Coming home, I can't think of anything finer in the world...
Spent all summer, all fall, some of the spring as well, underway, but made it home in time for Thanksgiving.
That should certainly be a good enough reason for me to completely ignore my blog and blow off posting for a few weeks...
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Here's Another Thing I Discovered...
Well, I'm sure someone else discovered it first, considering it's been around since 2006.
I'm talking about Twitter.
If you're asking what the heck is Twitter, obviously you didn't click the link, but I'll give you this: Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends. You'll just have to visit the link for the rest...
A little background into Navy life and internet connections...
The ability to use the internet onboard a Navy ship is relatively new, well, new to a guy like me who's served for 20+ years. Way back when I joined in 1987, when a ship pulled away from the pier, the only regular communication with family and friends came in the form of letters. Some of you may be asking yourself what that is, I won't explain it, I feel old enough as it is...
In 1996, we had the ability to send e-mail to our loved ones through a system called SALTS, Streamlined Alternative Logistics Transmission System, chosen as the system to expand the Navy's capacity to transmit logistics information and administrative data from deployed units to existing Department of Defense communications networks.
The way this would work, I would type a letter in Notepad, save it to a 3.5" floppy, hand carry it to our Radio room and they would transmit my letter (e-mail), along with everyone else's to the command Ombudsman, who would in turn print them all out, call the families and friends and they would have to come pick them up. Not exactly the best system but it's what we had and we were happy to have something like this to keep in more immediate touch with everyone.
Where it used to take weeks to mail letters back and forth, now took days, depending on how often your loved one could make it to the Ombudsman's house.
1997-1998 I experienced the same system for passing letters back and forth with my wife, but by this time we had a shipboard LAN system available to us. Just another step in the long journey.
2000 found us with LAN systems installed, e-mail clients available (Outlook) and the ability to send e-mails at our leisure. If you planned it right, you could trade e-mails back and forth within minutes, sort of like instant messaging, except without the instant part.
I had the privilege of a few years of shore duty and really didn't think of it until 2004 when I arrived to my next ship. By this time the internet was a part of everyday life for me.
I can back up to 1998 because that's when I created my first Hotmail account. Fast forward again to 2004...
Everyone had a Hotmail account, or Yahoo, or Google, or whatever e-mail client of preference. It became common for Sailors to have access to the internet and the ability to check personal e-mails, staying in touch with whoever they wanted to stay in touch with through the internet.
That is, until 2006, when the Navy decided that personal internet e-mail accounts were a drain on bandwidth for ships at sea and decided to prohibit all internet e-mail, as well as sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Photobucket, and the list goes on.
The uproar was heard fleet-wide, but you can't really argue with the decision because the battlespace is all about bandwidth and have the resources to keep the information flowing. In the days of video teleconferencing and satellite phone calls, every bit of bandwidth counts.
Another reason for this prohibition is computer security. Personal e-mail through a public system does not go through our network filters, creating an opportunity for intrusion through viruses or trojans.
Needless to say, I agree with the principles behind the banning, it just chaps my ass I can't check my Hotmail every now and then...
Alright, got that out of the way. Long and boring, I almost fell asleep typing it, can't see how you made it this far. It's not the whole story, and doesn't paint a completely clear picture, but I think you get my drift of "how it used to be."
Thanks to Out of Mana, I saw this Twitter thing on her blog but never had the inclination to look it up, then I saw that the Lich King had his own twitter account and I decided to finally figure out what I was looking at.
Sign up was a breeze. The best part is the Navy hasn't banned it yet so I can use it at will. I'm following several people now and even have 7 followers myself! Probably because I'm following them...
I'm kicking myself in the butt because I didn't sign up for this long ago, like back in May when I left home. I'll be back home soon though so it's probably too late to get Jeanine and the kids to sign up. Me and my laziness...
I'm talking about Twitter.
If you're asking what the heck is Twitter, obviously you didn't click the link, but I'll give you this: Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends. You'll just have to visit the link for the rest...
A little background into Navy life and internet connections...
The ability to use the internet onboard a Navy ship is relatively new, well, new to a guy like me who's served for 20+ years. Way back when I joined in 1987, when a ship pulled away from the pier, the only regular communication with family and friends came in the form of letters. Some of you may be asking yourself what that is, I won't explain it, I feel old enough as it is...
