Luke Gedeon

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How’s it going? No, I am not just saying, “Hello”…. For real, how are things going in your life?

I am so busy right now that I can’t see straight, but life is great and I am blessed far beyond what I deserve. I just ate some very delicious egg-rolls and all is right in the world. How about you?

Does this little economic down-turn have you concerned or even… unemployed? Or maybe one of thousands of other things has got you down? Don’t let it. You still have a lot to be thankful for. The very fact that you are sad about something indicates that you are alive, and that beats the alternative. Right? No? Okay, but even if the alternative is sounding pretty attractive, just think, in a few years it will be yours. In the mean-time enjoy life and count your blessings. Name them one by one.

I am thrilled and delighted that so many of my readers are from outside the US, but today and tomorrow you will just have to play along. In the US, tomorrow is one of the biggest holidays on our calender, Thanksgiving. To celebrate the occasion, I am doing a group-writing project where I encourage all my friends, enemies, and anyone else that wants to join-in to list seven things that they are thankful for. For more details, click here.

Last year, I listed several people/families that I was thankful for. This year I am just going to mention that those particular people are still at the top of my list and then I am going to list seven new things / groups of people.

Here they are in no particular order.

Seven Things I am Thankful for This Year

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The Hruzek Tribe – I hate admit this, but I am not sure when I first stopped by the Middle Zone and met Robert Hruzek, but I have to say it was one of the best things that happened to me this year. Robert has surrounded himself with a group of very active, friendly and witty writers and others who hold the written word in high esteem. This tribe, which I now proudly call my own, love to write and write quite well.

And the thing I like most, is that they comment! Sure, it is cool to see thousands of people coming from around the world to see what you have to say, but it is so much more exciting to be able to talk to them. Thanks tribe! You have made this blog a thousand times more fun.

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Open source software – Ever found a computer program that will do almost all that you want it to do, but there is just that one thing that makes it so hard to use? Okay, probably not, but it happens to me all the time. WordPress is great but there a couple of things that would really get under my skin if I could not change them.

The good news is that WordPress is open-source, so I can change any part of it I do not like. Even no programmers get to participate a lot more in the development of open source projects. Other great open source applications include Firefox, OpenOffice, and Linux.

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Apple Computers – When it comes to software, give me options or give me death. With hardware, I am the complete opposite. I want a machine I can count on to just work. You can’t have any fun experimenting with software if you are constantly fighting with hardware. Some people like that stuff, but not me.

Call me a fruit cake, but I am thankful that Steve Jobs and friends decided to make a better computer, and I am glad that I get to partake of the fruits of their labor.

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Rhode Island & Boston – RI is a beautiful state. I love the beaches in the summer, an actual for-real fall and spring, and in the winter… snow!

I have also fallen in love with the nearest real city, Boston. It is loaded with history and is one of the cleanest cities I have seen. And that’s not to mention all the other cool spots around New England. I am absolutely loving it here.

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Sunrises and Sunsets – When I think of my favorite things, sunrises and sunsets outshine them all. The colors are simply amazing! And they are always different.

Variety is more than just the spice of life for me. I thrive on variety. That little bit of new each day keeps me sane. (well more sane than I would otherwise be anyway… hey, be nice)

Xu Wenli and Xintong – Xu Wenli spent 16 years in prison for trying to bring freedom to his fellow Chinese. He and his wife are now in the US and we are working together to help thousands of people who have been denied the opportunity to even speak about what they believe to be important. I am so thankful for Mr. Xu’s willingness to endure prison, for Xintong’s patient waiting for him to be released and that he was realeased and they were allowed to come here to the US.

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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – I can’t believe I am saying this but I am also thankful for the CCP. Sure, they have some serious problems, but you know what, they really are trying to help the people of China… at least most of them are.

Hopefully over time we will be able to teach them better ways to help with having to be so repressive, and maybe eventually we can eliminate corruption, but for now I am just thankful that at least some of them really do care about helping their neighbors.

What are you thankful for this year?

