imkilo

PodcampAZ 2011 Needs Speakers!

2011-08-31T06:30:00.001-07:00

PodcampAZ says: WE NEED SPEAKERS! Nominate at http://podcampaz.org/speakers/

One of the reasons we love PodcampAZ so much is the endless supply of information. We also realize that the term “media” is growing up, and always expanding. No one rolls their eyes at using Facebook anymore to promote, because everyone links to Facebook! Many companies and freelancers make social media success less of a guessing game and more of a science, but there are many mediums within the realm that are getting less attention than they should.

Right now you’re thinking “Yeah! I want to hear more about ______!” So how do we geeks, let alone anyone who isn’t on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Foursquare, learn about all of these new or under-represented technologies? How do they merge their existing skills with new ideas and make life even more awesome than it all ready is?

They ask you, and your friends. We all use a form of media in some way, or you wouldn’t be reading this now. And we bet you know someone who uses it in an innovative way that we all want to know about. They might not even realize there’s a place to share what they know. So help us get all of these questions answered all in one weekend at PodcampAZ 2011 on November 12-13.

Nominate yourself, your work buddy, Twitter or Facebook friend, or even your sister to help out. Each speaker will receive our undying gratitude, an audience eager to learn and a chance to learn from other successful, charming people just like them.

Imkilo says: And I'll be speaking at this years PodcampAZ on the subject of "How to listen to podcasts" which I plan to not be so much a "presentation" as a "I'll ask everyone who walks in what thier current setup is, and tell them how they can listen to podcasts for free, then write it on the board as I go along".

With the election yesterday, I wondered if we couldn't get someone who was active in the whole petitions and campaign signs area, the whole "non-technical" idea spreading part of things. If you know someone like that, you might nominate them for a talk, it could be real interesting for the rest of us.

How to listen to Podcasts

2011-06-05T16:19:00.003-07:00

Will update this page more as PodcampAZ gets closer.

Outline
You don't need an iPod
What is a podcast?
Where are they?
How can I get them?
-Does it cost?
How can I listen?
-Non-iPod portable players

You too can be a Mind Freak for thirty dollars

2010-10-14T21:39:00.001-07:00

Dragon Age Origins Change Character Appearance 2010

2010-02-21T17:38:00.006-07:00

It's possible! 2010-02-21 (Backup your game first by making a copy of the Bioware folder in My Documents)

So you made your character, but there's something you don't like about it. Use these steps to remake your character from scratch.

Download and install the toolset http://dragonage.bioware.com/toolset

Open Dragon Age Origins.

Load the save game you last played of the character you want to change the face / appearance of. Make a new save, name it "changeface", then exit the game.

Make a new character of the same race and sex as the character in the "changeface" game. Make the name be "MyFace". Pick out the new way you want it to look.

Tip: If you want to use the face of a character you already have to put on a different character, you can do that too, just follow the steps below about changing the game files and skip the steps about creating a new face.

Tip: You can download extra hair colors http://www.google.com/search?q=Pineappletrees+Vibrant+Colors and http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=555

Tip: Take screenshots of the sliders when creating the character, this will help you tweak it further if you don't like the appearance of your new creation.

Start the game of the new character. Check to see if you like the face.

Tip: You can run up to a solid object, then move the "camera" to be right in front of your face (between you and the wall) and it will zoom in close on your characters face.

If you don't like the face, delete the character, and start again (work off the screenshots of the sliders to get that tweak just the way you want it).

Once you like the face, save the game as "newface" then exit the game.

If you have a slow computer, you may need to Quit the Dragon Age game so the computer doesn't run out of memory when loading the game files from the toolset.

Open the toolset (Start>All Programs>Dragon Age Origins>Dragon Age Toolset)

We will first open the save game "newface" and copy the part of the file that has the appearance (called "MORPH" in the file), then we'll delete that out of "changeface" and paste it into the same place.

File>Open File = My Documents\Bioware\DragonAge\Characters\Myface\Saves\Slot_1\newface.das

Click the little plus ( + ) signs to expand them on these items:
+SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR
++SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR_CHAR

Scroll down to find a line called: SAVEGAME_PLAYER_MORPH

Right click SAVEGAME_PLAYER_MORPH and choose "Copy". We are "copying" the face from this saved game.

Tip: If your computer is slow, do File>Close before opening the second saved game.

Now we open our other character so we can "paste the face" into it.

File>Open File = My Documents\Bioware\DragonAge\Characters\\Saves\\changeface.das

Click the little plus ( + ) signs on:
-SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR
--SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR_CHAR

Find the line that says SAVEGAME_PLAYER_MORPH right click it and choose "Delete". (slower computers will *choke* for a moment)

Scroll back up to the line SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR_CHAR right click it and choose "Paste". (again, on a slower computer it will look like it's crashing, give it a moment)

File > Save

File > Close

File > Exit

Open Dragon Age Origins. Load the "changeface" save. You should now see the face you've created. Run around for a little bit, maybe move to a new zone or two, try going into combat, if everything looks good, save it as "twitterimkilo".

Now just play the game as normal, and enjoy the face you always wanted!

Feel free to buy me lunch (or help me upgrade my slow computer) with donating at http://milescomer.com/ or holler at me on http://twitter.com/imkilo

The Turkinator Awesome Macro

2009-11-27T17:46:00.006-07:00

When you target something, it will come up on your minimap as a yellow circle. When this handy macro will target the closest Turkey (it will also target the dead ones unfortunately if there isn't a live one nearby), it will apply the Raid Icon of the Skull.

