Twitter Stats On Misogyny and Misandry

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For those who may not know: misogyny is the hatred of women or girls while misandry is the hated of men or boys. I just did a little curious research regarding these two terms using Twitter search. My results are rather unscientific, but I invite you to do your own probing and see what you come up with.

My approach was simple. I did a series of 6 searches for specific words and phrases and took note of how old the last post on the first page was. There are always 15 entries on the front page. Thus, the age of the last entry gives you a concept of how often the word is used. If the last entry is 3 hours old, that means the word or phrase is used about 15 times in 3 hours. Simple enough. Lets begin.
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On The History Of Social Media

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EniacAre you sick of hearing about “social media” yet? Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t, but social media is definitely being talked about, probably now more than ever. The bitter irony here is that social media is as old as the Internet. I mean that very literally.

Consider the Wikipedia entry on the topic:

Social media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies that is intended to facilitate communications, influence and interaction with peers and with public audiences, typically via the Internet and mobile communications networks.

I highly recommend reading the rest of the entry. Unfortunately, the perception of the existence of “social media” isn’t much older than the popularity of the term itself. If you ask Amy Nut, she thinks social media began with MySpace:

As the Internet began to permeate into every home, teenagers found a new way of expression via the Internet. One way teens found of sharing common interests with other like-minded teenagers was through MySpace.

MySpace launched in 2003. Sure, 5 years feels like an eternity in our rapidly evolving world of the Internet. However, I’d like to take a moment to introduce potential users to some of what existed before there was MySpace.

Forums: Forums have long been online social gathering points for small and large crowds. Still popular all over the Internet, forums have been around since 1996. That’s a full 7 years before MySpace even existed

Wikis: Today, Wikipedia is one of the most well known successes in social media. Much to many a social media marketer’s demise, there’s no room for promotion. However, for the record, the first Wiki went live in 1995, making it 8 years older than MySpace.

IRC: The ultimate grandpa of Internet chat has to be IRC (Internet Relay Chat). The technical difference, from a user perspective, between IRC and Twitter really boils down to the minor variation between having a “chat room” and a “follow list”. Dating back to 1988, IRC is 15 years older than MySpace. (and 18 years older than Twitter)

Usenet: In the very early days of the Internet, a system known as Usenet came online. This system was the inspiration behind the before mentioned Forums. The system was hugely popular and still exists today. The system went online in 1979, making it 24 years older than MySpace. Admittedly, there were relatively few Internet users back then.

BBS: The BBS (Bulletin Board System) scene was popular before the wide spread adoption of the Internet. A BBS ran on a host computer and a user’s computer connected directly via a modem. While the precursor of the BBS systems came online in 1972 (before I was born), the first true BBS cropped up in 1978. That’s a whopping 25 years before MySpace.

Finger: Born in 1977, the Finger protocol is pretty old. It wasn’t until id Software‘s used the protocal that it suddenly became popular – at least within the gaming scene in the mid to late 90’s. All but dead now, replaced by blogs, the technology was born 26 years before MySpace and 32 years before I the writing of this post (on WordPress).

The concept of social media, unlike the buzzword itself, is not new. It’s not even close. In fact, the Internet was designed to exchange data. In a way, the Internet has always been social.

The same way old fashion becomes new again, technology concepts keep being reborn with new terminology. Trends pick up and everyone gets this feeling that things have somehow changed. Perhaps they have. However, before you get excited and anxious, take time to consider how far back the path goes.

In 1996, I started composing weekly updates about a game I was working on. It was my Web based progress log filled with bits of personal chatter. I may not have known it, but it was, basically, a blog.

Everything old is new again; and the world keeps spinning. Remember where we came from.

