Feed

  • Twitter

    I logged in the first time soon after it started in 2007. I did my ten years and then mostly logged off by 2017. I’m not likely to start using it again regularly although I still use it occasionally as a people bookmarking service of sorts. I logged in last week to get an ‘archive’ of all of my data and publish it elsewhere1,2.  I tweeted 828 times and based on the IDs in the data, I’m guessing that I was the 950,535th person to ever tweet. The process felt achingly familiar3. I’ve had some discussions with others about it recently and it reminds me to think about how I use the web. Per the course… I like to flush it out, write it down, and publish it so I can send a link instead of hashing it out in an email or text thread.

    Twitter was built as a MicroBlogging service. Microblogging as a type of broadcast medium was the forerunner to social networking platforms. Social networking existed from the moment the first network computer connections were made. Twitter had a good name and was the best breed of something not unique amongst the landscape at the time. The fundamentals of Twitter already existed elsewhere. The Twitter idea originated from Odeo4,5, a podcasting company. It was just a means of having an SMS group chat.  Evan Williams created Blogger which was sold to Google and was the basis of the ideas behind both podcasting and blogging. Before Twitter, social media meant connecting with others online primarily through email and RSS, both of which could be read from the same client and in a browser. Some folks worked out unique ways to notify others via email for pingbacks and trackbacks6. I was a fan of Friendfeed because it supported pulling feeds from various sources. Facebook acquired it for $15 million and shut it down7.  Similarly, Pump.io, StatusNet, and identi.ca were using the open-source Activity Streams format which was a precursor to the ‘Fediverse’ or federated social network terms tossed around today. 

    Inter-Net-work….the web was inherently social long before the media part. In Silicon Valley’s race to capitalize, proprietary methodologies were created because open standards hinder income potential. Even the data archive I got from Twitter last week isn’t exactly portable. The WC3, who sets the standards has recommended Web Mentions, Activity Streams, and Activity Pub9 standards which is the protocol that makes Mastodon federated. I migrated most of my Twitter follows over to Mastadon while I was at it last week. Watching the other platforms pivot to gain new users is amusing. Substack has added ‘mentions’, ’cross-posts’, and ‘best seller’ badges10. Tumblr rolled out a $7 badge and the owner insisted they would be implementing the activitypub specification which I noted appropriately11. I’m sure folks will figure out a way to spam those protocols too as long as there is a way to profit from them. Twitter turned to bots after it gained popularity and the account APIs were introduced. The bot, spam, link farms, etc were online long before Twitter too.

    Elon Musk recently tweeted “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” likely in reference to his surveys on reinstating previously banned accounts. It translates to the “Voice of the People is the Voice of God”,  but the full context of the most cited reference to that term is:

    Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.  “ And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness. 

    ~ Alcuin in his letters to Charlamagne Epistle 127 in 760AD12.

    The riotousness of the crowd is Twitter. And Twitter is just a bellwether for the internet as a whole as we adapt to new communications mediums. Those first couple of years were just techie types tweeting because those were most of the same folks with websites.  Then came the journalists, media, celebrities, publishers, and internet celebrities. Then everyone’s uncle had it installed on their phone.  When those other folks started rambling on about their other interests, I lost interest. And then they started to monetize it all with adverts, tracking users across the web, and rewriting shared URLs so they could track those too.  The most retweeted thing ever was a pyramid scheme offering a reward for retweets. The web was already decentralized and will likely always be outside some platforms’ walled gardens. I just hope that the efforts to improve the open standards aren’t sabotaged by private interests.

    I’m sure in the coming year we’ll end up hearing a lot more on free speech and social media. I have a very simple minded approach to it which I wrote about pretty extensively in my article on Section 23013. I think that you’re welcome to espouse your opinions, ideas, or theories however you’d like but not entirely without consequence if they are damanging to others. I think that the main product of social media platforms, aside from usability, is sorting and moderating that information so that it’s vaulable to it’s end users. A platform like Twitter is a private company and can make itself reponsible for moderation however it best see’s fit to it’s own business model. And likewise, I can excersize my own liberty to not pay it any attention.

