UPDATE: March 27, 2009: Moved to squarespace on my own domain.

Dear readers, for reasons too numerous to mention, I'm getting off of vox. I'm liking Wordpress quite a bit... but it's not surprising that a man dying of thirst enjoys a tall glass of ice water. I'm LOVING squarespace.

So, allow me to make a bold claim that this won't be a "tech blog" you've seen the likes of.

For the moment, it's available via:

http://softmachinecubed.com

http://richardwalker.wordpress.com

Do drop by, won't you? I'm looking forward to it ;-)
-Richard Walker ("reechard")

At this site I will share and discuss tutorials, web development, programming techniques, concurrency & scalability, MyEclipse, Java, Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Ext-Gwt (GXT), Android phone, Chrome, Firefox, Firebug, Yahoo Pipes, "Cloud Computing," tech blogs, digital media, wikis, open source, and social media. Comments are welcome, but I reserve the right to moderate them.

The content found here is my own, where I am a free agent, not affiliated with an organization or commercial entity. The purpose is to share knowledge with a wider community, not limited to colleagues and clients.

Hence, this. Thank you for coming by! Drop me a comment here or there. Whatever you do,

DON'T PANIC!

Richard Walker, at age seven, lives a privileged life in a Chinese mansion in Santa Barbara with his mother Sharon and father Nelson. But when Nelson dies suspiciously, Sharon marries David, a younger man, and they move to Banana Road and are ensnared in a cult. Four years later, brainwashed, abused and poor, they escape Los Angeles in the middle of the night, in secret, and never look back.

Adventures of a Reluctant Cult Observer is a [word count] work of narrative nonfiction.

Jack Boulware wrote this about his piece on his blog:

Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, I wrote down everything I saw or heard in the media, and fashioned a sort of poem. A month later, I read it at San Francisco’s Edinburgh Castle pub, and then recorded an audio version for Salon.com. It’s now been published as part of the Public House anthology.

I liked the essay quite a bit, and later I was making recordings of piano noise and effects, so it was an obvious choice. The audio fidelity here isn't great partly due to limits imposed by Vox. Now for our feature presentation:

Warning: explicit language

Let's give the imagery a rest, shall we?
Can we give poor Mr. Barber and his Adagio for Strings a breather as well?

 

Related Post: Unimpressive Journalism: Why ZDNet's Jennifer Leggio is Wrong (and why it matters)

Wikipedia in English
Wikipedia en français
Wikipedia en Español
Wikipedia en Italiano
Vicipaedia Latina 

Vicipaedia est opus commune, quo creetur encyclopaedia libera interretialis. Omnes ad contribuendum invitantur! Vicipaedia adhuc habet 22 408 commentationes.

Disclaimers:

• I don't know Jimmy Wales personally 
  
• It was alleged Jimmy Wales took money for making proposed Wikipedia edits
• Gossip on Jimmy Wales can be found on Gawker.com
• The inside joke referred to in the title is a meme from YouTube.
  

See also:

Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0 (Sydney Morning Herald)

Students Advised by Professors not to Use Wikipedia by Svetlana Gladkova of Profy

Wikipedia - Lamest Edit Wars Ever

Wikipedia censorship highlights a lingering sting in the tail - the Guardian

Encyclopedia Dramatica

Introduction

I hear a lot of misinformation about Wikipedia on the interwebs. I spent a good deal of time learning how to contribute, and this is my defense of the resounding success that I consider Wikipedia to be. For example: as a contributor, it guides you through an education in Wikis and writing as an encyclopedia editor.

My Wikipedia User Page   

First, a challenge to the legions of people I've heard make criticisms or offhand suggestions: Get thee onto Wikipedia, and make yourself heard there, or befriend a Wikipedia editor.

It's not that some of you could not hold the key to unique improvements to Wikipedia. You should however apply due diligence beforehand so as to be credible.

Scope of project

This project is encyclopedic in scope, obviously. In its brief life it has come to challenge the very best Encyclopedias. It continues to compare favorably to Britannica, and is ever adapting to new situations.

The physical and virtual embodiments of references like this have advantages and disadvantages, but the ubiquity of the internet gives Wikipedia the edge. I've heard Britannica is moving online and toward volunteer contributions.

The project is free from licensing restrictions — see Copyright page. That alone is a Herculean accomplishment.

