Initial reaction to the Wii Fit

My initial reaction to the Wii Fit is that it moves very slowly.  Doesn't motivate me to come back for more,  although there is a lot of potential there.

I found the Rayman Raving Rabbids more interesting ;)

HOWEVER,  I will persist because I think it will pick up.

There are aspects of the Fit which would be nice to customize.  For example there are places where a whistle is blown....  my wife says "Nobody blows a whistle at me"  & I concur.  Any kind of sound could be used...  the "listen-up coach whistle" is not necessary.

Where were You? Tube - John Lennon - Give peace a chance 1969

YouTube - John Lennon - Give peace a chance 1969:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDFFh8ZSqV0

Like a who's who.

That's Tommy Smothers in there!

I was such a teenage brat (well... POST teenage), I remember back
then when I first saw Yoko Ono I thought she was awful. Now I love her.

Things change. Like People.

Much love to everyone.

Jeff

Trust &Tribes: My Search for Community & Personal Empowerment on the Internet.

A lot happening,  coming together in the world right now.

I have always feared that Community & Personal Empowerment were mutually exclusive.

There's Obama and Hillary making Nice with each other... hope they keep it up.  As far as I'm concerned,  Obama gives me some hope for the future of the US of A.

Ramping up for the Wii Fit at home.

There were two recent articles online which set me off collecting this batch of info;

1. Rands in Repose: We Travel in Tribes
2. Sites that trust their users (Scripting News)

The first, Rands in Repose, led me to recall recent  & older experience with tribe.net.  Years ago when they first started I was very hopeful, but when I started at that time there were almost no tribes and certainly none of interest to an over educated farmboy like me.

Now however there is much more on tribe.net.  Not too much for blurry visioned old retirees like me, but there is SOME... and that's a big improvement.  Lots of stuff on cats.  So now it's workth looking at again.  That's been in the last 4 months or so & I was therefore greatly interested in the Rands article.  One of many great quotes from Rands:

The value lies in the network of people and how they illuminate the things I don't know.

That's after he's been talking about Twitter & how he came to depend on it, even though it's crappy software.  I have found that I too am using twitter to follow, not really to post;  and that's how I've been following...

The second. Dave Winer on Scripting News, is about trusting your users by letting them keep their own data. Empowering people by letting them take control of things for themselves. To paraphrase:  "If you love them let them go".

The comments on Dave's article (yes I know these are posts,  but they're so intense I'd rather call them articles) led me to think about last.fm.  I too have found that I use last.fm because it integrates well into apps I use:  iTunes & songbird.

And music led me to my Ramping Up in anticipation of the Wii Fit.  The Wii Fit is a Mother's Day gift for my wife, Judy.  And I am way interested in it myself so we both will benefit.

We just got the Wii a couple weeks ago & curiously enough it has wifi built into it & it found  our Airport network automatically!  I never found anywhere in the advertising that wifi was built in!  The network is always there,  but if you want a web browser you have to buy it (for all of $5).  It's an adaptation of the Opera browser & works very well.

So I went on a quest to see if I could get my iTunes library to play through the Wii.  Short answer is "yes".  Long answer is "it's a battle". The upside is that there is a big Wii hacking community.

In looking for web-based music players for the Wii,  I found Orb and I found http://finetune.com.

Nothing specific to last.fm,  but I haven't given up on it (see google search below).

As for orb.com,  It would do the iTunes streaming,  but requires a Windows PC,  so count that out (We have them here, but I don't want to fool with THAT when macs are handy).

However,  finetune has a Wii player.  And much to my pleasure it allows you to build playlists to your own liking from the artists they have available, and they have a LOT.  Almost everything contemporary that I like.  What a surprise.  Actually anything that serves up a javascript based media player will work with the Wii,  but there are not a lot of them.

Also... not music, but.... there is me.dium (I keep thinking rhymes with Te.dium).   Another place where there is the idea of people experiencing the web in parallel and sharing.  But truly this tends to be a young person's thing... they're young and romance the idea and ignore the warts all over it.  I need to keep my energies focused in productive area and not go off on wild chases.

