On the Twitter feed today I noticed a message from one of the people I follow, and that sparked a lively discussion. Said Twitter user kariume:

“I miss the days of Web 1.0, when it was okay for a geek to be an introvert.”

It made me think back to the good ol’ days. Wasn’t it just yesterday (OK, maybe almost two decades ago…has it been really that long?) that calling someone a geek was an insult on the order of calling someone a nerd or a dork? Now we live in an online culture where people willingly take the title geek for themselves and confer it, with the utmost respect, on others.

Even then, geeks labored on their own projects and paid no heed to the popularity contests that the rest of the world sought to win. Being cool wasn’t that important.

Now we find ourselves in Web 2.0, and some aspects of it seem to reflect the popularity contests that the Web 1.0 geek would shun. The well-known centers of the Web 2.0 world, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and the like, all feature profiles with one’s “friend count” prominently displayed. “Invite your friends,” the Web 2.0 site implores the user, as if one’s entire worth on that site revolves around that friend count.

You’ve got only 15 friends on your page? I’ve got 45 on Twitter. Neener-neener-neener. But of course, my count pales against some others who follow, and are followed by, close to 1,000 people.

I can certainly see how this search for the almighty “friend” can make some geeks uncomfortable, especially those who, like myself, are happy with their comfy group of friends.

Of course, geeks come in all shapes, sizes, and temperaments; and geekdom encompasses both the extrovert and the introvert. Said Shane Robinson (@shane), “I’m an introverted geek. We’re still here in Web 2.0 land. We’re building all this stuff everyone else is using.” Adds Burt Lum (@Bytemarks), “I think it is still okay to be geeky and behind the scene.”

And speaking personally, with my 45 friends compared against those in the high three figures, it’s safe to say that Web 2.0 itself hasn’t fundamentally changed me. I’m still very much an introvert. I use my Twitter not primarily as a means to meet new people, but rather as a way to extend the face-to-face contacts I’ve made.

And often, that can pave the way for new offline interactions, which, again, makes some geeks uncomfortable. I’ve had the good fortune to have been able to take part in the Hawaii Geek Meet (which I wrote about), monthly Flickr Friday meetups, and Manoa Geeks. To be honest, if it weren’t for having one of Honolulu’s alpha geeks sitting 100 feet from me where I work, I probably would have missed out on these and others.

In the end, there’s no doubt about it that Web 2.0 has made it easy for friendships and relationships to grow and prosper. Making new contacts does have value. I’ve expanded my horizons greatly. But I know that at the end of the day I always come back to the same trusty group of friends who provide me that stable foundation in a time of change. And in a time of rapid change, that’s a great comfort.

Your turn: Does one really need to be an extrovert to survive in the geek world these days? Is the emphasis on the “social web” a good thing or a bad thing?

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve written here. Sometimes I feel I need prompting to get myself to write, such as a meme. One of the memes I found was friday5.org. Wasn’t quite interested in it at first, but after I found out that an online acquaintance of mine runs it, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. This will probably help me keep this blog current. So here goes.

1. What was the last thing you purchased from a vending machine?

A 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi at Kapiolani Community College. I was there for an amateur radio educational workshop on direction finding.

2. What was the last thing you made copies of on a photocopier?

Sheet music for a song. As a church choir leader, I make photocopies of music on a regular basis so that they have something to sing from.

3. When did you last use a pay telephone?

I can’t even remember, now that I have my phone attached to my hip at all times.

4. How often do you visit an automatic teller machine?

On average, once a week. My bank is a small one with not much market share, so they don’t have ATMs at major malls and such; only at their branches. Some people will probably say this is not the best strategy, but if I need cash, I basically suck it up and get my cash from the closest machine to me, damn the fees. I do take out about $100.00 each time and try to make the cash last a week.

5. Which of your daily tasks would you most like to see automated?

One of these days I want to get a good voice recognition program and giving it a try. I’d love to be able to speak to my computer and have it do my bidding.

Read other responses to this week’s questions here.

What can I say?  It’s been a wild and crazy ride.

