Bill Whittle is an expressive genius. He has a way of bringing out common sense and putting things in perspective, for me anyhow.

Rather than race, rather than religion, this time Bill focuses at length on a concept we all need to think about: Tribes.

"Courage isn’t free. It is taught, taught by certain tribes who have been around enough and seen enough incoming storms to know what one looks like. And I think the people of this nation, and those of New Orleans, specifically, desire and deserve some fundamental lessons in courage."

There's no way to concisely describe what he's written - so go read it for yourself. Yes, it's long and there's some harsh language, but the message is clear. Whether you agree with Bill on every point is not nearly as important as whether or not you take the time to read.

Now that Hurricane Katrina has devastated the South along the Gulf Coast, Joel Comm, author of AdSense secrets and general AdSense guru, has launched ReliefSense.com - where you can donate your AdSense revenues to the relief efforts. It's not a collection site - it's a place where you can pledge to donate to the agency of your choice.

http://www.reliefsense.com/

Earlier this year, when the Tsunami hit, I joined a few friends in asking Google to enable people participating in their AdSense program to have a mechanism built-in to donate their AdSense revenues directly to tsunami relief efforts. I got some response from Google, but not what you'd hope for - they were not able to set anything up at the time (of course, they did have donation links right on the Google home page).

Google - Can't you please find some way to allow us to make donations directly through your AdSense program??? Here's a little history (more linked from these entries):

• Google's response to AdSense donations idea: It could happen!
• Eric Rice Podcast Interview: Greg Hughes on Tsunami Donations

Joel's idea is great - and I have just signed up my pledge. But if Google could enable direct donations as well, it just makes sense that so many more people would find it easier to participate in helping.

Jeremy Wright's got something cool going on. He's a bit of an electronic entrepreneur, and posted this partial image on his weblog a week or so ago as a hint of what's up his sleeve.

So, I started poking around during an extended semi-bored period, and eventually figured it out - but it took quite a bit of creative thinking and searching (Google's pretty amazing, you know?). Jeremy then let me in on the secret a little - but since it's a secret, I won't tell. But you can guess all you want. 

It's basically all right there in the image though - you just have to use your eyes and brain a bit more than usual.

And - from Jeremy's blog today:

"The news? It’s a blogging network. The details are still largely under wraps, but we’re expecting to unveil it in the next 3-4 weeks. That said, if you can figure out what the name is from the logo, there are already a number of blogs live. In fact, if you can only figure out the first 2 characters in the logo, there are a number hidden links on Google to the new network."

Neville Hobson interviewed Jeremy on his podcast that was posted today, too.

It will be a cool business, when it happens. And no - that's not a swastika in the image.

Can you guess?

One of the things that keeps some companies from patching computers in a timely fashion is the potential for data loss if a computer being patched restarts and data open on the desktop is lost.

Windows Vista promises to fix that problem by "freeze-drying" any work open on the PC at patch time, allowing the user to reconstitute the work when the computer restarts.

Even better, they're making the patching process better, so restarts will be necessary much less often. Many apps can be patched while they're running, and are replaced at next restart. We have some of that now, but will have more of it in the Vista release.

Read more - Tech News at ZDNet

I rented Sin City the other day. Now, I was prepared for the fact that it was going to be a violent, even offensive film. What I wasn't ready for was the fact that it's an incredibly well-made, artistic film.

This movie, like no other made to date, truly feels like a dark comic book. It's all about the thousands of little details. From Bruce Willis' long coat blowing in the breeze in a way that could never quite happen in real life, to the stylized color (usually red) details on black and white film, it's all a fairly amazing visual experience.

That said, the comic-book-like style is more a description than an audience defining mechanism. This is not a movie for kids. It's completely and totally R-rated, all the way to the far edge of the rating system. It's violent, crude, sexual and doesn't hold back.

I don't know how many people get knocked out from a single punch to the face or have their heads shoved into an unflushed toilet in this film, but it's plenty.

If you're squeamish, don't watch this one. If you're into dark, dark, dark comic books and get into visual blood, gore and guts stylized somewhere between comic-book-fake and real-as-life, you'll probably like this one a lot. You're also likely a borderline sociopath, but hey - that's beside the point. Enjoy.

We all know it was predicted before, in terms of the potential impact of a large hurricane on the City of New Orleans, but what I did not realize is how accurately professionals in the area had come in their estimations.

There are excerpts from an article in The Natural Hazards Observer called "What if Hurricane Ivan Had Not Missed New Orleans?" that was written by Shirley Laska of the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology at the University of New Orleans in November 2004, after Hurricane Ivan:

"Approximately 120,000 residents (51,000 housing units x 2.4 persons/unit) do not have cars. A proposal made after the evacuation for Hurricane Georges to use public transit buses to assist in their evacuation out of the city was not implemented for Ivan. If Ivan had struck New Orleans directly it is estimated that 40-60,000 residents of the area would have perished...

