Attaching the electrodes of knowledge to the nipples of ignorance.

Those who know me have heard me talk about providing feedback to software developers and other companies.

What I will be attempting is each time I send feedback, be it about hardware, software, a service, or even a meal, I will repost it here, unless it could affect security or if it is harsh (in my mind, although I have rarely had to send anything with scathing nuclear-holocaust-like comments).

I would enjoy your opinions on any of the feedback I post.

Super-inexpensive iPhone stand using a MiniDV tape case, a photo by WTL-Ottawa on Flickr.

Given the amount of video that I have shot over the years on DV, I have a rather large number of miniDV tapes kicking around.

One day, I was capturing some footage and noticed that my iPhone fit into the DV tape case. Ever since, I’ve had one to two on my desk.

Many iPhones will fit, even with a case on it unless it happens to be an unusually thick one.

This will probably work with similarly sized- Android phones, too.

Practically free, and works very well.

This post was inspired by Suzemuse, who tweeted earlier today “Yesterday @wtl taught me to make an iPhone stand from an empty miniDV tape case. I’d take a picture of it, but my iPhone is on the stand.”

Being at #FridayOffice, I borrowed Mark’s iPhone to use as model and took a quick shot of it.

Last night, my sister texted me to remind me that today was the twenteith anniversary of our mother’s passing away from Multiple Sclerosis.

This past year or so, a few friends have lost their mothers, so this this has been on my mind. I barely knew my mother – actually, I knew my mother’s mother (whom we called Grandma Claire) much better than I knew her.

For the decade prior to that I had very little contact with her for various reasons. I was (obviously) quite young when my dad and mom split, and was largely unaware of the massive legal battle my father waged to keep his children. After this point, my grandma (my father’s mother) became our main maternal figure until dad remarried, and she passed away last year.

What this has left me with is pretty much only the vaguest of memories of her, like going over to her place Sunday mornings and watching Star Trek on CBC while my sister and I did homework, or sitting on the front veranda at the farm, or that she liked to laugh.

So, I don’t really have much of a sense of who she was, and earlier today, I realized I couldn’t even really recall what she looked like, with the exception of the last time I saw her alive, when I don’t believe she recognized me or my sister – but even then, the fog of time has obscurred that as well. This led me to digging through a folder of nearly over eighteen hundred scanned photos my dad had given me at our xmas family gathering last year, looking for photos of my mother, and I only found a handful, including the one in this post, which dates from about 1976 when I was about four or so.

I love the fact that my dad and I chat on the phone (old school!) for ninety minutes at a time, usually at least once a week. We talk about whatever comes to mind, and that’s awesome. While I know it’s not at all possible to have those kinds of conversations with her, I can still dig through my brain and try to learn from what I remember, talk to others in my family and see what they remember to get a better sense of the kind of person she was.

How does this affect you? Well, it probably doesn’t. But, if for some reason you aren’t on speaking terms with a parent, opening a dialogue with them to find out who they are.

A burned bridge can be rebuilt, if you do it in time.

A bit over a day since I heard the news that Steve Jobs had passed away, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it – like many people from what I’ve gathered on Twitter and Facebook.

Two thousand, eight hundred and forty-one days ago, I became a Mac user, and as I’ve told many people over the years, I spent months wishing I’d done it sooner.

There have been many people posting tributes to Steve Jobs, how his vision and sheer willpower was able to completely change so many industries, so I do not feel the need to address that.

What I would like to say is that while he was here, he defined excellence.

Now it’s up to us.

—

I’d like to add, for those of you reading on Friday, Oct 7, that ByMUG is having a special event tonight remembering Steve Jobs that is open to everyone.

By the time most of you read this, we’ll be on our way off to Algonquin Park for a some seriously needed R&R.

Here’s a list of what I’m bringing up with me to read/listen to:

Books on paper:
The Stand by Stephen King
2600 Magazine Summer edition
Color Correction Handbook by Alexis Van Hurkman
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Majestic by Whitley Strieber

AudioBooks
The WWW Trilogy; WWW: Wake, WWW: Watch and WWW: Wonder by Robert J Sawyer
What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman
Tell Me a Story: Science Fiction One by Arthur C. Clarke, William Gibson, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, Terry Bisson, Avram Davidson
Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry Robert Schelsinger

Audio Podcasts
Dr Kiki’s Science Hour
The Edit Bay
Get-it-Done Guy
Grammar Girl
The History of Rome
The King Cast
Learn Japanese Podcast (all 176 episodes)
MacBreak Weekly
The Math Dude
Nova ScienceNOW
The Nutrition Diva
Scientific American’s Science Talk
Search Engine
That Post Show
White Coat, Black Arts
60-Second Earth

Now, the podcasts (with the exception of the Learn to Japanese one) are part of my “normal” listening, and have just piled up somewhat as I’ve been quite busy with work this summer.

The Stand will the the book I read the first three or so days I’m up there. I haven’t read it in probably a decade, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the story feels now.

The next item I’m excited to read is (finally) Robert J. Sawyer‘s entire WWW series – I’ve been eagerly awaiting this for .. years, but now the last novel is out, so I can plow through all three books one after another.

Yes, I consider listening to an audiobook reading, but I listen to podcasts. Go figure.

We’ll see how much reading I get done this year.