Archive - Jun 2013
June 9th
The Salt Shakers
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 06/09/2013 - 08:29We didn't have a lot of money growing up and as much as possible lived off of the food our garden produced. So, when the corn came in, we would spend lots of time picking corn which my mother would freeze, and then for dinner, we would have nothing but corn.
I'm not sure if it the corn was brought to the table on the same platter my mother would bring the turkey to the table on for Thanksgiving, but the scene was very similar, a large dish stacked with food, with four hungry kids and my mother and father gathered around a small table in the kitchen. Since it was the only food and we were hungry growing kids, we would eat ear after ear of corn, much more than our well to do friends, neighbors or family would eat when they had corn as part of a meal.
We would grab ears of corn, roll them in sticks of butter, and then reach for the salt shakers on the table. Our hands would be buttery and soon the small salt shakers would be slippery with butter as well.
The salt shakers were glass, probably about an inch tall. The top was some sort of white plastic with a design around the top. We would unscrew them, put in the salt, and add rice to keep the salt from clumping up.
The design around the top of the salt shakes has long ago worn off. Now, the house has been sold and the memory-laden items have gone to us kids. I have two small glass salt shakers waiting in a kitchen cupboard ready for corn season.
June 8th
Ingress, Field Trip and Glass
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/08/2013 - 20:33In one of the Google+ communities for Ingress players, a friend linked to the article, Deep inside Ingress, the Google-made game that's paving the way for Glass with the comment, "We're not sure how to make money on this."
I don't know who the 'we' he was referring to was. Google? His own business? I started to write a reply in the Google+ community, but it started growing so I decided to turn it into a blog post.
I'm not sure how much Google is looking at this in terms of being an immediate money maker, and a few different things come to mind. First, many technology pundits thought Google was nuts to pay as much as they did for YouTube when they bought it for $1.65 billion. Reports are that in 2012, YouTube had $3.6 billion in revenue.
Google seems to take a long view. They are well known for their twenty percent time. Google employees are allowed to spend twenty percent of their time working on projects that aren't necessarily in the in the employee's job description.
I don't know if Niantic Labs grew out of twenty percent time. I don't know how much Google has a long term plan for Ingress, Field Trip, Glass, etc., but I find all of them fascinating. Let's start off with Ingress. People have noted that there are many Duane Reade's as portals in Ingress. Did Duane Reade pay to have all these portals? Will other companies pay to have their locations host Ingress portals?
Yet Ingress is much more than portals at locations. There is a complicated multimedia backstory. There are YouTube videos, ebooks, and more. Will it lead to a best selling book? A feature length movie? An art exhibit? Will it change the way we relate to media? I must admit, I haven't followed the storyline that closely, but the implications for the future of media are fascinating.
People have linked Ingres to Glass. I expect to pick up my Google Glass next Friday. I had to pay for the Glass with my Google Wallet. Most of the discussions about Glass are taking place in Google+. It is a good way of getting people to use more Google products. The possibilities of Google Glass seem endless and I'll be exploring these more, both in my personal blog and my work blog.
This leads me to Field Trip. I just downloaded Field Trip and at first glance, it looks really interesting. As I've thought about Google Glass, I've been thinking about something along the lines of Field Trip, with a few specific tweaks. For example, I'd love to see a geocoded wiki which could be accessed through an app like Field Trip. Anyone could leave tips about places, links to other information, a sort of friendly twenty first century version of hobo code. Of course, I'd also like to see specialized databases, such as one that provides census data, FBI data, or health data about communities a person is traveling through.
So, how do individuals, not working for Google make money off of this? Well, there are a few different things that come to mind. It used to be that if you wanted to do business with someone, you would grab a bag of golf clubs and walk with that person around a golf course. One day, I got a call from a friend of my brother who is a financial planner. There was family business to discuss. He, my brother and I are all Ingress players, and that's how my brother and he met. Forget the golf clubs, grab a cellphone, maybe a spare battery pack, and head to the nearest collection of portals.