Well, I have nearly missed my own dead-line. It is a good thing I like myself so well. And guess what! I like you too, so if you still have not made your list, there is still time. I will be adding new people thoughout the day tomorrow. So as soon as you get your list posted let me know.

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I gave up on Scoble’s blog about the time he started using FriendFeed cause most of the interesting conversations moved over there and I still have not learned to like FF, but I am still subscribed to his shared items feed in Google Reader.

A few minutes ago Robert Scoble shared a post that bragged on BatchBlue a local New England tech company for doing a great job with their blog and communicating with their customers. Since I have a few friends at BatchBlue I wanted to let them, and you know about the big mention.

Here is the post Scoble shared: http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/08/21/company-blogs-can-provide-big-insights/

Congratulations guys!

Okay, so these pictures are a bit dated, but I thought you might enjoy them I enjoyed rediscovering them as I went back through a bunch of old pictures.

Image via Wikipedia

Freedom is the Highest Value of Human Life

Speech in Rhode Island at “Democracy Day at the State House” April 27, 2004

Xu Wenli

Respected Speaker of the House
Ladies, gentlemen
Fellow friends,

I am very honored to speak at the State House today.  I thank you for your calling this event, “Democracy Day at the State House.”

Rhode Island is a beautiful state.  It borders the vast Atlantic Ocean, with glittering jewels like Newport scattered everywhere.

I am honored to tell all of you, now I have also become a Rhode Island resident.  I consider Rhode Island my second home.

The reason I consider Rhode Island my second home is not merely because of its beauty.  For me, as political exile, it is more importantly because Rhode Island was the first state in the history of the U.S., to declare its independence.

Rhode Island is a free state.  Here, it is extremely open and liberal, including my place of employment, Brown University, and the 1 million open-minded, liberal and hospitable people of Rhode Island.

The founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, was an individual in pursuit of freedom.  He did not fear the risks facing him and he hacked his way through the difficulties.

Williams’s successor, Stephen Hopkins was a participant in the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.  In his former residence, I can almost see the figures of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, founders of America.

All of these figures have given me great encouragement to continue my life’s struggle for freedom, democracy, and human rights in China.

This is because I am much like them.  I have always seen freedom as the greatest value of human life.

Because of this, I never avoided the disaster of imprisonment.  And today I will not find the slightest bit of complacency just because I now have a life of freedom.

Today, I would like to use this sacred platform to tell you all that in the next ten years the benefit of the United States and the people of the United States depends on whether or not China, a nation of 1.3 billion people, about 10 million square km, that has increasingly wide-ranging and profound trade relations with the U.S, is able to realize a stable transition into a constitutional democratic governmental system.  It also depends on whether or not this future Chinese government, that has implemented constitutionalism and democracy, shares a friendly relationship with you.

I can understand that the two parties of the U.S. government consistently feel that only a stable and prosperous China is compatible with the national interests of the U.S.

I would also like to tell you, however, that China can only become a stable, strong, prosperous, and friendly nation under constitutionalism and democracy.

An autocratic China cannot possibly establish stability and prosperity.  An autocratic Chinese government is unsafe to the Chinese people, unsafe to world peace, and unsafe to the U.S. and the American people.

Recently, SARS quickly became a major threat to the lives of the Chinese people and the people of all nations of the world.  Last year when it first broke out, the Chinese Communist Party government concealed the disease from the entire world and, through just international opinion, received condemnation.

The Chinese Communist Party has no intention to correct their mistakes, while they guarantee that they would not conceal the truth of any incidents. Due to a recent strategic error of the Chinese authorities, the possibility of another outbreak in Mainland China has again presented itself.

Reality tells us again, an autocratic government cannot be trusted.

I hope that reminding you of this kind case will strengthen your resolve to help and support my colleagues and me in our struggle for the realization of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights.

I believe that our mission will obtain your further energetic support and sincere aide.

Thank you.

This is my first attempt at live blogging, so things might look really weird for the next hour.

Bio info here soon

[Note: For the rest of the post "I" refers to Mr. Haass]

It is a pleasure to be here. This is like a fulfillment of a lifelong dream. It is an opportunity to speak at universities I would never have been accepted at.

