Structured Thought . ORG

It’s already been 2 years. In about 20 minutes (from the time of this post), my little boy will be 2 years old. It seems like just yesterday at this time, I was anxiously waiting outside the OR for them to call me in. Even just thinking about it now, my heart is thumping almost as hard as it was that morning. The power of memory is amazing.

So, here we are. Only 2 years, and I can’t imagine my life without this little man who’s growing up so fast.

Today I’m taking a half-day off of work and we’re gonna take him to Great Lakes Crossing for some fun, either Jeepers or GameWorks, or both.

Happy Birthday, little boy!

Oh my does he love trains.

Jonah in the Hospital

It truly is amazing, the speed at which information moves in this day and age. I had heard a lot in the past about how quickly news spreads via Social Networking media like Twitter. Many times, Twitter will be talking about something several hours before the major networks have anything published. This is not always a good thing, however.

Today gave us an example of both the speed at which the information travels, and how quickly a rumor can turn to fact.

At approximately 11:15 am EDT today, the @BreakingNews Twitter account sent the following tweet:

Florida-based radio station KissFM reports that Patrick Swayze has reportedly died. BNO News is working to get more information.

At the time of this writing, at least 1,000 (a conservative estimate, I’m sure) tweets were sent pertaining to the subject. What was interesting was the ‘Telephone Game Effect’ that took hold almost instantly. The first tweet, relatively innocuous in the vein of ‘Hey, we heard this, we’re checking it out. Back to you soon’. Within minutes, however, poor Mr. Swayze was 3/4 buried.

Now, the kicker: He’s not dead. About 15 minutes ago, Mr. Swayze’s publicist stated that he is, in fact, alive. More information is coming in that he’s not doing well, and has possibly been hospitalized, but the fact remains: He’s not dead.

So, over the space of an hour, an unconfirmed report turned into absolute fact. Patrick’s Wikipedia entry was updated, corrected, updated again, and re-corrected, CNN had hastily posted and (just as quickly) taken down an article/obituary, and many people were led to believe this to be true.

So, kids, what can we learn from all of this?

News Organizations and outlets: Be very careful about what gets published. Today, people are more in tune to what’s happening in the world than they ever have before. News spreads in an instant, and it’s nearly impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. Once a false story gets out, the only thing that can be done is damage control. However, retractions and corrections can only get one so far. Credibility is a news org’s stock in trade, and any hits to the public’s perception can be deadly. Balancing the need to get out first with information with ensuring that the data is correct is an artform that very few, if any, have mastered.

Public: Be careful about what you read. Don’t always take the first source of reporting as fact. Many times, the first report that gets out either has some piece, or possibly the entire story incorrect. Take the time to verify and validate sources before coming to your conclusions. The ReTweet has become a great tool for helping to spread information. But, if the information being spread is incorrect, the signal-to-noise ratio (which is already pitifully weak) takes a major hit and makes it difficult for everyone else to be properly informed.

On May 1, the makers of Hydroxycut, the shady weight-loss miracle drug, recalled the product due to a statement by the FDA telling consumers “to immediately stop using Hydroxycut products”¹

The problem appears to be that the use of the product is bad for your liver. Apparently, REALLY bad for your liver. I mean, REALLY REALLY bad. I’ll let the FDA’s statement lay it out for you:

The FDA has received 23 reports of serious health problems ranging from jaundice and elevated liver enzymes, an indicator of potential liver injury, to liver damage requiring liver transplants. One death due to liver failure has been reported to FDA. Other health problems reported include seizures; cardiovascular disorders; and rhabdomyolysis, a type of muscle damage that can lead to other serious health problems such as kidney failure.

That’s right. While only 23 complaints have arisen, it’s very likely that there are many more people who started to notice an adverse effect and just quit using it (the smart people, as I like to refer to them). Some people, who had to have noticed some adverse effects, continued to use the products to the point of permanently damaging their livers, one so much that they died (the not-so-smart people, as I like to refer to them).

Anyway, this is all beside the point I came here to make. What I came here to say was that in only 10 days, I have started recieving SPAM e-mail regarding the recall. I know it’s spam for a few reasons:

1. The ‘from:’ domain is remarkheavensbr.net, which points to just a parking site with no content at all (not even html headers).
2. The ’subject:’ line is grammatically incorrect: “FDA Recall Hydroxycut”. They could have at least said “FDA Recalls Hydroxycut” or “FDA Recall of Hydroxycut (products)”, or any other permutation.
3. The real kicker: The entire content of the e-mail is images, which likely link back to a tracking site somewhere that validates your e-mail address, were your mail client to download the images.

