David Ruppert

“Things seem to be going well for the Dallas Briefing. Here’s what current DallasNews.com users have to say about the Dallas Briefing:

“As if I don’t already have enough trash blowing into my yard.”

“In a time when communities are focusing on recycling and reducing waste, it is irresponsible to litter the lawns of homeowners with an unwanted newspaper. Is the DMN going to pick up all of the papers littering our neighborhood day after day?”

“I HATE this Briefing thing. I just took a walk through our nieghborhood and they are cluttering up the sidewalks. Terrible timing - aren’t we supposed to be getting MORE environemntally friendly rather than killing extra trees and littering the sidewalks with them.”

“You opt out by calling 214-977-8333.” - Good try, but no . . notsomuch.

“This does it. The straw that broke the camel’s back. Yesterday I saw the litter-strewn neighborhoods where the DMN Spanish-language paper Al Dia is already being distributed for free. I have subscribed to the DMN for 30 years, and I refuse to subsidize everyone else’s free papers and contribute to a huge littering problem. I am calling to cancel my subscription.”

“if i put my blue recycle bin in the front yard, could the delivery person just deposit my copy in there?”

“I don’t think a full paper is that intimidating or expensive, so I’m not completely sure what a Briefing version really does.”

Thanks for scoring the assist with this article on Dallas Briefing . . . and one more regarding the Dallas Morning News Dallas Briefing.

ENOUGH ALREADY! This abbreviated version of the Dallas Morning News started showing up at my house a couple of weeks ago . . . and hasn’t stopped DESPITE my repeated attempts to curb [pun intended] its delivery.

I’m going to continually repeat the name of this paper, the Dallas Briefing, because Google doesn’t have much on it . . and I’d find it quite hilarious for this blog entry to show up . . you know . . whenever someone tries to Google Dallas Briefing, The Dallas Briefing, Dallas Briefing from the Dallas Morning News or the less likely searched for . . and incorrectly spelled Dallas Breifing.

I don’t understand why the Dallas Briefing isn’t opt-in? I don’t want this paper [the Dallas Briefing]. If I wanted to receive the local newspaper, like the Dallas Morning News, I’d subscribe. But, alas, like most of the modern world, I have an internet connection. When I need to get an update on the news [which I do at least every 2 or 3 hours], I simply bring up DallasNews.com . . or Yahoo . . or Google. The options are surprisingly endless when it comes to online news.

So back to my thought . . why isn’t this opt-in? Why don’t you let interested individuals call or subscribe online to receive the Dallas Briefing. Or what about just putting it in free newsstands like the Dallas Quick [which coincidently is more my style anyway]. Why doesn’t that work?

This seems like not only a frustration for individuals who don’t want to pick this up off of their lawn every afternoon, but an unbelievable waste of paper. Not like I have any real statistics, but someone please enlighten me on how many of these homes take in and read the Dallas Briefing on a daily basis?

Judging from a quick drive through my neighborhood, less than 25% even pick it up on a daily basis. And you can’t convince me that the remaining people all read the Dallas Briefing. I can’t imagine even half of those sit down everyday and read the Dallas Briefing.

Do whatever . . . just stop delivering the damn thing to my house.

Hmm, a very interesting mashup coming from Firefox called Ubiquity. A . . . sort of . . . massive tool type thingie connecting what looks like all local applications [or at least a few?] with a Quicksilvery/Launchy’y type interface.

Very cool. Also very much in its initial stages. There are clearly some bugs to be worked out and some standards that need to be adopted, but this could be an unbelievable time saver for several monotonous tasks while specifically browsing the web.

The first example shows the user creating a simple email. An invitation to a friend to meet for lunch at a local cafe. He’s very quickly able to . . . * without opening another tab in a browser * . . . find a map and drop it in his email. Then he does the same for reviews on this restaurant. The copy, images and formatting from his search results on the restaurant reviews are all placed in his email . . . cool.

The next example works for Craigslist only, but I’ve been wanting something like this for a while. He views lofts for rent in San Francisco. Then by highlighting the results, opening Ubiquity and typing ‘map-these’, a Google map appears with the location of all of these lofts pinpointed. SWEET. Again, only for Craigslist right now though.

They allow users to type normal language commands to find results. This could be unbelievably helpful, or amazingly difficult, depending on whether or not it and I share the same ‘normal spoken language’. I’m interested in trying this out and seeing if it’s as intuitive as it seems.

Anyway, watch the video. The first full minute is quite a beating . . its a very retro SWiSH-like splash page. Ugh, but fight through it and get to the good stuff.

http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/

I’ve finally decided to pull the trigger on a new camera. I can’t tell you how long I’ve put it off.

My inherent thriftiness gives me the shakes when I consider buying something that I know . . . . know . . . . will be worth half its purchase price within about 2 months.

This is a little ironic considering several months ago I purchased an iPhone with the understanding that one day [uhh . . . today actually], a better version of that phone would be selling for half what I shelled out for it.

Authors note: I threw up a little in my mouth as I typed that.

Regardless, I finally eased my ferocious grip on my wallet and brought home a new Panasonic Lumix FZ-18K. I’ve always like the Lumix line of cameras because of a larger than normal zoom and very crisp photo.

This camera leaves little to be desired as well. Most professional reviews are positive minus some less than stellar comments on low light photographs. I haven’t yet experienced this problem.

This could be due to the fact that, one . . . I haven’t taken many [if any] low light photos so far. Or two, I’m about as amateur as it gets when reviewing digital cameras. Lets face it, I get ice cream headache as soon as someone even mutters the term aperture or exposure.

So my new camera courting phase begins.

The ol’ girl’s finally starting to show her age.

Firefox lately has been throwing me into a complete fit. It seems two or three times a day my laptop locks up and is totally unusable. Once I can get the Task Manager to finally load. I see the culprit. The same one every time. Firefox.

I never hear any complaints from my cohorts here in the office, so I assumed it was something specific to my machine, setup, extension selection . . . something. But after doing a little searching this morning, it appears I’m not the only one with a problem. This thread started in 2004 with version 1 of the product, but is currently 23 pages long and has had a post as recent as a few hours ago.

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After coming across this story on a local news site, it reminded me of an experience I had while planning for our upcoming trip to Cozumel.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit in the local passport office for 45 minutes to get my passport processed. One of the things my keen, “always-on” mind noticed while waiting was a sign taped to the top of each teller stating, very clearly, “We do not take credit cards”.

No problem, I had just gone to the ATM machine in anticipation of this beating and had 10 crisp $20 bills on hand. After waiting patiently, my number was called and I strutted up to the window, ready to get my passport on.

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