Let me say, I am not sure that I agree with the topic I was given because I am not sure the the world does. Partly because there are many places that love America. For example, Bush was receive well in Africa.

[At this point a few people left. I will let you decide why]

But there is in some parts of the world a feeling of anti-Americanism. I do not think we should ignore this. I think it is important for two reasons. First, It makes it harder to get things done. Second, college students around the world are being taught that America is bad which implies that what America stands for is wrong.

Three reasons for anti-Americanism.

1. America is powerful. Power is resented even in personal relationships – Not much we can do about this

2. Some people disagree with our policies. – Listen better. Change policy where it makes sense. Not just for popularity, but we can often obtain the same goals by work with others instead of against them.

3. Partly because of how we present ourselves – America is naturally generous. This can help. This is not the solution though. We cannot Madison Garden ourselves out of this. The goal is not to make the world love us. It is to get the world to help us help the world.

This is one of the biggest moments in a century. The 20th century started with multi-polarity. After WWII there was bipolarity until 11-9-89 with the fall of the Berlin wall. Then we had uni-polarity for about two decades. We now are in a state of non-polarity. With power in many different of countries, NGO’s and MNC’s. America is not as powerful as it was because of war we could not afford, unbalanced trade, over commitment, etc.

There is now no invisible hand. Things do not just work out. We are facing increased entropy and randomness. There is no military solution to these problems. So what are we going to have to do to get people to work with us? The challenge is no longer another country. It is globalization. The dark side of globalization. Things like pollution, etc. We must work with many different types of organizations. Not just other governments.

The next president will have to deal with many issues. Things like Iran as a possible nuclear power. Try diplomacy first. May have to just live it. We are going have to pick our priorities. Can’t do it all.

I suggest that America focus on other countries foreign policy not on their internal issues. President will have deal with many internal issue. Need to end dependancy on oil. It sends money to countries that mean us harm. We have to get our economics in order. We have to stop borrowing from the future. Reduce presence in Iraq and rebuild military. Need to send civilian reserve to help Iraq and other countries. Retired police and civil workers. Rebuild support in America for living in a global world.

The world is not Los Vegas. What happens there will not stay there. It will come here. We have to deal with this. Bird flu. Pollution.

[People have been leaving for the last five minutes]

We can’t dominate the world. Those two decades are over, but we are still the most powerful concentration of power. We can shape the future, and we need to.

What is this is going to look like is still unclear.

Questions:

Peter Sharp – Teaches Sanskit at Brown: India thinks we are out to destroy them. What is America going to do about this? Why are the candidates not talking about this?

Reply: America is using a lot of resources, but has been a major power for good in the world…. The good news is that we can reduce oil dependancy w/o compromising our rate of growth. The purpose of campaigning is to get elected, not to talk about really tough questions. The time for that is coming. Deforestation is important.

Anonymous: How are we going to deal with increasing transparency, and also borders are disappearing.

Reply: I know this is naive but I believe that if we have an informed open discussions on things we can find good solutions together. We can’t make things happen, but we lob ideas out there and hope they take root.

Anonymous: Is there anything we can learn from Ireland?

Reply: A little. It took time, but now Ireland is approaching normal. 1st lesson: IRA had to learn they could not shoot their way to victory. That is not enough but it was important for them to understand this so they could learn the second lesson. 2nd: They learned that they at least have an chance of getting to some of their goals through diplomacy. They will not get everything they want but they will still be better off than if they were still fighting.

Matt Swan – Freshman: America was powerful b/c of its money. It is not making less money now. How is America getting less powerful?

Reply: True. American GDP even in a recession is not down much and is mostly steady, but China is growing 10%, Europe is growing, also there are sovereign funds that are approaching the size of US GDP. So relatively we are getting weaker. It is not that we are going to be poor. We just do not have as much power.

Ruo Mei – Junior in Internal Relations: Is this a policy a matter of convenience? Are you suggesting that America ignore internal issues in other countries because that might hurt trade relations?

