Gerald R. Lucas

“Some Upgrades” Originally uploaded by jhary.

This is JJ yesterday after a couple of upgrades.

I’ve been playing with Second Life.

Yeah, I know. But, it has potential for education, and honestly, I’m enjoying it. I’ve been on for a year yesterday, but have only recently started to learn in earnest. I’ve met some very helpful people and have run into some old friends. It’s like a MOO with graphics. I have customized my avatar a bit, but I have not tried to build anything yet. Small moves. I’m impressed with all the citizens who are willing to help. I’ve even had people give me money to buy something decent to wear! Cool.

Well, if you’re on, say hi to Jhary Jatho.

Classmates.com sucks.

It’s a great idea, yes. However, it’s poorly executed: chock full of adverts and probably spyware, it’s interface is clunky and slow. Like a skeevy zood at the bar, it pops up with offers to date, employing all the eloquence of a socially inept teenager. It took me so long to dismiss the stoopid ad, that I forgot what I was doing. In order to maximize how many ads they can show you, they put short lists of former classmates in the middle of these crowded pages, about twenty-four to the page; there’s no way to search for a name (yes, they have a search function, but it didn’t work: I searched for a friend who I know is on Classmates and who has an unusual last name. Nothing), and no way to jump more than five pages at a time. They might win the award for the Best Time-Wasting Interface.

Since my 20-year high school reunion is coming up, I decided to see if I could find anything about it on Classmates. After logging in (on Classmates, everyone is a number; good luck remembering yours. I guess that’s why I saw many who have joined multiple times) I was presented with a “My Communities” menu that listed the Class of ’87 Reunion. Easy. I found out exactly what I wanted to: most of the people going to the planned reunion are those I don’t remember, recognize, or care to remember. So, I went searching of people that I did remember.

Finding one, I decided to send him an email. I clicked “Send Robert an Email” and got a familiar-looking area to do just that. After spending some time composing just the right message (not having seen or talked to him in 20 years, I had to choose my words carefully), I clicked send. Instead of the expected confirmation, I received a screen that said: “Gerald, thanks for letting us help you reconnect. Become a Gold Member so Robert can read your message!” This screen implies that I have to send them money in order for them to deliver my email. Hey, Classmates, @#%* you! Let’s see if that message is delivered.

You know, it’s not worth it. I started my own free Google group that a few people have found. I guess Classmates is the go-to site for this sort of thing. Too bad for us. I love Web 2.0 sites and am a member of several. Classmates just does it wrong. They should take a lesson from Flickr, a site that manages to still make its money without all the annoyances.

Boo, Classmates, boo!

I have always loved Google. From Google Apps to the can’t-live-without-it Gmail, Google makes software that has really changed the way I use computers and the Internet for good. Today, there is a new reason to love Google: they have introduced Google Desktop for the Mac.

According to their press release, this application will “provide users the same fast and comprehensive search functionality they’ve grown accustomed to on the web to search the full text of all information on their hard drive, including e-mail, files, music, and photos.”

It seems to work much in the same way as Apple’s Spotlight, but it includes search for my Gmail account and Web, something that Spotlight does not do — at least not without some help. Like most Google software, Desktop is elegant and easy to use. It took a bit of time to index my PowerBook’s files, then after that searching was as easy as hitting my command key twice.

Thanks, again, Google.

OK, I have been busier than a busy thing. This fact might be obvious, since I haven’t posted a thing here in over a month. Oops. Since then, Blogger has finally allowed me to switch over to my Google login to manage my blog. Just the ability to add tags is reason enough to celebrate. Still, I’m not sure that I want to give up posting my Technorati tags.

The good news: I am the proud owner of a new camera: a Canon EOS 30D. A friend bought my Rebel (Thanks, Jamie!), so I was able to upgrade. I’ve been enjoying the hell out of it. Coupled with Apple’s Aperture, I am growing quickly as a photographer. Still, I want a new lens: the Sigma 30mm F1.4. I’ll have to wait a bit, methinks, ’cause of the bad news.

