August 2012

There were 111 posts published in August 2012 (this is page 1 of 12).

Apple Worked A Broken Patent System – InformationWeek

Our patent system is definitely broken. This is worth a read.

Samsung too closely copied some elements of the Apple iPhone, and for that it should be hung up in the public square. But Samsung should be hung by its thumbs, at worst, not its neck.

Copying in some measure is all around us. It is continuously present in many parts of a free enterprise system and in some ways is a yardstick to the health of that system. I often see small, muscular-looking cars with lines similar to the BMW 300 series, but they have Swedish or Japanese nameplates on them. Watching what sells is a basic premise of anyone engaged in a competitive race. Matching a competitor under your own brand is a time-honored practice.

via Apple Worked A Broken Patent System – Mobility – Smartphones – Informationweek.

St. Louis columnist gets hacked by Mitt Romney


Pat Gauen, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, became a victim of Mitt Romney’s Facebook profile slamming. He thinks it happened when he hovered his mouse over Mitt Romney’s Facebook ad.

If this is the case, it would be extremely hard to blame this trickery on anyone other than Mitt Romney’s campaign.

This is my first presidential election as a member of Facebook, which I joined for kinship with family and friends and now find overrun with moronic political rants. I never comment there on anything except for occasional innocuous messages to those I hold close.

So I was surprised last week to be informed that I had “Liked” Mitt Romney.

For the uninitiated, clicking “Like” on a Facebook message is a public show of support, shared with all your online “friends” and heaven knows who else. I “Like” cute pictures of my grandchildren but never candidates for office.

So I posted a disclaimer and found a way to “Unlike” Romney (which is not the same as “Dislike,” for which there is no option, nor would I want to say that anyway).

via Facebook 'Like' for Romney doesn't mean much : Stltoday.

A stop for Garner Crimestoppers

I know that for years I’ve been telling people that I served as the president of Garner Crimestoppers for two years. Well, it’s actually not true. It turns out I’m still serving as president of Garner Crimestoppers and no one told me about it.

Apparently, the paperwork didn’t get updated when I resigned back in 2003 and I’ve been listed as president on the state forms ever since. The Garner Police department eventually decided that Crimestoppers wasn’t really needed anymore and decided to close it down. In order to dissolve the corporation they recently contacted me to get my signature.

While I’m sorry to see the organization go, I’m happy to see it’s run its course and is no longer needed!

Update Google services from the command line

I hate using browser-based file uploaders because inevitably they’re not compatible with my Ubuntu Firefox browser. Plus there’s all that unnecessary clicking.

A few months ago I found the GoogleCL package, a script which can update nearly any Google service such as Google Plus, Picasa, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and many others.

Rather than manipulate a large album of pics through some horrid web UI, I simply use this command and the album gets created the way I want it, the first time!

google picasa create –summary “The City of Raleigh held a stream monitoring workshop to train citizen-scientists to monitor city streams” “City of Raleigh Stream Monitoring Workshop” –date 2012-08-25 *.jpg

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Blogging on and on

The kids and I attended a stream monitoring workshop put on by the City of Raleigh on Saturday. It was great learning how to measure the water quality of our city’s streams and we look forward to doing our part.

The workshop included field time and the group practiced in nearby Little Rock Creek. As I was wading around in the middle of the creek, a fellow participant wandered over to me.

“Are you the blogger?” he said.

“Excuse me? Am I the what?”

“The blogger, www.markturner.net?” he answered.

I laughed and introduced myself to my new friend, Sandro Gilser, blogger at The Daddy Weekly. You should check it out.
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