Name: tar8Skull
/target Wild Turkey
/script SetRaidTarget("target", 8);

Extra Credit:
Make 7 more macros:

Put in your 1 action bar button
Name: tar1Star
/target Wild Turkey
/script SetRaidTarget("target", 1);

Put in your 2 action bar button
Name: tar2Circle
/target Wild Turkey
/script SetRaidTarget("target", 2);

etc

For Stormwind I like to start on the island that's to the East of the start area where it has the Defias Mages. Mark all the turkeys on the island, then go North East of the island (East of the Island has no turkeys oddly), and get a few more turkeys marked.

Start on the island, then head to your next turkey North East of the island, moving counter clockwise, then I like to go West past the Jaberlode mine, somewhat toward Goldshire, but then don't go all the way, kinda zig zag East and West and you should hit about 40 South past the tower and the field that the "Princess" pig is in.

If you can do it at night, or a time when there aren't a lot of people on, that helps.

It's not necessary to be in a party, but it helps to have a friend in the same party to run ahead and spot turkeys.

Now we're going to have everyone make a few macros.

I like switch to the 2nd set of action bars (assuming you have dual spec), and just fill up the whole thing with macros I can just click the number to hit, but do it however you like.

First make two Macros to communicate "Hey come over here" and "HELP I can't find any" that I map to R and T. (of course if you can voice chat you don't need these)

Name: tarOverHere
/s Over Here
/p Got a Turkey over here

Name: tarNeedHelp
/s I don't see any
/p I need a Turkey!

If the other person is far away you might also spam the "Hey come over here" to let them know you've got one.

Then another macro I like is: "Stop looting"

Name: tarStopLooting
/p Stop looting you'll run out of time

Also, if you wait a few seconds between turkey kills, you can actually give some time for the turkeys to respawn, assuming you have the next one in your sights https://twitter.com/#!/verylemonade/status/138283740358131712 and http://twitter.com/#!/verylemonade/status/138392493237600256 )

If you still have trouble finding a target, you can get some of those "Focusing Lens" crystal things that shoot the "laser" at the target.

http://www.wowhead.com/?search=focusing+lens

Then add
/use Shadow Crystal Focusing Lens

Onto the end of the macros, like so:

Name: tar8Skull
/target Wild Turkey
/script SetRaidTarget("target", 8);
/use Shadow Crystal Focusing Lens

Tip: after typing /use Shift+click whatever focusing lens you have in your bag and it will type it in for you.
Tip: If you are moving it won't activate the focusing lens and take up one of the 40 charges. So you can be riding around on your mount, tagging turkeys for the other person.
http://twitter.com/imkilo

Transfer Export or Backup Adobe Photoshop Settings Brushes Actions Preferences Etc

2009-11-27T17:21:00.002-07:00

So hard to find, I figured I'd blog it as a way to make it easier to find later.

http://go.adobe.com/kb/ts_331483_en-us

Use this document to find or re-create preferences files for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe ImageReady CS2. Preferences files vary by name and location for each version, with each version storing its own preference settings in a different set of files.

To re-create the preferences files for Photoshop or ImageReady, start the application while holding down Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS X). Then, click Yes to the message, "Delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings file?" or "Delete the Adobe ImageReady Settings file?"

The article goes on from there. Most of the settings are in:
c:\Documents and Settings\[your login]\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop

Sunset Rubdown Setlist 2009-06-22 at Plush in Tucson AZ

2009-06-23T20:32:00.002-07:00

11:01:41 PM sunset rubdown is setting up
11:04:28 PM girls on the left squealing. Spencer gives a dirty look
11:12:25 PM the band leaves the stage
11:17:06 PM Black Swan;
11:23:55 PM Taming of the hands that came back to life (labeled as "Funky" on the set list);
11:29:18 PM Spencer: Thank you Hello we're Sunset Rubdown we're from Montreal Canada. ... we have a new record its out tomorrow. Were going to play a number of songs from that for tonight
11:30:00 PM Silver Moons (Labeled as "Silver" on the setlist);
11:35:09 PM Camilla: It's a good turn out for a Monday.
*cheers*
Drunk: any day of the week!
Camilla: Oh get a job.
Spencer picks up a guitar
11:36:20 PM Idiot Heart;
11:42:31 PM Drunk: Let's go to the pool!
Spencer: Go to the pool?
Drunk: For sunset rubdown!
*More Tuning*
11:43:39 PM Spencer: How we doin? How are you guys?
*cheers*
*Song request yells*
Spencer: We're going to play a new song right now, it's not even on the new record.
Spencer: while loading the very complicated gear he was saying "Do you remember the last time we played this venue?"
"No"
He said "Well it was a fucking disaster"
I said "That's great I don't remember that"
He said "Well that's because you were really drunk"
So I told him "Thanks for mentioning my problem"
*lifts beer*
I don't have a problem
This is just to take the edge off
*sips*
This new song is about having to much to drink sometimes.
I would like to dedicate it, to Tod, he's in another band and is our tour manager.
He's babysat me a lot of times I've needed babysitting.
11:45:21 PM Coming to a Dawn (Labeled as "Obliterate" on the set list)
11:50:45 PM Spenser: Thank you
11:51:43 PM tuning up another song.....
11:52:22 PM You Go on Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II) (Labeled as "You Go..." on the set list)
11:57:56 PM Spenser: Thank you
Spenser: Going to do a switcheroo
Spenser: I want to thank elfin saddle and the witchies. Please buy their shit
*points at the merchandise table*
*People yelling "shut up I'm dreaming" and "snakes got a leg"*
12:00:00 AM Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh! (Labeled as "Buff" on the set list);
12:03:46 AM spenser back to keyboard
12:05:29 AM Drunk: Wonder me before you eat me from the crowd
12:05:42 AM Spenser: Well shit well try it. You guys are very kind.
12:06:09 AM Crowd: Shut up I'm dreaming
12:06:17 AM Spenser: We are going to play none of those 3 songs. We have I'm afraid our own agenda
12:06:37 AM The Mending of the Gown (Labeled as "Mending" on the set list)
12:11:36 AM Spenser: Thank you
12:11:50 AM spenser asks crowd member "What are you telling...?"
Drunk Guy up front pointing to Jordan: "I was telling him I love him"
Spenser: "Yeah he's pretty good eh? He's only 12 years old"
12:12:56 AM Winged_Wicked Things (Labeled as "Winged" on the setlist);
12:17:29 AM
Camilla: "Thank You"
Spenser: You guys are awesome
Spenser: "Let me do one more. Lets see how much time we got"
You guys ever drive just around Arizona and listen to 'The Doors'?
That's what we did today.
Crowd: Really?
Crowd: Nice
Spenser: Well I mean, Well we had to drive
Crowd: You had to drive and you had to listen to the doors?
Spenser: Yeah we had to listen to the doors
*Random yells*
Spenser: I'm hurt
12:18:52 AM Dragon's Lair (Labeled as "Dragon" on the setlist);
12:29:09 AM Spenser: Give us a second
*Spenser and band move offstage for a moment, applause dies down to a few clappers, Spenser stands up (perhaps not visible to everyone since hes' on the side) and gives the "slit throat" motion with a flat palm which usually means "cut it off" or "stop it" but since the crowd sees him they just start applauding more*
12:31:47 AM Spenser: Sorry. Thanks. That was really fucking awkward.
12:33:18 AM *Spenser on the guitar*
12:34:12 AM The Empty Threats Of Little Lord (Labeled as "Lord" on the setlist);
12:40:42 AM Camilla: "Thank You"
*Spenser says some things but inaudible over crowd*

