Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Relevant recitation on 'Strange Liberators'

This Podcast is mainly a recitation by my friend, Marc, of the late Martin Luther King, Jr.regarding his opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Be expecting more of these from him ;)

Making Music --- First ever live recording!!

A sunrise like this gets my creativity going; listen in to the music to hear what I mean!



Okay...I am having fun with this Audioblogger

In these recordings I am just playing around with some friends.

Nothing special...and very very incoherent!

Iraq -- a soldier's view part 2

This post is a follow up with focus towards his view on the occupation in Iraq.

Iraq -- a soldier's view part 1

This is what I hope to be a series of opinions on the occupation in Iraq.

The speaker of this post wishes to remain anonymous for certain policy issues regarding the recently discharged.

Being overseas for him was tough...and this post mainly is regarding his position on support for soldiers and their homecoming and NOT for Bush's decision to remain and the general undercurrents of the purpose of the war.

Please be mindful that this gentleman was a little nervous commenting as he has never done this before.

Leadership

This is just a personal nod to a blog post on 'Fast Company's' website

I've been asked before what leadership means to me...and usually I always hear people shooting off a giant list of desirable traits, myself included...like what Fast Company says...

Visionary, strategic planning, charismatic..et cetera are prevalent and desireable qualities of leaders.

I think a leader is like an iceberg in that normal, day-to-day operations usually provide the mainstay of leadership practice and principle, giving major example, thread, and cohesion amongst colleagues, coworkers and the like, but when crisis, emergency, and desperation torrent the 'office'...the salinity of the environment rises, in which more of the leader's actions, good/bad, are exposed and more pronounced.

In Fast Company's short post they talk about defining the leader by the actions and behaviors of their followers....with great questions for personal growth!!

I feel in the context of IT professionals/managers being leaders, they are tasked with many behavioral changes in the people they serve and manage. I am finding that there is a great digital divide gap, even amongst academic communities...because some mentalities are that there will be someone to always do this or that. Also, many people feel that some innovations occur too rapid, or there is no point in vesting time when there are specialists, but I feel as we become more integrated...and with the people I meet and read about...its hard to believe we are not heading towards that end.

Demonstration of Audioblogging Technology.

Below is an Audioblogger test to demonstrate the mobility of and speed of posting a self-made audiofile online.

It's so awesome to share this technology with people, and it's amazing everytime someone see's the potential of it!

In this case, the speaker is Emilio Williams (who now has a blog :)) I think blogger provides a good springboard for more advanced implementations of a blog....and I cannot wait to see how my collaboration with Emilio develops!!

My very first 'Podcast'....I'm totally stoked!

This is great...to create your own podcasts on blogger visit: Audioblogger

Brian Russell's blog, Audio Activism, has a wonderfully concise tutorial on Podcasting

Nonprofit w/ database issues? Need Volunteers?

Okay....this is my last post for today, but I just wanted to put this out there for anyone working in Nonprofit world who has a database or wants one....and is near the Triangle, NC area.

I have had huge successes in getting responses from quality volunteers that want to help develop databases...the problem is...I am starting to overflow with talented and wonderful people that want to lend a hand.

These people have PhD's, MBA's, and extensive experience in Tomcat, Oracle, MySQL Java, J2EE, SAS, C#, C++.....pretty much you name it...and many are certified.

Please comment to this post if interested.

Note of warning: hosting volunteers is not a 'turn key' affair. In order for me to refer and connect you with these people, you must first provide to me your organization/EIN #, disparity/need, and your committment to ensuring their value and accomodation.

Patent Law & Syndication Standards

You know, I can't get enough!

I feel like I have to write about everything, if just to reflect on later...

Reading my new 'Bloglines' feeds, I am starting to get more info from many more sources...

