ITP AlumniBlender

Protected: The Showdown

Amos — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:54:48 +0000

links for 2009-11-20

Elizabeth Goodman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:07:17 +0000

Steve Rose on the architecture of James Bond films | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

"Bond might deploy his licence to trash with worrying abandon, but his motive should be seen less as a grudge against modern architecture and more an extreme form of criticism. He makes a mockery of buildings' functions and pricks the pomposity of their designers. Flat rooftops become platforms from which to dangle henchmen by their neckties; tall chimneys are there to drop wheelchair-bound villains down; corridors become racetracks, balconies vantage points, buildings as a whole turned into giant climbing frames, their carefully designed details relegated to mere footholds and escape routes. Perhaps that's just fanciful thinking on the part of someone who writes about architecture for a living, but as I loosen my bowtie, unholster my revolver and mix a stiff vodka martini, I can't help but identify with him."

(tags: architecture culture history modernism)

LED Dress – Functional? Maybe.

Jason Krugman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:30:30 +0000

Made by a company called “Cute Circuit”

This is brilliant, tho have a feeling you’ll never see...

Dennis Crowley — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:50:18 +0000

This is brilliant, tho have a feeling you’ll never see these side-by-side @ local B&N (or Amazon, which is also a shame… as the title is like the book equivalent of those “gogle.com” typo URLs :):

“Going Rogue: An American Life” (Amazon)
www.amazon.com/Going-Rogue-American-Sarah-Palin/dp/006193…

“Going Rouge: An American Nightmare” (OR Books)
orbooks.com/

Re: Mail pick-up

Amos — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:44:25 +0000

Hi Mark,

Thanks for handling Nina’s mail. Would it be possible for me to come by and pick it up sometime around 8pm tomorrow (Friday)? I’m sure you have your hands full caring for your mom, so if that’s not a good time, just tell me when is.

Best,

Amos —-
—- —- LLC
—-@—-.com
tel. —.—.—-
fax. —-.—-.—-
http://—-.com

links for 2009-11-19

Elizabeth Goodman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:05:54 +0000

Topobo

"Topobo is the world's first construction toy with kinetic memory, the ability to record and playback physical motion. Snap together Passive and Active pieces to make a creation. Teach your creation how to dance, walk and move with the press of a button and the flick of your wrist."

(tags: toys play tools)

Am I the only girl this happened to?

Tracy White — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:36:54 +0000

This week’s update has arrived. Read it now.

Mail pick-up

Amos — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:16:28 +0000

Mark,

I am very sorry about your mother’s health. It would be great if her regular doctor could look at her. I hope that being at home, in the familiar surroundings will make her feel a little better. Don’t despair, I am sure she will recover.

My boyfriend Amos would like to come pick up my mail. I’m CC-ing him in this email so he can arrange with you directly the most convenient time. I told him about your mom just being discharged from the hospital.

Thank you again for your help!

Take care,

-Nina-

EverydayUX morsels (November 18th – November 19th)

Alex Rainert — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:00:06 +0000

The Top 10 Mobile Applications of 2012
Good list of future mobile trends. I also appreciate that they took a wait-and-see approach to Augmented Reality.
Dennis Crowley – Foursquare « Mobile Monday Amsterdam
Awesome awesome presentation (and accompanying deck) that Dennis presented at Mobile Monday in Amsterdam.
Freeband . The Ambient Life on the Behance Network
I can't express strongly enough how much I'm a sucker for the visual style (+content) in this Ambient Lifestyle video.
Michael Babwahsingh » 10 Years / 10 Learnings
Read them. Learn them. They apply to any sort of Creative Consulting/Partnership work you'll ever do.

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Fw: My mother’s home from the hospital

Amos — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:08:18 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: My mother’s home from the hospital
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:23:44 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Dear Nina:
My mother came home from the hospital Tuesday evening, but it
didn’t turn out to be such a happy homecoming. We came home by
ambulance because there was no other way to transport her. And
what is happening at home now is not easy for me to bear or handle.
My mother is still quite sick. She is confused much of the time
now, she was incontinent when she came home and has a terrible
diaper rash that she got in the hospital from being incontinent
there, but I think that it is starting to respond to treatment.
Right now she is unable to feed herself, and coughing frequently.
All this is a shocking change from the way she was just three weeks
ago before she became ill. I’m having to settle her in with new
medications and different foods and food handling processes, as she
now requires pureed food because of her confusion. I’m not really
terribly good in the kitchen. I managed to get two hours of sleep
this afternoon while she was sleeping, and a little less than four
last night. I am probably still very tired out and worn down. The
daughter of a friend of mine, who is a nurse, comes for a few hours
in the morning to help me. She gives my mother a shower and does a
few other things that otherwise I would have to do. Tomorrow
(Thursday) we have a doctor’s appointment from weeks ago at her
retina specialist, and her internist’s office is in the same
building and I would just love to get her in so that he could see
her, but I’m not sure whether we will be able to try to make it or
not.
The mail situation is working out nicely. Mail for you is
being put into my mailbox, and I am putting it in the box with the
rest of your mail that your friend will pick up from me when it is
convenient. This arrangement keeps your mailbox from quickly
filling up to where no additional mail could be put in.
How are you feeling? I wish that there was something that I
could do to make you feel better.

Sincerely,
Mark.
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Brand new (?) Invader on Bowery & Great Jones, NYC (SW...

Dennis Crowley — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:36:12 +0000

Brand new (?) Invader on Bowery & Great Jones, NYC (SW corner):

more invaders: www.flickr.com/photos/dpstyles/tags/invader/

more info: www.space-invaders.com/

$700 billion for the arts… because we’re too big to fail!!

Ruth Sergel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:38:58 +0000

Artist #1

I’m so tired of juggling day jobs, writing grant proposals which won’t even pay me… I decided to stop complaining & just ask for what I really want - $700 billion for the arts…. because we’re too big to fail!

Wouldn’t it be swell to say - bar bill?? its on me, I’ve got the bucks because - I’m an artist!
Or
need a visit to the Dr.?? No problem of course I have health insurance because - I’m an artist!

I’m starting a new movement (I hope!). Please join in!

PS
The photo up there is of sound artist Jax Deluca of the wonderful Squeaky Wheel where the whole dang project was launched!

EverydayUX morsels (November 16th – November 18th)

Alex Rainert — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:01 +0000

Scroll Clock
Simple, clever and borderline hypnotizing.
Esquire AR Video | Fubiz™
Really well done. BE sure to check out the demo video. (Love the Air track too)
Students Design Neighborhood Currencies — School of Visual Arts — MFA in Interaction Design
So so so awesome.
Flytip.com – Sneakers & Interactive Media Culture » Blog Archive » Frog Design’s tvChatter iPhone App
This stuff still has a long way to go but it's great to see Frog playing around in the space. The interface is a little clunky but the idea is spot on.

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To Live Is To Die

Amos — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:55:38 +0000

My ribs are bruised. When I breath, it’s a bit painful, but not terrible. When I laugh there’s a sharp but not unbearable pain, and when I walk I feel something not quite right in my hip. Last night I stream-rolled over an opponent as four of their players had passed our defense and were on the way to an easy goal.

I didn’t like the way they were sauntering lazily towards me, as if they had all the time in the world. It’s respectful to everyone if these things are done quickly. They put me in a very bad position with few options and plenty of time. If the poor guy was smart, he would have gotten rid of the ball before I reached him. He had plenty of time – didn’t he think about what I could possibly do to prevent them from scoring? Couldn’t he deduce the result of a 210 pound white gorilla lumbering towards him at full speed?

I thoroughly pummeled him into the ground by simply occupying what had previously been his physical space. Two people can’t occupy the same space at the same time, and the laws of momentum make it clear what the rebound of two unequal masses at differing velocities will look like after collision.

The look on his face as he lay on his back wasn’t one of pain, fear, or anger. It was utter confusion. I think he didn’t know where he was or what had happened. I squatted over him, patted his chest and added one more disingenuous swipe at his dignity: “Sorry…. I didn’t mean to do it so hard.”

No response… He lay like a helpless lamb separated from its herd, and you know what happens to stray lambs. His woolly blond hair packed close to his head with a protruding nose and wide nostrils. What pity can one have for such a creature? Eventually he wobbled back to his feet and walked shakily about for a few minutes as the penalty kick was taken and play continued (and they didn’t score).

We lost anyway.

DATA FORMATION - Honorable Mention

Minsoo Lee — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:31:21 +0000

Honorable Mention - Incheon International Design Award, Korea
Design proposal for Incheon - Songdo city, Korea - Sep. 2009

DATA FORMATION

Minsoo Lee — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:28:19 +0000

Honorable Mention - Incheon International Design Award, Korea
Design proposal for Incheon - Songdo city, Korea - Sep. 2009

Using the CD74HC4067 multiplexer with Arduino

Rory Nugent — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:09:43 +0000

Below is an Arduino sketch that uses the CD74HC4067 multiplexer / demultiplexer to read analog values from all 16 channels. This gives you the ability to read from 16 analog inputs while only using one analog input and four digital pins.