Handsome Furs Setlist 2009-06-12

2009-06-13T11:22:00.003-07:00

An awesome concert last night of Handsome Furs at Chyro Arts Venue in Scottsdale Arizona. June 12th 2009. Dan happened to filter his way through the audience and get close to the stage while the second opening band "The Cinnamon Band" was playing their last song.

The band was starting to setup on the stage about 10:08 PM (Arizona Time, which for this part of the year is the same as Pacific time zone).

They started off with a song "about the current financial crisis" as Dan put it.

10:18 PM Legal Tender;

10:20 PM Talking Hotel Arbat Blues;

10:24 PM All We Want, Baby, Is Everything;

I get my twitter messages as Text Messages, so the times can sometimes be off, but at any rate, this came in at 10:27 http://twitter.com/somuchsilence/status/2150823760

10:28 PM
Dan: "What's this song about?"
Alexei: "Doing it!" (excited)
Dan: "It's about sex" (grinning)

10:28 PM Evangeline

10:32 PM
There is some talk of a cactus that attacks you? Dan says their tour manager has told them about it, the crowd attempts to explain, but then shouts of "no thats wrong, they use lasers" starts to be the loudest voice (at least from where I was standing).

Perhaps they are talking about "jumping cactus"

http://travelingmamas.com/2009/06/09/how-to-remove-cactus-needles-from-your-skin/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindropuntia_fulgida

10:33 PM Dan "This song is for David Caridine and Lugio ??? at the same time."
If you are reading this years later, David Caridine was found dead in a Tokyo hotel room 8 days earlier under mysterious conditions that pointed to either murder, suicide, or autoerotic asphyxiation but conflicting reports of the condition of the body are still being sorted out. I didn't quite understand the last name of Lugio, and my searches of "lugio dead" and "lugio confused" in Google and Google News don't seem to have any results that jump out at me.

10:33 PM I'm Confused;

10:38 PM Dan: "We booked the hotel off HotWire for $41 a night, and the pool was closed. Last time I was in town ... this girl ... forced me ... to swim. 'Only 15 minutes away' and it was 45 minutes into the desert"

10:38 PM Nyet Spasiba;

10:43 PM Dan: "This song is about any city you want it to be about."
Alexi let's him know that the microkorg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroKORG has been shifting like tectonic plates. He joins her on the table they are setup on, and they jam out.

10:43 PM Handsome Furs Hate This City;

10:46 PM Dan moves back to the guitar

10:50 PM Dan has some praise for "The Cinnamon Band" http://www.myspace.com/cinnamonband Also, did anyone else notice the letter "I" was missing from the drum in the title making it "The C_nnamon Band"? I kept wanting to ask them because I figured they would have a cute story like "there's no 'I' in team" but I never worked up the courage.

10:50 PM Dan says they have one more song to play.

10:51 PM Radio Kaliningrad;

Oddly the Amazon mp3 I bought names it "12 - Radio Kalininbrad.mp3", but he clearly says "grad" and not "brad" in the song. Also thier MySpace has it as "grad" http://www.myspace.com/handsomefurs

10:56 PM The crowd demands an encore. The latin girl with the black fedora sitting right in front of the speakers who was recording most of the concert with some sort of hand held device got up and left and missed the encore song. I wanted to ask her what that was, and if she was going to post the videos anywhere. The encore song I didn't recognize. If you are reading this years from now, he repeats the phrase "I know" in it quite a few times.

Easter Devotional - Psalm 91 about Iraq - 2009

2009-04-12T11:20:00.006-07:00

(A relative of mine presented this devotional)

Easter Devotional
Saturday Brown Bag Lunch
April 11, 2009

Iraq is about the size of Texas, and I say this because I understand that while I was gone my brother (removed) came home for a little while and talked about HIS experiences in Iraq. While some of the things I say may sound similar, some will sound different. During my tour of duty I was a Motor Transportation Vehicle Operator for (removed) stationed in Al Anbar province. That's a real fancy way of saying: I was a truck driver in western Iraq. But that sure doesn't sound as cool.

