A New Coat of Paint

As I alluded to a few days ago, I was getting a bit bored with the previous website theme, and as I was upgrading to WordPress 3.0 on the back-end, I figured it was about time to switch around the front-end a bit, too.  I honestly didn’t look around all that hard, but I came across this series of themes from Digital Nature that looked really classy and customizable.  I’ll still be changing things around a bit as we re-arrange some series of links, but this is effectively what the site will look like.  A few points of interest:

  • The Picasa photo browser is now at the bottom of the page, and a bit smaller.
  • The background image will probably get changed from time to time.  I’m not entirely happy with what I did with the coloring, so I may fix that…but that picture will probably remain on the site for a bit.
  • At the bottom of the links on the right-hand column, there’s a little tabbed browser now that is worth checking out.  It now includes the “tag cloud,” as well as a “most commented on posts” and “recent comments” browser.

Anyway, I think it looks a bit prettier now.  As always, consider it to be a “beta” product.  🙂

Of Facebook and Privacy

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Toward the end of May, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that the company was revamping their privacy controls yet again. It has become something of a yearly (or more) change at Facebook, as they’re constantly changing things “behind the scenes” that affect the end user’s applications, posts, photos, etc. Part of the problem that Facebook has had, overall, is that they tend to make changes that affect users globally, in the sense that no matter what their privacy settings were, they are then changed without informing them as to what is going on.

The picture above shows the simplified Privacy Controls. Bear in mind that all these controls have existed in Facebook forever, but as Zuckerberg describes it, they became so “granular” that it became confusing for the end user. It used to be that you could set all of these things with a series of “check boxes,” but now all you have to do is select that only “Friends” can view your information, or “Friends of Friends” (allowing a little less restriction, in case a “Friend” refers to something you posted and then a “Friend” of theirs comments on it), or you can make your information available to Facebook at large. All this can be done with a single click. Or, you can pick a Custom profile that allows for the granular control you’ve always had.

I listen to podcasts practically all the time, and this particular story has been covered over the last few weeks on NPR’s Science Friday, as well as NPR’s On Point. The Science Friday piece is shorter than the On Point one, if you care to listen, but the discussions and the callers all provide very interesting debate on the subject. The discussion ranges widely, with mostly adults that didn’t grow up with the internet worrying about young people that are using the service without regard to their future. They point out that the business model Facebook uses to get money in the first place (i.e. advertisements) relies on freely distributed information from each person, as essentially, your information (e.g. likes/dislikes) is what is being sold to advertisers, thereby funding your use of Facebook.

In having conversations on this matter with Brooke and Kristen, they rightly point out that things being posted on Facebook aren’t entirely under our control. Hypothetically, a person could be out at a bar and have a picture taken of them, and then have that picture posted on Facebook and “tagged” with their name on it. Of course, as they both pointed out, if the individual wasn’t participating in anything they would be ashamed of, they’d have nothing to worry about. Keep in mind that, if anyone posts a picture and “tags” you with it, and you remove that “tag” yourself, it can never be re-added, thereby limiting the ability for anyone to search for that incriminating picture with your identification attached to it.

In my case, I’ve used Facebook for years, but I have always kept some amount of control on what I post on it. I do my best to keep my Facebook profile as uninteresting as possible, yet still keep other people abreast of what I’m up to. The service, for me, is helpful in keeping me in touch with other people that I may have otherwise lost touch with over the past decade. For that, I am very grateful in having Facebook available. At the same time, my generation grew up with the advent of the internet, where it took minutes to download a single photo. Generations now are entering a different world where social networking is almost considered a requirement before you even enter middle school (Facebook’s Terms of Use suggest that you be 13 before using the service. Obviously, it’s up to parents to police that). Kids now are taking cell phones to elementary school, which was unheard of back in the 90s. The newer generations are dealing with privacy in ways that my generation never had to.

