The Eaves

I just recently started using something called Empire Avenue. I use the term “using” a little loosely, because it’s actually made to be something that you “play”. The service lets you connect all of the other services that you use… Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, you blogs, etc. and each time you hit certain goals, your “value” increases.

It is made to look and feel like a sort of “stock market” where you can buy and sell shares of other people, and they can do the same for you. It looks like a lot of other people have been on it for a while, and are “worth” quite a bit.

I’ve only been on it for a couple days, and I’m already finding it highly engaging. Personally, I think that by using it, I will be more engaged on my blogs and other sites… except possibly Facebook.

You can join Empire Avenue by clicking here. By using that link, you should also get an extra 2000e (the “currency” that they use).

This post was made as a verification for this blog, and the verification string at the beginning of the post should be removed, shortly.

Scrambled Signals

Until about 15 years ago, I used to be really into radio scanners (police scanners) as a hobby. At that time, I moved up to North Dakota (from Colorado) and the amount of radio traffic made it a very boring hobby. I sold all of the scanners that I had.

Within the last year, I started hearing more and more sirens around town, and I decided to buy another scanner in January. For the past eight months, I’ve enjoyed listening to what’s going on around town.

Today, our law enforcement center decided to make my $100 RadioShack scanner almost useless. They started scrambling all of their signals, and all I hear is an encrypted static sound. No police, no fire, no ambulance. The only thing I can still hear is the weather, the trains, and some local businesses.

Quite a poke in the eye to me… somebody that is usually up all night, including weekends, working at the north end of downtown… sort of an extra set of eyes and ears for them. Even as recently as a few weeks ago, when somebody was assaulted about a block away, I knew what was happening, and was able to be “on the lookout” for the guy wearing the red shirt and black shorts.

Now, I won’t even know if something that I should know about is happening at the other side of our parking lot.

I can understand (to a degree) why they’re doing it, but it makes me feel like I should “encrypt” the video from our 16 cameras (which I actually can’t) so that they can’t use it to help them anymore.

Our local police just lost a huge degree of trust from me by doing this.

Stop it B!

Google+ Invitations

I have a limited amount of Google+ invitations left. If you want one, get is here.

I actually can’t describe what Google+ is. A lot of people want to compare it to Twitter or Facebook. I honestly don’t believe that it can be considered as a comparison to either. I have had some of the most interesting conversation, and have met some of the most interesting people since using G+.

I was never much of a Facebook or Twitter user to begin with, though, so using Google+ is not “taking away” time from me doing other things online.

One of the first things to remember when you get on Google+ is to follow people that you do not know. Unlike other places, you do not need to know the people that you circle, and you are not going to inject their streams with everything that you write, there, unless they want you in their circles, too.

Fourth Branch of Government – “Super Congress”?

It’s amazing to me that anybody in either party would be behind something like this. Creating a long-term solution to solve a short-term problem is not the answer, though.

“This “Super Congress,” composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers — six from each chamber and six from each party.” (Link)

This is a serious WTF moment.