I got to see a lot of western Iraq while driving on Convoys for hours and hours at a time. At one point I was living in SW Iraq near the Saudi Arabian border, and the next month I was living in NW Iraq near the Syrian Border.

The wide swath of western Iraq that I saw, looked exactly like what you see out your front porch... Really flat, Really brown, Really desolate.

(Removed) spends his time in eastern Iraq, and like I said: Iraq is about the size of Texas and just as diversified. In an email he sent to the family he talked about beautiful mountains, rivers, and good hiking ground. Well I'm looking out of 4 inches of bulletproof glass thinking, "What on Earth is he talking about?!!"

We had a Navy chaplain with us, and I really liked him. One convoy we went on he had to ride in the back of the truck and when he got out at the end all covered with dirt, I stopped him and said "Hey Chap, this sure has come a long way from being the Promised Land." He then explained how the Promised Land wasn't in this exact spot of this glorious desert.

For a couple of months I was living in the middle of nowhere. Lots of times people throw that saying around, but when I SAY the middle of nowhere, I mean it in the purest way. While I was living out there we would go out on convoys every other day, and the rest of the time we were just trying to stay out of the sand. This made for lots of down time.
We would sit in the trucks and play cards, try and learn Spanish (which sure didn't work for me), and try and decipher the Bible. I say try and decipher the Bible because between me, Garcia, Guzman, and Padilla, we were just a bunch of young dumb truck drivers. We tried to dabble in the Old Testament but very quickly we would find ourselves in the Gospels.

And this is what I want to talk about today or bring to you: how religion affected me over there. We were half way across the world away from our families for a long time and during holidays. Over there all we had was God and each other. Religion has a way of having people come together. After these discussions with my fellow Marines, I'd always feel bonded together a little more.

People often ask me. Were you scared? YOU BET I WAS! I was scared when I shouldn't have been. And I wasn't scared when I probably should have been. Somebody somewhere once pointed out Pslam 91 to me and I held on to that chapter throughout the deployment.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=91&version=31

I had Psalm 91 written on some of my gear and many guys would ask what Psalm 91 said. I'd say, go read it, but I'd also tell them that to me it meant, do not worry because God will protect you. Religion can bring people, even Marines, close together. Some of the biggest, baddest, toughest, Marines I know would walk up to me and say, "You know my favorite part of Psalm 91 is this verse or that line." --Marines that I didn't know well, but after just that little exchange about Psalms we would be brought closer. God really helped us out, because all we had was Him and each other. And religion gives you that warm feeling of security and that was a feeling that didn't come up very often.

There were many times I would be in the truck driving for hours and hours about to fall asleep, and I'd say a prayer: God it doesn't matter how many more energy drinks or sugar pills I take; I'm about to fall asleep, flip this big truck and kill everybody in it. Please just keep my eyes open for a couple more hours. And He always did.

Before every convoy we had what is called a convoy brief. This brief would tell us where we were going, how we were getting there, how fast we'd be going--things like that. Then we would jump in our trucks, slap a round into our rifles and hit the road.

But at the end of every convoy brief, the Navy Chaplain would lead us all in a prayer. Some of the prayers were motivating, some were a little sad. The prayers would go something like: "God, we're here in Al Taqadum Iraq. Be with every Marine and Sailor and truck as we go across the Al Anbar province to our objectives." And then at the very end he would always say the same thing every single time, and I liked it.
He'd end it with: "May his spirit guide us, presence protect us, and strength uphold us. Amen." That was motivating for me. Sometimes my buddy Guzman and I would even give the fist pump when he'd say those last three things. I enjoyed it so much that everyone in my platoon grew to enjoy it as much as I did.

But in the end I'd just like to say thanks for all the packages sent, and the prayers said for me while I was over there. There were some really tough times to get through over there, and God played a major role in making all the guys in my platoon feel like brothers, and some sort of family out there, and some sense of security.

And the next time you get scared. Think of Psalm 91.

Heavenly Father we stand here today in (Removed) TX asking that you be with every man, woman and car here as we all drive across (Removed) County to our appointed places of duty. Thank you for dying, and rising that we might live. May His spirit guide us, presence protect us, and strength uphold us. Amen.

Making twitter groups as simple as possible

2009-03-09T22:54:00.004-07:00

Originally posted at http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/when_is_twitter_going_to_get_groups

************

In Twitter Settings>Notices>@Replies you can select "@ replies to the people I'm following".
If we could have this be the default behavior for all new users, and encourage existing users to change to this setting, the following solution could work:

For most of these conferences there will already be an "official" twitter account, for instance @podcampaz

If I create a message and direct it to @podcampaz only people who also follow @podcampaz will have it show up in their feed. Of course if you went straight to my page, you will see the tweets, so it's not "private" and if you wanted to hear what was going on at PodCampAZ even if you weren't there you would subscribe to them.

(Props to @cycomer for the idea)

If you wanted, you could even make groups like @phoenix @arizona @phx @phxNightLife @phxWork @smith123Family @youtube @RT @OH @twitpic @WolfParadeFans @SpencerKrugFans @WorldOfWarcraftPlayers

Maybe this is an alternative to #

************

I'll explain by example:
I follow PersonA and PersonB
I don't follow PersonC

Whenever PersonA or PersonB says: Hello World
I see it.