And here's a community idea:  http://carrotmob.org a way for people to bring positive change through collective action. I hope.  I can thank http://zefrank.com for that.

So there's still not my idea of community but the bits and pieces are coming about.

Next project is the HDTV & see what we can do with that.  I've been using Dave Winer's FlickrFan screen saver on my bigger mac & if that could be tied into twitter & the hdtv that would be great fun both locally at home and in whatever community may arise on the web.


ideas referenced:

digging for last.fm: http://www.google.com/search?q=playlists+on+last.fm

A not-random last.fm user: http://www.last.fm/user/MagicDrum/

My music on the Wii:  http://www.finetune.com/listen/playlist/2220591

FlickrFan screen saver:  http:/flickrfan.org

The Carrot Mob for positive change: http://carrotmob.org

and of course....

1. Rands in Repose: We Travel in Tribes
2. Sites that trust their users (Scripting News)

The King Of The Faeries /dance mix/ by NineTeenSixtyEight | iCompositions - Music

http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=86414

If I were creating Dance Music, that's what I'd aim for..

http://www.google.com/search?q=The+King+of+the+Faeries

from the google search:

> Digital Tradition Mirror
> King of the Faeries
>
> King of the Faeries
>
> Up the airy mountain, through the rushy glen
> We daren't go a-hunting for fear of little men.
> Wee folk, good folk, trooping all together
> Green jacket, red cap and white owl's feather.
>
> By the craggy hillside, through the mosses bare
> They've planted thorn trees for pleasure here and there.
> Is any man so daring as to dig them up in spite
> He'll find the sharpest thorns in his bed at night.
>
> High up on the hill top the old king sits
> He's now so old and grey he's nearly lost his wits
> He's rising with the music on the cold starry night
> To sup with the queen of the gay north light.
>
> Trad. Irish
> CH
>
> Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!

Everything you might want to know about the mystical side of trees...

is on this site: http://www.the-tree.org.uk/A/no_frames_map.htm

The individual articles also include detailed information about
cultivation and use of the trees.

While http://www.the-tree.org.uk/A/no_frames_map.htm is concentrated
on trees native to Great Britain, any tree lover will find the site
greatly entertaining!

Have fun...

Jeff

Should YOU join the Carrot Mob???

From Zefrank...

http://www.zefrank.com/zesblog/archives/2008/05/carrot_mob.html#more

and

http://www.carrotmob.org

A new concept in consumer action to make positive environmental change!

A clever idea.

I put myself on the list.

- Jeff -

make your own corn chips

http://www.google.com/search?q=make+your+own+corn+chips

Part of our ongoing effort to simplify our food life.

We have been making tortillas from scratch,  & true to what the glowing reports are,  they do taste better than what you buy in the supermarket.  I will say that so far they aren't as pretty,  but that's just a matter of practice.

Next thing, I want to try making our own tortilla chips and corn chips.

I'll report here when the chips are "ready".

Indiana women in Music: Hoosier Rag (1907)

http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=87509

Hoosier Rag (1907)

by georgeptingley

There were around 900 published piano rags written by women in the early 1900's. Indiana was central to this activity with Julia Lee Niebergall being one of the most gifted writers. Additionally, it was widely known that she was one of the first women in Indianapolis to own and drive her own vehicle. Apparently, the right to play and compose ragtime as well as drive led finally to women's right to vote in 1920. Ms. Niebergall's charming piece, HOOSIER RAG (1907) is played here without embellishment, or as I like to think - without makeup. Look for more women's ragtime coming soon.

"Hoosier Rag" by Julia Lee Niebergall played by George Peter Tingley 

Re: Kim Komando Cool Site of the Day - Sunday, May 4, 2008

It seems like I found Kim Komando 20 years ago... one of the first
"cool" sites on the web.

I could never figure out if she was real or someone's clever
creation. Whatever, "she" is cool!

Jeff

re http://comando.com

Short History of the Ampersand

http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=98

This is great... the ampersand is really ancient, back to 79 A.D., possibly anyhow.