In 1996, we had the ability to send e-mail to our loved ones through a system called SALTS, Streamlined Alternative Logistics Transmission System, chosen as the system to expand the Navy's capacity to transmit logistics information and administrative data from deployed units to existing Department of Defense communications networks.
The way this would work, I would type a letter in Notepad, save it to a 3.5" floppy, hand carry it to our Radio room and they would transmit my letter (e-mail), along with everyone else's to the command Ombudsman, who would in turn print them all out, call the families and friends and they would have to come pick them up. Not exactly the best system but it's what we had and we were happy to have something like this to keep in more immediate touch with everyone.
Where it used to take weeks to mail letters back and forth, now took days, depending on how often your loved one could make it to the Ombudsman's house.
1997-1998 I experienced the same system for passing letters back and forth with my wife, but by this time we had a shipboard LAN system available to us. Just another step in the long journey.
2000 found us with LAN systems installed, e-mail clients available (Outlook) and the ability to send e-mails at our leisure. If you planned it right, you could trade e-mails back and forth within minutes, sort of like instant messaging, except without the instant part.
I had the privilege of a few years of shore duty and really didn't think of it until 2004 when I arrived to my next ship. By this time the internet was a part of everyday life for me.
I can back up to 1998 because that's when I created my first Hotmail account. Fast forward again to 2004...
Everyone had a Hotmail account, or Yahoo, or Google, or whatever e-mail client of preference. It became common for Sailors to have access to the internet and the ability to check personal e-mails, staying in touch with whoever they wanted to stay in touch with through the internet.
That is, until 2006, when the Navy decided that personal internet e-mail accounts were a drain on bandwidth for ships at sea and decided to prohibit all internet e-mail, as well as sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Photobucket, and the list goes on.
The uproar was heard fleet-wide, but you can't really argue with the decision because the battlespace is all about bandwidth and have the resources to keep the information flowing. In the days of video teleconferencing and satellite phone calls, every bit of bandwidth counts.
Another reason for this prohibition is computer security. Personal e-mail through a public system does not go through our network filters, creating an opportunity for intrusion through viruses or trojans.
Needless to say, I agree with the principles behind the banning, it just chaps my ass I can't check my Hotmail every now and then...
Alright, got that out of the way. Long and boring, I almost fell asleep typing it, can't see how you made it this far. It's not the whole story, and doesn't paint a completely clear picture, but I think you get my drift of "how it used to be."
Thanks to Out of Mana, I saw this Twitter thing on her blog but never had the inclination to look it up, then I saw that the Lich King had his own twitter account and I decided to finally figure out what I was looking at.
Sign up was a breeze. The best part is the Navy hasn't banned it yet so I can use it at will. I'm following several people now and even have 7 followers myself! Probably because I'm following them...
I'm kicking myself in the butt because I didn't sign up for this long ago, like back in May when I left home. I'll be back home soon though so it's probably too late to get Jeanine and the kids to sign up. Me and my laziness...
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Drawback of...
Google Reader.
Blogs are wonderful things. I started reading political blogs years ago, I enjoy reading opinions that match my own in regards to my conservative views on the world. I delved into other topics from links given in various blog posts and built quite the favorites list.
While researching some talent specs for my warlock in World of Warcraft I stumbled across Yet Another Warlock Nerf blog and realized I found a treasure-trove of warlock information to help me better my game. From that blog, I started exploring more and a whole new world of blog-reading opened it's doors for me.
A few more I found turned out to become regular reading, whether for the PVP aspect, learning other classes, or exploring roleplaying and humor, my blog count continued to rise and there was no way to get to all of them efficiently.
That's where Google Reader comes in. One stop shopping for blog reading. It's easy to set up a reader account and start subscribing to sites that support RSS feeds.
"RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News."
I chose Google Reader for ease of use.
Here's the reason for the post subject; I now have 137 sites with several different topics that I follow. World of Warcraft, Mountain Biking, Computer News, Politics, and various and sundry other topics that no one is interested in reading.
I took a hiatus from web-surfing to concentrate on leveling my priest and neglected my Google Reader for 4 days. I came back to 479 posts to read. I've knocked them down to less than 200 but there are at least 50 new posts per day, and with the new expansion coming out in less than 2 days, sometimes more than 100 per day.