Never before in modern history has politics been so…well…interesting. It’s the kind of stuff that cable networks make movies about.  And never before has a presidential primary campaign hit all 50 states in the union and all the outlying territories.  At least on the Democratic side, it has generated record levels of participation.

And when all is said and done, it appears we finally have a Democratic nominee in Barack Obama. 

I’m happy about it, with Obama being a hometown boy and a graduate of the same school as myself. Of course, there’s more to it than that…shared ideas and all that.  But if the situation had been reversed, though, I would still support Hillary in November as well.  I like both candidates; I just liked Obama better.  It’s too bad that one candidate had to lose.

I alluded earlier to the idea of a dream ticket…the two top contenders also being one-two on the ticket. Hillary is saying that she’s open to the #2 spot. Obama may be open to give it to her.

For the party’s sake, I hope he does.

Because what’s really concerning me is the rhetoric I’m seeing on the comment boards on the major news sites, most of which fall in one of these categories:

• If Obama wins the nomination, I’m voting for McCain.
• If Obama makes Hillary his running mate, I’m voting for McCain.
• If Obama doesn’t make Hillary his running mate, I’m voting for McCain.

And when I read those comments and feel the anger behind them, I think to myself: They can’t possibly be serious.  I’d like to believe that it’s just post-primary sour grapes and that come the convention and in November they’ll all do whatever it takes to put a Democrat in the White House.

I have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that a significant portion of Clinton supporters would rather, in effect, elect George W. Bush to a third term; continue a war that, while improving marginally, still has no end in sight; and continue economic policies that are putting us deeper and deeper in the budgetary hole, than have a Democrat other than Hillary Clinton in the White House.

Especially since, on the issues, they’re pretty much in the same place.

I can probably think of no other person who would be better for the VP job than Hillary Clinton. And had she won, I could probably think of no better person to be her running mate than Obama.

One main thing that a candidate looks for in a running mate is balance; the ability to reach a constituency that he or she would be unable to reach by themselves. Looking at the primary voting pattern, something is clear.  Clinton won the white blue collar vote.  Obama dominated African-Americans and the professionals and intelligentsia. The strength of one illustrates the weakness of the other.

Simply put: They need each other. Like peanut butter and chocolate.

I’m hoping that on the final night of the Democratic Convention, I’ll see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the podium, hands clasped in a victorious stance. If that happens, I think the momentum that the Democrats worked up over the past five months just might carry over into November. At least, I hope so.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Now that tax season is over, now comes the fun part. Getting that economic stimulus payment. Or is it really fun at all? 

Unfortunately, it appears that retailers may not see the benefit of the $600 checks, as many people are opting either to pay off debt or put it into savings. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But it points to a weakness of giving out tax rebates. Usually it’s done with the intent to stimulate spending, but once that check is cut, it really is up to that person on what to spend it on, or whether to spend it at all.  That so many people are choosing not to spend it speaks volumes.

One place that’s interesting reading (via Lifehacker) is How I Spent My Stimulus, where people tell their stories of how they spent their $600 or equivalent.  From the category count, people used their money for travel the most, followed by paying down credit card debt, electronics, home improvement, and savings and investment.

Of course, the thing that I find interesting for those that choose travel is that a lot of them used the money for foreign trips, thus stimulating another country’s economy.

Some of the stories:

• “I had big plans for my stimulus, which included taking a trip that would put the first stamp in my passport. However, I got laid off the day after I received my payment and then my puppy got violently ill. My stimulus didn’t even cover her ER visit. Thanks for helping my puppy get better.”
• “Put $1000 towards paying off a week long hospitalization for pulmonary embolism than happend 5 years ago. $4000 left to go!”
• “I bought a make controller kit. I want to build a device to open the window to let the cat in our out, saving me approx. 20 hours a week of window opening.”

As for me?  I pay my credit card off each month, always at the last possible moment for maximum float, and I’ve been able to put a good amount of my everyday money in savings and still live comfortably. So, rightly or wrongly, I treat my tax refunds like mad money. Part of this year’s federal tax refund funded a new DSLR.

