If there is any way that I can get the domain back, I would love to know.

The concerns over privacy have been widely and intently debated for quite sometime. But, here is a real life example:

A few days ago I was checking-in at a local venue (via foursquare) and I noticed that the Mayor had an interesting profile photo. So I took a look around his profile. Within just a few minutes of browsing his check-ins. I knew exactly where this person lives. That was easily determined because they have foolishly established their home as a venue. I confirmed that it was indeed his address by cross-referencing the address of the venue with a quick whitepages.com search. I also know that he has a pet, but even better, I know that it is a dog.

I also know that he likes Mexican food. He eats out a lot….all the time. He drinks an enormous amount of beer. His political views are far right. He is a Tea Party supporter. He owns guns, lots of handguns. And thinks that people that do not own guns are stupid. He is married.

I could go on, but my point has been proven. The first mistake that this guy made was marking his home. Now I could have figured out his life habits by mapping out his check-ins with date & time, and I would have found his home eventually. However having his home marked made this all a bit easier.

With very little extra work, I could have used all of this data to cause harm to this person, whether it be physical, financial, or other.

I think that foursquare needs to take a look into people submitting their homes as venues. Not only does this prove to be unsafe to the user, whether it is his home or not, it devalues the foursquare experience. A compromise of user safety should be a concern.

I use Foursquare to explore my world. I like to find restaurants, coffee shops, museums, arts galleries, and the like near me, and I enjoy finding that some places will even give me a free cup of coffee just for checking in via Foursquare.

Keep up the good work, Foursquare. But, remember that your users are not smart enough to protect themselves from themselves.

If you are reading this & don’t have a clue what Foursquare is, this should get you started.

An application launched on the big 5, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile & Palm (whose #’s are less than outstanding) will have a larger group of potential users. Its quite obvious that the more people that own compatible hardware, the more potential users you have.

So why do companies still choose to release iPhone only apps? It is cheaper. But, is it cost effective?

I do not have any hard data about the profitability of cross-platform mobile applications, but I do know that I am very frustrated when I see an advertisement for an application, only to find that its a lame iPhone-only app.

I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window on Friday, and it was so funny to see how James Stuart’s character L.B. Jefferies, a photographer by profession, was ridiculed by his small circle of companions because he spied on his neighbors all day. His spying was a result of his broken leg confining him to a wheel chair for the whole summer. However, once his companions realized that there was something interesting to watch, they were also captivated by looking out the window.

Much like today, many people spend the better part of their day spying on virtual neighbors via facebook, twitter,
& the like. In fact, I sometimes pride myself in being a ‘Google-meister’ (though now I should alter my title to ‘bingster’), & my ability to find anything on the internet.

This is all a part of this culture of information consumption in which we live. There are probably countless photobloggers that are currently stalking around neighborhoods, parks, & alleyways looking for a great shot. Likewise, there photographers that spend their days looking from windows capturing scenes from the daily lives of passersby.

Jefferies asked himself a curious question though, “is it ethical?” He questioned if it is ethical to spy on someone with binoculars of a telephoto camera lens.

Go throw some leaves in your kettle!

Der Erlkönig

Through the wonders of YouTube, I have discovered some awesome performances of Der Erlkönig. I particularly love the cold determination of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. However the comedic rendition done by Marco Rima certainly offers a new perspective on this old story. He speaks in German the whole time, but if you know the story, you should be able to follow and enjoy. Even Ian Bostridge manages suffer himself through the classic, though the grimace on his face makes me wonder if he enjoyed the singing. And, his shifty eyes & dramatic facial expressions distract me. It is opera, your voice should tell the story, not your face. If your face tells the story, that is called theater.

Der Erlkönig is, hands down, my favorite storyline from any opera. I can’t go so far as to say any fairy tale, but it is on my Top 10 list.

I think that the fairy tales are the best part of German literature. If only the real German versions were taught in our schools. There are so many that I love. I will not even try to make a list, in this post at least.

There have been many adaptations of this quintessential story. Rammstein pays homage with a modern spin on their album Reise, Reise with the song Dalai Lama. In this version, the story takes place on an airplane rather than a horse, and it is titled  Dalai Lama because the Dalai Lama is quite afraid of flying.

I watched the documentary “Helvetica” today. I enjoyed it quite a bit. As far as the content goes, I do not know which side is for me. On the one hand, I completely agree that Helvetica as a font is tired and used. I don’t think that it conveys the same message that it did when it was first designed. But, on the other hand, I think that there is something fresh, clean, & timeless.

It would certainly be hard to argue that Heltvetica had no impact upon the world of type. Because it had one of the most profound impacts upon type that has ever occurred. Every graphic designer has defaulted to Helvetica at some point in their career. Who can blame them? Helvetica can be a fairly bland type. It is used by countless government agencies because of its clean emotionless feel. Thought most people substitute the word “emotionless” for something like “concise” or “clear”.

Most of me thinks that if a font is too clearly readable, one tends to not even notice. Type should be like handwriting. Your personal handwriting changes as your write, and type should too. Type has emotion.

It has been 3 months since I have updated this dusty old space. I can’t say that I regret my lack of activity here. I certainly wish that I had made time these last few months, but more than that, I wish that I would have stayed on top of my Sea Kayak St. Marys site. But, life has been getting in the way. There are no signs of it slowing down either. I am not complaining. Well, maybe a little bit. I just need to budget time better.

One thing that I am making time for is gardening. I am going to try to grow as much of my own produce as I can. Living in an apartment limits me to container gardening or using a plot at a community garden. However, the St. Marys Community garden has no available plots. I have already started some radishes, and they seem to be doing quite well actually. I am trying to get a handle of all the planting/growing schedules. But at the same time I have to remember that none of it really matters. Since everything will be in a container, it can be inside or outside. This should allow me to grow some things year-round. I will also be able to better control the amount of water that each plant gets.

I am quite excited about taking another step toward sustainable living. Wish me luck, and give me some advice if you have any.

I cannot stand spammers. It is one thing to advertise a legitimate product, even if the advertisement is pervasive it drives me crazy. At least it is a real product that is being marketed. Oh well, I guess I will just have to live with it, at least WordPress has good spam filtering!