Whenever PersonA @ messages PersonB like: @PersonB I like cupcakes
I see it, because I also follow PersonB

Whenever PersonA @ messages PersonC: @PersonC I'll be in your town next week
I don't see it, because I don't follow PersonC

Now if I go to twitter.com/PersonA I can read all of the messages, but I won't have the @PersonC messages in my feed.

So as an example, I go to @phx2600 meetings, and I live in @cityofchandler. Assuming everyone who lives in Chandler follows @cityofchandler, and everyone who goes to the local 2600 meetings follows @phx2600, AND has @ replies to people they don't follow turned off, I could say:
@phx2600 meeting is tonight. I'm going to bring a box of junk and give away whatever I have, if you are late bring donuts.
and then right after that say:
@cityofchandler there is a broken water main at Kyrene and 56th st, but 58th is packed to, so if you are headed that way, take 60th st

If you only follow @phx2600, you only get the first message.
If you only follow @cityofchandler, you only get the second message.
If you follow both, you get both.
And if you follow neither, (like my dad in another state), you don't see either message.

And everyone sees my: w00t, I just got paid today! Now who do I owe money to?

*************

One last note that didn't make it to the getsatisfaction page:
On my twitter stream I have it set to "Show no @ replies". Instead I just track the groups I want to keep up with (like @phx2600) using my favorite twitter search app.

My mistake of following 550 people and how I hope to fix it

2009-02-09T07:34:00.004-07:00

Sorry for the follow, and then unfollow everyone in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Cave Creek, etc.

Building off my previous "You are the news" blog post http://tankilo.blogspot.com/2008/11/you-are-news.html where I explain that reading people's twitters is more valuable as news than watching the local nightly news or your local paper.

I have been struggling with how best to accomplish this.

One of the first things I did was use Google to search Site:twitter.com "Location: Phoenix" and then follow everyone there, and then tracked Phoenix and if the person who came up listed as being from the area, followed them too. Way back in the day twitterlocal.net would show a map of an area and twitter posts from there, so looked up Phoenix and followed everyone from there as well. Then started attending local "social media" events and if I met someone there, followed them on twitter as well.

The problem: twitter.com/tankilo follows 550 people. Way back in the day Leo Laporte mentioned that he viewed these micro blogging services as a "river of news" where you can't possibly drink it all in, but instead, "bathe in a river of information". That's what I was doing, but found I wanted to keep up with some currents 100% of the time, but they were being flooded out by the other 546 people I was following.

Location based search and TwitterLocal.net came to my rescue. You can now do near:Phoenix at search.twitter.com and run an Adobe Air app called TwitterLocal that allows you to have a program that launches at startup, showing posts within so many miles of a zip code. So I setup one for within 5 miles of 85050, and another for within 50 miles of 85051. That should take care of the river of info for Phoenix AZ. So now whenever I have 30 seconds to spare (waiting on a download, or my World of Warcraft character has to wait for something to finish for a few minutes) I switch over to the TwitterLocal app and glance at what's going down.

Distraction? Certainly not. I'm saving hours a day by not even trying to read the newspaper or watching television. With this system I only "head to the river" when I'm free. There might be days where an intense set of circumstances causes me to ignore everything, and on the days when I'm open to more information coming my way, I'll go for a bath.

I'm now going to try and unfollow down to 100 people. Why 100? It just seemed like a nice round number. So if I had followed you, and am now unfollowing you, please do not take it as an offense, and I promise, from now on, to not follow someone just because they are in Phoenix AZ. I have to expect that some people will unfollow me once they read this, if you do, consider setting up a solution for those nearby as well, and then @ me to let me know what you came up with, I'd love to hear it.

Speaking of @ messages. On the advice of @evo_terra, you can turn off all @ replies (other people @'ing someone else) in twitter settings. Still trialing that.

The list of people I'm going to try and keep following:
1. Family.
2. Friends I grew up with.
3. People within 5 miles of 85050
4. Phoenix 2600 Group (Once a month meeting where we chat about computer stuff)
5. Social Media Friends
6. A few tech journalists / news feeds
7. People I've met at local events

Then the whole other list of people who I get their text messages sent to my phone will fluctuate depending on how many txt a day I feel I can handle.

Twitter if you are listening: You could make this easier by default.
1. Include @Replies in the main stream instead of another page.
2. Have a "near me" page on the main page that users could click on if they get interested.

A problem: I know how to do this, but will anyone else?

You are news

2008-11-18T19:15:00.008-07:00

I made a post on twitter.com awhile back stating:

"I love Twitter because it has you guys :-) Its my local news, cup of tech, cup of politics, quart of comedy, and a sprinkling of addiction" Source: http://twitter.com/tankilo/status/992850990

@jonnyangry Replied: "@tankilo whats the local new twitter SN?" Source: http://twitter.com/jonnyangry/status/993588735

I hadn't meant that there was a news organization with journalists reporting what people are doing locally or what people are thinking locally, I meant that I read what you guys report on what you are doing and thinking, to me that's news.

I'd love a situation where a large number of my neighbors, coworkers, and people who work close to me, were active on twitter. It would bring me one step closer to recreating the "small town" feel of "everyone knows everyone" that I grew up with.

The rest of this article is skippable.