And my current plans for my stimulus check, due around the 4th of July, is to use it to for a trip. Over the past couple of years I’ve been taking trips to Oregon in late August in order to participate in the Hood to Coast Relay. Normally I take one week, and the big expense is the airfare. I stay with a team member, usually in private housing, and we usually have use of a car, so it’s pretty inexpensive.  This year I decided to stay an extra week through Labor Day, take out a hotel room, rent a car, and see the Oregon countryside.

I probably would have done it anyway, stimulus or no. But it feels good not to have to go into debt to do it.

How do you plan to use your stimulus check?

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse.

– Samuel Johnson

Sometimes I wonder if Samuel Johnson had blogs in mind when he said this in the 18th century.

Never since the invention of moveable type has there been so much…well…stuff being written, on just about any subject. Just search Technorati and somewhere, someplace, someone is writing about that subject. And sometimes people write just for the sake of writing, just to say how good or how bad their days have been, or how sick as a dog they are.

But one thing is certain. They write to be read. They don’t put this stuff out there without the expectation of there being a readership, however small. 

The artist puts paint to canvas for his own enjoyment, but no doubt his enjoyment would be enhanced if someone were moved by the painting enough to buy it. And even if the critic pans it, well, it was noticed. Someone saw it. And once that happens, the work’s reason for being has been fulfilled.

Back to blogs. Some are good, others are utter garbage. And no doubt this humble place I call home on the Web falls into the latter category. But I probably wouldn’t be too far off the mark to generalize that for many bloggers, the measure of success for a post is their comment count.

I know that’s true for me. If I get a comment, or a request to moderate a well-thought out comment (i.e. not spam), then I can rest in the satisfaction that someone read it. They may not agree with what I say, but I yelled from the mountaintop and got an echo back.

Still, what makes it hard to write (and part of the reason that I go through feast and famine stages in posting) is that sometimes I feel like I have to say something totally outrageous.

Like:  I eat human flesh for breakfast.

And if you believe that, I have some land on the slopes of Kilauea to sell you.

So, my question to you (those of you who have blogs): How true does Samuel Johnson’s quote hold for you? What motivates you to keep your blog?

The only way to amuse some people is to slip and fall on an icy pavement.
 Howe, Edgar Watson on Amusement Quote from Quotations Book
 

Or…to slip and fall on live television, as Ryan Ozawa at HawaiiBlog did on KITV 4.

As an amateur choir conductor, I’ve always wondered whether there really is a thing called tone deafness. To some degree I’ve encountered some resistance when I try to recruit people to the choir…people say that they don’t sing well.

While researching tone deafness and whether there is really a thing, I stumbled across the site of Jake Mandell, a medical student at the University of Massachusetts. He formulated some tests to see how well people can detect differences in pitch, rhythm, and musical phrases.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it:

1.  Go to http://www.tonometric.com and take the “tonedeaf” and “adaptive pitch” tests.

2.  Report back here with your scores (your % correct on the tonedeaf test and the frequency difference you can detect on the adaptive pitch test).

For comparison: when I first took the tonedeaf test, I scored 77.8%.  (The test is intentionally very difficult; even experienced musicians can have trouble scoring above 80%).  I’ve taken the adaptive pitch test a few times and on average can detect pitches about 1.5 Hz apart.

Good luck!  Let me know how you do.

The collective brainpower at Ala Moana right now is staggering.

–Me, at about 1:30 p.m. April 20, at Ala Moana Park

And I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that. I don’t think there ever was this many technically-minded folk, of so many stripes, gathered at a single place in this state. Bloggers, twitterers, digital photographers, hams, astronomers…and even a politician, all gathered at Magic Island for a big potluck.

I was there, primarily representing the Emergency Amateur Radio Club (I had my callsign on three places on my body and my walkie-talkie on my belt) but armed with a new digital camera around my neck.

What made it all the more fun was not only reacquainting myself with other people with an online presence whom I’ve met before, but also getting to meet, for the first time, other people whom I know only by, say, their username on services like Twitter or Flickr. As much as Web 2.0 has to offer, there’s still something to be said about face-to-face contact.

Here are some pictures I took from the event.  Some are landscape photos to test out the new camera…they turned out pretty darn good.

This may become an annual thing…if so, I can’t wait ’til next year!