    I’d use social media again if I had something to promote and I suppose I’m lucky not to have the need. Former Twitter CEO Evan Williams apologized saying he was “wrong to think that an open platform where people could speak freely would make the world a better place”.  I wouldn’t completely agree with him on that because I believe there have been some good things gained through social networking platforms.  I read an essay recently fed to me, not via social media but my handy dandy good ole’ fashion hosted RSS reader…  entitled A Tweet Before Dying that said “What then? We’ll all move over to some Twitter replacement like Mastodon, hundreds of millions of us, and ruin that too? Sigh.”13. Other than echoing my sentiments here, whatever happens with Twitter means very little to me because I choose to rely not on the platform itself but on the interoperable standards of the internet which were social from the get go. 

    2022/12/03 Update:

    Right on Cue… Matt Taibbi, the investigative journalist published a series of tweets he’s calling the Twitter Files15 yesterday afternoon looking into the content moderation efforts of Twitter during the last election. Main takeaway for me was the fact that, imagine this… people are sending emails around requesting removals and questioning various policies. Sometimes just having an audience has it’s own consequences.

    2025/11/15 Update:

    The thing is… all this new reporting on foreign spam accounts seems so obvious to me, I can’t even really understand how it’s news other than the fact that they added the ‘about this account’ features showing country of origin16. The new reporting did kinda touch on something I hinted at here and that America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle17. Perhaps I’ll log in again and leave this as my only ‘tweet’ since I previously deleted all of the others… na, ole Space Karen isn’t getting any eyeballs from me.

    1. @windhamdavid tweets – https://davidwindham.com/til/lists/tweets 
    2. @windhamdavid follows – https://davidwindham.com/til/lists/people#i-follow-on-twitter
    3. Windham, D. 2020. Dirty Algorithm – https://davidwindham.com/dirty-algorithm/
    4. Odeo – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odeo
    5. Twitter History – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter#History 
    6. Pingback https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingback
    7. FriendFeed – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FriendFeed 
    8. Silicon Valley – S3E10 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_(TV_series)
    9. W3C Social Web Protocols- https://www.w3.org/TR/social-web-protocols/ 
    10. Substack – https://on.substack.com/p/introducing-mentions-and-cross-posts
    11. Tumblr –https://windhamdavid.tumblr.com/
    12. Alcuin – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcuin
    13. Windham, D. 2021. Section 230 – https://davidwindham.com/section-230/
    14. Ford, P. 2022. A Tweet Before Dying – https://www.wired.com/story/tweet-dying-revolutionary-internet/
    15. Taibbi, M. 2022. The Twitter Files – https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598822959866683394
    16. Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors – https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/11/x-about-this-account/685042/
    17. America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle – https://www.404media.co/americas-polarization-has-become-the-worlds-side-hustle

  • David Byrne

    I went to see David Byrne in Asheville a couple weeks ago. We were in the first rows and the audience started following the performers dance moves. It was like being in some sorta intimate line dance with the band. It was stellar. Watching him perform is more akin to watching a preacher than a rock musician. I’ve had a long held fascination with David Byrne and I think it began in August of 1981 when MTV first went on the air and I saw this video.

    I would have been just under 10 years old the first time I saw the video, but I remember quite vividly the debut of MTV on our console television in the living room. MTV aired a bunch of the same videos1 over and over, but none of them grabbed my attention the way Once In A Lifetime by the Talking Heads2 did. In retrospect, I believe the innovative use of film editing was just the product of the art school background of the Talking Heads band members. At that age, I didn’t really understand the meaning of the lyrics and it was only the motion that intrigued me. Regardless, the song reappeared in a 1989 film entitled Down and Out In Beverly Hills3, which gave me a bit of insight into the meaning of it. The theme of the film kinda nailed the existential crisis of the song lyrics. About that same time (1989) I owned exactly two concert films on VHS: The Song Remains the Same by Led Zepplin and Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads4. Both of which are two of my all time favorite concert films. I bought up about every Talking Heads and David Byrne CDs I could get my hands on. And I played them non-stop. I had a couple friends who also enjoyed them, but they were few and far between.

