Lumpy's Corner

Well I dunno who would want to look at me but it is up and running.. LumpyLive

I thought it was rather kewl that my cats could do some basic tricks. I am rather impressed with this link I hard about on one of many Leo Laprote's podcast. John Dvorak mentioned that he liked it so much he posted it to his blog.

I would also encourage you to check out the actual YouTube Page for more videos and check out the number of views.

Well, it seems like my nature for sharing, or perhaps showing off depending on your view, and my room mates have combined to produce a few questions. Lumpy's cats will likely do that agin in the future. Fluffy balls of fur tend to do that.

The first being; can you train a cat? The answer is a definitive yes. How else would they have existed as domesticated animals since the Egyptians? All jest aside, more often than not a person really means; "How well can you train a cat?"

In my opinion, they can be trained very well. The cat below, is not even a year old. His brother is just as manageable. Check out the video and then you decide.

I think, considering my efforts, my cats are very well trained. I attribute much of this to just a few things. First of all, I really love them and enjoy working with them. Second, is many years back I read this book.

The second question was why does your flickr set include so many photos of your cats sleeping?

Mainly three reasons:

1. They sleep about 17 hours a day presenting lots of opportunity for such shots.
2. Feeding mode and napping mode are about the only time they are stationary enough to get an easy photo of... I have many action shots of "parts" of my cats.
3. When napping, they are likely behaving and looking cute.

The economy is a wreck.

• Hundreds of thousands simply gave up looking for work
• Payroll was slashed by the largest amount in five years
• 63,000 jobs vanished last month
• Is it me, or is this tax refund simply a mute point?

I don't have the answers and it is depressing. Best I can do is offer up some mostly light-hearted stuff.

Thanks to Johnnie Moore for bringing my attention to this video. I agree Mr. Moore, Facebook is fun but it can get excessive. The video is great! Disclaimer!!! If you can not get this one out of you head afterwards, I am not to blame.

I admit I found it a riot. Confirming the link to post it in delicious and part of the category TidBits. I watched the entire thing again. Then I went down the slope of You Tube's "Related Videos" and wasted some time. It was fun. Here are a few more YouTube Videos about Facebook. Also a more serious warning..

• Not Safe for Work and children!! A good two and a half minutes about Taking Facebook Poking to a new Level
• Bob Dylan's Facebook Song
• From College Humor; Facebook Off, a spoof on the movie Face Off
• Facebook - too much information is satirical monologue
• Here is another Facebook Parody
• Again not safe for work but The Official Cambridge Facebook Song is funny and high quality
• One last link; Facebook News Network

I found this via my My delicious Network. Not only is it furniture but functional.. Thought it was worth a quick post.

For those of you not aware of it it seems that Ustream.tv is actually enforcing thier terms of service. I heard via IRC last night that this is the case. Apparently, the terms of service have always stated that you must be 18 or older to be able to actually broadcast. This has cause a bit of a shock wave over at McInTec.net.

Most of what these young folks do is stream. They live for it. They script and code around being able to do it. About half of them are under 18 years old.

They operate at a G rated level and, most of them, are mature and well behaved for their ages. Personally, I think it is a shame that this is happening. The ability to stream with what is, in my humble opinion, the best streaming service out there empowered them to experiment with code, web design and, based on what I saw, was a very positive thing.

Personally, it impacts me none. Unless they up the age limit to something over 45, I am safe. I feel however that there should be some viable solution to this. I agree Ustream should have the right to set their own terms of service but cant we find some type of compromise on this one? I personally feel that parental control should be left to parents. Most IRC networks that I am aware of have a 14 year old policy, why is streaming video so different than chat?

Jason has created a petition for those who feel this is not right. He is basically asking Ustream.tv to lower the broadcast limit to 14 years of age. If you feel this is reasonable would you please head over there and sign it.

Feel free to leave your thoughts via a comment