Alliteration is fun, no?

Lollishops is set to launch!

We’re all pretty excited over here about Lollishops going beta. Lollishops is a “frou frou” friendly site born from the desire for a more shopper friendly, easy to use, community-oriented place for vendors to sell their handmade wares and vintage items. Lets go shopping!

The most underreported vote that took place on Nov. 4th was probably the FCC’s vote to allow unlicensed use of much of the TV spectrum for wireless internet access.

The decision, which was opposed by broadcasters but supported by prominent technology companies (see the Wireless Innovation Alliance), permits anyone with the right type of hardware to transmit wireless data across most of the TV frequencies that will be abandoned in the mandatory switch-over to digital TV in 2009. The requisite technology is still in development, but it promises to pull an urban-style WiFi blanket over currently unserved areas. The very low frequencies stay strong over relatively long distances, making them ideal for potential broadband customers in rural locations where DSL and cable are not available.

The exception is channels 52 through 69, which were auctioned off earlier this year—mostly going to AT&T and Verizon. While those channels may become a proprietary access conduit run by those companies, the portions of the spectrum that the FCC has left unlicensed will probably develop along the more anarchic WiFi model—which is in many ways more successful and promising than the DSL/cable model.

For more details, check out Sascha Segan’s article in PC Magazine.

This was the first election I was able to vote in.

My absentee ballot arrived in the mail weeks ago, the envelope had my name on it. The day before the election, I diligently filled it out, darkening each box fully, and sealed it up. Later I trekked to the Rood  Center to turn it in, and despite how overwhelmingly crowded the election office was, I was glad it was. I dropped my ballot in the box and went on my way, feeling pretty good, even though I didn’t get my “I Voted” sticker.

The next day, I went with my boyfriend and watched him vote for the first time. Whenever someone would say it was their first time voting, the volunteers would clap for them. We walked out half an hour later from a busy voting place with “I Voted” stickers stuck to our shirts (I asked very nicely if I could have one, since I didn’t get one earlier) and feeling inexplicably prouder of ourselves. We’d voted, and we had a say in what happens to us, no matter how small. We congratulated ourselves with some free Starbucks that our stickers afforded us. The vanilla bean frappuccino is delicious.

Later was spent hanging around a computer or television screen, hastily refreshing page results or listening for the latest tally, talking about propositions, theorizing about the future, wishing Ron Paul was on the ballot.

Then, not even 8 o clock, we hear who our next president is. It was almost unreal, it had happened so fast I hardly believed it. No matter whom you voted for, everyone can agree on the history being made. Reading internet posts about it later, hearing the world’s reaction to Obama’s win, I could feel the history happening. Our children are going to read about this in books someday. The effects of this decision are going to be felt for years to come.

Regardless of the outcome, we’re not out of the woods yet. We cannot be magicly saved, no matter the candidate. We’re all gonna have to work for it; things can’t be ‘normal’ again.

At the end of it all, I’m proud I voted. I’m proud America has made such a huge shift. I’m proud our next president is one I voted for.

Be excellent to each other!

On NPR yesterday,Talk of the Nation featured guest Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. Tapscott believes that Gen Y’s highly-developed collaboration and information-sharing skills are revolutionary. During the TOTN broadcast, Tapscott argues that people who’ve grown up with the internet’s information glut have far better “BS detectors” than previous generations do. The need to generate practical info from a source that’s not inherently credible has forced the development of our processing and synthesizing skills.

Further, Tapscott says that this information processing capacity makes negative and misleading political advertising dramatically less effective in swaying the opinions of those under 30.

I found this argument interesting in relation to the misleading Yes on 8 banner ads that are all over MySpace. These ads suggest that Sens. Obama and Biden support Prop 8, the constitutional amendment that would eliminate the right to same-sex marriage. I’m sure they’ll succeed in confusing some voters, but it’s widely known that Obama and Biden are opponents of Prop 8–and a big reason that this fact is so well known is the widespread dissemination of No on 8 banners featuring Obama on blogs and social networking sites.

I think if we see Prop 8 lose by a close margin tonight we might want to thank the Yes on 8 campaign for deciding to unleash obviously misleading banners on MySpace, one of the epicenters of the BS awareness revolution.

Type Nevada City or Grass Valley or wherever you are sitting into the location box, and check out the statistical graphics it generates. Pretty sexy for a chart widget. YouCalc is the engine—their website lets you process your data for free into a portable chart that you can hang on your blog, your Facebook page, iGoogle, or wherever else you want to take it. Considering all the Google Analytics V7’s sites will hopefully be generating in the near future, this might be a tool we can have a lot of fun with.

And why do you keep inviting me to yours?

Seems like every day I get three new Facebook requests from acquaintances and friends offering me some kind of animated plant or Pokemon-meets-Lego character if I will only join this (lil) Green Patch application. 

So, apparently, it’s an extremely viral RPG-style web game that brings its users back for so many repeat page-views, it makes buckets of bucks in ad revenues both for its two creators and their charity of choice, The Nature Conservancy. The game is designed to cultivate its own popularity, because users have to earn GreenBucks to play by sending gifts to other Facebook users–often to those who haven’t started playing yet. Hence the incessant invitations annoying me.

The environmental charity aspect of the game is as much of an appeal of it as the addictive role-playing quality. It’s the same appeal made by The Rainforest Site, plus it’s a game.

Normally I avoid Facebook apps like the plague. I’ve always thought Facebook looks way better than MySpace, and big graphical applications like Superheroes and Superpoke! tend to be really ugly. I guess the lesson of (lil) Green Patch is that people don’t care about aesthetics like I do if they have a couple substantive reasons–gameplay + environment–to keep coming back.

Check out Yuba Watershed Institute’s field seminar.  This takes place in one of my favorite meadows in the Sierra.  The event looks amazing.

Restoring the Ecological and Cultural Integrity of Sierra Meadows:

A field seminar in Bear Valley Meadow (at the Hwy. 20-Zeibright Road turnout)

Saturday, November 8, 2008 From 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Join an expert panel of scientists, archaeologists, and Tsi-Akim Maidu tribal members for a walk-about and conversation exploring the ecological benefits and cultural and spiritual importance of mountain meadows and the urgency—particularly in the face of drought and climate change—for their restoration.

Bring your lunch for a group picnic in the meadow to follow the event (weather permitting).

This is a family-friendly event. No dogs please.

This FREE event has been made possible with funding from the Bella Vista Foundation and is a production of the Yuba Watershed Institute in partnership with American Rivers, the Tsi-Akim Maidu tribe, the South Yuba River Citizens League and the Stockholm Environment Institute.

For more information and to register for this FREE event, contact Tania Carlone at 530-265-4459 or tania@yubawatershedinstitute.org