“Retiring”

2009 November 2
by Roland

Afte a lot of years of blogging at RolandAllen.com and at Blog.RolandAllen.com, I’m retiring this blog. Of course I’ll leave it up for a while because it seems that people enjoy reading some of my old posts. (A lot of referrals come from Google searches on topics posted on this blog.)

However, I’m not gone for good. I’m doing new things. I think that blogging has evolved and I’m evolving with it. I’ve started a new blog that is more “fresh” than the static type of blogging of logging in, writing posts, etc. I’m using Posterous as a platform, which makes it easier to share ideas, items found elsewhere, and the rest. It’s a whole new approach to blogging, and I like it.

I’m blogging there under a new name to reflect the freshness of the new approach. You can find me at: goodbuddies.net. I call the blog: Really Random Stuff.

I thought I’d call it what it is.

My photoblog Roland Allen: [seeing-things] is very active.

B of A

2009 November 1
by Roland
B of A

B of A,
originally uploaded by Flannery626.

I recently picked up “The Best Camera Is the One That’s With You” by Chase Jarvis. It’s a great concept that elevates the use of cell phone cameras.

I used my iPhone to take this photo when I pulled up to the ATM yesterday afternoon.

I like doing “street photography” – maybe because of the risk involved.

The Mission

2009 November 1
by Roland
The Mission

The Mission,
originally uploaded by Flannery626.

Since I’ve been working really long hours, I’ve been taking breaks at what should be the end of the usual work day and going for photowalks. It’s a great way to refresh before returning to complete projects. Fortunately, downtown San Juan Capistrano and the Old Mission are within a mile of my office.

Flickr

2009 November 1
by Roland

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

I’ve left this post up because it’s cool that FLICKR can post directly to a blog.

SIGG Voluntary Exchange

2009 October 6
by Roland

While not admitting “danger” with the old bottle liners, SIGG initiated a voluntary exchange this month.

Customers can ship in old bottles for a replacement. I took an easier route. I went to Whole Foods Market in Laguna Beach. The Whole Foods exchange was painless. I picked out a replacement bottle and handed the old bottle to the cashier. There are no questions, no paperwork and no hassles. Also, there’s no waiting for SIGG to ship a new bottle.

Social Media: location sharing

2009 October 1

I added both the Gowalla and Foursquare applications last night to my iPhone. I can see value in these apps, particularly when meeting up with friends in cities. For example, last week I was at a conference in Baltimore. It would have been easy to meet up with friends floating around various social events had we all used the applications.

I like the idea of Gowalla, but it hasn’t worked well since adding it and trying in out in Dallas, Texas. The application has never completed loaded. Foursquare, on the other hand, loads immediately.

The 10 least visited U.S. national parks

2009 August 23
by Roland

Here’s a list of the 10 least visited national parks. Of course, most of them are in Alaska, but there are a few in the lower 48.

Will Lammerding

2009 August 19
by Roland

Meet Will Lammerding – 8 year old son of Erik & Karyn and adored by his two older brothers.  Will was born with a rare genetic condition known as the mosaic trisomy 8 – T8mS, which  has severely limited his mental & physical development, requiring full time medical care.

Please read about Will Lammerding and consider supporting his family’s effort to raise funds for his extraodinary medical needs.

I met his father, Erik, years ago at Westmont College in Santa Barbara.

New Frontiers in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Research | MIT World

2009 August 7

Dr. Edward Scolnick at MIT talks about research into Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.

more about “New Frontiers in Schizophrenia and Bi…“, posted with vodpod

Facebook Privacy

2009 August 4

Yesterday I mistakenly posted something to my FaceBook status that I thought was a private message to a friend. I was using Twitter to “chat” with my friend. However, I have Twitter linked to my FaceBook account, so that “tweets” update my status on Facebook.

Fortunately, my friend alerted me to the public post and I took it down right away. However, the mistake prompted me to look more closely at controlling who sees what on FaceBook.

I spent hours going through privacy settings and found that creating a new list helped me control my privacy. Here’s how it works. Create a new list on Facebook. Let’s say you call it “controlled”. Click on the “Friends” tab. You’ll see your friends listed. On the right side is a pull down that says “add to list”. From here you can create a “controlled” list. It’s painstaking to do this, but go through all your friends and decide what lists you want them on. In the process of doing this, I “cleaned” up my friends list, eliminating nearly 100 people I didn’t really know who I had become “friends” with over the years.

After friends are in their lists, go to the “settings” page, and then to “privacy”. You can manage who sees what from there. Be sure to go through each setting. For example, under “Status and Links” I checked the radio button for “Only Friends”, but also in “except these” I added the lists of friends I don’t want to see my every update. I did the same for “Wall Posts”.

There are advantages to going through this process.
1) Genuine privacy. Admittedly, Facebook is a nice way to stay in touch with an array of friends and constituents. Sometimes. however, you don’t want all your Facebook friends to know everything about you. And, it’s good practice to not let some people know all your activities, for example, your travel whereabouts, and the like.

2) Some information is acceptable to certain friends, and sensitive for others.

It’s worthwhile spending time on the Facebook Blog to learn more about privacy and security.