Ultimately, I come down on the subject in the following ways. Facebook is a service that is free to use, yet certainly isn’t required. No one is forced to use the service. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, no one is forced to post things onto the service for all to see. It is up to the individual to decide whether a). they want to be a member of Facebook in the first place, and b). whether they want to post anything or not.

So, with all this under consideration, I come to a related (but thus far unaddressed) question: Is it possible that Facebook, and the internet in general, acts as a distributed “Big Brother” such that everyone (that cares…) ends up acting better than they otherwise would in public situations for fear that anything they do could be recorded and posted somewhere?

I guess we’ll find out in the next few years. Somehow, I kinda doubt it.

“In the end, it doesn’t even matter.”

I think Brooke and I were both relatively satisfied with the series finale of “Lost” this past Sunday night. In my opinion, it provided a great deal of closure without necessarily answering many of the questions asked in the 6 season show, but I still think it ended with a good (enough) sense of finality.

Therefore, I present to you, the 3 alternate endings to the series. Those of you that have never seen the show still may find it amusing, especially the third alternate, starting just after the 5 minute mark. 🙂

Getting “Lost” in Netflix

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Brooke and I got into Lost awhile back after hearing things about it from a variety of people. Obviously, it’s a show that would appeal to me due to its many sci-fi elements, but Brooke had heard other people she knew that enjoyed it as well. I downloaded the first few seasons and we watched them in a few short months, in time to watch the 5th season last year as it was shown on ABC.

Well, the 6th and final season is set to begin February 2nd, so we thought we should watch it all again before the next season begins, especially while there’s mostly nothing on TV (due to the Olympics, primarily). We were able to watch some of those previous seasons on ABC.com, as the entire series is (kinda) available for free. I say “kinda” because we tried to watch them and, while the site says they’re available, they apparently aren’t working. Rather than download the episodes illegally, we decided to give Netflix a try.

We had been talking about trying Netflix for a few months now, mostly because many of our friends have it, but also because once we move, we we have toyed with the idea of not getting cable TV again. Netflix costs $9/mo and has a lot of material available. The real benefit of the system is that they added “Netflix Streaming” awhile back, making quite a few television shows (like Lost) available on-demand so we don’t have to wait for a disc to arrive before we can watch them. It works on Windows or Mac OS platforms, but in our case, I’m using it on my PS3, streaming the shows (or movies) in near-HD quality to the PS3 so we can watch them on the TV. I imagine we will use mostly Netflix Streaming, but it’s nice having the added catalog of DVDs (Bluray rentals cost $2 extra per month).

So yeah, Netflix appears to be a very worthwhile service, and it’s feeding our addiction to Lost. Win-win, eh?

Let’s Do The Locomotion

So, tomorrow I’ll be embarking on my first train ride.  Not to say that I haven’t used light-rail metro systems, but this will be the first Amtrak system that I hit up.  I’ll be leaving (eeeaaaaarrrly…) for Chicago to attend this year’s annual Society for Neuroscience meeting.  2008’s was in Washington, D.C. and 2007’s was in San Diego, so Chicago is considerably less interesting to me, but perhaps a train ride will make things a bit more interesting.

We basically decided that, rather than waiting at the airport and flying, we may as well take the 5.5 hr train ride instead.  As I understand it, these trains have quite a bit of leg room (compared to the Coach area of a plane) and a snack car, so it should be more comfortable.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the trip.  We’ll probably get a chance to head by a few “sights” while in Chicago, as it seems that there is relatively little to see at the meeting on Monday and Tuesday (I present late on Wednesday).  It looks like they put the majority of Parkinson’s-related research on Saturday (when I’m not there) and Wednesday (while I’m also presenting it), so we’ll probably dabble a bit in some posters and then go to Shedd Aquarium or something.

This will also be my last formal presentation of data at a meeting like this, certainly while a grad student at SLU.  I at least think I’m going out with some good work, and the poster looks pretty.  I’ve got some fluorescent images on there to add a bit more color to otherwise boring graphs (I had Brooke help me with some of the color choices, of course, as my Mom saw fit to give me color-blindness…).