So, I have no idea what this SPAM is advertising, not as if I cared. I just thought it was pretty interesting how quickly these lowlifes jump on new bandwagons.

Someday, I envision a future where the webbernets are SPAM-free, and anyone caught abusing the system in such a way is strung up in a public forum. But that’s just me.

As if I didn’t have enough unfinished things here, let’s try and add another one.

Since it’s now springtime in the rapidly-thawing midwest, I’ll probably be out and about more with my camera. Non-people photography really doesn’t appeal to the wifey, so it’s up to me to capture the really cool stuff.

Since this is more of a tech/personal stuff area, I’m going to be creating a new section just for pictures and stuff.

Stay tuned!

The news has been out lately that the Mozilla Foundation is considering dropping support of Firefox for all Windows versions below XP SP3. This would mean that all non-updated XP installations, Win2k, and anything else older than that will no longer be able to install or run whatever the latest version of Firefox is when it arrives.

Good. If I had my own way, I’d personally drop support for anything below Vista SP1 for the latest versions of Firefox, and keep the previous version updated within reason for a predetermined amount of time. I’ll get into why I feel that shortly. But for now, back to how I feel about the situation.

As I said, good. Windows 2000 has been available to developers for more than 10 years now. It’s been available to the public for 9 years as of this summer. It’s time to burn out and/or fade away. People will complain that there are still valid reasons to have a Win2k system hanging around due to some compatibility issues with newer software, which I’m personally ok with. The problem I have is when these people insist on also being able to run the most current versions of non-OS software. If you’re one of these people, listen carefully to what I’m about to say next:

YOU DON’T NEED TO RUN THE LATEST FIREFOX IF YOU’RE STILL RUNNING A 9-YEAR-OLD OS. Period.

And I honestly don’t think this would be an issue. Sure, while there are people around like Steve Gibson who are so paranoid that they won’t run an OS that they haven’t personally combed through every single bit of code with their own hands, they are extremely few. And these are the same people who probably aren’t running Firefox at all, anyway, let alone trying to run the absolute latest and greatest version (which would probably run like a dog as it is, since any hardware that’s still running 2k on a desktop is likely at least 5 generations behind today’s market).

So, yes, I think it’s pretty simple. If people can’t even allow themselves to be bothered with keeping their systems updated. SP3 for XP was released to the public 50 weeks ago. Anyone who hasn’t updated to it yet either has a really good reason for running older software (see my previous point), or is just plain lazy, and very likely doesn’t even run Firefox to begin with.

Now, with my point about dumping support for anything prior to Vista SP1. There are multiple facets to my argument here.

1. If you are using a computer less than 2 years old, there is almost absolutely no reason for you to still be running XP in any form. It’s old, it’s outdated, and it can’t exercize the full potential of the system for which you very likely paid pretty good money for. Stop listening to the “Hurrr… Vista is teh suck! It eats all your RAMs!” people and do some of your own research. Vista is a good OS, particularly so post-SP1. I use it personally on my primary system. The 64-bit version, which I run, is excellent, and light-years beyond the capabilities of XP64. Stop listening to Apple commercials as your only source of Vista information and do some real research. You’ll find that most of the things people complained about have either been fixed, or are a part of the system’s function that people just simply didn’t understand at first. If you’d like to know some of these arguments and my rebuttals to them, let me know, and I’ll create a separate post about it.

2. If you’re running Vista, and you haven’t updated to SP1 yet. Stop reading this and do it now. It’s ok. This post isn’t going to go anywhere. Outside of the blatant misunderstanding that was propagated during Vista’s early life, SP1 fixes many (if not all) of the legitimate problems that were in Vista at launch. SP1 is more stable, faster, and more secure than pre-SP1 Vista, and you’re only hurting yourself if you haven’t updated yet.