My internet connection went down sometime around midnight on November 16th 2008. Since I was just surfing along it's very likely it's just an outage and nothing wrong with my system. The last time this happened I was on the phone with Cox, and they said "nope, no outage, we can't communicate with your modem, try disconnecting all your TV's and going straight to the modem, that still didn't work? You are going to need some high quality cable then, we will schedule a technician visit to your home." The next morning the internet works fine, I hook my TV's back up, and everything else, and it still works fine. So I have to call back and cancel the technician visit the next day. So a fail on their part, obviously there was some sort of outage but the technician on the phone didn't have the info and so he had me do the normal troubleshooting steps.
November 16th around midnight, the internet goes out again.
I posted "Cox internet went down. Makes it hard to research WotLK DVD install problems for my relative. They upgraded account & can't play" http://twitter.com/tankilo/status/1009262892
About 2 hours later "@tankilo Mine was down too, I wonder how widespread it was. Where are you located? I'm at 7th Street and Greenway" http://twitter.com/PHLAK/status/1009314652
Then that morning someone who lived close to me tweeted "OMG the internet isn't working. Someone save me." http://twitter.com/kissmecait/status/1009737695
It was already pretty late at night so I went to bed and read these messages in the morning, and to me that was good to hear because it confirmed "an outage" and nothing I needed to change about my own system. This was even "news I could use" since now I wouldn't spend hours messing around with my own equipment.

Edit: I'd say this probably improves your outlook on life as well. Try consuming a little less of the "news" and listen to a few more people on twitter. If you don't want to follow anymore people, just use http://search.twitter.com/ and lookup your town, apartment complex, shopping center nearby, office building, name of your company, etc.

Why I pay for online multiplayer games and why some "free" ones have problems

2008-10-05T17:56:00.002-07:00

Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games are where everyone connects to a virtual world with their computers. They all play as characters in this virtual world and either fight each other or computer generated monsters.There are pay MMO's and free MMO's. The pay MMO's are usually setup on a monthly recurring basis, and the free MMO's make their money from allowing you to buy things inside the game. For instance the online flash game "Dino Run" http://www.pixeljam.com/dinorun/ is free to play, just go to the page, and click "Start Running" on the left, then use the left and right arrow keys to run to the right and try and outrun the meteors while collecting eggs on the ground, (press Up to Jump, and Spacebar to pause the game). It's free to play, but if you pay money, your dinosaur gets to wear a hat! I'm lead to believe there's some part of the game where you can socialize with other people and the dino's can walk around without having to worry about extinction.

These games are possible, even profitable, as long as the cost to operate them is minimal and just a few people donate. They still want players who don't pay because just them being there contributes to the richness and depth of the online world. You don't have to worry about losing to the pay customers since they only get a hat, and that's not going to let them run any faster or collect more eggs.

Now the next step up in this is a game I play for free "Ikariam". http://ikariam.org/ Everyone can play for free, and it's basically a game where you are the ruler of your city, and you decide how many citizens you will employ at the saw mill to gather building materials, how many citizens to go to work in the mines or the vineyards, how many soldiers to employ, how many ships, and how big the government buildings in the town are; any citizen that isn't working in the government is free to pursue his own interests, and pays taxes.It's great fun. It's also the definition of "open ended" since there are no scripted events, no monsters, no evil power out to destroy everyone, it's nothing but you and all the other "rulers" of their own towns. You are free to make new colonies, invade a neighbors town to take some of his stuff or gold, trade with your neighbors for goods you don't have, form alliances, or be a complete hermit with high walls and a huge defense and just do your own thing. You could even have no military and pay gold to another player to protect you; or play mind games with anyone that might attack you by sending them in-game email after they attack you offering to just give them resources if they will leave you alone, then pay another player to attack them while you build up an army, and then attack!

Half the fun of a game like Ikariam is the choices you make and what you want to get done, and how your neighbors, and everyone else in the world, reacts.If you devote 100% of your citizens to paying taxes, you are left to the will of the market prices for your building materials. And sometimes no one is selling, or the prices seem to high.Want to send everyone to work in the mines? Then no one pays taxes and you run out of money.Want to create a huge army? Their upkeep costs money, if you go bankrupt, they will start abandoning you.Want to attack your neighbor? He won't just sit there and take it, he'll fight back, and sometimes in ways you that don't make sense to you.Want to turn two of your enemies against each other? Assuming you can do it with only the in-game email (or maybe make some allies and setup scenarios to make them lash out). You can do most any political or diplomatic thing you can imagine.It's actually a great sociological experimental playground.

And then...

If you pay, as little as $1 a week, you can get 20% increased production. You can pay a few dollars and setup to allow you to convert some goods into another without having to deal with other people, or "the market".

So now your neighbor, can become more powerful than you, just by paying a little. You may have been in the game for months, slogging it out trying to get your resources up, and a brand new player can hop in, drop a few dollars, and get a big jump up.

The other end of this spectrum is Subscription games with no bonuses. And if anyone attempts to "beat the system" by spending money to buy a high level character, or buying in game gold, their will be punishments. The most popular MMO out there is "World of Warcraft" (WoW), and the company (Blizzard/Vivendi) has even sued other companies that create programs that can be used to put your character on "auto pilot" and farm gold for you while you aren't in front of your computer. WoW costs $15 a month to play.http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/09/29/mdy-blizzard-damages/

The thing I like about WoW is that I "know" that if I see a piece of gear on a character, they had to work for it. It is possible to give someone real money and have them give you gold inside of the game, and there have been problems with even the highest level players cheating in game, but attempts to "beat the system" are investigated and punished.

I had a friend tell me he played WoW on a "free server" meaning someone was able to run an illegal "pirated" version of the same game, but his virtual world was not tied into the virtual world I and all the other paying customers is on. I was intrigued and asked him if he could get things for free in the game, like free armor, or weapons, or break the rules in the game. He stated it was just like the original game, just free. I wondered why bother then? I'm sure whomever runs the server isn't playing by the rules, and probably none of his friends are, and if you ever happen to run into any of them in the game and want to fight them, they can just type /kill and defeat your character. If that's the case, why not play for $15 a month? Now you are in the exact same position, but no one running around with a /kill command on their hip.