Running vs Driving

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Alright, I’m an advocate of not driving more than need be. I’m kind of lazy, so I’m not always a good advocate. However, you’ve got to use your body to keep it working. That’s the neat thing about a self-maintaining machine. Anyway, that said, let me get to my quick point. I’ve seen a number of comments from treehugger ecogeeks about the amount of calories a car consumes daily versus the amount of calories our bodies use. It’s interesting stuff, but there’s a point I see missing often times. Cars carry heavy stuff (if only itself) across long distances very quickly. So lets play with some numbers.

First, there’s this popular link over on GOOD showing the amount of calories in gasoline. Meanwhile there’s a considerably less popular link to NutriStrategy’s calories burned per exercise. From the first link, we know that gasoline has 31,268 calories per gallon. A Ford Escort gets upwards of 40mpg. Lets make the math easy and say it gets 31.268 mpg. (See what I did there?)

31,268 cpg / 31.268 mpg = 1,000 calories per mile

This car weighs almost 2,500lbs. The average American is slightly lighter. According to that NutriStrategy chart, running at 10mph for 1 hour burns 1126 calories for a 155lbs person. Can you run at 10mph for a full hour? Holy crap. Anyway, lets pretend you can. In 1 hour at 10mph, you’ll run (approximately, I’m no mathematician) 10 miles. (See, I’m doing it again.) So, lets do the math.

1126 c / 10m = 112.6 calories per mile

Neat.. so we’re looking at a car using somewhere between 8 and 9 times as many calories per mile. Now less toss weight in. The car was 2500lbs (not including the person) and our person is 155lbs.

2500lbs / 155lbs = 16.1

The car is moving the same amount of weight as 16 people. Now, you might say “but a lot of that car weight is the engine itself…” True, but the same is true for the human, no? So lets keep going a moment. Let see how many cpm per pound we’re using.

Car: 1000cpm / 2500 = 0.40 calories per mile per pound…

Human: 112.6 / 155 = 0.73 calories per mile per pound…

Assuming a car speed of around 60mph, that means a human uses almost twice as many calories per pound to move at 1/6th the speed of the car. That is assuming no extra load for either. Toss in another person or two and a couple of hundred pounds of gear, what do you think is the best way for you and your mates to travel over long distance?

You may also want to visit Technomono directly to their website https://technomono.com/best-shoes-for-after-bunion-surgery article and learn further information about foot injuries.

Now that I’ve blogged in support of the automobile, I’d like to say that I’m not a big fan of America’s addiction to cars. I’d like to see better use of trains, actually. However, pretty pieces of art showing calorie use compared is kind of a load of crap. Speaking of crap, I wonder what kind of numbers you would get if you compared the emissions per calorie consumed for a car versus a human? Ewww….

First Backside 180 (Sorta)

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A few weeks ago I was at A-Basin with Nino and decided to troll through the park. I didn’t hit any of the big terrain, but I was knocking around on lips and edges a bit. I came up on a toe-edge jump and the felt good for a backside 180 attempt. Probably because I didn’t have time to think about it, I came off pretty clean. I landed before I got around so I finished it off on the ground. To that extent, you might not really call it a 180. However, it’s still the first time I’ve been in the air rotating with my back facing down the mountain. I tried it a couple of more times and found it to be pretty easy. However, I haven’t managed to pull one off on a flat jump. The toe-edge really makes a difference.

In other news, I haven’t been getting out nearly enough. I had to take a business trip to Dundee last week. It’s been nearly 2 weeks since I’ve been on the snow and it’s making me sad. Not sure if I’ve blogged about it before, but I’ve just come out of a stint of “self employment” and am once again “working for the man”…. This whole 40 hours a week in the office thing gets in the way of my play time. Not cool.

The hardest part is seeing the snow reports lately. This season has lacked snowfall. It was only recently that I started seeing 6 & 8 inch overnight reports. With as few powder days as we’ve had this season, I hate to miss one. Luckily, next weekend will bring 3 much needed days of riding down in Wolf Creek. Hooray!