Leads to an explanation that "&c." for "etc." is a "Tironian note"... part of a Latin shorthand used for centuries.

...

Last 24 hours has been productive.

Eschaton sends me on a trip to Bizarro World!

Atrios takes me on a trip with his reference to George Clooney!

The Clooney article concludes with a comment explaining how the GOP is creating Bizaro World in Iraq.

Ok I thought I'd follow their link to Bizarro World since I've seen many references to it but never explored the concept...

Ok... it's a DC Comic thing.  Hmmmm.

It mentioned that Bizarro World's only sane inhabitant was the Bizarro Ambush Bug.

So the Wikipedia link to Ambush Bug takes me into the Metafiction world of Ambush Bug where he (?) mocks the whole DC Comics universe which starts with Superman and ends.... who knows where... Bizarro World?,  and in the process mocks the whole concepts of Comic Book.

That article ends with an exernal link to an article, Ambush Bug as Metafictional Hero.

The conclusion to that article (by "Dr Fury") is that

the idea of Ambush Bug as a metafictional avatar of the apocryphal, of the weirdness being squeezed out of the DCU in preparation for and in the aftermath of multiverse-smooshing Crisis on Infinite Earths became more and more a part of his character in various Superman-bedeviling appearances in Action Comics.

What a grand phrase.... "metafictional avatar of the apocryphal"! Surely this fits into the George W. GOP universe somewhere.

Then in the comments there's a link to info about Bruce Springsteen's Seeger tour and I went to look at that,  and then I decided to write this missive.

 

World Harvest Foods: Champaign and Urbana Illinois International, Gourmet, Ethnic Foods

http://www.worldharvestfoods.com/?page=aboutourstore

Great store... online orders too. This used to be "Hop N Shop" and
had a giant kangaroo on the front of the store! They have great
stuff.. fun things. Their about page is more informative than
linking directly to their "home" page (quotes because it's not really
a home page).

Cross posted to http://nocomputers.blogspot.com

Cooking... Savory Pankeggs (of Awesomeness)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hzdqLUJzhg

Thanks to zefrank... a you tube cooking experience!

Not what you would call healthy, but an interesting approach.

Latin is a Dead Language

Is that cryptic enough? Maybe some government agency will read this
and know what I'm talking about.

I'm really tired of it.

Why would I want to study Latin? At my age? How about Spanish? How
about Japanese? How about Chinese? (Ok, I know how tough Chinese
is, so I'll pass on that). Or even how about German?

A company I deal with changed their name to a Latin word. I don't
like it. It was good enough the way it was.

I'm tired of the Roman Empire. Maybe Jesus spoke Latin. Ha.

Love,
Me

Solfege - Ear Training in the Dance Lab

Ok ...this sort of breaks the no computers rule, but....

Solfege, an open source (musical) ear training program is now available for Mac OS X.

It took TWO FULL DAYS to install and compile all the stuff needed on my creaky old Blue & White Mac G3 I have in the Dance Lab,  That's 24 hours a day... running the compiler.

When I tried to run it,  I thought it wasn't going to work but after one patch it does!  The clue was to run the "man" command from the unix command line after the install,  and at the end of that was an explanation of what to do if it didn't work.  I did what it said, and it now works.

So now, hopefully, I can quit being a geek and start working on honing my skills.

But first must do taxes.  Ick.

   -  jeff -

Great Sound... Blues: Swiss Cheese Groove / Mikees Hammond Express

http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=84471

I like it ... happy sound ... no tears.

jeff

The Truth About Trinity United Church of Christ

http://www.truthabouttrinity.blogspot.com/

and lots of videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/TRINITYCHGO

zefrank.com: colorwar 2008

http://www.zefrank.com/zesblog/archives/2008/03/colorwar_2008.html

Ze Frank explores creating new games for the internet....

  jeff

Education: Cringely: War of the Worlds

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080321_004574.html

Interesting article about technology and the future of education.

 jeff

Illinois Sustainable Living and Wellness Expo

http://ecologyactioncenter.org/islwe/

Environmentally sound living comes to the midlands.