For me, I always try to stay on top of what is emerging. Somethings don't make it. Others do. Will Ingress, Field Trip and/or Glass make it? I can't tell, but I find them all very compelling. So, I'll keep exploring them. Perhaps enhancing my reputation as an early adopter, perhaps leading to opportunities to work with developing something else new and interesting. That may be a little vague, but may fit with Google's strategy.
June 7th
"Flowers are Red"
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/07/2013 - 20:54The week started off with a trip to Boston for the launch of my middle daughter's book, Don't Make Art, Just Make Something.
Have you ever noticed that
whenever someone does
something particularly well,
we call it art?The thing is, if we're always
trying to make art, we miss
out on everything else we
can make.
It was the final week of the General Assembly up in Hartford, which passed AN ACT CONCERNING DISSECTION CHOICE.
A local or regional school district shall excuse any student from participating in, or observing, the dissection of any animal as part of classroom instruction, provided the parent or guardian of such student has requested, in writing, that such student be excused from such participation or observation.
It was also Artweek at Beecher Road School, where my youngest daughter is a student. Recently, they took a trip to the Yale Center for British Art, where they saw George Stubbs painting, "A Lion Attacking a Horse". To a young girl who loves horseback riding and who has recently given up eating meat due to her love of animals, it was a disturbing painting.
Even more disturbing was when she was told to reproduce the painting in art class. She didn't want to reproduce violence and because of the subject matter, she asked if she could do a different painting. When she was told no, she did her own version where the lion was lying down with the horse. It was rejected by the art teacher. Perhaps, as Isaiah 11:6 says, a child shall lead them.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
Fiona related this to us over dinner this evening. I suggested that she should ask to reproduce paintings from de Kooning's Women series instead, but didn't go into details. I also introduced her to the song, "Flowers are Red" by Harry Chapin.
It will be interesting to see what directions her artistic express takes.
June 5th
Anticipating Glass
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/05/2013 - 21:36There are times when I don't write a blog post because the idea is still formulating in my mind. There are times when I don't write a blog post because I just don't have time or am too tired. Then, there are times when I have a great blog post, or perhaps a few different ones, that I have to wait to write and post them because of other timing issues.
Today, I received a direct message on Twitter that basically wrote a blog post for me for my job. At the same it sets up potential interesting personal blog posts about Ingress, the arts, and traveling to New York. Friends who have been following closely probably know the background to these pending blog posts, but the posts will have to wait until the right time.
Until a couple final details fall into place, hopefully tomorrow, the blog posts will have to wait, no matter how hard it is for me and for others.
June 3rd
Writing Pace
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 06/03/2013 - 21:50Exhausted, I sink into the large stuffed chair in the southwest corner of the living room. In the kitchen, on the stove, sits a two quart copper bottomed pan with tomorrows breakfast. I've taken to eating oatmeal most mornings, and recently we ran out of the quick rolled oats that I usually microwave first thing in the morning. I have a tin of steel cut oats from my mother's house and I'm following a recipe to cook the oats in the evening and warm them up in the morning. The pan, like the oats, also comes from my mother's house.
On the dining room table is a wooden bowl and a cookie press that came from my mothers house. All of these come from a different time and a different place. The dog lies quietly at the head of the stairs. Fiona is in bed, and Kim is on her way home from a very long day at work.
Today, as I write, I think about pacing. There is something frenetic about so much of social media, and for that matter, so much of twenty-first century life. People complain about how social media is replacing face to face interaction. From what I've seen, it is actually helping with face to face interaction. Online social media is the gateway drug to face to face social interaction. No, perhaps the real issue is pacing. We post a quick response to the latest social media, the way we might blurt something out without thinking. If only, we could slow down, be a little more contemplative and less reactive.
My mind drifts to another story idea. Will I write it over the summer? Will I shoot for a long form and try to write it during National Novel Writing Month? Already, the story is starting to take shape in my mind.
I close my eyes to think out the parts of the plot, the character development, and the setting. In the distance a bull frog calls. New thoughts mingle in my mind. Thoughts that I will carry with me to bed.