"Regional and national rescue resources would have to respond as rapidly as possible and would require augmentation by local private vessels (assuming some survived). And, even with this help, federal and state governments have estimated that it would take 10 days to rescue all those stranded within the city. No shelters within the city would be free of risk from rising water. Because of this threat, the American Red Cross will not open shelters in New Orleans during hurricanes greater than category 2; staffing them would put employees and volunteers at risk. For Ivan, only the Superdome was made available as a refuge of last resort for the medically challenged and the homeless...

"In this hypothetical storm scenario, it is estimated that it would take nine weeks to pump the water out of the city, and only then could assessments begin to determine what buildings were habitable or salvageable. Sewer, water, and the extensive forced drainage pumping systems would be damaged. National authorities would be scrambling to build tent cities to house the hundreds of thousands of refugees unable to return to their homes and without other relocation options. In the aftermath of such a disaster, New Orleans would be dramatically different, and likely extremely diminished, from what it is today...

"Should this disaster become a reality, it would undoubtedly be one of the greatest disasters, if not the greatest, to hit the United States, with estimated costs exceeding 100 billion dollars. According to the American Red Cross, such an event could be even more devastating than a major earthquake in California. Survivors would have to endure conditions never before experienced in a North American disaster..."

TextAmerica and NBC Universal have teamed up and created http://www.missingkatrina.com/ - which is a photo blog that lets people submit the names, pictures and numbers to call for people missing in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area.

Missing People From Hurricane Katrina - 1-800-774-0512

This site is here to help you find missing persons from hurricane Katrina.
If you have their picture of the missing person you can post it to this site in one of two ways:

1. Upload their image directly from your PC using the upload form below. Once you have uploaded an image your will be prompted to enter other information like their name, your phone number and your email address.

2. Email or MMS your picture to callhome.123@tamw.com. Please make sure to put the missing person's name and YOUR contact phone number in the title or body of the email/MMS.

If you don’t have an image of the missing person or you can’t figure out how to upload or email in your information, then please call us at 1-800-774-0512 anytime between 9am and 9PM PST (7days). Our thoughts and prayers to everyone involved in this disaster. May you and your loved ones be safe.

And it is working. From one posted photo comes this followup:

Duoc and seven other Vietnamese were rescued late last night. They were transported to the New Orleans airport and are on their was to Houston airport where they can be flown home. I want to thank the owner of this site for the support they have given us.

September 3, 2005 - 7:04 am

E.J. is alive and well, he was bused to Fort Worth, TX and is at the red cross shelter For more info Email...

 

September 3, 2005 - 7:12 am

• International Red Cross: http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/katrina/locate
• From nola.com:
• Missing Persons
• Tell Them You're OK

There's really nothing quite like first-hand experience when it comes to seeing what's happening in distant places. Let's face it - the mainstream media cuts things into little chunks that remove the full context of the place and situation, trying (usually without much success) to replace it with an explanation, usually written by one or two people.

In your mind, choose one or two people you know at random. Now imagine sending those two random people into a war zone with a camera and a microphone and telling them to accurately and completely convey what's happening, without personal bias. Would you tend to trust what they have to say? Yeah, me either.

That's what interests me most about Boots In Baghdad Films, a vlog that contains video posts (using audioblog.com's videoblogging capabilities) shot by soldiers on the ground in Iraq. It's first-hand video of real situations. It's not that soldiers are without any bias - but the soldiers and their experiences are part of what's happening, which makes this video much more real than anything on TV, and the few videos posted on this site have an unedited honesty that I appreciate. Note that there's some colorful language in some of the video shots - that's to be expected, I think.

Hopefully the content will continue to grow, but of course not for one day longer than the people filming it need to be there.

(via Eric Rice)

Do unto others: People are in need, and the Red Cross is spending money on hurricane disaster relief faster than it's coming in. Click below and give what you can. If you want to volunteer, contact your local chapter.

This is not just something nice to do - this is something we have to do.

From an IM session about 30 seconds ago:

Mary Beth says:
could u imagine at school if u had that in your room.. u would be the coolest chic in the dorm..

Use Skype? Want to use it? Well, a new and improved beta version is available now - v1.4.0.47

From the Skype web site:

• Our call quality is the best ever for talking, laughing and sharing stories.
• It’s now faster to get set up, and easier to add your contacts, so you can get more friends talking for free.
• You can forward calls on to mobiles, landlines and other Skype Names.
• Make calls instantly from Outlook email or Internet Explorer with our new toolbars.
• Personalise your Skype — play around with sounds, ringtones and pictures to show the world who you are.