In my previous job where the company's worth was primarily vested in its intelletual property in scientific techniques and patents on specific genes acquired through research, I found a recent article that I want to follow. HERE

Apparently Congress (Patent Reform Act of 2005, HR 2795) is going to do some major reform to patent law...which may have resounding effects in the future...and there is an interesting debate on funding the office beforehand...which makes sense to me because you need highly skilled patent examiners to ensure sound justification for a patent...(I've actually read some ridiculous claims...)...the article I read also seemed to point out that money the patent office recieved got redirected in totally unrelated places....which asks the question....where??!!??

on a side note: One thing I learned while being involved in the patent process is that in order to patent your stuff, you have to buy a patent in every country you want the patent in...with the rising economies in other countries with no sign of patent enforcement infrastructure...I wonder if this new patent overhaul might address those concerns? Albeit the USA cannot totally enforce things in other countries....well...oil..umm...democracy...umm...yeah.

To me, this is kinda scary....so I am definitely going to keep watch on that!

In other news recently read....I hear that the RSS syndication standard is now the momentous favorite of standard. Although I am somewhat illiterate on both Atom and RSS, why RSS?...(I will probably read some more on it)...but I also wonder what effects that might have on the open source community?...I mean the article is saying Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple are all behind this standard (RSS)...and Google with Atom...think Google is going to maintain favor for Atom?

Sustainability in IT!!!

I am totally stoked, enthralled at the fact that I got a very simple phone call this morning at work.

For the past 4 months I have been recruiting high tech volunteers, both being students and Industry professionals, to aid in the development in a new breed of web database for tracking volunteer hours, providing new ways of collaborating and communicating at North Carolina Central University and the Triangle, NC community...up to this point I have managed to distill a core group of highly motivated mix of student and IT professional (group of 6) in this project.

They are volunteers, great ones at that with a lot of talent and dedication. The only thing is they are what I call, "transient"...or here for a short time. Like it or not...they have lives and probably won't see this new database 3 years from now. Our project leader will be leaving us in January, and three others are actively seeking IT jobs, which may limit their involvement...and the students involved...will move on eventually.

So, even with best practices in mind...utilizing MVC model 2 architecture....with extensive documentation and UML practices....the institution of this database will not be fully realized in the future unless there are people at this university to see it through. In other words, SUSTAINABILITY, which remains key and the centric meaning of my job.

Well, that happened today to an extent with more momentum following....
The Graduate School of Library Science has decided to become involved a great deal....continuously and with vigor!!! I love it!!!

With a simple call she said,

Professor--"Hi, may I speak with Calvin Webster?"

me--"Sure, this is Calvin, how may I help you?"

Professor-- "Well, my name is Dr. Swain...and I want to provide students in developing the database you are developing, possibly work with your office to make this a collaboration."

me--"Really!?!?..."

Professor--"Yes, we have our graduate students needing projects, and there are many professors here that are interested in this project; I am sure they want involvement."

me--"Wonderful! I will send you the information on our current status."

Professor--"Great, and I will relay this information to the professors."

AWESOME!!!

Of course there was a lot more to that conversation, but that is the gist of it...and it seems she isn't the only one! Last Friday my supervisor told me a professor stopped her and asked if she can be involved. I am so stoked!!

The power of networking is an amazing thing...and I thinkI am off to a good start with this project and its longevity.

Rank # 1, 3, 9, 10 on Forbes America Richest!

Not one to criticize formal education...(I believe college education is fundamental to society's advancement and progression)....but I could not help but notice something pretty interesting while 'surfing' the net today.

Somehow I wandered over to the Forbes 400 richest Americans...and noticed in the top 10, 4 of them are college drop-outs....of the top 10, 4 are technology related innovators.....
http://www.forbes.com/lists/forbes400/2004/09/22/rl04land.html?chan=b1usrichest05

here they are:
#1. Bill Gates (Microsoft coFounder)-- Harvard Drop-out
#3. Paul Allan (Microsoft coFounder)-- Washington State University Drop-out
#9. Michael Dell (Founder Dell Corp.)-- University of Texas at Austin Drop-out
#10. Lawrence Ellison (Founder Oracle)-- University of Illinois Drop-out

The rest of the list consists of #2 Warren Buffet --Investments and the Walmart family.

This leads me to ask a few questions:
Did they know they already had a lottery ticket?
Did they leave college to persue the businesses that made them rich?
Does formal education somehow limit entrepreneurship in technology?
Is this a coincidence?
And is this why when looking for a job in IT, certifications rather than degrees hold more weight?

