June 2013

There were 30 posts published in June 2013 (this is page 3 of 3).

Zeo says goodnight

I was sad to learn this evening that Zeo, the makers of a wonderful sleep-tracking device, shut its doors late last year. It’s a real shame.

Since late last year it has been something of an open secret in some digital health circles that Newton, Massachusetts-based sleep monitoring and coaching company Zeo was winding down its operations and searching for a buyer. At least one investor was making veiled references to the company running out of money during various question-and-answer periods at the mHealth Summit in Washington DC last year. Zeo’s absence from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year — a must-attend for any company selling devices and companion services to consumers — was telling.

via Exclusive: Sleep coach company Zeo is shutting down | mobihealthnews.

Hallie leaves elementary school

Hallie's first day of school, 29 Aug 2007.

Hallie’s first day of school, 29 Aug 2007.


Today is Hallie’s last day at Conn Elementary school. It was 2007 but it seems like only yesterday we received the thrilling news that Hallie was accepted into Conn’s magnet program. On visiting Conn at its open house, Hallie was thrilled as well:

“I love it so much I want to kiss the whole school!”

“I don’t think anybody is as happy as I am!”

“This is the greatest day of my whole life!”

“I’m so overjoyed I feel like I’ve got a bellyache!”

“I don’t think I can wait one bit for Conn!”

“I wish they’d named it ‘I love it!’”

“When I first went down there I felt a bit scared and look at me now!”

And, on our way out of the parking lot, “Turn around!”

Now our girl is bound for Ligon and the future is just as bright for her. Still, it’s a day that reminds me how fleeting life is, how quickly the days pass, and how we don’t get to do any of those days over again.

Pardon me if I’m a weepy mess today.

Avila and the broadband divide

It’s refreshing to see Rep. Marilyn Avila express some concern about the lack of broadband.

Avila was praised by N&O executive editor John Drescher in her defense of requiring local governments buy newspaper space for their legal notices:

“Are our citizens going to have to bookmark every website for every department in every division and check it every day to figure out what we’re up to down here?” she asked, adding that many residents don’t have Internet access.

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NextDoor and silos

Searching around this morning, I found this insightful comment on NextDoor which echoes my concerns. It was posted on a message board way back in October 2011:

How tragic that I could sign up to *heyneighbor.com* and *not* be connected to all my neighbours who happened to signed up to *nextdoor.com* And every new venture in this space could serve to silo people as much as it connects them. These business models contain paradox – they can only succeed in a neighbourhood if they have a monopoly.

There’s a lot of truth here.

via Post in Another one … NextDoor.com: Locals Online – For hosts of neighborhood e-lists, placeblogs, and community social nets: E-Democracy.org.

Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?

In addition to collecting call detail records, there is some speculation that phone conversations themselves are being harvested. Recall this exchange from last month, as reported by Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian:

On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:

BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It’s not a voice mail. It’s just a conversation. There’s no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?

CLEMENTE: “No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.

BURNETT: “So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.

CLEMENTE: “No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”

via Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government? | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers

Yesterday it was revealed that the National Security Agency is collecting millions of phone records from Verizon:

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

Today, the Wall Street Journal claims this extends to AT&T and Sprint customers, too. Yesterday, The Guardian revealed PRISM, a Top Secret NSA program to directly query social media servers owned Facebook, Google, Apple, and others.

I suppose the idea of “innocent until proven guilty” got left behind somewhere in the 20th century.

via NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily | World news | The Guardian.

Renewable energy is clean, cheap and here – what’s stopping us?

Great article on the solar revolution.

Solar will be the cheapest form of power in many countries within just a few years. In places such as California and Italy it has already reached so-called “grid parity.” Onshore wind, on a piece of land not constrained by years of planning delays, is already the cheapest form of energy on earth. These are not wild claims – those are figures from General Electric, Citibank and others.

Newly built solar plants are already considerably cheaper than new nuclear plants per kilowatt hour of electricity produced and we are almost at the stage where we don’t need a guaranteed price known as a feed-in tariff because solar energy will compete head on with conventional energy.

via Renewable energy is clean, cheap and here – what's stopping us? | Ashley Seager | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Jupiter, the furry killer

Cute, but a killer!

Cute, but a killer!


So the porch cat we adopted, Jupiter, has a little problem … he’s a killer. An accomplished hunter, indeed. He lived by these skills for the three years before we began caring for him and he’s kept those skills sharp ever since. He’s as sweet as he can be to all of us but behind that fuzzy face is an expert hunter. We’ve found all manner of mice, moles, birds, squirrels, rabbits, and lizards who have met their master at the deadly claws of Jupiter. Our yard becomes littered with a dead body of some variety about once every three weeks, it seems.

Last night I was preparing to view the International Space Station, gathering my camera when I heard an eerie wail coming from the front yard. I knew it was a battle of some sort so I leapt up and raced out the door.
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Nextdoor: the online version of a gated community

Nextdoor
Many of the neighborhoods in and around mine are signing up for the Nextdoor social media site to manage their neighborhood communication. Nextdoor is a social media site which provides a forum for neighbors to post. From Nextdoor’s About page:

Nextdoor is the private social network for you, your neighbors and your community. It’s the easiest way for you and your neighbors to talk online and make all of your lives better in the real world. And it’s free.

Thousands of neighborhoods are already using Nextdoor to build happier, safer places to call home.

People are using Nextdoor to:

  • Quickly get the word out about a break-in
  • Organize a Neighborhood Watch Group
  • Track down a trustworthy babysitter
  • Find out who does the best paint job in town
  • Ask for help keeping an eye out for a lost dog
  • Find a new home for an outgrown bike
  • Finally call that nice man down the street by his first name

Nextdoor’s mission is to bring back a sense of community to the neighborhood, one of the most important communities in each of our lives.

Sounds groovy, doesn’t it? The problem is with the fourth word in the description:

“Nextdoor is the private social network …”

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