For those who are running the Vista Beta 1 on a Tablet PC but have not had the TIP (Tablet Input Panel) because you're not on the formal beta test program, your wait is over.

Microsoft's released the TIP to the MSDN Subscriber Downloads, so go get it and ink away.

In a previous career, I did news and sports photography for a "living." I've been bitten by the bug again recently, hence this post.

Lens Wanted: If you happen to read this and you also happen to have a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 autofocus lens lying around that you don't use, and if you;d be interested in selling it for pennies (okay maybe a few dimes) on the dollar, chat me up or email me (that would be greg(at)greghughes.net, yo).

I figure, let's try the reverse "blog as a classified ads tool" thing. This is the "wanted to buy" version.

For that matter, if you have a 20mm lens (Nikon lenses only - not third party) let me know about that, too.

I'll check eBay myself - looking for private sellers here.

Several people have asked me for a copy of the wallpaper I have on my X41 Tablet PC desktop right now. It's another picture from my trip to the Lincoln Memorial last week. Click below to download the image in the size you prefer.

• 1024x681 Pixel JPG file
• 3008x2000 Pixel JPG file

Nine states in nine days. I've been traveling for the past week and a half, and had some great experiences along the way. Two Saturdays ago, I flew down to California for my dad's 65th birthday party, which was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday, and every day since, I traveled with coworkers across the country - via Colorado to Omaha, Nebraska; Toledo, Ohio and Reston, Virginia (just outside of Washington DC). Then I took a couple days for myself and visited friends and family. During that portion of my trip I hit Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, DC and New York state. It's been an interesting week.

I discovered a few things - First of all, Omaha and Toledo are quite nice cities, each with their own unique character. I especially liked the huge old houses in Omaha, and the steaks were awfully darn good, to be certain. Their old downtown area is terrific. In Toledo, the waterfront down on the river is great, and there's some old and interesting architecture to be seen. The people in both places were very nice.

Reston is a suburb of Washington DC, and what struck me about this area are the huge old trees and the attention paid to aesthetics of the architecture - it just looks nice. The people there were terrific, too.

But the most awesome part of the trip from a personal experience perspective had to be Washington DC itself. I went with three coworkers into the city one night to see the memorials at night. It's been several years since I was last there, and the only chance I ever had to spent any meaningful time in the city was when I was a small child (we used to live on the Maryland side in a town called Greenbelt). I have vague recollections of being a small child looking up at the huge statue of Abraham Lincoln in the memorial, as well as the Washington Monument. I guess I didn't fully realize the sheer enormity and power of the Lincoln Memorial and the others. I'd assumed that since I was a very small child the last time I did more than just drive by it, my memory was skewed by my then-limited height and overactive imagination. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Walking into the Lincoln Memorial -  which would be a huge, amazing building even without the statue inside - one is filled with a sense of awe. The stone steps leading up to the entrance are worn, with indentations visible up the center where millions of people have walked to see what is, I think, the most life-like statue I've ever seen.

The Gettysburg Address is inscribed on the side wall to the left of the statue. Those famous and inspirational words are all the more amazing to read in the presence of the oversized likeness of Lincoln, which looks like it could step right off its pedestal and start speaking any moment.

From the Lincoln Memorial, it's a short walk to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - the famous sheer, reflective wall that bears the names of 58,249 American soldiers who died in that war.

When people say the experience at the Wall is overwhelming and overpowering, they're not exaggerating. It was dusky dark when I walked there, and in the dark light the endless sea of names stood out in the dim light cast by the lights in the walkway. It felt big until I reached about the middle of the memorial - and then it suddenly felt huge. Standing near the center, looking ahead at the ocean of names still remaining to be walked by, then back at the thousands upon thousands of names already passed, the feeling was powerful.

The names on the wall appear in the order the people commemorated died in battle. I don't personally know who Harold Graves, John Neto Rodrigues or John E. Cantlon Jr. were, but I do know they died on or about the same day, sometime in the middle of the Vietnam conflict, fighting a war on behalf of their country. And I know and see that their names are three among so many more, each one representative of a person who went to Vietnam but did not come back. As I stood closer and looked at the names, I thought about sons and their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, hopes and dreams and aspirations.

To say the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is powerful is an understatement.

You can't help but reach out and touch the wall, almost as if to see for yourself that it's actually there, that what you're looking at could possibly be real. The reflection people experience when they visit this memorial is more than just their own faces in the glossy surface. One can't help but reflect on the people whose names cover the vast wall, and the families and loved ones of each and every one.

If you ever have a chance to visit Washington DC, don't skip it. It's worth every mile, every penny, every second of time - and then some.