News Outta My Control, Professional Auteurism / 19.10.2008

Hotlinking. I've written about this netiquette faux pas before. And as you can see I've found a number of ways to get even (here and here). If you're going to use my images don't even think of linking to them directly. Internet providers charge us for bandwidth when you do that. It's costly and it's just not nice. But in this time of social and financial upheaval, when we're watching the powers-that-be vying for control of the message, I have ways of maintaining authority over my own images. Link directly to them and you may find I've swapped your my...

Professional Auteurism / 18.07.2008

Gracias por haberme invitado aqui a hablar con ustedes hoy. Yo hablo poco Español, asi que continuo en Ingles. Vamos a empezar. I'm used to speaking in front of large groups of people. But even though I've been doing it since my days as a college prof, I always get just a little bit nervous. In fact, I go through the same regimen every time I ready myself to speak. Suddenly I hear myself saying: "I don't want to give this talk. I DO NOT want to give this talk!" I've heard myself repeat this pre-presentation mantra so often I now...

Fairly Odd Parents-Present, Professional Auteurism / 06.07.2008

Boat house with concrete lighthouse for sale. A photo from my last trip to a Spanish-speaking land: Puerto Rico. Ok, true confession: I am a neurotic traveler. Well, to be more specific: I am a neurotic pre-traveler. With one week to go before heading off to Aranjuez, Spain to give my first international talk (El uso de los blogs dentro de los museos de corte tradicional/New World Blogging in a Traditional Museum Setting), I'd sleep much better if I was entirely packed and ready to go. I'm always afraid I'll forget something. A MacGyver I'm not. Spanish translated PowerPoint: check...

Artistic Tendencies, Commuting with Nature, Professional Auteurism / 13.01.2008

When DC's Metro unveiled a new concept car last week this logo identity mysteriously appeared. Local officials first billed DC's proposed transit system as "America's" subway when it went to Congress for financial backing. Last week the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) unveiled designs for new subway cars that could make their appearance as early as 2013. Here in DC we've been debating seating designs for years. Should we continue with the traditional 2x2 seats? Or should we use more bench seating like New York City's system, which would allow for greater passenger capacity? The debate continues. Of greater interest...

Professional Auteurism / 11.10.2007

The price is right but shipping's a bear. View larger image. I love my iPhone. But I was disappointed when my Sennheiser headphone plug wouldn't fit into the iPhone's recessed receptacle. Nothing but the earphones that came with the phone would. (And those didn't even fit in my ears!) So I waited patiently as Griffin rollout their headphone adapter. It looked to be the perfect attachment for me: small and unobtrusive. And the price seemed right: $9.99. But I think the shipping is just a tad too much, unless I add $40 to my order --then shipping's on them. [ iPhone,...

Fairly Odd Parents-Present, News Outta My Control, Professional Auteurism / 07.07.2007

Life Outtacontext's iPhone Lust-O-Meter Bursts It was too much to bear. The pressure, as you know, has been building for a week. The outcome seemed inevitable. Yesterday, my neighbor, Mike, offered to "show me his." And, as we sat in his living room, festooned with techno-goodness, he let me take his iPhone for a spin (the irony of demo'ing that little thing as we sat in front of his large-screen LCD hi-def TV did not escape me). Jeff demo's his Lust-O-Meter to the Mac Genius. Photo by Mike Lee. When he offered to drive with me to our local Apple store, that was...

Fairly Odd Parents-Present, Professional Auteurism / 17.06.2007

The kids are not afraid to ask questions, but the adults feel an absolute need to provide answers... Rather than say, "I don't know; let's find out," parents feel like they have to make something up to seem smart. We really need to embrace not knowing it all.

Kathleen McLean, former Director, Exploratorium

Father Knows Best?, Washington Post

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I'm not afraid to say "I don't know" when my daughters ask the tough questions. Despite the typical timing of these important queries (like when my eldest asked "What's a virgin?" as I was merging onto a busy L.A. freeway), I go for the truth. After all, isn't "telling it like it is" one of the legacies we baby boomers have embraced?

My 10½ year old has just completed the fifth grade, and with it that special unit on human sexuality. But those aren't where the hard questions come from in our family. If only. Last month she came home and proudly showed me a Web page she and her friends had made on their own. Not only had she coded the page but she had embedded a Flash game into it as well. The floodgates had opened.

Surveying her work, I noticed some major problems in her code. In addition, she had hotlinked to someone else's Flash game. Hotlinking is a big no-no in the ethics of the Web and it was clear she had reached a critical stage in her development (you might remember I've had a couple interactions with people who have hotlinked to my images). It was time to step in to make sure she got a proper upbringing.

Kids today are learning PowerPoint in the fourth grade and are expected to use the Web to research their school projects by the fifth. Yes, folks-without-children, it's quite a different world. My eldest had been asking for her own Web site for a year. But I've hesitated, waiting for her to grow into the responsibilities that come with being a good netizen. She had just been rewarded for her maturity with her own email address (to correspond with approved friends only). But was I ready to move her into a higher geek realm? As usual my control over the situation was totally dictated by her meteoric quest for knowledge.

Professional Auteurism, Worker's Comp / 07.04.2007

You know your job is secure when you make it on Wheel of Fortune. Click the image above to start. (Quicktime, 5.5 MB)

Last night: the end of a very busy week. I'm preparing for my first back-to-back business trip (DC-SF-NY-DC) to give a talk and attend some meetings. So I've been in pre-flight high gear the entire week, making sure all my projects are where they need to be before my long hiatus. You know how it is, you want everything in order before taking off.

I'm tired as I sit down for a bit of decompression before dinner. Of course, the best antidote: the mindless Wheel of Fortune. Pat Sajak and Vanna White can make you forget just about anything.

All is going well until the third toss-up. Category: occupation. View the video, then we'll talk...

Professional Auteurism / 24.11.2006

You might remember last year I discovered that someone was "hotlinking" to one of my images. Hotlinking is where someone links directly to your image file and places it on his or her own site. This violates a couple key netizen rules: Don't steal someone else's bandwidth. Every time the image appears on their site your Web host charges you for the use of bandwidth. Always ask. When coming upon a hotlink transgressor there are effective strategies of dealing with him/her. Using some coding to my site's .htaccess file I can ban them from linking to any images on my...

Professional Auteurism / 19.11.2006

Installing signage at Clyde's Restaurant. We were hopeful. When the Smithsonian American Art Museum closed for renovations in January 2000 the neighborhood surrounding its building was neglected and deserted (especially when the Federal workforce left for the burbs at the end of the day). What a difference six and a half years made. Our museum, open since July, is now right in the middle of a vibrant city life with restaurants, shops, and sports events. So rich is the night life that we changed the Smithsonian's traditional hours from 10–5:30 to a later 11:30–7 to take advantage of the after work...