To recap: When I play World of Warcraft, I know everyone is where they are because that's where they worked to be. When I play Ikariam, I know that the people I'm dealing with may be playing with loaded dice. When I play Dino Run, I think the people wearing hats are cool.
I should note that as of this writing (2008-10-05) any of these games could change over night since they are online. Thus they could change policies or prices.

Does Electronic Arts hate the planet?

2008-09-21T22:31:00.004-07:00

Needlessly alarmist headline I know.
So I started to play Warhammer at the urging of some friends.
I'd like an additional trial account so my wife can play as well.
Can't seem to find a way to set that up on the website.
Attempted to just buy a new account online, couldn't find a way to do that either.
So sent in a form at http://support.ea.com/ and they told me they started case 080922-0025**
It says 24 hours for reply, so let's see what we get.
Will Electonic Arts allow you to just pay with a credit card over their website to setup an account -or- do they hate the planet and want us all to drown in trash?
I like this whole fear mongering thing, why haven't we done this more in the past?
Update: Received email September 22nd 5:45pm
Well... draw. I got an email response that was a cut and paste of some FAQ. None of them directly addressed my concern. This one came close:
--Why won’t the serial code I purchased from direct2drive.com work on my account?-http://help.warhammeronline.com/cgi-bin/eawarhammer.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=8833&p_sid=OVwSDlej&p_lva=20327

Followed the link and got this info:
QUESTION: Why won't the serial code I purchased from www.Direct2Drive.com work on my account?
Answer: A serial code purchased from www.direct2drive.com is intended for registering new accounts only. This code will not work for upgrading your existing account to Samurai Empire. If you have questions concerning your purchase from Direct2Drive, please go to www.direct2drive.com and click the Help button at the top of the page. You will be able to e-mail your concern to their Customer Support department.

So it sounds like there is a website called direct2drive.com that allows you to purchase games... but there seems to be some kind of question as to whether or not it works... and why is the game "Samurai Empire" being brought up?

I'll probably give it a try anyway.

So I joined FaceBook

2008-06-10T23:25:00.003-07:00

Look me up as "Tan Kilo".
I joined it because I'm going to try and help out with http://podcampaz.org/ a Social Media Unconference.
I've been a fan of podcasting for a long time, so I'm hoping the event will be fun.
It's all a part of "Geek Week", an initiative to draw attention to Phoenix for new tech businesses by having a variety of conferences occur at the same time.
I just realized after uploading the photo I still have the headphones in my ears. Which is probably how you would find me in the wild since I'm always listening to podcasts when I'm not reading.

How to eliminate reprehensible content

2008-05-18T07:37:00.001-07:00

How to eliminate reprehensible content:
*Step1. Put out the idea that if you are exposed to bad things, you may be more likely to do bad things.

*Step2. Spend 10 years going into the closets of teenage killers and finding any mainstream music, movies, games, or TV, and publish that in every major new outlet.

*Step3. Convince the public that there is a direct cause and effect from bad things on tv/audio to people doing bad things in real life.

*Step4. Convince the industry you will come out with a terrible rating system so they will voluntarily adopt a rating system of their own

*Step5. Complain that their rating system isn't accurate or judges content inaccurately.

*Here's where we are now: Step6. Setup huge fines for anyone selling content that allows an underage person to buy it (http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/news/release/2008/0512.asp) thus causing retailers to be less likely to carry reprehensible content.

*Step7: Setup the same penalties for person2person transactions. Then, for gifts. Then, for disposal (you cannot throw it away, you must destroy it).

*Step8: Start arguing that it's offensive to Muslims to even see the cover of the game on the store shelf, so could they all please be kept under the counter? Out of site of anyone who happens to walk by (more lost sales). (Don't bother saying it's offensive to Christians too, no one cares about them anymore, it's 2008, it's all about appeasing Muslims now)

*Step9: State that even with the penalties in place, children are still getting access to reprehensible content, so "age verification" needs to be built into all players.

*Step10: Setup huge fines for websites that describe how to break the "age verification" on players, because it's for the children.

*Step11: You love children don't you?

*Step12: Continue to hassle, burden, tax, hinder, sue, etc; anyone who creates objectionable content by forcing restrictions on how that content can be distributed.

*Step13: Cause a dis-incentive to create reprehensible content since with all the regulation and distribution limits it becomes more difficult to turn a profit. This will affect the smallest publishers first since they are more susceptible to changes in the market.

*Step14: Make the creating, distribution, and consumption of reprehensible content so difficult, that you create an dis-incentive for consuming it. This helps push reprehensible content to whatever new media or mediums become created since they haven't been around for as long or aren't yet understood.

*Step15: Convince politicans that they need to start reacting faster to new media and mediums, here's an idea: Rating system

Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, at the Brickhouse

2008-05-17T19:35:00.003-07:00

Here in Phoenix last Thursday we were graced with the presence of Jonathan Coulton (Paul and Storm opening) at a venue I hadn't been to before called "Brickhouse" or "The Brickhouse".

It was a little hard to find at "1 east jackson phoenix az", basically take 7th ave South from I-10, then after a left (East) on Jefferson ST, then right (South) on 4th Ave, then left (East) on Jackson ST, then you'll see the tan building on the right, with the entrance to the parking lot ($5) immediately before it, on the West side

Once inside the ticket counter and entrance are on the street side (North) of the building, grab your tickets, get the little plastic/paper hybrid wrist strap, grab a drink (decent price $1 for soda the size of those red solo cups), and sit in the terrible plastic folding chairs. Really terrible plastic folding chairs. (I wonder if I could have brought my own chair...)