/* CD74HC4067 Analog / Digital Multiplexing

This sketch reads analog values from all 16 of the multiplexer pins.

created 17 Nov 2009
by Rory Nugent

The following pins must be connected:

Digital Pin 2 -> S0
Digital Pin 3 -> S1
Digital Pin 4 -> S3
Digital Pin 5 -> S4

Analog In Pin 0 -> SIG

// Mux analog / digital signal pin
#define sig 0 // Analog In Pin 0

// Mux channel select pins
#define setPin0 2 // Digital Pin 2
#define setPin1 3 // Digital Pin 3
#define setPin2 4 // Digital Pin 4
#define setPin3 5 // Digital Pin 5

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(setPin0, OUTPUT);
pinMode(setPin1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(setPin2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(setPin3, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
// for loop to cycle through all mux channels, 0 - 15
for(int i = 0; i < 16; i++)
{
int sigValue = readSig(i); // read from a mux channel

// print the analog / digital value to the serial monitor
Serial.print(sigValue);
Serial.print("\t"); // TAB
}
Serial.println(); // NEW LINE
}

// NAME: readSig
// INPUT: mux channel as an integer, 0 - 15
// RETURN: analog value of the selected mux channel as an integer
int readSig(int channel)
{
// use the first four bits of the channel number to set the channel select pins
digitalWrite(setPin0, bitRead(channel, 0));
digitalWrite(setPin1, bitRead(channel, 1));
digitalWrite(setPin2, bitRead(channel, 2));
digitalWrite(setPin3, bitRead(channel, 3));

// read from the selected mux channel
int sigValue = analogRead(sig);

// return the received analog value
return sigValue;
}

Mang’s Oldies- Santo & Johnny - Venus

Anh Nguyen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:32:52 +0000

An oldies gem from the Brooklyn brothers, Santo & Johnny. “Venus” is one of my favorites, second only to the all-time classic “Sleepwalk.”

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links for 2009-11-17

Elizabeth Goodman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:11:10 +0000

Why Design Thinking Won't Save You - Peter Merholz - HarvardBusiness.org

"Whenever I see a business magazine glow about design thinking, as BusinessWeek has done recently with this special report, and which Harvard Business Review did last year it gets my dander up. Not because I don't see the value of design (I started a company dedicated to experience design), but because the discussion in such articles is inevitably so fetishistic, and sadly limited."

(tags: design business designthinking)

Fw: The Apology

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:06:14 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: The Apology
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:58:52 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Dear Nina:
My mother is still in the hospital. Her sodium is still too
low for the doctors to let her come home. Yesterday she didn’t
want to eat much, and I spent all the time in the hospital trying
unsuccessfully to get her eat. I am hoping that perhaps today her
sodium will be a little bit higher and that she will be able to
come home. Then, of course my job will get even harder, as I take
care of her. I am doing what I am doing alone, mostly without any
help, physical or emotional. While I have some friends who help me
in their various occupational specialties, whether as pilot, or
nurse, or doctor, I have no friends who simply help me as friend.
And I unfortunately have relatives who are without mercy, jealous
and constantly critical of me. And I am doing it all alone. And I
am continually aware, that my mother’s condition can never get
better, only progressively worse, as she is 95 years old. And you
and I both know how it is going to end, and that knowledge for me
is the worst thing of all.
What I wrote to you in my last email was stupid of me, and you
are right to be angered by it, and I am profoundly sorry that I
ever wrote it. I am, evidently and obviously, far from perfect
myself, as you are seeing. I am abjectly sorry.
And yet, my intentions towards you have been absolutely pure.
I have always tried to help you when I perceived that you needed
help, and the only thing I have ever sought for myself from you has
been your friendship.
I would like you to know that all I have ever tried to “get
from you” for myself in the three years that I have been trying so
hard to make friends with you, was to have a friendly neighbor,
nice to talk to once in a while. In return for which, I always
tried to give you my best, and in the matter of locksmithing and
security which was the subject of our dealings a year ago, I do
know more than you, and I was legitimately worried about your
safety. I have, always, honestly tried to give you my best. I am
so sorry that, in the matter of the words that come out of my
mouth, fallen so short.
I am a great admirer of the Russian people. I am an amateur
student of the history of what your people call the “Great
Patriotic War” and we call “World War II.” My interest is not so
much in the conventional history of battles and events and troop
movements, but rather in the more personal aspects of the war, how
it affected individual Russian people, and how the people of the
Soviet Union found within themselves the internal strength to
absorb such blows as were dealt to them, and go on fighting as they
did, until they ultimately defeated the German enemy. It is the
individual characteristics of the Russian person that enabled this.
As I have an interest in aviation, I take particular interest in
the women’s aviation units of the Great Patriotic War, the 586th,
46th, 125th Regiments, which, in contrast to our own womens’ WASP
units, actually engaged in combat with the enemy.
I take note, that historically, after the United States aided
the Soviet Union with Lend-Lease, that difficulties occurred
because our country had foolishly made remarks about how difficult
that aid had been to provide. It looks as if, on a personal level,
that I have done the same thing with you.
In my police unit, we had many Russian officers. This gave me
the opportunity to get to know worthy Russian people. I did
observe that their level of courage was higher than our own.
OK, now about your most recent email to me. I see that I have
deeply hurt your feelings, and also terribly angered you, and for
this I am most sorry and I do apologize. Obviously, my words were
not so carefully chosen, or this would not have happened. Yet it
would have happened sooner or later. In my other emails to you, in
which I detail my experiences with illness and disease, I have also
managed to say a thing or two that you have found offensive. While
I am sorry, I could not know in advance what would offend you or
what wouldn’t. I think that I tend more to speak from the heart
than from the brain.
I’m sure that you could get by without my help, and may now
choose to do so, although I hope that you will forgive me and let
me do some things for you. I want you to know that I am sincere,
or at least, I honestly think I am.
I know very little about you. You know much more about me than
I do about you. In your most recent email to me, you have given me
a look in the mirror at myself through your eyes, how I must appear
to you. “…from money to private airplanes…” I would just like
you to know that regardless of how I must appear to you, I am not
wealthy. I am actually very frugal. My ownership of an aircraft
embarrasses me sometimes and I don’t usually speak of it to anyone.
In the year that I have owned this aircraft, it has been one of
the best-kept secrets in aviation, with the only people knowing
about it being my pilot friend and my mother (when she remembers)
and one other friend. And you. A few days ago I had written an
email to send to you that talks of the airplane, but I hadn’t sent
it to you, I didn’t feel it was the right time.
Now the final decision on the new direction that our friendship
will take is up to you. As we Americans say, “the ball is in your
court.” Personally, I think that the Russian culture is much
better than the American culture. You have us beat culture-wise
In the three years that I have been your neighbor, I have
repeatedly underestimated you.
OK, now: I think the mail situation is good the way it is now,
but if you want to make any changes, just tell me in an email what
you want me to tell the letter carrier to do, and I will pass it
along to her right away. I hope you will find it in your heart to
forgive me.

Sincerely,
Mark.

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The Amostle steps in as Ghostwriter

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:02:51 +0000

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your email. As you have probably heard, we Russians are a straightforward people, so forgive me if I come across as blunt. You have had a lot of experience with sickly people, and your wisdom speaks ages. At the moment, I am one of these people, yet I don’t intend to remain this way forever. The suggestion you made previously that I will succumb to my illness unless I accept your care is not exactly how I see my current predicament. And to suggest that people I don’t know and don’t care about are being hurt in order to help me is honestly offensive, regardless of what your intention in saying it was. You have repeatedly stated your benevolent intentions, however you have been very precise with your use of words, and those statements do not seem at all benevolent to my untrained ear.

It is not that I don’t appreciate your offers of various favors and services, from money to private airplanes to life-saving CPR and foot massages. But I am glad that you have brought to my attention how much you have had to go through to handle this burden of responsibility which I have placed on your shoulders. When I asked you to hold my mail, it didn’t cross my mind that you would go so far out of your way to do so, and I am embarrassed by the inconvenience I’ve caused you. Please accept my honest apology.

My boyfriend, Amos, will handle my mail from now on. I will cc him on another email so that he can arrange to come by at a time that is convenient for you to pick up the mail you are holding for me, including UPS packages and anything else. He has the keys to my apartment, so don’t be concerned if you see him loitering about.

I do not like relying on other people, and I do not make friends easily. And although I know that you have expressed your desire to help, I am not comfortable with the way in which this mail situation has turned out to be so much of a burden and so dangerous for other people. Your mother needs your help, and I will not allow something as ridiculous as my mail to interfere with your ability to care for her.

Sincerely,
Nina

From last night’s foursquare meetup in Amsterdam… we...

Dennis Crowley — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:03:23 +0000

From last night’s foursquare meetup in Amsterdam… we were rolling some 20+ deep at one point!