The bad news: my PowerBook’s hard drive died. First, it stopped being able to install anything new, then it would take forever to download anything from Firefox, but it would still boot and run normally. Disk Utility told me there was a problem, so I booted off the Tiger install disk to try to fix the problem. It could not fix it; instead it seemed to supply the coffin’s final nail. Now, the PowerBook will no longer boot at all. I see the gray Apple screen with the wheely thing rotating at the bottom for about five minutes before the computer just shuts itself off. It seems I need a new PowerBook MacBook Pro. I’m thinking about the 15″, as if I can afford that. Until then, I’ll just use the department’s 17″ G4 PowerBook (slow and heavy) until a student requests to use it. (I’m not sure where it is…)

Computer woes aside, I have purchased some domain names, one I mentioned previously. Since purchasing grlucas.net, I now own Big Jelly (bigjelly.net), LitMUSE (litmuse.net), and the Humanities Index (humx.org). Here are my plans: this blog will soon be relocated to earthshine.org; when I say “soon,” I probably mean May at the earliest for professional reasons. I will continue to use Blogger, cause it’s cool and does exactly what I want without all the hassle of trying to keep up with Movable Type. Grlucas.net already has much of my portfolio on it, transferred from Earthshine. I will use it to feature one of my favorite things in life: me. LitMUSE will do what Earthshine used to do: operate as my courseware site for students; it’s already well underway.

I hope to use the Humanities Index as a collaborative space where educators can share notes on various aspects of literature for students. Here is where I will put all of my literary notes, ideas, and ramblings. I will encourage my colleagues to do the same. I really think this could be a worthwhile project. I’ve been porting entries from this blog over there, and I hope to have more there soon. Interested in contributing? Send me an email. And you don’t have to be a professional educator.

Now, Big Jelly should be interesting. It is the brainchild of Tom and me, based on the ideas in the eponymous short story by Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker. Like a big jelly, our ideas are kind of squishy and amorphous right now. We want a place to talk about science fiction and futurism and how these ideas wind in-and-out of one another and touch other cultural texts that interest us. We want to have round tables, reviews, essays, editorials, links, and anything else we think might be apropos. It’s as a place where old school meets new skool. There’s nothing there right now, but stay tuned.

I guess one of the most exciting things about these new domain names is that I have discovered a new web host: AN Hosting. Unlike the crappy support and services of IPowerWeb, I can host up to 10 domain names on one account, for about $30 less a year. Too cool, no? When I send tech support an email (no mandatory web forms to fill out), I usually have a response in under an hour. No kidding. It used to take IPowerWeb two days to send me some boilerplate that didn’t even answer my question or solve my problem. So far, I am very pleased with these new guys.

Now, to try to enjoy the rest of my break. Hope everyone is having a relaxing holiday.

I purchased another domain name this evening, one I’ve kinda had for a while: litmuse.net. I know: I need another domain name like I need another Freshman composition course to teach, but I figured I should get it while I can through Yahoo. I still wish those jerks at iPowerWeb had not let earthshine.net lapse so one of those bigger jerks could snatch it up and hold it for ransom. But, I digress. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I should think of something. Ideas?

On a similar note: I went to buy grlucas.com, since (1) I saw it was available just the other day, and (2) why not?, but some jerk from the West Indies bought it today and is doing absolutely nothing with it. I won’t link there but see for yourself. Asshole. Hope he makes a lot of money.

This is a no-brainer if I’ve ever seen one.

I just set up a new domain name, grlucas.net, through Yahoo! Small Business. I received an offer yesterday that looked suspiciously like spam, but I’m glad I looked at it: they’re offering to register a new domain name for only $2 for the first year! I bought my domain for three years for about $22. Nice.

Once the order was processed, I was able to login and easily forward traffic to this site — all in under fifteen minutes. That was so easy, I thought I’d take it a step further and sign up for Google Apps, since I like the services they offer Earthshine. When I initially signed up for the service with Earthshine, it took Google about two weeks to get back to me. That was not my experience this time: even before I finished submitting the second form, they had set up my account.

In under an hour, I had all the numbers changed (CNAME, MX records, and such) in the easy-to-navigate Yahoo control panel that point to my new Google services. Easy as shopping at Amazon.

What will I do with this new site? I think I’ll use it as a links page: all about yours truly. All the stuff on the side f this blog will be transferred there, so this space will be exclusively for my ranting. I may even pick up another name or two before I’m finished. If you’ve always wanted a place on the web, now might be the time. Yahoo offers a full line of web hosting services, too. However, their fees are a bit high, in my experience, but that could be a way to go for someone just starting out.

Don’t pass up this deal. Get your brain out there.