You know, I don’t think some people really get Maine life.
“But Justin,” you ask, “why in the world are you walking back to the dorm in 32-degree weather with a 22-degree windchill eating ice cream?”
See? You just don’t get it.
OK… this kinda ticks me off. OK, it really does.
Apparently two researchers were going to give a seminar concerning vulnerabilities in campus ID cards at an Interz0ne conference. Before they were able to give the seminar, Blackboard, the company that runs the card service, delivered a cease and desist order to Interz0ne citing that by constructing readers for the card, the two researchers had violated Blackboard’s intellectual property under the DMCA. They weren’t able to give the seminar.
Why does this concern me? Well, guess which system the MaineCard uses? And that system includes everything from what we buy on campus to how many meals we eat each week to all of our extra funds for the semester that can be spent… and all tied back to our student ID number, which happens to be our social security number.
I love the DMCA.
Let’s start this project out with a bang.
I’ve been working over the last couple of weeks with Jon Aizen at the Internet Archive’s Live Music Archive. If you remember, it’s a place where you can download live shows of approved bands for free, legally. And now, you can see the latest additions all captured in an RSS feed. The feed uses an XML document using Open Archives Initiative standards and refreshes every three hours.
I wanted to start this project because I really like using RSS aggregators to read news. It’s much easier than having to visit each page. I really want to do this with more sites (probably over the summer), and I was amazed by the openness of the LMA to do it. They’re really good people.
In my work, I’ve discovered a couple great sites:
News Is Free: a place that’s doing pretty much what I am, only for a different kind of site
Yahoo Groups RSS creator: from the Archive, a place to view a group’s headlines in RSS
Let me know if there’s a site you think should be RSS-ified. And I’d suggest looking through the LMA or its RSS; it’s a great place.
Apparently Housing Plan A for 2003-2004 didn’t quite work out.
That’s OK. That’s why you always have a Housing Plan B.
Welcome to your wonderful new family, Annabella Morrone. And congratulations, Megan and Marco.
(picture included! so cute!)
I’m writing this on Islesboro, waiting for the ferry to return to the mainland. I’m overlooking Searsport, Northport, and Lincolnville and eating an M&M ice cream sandwich. Mmmm. I’ll post this once I get back to UMaine.
So yeah, I did another trip today. This one’s my most frequently visited island experience: Islesboro. Islesboro’s a very nice, quiet island off the mid-coast of Maine in what some would call the Atlantic Ocean and what others would call Penobscot Bay. I’ve had such a wide variety of great memories here that I try to visit at least once a year, and I always try to take the same picture every year (I missed out last year, though). I believe that this was my first solo trip.
Island life has always amazed me. It’s a stereotypical Maine town (other than being surrounded by water). Everything seems like it’s slowed down. People wave to you when you pass them. The scenery is spectacular. And yes, there are people who catch lobstah.
The “Margaret Chase Smith” is the boat on which I’ve travelled across the Penobscot/Atlantic to visit the island with various people for years. With my grandparents I always used to have scavenger hunts to find every fire extinguisher, every life preserver storage case, every bathroom. I even wrote a story about the ship.
My favorite place – probably in the world – is Pendleton Point, a nice park on the southern tip of the island. It’s always very quiet and peaceful, and I love watching the birds and tides come in and out. Combine that with the sea air and I could spend hours or days just sitting there. What’s college, anyway? Got me.
I think sometime I’m going to try to rent a cabin over here or something. I’d love to spend a week in this lifestyle and see how much different it is than that on the mainland. I’d love to be able to know everyone around me like I did when I was a kid.
Before the bell on the channel marker puts me to sleep, I guess I better wrap this up. Check out the photos I took today. I finally figured out what white balance does, so that might make a difference. And let me know if you’d like to live on an island or if you think I’m insane for thinking it.
I might be in trouble with this Geocaching stuff.
I found my first real cache today in Lincolnville. That’s all well and good, but you might not understand how much fun it was. I really had a great time for such a small task. I want to do more. I’ll probably even end up making a GC page on JR.com with photos.
Maybe I should make it a goal to find every cache in Maine. Or maybe not.
Yes, 54 degrees is t-shirt weather. I should know – I was just outside in a t-shirt and felt perfectly fine. A beautiful day. I should go somewhere tomorrow.
2010, Justin Russell. All content (unless otherwise specified) licensed under CC BY-NC.