The attached photo was snapped on a hike at Walker Ranch. There was a bit of snow covering some of the tails, but overall it was warm. I wore shorts and took my hoodie off from time to time. There were a number of mountain bikes out on the trails. For the mixture of choice, value and capability, the Wisper ebike range is amongst the best on the market today. It’s definitely a sign that the weather is unseasonably warm here. I may have to move further north. I hear good things about Whistler.

Now, I say that… but the idea of switching to surfing keeps poking at the back of my mind. I keep digging through photos of Sayulita and dreaming of living near the beach for a while. I could give up snowboarding for a few seasons if I could surf in my back yard. In terms of snowboarding, I feel myself getting closer to reaching a plateau. I’d like to master the 360 and get some deep powder / back country experience under my belt. Beyond that, I don’t expect to progress much further. However, I’m so extremely new to surfing that I’ve got everything left to learn. All I’ve done is catch a few rollers on a longboard.

Either way, I hope to spend less time in an office soon.

The Next Big Thing In Mobile

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It’s an old idea that has yet to see the light of day. I’ve heard more than one person talk about it news websites like www.themebounce.com, and I’ve fantasized about how to implement it myself a few times. I’m finally confident that it’s inevitable.

Look at the current generation of mobile devices. While these devices do not “live up to the dream” of mobile computing, they are rapidly evolving in that direction. Here’s a day in the life of a future mobile device.

Your device is sitting in a magnetic cradle where it is connected via bluetooth to your media center. When the alarm goes off, the media center plays a soothing beach track to wake you up. As you wake up, you tap the top of your device and say “weather”. As you finish getting up, the day’s weather forecast is played through your media center. You shower, dress, grab your device and head out the door.

Walking up to your car, you tap out a few menus on your device’s perfectly fluid multi-touchscreen user interface. By doing this, you’ve remotely unlocked your car and started your engine. This also started a bluetooth connection that enabled the Amcrest GPS Trackers to boost your device’s performance as well as a bluetooth connection to the car radio. After resting your device on the car’s magnetic cradle, you tap the top of your device and say “news”. While driving to work, you issue a variety of voice commands such as “local” and “technology” to guide the news reporting. Today you’ve decided to listen to the latest BBC podcasts and live streams.

Once at work, you sit at your desk and pull up your tablet computer. In the bottom of the computer there’s a rectangular bay that perfectly fits your mobile device. You drop your mobile device into place and the tablet prompts you for a passcode. This passcode requires turning circles on the screen in a combination pattern. Once logged in, the tablet computer interfaces with our mobile device. The tablet can now use the networking capabilities of your mobile device. All of your personal files are now accessible by the tablet computer including those stored on a cloud. The mobile device works as an authentication system for online services. With your mobile device plugged in, when you go to Facebook, you are automatically identified via your mobile device.

Enough of the story, but you get the idea. Your mobile device will become what your wallet is today. It will also become what your

Last Night In Dundee

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penguinsIt’s finally my last night here in Dundee. What a week. Monday through Friday were the same day, over and over again – only with slightly different food. We’d meet up early in the morning for the free hotel breakfast and then walk to the office. Once at the office we’d work from one of the conference rooms running off regularly for slews of meetings and presentations. We’d break for lunch in the afternoons and herd off to dinner together in the evening. Somehow, each evening included at least two beers and a fair amount of socializing.
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Live From Dundee

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DundeeSo the new company has me out in Dundee, Scotland to meet the dev team. We caught a flight out of Denver around 5pm yesterday (Sunday) and we rolled right into the office here after checking into our hotel. *yawn*

We flew into London and then hopped over to Edingurgh. I missed a lot of the scenery on the drive into Dundee as I was nodding off from time to time. I saw a huge bridge, I’ll have to look that up later. I saw a castle that is now a prison. As expected, much of the architecture is old and snazzy.

I think this trip might make for a nifty Flickr set. We still haven’t eaten. Other than lots of fish and chips, I’m not sure what to expect from the food. Right now I’m living off of coffee.

