Busy and the Holidays

No, Busy and the Holidays is not the name of a 1950's singing group, though I now lay claim to the name if I ever time travel. It just means that we are already past Thanksgiving and the to do list from work and home is piling up.

The plus side is that if the Christmas decor didn't get up this weekend then it wasn't going to happen for a while.

This is likely the earliest the Fry house has ever had a tree up and decorated, not to mention that outside is looking rather festive. Not Griswold festive or Whoville festive but bright and twinkly enough to bring a smile.

The picture, taken from my old phone, does not do it justice, but it is serviceable.

"100 Tacomics" Book Signing

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book signing for Tacoma political cartoonist, artist and web designer, RR Anderson, who officially released the much-anticipated 100 Tacomics: The Secular & Apolitical Cartoon Life of Tacoma and her Moral People(s). If you have ever been amused, aghast, enlightened or deeply offended by one of this Tacoma's cartoon-legion hero's work, then this book will provide you the necessary fodder to laugh, wince and shake your head once again.

The Tacomics included in the book are drawn from what he has drawn for the last four years or so. Actually there have been some really interesting Tacomics that won't make it in because of their appearance in 2010, but that is OK. Ryan announced that he is working on the next edition, composed of work done through 2010 to 2012 at the signing last night. He promises that he will produce one every Tuesday in order to make that happen. Just because he would be doing that anyway should not diminish the anticipation of the upcoming sequel.

Though in book form, it cannot repeat the appeal of working your way down the comments section that accompanies each new Tacomic as it is posted, it provides a equally valuable experience by including commentary from the man himself. He describes much of the inspiration of what went behind each comic, and when no inspiration existed, he admits to it. Additionally, information on the Frost Park Chalk Off, the secret society of Tacoma, "The CLAW", and other bits and pieces of Tacoma are generously included. That makes this a must have history book as well.

I am pleased to have my signed copy from the event, which I purchased at King Books. I also bought one from www.lulu.com, which I will likely place in the Christmas stocking of someone I know. Anonymously.

The one I have will go on the bookshelf, strategically place high enough that my kids will have to be tall enough so that when they stretch to reach it, they will be old enough to stretch their minds on the topic of Tacoma's political scene.

It will be next to my original drawing of the Tacomic, "Who Control's The Tacoma Media".

Time To Elf Yourself Again?

Yes, I know it is not even Thanksgiving, and I do not believe in dealing with Christmas stuff in early November. I am a Macy's Thanksgiving end of parade kind of guy. However, I love the elf yourself thing that JibJab does each season.

Once again the JibJab team has combined forces with a kind sponsor (OfficeMax) to provide some free access to some fun online festivities. No doubt I will find the appropriate family photo and each of my kids will once again be dancing around like a wild pack of elves.

The question is do I do it now, or wait until the day after Thanksgiving, which is still two weeks away.

Fall 2010 Virtual Scavenger Hunt

It is once again time for the virtual scavenger hunt in Living and Working in a Virtual World. The students will be in teams of three and have laptops with wireless connections to work with.

When I first started doing this, the teams would be lucky to find half the items. With search engines and search techniques being much improved, it is now a race to see which team finishes first.

I have tried to add a couple of tougher queries that require special search engines or specific sites to succeed.

One new item, which is in my opinion a bit spooky is this one.

"What is the maiden name of my youngest sister?"

That is the only information given. Substitute a question similar to this with the name of one of your family members and think about how easy or hard it might be to find online. I will guess that half the teams get this one right, even though there are no official public documents out there which give the answer away.

UPDATE: CHANGE OF DATE Registration for the South Sound Technology Conference is Up

The 11th Annual SST Conference has been postponed. A new date has been established in the new year, but will be announced when the venue has been confirmed.



As many of you are aware, and if you aren't now is a good time to be, the South Sound Technology Conference is coming up on November 19th, 2010. Presentations and conversations are to include sustainability and peak oil, mobile application development and that every present topic in the South Puget Sound, cybersecurity.

There will be a lunch keynote and therefore, a lunch. We will use the registrations in order to estimate the number of lunches we will need, and this year their is a nominal registration fee for the conference, which will take place from morning until afternoon in the William Philip Hall on the UWT campus.

This fifteen dollar fee will not only cover the lunches, but this year we have added the option to pay twenty dollars for the conference, with five dollars going toward a student registration.

The registration page is up, thanks to the help of the University of Washington, Tacoma advancement group who have created the page for us.

Register here for the conference:

More information on the speakers and events are coming up. Contact me if you have a particular topic or speaker that you are interested in, as there are a few slots still available.

Searching for Some History

In week three of my Living and Working class we discuss search engines. Starting from a historical perspective we touch on how it became necessary to create means to find the vast amount of information that was exploding in number and size across the Internet and then the Web. Archie (and Veronica and Jughead) from McGill University and the University of Nevada respectively, Gopher from the University of Minnesota (go Golden Gophers), are mentioned. Then we discuss the generation of many different search engines which grow to prominence, are merged or replaced up to the present day.

At this point we talk about types of searches, specialty searches, vanity searches and those third party stalker search engines that keep an eye on you.

Some of this is done through my own personal experiences: (I went to see Pulp Fiction as a break from an Internet conference with this great kid, Brian Pinkerton, a grad student at the UW) Who knew that Webcrawler would become so popular that it wasn't allowed to operate during the day and that the engine (and Brian) would get picked up by AOL. My feeble attempt to hire him for Free Range was dwarfed by what AOL could do.

Some is done through going online and some is done through a Powerpoint Presentation.

However, I have stumbled across a web site that does an excellent job of summarizing the history of search. It is www.searchenginehistory.com. Search Engine History is published by Aaron Wall and references several academic sources for its compilation of information and links. Another excellent resource found through search.

Tacoma Waterway at Sunrise

Exit133 posted an article on the Shoreline Master Program. If interested it can be found here.

However, I was struck be the photo accompanying it that was provided courtesy of the City of Tacoma Community and Economic Development. There are lots of great shots of Tacoma, as there are of any city of its size and water based geographically advantageous location.

But I just liked this one.