All the nerdcore boys swoon when the girl with the firewire...

Dennis Crowley — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:03:19 +0000

All the nerdcore boys swoon when the girl with the firewire tattoo (@Jenneke) walks in :):

Arm belongs to: twitter.com/Jenneke

Poor Man’s Augmented Reality business card...

Dennis Crowley — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:03:16 +0000

Poor Man’s Augmented Reality business card (@bertinevanhvell):

Sent from my stoopid iPhone

BarCamp Philly

Rich Hauck — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:09:08 +0000

This past weekend I made it out to BarCamp Philly, and as you can see from the photo above, the turnout was 200-300 people–pretty good. Little did I know that WordCamp NYC was going on at the same time, but I think I made the right choice.

I’ve attended so many BarCamps now that I feel like an aficionado; you start to immediately recognize what works and what doesn’t at these events. Fortunately, Philly’s version of this unconference was well-sponsored and well-organized. They had a Website, pins, t-shirts, an online/mobile schedule, a photographer, and a great turnout. Here’s a hit list of what I liked and what I didn’t like:

Liked:

Open Source Cupcakes. ‘Nuff said.
Carl Leiby’s online schedule. I’m against developing iPhone-centric sites, but this certainly came in handy.
The pamphlets (above). It included a handy grid for you to write out what you wanted to attend. Definitely a nice touch.
The diversity of attendees. There were attendees from education, medical, and insurance sectors–not just Web developers, which made it refreshing for conversations.

Disliked:

The venue layout (Nothing against UArts whatsoever). Hosting a BarCamp on multiple floors of a building proved a bit disorienting–and wasn’t conducive to camper interaction out of sessions. Of course, free space is what it is.
The logo. Bring back the Liberty Bell, or at least make the logo Philly-centric!
No breaks between sessions. This was a scheduling boo-boo, but I think the organizers caught onto it. They also didn’t schedule time for a closing session, but that was promptly remedied.
Name tag holders. They’re a personal pet peeve, I suppose. They’re a one-time use item, yet I have some odd sense of guilt that comes over me when I think about throwing them away.

This could reflect my session choices, but it seemed as if all of the sessions I attended were hosted by people interested in discussing a topic, but not necessarily qualified in leading it (by their own admissions). Granted, there’s nothing wrong with this approach, but I prefer that happy balance of workshop and discussion.

Overall, it was pretty cool. I’m starting to get the sense that BarCamps are essentially those great discussions you had in college that you don’t get post-academia. After all, once you’re out, how often do you place yourself in a room with a group of diverse and intelligent strangers to discuss a common topic?

More Building of Living Objects

Jason Krugman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:43:23 +0000

from Mark’s email – I’m scared now

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:41:43 +0000

“I would like you to know something. I would like you to know
that people, whom you don’t know, and don’t care about, have been
hurting themselves in order to help you. If you thought that I am
amazing because of what I did for your mail, I would like you to
know that it took me a special trip home by car service from the
hospital where my mother is on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday, in order to keep trying to meet with the letter carrier,
followed each time by a return trip back to the hospital by car
service. On Saturday, I delayed my going to the hospital by 4
hours in order to finally get your mail. I hesitated to tell you
this, but I decided that I want you to know. These things had to
be done as the only way to do what you needed done to help you.”

Fw: Ellice and her CFIDS

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:15:10 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: Ellice and her CFIDS
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:08:11 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Dear Nina:
This installment is about Ellice once again, and it may serve
to illustrate what I would call, “Boyfriend Behavior in the Face
of Disease.”

Here’s how I met Ellice: My cousin Margot was riding on a
subway train in the very early 1980’s or such, when she noticed a
young woman sitting next to her, and struck up a conversation.
That young woman was Ellice, and she told my cousin that she was
moving to a new apartment, and having all sorts of problems doing
so, why, she couldn’t even find a good locksmith. My cousin, of
course, told Ellice that she knew of a very good locksmith, me!
She gave Ellice my phone number, and later that night told me to
expect Ellice’s call and that I should try to make friends with her.
A few weeks later Ellice called, and I made a series of service
calls to her new apartment to install her locks and gates, at my
usual prices. I saw a bicycle amidst Ellice’s possessions, and I
mentioned that I enjoy bike riding also, why, I even had a tandem
bicycle for two. Ellice said that she had never ridden a
tandem…but would like to. That set the stage for our first date,
but it would have to wait because the temperature outside was 15
degrees Fahrenheit!
During this time, I talked to Ellice on the telephone weekly.
She evidently enjoyed talking to me, and I discovered that she had
many friends, both in her work as a hospital nutritionist, and
outside her job too. She was an avid sportswoman and mountain
climber who, every six months or so, went on one Outward Bound
expedition or another. She also had a boyfriend, a big fellow with
a beard named Steve. I knew that they fought a lot, and apparently
having a boyfriend did not interfere with Ellice having other
friends.
Eventually when the weather warmed, we had our bike ride on my
tandem bike. It was memorable because everyone we passed was
looking at us, and telling us what a lovely couple we made
together. This bothered Ellice, and she began calling out when she
saw people looking at us, “He is not my boyfriend! He is not my
boyfriend!” At one point, while we were stopped at a light, she
got off the bicycle without my noticing, and kept one foot on one
pedal. When the light changed, Ellice pressed down on the pedal,
and off I went, leaving her behind. I did not notice her missing
and kept up the conversation I had been having with her, now one
sided. Two blocks later, stopped for another light at a crowded
bus stop, I wound up the conversation I had been having with
myself, and asked Ellice her opinion. I then turned around, and
she wasn’t there. The crowd at the bus stop pretended that they
didn’t see me talking to myself. I turned around and went back to
find Ellice. She thought it was all very funny.
Steve gave way to Steve the Second. I gritted my teeth. Then
Ellice was told that she needed eye surgery on her good eye. She
has only one eye. Steve simply said, “I can’t handle this,” and
walked out on her. By now I had known Ellice for two years. She
was panic-stricken both at the thought of being “patched” for two
weeks following the surgery, during which time she would be blind,
and at the prospect of permanently losing her eyesight should
something go wrong during surgery. I stepped into the boyfriend
role, and comforted her as best I could. She was terrified at the
prospect of permanently losing her vision and worried aloud what
would happen to her if that occurred. I thought long and hard for
a very long moment and told her that if she lost her vision
permanently, that I would marry her and take care of her for the
rest of her life. She was stunned. “Do you know what you just
said?” she asked me softly. “Do you realize what you just said?”
Ellice went off to have her eye surgery and left me the key to
her apartment so I could water her plants. I remember that I
brought my vacuum cleaner to her apartment and thoroughly cleaned
it because she needed a clean environment post-surgery in order to
avoid infection in the eye. After getting out of the hospital she
went to her parents upstate who cared for her during the time that
she was patched.
After Ellice returned, the surgery successful, I tried to make
her my girlfriend, and we dated a few times as opposed to being
just friends, but I failed to ignite Ellice’s interest. I just
wasn’t totally her type. Her interest in me as a prospective mate
waned. It had never really been there in the first place. I went
back to just being her friend, but with a difference: we now had a
history together, and she went out and got herself another guy
named Steve.
Two years went by. Then the eye-surgery monster reared its
ugly head once more. Ellice needed another surgery to save the
vision in her one eye, or she would lose it entirely, and this time
a much more invasive and serious surgery, and with less of a chance
of success. Once again, her current boyfriend Steve (not the same
Steve as the first time) couldn’t handle it, but this time with a
difference; the two of them had a bad fight over it and Steve left,
but began making threats against her and anyone who might date her
in the future, and he began cutting up and mailing back to her each
gift that she had ever given him. I changed her locks and started
wearing my body armor when I went to her apartment. Then Steve
rammed his car into a bridge abutment, permanently paralyzing
himself from the neck down, which removed him as an effective
threat, since I don’t have to be terribly afraid of a paralyzed guy
in a wheelchair.
Ellice and I discussed what my role would be following her
surgery; she would be patched and blind and need drops in her eyes
and care and so on. I was not her boyfriend and had never been,
and as far as she knew, never would be. The idea didn’t even
cross her mind, but it did mine.
She had her surgery, and spent a weekend at her parents’ home
and then came back to her apartment. I had her key, and came and
went as needed, gave her her drops and medicines and fed her and
cleaned her and so on. Nurses make difficult patients, and Ellice
delighted in poking fun at my amateur efforts to nurse her and she
did to me all the little tricks that patients do to make life
difficult for nurses, that she had learned from her own patients.
One day while I was doing her eyedrops she began distractedly
telling me how, once she recovered, she was going to have to go out
and find herself a new boyfriend. I told her to turn her head to
the right (I was on her right.) She did and said, “Now what?”
I said, “You’re looking at your new boyfriend.”
She actually looked past me, as if there was someone behind me.
She said, “I don’t see anyone here.”
“I mean me,” I told her. “I’m your new boyfriend.”
“You?” she exclaimed. She began studying me appraisingly as
she considered the possibility. I put my arm around her, and
playfully pinned her arms. “And I’m not giving you a choice,” I
told her.
“OK,” she said after a moment of thought. “But give me some
time to get used to the idea.”