I've actually knocked down a few of the blogs I follow:
Computers?
Only one, now that I'm an exclusive Mac user at home.
Politics?
My current favorite
Mountain Biking?
Maintenance and other subjects
Because I can relate
For all the news
But the blogs I read most are about World of Warcraft. Because there's too many to list, I will say that I read all types of WoW blogs, about all different classes and subjects. Out of the 137 blogs I subscribe to, at least 100 are WoW blogs. I plan to import my subscriptions from Google Reader to my Blog Roll, so check there for any WoW Blogs you might find interesting.
And the list continues to grow... I'm never going get all of these read...
Blogs are wonderful things. I started reading political blogs years ago, I enjoy reading opinions that match my own in regards to my conservative views on the world. I delved into other topics from links given in various blog posts and built quite the favorites list.
While researching some talent specs for my warlock in World of Warcraft I stumbled across Yet Another Warlock Nerf blog and realized I found a treasure-trove of warlock information to help me better my game. From that blog, I started exploring more and a whole new world of blog-reading opened it's doors for me.
A few more I found turned out to become regular reading, whether for the PVP aspect, learning other classes, or exploring roleplaying and humor, my blog count continued to rise and there was no way to get to all of them efficiently.
That's where Google Reader comes in. One stop shopping for blog reading. It's easy to set up a reader account and start subscribing to sites that support RSS feeds.
"RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News."
I chose Google Reader for ease of use.
Here's the reason for the post subject; I now have 137 sites with several different topics that I follow. World of Warcraft, Mountain Biking, Computer News, Politics, and various and sundry other topics that no one is interested in reading.
I took a hiatus from web-surfing to concentrate on leveling my priest and neglected my Google Reader for 4 days. I came back to 479 posts to read. I've knocked them down to less than 200 but there are at least 50 new posts per day, and with the new expansion coming out in less than 2 days, sometimes more than 100 per day.
I've actually knocked down a few of the blogs I follow:
Computers?
Only one, now that I'm an exclusive Mac user at home.
Politics?
My current favorite
Mountain Biking?
Maintenance and other subjects
Because I can relate
For all the news
But the blogs I read most are about World of Warcraft. Because there's too many to list, I will say that I read all types of WoW blogs, about all different classes and subjects. Out of the 137 blogs I subscribe to, at least 100 are WoW blogs. I plan to import my subscriptions from Google Reader to my Blog Roll, so check there for any WoW Blogs you might find interesting.
And the list continues to grow... I'm never going get all of these read...
Monday, November 10, 2008
So, Here I Am...
Thinking about Wrath of the Lich King, the new expansion for World of Warcraft, and really annoyed that I live overseas. I won't be able to purchase the expansion as soon as it hits the stores, I have to order it online and wait for it to get to me. Amazon, please ship fast!
I feel bad for my boy though, he's in an awesome guild, running end-game content, and he's going to have to wait about a week before he can get the expansion installed and start leveling again. I wonder how far along the rest of his guild will be and how long it will take him to catch up to them? He's going to play and watch everyone around him leaving him behind, and there's nothing we can do about it.
I hope both copies arrive quickly because it would be nice to be able to play when I get home. Jeanine probably hopes it never arrives. I know I play too much Honey but it's the bestest game ever!
Side note, I'm concentrating on my priest first in order to experience some of that raid stuff myself. My warlock will be my PVP toon, as well as farmer, but will not be neglected in the least. Seems everyone is looking for a priest to group with but no one wants a lock...
I feel bad for my boy though, he's in an awesome guild, running end-game content, and he's going to have to wait about a week before he can get the expansion installed and start leveling again. I wonder how far along the rest of his guild will be and how long it will take him to catch up to them? He's going to play and watch everyone around him leaving him behind, and there's nothing we can do about it.
I hope both copies arrive quickly because it would be nice to be able to play when I get home. Jeanine probably hopes it never arrives. I know I play too much Honey but it's the bestest game ever!
Side note, I'm concentrating on my priest first in order to experience some of that raid stuff myself. My warlock will be my PVP toon, as well as farmer, but will not be neglected in the least. Seems everyone is looking for a priest to group with but no one wants a lock...
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