How facebook killed our blog

In the beginning their was the family web page. Used to keep far away relatives up to date, it featured stories and photos that illustrated what the family was up to. That was replace by the blog and photo sites, which were much easier to maintain and required fewer geek skills. And then came facebook. With its near instantaneous updates and gratification, it has made the blog seemingly superfluous. So, it is with a little regret, and some relief, that I bid "adieu" to the Haney 2.0 blog. I will leave this page here as a launching point to all that is facebook. Visit there for more than I think anyone wants to know about the Haneys and their goings-on. See you on the face-o-sphere...

Into the Facebook Abyss!

Well, I finally created a Facebook page. I resisted for quite a while concerned about the amount of time it might take. Hopefully I will keep this from being all-consuming. It certainly seems like a great way to keep in touch with people. I have already found a childhood friend after 35 years and got back in touch. I have joined groups that reflect my interests, and added many friends. Although I love technology, for some reason I was reticent about using this particular app. We'll see how it goes. Feel free to comment and leave your own Facebook experiences.

White Supremacists?

I have decided to create more posts with shorter thoughts rather than attempting the infrequent, pithy diatribe. So, for today:

Why is it always that people who refer to themselves as "white supremacists" don't even appear to be superior to most primates, let alone other races?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/06/obama.plot.indictment/index.html

As much as the election result made me proud to be an American, this makes me embarrassed to be a white male American.

Allen and I worked the polls today, from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. We had about a one hour line in the morning after we opened, but after that it was light with almost no wait times. Even though the election day physical turnout was light, with the pre-voting and absentee voting we ended up with a 70%+ total turnout for our precincts. In order to clarify the rule concerning paper ballots, each site was required to read a statement aloud every half hour. Of course, yours truly was elected to do the reading. So here is the statement I was privileged to read 26 times on this historic election day: "In accordance with Secretary of State Directive 2008-107, please be aware that you have the choice to vote either on the voting machines or by paper ballot. You will be able to select your preference after you have shown I.D. and signed the signature poll book. Votes cast using the voting machines and paper ballots today will be counted tonight. Thank you." I am proud to be an American.

When art meets technology in a GOOD way!

On Gizmodo earlier today they created a post on "mesmerizing gadgets" , objects at which you just can't stop staring. Several of these struck me as ways in which tech has enhanced art, or at least opened up new possibilities. My favorite is the "waterfall printer", where a computer controls hundreds of water jets so that designs and words are created as the water falls, much like a dot-matrix printer. Click on the link and take a gander, but be warned - you can indeed spend much more time than you intended soaking in these tech/art gadgets.

Those who ignore history...

Not satisfied with his party bringing back the Great Depression, John McCain has decided to usher in his own era of McCarthyism. Of course, in this post Cold War era it would sound ludicrous to yell "communist", so instead McCain has chosen to take the economic angle and accuse Barack Obama of "socialist" policies. Is there no end to the lengths he will go in his campaign of hatred and fear? Is the Republican party so desperate that this is the strategy to which they are reduced? In a campaign that has seen more than its share of negative ads on both sides, McCain has dropped to a new low. As if sending his Alaskan toadie to call Obama a terrorist is not enough, McCain is now trying to scare Americans with the prospect of Barack Obama redistributing our wealth. This dissemination of misinformation is to what McCain has been reduced. The Republicans have few facts on their side, so they have chosen to wage a war of hatred and fear. It is only slightly veiled racism, and represents the worst of what America has to offer. To quote Joseph Welch, "Sir, have you no decency?"

Who Killed the Quiet Car?

I resisted blogging about this before due its controversial nature, but now that it seems to be gaining momentum in the U.K. ( http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/07/lotus-safe-and-sound-technology-gives-hybrids-a-voice/ ) I feel I must speak up. The issue is putting artificial noise into electric/hybrid vehicles because they don't make enough noise for pedestrians to notice them in the same way they would conventional vehicles. The argument is that people, especially the blind and children, use auditory clues to detect that vehicles are approaching. There is no doubt that this is true. There is also no doubt that vehicles that make little or no noise present a new danger for those who depend solely or primarily on their hearing to identify oncoming vehicles. But the solution is not to make quiet vehicles LOUD! We finally have the technology to eliminate the second greatest type of pollution created by automobiles (noise), and we are going to take a step backwards by adding the noise back in. Absurdity. The simple fact is that all people will now have to realize that their hearing is not the reliable tool it once was to detect traffic. Children will need to be trained to ALWAYS look before crossing the street, and not to depend on whether they can hear a car. Animal assistants will need to be trained to always look, and not depend on their ears.
It makes we wonder about when America transitioned from horse-drawn buggies to automobiles. People had to get used to the fact that cars traveled faster, and they had to anticipate that greater speed. Pedestrians had to retrain themselves for crossing the street. Did anyone suggest that automobiles should not be allowed to travel any faster than carriages so that no one had to change their habits? I hope not.
Imagine what long-term effects quieter cars will have. Homes near roads will not be nearly as undesirable as before. If there is a highway on the other side of a treeline you won't even know it is there. And that is just the beginning.
Again, I am sympathetic to the issue. I just don't agree that the solution is to negate the progress.