I find this information quite silly and probably useless, but...I would be interested to see if this correlation applies to other technology entrepreneurs.

Cool way to use flickr!

It's a Sunday and I am just lounging around, playing with my blog and trying to dig deeper into blogworld.

Today I started using Bloglines to organize the blogs that I want to read on a regular basis. One of them was the 'Make' magazine blog, where I found a cool post about using your flickr photos to make magazine front page templates.

It's really fun and I've already made about 10 of them and sent them out to my friends! To the left is one I did for my friend Koji, who is just now starting grad school at Perdue getting his MBA. Go Koji!!!

I don't believe you just have to have a flickr account, but they are free and provide so much storage!!!

A little on bloglines: with all the agregators out there used to collect all your atom or rss feeds, bloglines provides an online means to do the same, accesible from anywhere you can connect to the internet. I really like it because it's super-easy to use and now I dont have to type all the links to check every single site I want to visit! As I dig deeper in blog world, I find it harder to keep up with all the interesting blogs and developments....

Enjoy!

'Make:' - O'reilly's newest publication!

Just a quick nod to O'reilly's newest publication, MAKE. My father recently subscribed and over the weekend I got to get a nice read out of it!

Check out the site: http://www.makezine.com/

If you are into taking scrap computer parts and making things with them...like an old mouse becoming a robot...or some pretty digestable tutorials on things spanning from podcasting to hacking your PSP or iPod...then this is the magazine!

O'reilly, being a computing book publisher fav for me already....has a wonderful reputation for getting the information across while being entertaining! As a self-taught computing person....their books are great!

I love my hobbies!

I work hard, but I also play hard!

Usually during the week, you will find me in the office or on a computer somewhere...but on the weekends...I really get away.

I am always a sucker for obsessive balance...if there is such a thing...when I am into something, I am totally immersed, but I like to round myself out with a few hobbies on the premise of mind body and soul.

this past week I got some 'balance'....

Mind
I play a game called 'Magic: The Gathering" whenever I am with friends. Now..this game is pretty stigmatized with the likes of Dungeons & Dragons, and other role playing games, because of its fantasy nature and the active use of your imagination...and I guess there is a cultish following of fanatics that do nothing but collect these cards and play every single day! But D&D cannot boast a world professional tour and worldwide intergenerational appeal. Magic is more like chess but with another dimension, randomness. also the game was created out of the graduate work towards a PhD in combinatory mathematics at UPenn by Richard Garfield.

I like statistics and probability and the way the game works. In Magic, you have to make a deck that consists of at least 60 cards...from literally thousands of cards available. In that deck, you can only have 4 copies of any single card, except for the currency of the game(mana)...and most decks that are good have a strategy. There are five colors, each having certain strengths and weaknesses...and you can only play on 'mana' a turn.....and in order to play any other cards, you have to 'tap' or pay mana that you have on the board. Well, I just realized that I could write a book on explaining this game....so for brevity...here is a link to check out: http://www.wizards.com/magic/playmagic/

Ultimately, its just fun for hours of strategy and fun problem solving...and this past weekend I got to really play a lot with some friends. The cool thing is once you make a deck...you can play that same deck for hours, the cards are worth money(virtually no loss of value on the secondary market), and you can play a quick 5 minute game to a 3 hour one as well. There is even an open source online playing tool on sourceforge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mindless (its called mindless automation)

Body & Soul
Surfing pretty much is my food for body and soul. Since the age of 13 I have surfed...from the beaches of Hawaii to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Lately I haven't been able to surf as much as I would like, but the love and passion remain.

This past weekend I got to surf after a long hiatus...and it was very replenishing. Not only does it keep you in shape with all the paddling, push-ups...and trunk-twisting carves, but in the downtime, you, or at least I, get to reflect on life, love, passion, meaning, and nature. I have brushed against dolphins, sharks, and turtles...and they all were nice. Well, there was one shark incident tht shook me up, but it was a great White and it was swimming towards me. Also, its so freakin humbling.

This past weekend the waves were a nice 3'-4' and fairly clean lines....with sun, friends, and food :D

I hope after all the hustle of college starting again, I can kick back and enjoy my hobbies!

