My personal glimpse into the first half of the 21st Century for some yet to be known future
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Check out spacy ambient music inspired by mining activities in planetary rings in Elite Dangerous
Spacy ambient music inspired by mining activities in planetary rings in Elite Dangerous
Monday, July 12, 2021
The Ice Dragon and the Blue Rose, Second Edition is now available!
At long last, the Second Edition of my book, The Ice Dragon and the Blue Rose is now available. The book has been refreshed to use current common practices for ebook organization; and, well, spelling and grammar fixes.
This is a "Decide My Quest" story that allows you to choose how you wish to experience your quest. This is an awesome reimaging of 2nd person and interactive storying telling. Your choices allow you to see the same story from multiple (and sometimes opposing) perspectives. I loved making this story and even rereading it! The story contains multiple dead-ends and multiple success endings. Check it out!I hope to make more of these types of stories in the future, as time allows. It's a fairly complex process to write these, but the results are great!
Monday, May 24, 2021
The Balance Pin Incident: First CMDR in Elite Dangerous to Destroy His Own Ship from Another commander's Ship
Saturday, May 15, 2021
We, Terrorized Part 3 ~ Re-imagined Jack Nicholson's 1963 movie "The Terror" as a silent era film
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Tried to make a sleepy fishing village with Sunset Harbor
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Orbital Dance - Inspired by adventures in Elite Dangerous
Other ED inspired music:
Explorer's Path
Cloud View
Orbital Dance
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
One soulful evening, I found myself looking up to the sky from a small moon
Tuesday, March 03, 2020
Inspired by Running around the Galaxy in Elite Dangerous
Explorer's Path - Single |
Thursday, June 12, 2014
reddit, the poorly organized and nearly unsearchable appendix of The Internet...but Yeah me!
The other day, I finally was able to do something amazing. A link that I posted actually made it to the "front page" and even the top spot of a major subreddit called /r/funny. I also made it all the way up to page two of the reddit home page with default categories. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it. It's just something that is hard to do on reddit. The Holy Grail is to actually make it to the "front page" of reddit's home page with default categories. I missed that mark ever so slightly. Oh well. What does this matter? Well, you know, Internet points! Anyway, I'm just here chronicling this achievement in my journal.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Leveraging their online community (Pontiac?)
Anyway, back to the point. In the magazine is another article called Car Camaraderie about how online forums are bringing Pontiac drivers together. They did a whole article about online resources being utilized by Pontiac owners. As far as I know, none of these resources are directly related to GM. The writer of the Pontiac article understands the Pontiac’s online community well enough to mention the most popular sites for each of their models. This is just one article in one magazine that doesn’t have public distribution. It’s a start for them, though. Sure, OnStar has been online based for awhile now, but that is a paid service. The act of actually profiling users on several of the forums (even mentioning their user names) is something that is not that common yet. Like many other old-school companies, they are starting to understand the Information Age, finally.
The Pontiac G8 community site that was mentioned was G8board.com, of which I am a fairly active user.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Testing the Publishing Waters
Amazon: My Start as a publisher
Mobipocket: My books so far for Palm
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
SolidWorks Blog (more self-promotion)
Saturday, March 17, 2007
SolidWorks Website
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
SolidWorks Yahoo! Group revival
I tried to contact the group owner, but never got a reply. Eventually, I started looking into why the group was unmoderated. The owner had disappeared; bouncy, bouncy. No one else was assigned to run the group, so the group was left to the elements, those dreaded spammers. Well, the rule with Yahoo! Groups is ownership cannot be transferred except by the owner. Since the owner was bouncy, there was no hope. I forget about the group for awhile. Then, in November, I checked it on a whim. It appeared that SolidWorks users where still actively using the group to post questions and answers.
It got me thinking that maybe, just maybe I could take ownership of this group to revive it. So, I contacted Yahoo! Groups with the following feedback comment:
Are you a... Member
Subject: Other
Type your feedback here: The moderator of SolidWorks yahoo group is not maintaining it, and has a bouncy email address. How does one claim control over a group that is experiencing this kind of neglect by still has large potential value to its members?
I waited for a few days before receiving this boiler plate response:
In a message dated 11/28/2006 11:49:36 P.M.
Pacific Standard Time, egroups-feedback@cc.yahoo-inc.com
writes:
Hello,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Groups.