I gave her the time as I stepped into the boyfriend role, but
this time officially with the job title. I had to force Ellice to
admit to her other friends that she was now my girlfriend, which at
first she tried to hide; they accepted me and Ellice herself grew
comfortable in the state of affairs. She was very active, almost
exhaustingly so, she could tire me out, and did. She was not one
for staying home; we always had to be outside on the move. This
was, of course, after she had recovered from the eye surgery to the
point that she could be this active. She was still subject to post-
surgery restrictions on her activities which I enforced rigorously
and which she reluctantly complied with.

Our relationship was not without its problems. Ellice is
temperamental and likes to provoke a fight with a boyfriend,
because she likes the lovey-doveyness of making up afterwards. I
personally hate this characteristic of hers, and like a stable
relationship with as little conflict as possible. As the days and
weeks of “us” became months, we fought more often, very often in
public, and both of us began dreaming of getting out of the
relationship. But I would not leave until Ellice no longer needed
my care; I would not jeopardize the successful results of her
surgery. That time came in late Spring of that year; Ellice was
now well enough to make a go of it on her own, and we both hoped
during the coming summer to meet mates more suited to our
individual temperaments. In fact, we had never been sexual
intimates, neither of us having ever felt much desire to be. And
so, after one last fight, we broke up, with much tears and promises
to always remain friends. Which we have done, to this day.

But things did not go well for Ellice that summer. She became
tired. She did not feel well. She felt worse and worse. She
began going to doctors. No one knew what was happening to her,
just that she was sick, and we didn’t know with what. There was
talk about the Epstein-Barr Virus. And by the end of that summer,
she was diagnosed with a disease that few people had ever heard of,
CFIDS, also called at the time the “Yuppie Flu,” because of its
propensity to strike the population of intelligent successful young
overachievers like Ellice, and like you, Nina.
By the end of the summer Ellice was no longer able to live by
herself, and she quietly slipped back into the role as my
girlfriend, so that I could nurse her again. But this time she was
easy to handle, because she was so weak and exhausted most of the
time. Gone was the girl who could wear me out or who always had to
be on the move; Ellice was now either sleeping in bed, or going to
bed to sleep. Her exhaustion would come upon her with such
suddenness that she might be unable to cross the room to reach her
bed; she would freeze in midstep, teetering and nearly collapsing
as I would get to her in the nick of time and support her as I
assisted her the last few feet to her bed, and with difficulty try
as gently as possible to lay her down on it.
For a few days at a time I kept her here at my apartment, and
then for a few more days in her own. This was about the time that
I took my EMT course and effected the “save” on Ellice at the
doctor’s office. The ulcer which she had was likely one of the
infections which she had due to the compromise of her immune system
by the CFIDS. Not long afterwards she decided to move back upstate
with her parents, where she lives today, 18 years later. She
closed down her apartment and gave away all of her furnishings and
belongings, at that time, and left her job for good. I had to pick
up her last paycheck.
Today Ellice lives with her mother. Her father passed away
years ago. These days Ellice has a boyfriend, a fellow who likes
her companionship and is kind to her. And I’m so glad that she has
him and I hope their relationship lasts forever.

During the time that I had Ellice while she was sick with
CFIDS, I really did not know how to handle someone with this
disease. Much of the pain of CFIDS in internal in the victim. It
doesn’t show on the outside. The fatigue and tiredness is
excruciating to the sufferer on the inside, but those around, like
parents, boyfriends or caregivers, absolutely do not know what the
patient feels. Forcing someone like Ellice, or probably you, Nina,
to even walk across the room, or to talk when they are exhausted,
causes so much pain that no one else can see, and can cause even
deeper fatigue, which then lasts an even longer time. I really
learned what I know about this disease from the mistakes I made on
Ellice. I learned that I could not push her; and that even she
herself could make mistakes in judgement as to how much energy she
really had in reserve. It was said at the time that in a way, this
is a disease of the mitochondria in her cells; there are fewer of
them and so she has less energy. At least, that’s what was
believed back then.
CFIDS sufferers are often told even by doctors that their
disease is imaginary, in their mind, because their pain is not
visible to others. Mental illness is often suspected. Sometimes
when a CFIDS patient loses weight, doctors suspect anorexia or
bulimia when such is not the case. But the abnormal lab results,
and the infections, and other abnormal findings are clearly not “in
the mind.” It is for this reason that the CFIDS sufferer should
only seek treatments from the doctors who specialize in this
disease and so have developed a better understanding of it.
One more thing I have to say about it is about my use of
reflexology to try to treat Ellice’s CFIDS. Reflexology is a foot-
massage technique that is supposed to have health benefits. You
may have seen a few businesses along Kings Highway that offer
“reflexology” if that in fact is what they are actually doing and
not just faking it and taking their customers’ money. I took a
reflexology course about the same time that I first met Ellice, and
I first used reflexology on her shortly afterwards, when I
completed the course, long before she was ever sick with CFIDS.
She liked having reflexology done, and I did it for her from that
point onwards, whenever either she asked for it, or when, being
with her, I just felt like doing it for her as a way of showing
affection. By the time that Ellice had been diagnosed with CFIDS,
I had been doing reflexology on her for 8 or 10 years. Obviously
you are not going to cure anything by just massaging someone’s
feet, but it does produce deep relaxation and sometimes makes pain
a bit less. I began using reflexology to try to reduce the
severity of the pain, fatigue, and other symptoms of the disease,
as Ellice was experiencing them. It is impossible to say with
scientific accuracy what degree of success I had, but I think
perhaps that I made her feel a little bit better for a while. I
hope to do this for you when you are back here.

Well, I want to get these emails off to you, so let me stop
here. More on what lessons we learn from all this later.
Sincerely,
Mark.
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Fw: Medical Experiences You Can Learn From

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:14:33 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: Medical Experiences You Can Learn From
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:04:33 -0500

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Dear Nina:
Here is my next installment of “Medical Experiences You Can
Learn From”:

The trouble with my mother’s health started ten years ago.
Back then, my mother managed her own health care, and went to her
doctor on her own when she felt it necessary. That particular day,
I went along simply to provide transportation in my car. So I was
sitting in the doctor’s waiting room with my mother, together with
perhaps 8 or 10 other patients. There was a desk in the corner of
the waiting room and the doctor, a tall thin man, went behind the
desk to get some paper. When he came out, he tripped over a phone
cord and fell headlong. In falling, he grabbed hold of a bookcase
to try to keep from falling, and pulled the bookcase over and down
on himself.
What I remember is that I, and some other patients, lifted the
bookcase off the doctor, and righted it back up against the wall.
The doctor was lying on the floor, unconscious. Somehow in the
last instants of his fall, he had turned over on his back before
the bookcase had crashed down on top of him. I still do not know
how this was possible.
I bent over him, kneeling on the floor, trying to think what to
do. The doctor regained consciousness with me tapping his
shoulders and saying, “Are you OK? Are you OK?” which is the
beginning of the CPR process when a person has lost consciousness.
He recognized the opening lines of a CPR-trained person, and gave a
short laugh of wry amusement. I did not know what to say or do
next. Should I try to check if he is OK so that I can render
first aid? After all, he is a doctor, and knows better what to do
than I.
We helped him up, and all the patients began picking up the
things which had fallen on the floor from the bookcase. The
telephone cord and jack had been torn out of the wall, and I went
out to my car, got my toolbox and repaired it, while other patients
picked up books and overturned plants and cleaned up the floor..
The doctor looked around his office at all his patients and said,
“Now I’ve put all my patients to work working for me. Good!” with
an air of savage satisfaction.
He left medicine for good less than two weeks after that. He
had been diagnosed with a serious disease of his own, which had
contributed to the instability which had resulted in his fall. And
that left us without a doctor.
In the next month that followed, my mother developed a bleeding
ulcer. Of course, we did not know it. She bled out internally,
and became more and more anemic. In what I call the last week of
her life, because that very nearly was the last week of her life,
she was tiring out more easily. We tried to reach the doctor, and
it took a couple of wasted days until we found out that he had
closed his practice. We then had to find another doctor. We never
imagined that a life-threatening emergency was coming up on us fast.
We only knew of one doctor whom someone had recommended. We
called his office and he let us come in. He took 45 minutes with
my mother examining her, and drew two tubes of blood to send to the
lab. This was on a Thursday evening. We would have the lab
results by Monday or Tuesday of the next week. Now, in his mind,
anemia was one of the possibilities that he was considering for my
mother. He pulled open her eyelids and looked at the inside.
There is a technique for detecting anemia by the color of the
inside of the eyelid. It is not highly accurate, but it works.
Since in the course of the conversation with me, he had detected my
interest in medicine, he decided to teach me the technique and took
a few minutes more doing so. But even with so much looking at the
inside of my mother’s eyelids, he FAILED TO DETECT THAT SHE WAS
ANEMIC, and of course, since he had represented the way her eyelids
looked to me as “normal,” I didn’t detect her anemia either.
There was one more chance for him to detect the anemia in time.
He had just drawn two tubes of blood. Prior to sending them off
to the lab, one tube had to be “spun down” or centrifuged. I don’t
know why this is necessary, but it is, and the tube went into the
centrifuge within 45 minutes of being drawn, and was centrifuged.
On removal from the centrifuge, had someone just glanced at the
tube, they would have seen that the “packed cell volume” at the
bottom of the tube, was abnormally low. But no one bothered to
even look, and so my mother was now free to die the next day, her
death unhindered by modern medicine. Just for the record, the
hemoglobin in that tube of blood was 7.7, when it should have been
12 at the minimum.
We went shopping on Friday morning. On Kings Highway, my
mother suddenly collapsed. Two other women shoppers by her
instinctively grabbed her and eased her onto something there that
she could sit on, but she had no pulse and was no longer alive. I
found this out as I ran over to her and tried to feel her pulse.
She had to go to the ground so that I could do CPR. Feeling a
little bit embarrassed at what I was doing in front of everyone, I
tugged her off the milk crate she was sitting on, to the ground,
saying loudly, “Get her on the ground and raise her legs!” It was
now several years and a few other “saves” since my EMT course, and
I had long internalized my training, as evidenced by the polished
and flawless performance which I now delivered. I got the two
women to reluctantly hold my mother’s legs up at a 30 degree angle
to return blood to the heart. This is a little invention of mine,
a modification I made to the official CPR procedure. Since I
didn’t know what was wrong yet, I hoped that if it were a mere
faint, returning blood to the heart by raising the legs would
correct it before I would have to initiate the much more dangerous
CPR. It didn’t this time.
“Are you OK, are you OK!” I shouted, tapping her shoulders. No
response. Head tilt, chin lift: now we had a clear airway. Listen
for breathing. No breathing. Put two breaths in. Seal my mouth
over my mother’s mouth. There was a strange odor of death at my
mother’s mouth. Check for a pulse. She suddenly took a gasping
breath, and then another, and another. There was a pulse. But she
was still unconscious.
The sun beat down hard, unnaturally hard. I sensed that the
Angel of Death was there, trying to take my mother. He was using
another of his weapons. I fought back with my own. “I want you
people to form a line and use your bodies to block the sun off of
us,” I shouted to the crowd which had gathered, watching us. They
did it, and blocked out the sun. At that moment, the shopkeeper
cranked down the store awning, giving us blessed shade.. I sensed
the Angel of Death gritting his teeth in frustration.
I continued holding my mother’s airway open. I hated the sight
of her clean white hair on the dirty sidewalk. I slipped my other
hand under her head.
An EMT from Hatzolah Volunteer Ambulance came running up,
trauma bag in hand. He knelt by us, opened the bag and came out
with an oxygen mask. Without ado I reached into his bag and pulled
out the oxygen tank. I wanted to make sure it was open. Sometime
before, an EMT had suffocated a patient by trying to give oxygen
with a closed tank valve. I did not want it to happen here. I
tried to twist the valve to the left. “It’s open,” the EMT assured
me.
Even with oxygen applied, my mother remained unconscious. I
kept my hand under her head, to keep her head off of the sidewalk.
A Hatzolah ambulance pulled up. Two more EMT’s came over. “You’re
taking over?” I asked them.
“No, you keep it while we’re setting up,” they told me.
A few minutes later they took over, and placed my mother, still
unconscious, on the wheeled stretcher and put her into the
ambulance. I stood up. As my tension drained away, my blood
pressure plunged and I went into psychogenic shock. I felt
extremely thirsty and dizzy and I felt I might fall. There was
nothing that I could do about it. I desperately needed water to
drink and I didn’t have any. There was a Prestone Antifreeze
container filled with water for the radiator of my car in my trunk,
but I didn’t dare drink any of that water much as I so desperately
wished to. Eventually the feeling passed.
I followed the ambulance to the hospital in my car. I later on
learned that my mother regained consciousness in the ambulance.
The EMT’s asked her who I was. When she said that I am her son,
the EMTs told her that I had saved her life or prevented her from
becoming a vegetable. (The same realization occurred to me for the
the first time as I just walked into the emergency room.)
My mother was admitted. Her hemoglobin was 5.5 which is at
death-level. She received 2 units of blood. But the story wasn’t
over yet. The litany of fatal mistakes continued.
It was necessary to know where her blood was going. That meant
she needed a gastroscopy and a colonoscopy. A gastroenterologist
came the next day to do the necessary tests. He was a religious
Jewish man, with a black yarmulke (skullcap) and if I remember, a
short beard. I was very happy to see these accouterments. I felt
that I could trust him. He was going to do the tests right
away…even though my mother had just eaten lunch. I felt there
was something wrong with that, but I couldn’t sense what it was. I
just thought, “how is he going to see anything with her stomach
full of food?” But the nurse saw the real danger. You cannot give
anesthesia and do such a procedure on a patient who has eaten
within the last few hours, because if they vomit or regurgitate
food they can aspirate it into their lungs and get pneumonia!
The nurse pulled me aside hard. “Don’t let him do it,” she
told me through gritted teeth.
I tried to speak tactfully to the doctor, but he suddenly
became angry. “I am not going to come back here once I leave,” he
told me. “Medicare does not pay me enough as it is.”
I told him that I would be willing to pay him more, on my own.
But he remained angry, stating among other things, that he was the
best doctor to do the job and that I had no right to interfere with
him since my mother needed his care. The nurse reported him right
away.
He was removed from the case, and referred for discipline.
That left us with no gastroenterologist and my mother never got the
needed tests in the hospital. They discharged her at that point.
Of course she was still bleeding internally, and was severely
anemic. We did not know the nature of her ulcer or whether the
blood might still not be coming out faster than her body could
produce it. They just told us to find a gastroenterologist and
have the gastroscopy and colonoscopy.
I wanted her to have a daily blood test to make sure that she
wasn’t bleeding down again. I couldn’t find anyone who could do
the test and have the results right away, instead of waiting days
for the results. I immediately went on Ebay and bought a
hematocrit machine and had it flown to me instantly. The seller
waived payment for the machine and took it directly to the airport
once he realized what was happening here. (I sent him a check for
the machine later on.) For the next few days I myself drew blood
from my mother and spun it down in the machine and read the “crit”,
which slowly climbed as new red blood cells were produced faster
than they could leak out due to the ulcer, and having the machine
gave me the needed peace of mind.
We were steered to a gastroenterologist whom we thought might
be good. He was chief of gastroenterology at the hospital we had
just left. In fact, he was the doctor who had removed the other
gastroenterologist from our case and disciplined him by restricting
his hospital privileges. I began thinking that there was something
improper in one doctor taking a case over from another in this way,
and my thinking was confirmed when this paragon of medical virtue,
after examining my mother, turned to me and told me that I should
also have him do a gastroscopy and colonoscopy on me…even though
there is nothing wrong with me! I guess gastroenterologists are
chronically short on patients. My mother was treated with
antibiotics and the ulcer healed.

So what do we learn from this experience?

1. Not to trust a doctor just because he is Jewish and has a
yarmulke and beard.

2. Not to trust a hospital to automatically do the right thing.

3. That it is possible for a doctor to do a thorough examination
and still miss a patient’s anemia…or other conditions

4. That medical ethics…leave much to be desired.

Can you think of any others?

Sincerely,

Mark.
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Fw: I got the rest of your mail

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:13:30 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: I got the rest of your mail
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:41:48 -0500

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Dear Nina:
I just got the rest of your mail from the mail carrier. I
guess the hold that your friend put on is still on, but sometimes
some mail apparently slips through the hold and gets to the
mailbox, and the letter carrier offered to put it in my mailbox,
and I told her that this is OK, so anything for you that ends up in
my mailbox I will hold for you (or your friend) and also that she
will periodically give me the mail that she is holding.
If you want to change any of these actions, just tell me what
you want to do, and I will tell the letter carrier the next time I
see her. I don’t want to be doing anything that you wouldn’t like.
But I don’t think that your friend is going to come to the
building every day to get your mail, and you get a lot of mail, and
large items also, so it is probably the best the way it is. I have
a large box here for your mail and things, so that they are waiting
for you.
You will please just tell me your friend’s name, so when he
rings my doorbell for the mail, I know that he is the right person.
(After my mother comes home from the hospital so I am at home to
answer the door!) Do you want me also to give him that “Janet
Hall” package that came by UPS, or should I hold that for you until
you return?
My mother is still in the hospital, because her sodium is low.
She was supposed to go home yesterday, she was supposed to go home
today, and now I am hoping for tomorrow. That situation is not
making me happy.
How are you doing, Nina? I mean, from what you told me, your
test results have been lost, you are feeling very tired and sick,
with aches and pains, chills and fever, and probably digestive
upset also, in short, lousy. But I am concerned the most over how
you are emotionally, and if there is any one thing that I most wish
that I could do for you at this point, it would be to help you to
keep your spirits up. Things will most certainly get better.
Treatments will reduce specific symptoms over time. You will
eventually receive a diagnosis, followed by treatment specifically
targeted for that diagnosis, from an expert in that illness. I
know it’s awful being sick, but things do invariably get better.
There is a question I would like to ask, and get an answer to.
The question is, “Right now, you are basically living with your
parents in Minsk. Are you happy and comfortable, yes or no? I
guess an answer to that would help me picture you as you must be.
I hope that you are at least happy being with your family.
I’m still very sleep-deprived from what I have gone through
this week with my mother. I can’t seem to catch up with my sleep
because I’m always having to run to the hospital to be there with
her and I only manage a few hours each night, and I’m missing meals
too. I just wish I could SLEEP!
I hope that you enjoy receiving my emails, or at least don’t
mind too much. I believe that you could use cheering up, and I
would like to try to help do that for you.
Sincerely,
Mark.
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Fw: About Ellice

