I started playing guitar when I was about 14 but by then I had a strong background in music and had already sung in malls. I loved playing the piano but you can’t take it with you and jam when the music gets you so I picked up my first guitar at a garage sale, a cheap Harmony with a warped neck. I played it until my fingers bled. Since I didn’t have lessons I played by ear and was always looking for something different to inspire me, enter Bob Dylan.

I am sure I had heard of him, but I didn’t *know* his music. I picked up my first album (vinyl you betcha) at a rummage sale for 50 cents and fell in love. The album, Nashville Skyline released in 1969 with one of my favorites being To Be Alone with You.

They say that nighttime is the right time
To be with the one you love
Too many thoughts get in the way in the day
But you’re always what I’m thinkin’ of

Anytime I am feeling a little lost, uninspired, or just need a pick me up I put on some Bob Dylan and become one with the music.

This is post number three in a series of 100 Things About Me.

I don’t discriminate, if it fits I like it. My favorite places to pick them up are ThinkGeek, Target, thrift stores, and I like the hoodies at Clandestine Industries. I also pick up non-decorated fitted ones at fabric and craft stores and stencil them for a one of a kind look.

The Cameo Mecanique Hoodie is shown here from binarywinter’s Etsy shop. I <3 the design.

This is post number two in a series of 100 things about me.

I wish I was a rockstar.

I play, not as much as I used to, but I write more.

I have boxes of notebooks full of lyrics and songs and no outlet for them.

I just wish I had an outlet instead of a box to store them in.

This is post number one in a series of 100 things about me.

Today is Blog Action Day and the cause is ending poverty.

Did you know that 70% of those living in poverty around the world are women?

With the financial crisis looming and gas and necessities costs soaring you may be scrimping and saving for your own family but there are ways you can still help.

Women’s Career Clothing Closets

Working women’s clothing closets exist all over the country to help women build a professional wardrobe so that they can secure good paying jobs and end the cycle of poverty. Help women get on their feet by donating gently used professional clothing. It helps others and reduces your closet clutter at the same time!

Numerous organizations for clothing donations exist, here are a few or google for more:

• Women’s Resource Center, Michigan
• Women’s Career Clothing Closet, West Virginia
• Women’s Discovery Center, Arkansas
• Charity Guide: 15 Places to Donate Gently Used Women’s Clothing

Be a Mentor

Donate your time and your experience by mentoring others. Support from others can significantly increase the chances of success and mentoring is an excellent way to give back without costing any money.

MentorNet is an organization linking mentors to students that are seeking assistance via the Internet. MentorNet is a nonprofit e-mentoring network that positively affects the retention and success of those in engineering, science and mathematics, particularly but not exclusively women and others underrepresented in these fields. By corresponding through emails and chats you can share your advice, experience, and support with a young person.

Interested in mentoring in person? Find an group in need of mentors in your area through Mentor.org’s opportunity locator. Put in your zip code and the distance you are willing to travel and Mentor.org gives you a list of organizations to contact.

I disliked Ubuntu Gutsy when it was released and I have to say I dislike Hardy as well.

When I recently rebuilt my main machine, I installed Hardy hoping to give Ubuntu another chance. I used to be a huge Ubuntu fan unfortunately, the fandom stops with Feisty.

Bonus to Hardy, that annoying tracker does not install and hog my system by default. The most annoying thing? Lots of support for lots of hardware was dropped. Winfast & Hauppauge TV Tuner cards which have worked wonderfully in linux have all kinds of special issues in Ubuntu starting with Gutsy. MythBuntu equals a big pain in the neck.

I have heard from others who are leaving Ubuntu since the last few releases. Reading through the support forums and the bugtrackers, the community has reverted to the old standard of either not replying, treating people like they aren’t worth the effort to explain things to, or assuming their position on the issue is superior. This is why linux users have always been avoided, because they act like elitist.

Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly and for new linux users. How can you possibly promote that if the community snubs the newbies.

One thread that struck me was about the fact that there was no GUI disk management installed by default.  The very first response to this posting was “no one should need to manually manage disks…” WTF? Seriously?

There are several cases when you need to manually manage disks: 1) the LiveCD does not mount local disks, 2) If you add a new disk to the system. How many people who aren’t major geeks know how to manage their disks from the command line? I know several people I consider pretty geeky who don’t even know how to do it in Windows.

There are apps you can apt-get to enable a GUI access like gparted, but you have to know what it is called & how to install it ~or~ the right search terms to google to learn how. How many newbies are going to know how to do this or not reach maximum level of frustration with this? Ubuntu doesn’t have a utility that kicks off on boot if you have added new hardware either.

Ubuntu is really losing it’s way, and I have to say I cannot recommend it anymore. I am back to vanillla Debian and maybe dabble some more in Arch. Do you have a particular distro you absolutely adore? Let me know what you are using and why you love it and I will give it a whirl.

I know, this has nothing to do with gadgets or computers but many supporters and pro-open source users are especially fond of ways to be green and I am certainly one of them. On those grounds I wanted to make sure that you stop by Wal-Mart on April 19, 2008 starting at 8am local time and pick up your free reusable shopping bag. Wal-Mart is giving away one million reusable bags as part of Earth Month. I have a love hate relationship with Wal-Mart but giving away reusable shopping bags earned this PSA.

And you thought Facebook’s Beacon was intrusive? How about Beacon for the real world? While I agree that there are many good and valid uses for RFID I am not in agreement that the regulations or security are in place for it just yet. Point?

According to a Press Release from Rep. Jeff Morris (D - Mount Vernon) a new law in Washington will hereby may malicious RFID scanning illegal (this seems like a no brainer to me) such as for the purposes of identity theft. The law states that it would be a Class C felony to “intentionally scan another person’s identification remotely without his or her knowledge and consent, for the purpose of fraud, identity theft, or some other illegal purpose”.

The bummer side? The opt-in requirements for retailers to provide consumer protection by not scanning a customer, their ID, credit card, shoes, products, or whatnot without their expressed permission has been left out of the language due to heavy lobbying by corporations.

I find this completely unacceptable and think the consumers need to do a little mass lobbying of their own. Please consider contacting Rep. Jeff Morris or his staff to voice your support of the opt-in measure even if you aren’t in Washington. His contact information is available on the original press release.

Additional Reading:

• RFID Hack Hits 1-Billion Digital Access Cards Worldwide
• RFID Position Statement of Consumer Privacy and Civil Liberties Organizations

Flickr image from midnightcomm under CC