A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
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I am not naive. I am aware of the level of targeting and profiling that advertisers use to get their message across, especially on the Internet. However, every now and then it really catches me off-guard. Facebook is notorious for this, sending ads my way that read “Sing in Italy this summer” because I’ve listed … Read More “Targeting to the Extreme” »
I really do. And I speak from experience, having owned several over the past decades. Right now we own two VW products, and both are a pain in the posterior. This morning I was about ready to take a shotgun to my VW Jetta. The battery in my car is on the fritz, and has … Read More “I Hate Volkswagens” »
After that last lengthy ramble about walking a fine line between the needs of users and the needs of the district, I was challenged on just about every point I made with situations that arose today. I can’t give too many details because some of these will involve personnel and even potentially criminal issues. Let’s … Read More “Challenges” »
At 11:15 CNN called it – Barak Obama would become the 44th President of the United States. I really hated not being with someone to share this historic election night. I had CNN on in my hotel room, and had hourly conversations with Laura, who was watching the same returns projected onto the wall with … Read More “Election Aftermath” »
I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight….. If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic, different.” Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story. If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick. … Read More “A bit confused…” »
Toward the first of the summer I took part in a webinar hosted by the state of South Carolina. This meeting informed us (the state technology leaders) that if we wanted more Internet bandwidth, we would have to place a monitoring device on our network. We were told that this was required to determine whether … Read More “Big Brother is Watching” »
Following up on my previous spam rant… It’s not just for in-boxes. spam is with us just about everywhere. We don’t think of it as such, but there it is – get rich quick schemes, quackery, and graspable straws for the hopeless. This is the same thing I see in late-night cable TV advertisements and … Read More “Old School Spam” »
<rant> OK, I want to know who you are. I want to know which of you are actually stupid enough to think that purchasing real estate, refinancing your house, or making any major investment because of some random e-mail you received is actually a good idea. I want to know which of you feels so … Read More “Spam Rant” »
Over the weekend Laura and I went shopping for some new furniture. It was interesting to note the responses of various sales people at the different stores we visited. We developed a kind of game to see which might be working on commission by the level of “leechdom” they exhibited. I’ll rank these from 1 … Read More “Levels of Leechdom” »
This morning I found myself truly outrage, but the target of that anger kept shifting. First, the setting… I dropped by the media center of one of our schools where we are holding summer school. There was a teacher there with two students, one watching a music video and one a boxing match, neither of … Read More “Where to Direct the Outrage??” »