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:12:49 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: About Ellice
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:16:38 -0500

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Dear Nina:

As I told you earlier, I think that I have had some experiences
with medicine and medical treatment, both with my mother, and with
my friend Ellice, that may be useful to you, to make you a wiser
and more informed consumer of medical services. I am intending to
write these down, together with what was learned from each
incident, and send them to you, in a series of emails. Here is the
second, since you have already had an unintended first with the
story of what happened to me a couple of days ago with my mother in
the emergency room:

My friend Ellice had developed an ulcer 18 years ago. This was
about six months after I took my EMT course. Neither of us knew
it, but Ellice was about to become my first “save” using the CPR
that I had learned during my EMT training.
Ellice needed a gastroscopy. That is a procedure, where, under
a general anesthetic, a scope tube is inserted into her stomach so
that the doctor can look for the ulcer, and even take tissue biopsy
samples. No matter how many times that the public is told that
such procedures are routine and safe, they are neither, as will be
seen by what follows here:
Ellice had the choice of having the procedure done in the
gastroenterologist’s office or in a hospital, and she chose the
gastroenterologist’s office instead of the hospital, which would
have been better equipped and staffed, to deal with any life-
threatening situation which might arise. And I didn’t know any
better at the time. And, let’s remember, she is a trained nurse
and nutritionist, and worked in a hospital herself.
The gastroenterologist required that someone escort the
patient, to take her home afterwards. So Ellice chose me and I
went with her to the doctor’s office. There was a nurse in a white
nurse’s uniform behind the reception desk. After all the
preliminaries, paper work and such, Ellice was taken into the
“operating room” for the procedure. Not worrying about a thing, I
continued to sit in the waiting room, reading magazines. After a
short while, the nurse looked up and told me that I could go into
the recovery room to be with my friend as she wakes up. I asked
where the recovery room was, and was told that it was at the end of
the hallway.
Arriving at the end of the hallway, I saw that a curtain had
been drawn across the end of the hallway, sort of an alcove,
creating a space about five feet by five feet. I went in through
the curtain. There was a wheelchair there, facing to the back
wall. In the wheelchair was Ellice. She was slumped over forward,
her head hanging down, her face grotesquely purple, NOT BREATHING.
Her lower face was covered with a thick mucous slime that was
oozing out of her mouth.
Although I had been trained six months earlier to handle just
such an emergency, I had not yet internalized my training, and
because of my inexperience, reacted like a normal person would
react, and not a trained professional. I was in a doctor’s office.
There was a nurse there. They were the professionals, not me.
Shouldn’t they handle this?
I ran a few steps away from Ellice so that I could shout
,”Nurse!” to the nurse. “She’s not breathing! I need help!”
“I’m not a nurse,” the nurse called back.
“GET THE DOCTOR!” I shouted to her.
“I can’t, he’s in surgery,” she called back to me.

So it was up to me or Ellice would die. I ran back to her.
The cyanosis (purple color had gotten worse. More slime had come
out of her mouth, which was filled with the stuff. She needed to
be pulled out of the wheelchair onto the floor. But how could I
just do that, pull someone out of a wheelchair onto the floor in a
doctor’s office? (Today I would, without any hesitation at all, as
you will see when I tell you about some of my more recent “saves”,
but this one was my first…)
So I started treating Ellice still in the wheelchair. I tipped
her head back. There was that awful slime filling her mouth. I
opened her mouth and with two fingers did a finger sweep through
her mouth, removing as much of the slime as I could. I wiped it on
her purple tee-shirt.
Still not breathing. I needed to breathe for her. I would
have to seal my mouth over hers, with all that slime there. I knew
that either I did it, or she would die.
As I was positioning my mouth, she suddenly took a deep,
shuddering gasping breath, now that her airway was more or less
clear because of the slime removal and tilting her head back. And
another breath. And another breath. And a cough. Her color began
improving. She was still unconscious.
There was a tank of oxygen in the corner. I knew that Ellice
needed oxygen at this point. Did I want to let go of her (I was
holding her head up) and go for the tank of oxygen?
While holding Ellice, I studied the tank of oxygen, thinking it
over. The regulator on it was one which I had never seen before,
and I wasn’t sure that I knew how to operate it. So I decided
against going for it. That turned out to be a good choice, because
later on when I looked at the tank of oxygen before leaving, I
found that it was EMPTY.
Ellice slowly regained consciousness. We sat there for an hour
or more. I can’t remember whether the doctor ever came out or
checked her again before we left. I know that I never saw the
doctor. I have no idea of what he looks like.
I told my EMT friends about the incident. Ellice told her
medical friends at the hospital where she worked about it. Both of
us were told the same thing, that there was a 90% chance that she
would have died, and a 10% chance that she would have survived as a
vegetable, had I not done what I did.
To this day, Ellice remembers that I saved her life. She
reminds me of it often. Sick as she has been for so very long with
the CFIDS disease, she is glad that she is alive, as evidenced by
her continuing gratitude to me for saving her.

So what can we learn from this incident?

1. NEVER have any serious procedure done in a doctor’s office,
ONLY in a hospital where there is more staff on hand, better
trained staff, and LIFESAVING EQUIPMENT THAT WORKS.

2, Just because someone is wearing a nurse’s uniform doesn’t mean
that they are a nurse.

3. Just because a doctor is a doctor, doesn’t mean that you can
trust him.

Can you think of any others?

Just wait for the next story…

Mark.

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Fw: No romantic intentions

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:09:50 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: “Nina” <—-@netzero.net>
Subject: No romantic intentions
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:54:23 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Dear Nina:
I’m sorry that I gave you the wrong idea. I know that you are
not looking for a relationship. I do not have any terribly
romantic thoughts towards you. I know that I am not your type and
that you are not attracted by me. For my choice of a mate I want
someone who finds me attractive and wants me. However, you are in
a terrible situation and I am trying to help you through it. I
have experience with your situation because of having gone through
a similar situation with Ellice. I think that you are going to
need my help, badly, over a long period of time, or you will
succumb to this, and I would like to provide it to you without your
resisting me.
In every email that I sent you, or will send you, I agonize
long and hard over my choice of words, not to say something that
you will misconstrue. Often I write something milder than what I
really feel, so as not to take the risk of incurring what has just
happened with my last email. Other times I regret what I have
written because I am sure afterward that it will give you the wrong
idea as I have finally done this time.
What I wrote, is nothing more than what should be done with a
sick person who is suffering chills. If you can, you place a
heating pad on them, and wrap them in a warm blanket. If the
person is shaking and shivering forcefully, as I suspect you are,
holding them helps and comforts them and makes them feel better.
Your parents could do this for you. Anyone nearby could. I regret
writing that I wish that I could do it for you, even though I wish
I could. Not for any romantic reason, only because I care and
because I am grieving over what is happening to you. I have no
other romantic ideas towards you than being your friend, and if
even that is not possible, then just helping you survive. Because
I am afraid for you.
While I don’t think that there are many people who would want
to pay bills for someone they are not romantically involved with,
and I can understand your thinking that my wishing to pay your
bills means that I am seeking a relationship, my reasons for
wishing to do so are, again, that for some reason that I do not
fully understand myself, I am trying to alleviate your suffering as
much as possible, and that by helping you in this way, I will do
so. I have had the feeling from the beginning when I learned that
you were ill, that sooner or later I will have to get into your
situation with some money in order to help pay for your treatment
or something else, if I want to keep any self-respect. If I talk
about wanting to help you, I need to (show myself) that I am
willing to put my money where my mouth is.
Now therefore, I hope that you will let me do this for you, if
it can help you in your time of terrible trouble.
Another thing I really want to do for you is to send you a few
emails which relate several experiences I have had with the medical
system. You will learn from them a few things which may make you a
wiser and more cautious consumer of medical services and may keep
you out of trouble as you seek treatment for your illness. Please
accept this from me. The incident that I had just two days ago
with my mother in the emergency room, serves as a good start in
this direction. My next email to you will be about Ellice, and so
will be a few more. You will find them interesting.
In the meantime, my mother did not get discharged from the
hospital today, because her sodium was still too low. If it is
better by tomorrow, maybe they will discharge her. The longer that
she stays in the hospital, the more chance she has of contracting a
hospital-transmitted infection.
Tomorrow I hopefully will manage to meet up with the mail
carrier and finally get the rest of your mail.
About new incoming mail, it may be more inconvenient for your
friend to come to the building every day to get it, unless he lives
in the neighborhood. Perhaps I should be collecting it for you,
and then giving it to him. Think about it.
I hope that I will be able to help you the way I would like to.
And you don’t have to worry that I am trying to seduce you,
because I know that I can’t.
I do, really, and deeply, care about you, but in a way other
than romantic.
And now, that I trust I have cleared up any misunderstanding
over my intentions towards you, I would like to get on with the
matter of helping you get through this thing, and the emails I want
to send you, and also I want to answer something that was in your
next-to-last email to me.
Sincerely,
Mark.