Reply: This is the biggest debate in foriegn policy. Should we take a practical approach doing what works or should we take a stand on issues like human rights and democracy. This is not black and white, but I think we should focus on getting help with North Korea and dealing with other very important issues. We need the help of China and other countries that we do not always agree witg. First I am not sure that we can do anything about it, but also through relationships we can encourage them to do better. The WTO help through treaties that require transperancy. Look at Russia things are not perfect there, but a postive relationship helped end communism. This seems t be the better approach.

Anon: Are we taking the wrong aproach by closing our boarders and not allowing as many foriegn students in?

Reply: We are sending a lot of students that want to come here to other countries. We are making a mistake by not letting them come here. In these other schools they are being taught to dislike America. We are hurting ourselves by not welcoming forign students. One exception is a guy from Egypt who went to a church and saw unmarried kids dancing together. He the reacted against that and founded the modern day radical Islamist movement.

[Two other related questions that I missed]

The role of the UN will be limited because the five big countries that head the organization are not as strong as they were and have a hard time agreeing. Not enough countries are represented for the decisions to be effective. But these issues do require nations to work together. Problems of the future will be solved by adhoc groups of nations and other organizations working together on specific issues.

And time is up. Thank you for coming.

Wow, BatchBlue.com has done a bit of growing up since last time I checked. Adam Darowski was twittering about his site today and so I took a second look. The site is just about perfect for a small business, but the software is not Batch Blue’s competitive advantage.

The strongest feature is their people. I have met at least a couple of the people at Batch Blue and they are the nicest people you will ever meet. I have to admit I usually do not evaluate software based on the people that build and support it – especially not with online software. In this case, though, that makes a pretty big difference.

See, I have worked with enough small businesses to realize that even though the software is easy enough that any geek could figure it out, it is still probably quite the mystery to the average small business. Batch Blue makes the software accessable for small business. I you are a geek and this is making no sense to you, don’t worry I did not get it for a loooooong time. Just take my word for it, they are doing something most geeks can’t, and that makes them pretty cool.

My geek eye quickly picked out a few features I would love to add, like off-line editing and auto-import directly from other contact repositories, but for real customers this site is really great. And no Adam did not pay me to write this. He is just a really nice guy.

Calling all New England bloggers and technology lovers (geeks). I am putting together a directory of anyone, and any company that is involved in technology, and all of the bloggers in the area. Not all blogs are about technology, you know. My wife is a geek, but does not talk tech on her blog. She has something much more interesting to talk about.

I am also looking for other related directories. If you know of any directories, or if you work in computer science, blog, or have any interest in this area, and you are from New England, I would love to hear from you.

I am also looking for a little help with the MediaWiki (Wikipedia) software. If you have a few minutes to help out with this, it would be appreciated. If not, I should still be able to finish this pretty soon.

China Care Brown, a student organization at Brown University, is holding a benefit dinner to raise money for orphans in China. The dinner will be this Friday at 7pm. Visit their website for details.

Xu Wenli, head of the Caring for China Center, of which I am part, is donating some of his Chinese calligraphy that will be auctioned at the dinner. Last Saturday, I got to see him finishing the pieces to be auctioned. It was fascinating to watch the care that was put into every detail of the paintings.

He finished his works by stamping each with three red stamps. One of the stamps was his name carved in an ancient script. I am not sure what the other two were. The ink / paste that he used was a beautiful shade of red (this from someone who normally does not like red). He worked with the stamp and ink for at least a minute for each impression he made, and was meticulous with the placement of each. Each character, each stroke, each stamp, was perfectly placed for a beautiful and unique balance.

The final step, or process really, was the framing. He folded the paper around mounting board and then placed it the frame. He held it up, looked at it, took it out of the frame, adjusted it a bit and tried again. He did this again several times until it was perfectly placed and then added extra paper on the inside to make a tight fit. Watching him work really increased my appreciation for the end result.

Anyway back to the dinner, if you are in Providence this Friday, please come and support a good cause. These kids need your help. If you can’t attend consider donating.