The license Wikipedia uses grants free access to our content in the same sense that free software is licensed freely. This principle is known as copyleft. Wikipedia content can be copied, modified, and redistributed so long as the new version grants the same freedoms to others and acknowledges the authors of the Wikipedia article used (a direct link back to the article is generally thought to satisfy the attribution requirement). Wikipedia articles therefore will remain free under the GFDL and can be used by anybody subject to certain restrictions, most of which aim to ensure that freedom.

Living document

Wikipedia is a living document. For example, Stephen Colbert's new term "truthiness" has an entry. In the spirit of good-natured fun, he challenged his viewers to modify his page more than once.

 

Anyone can contribute

 

But not everyone should. If you haven't the patience or inclination to learn the intricacies of contribution, that's just fine. I hope others will at least dip their toe into the water to see if contributing to the content is something they'd like to try.

Self-guided participation

Wikipedia has guidelines available to assist in learning policies on neutral point of view, verifiability, no original research, and biographies of living persons.

Wikipedia's List of Policies Page is required reading and can be considered a touchstone for how to manage a massive collaborative online effort.

Talk pages, revisions

Behind every page is a revision history, and many pages have a "talk" page where contributors work out their differences, with varying degrees of success.

You can always find established editors and ask questions on their talk page. Editor's duties include helping new contributors follow Wikipedia's guidelines. Please drop me a note on my Talk Page if you do join Wikipedia!

Edit fights, kerfuffles, lock-downs

Sarah Palin, the recently-announced GOP Vice Presidential candidate for 2008, has had a rapid Wikipedia makeover.  At the moment, that page shows a "lock" icon in the upper-right corner which links to the Wikipedia Protection Policy. There are a lot of goodies in Wikipedia's "Special Pages" page, including lists of "globally blocked IP addresses" for example.

 

Anonymous contribution, sock puppets

 

It is unusual to allow anonymous contribution, but I think it important enough to preserve in spite of the difficulties. I can't think of a better way to allow a whistle-blower to contribute to an article. The facts once connected can be vetted and the anonymity of the contributor allows it to happen at all.

Actually, to be clearer, Wikileaks.org is the place for whistle-blowers. My point still applies to anyone who has a (valid) Wikipedia contribution to make, but would not if they had to attach their name. I believe this is why anonymous contribution is still possible on Wikipedia, in spite of numerous problems stemming from interested, biased parties editing Wikipedia to distort facts and inject opinion.

Stephen Colbert's Wikipedia entry is a magnet for Wikipedia defacers. See the last 500 revisions of his page here.  Watch out for contributor's names in red; it indicates they have no user page. Others, such as user "Purplecowsthatcluckrcool" have been removed due to spam, abuse, defacement, or sock puppetry.

You dislike your Wikipedia photo

Cry me a river, why don't you. At least you are a living "person of note" who has a Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia is more focused on language, not media assets, of course. Still, it is possible to add photographs and audio clips subject to extensive restrictions.  You need to find media that the creator is willing to freely license for re-distribution.  Wikimedia Commons is the mechanism for this.  I can help, provided you give me the content, clear it with the creator, and provide me with contact info.

 

This project has been simmering on the back burner for a long time.
This blog may however not be the appropriate venue.
This is not a promise, threat, or binding agreement of any kind.
Any similarity to actual persons or places is purely coincidental.

Chapter Outline:

1. They killed my father and danced on his grave (a slight exaggeration)
2. Free school & Unitarians
3. Theosophism, Ojai, New Age-y Latecomers
4. Mountain Drive, Banana Road, Communes, Hippies, Millionaires and Us
5. Pretending to be Into Drugs (at 8 years old)
6. Everyone In The Pool (nudity required)
7. Los Angeles "dumb-lady" cult style vs. Huntsville "brainwasher's" cult style
8. Seizing Control of Minds, Wills and Assets
9. The Inner Circle, Monetization, Branches, Franchising & Event Marketing
10. The Dark Art of Human Brainwashing (a.k.a. behavior modification, basic training)
11. The Very Best of Intentions
12. The Carrot & The Stick
13. The Escape
14. The Jim Jones Legacy
15. Signs you may be In a Cult
16. A Cult by Any Other Name
17. Scientology & Anonymous
    
18. 131 flavors of Jeebus
19. Signs a relative or friend is in Jeopardy
20. Things that may help with Cult Inoculation
21. Modern Trends in Anti-science, Bad Education and "Beliefism"

I enjoy reading this poet.  Please chime in if you know who it is!