Fw: I have your mail

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:08:35 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: I have your mail
Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:36:09 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Dear Nina:
I have just met with our mail carrier, who is a young woman
actually, and she has given me the mail which she had brought for
you today, a large stack of mail. She says that she will bring me
the rest that she has at the post office tomorrow and will ring my
bell. She also says that she will put in another hold for 7 days,
as you wish.
How are you feeling, Nina? What is happening with you?
Sincerely,
Mark.
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Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify
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Fw: Your concerned neighbor Mark

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:07:22 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: “Mark” <—-@hushmail.com>
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: Your concerned neighbor Mark
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:41:00 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Hi Nina:
My last email to you does not express my true feelings, it is
way more bland than what I really wanted to say, so let me amend
it: I was shocked, saddened and concerned to hear that you have
been taken ill.
Can I ask you a few questions? Are you in the United States
or are you abroad out of the country, and if you are, where are
you? Also, is there anyone here who has the keys to your apartment
and who may go in, (so that I don’t panic if I see someone going
into or coming out of your apartment) and also, perhaps I should
have that person’s telephone number in case there is an emergency
involving your apartment.
I am serious about offering you help in dealing with your
crisis or emergency. You are a neighbor I care about. The more I
know about what is happening to you, the more I can better offer my
assistance. Am I permitted to ask you what the condition you are
dealing with is? Is this something that came upon you suddenly
while traveling or is this something you knew about and went away
to treat? Sorry for all the questions.
Nina, I want you to know that I care. I hope that this
knowledge comforts you and helps you to feel better.
Something else that I want you to know: I own an airplane, a
private plane.
Sincerely,
Mark.
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Fw: Your neighbor Mark

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:07:10 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: —-@hushmail.com
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: Your neighbor Mark
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:51:33 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Hi Nina:
You’ve been away for two weeks now, so I just wanted to let you
know that everything seems okay here at home. The only thing that
has been left by your door thus far, has been a Chinese restaurant
menu, which I am holding for you. I have been checking your door
every day since you left, and it is locked and secured.
When you return home, you are probably going to have jet lag,
and will be tired out from your flight. I would like to do some
food shopping for you before you come home, so that you will not
come home to an apartment without food, or need to shop before you
have rested up for a few days and recovered from your trip. What
items do you use that you are out of at home, or that aren’t going
to be fresh anymore after being in your apartment for a month,
should I get for you, and on what date are you expecting to return?
Milk…eggs…bread…fruit…ice_cream…
I hope that everything is all right and that you’re having a
very good time. Hi to your Mom from my Mother and from me.
Sincerely,
Mark.
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Fw: Your neighbor, Mark (Test email)

Amos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:06:08 +0000

———- Forwarded Message ———-
From: @hushmail.com
To: —-@netzero.net
Subject: Your neighbor, Mark (Test email)
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:22:25 -0500

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Hi Nina:

Here is my “test email” so that you have my email address on file
in your email account. You can send one back to me if you like.

I used to use NetZero as my Internet provider when I first began
using computers many years ago. Their service was different then,
it was free but advertising supported. Nowadays I have broadband
service from Verizon.

If you’re using dial up service, you are welcome to use my
broadband service, either with your laptop computer or with mine.

Though we’ll probably encounter each other once or twice more
before you leave, in case we don’t I’d like to wish you a good trip
and a good time. You can let me know when you arrive safely at
your destination. I’ll be happy to hear from you. I hope you have
a good flight.

Sincerely,

Mark.
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UW-Madison Dumps Kindle in Favor of Laptops, Netbooks & Smart Phones

Leo Klein — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:25:32 +0000

Actually they didn't but you'd think someone would have at least suggested it right after Library Dir. Ken Frazier made the following comment to CNET:

Frazier added that a suitable device would include better "accessibility, higher-quality graphics, and improved navigation and note-taking. I think that there will be a huge payoff for the company that creates a truly universal e-book reader."

Hmm, "accessibility, higher-quality graphics, and improved navigation and note-taking"? When, oh when, will we ever get a device like that? [/snark]

Of course, he forgot to include, 'already owned by 93% of the student body'.

HTC’s user-centric approach to the HD2’s ad campaign

Alex Rainert — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:15 +0000

While I’m not a huge fan of this particular Android phone, the way they’ve approached this ad resonated with me. I think it does an excellent job supporting the gestalt of their You campaign. Showing’s the phone’s view of you is a really simple way of showing how a mobile device fits intimately into all the different aspects of your life and (presumably) that HTC gets that. The only downside is that whether or not the phone’s UI actually reflects that thoughtfulness is something you’re left to find out on your own.

Liked this post? Tell your friends!

EverydayUX morsels (November 15th – November 16th)

Alex Rainert — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:01:05 +0000

How Chipotle, Pinkberry, and others win big by doing just a few things well – (37signals)
So many people fail by refusing to recognize what they are and (more importantly) what they are not.
The "Iterate Fast and Release Often" Philosophy of Entrepreneurship : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum
I've always fallen firmly in the Iterate Fast and Release Often camp. Most recently I think the way Foursquare and Gowalla approached their launch strategies reflects this very debate.
Big Shot camera kit could help turn your kid on to the dark world of the teardown
How awesome is this?
Tap is the New Click
A seminal presentation in the world of designing for gestural interfaces worthy of a bookmark and a read for every designer out there.
Mobile Abilities Map
Great visual highlighting various mobile behaviors to think about when designing for mobile.

Liked this post? Tell your friends!

Internationalized Domain Names

Campaign for .nyc — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:07:27 +0000

New York, November 16, 2009 - The key accomplishment of the ICANN’s Seoul meeting was the approval of the Internationalized Domain Names ccTLD Fast Track application system that will, for the first time, enable non-English speakers across the globe to see Internet addresses completely in their own language - both before and after the dot. Access to the IDN ccTLD Fast Track online application system and all associated materials are now available here.

In the photo at right, Peter Dengate Thrush (left), ICANN Chair, and Connecting.nyc Inc.’s Thomas Lowenhaupt are shown holding a calligraphic presentation of potential Hangul (Korean) IDNs at the ICANN’s 36th Meeting Gala Event held at the National Museum of Korea on October 27, 2009. The top option says New York, the bottom says New York City. In addition to Korean, New York City can one day present itself in local markets around the world in Arabic, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and other scripts.

Today’s run through Central Park

Amos — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:34:38 +0000

GPS Statistics courtesy of Chris Hall’s iPod

The Age Of Meta Is Here.

Oscar Torres — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:14:59 +0000

Now that Google’s Side wiki and ShiftSpace Beta have been released, the web is soon to be fresh with data form everyone.

Just imagine browsing the web and all your friends and strangers, left notes, links and additional information on the web pages you visit. Well imagine no more, just download these Firefox plug ins and you will be able to do these things and more. This is one step towards the semantic web, but there is definitely a lot of work to be done, like figuring out how to connect a T3 connection directly to a persons brain.

EverydayUX morsels (November 12th – November 15th)

Alex Rainert — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:00:08 +0000

Functioning Form – Use Cases for Mobile Apps
Apple may have their own taxonomy for carving up their apps, but @lukewdesign's (based on behavior) is far more interesting.
adaptive path » blog » Rachel Hinman » Ubiquitous Computing Workshop: Mobile User Experience Design Principles
Really excellent post from @rhinman on the process of arriving at Mobile Design principles. The principles are pretty darn good, too!
Functioning Form – App Interface Models in iPhone and Android
Nice breakdown of the different ways each platform handles Applications. Definitely makes you wonder if "open" is necessarily better/more usable in this case.
Tweetie Reloaded: An Interview with Loren Brichter | unraveled
Awesome interview with the man behind Tweetie. Great stuff on the genesis of the brilliant "Pull Down to Refresh" UI.
Barcode Revolution: Unique Japanese Barcode Designs – information aesthetics
Leave it to the Japanese to remind us (again) how unimaginative we can be.
Simple Is As Simple Does: The Risk Of Retweet
Great piece by @parislemon on how @twitter is losing some of what made it special. I think Retweets w/o editorial is a real missed opportunity.