CDT -- A VISTA experience.

Wonderful, wonderful VISTA!

How can a concentration of so many inspiring people not cause change?!?

This week I am in my mandatory CDT (Continuing Development Training) at the Clarion Hotel in downtown Raleigh. It's pretty nice and I have been stuff all day with catered food.

Now this development training is supposed to enhance our VISTA efforts by teaching us skills for stress management, sustainability, infrastructure, grant writing, etc....but what, at least so far, have gained from it is the networking and just meeting all of the people. As luck would have it, I am one of the first to meet our new Campus Compact VISTAs, JJ, Chris, Ben, Beth, Bethany, and Shannon who, I'd like to add, are all so talented and personable! Not only that though; I am reuniting with some North Carolina VISTAs I met at PSO (Pre Service Orientation)...Tabitha, Carrie, Ida, and Jocelyn. Not to go on too much about it, but I really enjoy these gatherings of mind, heart, and determination.

I am also excited to learn what our trainer has in store for us. He seems to be very knowledgable and experienced...and is good with groups (keeps conversation flowing, quenching too many personal examples)

Technology and Playboy Enterprises

An interesting thing happened yesterday when downloading Tomcat to test locally.

There was a Playboy logo beside the mirror site....I thought, "How funny! I am downloading Tomcat from Playboy!"

Not sure of the legalities of posting this screenshot with the Playboy logo, but just want to share what I saw!

Model - View - Controller ....A shift in development

This time last week I would not even know what you were talking about if you mentioned to me about, "Model-View-Controller (MVC) [which] is a software architecture that separates an application's data model, user interface, and control logic into three distinct components so that modifications to the view component can be made with minimal impact to the data model component." (www.wikipedia.org)

Renato, my new technology volunteer, has been really teaching me some cool stuff about design, development, testing, java, jsp, and overall project management. All this being accomplished in 2 meetings. I am really looking forward to learning more.

Today he changed my mind about the future implementation of the web database, formerly mysql with php scripting....now, mysql with jsp. This makes total sense to me because all of the technology volunteers involved in the database work have backgrounds in java and oracle, not mysql and php.

I initially chose mysql because of its ubiquity and support from university computing and php naturally followed because of the usual marriage between the two. Also, by choosing mysql and php, knowing they both follow the GNU GPL (General Public License) agreement, I wanted to be able to replicate or essentially package the work in making a data management system of tracking volunteers and operational tasks to give to nonprofits as a means to address their data management needs. Using .jsp pages can achieve this as well.

The deeper I am involved in learning about nonprofits and their lack of budget to maintain an efficient data management solution, the more I see the opportunities for service and possibly sustaining an internship program for college students for service learning.

I am learning that java is a nice solution to develop web applications for a web database, while also allowing growth for php if the need arises. To this extent, I am excited about what can be accomplished! Regardless of implementation, I am increasingly confident that ANYTHING is better than Microsoft's Access, which has been a major thorn in my daily tasks.

The perfect Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Okay, I am not one to really watch television too often, but tonight I just wanted to wind down and watch some shows and fall asleep. Been pushing hard lately.

All of my favorite things were showcased on Jay Leno tonight -- Computing, supermodel, surfing, and music.

Now I had no idea that Al Gore was seriously involved in technology, but his new Television network, Current, seems really promising. I don't want to count my chickens, but user-submitted content, web interaction, and many shorts covering a broad array of content...almost in the continuous computer, social-connecting way all seem to be what this new network is trying to exhibit. Bravo!...citizen journalism (thanks Brian) creativity and flexibility really have a lot of potential in this new venue. I wish I was more savvy so that I could send my content.

Really interesting, that Al Gore, but the show got even better!

Gisele came on and started talking about surfing!!! What is hotter than a supermodel surfing?...hmm...I dont think it gets much better than that.

To top the show, one of my favorite bands, Incubus, performed! From Pardon Me to Wish you were here to Megalomaniac....they really rock...fuse many styles, artfully blend cacophonic missed timing with curvy-jazzy improv with slow melodic sweet tones. Great show tonight; thought I would share :D