Traffic to my site nearly doubled today with people looking for Super Bowl results. Unfortunately my earlier posts were written with the assumption that anyone bothering to read would already know how things turned out.

To make amends here is what happened last night:

The New York Giants beat the New England (near Boston) Patriots, 17 to 14 in a game that will be remembered for many, many, years to come.

This game was historic for several reasons. First, the Patriots made it to the SuperBowl undefeated (this season – not ever:)). They would have set a world record if they had won the game, and everyone including the Patriots were pretty confident they would win. But, as is often the case, over-confidence leads to disappointment. The first three quarters were quite boring. The score sat at 7-3 Patriots forevvveeeeerrrrrr. Then all of the sudden the Giants decided to start playing. I do not know if they had just been saving their energy for the end or what but they took off. The Patriots came back with another touch-down but just could not handle the shock.

My friend (a Patriot fan) described the game as the worst game ever. I am sure he is a bit biased, but I have to admit, there was something strange about that game. It almost seemed staged like WWF or something. Not that I have ever watched wrestling but I have heard that it is all theater. Anyway, this game definitely has movie potential.

As usual the four-year-old wins. For a couple years Peter was the youngest person in the family to pick winners for the Super Bowl, NCAA Basketball, and World Series, and during that time he did really well. He either won or came very close every time. Even after Phillip started Peter held on for a bit. He has been the most successful picker of winning teams for quite some time, but now Phillip is getting a lot better. As the new youngest player, he is carrying on the tradition of youngest is smartest. Or maybe he is just keeping the rest of us humble.

It will be a neat Super Bowl with New York playing against Boston (almost?), given the sibling rivalry between the two cities.

Actually, Anna could win if the Patriots win the Super Bowl but as of right now Phillip has the most points. The funny thing is that I was ahead until this game. Oh well, the Patriots should win in Glendale and that will put me second.

Of course, the Packers were supposed to win tonight. So I am not counting my chickens yet.

Caring for China Center has an immediate need for a bookkeeper/accountant in Providence, RI. We need someone who is familiar with the paperwork required of a publicly supported 509(a) not-for-profit corporation 501(c)3.

This will hopefully become a paid position very soon but at this point we are looking for someone willing to volunteer their time for a really good cause. Ability to read Chinese would be a huge plus.

If you know anyone who is willing and able to help please let me know.

The Google Maps street-view has come in handy on recent trips to NYC. I like it better than Google Earth for looking for land-marks ahead of time. Both are useful for different things.

The challenge with street-view is that they have to take pictures city-by-city, street-by-street. This slows down the process of getting images online. They only have 31 flavors … oops … cities right now. They add a few more every few months. At this rate, it could be years before they are done. But, it is definitely worth the wait!

Boston (my favorite city) and Providence (the nearest big city) both were added this week. I hope they are going to expand the coverage a bit more, but I am certainly not complaining. Boston is better than San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

I am bit curious how they decide what order to do cities. I would have thought Boston would have been done earlier, and I am surprised Providence was done before some larger cities. Both of them being added at the same time, though, makes a pretty good Christmas present.

Actually, I just looked at Boston again and noticed that a lot of the cities around Boston were done as part of the Boston coverage, which is probably why Providence was done early. It just proves my theory that Providence is a suburb of Boston.

Okay, round three…. funny I did not mean to, but I think I may have saved the best for last.

Adam Darowski works with BatchBlue of Rhode Island. They make a customizable online contact manager for small businesses. I was impressed with his blog, darowski.com. I have barely had time to scratch the surface and already found some interesting stuff. Subscribed and going back through the archives.

Mike Darowski (Adam’s brother) is an XML geek working in educational field. I should have introduced him to Alfred Thompson another educational geek from New England. I think Mike might be the closest (from Warwick) of the people I met Thursday. I look forward to meeting again.

Liz Laneri encourages her clients to blog but does not have one yet. She makes up for it in twitter. She works at a PR agency called Horn Group. If you listen to Scoble, you might think that PR will never get blogging but Horn blows a hole in that theory.