    Skip ahead fifteen years or so, when I met my wife in college. Two things really stood out about our first date from my other gal pals. The first is that she had a really good sense of humor, not just the giggle type, but the dark and cynical gut rolling humor I like. The second thing is that she really liked the David Byrne and Talking Heads. It wasn’t just the ‘oh yeah, they’re cool’ type of like. She knew all of the lyrics to most of the songs and understood them. The first birthday gift I ever bought her was a talking heads CD box set. We played that thing out on every trip we took. I’ve since read How Music Works6 and followed about every recording project, film, or book he’s been involved with. I’m also particularly fond of his internet radio station7 because of the way he curates the playlists. I can’t say there is anything he’s created that I don’t like. I am particularly fond of a couple though… the film True Stories, Look Into the Eyeball, and Uh-Oh. I also really like the soundtrack to The Last Emperor and it was nice seeing him play himself on the Simpsons Dude, Where’s My Ranch? and in This Must Be the Place.

    Neither of us have ever seen David Byrne in concert. I bought the tickets as soon as they went on sale and put us in the second row. As with what has been noted the style of that original video in that he studied archive footage of “preachers, evangelists, people in trances, African tribes, Japanese religious sects” to see how he could incorporate them into his performance… the live performance we watched wasn’t too far off. The way he engaged the audience wasn’t that of a rock star, but of an evangelist. Because the set design was so simple and the accompanying band members engaged in a rehearsed synchronized dance routine, the first ten rows of the auditorium were completely engaged in the performance. Him and his crew were working hard breaking a sweat, and had obviously spent countless hours rehearsing the material and choreography. Like I said… it was top notch. We already knew the lyrics to the new album so we listened to the Imelda Marcos inspired musical Here Lies Love5 written by Byrne on the way up, while Ginny researched the Marcos’ real life. On the way back we listened to Brian Eno. I’d give the American Utopia concert a 10/10. And I give David a 10/10 on being an artist and a decent human being.

    Here’s the setlist for the show (Asheville, NC – May 8th, 2018):
    Here – Lazy- I Zimbra (Talking Heads) – Slippery People (Talking Heads) – I Should Watch TV (David Byrne & St. Vincent) – Dog’s Mind – Everybody’s Coming to My House – This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (Talking Heads) – Once In a Lifetime (Talking Heads) – Doing the Right Thing – Toe Jam (Brighton Port Authority) – Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)(Talking Heads) – I Dance Like This – Bullet – Every Day Is a Miracle – Like Humans Do – Blind (Talking Heads) – Burning Down the House (Talking Heads) – Encore: Dancing Together – The Great Curve (Talking Heads) – Hell You Talmbout (Janelle Monáe)

    25/12/04 Update: We saw David again last night in Atlanta for the Who Is the Sky? tour8. The thing is I’ve seen a lot of concerts in my lifetime and it’s definitely different. David takes a bunch of highly trained dancers, musicians, and vocalists and puts em through their paces in a thematic visually stunning choreographed set. He gave em what they wanted on this tour, yet the set list of songs somehow still felt like a tightly planned concept album. It’s really about him as an artist. It’s kinda hard to explain, but it’s like he’s floating up above it to steal a line from his song. He’s not rooted in any physical place or timeline even though several of the songs have very physical references. The lyricism is timeless and abstract – he blended a setlist that spans almost fifty years. Here’s the setlist:

    • Heaven ( Fear of Music )
    • Everybody Laughs ( Who Is the Sky? )
    • And She Was ( Little Creatures )
    • Strange Overtones (Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today )
    • Houses in Motion ( Remain in Light )
    • T Shirt ( Who Is the Sky? )
    • (Nothing but) Flowers ( Naked )
    • This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) ( Speaking in Tongues )
    • What Is the Reason for It? ( Who Is the Sky? )
    • Like Humans Do ( Look into the Eyeball )
    • Don’t Be Like That ( Who Is the Sky? )
    • Independence Day ( Rei Momo )
    • Slippery People ( Speaking in Tongues )
    • I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party ( Who Is the Sky? )
    • My Apartment Is My Friend ( Who Is the Sky? )
    • Hard Times ( Paramore cover )
    • Psycho Killer ( Talking Heads: 77 )
    • Life During Wartime ( Fear of Music )
    • Once in a Lifetime ( Remain in Light )
    • Everybody’s Coming to My House ( American Utopia )
    • Burning Down the House ( Speaking in Tongues )

    Anyway, you can go find the tour show reviews out there so I’m not going to sum it up. The Fox in Atlanta is wild with its mosque design. All I’ll say is if you haven’t seen a performance – it’s good – definitely worth the effort. Seeing the show is just a reminder of possibilities.

