So this is really cool. I am actually speaking this blog using my new copy of the Dragon software’s SpeakingNaturally. My hope is that I’ll be able to use the software to maximize my drives between Rochester and Ithaca. If everything works out I’ll use the software to write papers on the road, or atleast, the occasional blog entry.

The speech recognition is actually pretty good, and it’s supposed to get better the more they use the program. Unfortunately, the automatic punctuation needs a little work.

Today is just the day of voice recognition I also tried a new free service called Jott that allows you to call into a phone number and speak a message that will be translated to your blog or twitter feed. This morning I posted a tweet using the jot service, and it came out okay. I also tried to post an entry to the blog, but that didn’t work out - not sure why.

This is like Star Trek - “content” to just say computer, but it’s not quite that good yet (example, in that last sentance it somehow “I am tempted” turned into “content”). Still, it’s a pretty good start.

ps. points to whoever can identify what the seemingly nonsequiter subject has to do with this blog — and no googling!

So, um, yeah… I haven’t had a chance to write about the Microsoft Social Computing Symposium… Or the Renaissance Martial Arts Festival (which took place this weekend)… Or really anything at all. So to make it up to you, I present the best publishing picture evah:

Yes, that is an Optimus Prime avatar reading a copy of The Long Tail in Second Life. And yes, I’m using this in a presentation to publishing professionals.

More to come in the days that follow…

The symposium on O’Rielly Radar. I’m also tweeting the event (see sidear –>) or my twitter page.

Some might be asking “What’s up with this post….” My PhD work is in the area of Journalism and live blogging debates is something that amateurs and pros alike have been doing this US Presidential Cycle. So, livin’ the anthropologist’s life, I thought I’d give it a try.

It’s not as easy as it looks. In fact, Twittering is much easier that trying to write anything substantive. This, believe it or not, was better than my first, unpublished attempt during the VP debate. Balancing watching, thinking, typing, and keeping watching is a lot harder than it seems. So without further adieu, my rather weak ramblings on the proceedings:

• 10.34 pm — Gotta love what happens when the candidates block the teleprompter. And we go to hand shaking…
• 10.24 pm — So much for yes or no. McCain’s “maybe” was the perfect response on that one. And we heard the audience on that one.
• 10.17 pm — For an interesting view on the debate, check out Intrade’s tracking page for the debate.
• 10.13 pm — Whelp, it’s official Brokaw should just get up and leave at this point.
• 10.11 pm — Twitter looks to be down from the traffic
• 10.03 pm — I want a doctrine! The Bernius Doctrine…
• 10.00 pm — Ok, Brokaw is absolutely toothless.
• 9.54 pm — I wonder if the audience is miked? McCain, whose cracked more jokes so far… But if there isn’t the sound of chuckles from the audience, it just sounds like the jokes are dying on the floor.
• 9.49 pm — Brokaw really needs to start cutting these guys off…
• 9.37 pm — Ballston Spa NY — Central NY Represents!
• 9.29 pm — Interesting production note — is it me or are both candidates wearing lapel mics? If so then why the hand helds? Are they even on? Or is it just for the look?
• 9.27 pm — The Hack the Vote live twittering is lagging way too far behind the debate. It’s interesting, especially since there’s a healthy amount of tweets from both sides of the aisle. But I think I’ve seen enough… let’s try some live blogging…

2 months rent down the drain, but the car is running better than ever!

I’m back in Ithaca at the Library and watching/taking part in a meeting on Social Advocacy that’s taking place in Ohio at the excellent Midtown Brews forum. After that its on to the Debate. All of this will be watched online — it’s a brave new world.

Today was the type of day that makes the past few years of theory worthwhile.

Before I go any further, a brief digression: I’m not good with philosophy. Not in the “I don’t see the value of it” way. Nah, I’m at the more fundimental “I don’t understand it” way. I wasn’t trained to read it. And stuff like Marx’s “negation of the negation” stuff just causes my eyes to glaze over. It’s not for lack of trying mind you. But its been a stuggle since I dove into the social sciences.

Digression completed, my exciting news is that I think I finally “get” Hagel’s dialectic — the key to unlocking a lot of stuff. After an excellent lecture in my Professional Seminar class, it’s making a lot more sense. My professor, Dominic Boyer, gave an amazing lecture that really connected a number of dots for me (not the least of which was getting me beyond “thesis, antithesis, synthesis” to “becoming, negation, sublimation”).

Have a lot more to write about this, but I need to cut it off here so I can hopefully get in a proposal for Siggraph 2009.

Since this is Friday, it means I’ve made it through the first week of PhD studies and my shifted role at RIT. So far things are going well. I really appreciate the “breathing room” that the semester system is giving me to study. At this point at RIT or Chicago I’d be thinking “oh crap, we’re already 10% of the way through the class!” 1/15 doesn’t seem anywhere as bad (also because I know there are days off in there).

I’m in the process of preparing to meet with this week’s colloquium presenter — Adam Reed of St. Andrews University. He’s published two good articles on blogging and, reading them, I realized that I haven’t posted since school began.

Um… so… that’s about it. Things are going well. I’m starting to get the rhythm of this down. Which is good.