Also, as this is my last trip as a grad student, I’ll also be hitting up the NeuroJobs portion of the conference, seeing if I can land a job somewhere.  I’ve sent the resume to a few places, but haven’t really concentrated on it much yet because of various school-related things, and, well, doing experiments and such.  After this week, I’ll be hitting that up in earnest.

Regardless, it doesn’t look like the busy-ness of the last few months is going away anytime soon.  Guess I should get used to it.

Today’s Two Videos…

This _should_ come out in time for Thanksgiving…which would be awesome, ’cause I can only imagine the Thanksgiving crowd at Brooke’s ‘rents house doing some four-player New Super Mario Bros. This is the perfect game (next to Mario Kart) for putting a controller in someone’s hands and letting them have some old-school Mario fun…and all at the same time, rather than taking turns.

This one is another healthcare-related video, this time featuring Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) telling off some chick that was asking why he supported Obama’s Nazi policies. She apparently didn’t realize what she was getting into, especially in that Frank is not only quite liberal and out-spoken, but also Jewish…and he doesn’t take these types of “Nazi” comments lightly (nor should he…or anyone…). Anyway, it’s only a little over a minute long, but at the very least, watch the last 15 seconds when he says, quite possibly, the funniest thing I’ve ever heard come out of a congressperson’s mouth.

So, so true…

Science Again Confirms What We Already Knew

Edie isn’t the brightest bulb on the chandelier, or sharpest tack in the box, or whatever…but she certainly isn’t the smartest dog around, either.

And now, science has proven it.

A group at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver found that dogs can learn and respond to around 165 words, which places them in the same league as the average two-year-old. Amongst the highest performers, you would find Border Collies, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. Heck, even the Poodle is up there.

Who’s at the bottom?

Well, among others, the Bassett Hound and the Beagle.

What’s Edie? Well, she’s mostly Beagle, but pretty sure there’s some Bassett Hound in ‘er somewhere, too…

I guess this explains a lot…

A Digital Brave New World

I was listening to my NPR Science Friday podcast yesterday discussing the topic of who owns your digital data, broadcast on July 31st. The discussion covered a variety of different issues, including recent attempts by Facebook to retain rights to anything you post there, how Google plans on archiving all information digitally (it’ll take 300 years), and the ability of Apple to remove content from your iPhone any time it wants to.

One thing brought up in the discussion, however, was the idea of purchasing content. When you buy an album through iTunes, for example, you can burn that to a CD, putting it in a form that you can then access anywhere or anyhow you want. Music is one space where this kind of transaction has been pioneered and largely works well. In the software space, however, it isn’t really like that. If I buy a game through Steam, for example, I’m given a limited number of installs, otherwise I have to purchase it again [you can burn a backup, though, in that particular case]. More to the point, if I purchase a game on my PS3 or Wii digitally (i.e. PSN or WiiWare), I can only play it on that machine. What happens when the PS4 or Wii 2 comes out? Can I still play those games? Will they still work?

There are some forms of Digital Rights Management, used by the game company Electronic Arts (EA), that actually limit the number of times you can install the software. For the game, Spore, you would buy your DVD and then could install it 3 times. That’s it. So, if you reformatted your computer and needed to reinstall it, you’d lose one of your turns and have to do it again. EA had to intervene and remove that DRM because people got so pissed about it.

As another example, Brooke bought Bejeweled for her cell phone awhile back, then got a new one. So far as we can well, we can’t transfer that game to her new phone. So, did we ever really “own” the game? Because, if I “owned” it, I should be able to move it onto a new phone, just like if I bought a new stereo, I could put that same CD into it. Or a new TV, I could still watch the same DVD on it.

So yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what comes of this as more things go from physical media to digital media. Movies, likely, are going to go that way where you won’t buy a DVD anymore: you’ll have a digital copy of the movie. And while that digital copy will work for awhile, what happens when the new hot tech toy comes out that can’t play that old file anymore? I’ll have to buy it again.

I guess we’ve gotten used to physical media over the years, where I could take that movie on VHS and copy it over to DVD. Sure, it wouldn’t look as good, but at least I wouldn’t have to buy it again. It just seems like some of these efforts by corporations trying to “protect their property” are going so far as to turn what you think you own into something more like a rental. And, personally, if I think I’m “renting” something, I don’t think I should be paying so much to use it.

This isn’t something that worries me tremendously: it’s just something to think about.

That’s kinda neat!

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So, I’m officially a published author now. I heard a few weeks ago that the manuscript I’d been working on (for, like, a year…) was accepted to Neurotoxicology, a bi-monthly journal published by Elsevier, but I didn’t want to post anything here until it was up on Pubmed. I should be receiving proofs sometime this week so I can look at the final version of the document (i.e. what it’ll look like when it’s actually in the journal), so maybe I’ll put up a picture of that, too!

Either way, I decided to search for “Linsenbardt” in Pubmed today and see if I was there. And I am.

That’s kinda neat! 🙂

Unless you have access through your university, you can’t actually read the paper yet. Elsevier is pretty annoying about such things, making you pay for access otherwise, but because NIH funds were used to pay for the work done in the paper, it’ll have to be made available, free, to the public sometime eventually.

I’m starting my second paper now (as in, as we speak…), and my PLAN is to get that submitted by October somewhere. But, as some of you know, that last paper took me FOREVER to actually get out and submitted. October is when the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting is, however, and it’d be nice to tell prospective employers that I have one paper published and another one on the way. Also, for the purposes of graduating, getting two first-author papers is a good thing (as in, typically, if your name is first on the list, then you either did most of the work, or wrote the whole paper yourself…not always the case, but usually it goes something like that…so “first-author” is pretty important).

Projects

I have been administering the Webster Hills UMC website for a year now, largely making basic content changes and adding Newsletter information whenever it comes out on Wednesdays. I’ve never really been very happy with the system, personally, as it isn’t really a user-friendly system. We are using ACS Technologies Extend, which is specifically designed for churches, to allow full integration between web content, online calendering systems and financial systems (i.e. the ability to make automatic withdrawals as an offering each month, or see how much you’ve donated that year, etc.). That’s all well and good, but the back-end system is so arcane that you need to go to training seminars to fully understand it, let alone get the people at your church to deal with it. Since I’m a bit more comfortable doing web content management, I just kinda took it on, but I really don’t understand how half of it works.

Anyway, we’re moving to a new system. ACS is difficult to deal with, and not particularly cheap. We already had an account and server with GoDaddy.com, and they provide many useful FREE tools, like WordPress (which my site runs on), to install and update automatically. Very, very user friendly once it’s set up. I chose Joomla to use for the new church site, as it provides a bit more flexibility with themes and plugins, allowing me to make it look how I want it to.

The site is currently sitting at http://whtest.websterhillsumc.org/ (now defunct, as of 09.02.09). It doesn’t quite have the bandwidth I’d like, so it may seem a bit slow, but it’s much more functional. The other benefit, as the guy that’s been putting information up there for a year, is that you can log in and simply click “Edit” on any article you want to. Very, very easily. This means that the church staff can just go on and change information themselves rather than sending me an e-mail and hoping I get it done that day. Articles can be uploaded by anyone and approved by an administrator. I can do polling. I can move the poll from one spot to another. I can have a rotating banner at the top of the screen. I can make that banner as large or as small as I want. These are all things that I was unable to do with ACS, which made life truly annoying…

Anyway, check it out and give me suggestions. I don’t have all the content on the new site yet, but I’m hoping to shift it over to “www” sometime mid- to late-July. You should check out the regular site first, though…keep in mind that I didn’t design that…just been managing it…