• In the days of collaboration on a project with others, from home, there are some huge benefits of CC: and BCC:
• No matter how this COVID-19 has pushed the ‘stop’ button’ in our lives, when I look outside spring is not being held back. Nature’s gentle force is in display.
• Learned a newer meaning of delegation today. It not only includes those that are designated to work on a project, but also those that “need to be in the loop”. The “loop” part was new to me.
• Dogs and cigarettes are analogue means of social contact but not necessarily preferred means in the days of staying at home.
• In Vancouver the 9 O’Clock Gun is a cannon located in Vancouver, BC that is ordinarily shot daily at 9 p.m.. From 30 March to 30 April 2020, the gun is set to fire at 7 p.m., in support of local health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• I am reading Weather by Jenny Offill. It is that new literary style, no chapters but small paragraphs and sentences.
  Here is a piece — This woman is a shrink. Also a Buddhist. She likes to practice one or other on me, I’ve noticed.. “You seem to identify down, not up. Why do you think that is?”  You tell me lady.
• This is the kind of thing in today’s newer world that is completely unacceptable.
  https://t.co/w4TKe3i905?amp=1

We begin another week in a changed world. The initial shock is still there and the haunting feeling of what does the future hold. Looking inward with little human interaction is sometimes a challenge. No matter what has stopped spring is moving forward. That brings hope.

It is a start at introducing the human element directly into a technology understanding.

The Copenhagen Letter, 2017

Copenhagen, 2017

To everyone who shapes technology today

We live in a world where technology is consuming society, ethics, and our core existence.

It is time to take responsibility for the world we are creating. Time to put humans before business. Time to replace the empty rhetoric of “building a better world” with a commitment to real action. It is time to organize, and to hold each other accountable.

Tech is not above us. It should be governed by all of us, by our democratic institutions. It should play by the rules of our societies. It should serve our needs, both individual and collective, as much as our wants. 

Progress is more than innovation. We are builders at heart. Let us create a new Renaissance. We will open and nourish honest public conversation about the power of technology. We are ready to serve our societies. We will apply the means at our disposal to move our societies and their institutions forward. 

Let us build from trust. Let us build for true transparency. We need digital citizens, not mere consumers. We all depend on transparency to understand how technology shapes us, which data we share, and who has access to it. Treating each other as commodities from which to extract maximum economic value is bad, not only for society as a complex, interconnected whole but for each and every one of us. 

Design open to scrutiny. We must encourage a continuous, public, and critical reflection on our definition of success as it defines how we build and design for others. We must seek to design with those for whom we are designing. We will not tolerate design for addiction, deception, or control. We must design tools that we would love our loved ones to use. We must question our intent and listen to our hearts. 

Let us move from human-centered design to humanity-centered design.

We are a community that exerts great influence. We must protect and nurture the potential to do good with it. We must do this with attention to inequality, with humility, and with love. In the end, our reward will be to know that we have done everything in our power to leave our garden patch a little greener than we found it.

We who have signed this letter will hold ourselves and each other accountable for putting these ideas into practice. That is our commitment.

The Copenhagen Letter, 2017

I really didn’t know what to expect on this trip. One has heard so many stories about the Middle East and what is happening here. As a tourist the situation is calm, the food fantastic, the people friendly and the weather quite kind.

We have toured various project sites that the Canadian Lutheran World Relief has been part of. For so many years one has seen the reports and now you get to see the physical program. The difference our involvement has had is apparent. The people have been very kind and thankful for our participation in helping them in some small way. We didn’t do the work, they did and we only gave them the assistance that was asked for.

We have travelled to a number of cities in Jordan and have seen the countryside and the big city. What has surprised me is the number of homes that are everywhere. Except for the desert one can always see a small town or a cluster of domestic buildings. There is little break in this type of landscape.

Petra was amazing. One can only wonder how they carved out these huge edifices. It is in someways like Utah with the rock formations. The biggest difference is the people in the area, Utah has so few, Petra has quite a few. And this is low tourist season!

We were at a a church site beside the Jordan River this afternoon. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land has a church at the ELCJHL Baptismal site very close to the Jordan River. There are a number of other churches with separate building here also. It was interesting walking to the river and seeing the other side which is Israel, no more than 25 metres away.

Tomorrow we cross back over into Israel and stay put in Jerusalem until we leave next week. Looking forward to the very short bus trips that will be in order. This is a very different place which is not like any other.

The message arrived on my iPhone. The garbage truck would not be here this morning, you have to wait until tomorrow. Not a big surprise with the amount of stuff we throw out.

Do you ever think about all those items you buy or get Amazon to deliver to your house that need to go back somewhere and that somewhere is either recycling or the garbage dump. However we try, there is a ton of packaging that isn’t going to be staying in your home. It is going to leave at some point. And you are the one that will initiate its final journey.

There was a Danish newscast a few decades ago where someone with a cart of groceries had them rung up through the cashier and instead of bagging the items proceeded to remove the packaging and put the contents in containers they brought with them. Milk, sugar, flour, cereals, coffee, even Kleenex, all removed from their packaging and put into something reusable. There was a huge mound of used card boxes, plastic and paper when they were finished doing this. The store manager, now involved, said they had to take the mound with them. Their answer was “I bought the merchandise, I didn’t buy the packaging.”

