Lee.org

There’s been a lot of hoopla about the BART police disabling the cell phone system in the BART stations in order to disrupt a planned civic action inside stations against BART. BART said from the beginning that they would allow protests outside the paid fare area but not inside due to safety concerns. I think the formula goes like so: crowded station + angry protesters + platform edges + moving trains + 3rd rails = danger.

After the busted civil action, protesters claimed a violation of first amendment rights. Let’s take a look at that:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

A man is pulled off a commuter train at the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco after climbing on top of it during a protest against the July 3 shooting by transit police of Charles Blair Hill, in this July 11, 2011 file photo. (Eric Risberg/AP Photo)

(via)

I see that bit about freedom of speech. And I also see that bit about assembling  peaceably. What do you see?

Protest all you want. Don’t do it in train stations.

I’ve been posting to Craigslist a bit recently. Phew, the spammers love the Craigslist. Every post generates about 5 spams. It’s possible that Craigslist is filtering another 5,000 automatically. Feh.

So I’ve been seeing the message belowa lot. It’s kind of cute, isn’t it? A nice distraction from my, probably more realistic image of a scruffy bearded, sloven, nasty, smelly programmer sitting in some poorly lit bunker in Chelyabinsk, Russia whispering dirty sweet-nothings into my email.

Thanks Craiglist for making reporting spammers a little cheerier.

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Thanks for flagging.


On behalf of your fellow craigslist users, thanks for taking the time to flag!

 
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( look, a dragonfly! )
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I’m using the gym at CCSF. All the machines are tied in to Fitlinxx so they record your weights, reps, minutes on the treadmill, etc. My problem is, the Fitlinxx charting system sucks rocks. What I want to see is… I don’t know… my progress. Instead I get semi-useless aggregate data like this:

All I want is to see a chart of my progress in each exercise. Just give me the weight and rep data and I’ll put it in Excel! How do I friggin do this?

I’ve asked the staff but they don’t know.

Is information like this useful to YOU?

Wow.

local version:

Thank you Denise for sending this video to me!

I’m cancelling my trip to Salzburg and Prague.

Just a few months ago, some friends from Prague who visited the Bay Area told me “If you’re ever in Prague, please come to our home for a meal!” I accepted the offer but secretly thought “Sure, that’ll happen. Not.” And then I was offered a free trip to Salzburg in exchange for participating in a corporate workshop. I parlayed that into a trip to see my friends in Prague as well. It seemed to be kismet!

I then started school, not knowing when my tests and important attendance dates would be. I hoped it would work out. When I found out about a DMI 49 test I couldn’t postpone without automatically losing points, I knew there’d be a problem. The timing would cut my trip down to ONLY going to Salzburg for the conference. “Well, I should still want to go be a world traveler, right?” I called a friend and hashed it out. No, I don’t want to be a world traveler. The thing I was most excited about was going to Prague and having a meal with friends, not seeing all the “stuff”. I want… well, what I want is, as of 10 minutes ago, stuck with magnets to my refrigerator! Diane, my DMI 49 teacher suggested the whole class put pictures of what we want on our refrigerators so we can focus on those things. I’ll tell ya how it works out.

I lived in Jersey City in 2001. The morning of September 11th, I watched the towers fall from my girlfriend’s window.

A friend who lived in the apartment building with me wrote this and sent it to me. Thanks Laura.

I planned to ignore this day. Somehow thought if I just went to work, didn’t think about it, shouldn’t think about it, I could escape an artificial point in time. I mean it’s just a date, right? Just another Manhattan Melodrama. One the media and politicians are hyping, just a point on the calendar no different from any other. Ha. On. Me.

Walking to the A train I can’t help but look more carefully into the faces I pass. Do they feel more today? Are they afraid? Are they aware? I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, it’s just another Sunday.
Then, in the station, a God Damn violinist. On the dirty platform, echoing along the blocks. It’s beautiful, it’s poignant, it’s tragic, it’s hopeful. I avoid other faces and dig my nails in between my fingers to stop the tears. Tentative glances show me I’m not alone. In fact, we were all connected by the music. Listening, remembering, feeling, praying.

This tender melody, these eyes I dare look into, erase the years and make it all real again. And I realize, every day is an act of faith. Getting on the subway, sending our kids to school, worrying about our jobs, loving, caring. It’s faith that we’ll get there safely, that those we love will be taken care of by others, that there will indeed be a tomorrow to worry about, that anything we do actually matters in some small way. Not blind faith where you go off and do something reckless, but faith still. That our government and neighbors will do the right thing, that hope is worth fighting for, that there is more good than evil, that life will get better.

When the option is despair, I chose faith. Still…….every time I leave the apartment I think – could I run in these shoes? So I strap on my sneakers and go out the door. I Thank God I have the chance. And honor those who don’t, by remembering .

Ps: Yes I gave her money — she probably made $100 bucks in ten minutes. Best concert ever. In my subway church.

At least the card came with a money back guarantee.

(Sorry for being cryptic)

If you are a friend of mine, I’d appreciate an email or phone call telling me how I can best keep up with you.

With so many technological marvels at our disposal for being social, I feel as though I have fallen out of touch with everyone. So tell me, what is the best way for me to find out what’s going on in your life? I don’t want to know what you had for breakfast, I want to know how you are. I am frustrated when I find myself wading through a sea of Tweets or Facebook posts and I still miss actually important notices.

Popular options these days include:
Facebook
blog
Google+
Twitter
mailing list
telephone
in person

Oh, and to answer the question for myself: Find my blog at http://lee.org. And for important posts, look here: http://lee.org/blog/category/notable/. I forward all my posts to Facebook and Twitter but the real content is here on Lee.org.

Went to Balsa Man Saturday night.

I heard there had been a problem with counterfeit tickets at the event. People were trying to get around the ridiculous $0.10 ticket fees. To eliminate this problem, I gleefully made my own counterfeits and enlisted the help of a few friends. My tickets were only available 50 feet in front of the gate: I was charging $10 mail order or $0 at the event. They were a hit and seemed to cause some confusion at the gate! Mission accomplished!    :-)

I can’t use Google+, so I won’t use Google+. I’m not deleting my G+ account yet but that might come in a few months.

Excuse me Mr Google, tell me "Doctor Popular" isn't the name he goes by.

Their common name policy has gotten several personal friends of mine banned. Heck, I’m in-person friends with Doctor Popular but I honestly don’t know his given name. His Google+ account was removed despite the fact that “Doctor Popular” is the name he really goes by everywhere, even at Google events!

The ability to be Pseudoanonymous is important for a lot of reasons. I don’t have to describe them here. Here’s a hundred or so reasons to start you off. (and don’t forget Locke and Demosthenes from Ender’s Game!)

Google+ people, this is not a hard problem to solve, all you need to do is trust people by their reputation and history. You have tremendous records on us, use it to verify that the people that are registering are real. Give new users permissions and avatars based on their maturity as an online entity. Now, it’s possible that it’s Google+’s master plan to try and create a strict limit of 1 account per person to launch some evil master plan; if that’s the case, then G+ can jump off a bridge.

Attention Google Plus Management, get your act together, you’re really screwing up.

Here are some articles about this asinine problem.
Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse: No Clear Answers by Violet Blue
Trapped in the Googlehole by Doctor Popular
My.Nameis.Me