Author Archives: Kyle Kimberlin

New Age

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If someone had asked me whether we’re in the Industrial Age or the Information Age, I would have said we’ve been deep into information for a while now. Doc Searls points out that we have another leap to make.

I’ve long believed that the crossover from the Industrial Age to the Information Age will be marked by an awakening to the need by customers to control their own selves, rather than to remain subordinated to the controlling interests of companies. Same thing with citizens and governments.

such moments

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The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

–M. Scott Peck

Really? Why then, stick with me, gentle reader, and let us see together what my intransigent indolence and intractable existential dyspepsia might portend. And let’s hope it’s not a celestial vocabulary test; at least, not too soon.

Save XP

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Which Operating System do you use? If you have a new computer, it’s Vista. Blech. I mean, it’s pretty and it’s slick, but it’s full of compatibility problems. And what if you have an itch while working with Vista?

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See? You can’t even scratch yourself. Those security warnings are endless and maddening. So I support the movement to Save XP. I got this e-mail from them tonight:

“Dear ‘Save XP’ petition participant — SaveXP.comThank you for signing our ‘Save XP’ petition. You’re getting this message because you told us you wanted updates on new developments in the ‘Save XP’ campaign. Here’s what’s happening: Close to 200,000 people have signed the petition since January 14. However, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer thinks we’re not serious about the Save XP movement, nor does he seem to take the people who signed it seriously. That’s where you come in. Help us meet our goal of 300,000 unique petition signatures by June 2008. Please ask your friends, family and colleagues to join the movement by signing up at http://www.savexp.com.”

Link


the meaning of conflict

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Dang it, look at this.

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That is my calendar for tonight. The alumni band is practicing tonight at the high school. The other is self explanatory. What am I going to do? Maybe I should stay home and watch a movie. I won’t, but I should. I mean, of all the unmitigated audacity.

Update: I chose the Band practice, on the principle of acquiescence to The Next Right Thing. Which it was: I haven’t opened my trombone case, evening to dust the old horn, since last summer. I needed practice just marginally less than a swift kick in the seat.

unbewilder me

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One of these days, I’m going to start keeping a daily list of things I don’t understand. Then I’m going to write a book.

I don’t understand why people want meetings to be longer, instead of shorter.

I don’t understand why people are still driving like bats belched from the infernal depths, with gas at four bucks a gallon.

and I don’t understand Facebook.

I got it all set up and did my profile and my fun wall, etc. I have some friends, so I’ve been prodded or needled or something once or twice. But now it’s just sitting there.

Can anyone explain for me what the thing is supposed to do? More to the point, what am I supposed to do with it? I mean, I feel like there was a lot of hype. I heard Facebook mentioned many times. Barack Obama had a Facebook page before I did, and John Edwards, and several of my friends. But now, you know what it reminds me of? The college degree hanging here in my office.

It’s a nice thing, for sure. You’re expected to have one. Took a long time to set it up, and more than a few moments of abyssal bewilderment. Now it just hangs there. Which am I referring to, Facebook or the Bachelor of Arts? Well, both. This is a comparison paragraph.

Now for the contrast: The BA says something on it like, With All The Rights and Privileges Pertaining Thereto. Facebook makes no such grandiose pronouncements. And I remember that I asked: Back at the university, I tried to find out just what Rights and Privileges I was now entitled to. I thought, and suggested, maybe free alumni parking and admission to football games would be nice. But no one could tell me.

That’s where the contrast ends, because no one can tell me what a pragmatist might expect to glean from Facebook either. Somebody needs to come along and give me a better job and show me how all this passive-aggressive networking makes us all happy.