The Pirate's Dilemma Site

Matt Mason began his career as a pirate radio and club DJ in London, going on to become founding Editor-in-Chief of the seminal magazine RWD. In 2004, he was selected as one of the faces of Gordon Brown’s Start Talking Ideas campaign, and was presented the Prince’s Trust London Business of the Year Award by HRH Prince Charles.

He has written and produced TV series, comic strips, viral videos and records, and his journalism has appeared in The Observer Music Monthly, VICE, Complex and other publications in more than 12 countries around the world. He recently founded the non-profit media company Wedia with his wife Emily. He lives in New York City.

Though celebrated as a composer for the piano, Isaac Albéniz by no means confined himself to piano music.  Indeed he devoted more than a decade of his almost forty-nine years to writing music for the stage (which recently received attention with the revival of his operatic works Pepita Jiménez and Merlin). Intermittently throughout his career he wrote songs – more than two dozen of them – as well as several orchestral and chamber works.

Born in Camprodón, Gerona on May 29 1860, Albéniz began life as a prodigy and after many adventurous concert tours that took him as far away from home as the Americas (trips that constantly interrupted his classes at the Madrid Conservatory), he settled down to a serious course of studies in Belgium.  With a pension from King Alfonso XII of Spain, he entered the Brussels Conservatory in 1876, graduating in 1879 with first prize in piano, which was awarded unanimously.  He returned to Spain to establish himself as an accomplished virtuoso; in addition he began to compose and conduct.  He soon became director of a traveling zarzuela company and wrote three zarzuelas (none of which survives today).  In 1883 he settled in Barcelona, studying composition with Felipe Pedrell.  Increasingly Albéniz incorporated his own compositions on his recitals.   In 1885 he moved to Madrid where his works would be published by the leading music publishers of the day: Benito Zozaya and Antonio Romero.

Albéniz's reputation as a pianist and a composer continued to grow.  In the spring of 1889 he traveled to Paris, appearing with the Colonne Orchestra in a concert that included his Piano Concerto, op. 78.  From Paris he proceeded to England, where his performances brought him instant success and return engagements.  In 1890 he came in contact with the entrepreneur Henry Lowenfeld who contracted Albéniz's services both as a performer and composer.  As a result, Albéniz moved with his family (his wife, Rosina, and three children) to London and through Lowenfeld eventually became involved with musical theater.  For approximately a decade Albéniz devoted much of his talent and energies to the creation and production of music for the stage.  During this time he had moved from London to Paris.

In the French capital he came in contact with Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Charles Bordes, and later Paul Dukas and Gabriel Fauré, forming close ties with the French musical community.  From 1898 to 1900 he taught advanced piano at the Schola Cantorum, but in 1900, because of poor health, he returned to the warmer climate of Spain.  He became involved with Enrique Morera and the promotion of Catalan lyrical works.  When, however, his efforts failed to have his own stage works produced, he returned to Paris where his music was accepted, praised, and performed.  Albéniz's Paris residence became a haven for Spanish artists (among them Joaquín Turina and Manuel de Falla); here they found support and encouragement for their own endeavors.

Albéniz's preoccupation with larger musical forms brought about a change in his compositional style from the basically light, attractive pieces of his early career to a more complex art.  Although he did not stop performing, his appearances diminished as he became absorbed with the composition and production of his operatic works. 

As Coutts began to tire of writing librettos, Albéniz gradually returned to the piano and his native landscape for inspiration.  La Vega (1896-98) foreshadows his later style, which blossomed with his masterpiece, Iberia (1905-1908).  The compositional texture and language that define Iberia are characteristic of Quatre mélodies (to poems by Coutts), Albéniz's last vocal work and last completed pieces.  Suffering from nephritis, Albéniz died in Cambo-les-Bains in the French Pyrenees on May 18, 1909.

The online encyclopedia Pilkipedia describes itself thusly:

Pilkipedia is the only online encyclopaedia and community based around Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais. The site includes in-depth articles on their radio work together on Xfm and The Ricky Gervais Show podcast, as well as content on their other projects such as The Office and Extras. In August 2006, Ricky Gervais declared Pilkipedia to be his favourite website in The Guardian.

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