I have received your email and you are asking on how does one claim control over a group. I appreciate you contacting us and I'll be glad to assist you on this matter. I have checked the Yahoo! Group "solidworks", and it shows that the owner's account was bouncing. However, in as much as I would like to accommodate your request, I cannot appoint a new owner or moderator to the group as specified in the terms of our Privacy Policy. What I usually suggest is for you to contact the Group owner regarding this issue of handing over group's ownership. You may send an email to: SolidWorks-owner@yahoogroups.com In the event that the owner can no longer be contacted, one alternative is for you to create your own group and send out invitations to those people who you would like to join your new group. I appreciate your utmost patience and understanding with regard to this matter. If you have any other concerns, do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
Regards,
Shelley, Yahoo! Customer Care
Well, the bureaucratic wheels are churning. There was even double-speak that was self-referencial. At this point, I know I have one chance at getting what I want. My reply will have to be forceful and direct, with points with which cannot be argued. Here's my Hail Mary:
Yahoo,
Thank you for your reply.
I do realize that there is a Yahoo policy against the transfer of ownership
for yahoo groups. However, in light of this situation with SolidWorks yahoo group, I (as a Yahoo customer) feel that such a rigid and absolute rule on the matter is counter productive to members of Yahoo Groups in general (not just in regards to SolidWorks yahoo group). Though I don't speak for the SolidWorks Corporation, the name "SolidWorks" is a trademarked name whose customers would benefit from having the only Yahoo Group that bares that exact name being made active again. Customers are users that are working, educated professions that seek convenient interaction with other customers of SolidWorks. A new group creates confusion and increases the lack of interest in using Yahoo Groups at all for this purpose.
Also, if the current state of SolidWorks yahoo group is an indicator, with so many groups without reachable owners or moderators, Yahoo Groups appears to be cluttered which makes the over all Yahoo Groups less valuable as a service, in general. As a matter of customer service, I request that you reconsider your policy in regards to the transfer of ownership for groups whose owners are bouncy for more than six months. Moderators should be able to claim a group at that time. If no moderators exist, members should be able to petition for ownership directly to Yahoo. To avoid spammers from taking charge of groups for professional purposes, set criteria for the approval of those petitions.
Matthew Lorono
Santa Clara, CA
The reply I think got surprized me. Yahoo! Groups staff stepped up the plate.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease! This is how we do it! And I even got a reply from some girl with an overly cute name.Hello Matthew,
Thank you for
writing to Yahoo! Groups.
We appreciate your comments on this matter and can understand your concerns.
Because your group is not currently moderated, we may be able to appoint a new moderator for the group. If you would like a new moderator for the group, please start a poll using the group's polls feature and list the member names of a few members, who would like to be a moderator, as choices for the poll. Please announce the poll to your group and ask the members to vote on who they would like to be moderator. Once the poll has closed, please email me back and I will appoint the "elected" moderator. I do apologize for any inconvenience.Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
Regards,
Gidget, Yahoo! Customer Care
So, I left a message on the group asking for volunteers. Two people piped up. Of those two, only one had a history of contributing to the site. So, I put that person up, and myself as the two options in the poll. A month later, I closed the poll and notified Yahoo! Groups staff. I wondered if I would hear from this "Gidget" again?
Gidget (Customer Care),
Per your requirements (see Customer Care email below), I have run a poll for the SolidWorks Yahoo Group to determine a new "elected" group moderator, because the group is not currently being moderated. Two individuals with a history of contributing to the site were self-nominated for this poll. The person with yahoo id maccormackc (Chris MacCormack, who is cc:'d on this email) won the poll results. Please appoint maccormackc as the new group moderator for the Yahoo! Group SolidWorks as soon as possible.
Thank you for your prompt action in advance.
Matthew Lorono
Well, Gidget did not respond back. However, Derek did respond back with the happy news.
Hello Matthew,
Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
The situation you describe has been completed.
We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you. Please be ssured that we'll do our best to prevent such problems in the future. If you continue to experience the problem, or if we can be of assistance in another matter, please let us know by replying to this email. If you can describe in as much detail as possible the problem you are having, any steps you take leading up to it, how frequently it ccurs, and the exact text of any error messages you receive, it will help us to provide a solution more quickly.Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
Regards,
Derek, Yahoo! Customer Care
Derek was no Gidget, and his response didn't make much sense, but he gave me what I wanted, and that's all that mattered! ;) After a couple of days, Chris and I began to revive the group, adding content, removing spam, banning spammers, approving new members, etc. And
it now appears to be getting the attention it deserves! The main guy at the SolidWorks corporation that manages user groups has just joined and may contribute to the site as well! Kudos!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
More Shameless Promotion
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Shameless Promotion
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Selfsexual Part II
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Selfsexual
Selfsexual is a term I had to create to describe how a certain friend of mine is, at least at times, attracted to herself. It goes beyond just looking yourself in the mirror to check if everything is in place. It goes to the level of actually turning yourself on by doing nothing more than looking at your own yourself.!
Now, I have to admit that I may be selfsexual curious at times. I mean, even though I'm happily engaged, I do make love with myself quiet a lot. lol That doesn't make me selfsexual, of course. Simply masterbating doesn't make one selfsexual. Masterbating while looking at yourself in the mirror does show some tendencies.