Eric Mertzlufft is starting a website to train guys on how to hook-up their socially challenged buddies with the perfect match. “Because finding the perfect girl is easy. Getting her attention is difficult.” Good luck, Eric on this difficult but important task.

Well three days later, I have a list of most of the people I met. Now I have to send follow-up emails, read blogs, and explore websites. New England may have a little geekery in it after all.

I met some really interesting folks last night. Here are a few of them in no particular order.

Stephen Warley is founder of BostonKnows, a cool, new, almost released site all about Boston. It is a cross between Digg and del.icio.us with a nicer looking interface. He also pointed me to xconomy a site covering news and events in the Boston area. He blogs on LostRemote with Steve Safran of Boston and a few others.

Jeff Cram started ISITE Design to help companies develop and execute a web strategy. They have worked with a pretty wide variety of companies both in size and industry
Max Freiert and Jay Meattle of Compete, inc. I had fun listening to them interrupt each other as they competed to explain what Compete was. I just checked out the site. It does a much better better job of explaining what they do, of course, that might be the fault of the noise level at that point. I am going to have to check out their analytics. I hope it is better than Google’s attempt. The corporate blog is here.

Beth Kanter is a consultant teaching non-profits about blogs, and other social media. This is a huge area of need. Social media can help non-profits to discover volunteers, donors, and other organizations with similar goals. Beth is a treasure trove of information on this very important topic.

I gotta stop for now and spend a little time with the family. I will introduce you to a few more people tomorrow.

Tags: Bloggerdinnerbostonoct07

I just met quite a few New England bloggers at the Boston Blogger Dinner! We seem to be a bit difficult to find. I am going to do what I can to remedy that. I am up against a fairly significant challenge though. Steven Warley tells me that New Englanders like to keep their private life private. Fair enough, but if I do not know that 1. you are interested in tech, and 2. going to be at a certain place where I can meet you, how are we ever going to get to know each other?

Having a local network of geeks is important for the survival of the city. Scoble thinks that you have to move to Silicon Valley to start a tech company. San Francisco has a much better organized tech community and that really does help, but we can have the same thing here with a little work.

Fortunately there are a few events in the area where we can meet, and that is starting to help bring us together. I am going to schedule a meet-up in South County pretty soon. I have also found Facebook to help a little in that direction, but tonight lets talk about the Boston Blogger Meeting.

It was really neat. I had the honor and privilege of talking to Doc Searls! That was the highlight of the night. Thanks Doc, for taking time to talk to me. You made my day. I met a lot of other people I will have to post about tomorrow.

Note to self: when setting up a similar meet-up pay attention to the floor plan. The room we were in was big enough, but we only used about 60% of it because nobody wanted to go over to the dark corner. You could not get to the food from there so we all crowded into a much smaller place than necessary. I have to agree with someone else who ate there once that the food at this restaurant did the job of making you not hungry anymore, but the people who came made it worth it.

I got to talk a lot about non-profits this evening. I knew that giving back to the community was becoming an important theme, but was still pleasantly surprised at how many people were talking about ways to help non-profits. This is definitely the right time for KarmaGeek. It is an exciting time to be alive.

More on Boston / New England Geeks tomorrow.

Tags: Bloggerdinnerbostonoct07

Is there any geek group in the area? Any meet-ups south of Providence? We have a lot of stuff going on up in Providence and Boston, but I have not seen anything in South County yet. So if you are in North Kingstown, South Kingstown, Exeter, East Greenwich, Narragansett, Westerly, or URI lets talk. I am going to be announcing a meet-up soon, but lets see who we can find first.

If you are into blogging either as a business or about your business, if you write software, or just enjoy playing with the newest gadgets, if technology is more than just a job for you, I would like to meet you in person and online. My comment area is open, or you can join me on Facebook or Twitter.

This is a new production from Enrico Garzilli. Enrico’s works, at least to me, seem to be similar to Andrew Lloyd Webber – only not so dark. I have listened to some of his music and am friends with one of his brothers. I am looking forward to the premier of this new musical. For more information info see:

• http://www.operaprovidence.org/
• http://enricogarzilli.com/