfortable with the illusion of carefully crafted plans. They need to become reacquainted with the less well-marked paths of real learning.

What I said in 2005 is still true:

I remain interested in the challenges of making organizations better places for real people to work in and still believe that the effective use of technology makes a difference. I suspect that large organizations are nearing the end of their useful life and that the evolution toward new forms will continue to be painful and noisy. I worry about leaders and executives who choose to ignore facts and who can’t or won’t distinguish between the theory of evolution and the theory of who shot JFK. [McGee’s Musings]

As has become my custom, I want to thank those whose paths I’ve crossed, if only electronically:

Jenny Levine, AKMA, Terry Frazier, Betsy Devine, Buzz Bruggeman, Denham Grey, Marc Orchant, Cameron Reilly, Ernie Svenson, Judith Meskill, Jack Vinson, Ross Mayfield, Lilia Efimova, Jeremy Wagstaff, Matt Mower, Ton Zijlstra, Eric Snowdeal, Rick Klau, Greg Lloyd, Chris Nuzum, Jordan Frank, Halley Suitt, Jon Husband, Dina Mehta, Shannon Clark, Bruce MacEwen, Espen Andersen, Hylton Jolliffe, Stowe Boyd, Francois Gossieaux, Jim Berkowitz, Eric Lunt, Dennis Kennedy, Matt Homann, Jim Ware, Elizabeth Albrycht, Regina Miller, David Gurteen, Rik Reppe, Tom Davenport & Larry Prusak, John Sviokla, Bryan Rieger, Stephanie Rieger, Sheryle Bolton, Lynne Whitehorn-Umphres, Bill Ives, Giovanni Rodriguez, David Maister, Nancy White, Dave Snowden, Andrew McAfee,  Euan Semple, Kathleen Gilroy, Stuart Henshall, Paula Thornton, Jay Cross

Beloit releases its annual mindset list for entering college students

Since I am hitting the road later today to take my eldest off to Drake University to begin his college experience, this year’s list is particularly relevant.

How This Year’s Frosh Will Make You Feel Older

Beloit releases annual “Mindset List” to help professors understand the worlds (real and virtual) of their newest students.

Congratulations to Jack Vinson on four years of blogging

Although, I would prefer to think of it as taking credit for encouraging Jack to add his insight and voice to the blogging world., rather than blame 

It’s been four years

Hard to believe that I have been at this for four years now. 

Thanks to all my readers (FeedBurner says there are ~1300 on the feed; 40 readers via FeedBlitz; 2000 visitors a day at the website), and thanks to the hundreds of inspirations I have out there who take me down interesting paths and teach me new things.

All blame lays on the shoulders of Jim McGee, who told me to start writing on my own blog instead of peppering him with comments all the time.

A lazy web request about Apache rewrite rules

I’ve finally gotten around to porting my old Radio archives over to WordPress. One unintended consequence is that the urls for the individual daily archive entries change. In Radio the archive entry for today would be http://www.mcgeesmusings.net/2007/05/14.html; In WordPress the url becomes http://www.mcgeesmusings.net/2007/05/14 .

Google searches that point to an old Radio url end up with a 404 not found error. This seems to be a case where Apache’s rewrite rules should help, but I don’t know how to write the right rule off the top of my head. I could do my usual combination of searching for clues and trial and error. Perhaps someone out there could point me in a productive direction in the comments.