    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first_music_videos_aired_on_MTV
    2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_in_a_Lifetime_(Talking_Heads_song)
    3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_and_Out_in_Beverly_Hills
    4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Making_Sense
    5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Lies_Love
    6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Music_Works
    7. http://davidbyrne.com/radio
    8. Who Is the Sky? – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Is_the_Sky%3F

  • Man from Plains

    All this talk of politics has affected my netflix lineup. Last night we watched the documentary “Man from Plains“2 about Jimmy Carter3 and his most recent book. I’ve got to say that Jonathan Demme4 is one of the better filmmakers of our time. Ever since Stop Making Sense5, a video concert of the Talking Heads was released I’ve been a fan. What I like about Demme is the unbiased and personal approach. I’ve always said of good photographers and painters whom work with portraiture that the best approach is to be as transparent as possible so as to not influence the subject in any manner. This film does just that as it documents Carter’s travels to promote his most recent and controversial book entitled Palestine Peace Not Apartheid6.

    The film gives an honest perspective on the man and his principles as Demme was obviously given good access the former president during the filming and what impressed me most was exactly how candid and emotional Carter was during the filming. He is obviously a very intelligent man in the way he handles conversation and which may also explain why he is a physicist by trade. What is controversial about the book is that Carter is trying to explain that perhaps the Palastinians have been wronged which is very bold and politically incorrect these days. But Carter does it with eloquence and good rhetoric in the face of staunch adversaries.

    After the film, I followed up with some research on Carter and his policies. What amazed me is how strong his opinions about peace and energy conservation. He actually reduced the dependence on foreign oil by half during tenure as president. He installed solar panels (which were later removed) on the white house! It’s amazing how we continue to repeat ourselves in history as I think my third grade teacher began the first history lesson i remember with that exact phrase. President Carter had some interesting approaches to energy policy that may hold in todays atmosphere.

    Don’t get me wrong…I’m not a political or economic expert, but I can tell you a good deal about the Laffer Curve7 and supply side, trickle down Reaganomics including the fact that Author Laffer and Wanninski, credited with coining the term did so over a meeting in 1974 with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld present…so I’ll let you do your own research8. But I am a good with the study of human character and I can tell you that I am compelled to believe that Jimmy Carter is a good man with honest motives or at least the film did an excellent job of concealing anything otherwise.

    April 20, 1979, White House photo of Carter and rabbit from the Carter Library
    April 20, 1979, White House photo of Carter and rabbit from the Carter Library [1]

    I can whole heartedly recommend that you see the film for yourself. The photo above is of Carter fishing when a swimming rabbit “attacked” his boat.. lucky the secret service was there to capture it on film.

    23/12/06 – The rabbit incident came up in a conversation likely due to conflict in Gaza9. I replaced the missing photo and added the references. I didn’t replace any of the original links, correct any of the grammatical, or fix the spelling errors.

    25/01/09 – I referenced this essay in a recent conversation with friends since he passed away at age 100. He was the longest-lived president in U.S. history. I read quite a bit about him recently and I watched the service on C-Span 10 this morning. The Carter Center published a tribute site 11 that’s worth your time. I left a condolence message. The more I learn… the more I like.

    Jimmy Carter is an inspiration for a life well lived. I told my friends I’m gonna pick up some tools in his honor and to handle some carpentry work for myself and I might even go so far as start working on the solar thing. I’ve referenced the Crisis of Confidence speech12 a number of times recently and I suggest a revisit. I first picked up on it in the film 20th Century Women and rewatching it had profound affect. I sympathize with Jimmy Carter’s tough mind, soft heart mentality and I hope that his work to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering is an inspiration for generations to come14.