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Mohamed Rouicha, Cheba Maria, and Gnaoua All Stars

Amos — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:40:26 +0000

It was after escaping to Tangier that I discovered Rouicha. I was sojourning in the Hotel de Paris, venturing out into the evening streets only to watch the jalaba’d men walking hand-in-hand down the avenue while the kids hawked contraband $1 marloboro reds from tea salon to salon. After a few days, they knew to leave me alone. I would venture out to the outskirts of town on my thousand dollar Seattle-bought Bianchi Volpe by day, finding refuge in the mint tea cliffs of the slums overlooking the deep blue Mediterranean waters by eve, only to return to pick up a tape each night from the local music shop down the street. They quickly learned my tastes, and I would steal away after a seamless transaction in the late hours into my hotel room playing Gnaoua, Rai, and classic Berber hits as a result of merely being there. But it was all Rouicha, all the time. Nobody plays the turtle hide quite that way.

Gnaoua isn’t bad, but a bit African for my tastes.

It was only when flying through the Algerian border in my over-rented Land Rover digging deep into the Sahara (and eventually running randomly into old pal Brahim in Rissani) that I was properly introduced between oases by hired hand Abdullah to Cheba Maria, the mistress of Rai.

Going round in circles, Shibuya crossing

Gian Pablo Villamil — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:16:33 +0000

All the people going round and round, popping in and out, ending up just where they started.

Footage of Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, heavily processed optically and digitally.

Cast: Gian Pablo Villamil

Power Supply for Benjolin and Zeitgeist

Steve Bull — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:02:21 +0000

I just received a 25W AC - DC Triple Output desktop power supply made by MEAN WELL, Model: P25A13D-R1B. Data sheet at https://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/ProdDS/190960.pdf. I intend to power both my Benjolin and Zeitgeist from this AC-DC supply. I also ordered the 5 pin female DIN connector from Jameco-- take a look at either Jameco part number 15844 or 29399. They were cheap enough that I ordered one of each to have a choice for the final install. At of this writing Jameco has more of these power supplies in stock and Jameco prices are the lowest, and shipping w/in USA is good.

Below I cut-n-paste as email (Nov 8, 2009) from Rob to myself and others with good advice on power supplies:

Hi all,

My recommendations for a power supply for both the Benjolin and the
Zeitgeist.

Principally I do always recommend a desktop Plug-In AC Adapter power supply similar in looks to the ones used for laptops. These are the safest devices to use in terms of hazard of electrical shock. Regrettably they are a bit hard to find. But note that if you want to do circuit bending experiments, especially when they involve body contacts, then *always* use batteries!

A good choice for a desktop power supply is one that is sold by Mouser.com:
http://www2.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/P50A13D-R1B/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtpk
qKkT5w3uiB%2fqpDJDtRebgXKIecL%2f1U%3d

(Regrettably it seems to be a non-stocked item and might have a delivery
time of perhaps up to ten weeks.)

A simple 5-pole female DIN connector can be used on the enclosure of a project to connect to this power supply. By using two female connectors on the back of every enclosure one can daisy chain the power to perhaps five to ten more boxes. Desktop power supplies are the easiest to share amongst several projects, which is a definitive additional value.

When putting a power supply into the housing of a specific project I would recommend a closed frame power supply like:
http://www2.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/T-40B/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMu0oxGuRuN
KHzvx70GkCU%252bvmzt/DvjUqMo=

This is also a very good alternative to a desktop supply when putting this supply into its own plastic housing with several connectors to power several projects at once, thus turning it into a desktop power supply all by itself. Probably this power supply is the easiest available one, and so you might consider it if you do not succeed to find a suitable desktop power supply.

In essence it would be possible to use a frameless power supply like:
http://www2.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/PD-2512/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMu0oxGuR
uNKHzvx70GkCU%252bv%252bAeyeoSWfsA%3d

but I do *not* recommend an open frame power supply for ány DIY project, simply as the maybe twenty bucks extra that you pay for a closed frame supply or thirtyfive bucks extra for a desktop power supply are peanuts when at a moment in the future it does actually protect you from electrical shockand saves your life! Never take any risk with AC power!!!

Regards,
/Rob

Apparently I’m a Bigillionare!

Oscar Torres — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:34:29 +0000

I have been getting a lot of emails about people leaving me lots of money in their will and people in foreign countries who want to invest in my company and things like that.
These are all so fake an ridiculous that they are kind of funny. I really hope people are not falling for these scams. At leas there are people out there like Adam Harvey making art out of all these junk emails.

Anyway here are some:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Letter Of Notification!!!

On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Engr.Juriaan Krugger. I once again try to notify you as my earlier letter were returned undelivered.
I wish to notify you that late Engr. Juriaan Krugger made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Thirty Million, One Hundred Thousand Dollars (USD$30, 100.000.00) to you in the Codicil and last testament to his WILL.

This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true. Being a widely traveled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were nominated to him by one of his numerous friends abroad who wished you good.

Engr. Juriaan Krugger until his death was a member of the Helicopter Society and the Institute of Electronic & Electrical Engineers. Please if I reach you as I am hopeful, endeavor to get back to me as soon as possible to enable me conclude my job.
You are advice to contact me with my personal email:——————–

Await your prompt response.

Yours in Service,
BARRISTER ANDREAW FRASER ESQ.
PRINCIPAL PARTNERS: Barrister Aidan Walsh.Esq Markus
Wolfgang, Mr. John Marvey Esq., Mr. Jerry Smith Esq.

More:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Dearest One,

My name is Mrs.Maria Elena Fernandez nationality of Philippine. I am married to late Mr. Cardinas Pascal Fernandez who worked with Philippine Embassy here in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year October 2007. We were married for twenty years with a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for four days.

When my late husband was alive we deposited the sum of $9Million with one of the good banks here in Cote d’Ivoire, presently, this money is still with the bank and my doctor told me that I would not last for the next three months due to my cancer problem, as I was diagnosed of Chronic cancer about two years now.

As I have known my condition. I am not looking for anything else but for someone with the fear of God. Who will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct here in, I want a person that will use this fund to orphanages, Widows, unable men, HIV/AIDS services, etc.

I took this decision because I have a child that will inherit this money but my son can not carry out this work only because I and my late husband decide to use some of the money to work for charity and the rest for my son education.

As soon as I receive your response I shall give you the contact of the bank. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will empower you as the new beneficiary of this fund. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated here, expecting to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
Mrs.Maria Elena Fernandez.

Here is an other one :
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

- FROM MISS EVELYN DOUKORO. Dearest One, It’s my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I intend to establish in your country. I am Miss Evelyn Doukoro the only Child of Mr. and Mrs. Doukoro Isaac., Though I have not met with you before but I believe one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life. So please I apologise for any inconvenience to you. There is this huge amount of Eight Million Five Hundred Thousand U.S dollars ($8,500,000.00) which my late father deposited in one of the private Security Companies here in Abidjan , Ivory Coast before he was assassinated by unknown persons. Now I have decided to invest this money in your country or anywhere safe enough outside Africa for security and political reasons. I want you to assist/help me claim and transfer this fund to your country for investment purposes on the following areas of my interest below, or any of your choices. (1). Telecommunication (2). Five star hotel. (3) Estate management. If you can be of assistance to me I will like you to tell me what you will take from the total fund after you have completely transferred the funds to your safe account over there. I await your soonest response. Thank you and God bless you. Sincerely yours, Miss Evelyn Doukoro……..

RB @evhead on starting a company (that’s RB for reblog)

Anne Poochareon — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:51:57 +0000

Because some things are better said longer than 140 characters. I’ll just quote the guy in whole:

Starting a company is like landing on the shore of a deserted island

You have a certain amount of provisions, which you have to make last until you find a way to make the island sustain life—or convince someone to send you more.

You don’t know how big the island is at first or what predators lie in wait.

There’s always a chance someone else will raid your island if it looks fruitful, so you need to shore up your defenses.

Eventually, if you’re successful, you’ll be king of your own prosperous world. If not, you’ll die—or, at least, have to go home.

Either way, it’s a fun adventure (until you get eaten by a tiger).

link

JavaScript Serial Applet

Shawn Van Every — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:35:25 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I put together a process for allowing access to a hardware serial port from JavaScript. I thought I would point to the documentation page here and allow the comments section of this post to be a place where questions could be answered and so on.

Without further ado, here it is:
JavaScript Serial

Golden Gate (2)

Gian Pablo Villamil — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:33:23 +0000

Crossing a bridge, revisited.

40 minutes to render, 4 hours of tweaking so that After Effects wouldn’t crash…

Cast: Gian Pablo Villamil