I tried to post a link to and information about our site on the "Speak up western new york site" and they labeled us as a SPAM business. It kind of feels like being labeled a terrorist! They told me the only place to tell people that there is a new free place to "speak up" is in the business advertising section. I would honestly have no mention than be labeled with businesses.



The admin told me that by offering our free journal system, we are trying to sell ideas and that makes us a business.

It's still a sales pitch, whether you're making money or not, even 'selling' an idea is considered spam in some perspectives.

Any of you that know me personally, know this is as far fetched as possible. I created this site as a free service to enable people without money and web design skills to be able to publish their opinions and "speak up" to a local audience in a most personal way.

This is my repsonse:

We pride ourselves on the fact that we are a free service to help people speak out and not a spam business, in fact making no money whatsoever, so when someone suggests we are a spam/busness and suggests that we get moved into the business/advertising section, it hurts. I would rather have no mention of the site on your site, than have the link in the business advertising section. I think it would send a really mixed message to people who find it.

The site itself is very similar to your speak out forum. The only difference is that the site is broken down by journal/user instead of by topic, alhough interlinking is allowed. By doing this we are trying to promote people getting to know each other through their views in a less anonymous way than a forum.

Its social network tracking with cell phones. Maybe I should implement something like this for the site. It wouldn't be that hard after all. Maybe though people would think its too scary. What do you think? Any comments?



"Hook up with friends. Discover what's around you."

Now available in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC.

Tell us where you are, and we'll broadcast your location to all your friends and let you know if any friends-of-friends are within 10 blocks.

I downloaded some great 3D earth browsing software again from keyhole. I got another trial account for the keyhole earth browser. It is a great example of mixing 3D modeling with databases. I had talked about it before but they have updated some of the cities it seems and it looks
really nice. I am also using a better graphics card. I think it might only run on Nvidia cards on PCs, but here is the link to check it out.

Rachel This is what i was showing you the other day.


It is inspiring for the new 3D project I am working on with my class at Canisius this summer semester. We are going to try and model Forest Lawn Cemetary. Rachel got us some nice aerial photos. Here they are mixed with a 3D models.

Yesterday, at Thursday in the square I was mesmerized by the increase in the number of concert goers that were "wired" via cell phones. It appeared extremely ordinary for many people to be talking on the phone during the event, and furthermore, to use the phone to network and locate other people. I think the turnout might be higher, because many people at the events were in essence offering real-time updates to their friends, and coercing them to come down, after the rain cleared, assuring them of a good time and a great band.

Yesterday it rained, it is very possible that we would not have even gone if it was not for the cell phone based prodding that we received from Desi. She called to keep updating us of her location, as well as, the conditions at the event. Once I was there, I used to cell phone to "guide" Terry and Chamille to our location on the way home from their work. We easily met up due to our connection. Like many other people, it was quite amusing as we looked for each other and described out location, only to bump into one another on the phone and say "there you are."

I also saw some old friedn and added them to my networked collection of names and numbers.

This is becoming so very acceptable and to be truthful, it wasn't like this even two or three years ago. As the size of the networks gets larger, the ability it has to effect social events is definitely exponential. I cannot wait till the next protest or the elwmood street festivals.

It's changing even more now that phones have cameras built in. Especially since I built the site to accept incoming email and post them right to our journals. I then took the pictures, send them as attachments along with a message to my journal and viola, real time reporting of the event for our viewing audience.

Imagine how much more effective this will get as the bandwidth and resolution of imagery increases. It will be no time before we can expect mass amrket video phones. Nokia has one already on the market here in the US the 3650, but its not real-time yet. You can record the video and send it as an email attachment.

I guess this has to be balanced out with privacy issues. i for one never ask anyone or event coordinator if it is okay to take there picture. I simply do it because I feel as long as they display it publicly, its fair game for my eyes and camera. This view is not shared by many of my friends. Especially , since it now goes right to the web.

I take back my hot dog slander. Jessica Ho, Sarah Ho, and I ended up at the toxic waste outlet in Niagara Falls. I bought a book on digital voyeurism at the book outlet for 5 dollars.

I don't know why, I really don't like reading books like that but the consumerist pressure was so great after looking at it for a while. I think it's a tactic, where they make you feel weird if you touch stuff too much without purchasing it.



To pacifiy me, Jessica bought me sugar snacks and rides. I am a sucker for gumball machines and rides. No change since 1984. Lilho and I rode the hot dog mobile as you can see in this picture. It kind of hurt cause I'm too big and it rocked really hard. Luckily, I got an orange, banana, strawberry, toxic runoff water smoothy to make it all better

Well, they are not really spy photos but we did take them in the bathroom. The candlelight was too dim so we headed somewhere brighter. It was really funny to see the face of the next patron when the three of us cameout of the bathroom.