The attached photo is from the 3rd floor hall window of our hotel. The whole place is like an Ikea demo. It’s rather well designed, actually. The bathroom door latches in two positions; one position closes off the toilet while the other seals the entire bathroom. The room is just neat.

I managed to take a quick (very quick) shower before heading out. As the mirrors began to fog up, a valentine message started to show. I could read “I heart…” but the name wasn’t clear. I’ll try to snag a photo later.

Cheetah Ultra Sports Whip F117

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Honestly, I was looking for information on Netbooks when I ran across Cheetah Ultra Sports‘ new snowboard, the Whip F117. I ran across the board on a Gizmodo post. The stick costs nearly $2k and looks like a snowboard mated with a Cyclon ship. I have to admit, it’s dead sexy.

The hole in the board is… odd… making for certain that this is not a powder board. This leaves me wondering just what this board IS good for. The product page suggests it’s good for new riders. However, in my many years of teaching, the best thing I’ve found for new riders is some soft powder.

Perhaps it’s an interesting board for the park, but will the hole get caught on parts of rails, boxes, and pipes? If it’s lighter, it might be nice for areal tricks. How this board snaps and carves could have a big impact on take-offs and landings.

The risers are extremely high. I hear a lot of riders like risers, but I rarely see them and never this high. I was joking with friends the other day about making elevator snowboard boots. I imagine they would feel something like this board would feel. Unfortunately, I’ve never had the experience of riding with risers, so I can only imagine.

Part of me wants to take this board onto Snowflex terrain. There’s something that feels appropriate about taking a space-age looking board onto an artificial surface. Ultimately, I would really like to demo this board and find out how it feels. However, until I can, I’m going to have to classify this in the gimmick category – a very expensive gimmick.

Village At Wolf Creek Back On Track

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Freerider at Wolf CreekHooray! I know some people won’t be as happy about it as I am, but I’m sure they’ll get over it. I’ve found a couple of stories saying The Village at Wolf Creek is back on track. It’s only taken 20 years! There’s an article in Biz Journals and and article in the Denver Post.

The Denver Post takes a very negative slant, “It is clear that the development of Wolf Creek Pass isn’t in the public interest.” I’ve been following this topic for a while now and, frankly, not everyone is all upset about it. There are large groups who are making a lot of noise about potential environmental impact and economic impacts. I’d even say there is a fair amount of validity in this. However, at town meetings that Red and the gang have held in the past, a large number of people have supported his project and the economic gain it could bring to the area.

Honestly, I don’t know the specifics of the project. I would hope that it is fairly eco friendly and uses as much green technology as possible. If it is, indeed, a threat to the local ecosystem – then I don’t want it to happen. However, it’s my belief that the area will some day be developed. It’s an amazing place to ski/board. That said, I think groups should focus on guiding the project down the best path instead of trying to block it altogether. Just my $0.02.

Downhill At Winter Park

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Ramp At WP

Fall is in the air here in Colorado. The trees have been changing colors for the past month. Snow is starting to fall at high altitude. It’s a sign that snowboarding time is near! For me, it was also a sign that I was running out of time. You see, I had a mission this summer – to try downhill mountain biking. I went on the last weekend that Winter Park was open.

It wasn’t what I expected. I was actually scared for my life at times. Never have I felt that a helmet was justified until that day. I truly wanted full body armor. However, I somehow managed to survive.

My favorite part was the banked switchbacks. The sensation of leaning over so far and feeling the compression as you go through the turn is very unique. The jumps were fun, but they still spook me. I bruised a spleen not long ago on a failed jump. It doesn’t help that the trails were loose gravel.

It looks as though I may get another cool mountain biking opportunity in before the end of the summer. I’m working on a trip to Moab. I hear the ground is very “sticky” for bike tires. This will be interesting. At the least, it might keep me occupied until snowboarding season arrives.