About 60% of "audience area" lined with terrible plastic folding chairs and then 40% of restaurant/bar area (called "The Chop Shop" if you google it I think). Really a nice place. I did hear someone complain of too much salt on the fries.

There was either no smoking inside, or no smoking in the "audience" area. But either way I was able to come home and "not reek" of cigarette smoke, which tends to happen to me in these venues in the past.

Paul and Storm's opening was awesome, and much of Jonathan Coultons performance can be seen online:

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/wiki/index.php/Phoenix%2C_AZ:_2008-05-15

Tweetclouds show what you write most often

2008-04-24T06:24:00.003-07:00

Props to http://twitter.com/cburell for linking to this blog post
http://beyond-school.org/2008/04/24/some-tgif-fluff-tweetclouds-as-windows-of-the-soul/ of his where he mentions "Tweet Clouds".

It basically looks at every tweet you've made, when you use a word, it puts it up on the board, when you use it twice, it makes that word larger, then if used 3 times, even larger.

So I pulled my username up:

http://www.tweetclouds.com/user_pages/tankilo.html

Some words that are huge:
phx
twitter
@albertmaruggi (He runs a podcast about using social media in marketing http://www.providentpartners.net/blog/and I met him at a Social Media breakfast, it was hilarious having him mention "when Best Buy was making their internal website for communication" I would pipe up and comment on it, and he was right there to hear it or answer. Now that I think about it, he's the only podcaster I've ever met in person)

That was kinda it. I try to really work and rework every twitter post, and then don't usually even post that often, and I've only been posting for maybe 2 months. So not a whole lot there. I guess check back in a year and we'll see more trends develop.

What I would teach all the children of the world

2008-04-18T00:12:00.002-07:00

Beside "Reading", "Writing", "Arithmetic", "Deductive Reasoning". Well now I feel like I came up with a whole new slew of things to write about. But I just posted in the comments over at a blog I happened across: http://beyond-school.org/

I was commenting that if I was going to try and reach out to all other countries and teach them something it would be:

"No one can solve your problems but you. If you want something, you have to work for it so that you can get it or afford it. Free trade benefits both parties because you both end up with a good that otherwise would have cost you more. Trust no one and be suspicious of anyone offering help. Don't enter "contests" or "lotteries" and even avoid signs of "Free ". Nothing is free and there is always a catch. When people relate when something happened to them, they tend to exaggerate, not because they are bad people, but they are convinced it happened that way. The only thing you can control in your life is your reaction to other people, so the less you react the way they would expect the better. If someone insults you, smile and laugh, because they cannot hurt you with words and if they see you cringe they will only attack more. You are responsible for your feelings, and the more you think about how someone has hurt you, the more they win. Do not give money to people you don't know, and take care of your family and friends, the best kind act is to do for others what you do best because it will have the biggest impact. Try to give other people the benefit of a doubt."

Thought of one more thing "There is a lot more out there than what goes on in your house, your school, and your town. The minute you leave home it's like living in a different world and it will only get better. Try not to live with your parents over the age of 18. Then the minute you leave college it's another whole new world, and it gets better. You may one day move out of your town/city and everything changes again."

But don't worry. What life does best (and I'm including humans) is adapt. Whatever changes are thrown your way, you can handle. At the beginning is probably the worst, but you can get through it and eventually you won't even remember the pain. After all, you control your memories.

Why government causes pollution

2008-04-17T00:46:00.001-07:00

All attempts to modify a market from whatever the natural laws of supply and demand would dictate, will cause inefficiency.

Any inefficiencies translate into more raw materials that need to be consumed in order to make and use a product.

More raw materials to accomplish the same goal (of the finished product) causes the purchaser to do more than would normally be required, thus increasing the work s/he would have to do.

This demand for more materials than would be necessary to accomplish the same goal, is causing more demand for materials.

More material used equals more pollution.

Thus, help to decrease pollution by removing artificial costs to products in the form of regulation and taxes.

Security Now #139 Response -Who owns the saturated routers?

2008-04-16T22:11:00.002-07:00

Security Now #139
Steve Gibson talked about there being routers that would become so saturated they would start dropping packets.
Who owns that router?
If I was "the guy" who noticed all traffic headed toward that router was failing frequently, wouldn't I opt to start sending my traffic towards a different router?
In theory we could keep switching connections until there are none left, at which point "the guy" would shout, "won't someone put up a router that isn't saturated?"
And when the cost of bandwidth/equipment/regulatory agencies/etc gets low enough so that a profit can be made *poof* another routing path will appear and the call will go out to "send your traffic here!"
in a free market problems get solved when costs for solutions gets lower than problems.

Looking for VersaMail Outlook2007 PalmOS expert

2008-04-16T20:23:00.001-07:00

Anyone in Phoenix? (Or anywhere else) worked with lots of PalmOS and Outlook 2007 setups or with VersaMail? Please comment on this post, @tankilo in twitter, or email me at the email address at the top of the page

How about phxaz instead of phx?

2008-04-14T22:30:00.001-07:00

Don't know about everyone else out there in twitterville, but I use twitter on my cell phone and track my username (tankilo), tweetupaz, and phx.
Problem is, instead of just the traffic for hashtag #phx, I get anyone talking about flights inside and out of phx, and all sorts of sports references.
As twitter grows this will become increasingly harder to handle.
So how about this, instead of #phx, how about #phxaz? I know with a 140 character limit, 2 characters is actually not a trivial matter, but I hope it will prove worth it in the long run.
TinyURL to this post: http://tinyurl.com/4rkvjr

I wanted to do no less

2008-04-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do no less than save the world.

Hey we all have to start somewhere.