The first thursday in the square was a huge success. At fiirst it downpoured and made the whole thing a mud pit, but then it stopped forthe concertand people came out in droves. It was great to see so many people who seemed toreally enjoy themselves.



Sam Roberts Band was amazingly good.

On a personal note, I got to see Kari Costanza,which is great as always. Maybe she'll start a journal someday and then we won't lose contact so easily.

After the square we went to the bar called Presba where Lindsay works. Zack did the graphic design for them and hooked us up with fantastic food and drinks.
Including blueberry cheesecake, which sent Chamille into ecstacy. It really was good cheesecake. Thanks for everything Zack.



This picture is just to prove that people do take public transportation in Buffalo, even if the system itself is very limited.

On the way to Thursday in the square, TK and Jeffrey decided to eat hotdogs at sahlen's on main st downtown. I will never eat hotdogs (longstanding issue since the early 90s, accept when Jessica Ho made me eat one at German camp day) let alone from an establishment that uses tinfoil to make wall size dividers in the restaurant. Rating: T for trashy



Now the ueberchristians are protesting Thursday in the square too. I can only imagine what is going
to happen next weekendduring operation lionpit. I wish someone would just crucify them and end it once and for all.

As for Steve Kurtz, the reason I never talked about it here is because I did not know what happend. I only knew his wife died. I guess I live in my little bubble without televsion, visits to the pink, or school. I don't talk to anyone and get all of my news here on the site. So go ahead and keep me posted.

My two cents - On on hand I don't know much about the situation. On the other hand I went to go see Paul Vanouose and Steve Kurtz's talk on collaborative art with scientists and I have to say I was a little freaked out that he would want to work with anthrax simulants. Mostly, because it would make them seem so suspect in America right now. While he is for sure not a bioterrorist, we only know that because we know him. The police don't know him, the FBI didn't either. I am kind of glad the police check it out with hazmatt teams when they find something that they think might be biohazardous, even if it seems a little over the top. I mean better safe than sorry. They obviously had to call someone in, because we can pretty much bet 100% that the Buffalo police themselves are not trained to know the difference between a testtube and a anthrax lab. I mean what would expect them to do? Being an artist doesn't make you immune from the reality of the current state of affairs. I wonder what has happend to the guy that got him whatever the stuff that got him in trouble was. He must be in deep sh*t. I remember him saying that it is often hard to work with scientists sometimes because their jobs are on the line and then he used that specific one as an example.

I really wish him the best. It must be so hard on him, I can't imagine losing a wife and then this on top of it. Is he still banned from viewing the body, because that is sick and twisted? Moreover,iIs he even still around, or has he been permanently dissapeared? Which is scarier, real bioterrorists or the government agents? I guess I am glad I dropped science before I started art.

I spent the day weeding and edging at Deleware Park with my mother. No, it's not some sort of drug taking and come down process. It's a volunteer job my mother took on, taking care of one of the large L shaped rose beds at Deleware Park. She originally volunteered with my Dad and my Aunt. She is the last one left. My father is protesting my mother having volunteer jobs and my aunt is really busy with other stuff.

I guess it's kind of fun to do physical work occasionally, although, my brother mike is much better suited for the purpose. Today, he took pictures of us working. I said, "look mom, Michael is so strong he should work here instead." His reponse was, "I didn't volunteer for this crap, if it was up to me I would pave the whole park and put up a monument." So that was the end of that.

I ended up getting some clams at tops on the way back. $1.44/doz which beats the $7 doz at Merlins. My mother made me get a tops card because something was on sale. I hate those cards. I like the saving but I hate that they are tracking all of my shopping habits, etc. Like why do they need my email, phone, and apt number if they are not tracking me and/or selling my information. According to the pamphlet they are not selling any info but I seriously don't believe it. What happend when they get bought out for example. Does that rule still apply to the new owners. It's digital and easy to copy too, so what if some insider steals it, I bet all the info fits on one CD.

We also got to use the self check out machine. I hope that is not representative of future of shopping. It was such a pain to use, I prefer the full service cashier and I love human-machine interaction. It just seemed so lame as it freaked out because I leaned on the bag holder. It thought I was trying to steal because the weight in the bag was not equal to my purchase. It said "take whatever you put in the bag out and scan it so you can pay for it."

Then you insert the money in like a pop machine and out pops the receipt and some change. Keep chasiers in business, stop supporting the check out machine.