That packaging is one of the keys to selling the product. It is the ultimate brand placement, on the product itself. Now after the sale, once at home in your fridge or shelf where will it end up? That’s right — with all the other stuff that can’t be in your home permanently. Wonderful coloured cardboard and plastic containers soon to be homeless.

For the past few decades we had a round plastic garbage can that housed our soon-to-be homeless items. This was built to “use” one of those grocery plastic bags you bring your stuff home in. The problem is it really wasn’t built for the bags, it was too big. There was always the pain of trying to stretch the bag around the container. It worked until some heavy wet garbage undid your valiant stretch attempt. That meant the gloppy trash went directly into the bucket which would need washing. I am sure it was the garbages last attempt to get even.

A store flyer came out showing the garbage receptacle to “replace all receptacles.” For $16.00 this beauty was built for plastic bags and would ease the pain of temporary indoor garbage storage. All in the wonderful antiseptic colour of white and with a lid which was also white. Now the transmission of affald (Danish for garbage) would work easier than an enema (English for disgusting).

Now the garbage men must be pleased when they arrive for pickup. Perfect sized white bags all piled together to fall evenly out into the truck for the last ride home for all this shit. This mess would look decent. And because we now recycle everything — paper, plastic, glass, returnables, and compostables there is no need for weekly garbage pickup. Recycleables every week, garbage pick up every other week. (This keeps the contents fermenting to the highest degree during the summer).

Yes we have arrived at trash nirvana. More recycling than rubble. The packaging we bought now goes back to be used again in some manner. We buy it, we recycle it, then we re-buy it — that is the life of a consumer, always waiting for the garbage truck.

With only a week left of work you would think it would be pretty easy to be ready for this. You’ve worked most of your life now you stop. The problem is the questions. What will you do because not doing anything seems almost obscene. What about all those people at work? Will you even see them again? What happens when your income is not dependent on getting up and going to work?

In a matter of seven days these questions will become less important because this new lifestyle will suddenly dictate your experience. One thing is certain — time will be your own to use as you choose. That new dimension will be so enjoyable. 

This was the first weekend Alexa came into our home. It was interesting to be able to talk to her and have someone in the room who seemed to like your type of music. I could shout from the front room and she would still hear me.

Alexa is Amazon’s incredible voice controlled digital assistant, similar to Apple’s Siri but in a stand alone device. You state your commands by starting the conversation “Alexa,….” and the results are surprisingly consistent and accomplished. Walking into a the room and stating “Alexa, good morning” brings up a short statement about the day and some element about it. This was today’s message “Good morning, and Happy Halloween! I hope everyone gets lots of candy tonight, and not a bag of rocks. And Linus, if you’re listening, I hope you finally get to see the Great Pumpkin!” Yesterday the response was “Good morning, and Happy Diwali! I can help you celebrate this joyous festival of lights. Just keep talking to me, and I’ll lend my spinning blue and white lights to the festivities!”

This isn’t available in Canada, yet but I suspect it soon will be. It connects to various 3rd parties so access to my Spotify account is enacted by stating “Alexa, play Bob Dylan” and it gets music by Mr. Dylan and starts playing. I can name the exact song “Alexa, play Lay, Lady, Lay” and voila, it starts playing. If you have constructed playlists it starts playing them which give you ultimate control. Want to hear CBC AM? “Alexa, play CBC”.

It has been a learning experience, finding out what you can do. Use it for simple arithmetic, measurement conversions (millilitres to ounces, kilometers to miles), dictionary for words, what happened on this day in history, etc. etc. Each question and response is posted in text on your Alexa app. It really is phenomenal and it opens up huge potential for the future. Siri is portable but Alexa is always in the room with you. And this is just the beginning!

Sometimes you use a service for a long time and it becomes almost taken for granted.

I remember meeting this young man in Seattle at Gnomedex. He had started this blogging service which people were beginning to take notice. We shared our views of the internet and what possibilities and opportunities it would bring. All of us were beginners in some way and it was exciting to be part of it. He was up in Vancouver at the NorthernVoice gathering the following year and we just managed to exchange hellos. A person you would always enjoy to have a good conversation with.

I received this notice as a message in my WordPress blog recently. This is the kind of message that Matt Mullenweg would send you. Thank you Matt for helping change so much of what we need to change.

There was something very unique about Kansas City. It might be the best kept secret in America. There were no expectations before arrving but the city quickly offered some interesting venues, great food and very friendly people. A few of us went there for the Credit Union Water Cooler Symposium and found it  a very interesting place to walk around. From the venue site ‘The Alamo’ to Kansas city BBQ eateries there was a positive city character that was portrayed everywhere. My favourite place was the Negro Baseball League Museum. It portrayed. in a timeline, how the league started and what it went through until the late ‘50s. Speaking to a security attendant in the lobby, he mentioned that there are numerous Major League players that come through the museum. A few weeks ago the Molina family were there. Stories like that bring the place alive.

Cities have much to offer and each has a special understanding and character surrounding the place they live. No two are ever the same, which makes traveling so interesting. The buildings put together the framework of living but it is the people who inhabit the city that make it so interesting. There was an article this last week about a Danish town that were digging up the streets for sewer lines and came across a wooden pipeline that was built in the 1500’s. What did they do with it? Threw it away because ‘that is what you do in a city that is over 750 years old.’ No matter what the age or the edifices a city has, it is its character driven by the people that give it that wonderful sense of difference.