You too now begin to be a magician
The 2009 H.I.S. Home 300 saw two ride groups (southern & northern routes) cover 300 miles in 6 days. The rides began in Joliet & Monticello, IL and ended in Harrod, OH. A combined total of 37 riders and 11 support personnel raised $38,000 and counting for H.I.S. Home for Children. H.I.S. Home is a ministry caring for orphaned and abandoned children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
To learn more about H.I.S. Home for Children visit www.hishomeforchildren.com
Rain through window panes
The leaves turn once again, and
Snow begins to fall
© 2009 Jediah Logiodice
It seemed to rain almost every day in Port Au Prince, Haiti when we were there in May, 2009. Most of the time that we were out driving in the rain there was no way for me to video it; however, our friends Ernie and Wayne who were also in Haiti at the same time did get a quick video. I was amazed to see people actually driving (or walking) down streets that were completely flooded out!
On this rainy Saturday afternoon, I decided to blog something from our Haiti trip. This is just a quick video snippet – not much here – but plenty more where this one came from.
Like so many other things in Haiti, when you get in a vehicle it is obvious that you are putting your life in God’s hands. No real speed limits; hardly any traffic signs, road signs; the only real law seems to be “honk before you hit someone or something, or it is your fault”.
Driving in Haiti, you cram 2-3 times as many people in the vehicles as the vehicle was intended to hold; no seat belts of course; no emissions regulations either – so you’re breathing thick black air poisonous air, your hair and skin is covered in dust and powdery black substances (soot?) when you get to your destination.
The roads are very adventurous though; huge potholes, stream beds, etc.
So… why could we only fit 25 people in a 14 seat van? See below for the answer!
I received an email from Amazon this evening saying they were refunding a series of books I had purchased by George Orwell on the Kindle.
I called them to ask them why they were refunding the books; because I had never requested the refund.
They responded in saying that they were very sorry, they had no idea why the books were being refunded, but they needed to remove them off my kindle.
I told the representative that I wasn’t so much concerned about the book & the money; I knew I could buy it again in other formats; but I was definitely concerned about the fact that Amazon at any time could decide to remove books that I had purchased off of my kindle; and they’re only requirement was to refund my money (did they really even have to do that?).
What happens when the government decides to outlaw certain books; or certain publishers decide that they want to pull all books of the book shelf (like Oceania in 1984, many organizations have done this in the recent past to erase and rewrite their own history).
This is why I have no problem circumventing DRM (when possible). I bought the book; I own the book. Amazon should have no ability to “steal” my purchased book back from me; even if they wanted to refund my money.
The world is a changing place… prepare yourself!
Child Slavery in Haiti:
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/13/a-capacity-for-cruelty-is-never-justified/
Where does one actually draw the line of what is right and wrong in technology ethics, and how does one make the decisions. Are things really black and white?
What if, let’s say, you were asked by your employer to steal data from another organization to give it a competitive advantage? I think most of us would say that it is unethical. Now, what if your employer is the NSA or the CIA and you’re a covert operative, and you are being asked to steal information from an enemy that can give your country a competitive edge, or protect the safety and welfare of your country.
Now, in this case, and in many respects, we’re starting to get into territory that isn’t as black and white, I think many more people would be divided over this question than the original one. But what is so different between the two scenarios that makes one so different than the other?
For example, in my job sometimes I am asked by an organization to execute penetration tests against their own organizational body. So when when executing a risk assessment through penetration testing I call up the company, get a sweet gal on the other line of the phone, I make up some fictitious name, fictitious problem, and basically lie to her to deceive her into giving me secret and protected information.
In so doing, I then build a report that outlines to the members of the organization where their weaknesses are, so that they can protect their systems against real hackers that would be out to deceive and retrieve real data for real harm. But in this case, was it o.k. that I was lying and deceiving and breaking laws to prevent other bad people from lying and deceiving and breaking laws?
These questions in ethics aren’t necessary tied to Information Technology either; what about policemen that speed down the road so that they can get to the speed trap and catch speeders that are speeding down the road?
The intrigue of all these types of discussions is what so tightly draws me to questions of Information Ethics, and ethics as a whole.
Amanda realized that because she takes so many pictures of other people’s children, that she never takes any pictures of ours… so she decided to do studio sessions of the children today… I’ll post each child’s picture in this Blog as I get them emailed to me 🙂
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It used to be that presentations given to students enjoyed the warmth and camaraderie of poorly designed jokes that you had to be there to get, slaps on the back, hand shakes, and face to face jesting – however, today in an age of electronic bits and bytes, presentations are nothing but dead, cold bits of photons that get moved around by button clicks and emails…
We rented a cottage out in Belfast, froze to death sleeping about 100 feet from the ocean (probably about 50 degrees with all the windows down in the cottage); unfortunately; the tide didn’t come until after we were asleep, and didn’t go out until after we had left, so we weren’t able to have an evening serenade. The moon on the ocean on the other hand was absolutely beautiful… although I’m still waiting for Amanda to give me a copy of the pictures.
We also jumped on a lobster boat for a couple hours in the afternoon; we all came back well-done; but the sea breeze, the smell of fish, and the wide open space of the ocean was very much enjoyed.
I thought a lot about Christella and Jediah and how they will take to all of the adventures that we get to have in this country of plenty. For them, an adventure is going to the supermarket…
I almost tried to attempt the very tip of Maiden’s Cliff again with the family; but being that it has rained for almost 3 weeks straight, I assumed it would still be as soggy and buggy as it was two weeks ago when we attempted it.
Here are a couple pictures I had taken, although my Saga severely over-exposes pictures apparently.