    1. Jimmy Carter rabbit incident – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident
    2. Man From Plains – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_from_Plains
    3. Jimmy Carter – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
    4. Jonathan Demme – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Demme
    5. Stop Making Sense – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Making_Sense
    6. Palestine Peace Not Apartheid – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine:_Peace_Not_Apartheid
    7. Laffer Curve – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve
    8. Reaganomics – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics
    9. Israel – Hamas War – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Israel–Hamas_war
    10. President Jimmy Carter Funeral Service at National Cathedral – https://www.c-span.org/event/public-affairs-event/president-jimmy-carter-funeral-service-at-national-cathedral/429876
    11. Jimmy Carter Tribute – https://www.jimmycartertribute.org
    12. President Carter Address on Crisis of Confidence – https://www.c-span.org/program/american-history-tv/president-carter-address-on-crisis-of-confidence/154404
    13. 20th Century Women – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Women
    14. Carter Center – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Center

  • Keeping Machines Clean

    Single Atom in an Ion Trap by David Nadlinger from the University of Oxford

    Every year about this time, likely albeit unknowing in an effort to stave off doing taxes, I always seem to find myself doing a routine computer cleaning. I refuse to be a digital mess. I think my habits are pretty effective at preventing mechanical chaos. In this era of cloud connected data hoarding, I think I’m just like most folks in the sense that between my wife and I, we generate a generous heaping of data between work and personal documents, images, and other files. Between the two of us, we actively use four laptops, three desktops, two tablets, and two smartphones. That’s a lot of little machines I don’t necessarily want to take care of and I’ve got a couple tips for those of you trying to stay out of the digital rabbit hole.

    I like to think of computers and files as two different things. Files are one thing and computers are the other thing. I look at computers like they’re just tools that will wear out over time, like a paintbrush or a chainsaw blade. I’m not insinuating that I’m not considerate of the computing part of the machine and I’ve already explained my Anthropomorphising tendencies. I can move from one machine to the next without skipping a beat, primarily because I take care of the files on that computer. I carefully quantify all of the configuration and software running on any computer as files. Because of it, I can move my servers from one machine to another rather quickly and I can move from phone to phone, laptop to laptop all the same. I wanted to share how I do it in case any of you out there are in the market to change your digital habits.

    First off, I have a simple naming convention on all files. I give all of my files meaningful names that begin with the date. So for instance, when I write something on this site, it always begins as a text file. This one was named 18.01.07_post_machine_clean.txt. I’ve found that having the date out in front of any file name is an easy way to organize and find them. When I go looking for an old file, I’m always thinking… oh that was summer last year or something to that extent and it helps me find the files. I know that this is not necessarily common practice because half the time files are shared with me, they have meaningless file names. I also almost always do not include spaces in file names and I advise others to do the same. I think the reason I avoid them is just from network protocols and command line usage, but I’ve also seen where it’s cause other issue with cloud storage solutions.

    I’ve also learned to organize my files with the same basic structure on every machine. Anytime I look at someone else’s machine, it’s always the first thing I notice… files all over the desktop and haphazard file folders everywhere. I really think that it’s just a basic misunderstanding of how the file system works for many users. I think with most operating systems, the use of shortcuts in an attempt to make it easier to use have actually further complicated the issue. With the phones and tablets, they’ve obscured these even further. For those, I use a cloud sync service to keep my files. I’m all for the ease of use when it comes to cloud based services for syncing data, but I prefer to always have a local backup of everything as well and regularly make local backups of any services I use. Everywhere else, I divide my files using a couple simple concepts and I always store them in one hierarchical folder on every machine. I divide them up into three top folders Documents, Projects, Media. Documents contain everything financial, medical, employment, insurance etc. Projects are everything else I do on the computers and Media is media duh. I run backups of these every so often where I reduce the amount of space and make duplicates on remote drives.

    It seems like every January, I start looking for financial documents to file taxes and end up spending a day just syncing and moving files around between drives and computers. Luckily, I’ve gotten better at it and I’ve managed to develop a system for myself that’s served me well in the digital age. Don’t get me wrong, I have duplicate backups and folders of hoarded useless files too, but I’ve gotten those down to a bare minimum over the years. Every time someone asks me to help them find missing files or restore a crashed computer, I think to myself how easy operating systems and cloud services have made it for them to be completely unorganized in their digital file keeping habits.

