Armen Chakmakjian's Blog, page 22

iPad quick review…

So I've been playing with the one that arrived on saturday.  You can see the videos of me opening it.  Now that I've used it for a day I can say the following:

If you are not particularly technical, this is a device for you.  I'm not saying this in the pejorative sense.  I mean that computers and laptops [...:]

The iPad was delivered – Videos tell the story

As I promised, I have a video tour de force (maybe farce) of me opening the iPad package and doing a few things with it.  I haven't had a chance to really use it (like download the wordpress app and blog directly from it — I'm writing this on my macbook)…but anyway it is a [...:]

On the iPad = Horus, Kindle = Osiris and my evaluation of Newspapers on these devices…

Good Friday and the messianic death and resurrection weren't good metaphors for this event.  However, another tradition provides something more applicable: Osiris's murder by Set and trip through the down the Nile in a the wooden sarcophagus and the scattering of his remains and then his supposed return in the form of Horus as a [...:]

A New Social Network…on the edge of the Time Space Continuum

So I saw an entry today on the Social Media Examiner that brings all of my hopes and dreams to a singularity somewhere in space (I'd love to have music to go along with this).   Here it is and look who my first message was from:

I am SOOO cracking up!  On the other hand, [...:]

Reeling in the years…

So in recent weeks a bunch of friends from grammar school all started posting class pictures on facebook from way way back (yes the 1970's).  Flair pants, leisure suits, short skirts and big hair.   we were 7-12 years old, 3rd to 8th grade.  It was funny reading people's reactions to seeing the 35 year [...:]

Thinking in Systems: A Primer Donella Meadows

During my marketing course last year, while studying conscious capitalism and other topics related to a changes in the perception of corporate responsibility and stakeholder interests, the professor recommended that we read Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows.  The editor writes at the beginning of the book about how this book was in [...:]

CC on Youtube

So youtube is trying out a new feature, closed captioning as well as translation.  And I tried it…and I was cracking up.  I had it try to transcribe my reading of my book chapter 1…
First off let me say, awesome attempt.
Next let me say, the mis-transcribed stuff was hilarious.
You'll see the CC button near where [...:]

On the Swan Song of Bookstores…

I'm always fascinated by the transition of one era to another and the clash of people, values and technologies.  History is a funny thing and you can say that you are doomed to repeat it if you don't read it, but I look at it quite differently.  You are doomed by history because it will [...:]

LOL this mornin…code smells

Now I have heard everything. I was doing my Saturday morning ritual, Panera Bread, going through various reading material, both in print and online. Got a new copy of the IEEE transactions on Software Engineering and looked at the second article.
Now for those who've never been programmers of any sort, let me put it this [...:]

RIP Al Haig…

So this morning I was reading the WSJ online and saw the update that Al Haig had died.  Haig was a staple in the news of the 70's and the 80's, coincident with my own growing awareness that the world had a lot of moving parts.
I remember at 16 watching the news in horror when [...:]