As you may well know, President Obama gave a televised speech to America’s school children yesterday. The speech was deemed controversial by some, and concerns that political agenda would be included in what should only be a “stay in school” style speech were voiced by many. I was one of the many.
Before the White House released “Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren,” I was not sure what to expect from the speech. In today’s politically charged environment, I could not help but wonder how much agenda would make its way into the speech. I was happy to have the opportunity to read the speech before it was aired, and while my initial concerns were quelled, a couple of new ones took their place. (more…)
The time for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event in Boston is right around the corner. On October 4th I will be joining my wife and children to walk along the Charles River in support of the women and men (yes, men can get breast cancer too) who live with, or have died from, breast cancer. This will be my second Making Strides walk, and I am really looking forward to participating.
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is your opportunity to honor breast cancer survivors, remember people we have lost, and raise funds and awareness to help end this disease. Making Strides is not a race; it is a celebration of survivorship, an occasion to express hope, and a shared goal to end a disease that threatens the lives of so many people we love.
- Making Strides event info page
My wife is leading a team of fundraisers with a goal of raising US $2,000 for the American Cancer Society’s efforts to educate about, and eradicate, breast cancer. I will be email everyone on my contact list soon asking for donations for this worthy cause. Please visit my Making Strides profile page and make a donation. It doesn’t matter how much or how little, every dollar raised is one step closer to finding a cure.
I finally got around to renaming the blog to something which better matches the domain upon which it resides. “The Burning Blog” is now known as “The Burnman Experience.” When I first named the blog, I thought incorporating my name with a bit of biblical wordplay would be fun. In truth, I would most likely have kept the blog’s old name had it not been for the BDSM porn site which chose the same name AND purchased the matching domain name. Nobody wants their site confused with another one (unless they are trying to scam people), but I was especially unhappy with being mixed up with that particular site.
And while I will miss the blog’s old name, I must admit that “The Burnman Experience” better suits the place. I suppose referring to my blog as something akin to God speaking through the burning bush may have been a bit conceited anyway.
While I personally prefer to use a desktop client to access my Twitter account, I do sometimes find myself utilizing Twitter’s website to post Tweets to my timeline. I am not the biggest fan of Twitter’s web interface, as it is limited in functionality compared to desktop clients such as Seesmic, Twhirl, and TweetDeck. Fortunately, there is alternative. (more…)
TweetDeck is arguably one of the most popular desktop Twitter clients currently available. With the number of features available in TweetDeck, there is a little bit of something for everyone.
Perhaps that is the problem. In my opinion, TweetDeck’s user-interface appears to be a work-in-progress waiting to progress as new features are developed instead. Recent updates haven’t done much to improve the interface, and it certainly could use some love. The tiny buttons which are the key to most of TweetDeck’s features look a bit out of place, and the default color scheme is as dark and gloomy as the TweetDeck website. While you can change the color scheme in the settings window, the default colors are not my idea of a good first impression. (more…)
The Associated Press recently announced that the Federal Trade Commission’s “Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials” will be revised soon. All week, articles have been popping up across the Internet reporting that these changes will introduce regulation of blogs and bloggers by the FTC.
What they fail to report, is that FTC regulations already apply to bloggers and their blogs. In fact, these regulations apply to use of email, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, just to name a few.
Blogs and discussion boards are both discussed in the FTC’s “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, Notice of proposed changes,” but not as newly regulated media. The pending changes to the guide introduce new example scenarios intended to illustrate how FTC regulation may apply in some situations. The guide is not the definition of the law, nor does it encompass every possible scenario in which the FTC can take action. The sole purpose for the guide is to act as, well, a guide. (more…)