So here it is. Stop trying to make every software developer bend to your own will. Mozilla has been putting out a quality product that has fundamentally changed the browser market, and they’ve done it all for free. It’s about time you did them a favor and made a bit of their job just a touch less painful. By dropping support for REALLY old OS installs, it frees them to work on developing a package that is the best it truly can be. Stop holding them back. Update your system, do some research, stop purchasing/installing downgrades, and start really using TODAYs software, not the stuff you installed 8 years ago because you fear change and can’t handle something that works better and more efficiently.

Trust me, you’ll be better off.

I’ve mentioned before that Twitter, the popular Micro-Blogging platform, is a beast, and the only way to keep it going is to feed it. I think that now, at this point, Twitter has reached a critical stage in its development. Usage is almost off the charts, celebrities of all types are using it daily, and the company has positioned itself as such that just about any revenue model they decide on will be wildly successful. Mainstream media (though, in many cases, they are doing so incorrectly) are talking about Twitter all the time. People like @garyvee and @leolaporte are continuously growing the public’s awareness of the service. The @reply has become almost ubiquitous even outside of Twitter itself.

It is at this point that I have decided to attempt a small Social Media experiment, utilizing all of the Social Media resources at my disposal. My goal is simple: Drive traffic to a bar in Los Angeles which just happens to be where my brother, an actor looking for his break, works. Specifically, if I can get people to go to Timmy Nolan’s in Toluca Lake on a Monday night and tell Steve the bartender “Alex sent me.” (my Twitter ID is AlexDeGruven. It’s a long story that I won’t get into right now), then I’ll consider my experiment a success. An extra bonus if any of these people are public figures of any type (Timmy Nolan’s is known to host quite a few celebrities from time to time due to its close approximation to the studios).

Why am I doing this? The answer is really quite simple, and twofold:

1. I love my brother, and I want him to succeed. I figure that any type of direct contact he can make in and around the industry will help him to get noticed, and if I’m in a position to help, why not?
2. I love Social Media, and any way to get people to understand how it works can only serve to help it.

So, keep your eyes planted here, as the experiment progresses, I’ll be sure to update.

Trying out a new theme. Let me know what you think here in the comments. I’ll be dorking around with it quite a bit as I tune it to the way I like.

We interrupt this broadcast for an announcement:

Yours Truly has managed, with his wife’s assistance, of course, to successfully procreate a second time. Expected arrival of aforementioned bundle-of-joy is toward the end of September, 2009.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Thank you.

Back in October of last year, you might remember that I launched a bit of a crusade against the Anti Proposal 2 lobby in Michigan. I would like to think that my usage of real information to dispel the myths and fear the MiCAUSE organization were attempting to spread did some good, and helped to spur people to vote their conscience.

In reality, I’m well aware that there are very few people that read this. But that’s still not going to stop me from launching my latest crusade against the Corn Refiners Association of America, and their blatant attempts to make their detractors look like fools.

Stay tuned. I should have part 1 up tonight (2/24/09).

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with this site (obviously posting isn’t one of those, amirite?!), and I believe I’ve come up with an idea that will work for me. Let’s see if I can follow through with it.

I heard a story the other day on NPR about a new thing in publishing called a ‘Wovel’. Goofy name aside, the idea is that the writer will post a chapter online for all to read, and accompany it with a poll that will dictate the direction for the next chapter. In the current ‘Wovel’ publishig space, the ‘Wovelist’ (I’m repeating this word because I think it’s goofy and trying to either make people sick of it, or learn to like it) asks the readers an either or plot point question (ie. Should Steve buy bread or a gun?). While I like the idea presented by the current model, I think I would like to do something similar, but add elements that aren’t there yet.

I’ve always had a problem with writing (note: I haven’t published anything, so you can see part of my problem, heh): I get stuck easily. I’ll have a great idea, have the first parts of it fleshed out in my head, and *poof*. Stuck. And it generally takes me so long to get un-stuck, I end up saying ‘ah, screw it’, and moving on to something else.

So, all 3 readers of mine, this is my idea: I have the seed of a story in my head. I know roughly where I want it to go. I have the beginning and the end pretty much played out, but the details of the middle are where I’m having issues. My plan is to get down as much as I can until I hit a sticking point, then provide what is written open to comments plus a poll. My hope is that through your suggestions and voting, I will be able to move things along and finally get this thing written.

If (and this is a BIG if) it ever gets published, all contributors will be mentioned in the dedication.

So stay tuned. I’ll create a separate section for this on the site somewhere, and provide a link when it’s ready for prime time.