    1. The image is entitled ‘Single Atom in an Ion Trap’, by David Nadlinger, from the University of Oxford and retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/trapped-atom-photograph-long-exposure-competition-spd/

  • 2017 Monthly Playlists

    Happy New Year. I think I’ll post more here this year (I say that every year). As I’ve done for the past three years, I’ve managed to make a music playlist for every month except January and July last year. I think January is usually filled up with me listening to the year end album reviews from other folks but I’m managing to make a January list this year. I generally try to only include new releases for each month. Sometimes this will include reissues and remastered releases from that month. I keep statistics on my listening habits at https://davidwindham.com/studio/music/ and I occasionally invite folks for some live sessions at http://radio.davidawindham.com/. If you see anything missing I might like, please let me know.

    December

    November

    October

    September

    August

    June

    May

    April

    March

    February

  • Faux Travel

    Every now and again I find myself researching various travel options on a planned trip that never happens. Sometimes I put a lot of work into it, so I recently decided that when this happens, I’d start saving the details for later. I’m not exactly sure why I enjoy planning them almost as much as I do, but I think I’ve just made it another form of interactive online entertainment. As it happened this morning, I was reading something or another and viola I’m on Google flights searching around. I’ll look forward to a break in our calendars and start searching and plugging in dates. I’m pretty sure that as soon as it starts getting too cold or hot outside and we’re stuck inside, I start pecking around for travel options.

    The way I travel now as a 44 year old is quite a bit different from my youth, when I’d just pack up a car and hit the road. I generally prefer creature comforts these days… a soft bed, a good meal, and a hot shower. Although I miss some of the ‘seat of your pants’ type adventure, I think I’ve had my share. I also don’t like to be away from home for more than a couple days. My wife say’s I have OMS: Old Man Syndrome. Regardless, I know how a lot of people like to glamorize traveling but I’ve found a lot of it tiring and boring. I’ve been quite a few places though. I think I’m only missing a couple major cities and states in the US and I’ve done about ten other countries. I do think it’s important to have a broad world view and I believe that traveling is key. I’m always encouraging other folks who’ve never left the country to hit up some third world locations.

    Here’s the type of agenda I write up for these trips. I break it down daily so that I’ve already done my due diligence with dining and other entertainment options. The itinerary also serves a great little reference document when traveling. This time the trip was to Aspen, Colorado and San Antonio, Texas. I really just started out with San Antonio to visit family and then just threw in Aspen for a little fun since we’re already on that side of the country. I think I spend as much time planning as actually traveling and I’m pretty sure that I’ve only taken about a third of the trips I’ve planned. That’s why I call it ‘faux travel’. I think I’ll share more of my untaken trips a reminder to take them before I get too old.

    Tuesday Dec 19

    • 5:00am – Leave Home
    • 6:15am – Greenville Spartanburg Airport [ 2000 GSP Dr, Greer, SC 29651 ]
    • 7:05am – Greenville -> ( United 3484 GSP/IAH record loc# KZ2ZT5 17D/17C )
    • 9:00am – Houston – 45min layover 9:45am – -> Houston ( United 1082 GSP/SAT record loc# KZ2ZT5 32A/32B )
    • 10:50am – -> San Antonio 11:00am -Enterprise Rental ( confirmation #1253746261 – BMW 430 440i Convertible)
    • 11:30am – Hyatt Regency Riverwalk ( confirmation #57871310 )[ 123 Losoya Street, San Antonio, Texas 78205 | 210-222-1234]
    • 12:30pm – 5:00pm — Lunch – Kris & Jennifer
    • 6:00pm – Dinner – Boudro’s Riverwalk [ 421 E. Commerce, San Antonio TX 78205 ]
    • 8:00pm – Ray Wylie Hubbard – [1281 Gruene Rd, New Braunfels, TX 78130 ]

    Wedesday Dec 20

    • 8:00am – Breakfast Schilo’s [ 424 E Commerce St, San Antonio, TX 78205 ]
    • 11:00am – Checkout San Antonio Hyatt Regency Riverwalk
    • 12:00pm – 4:00pm — Lunch – Kris and Jennifer
    • 5:00pm – San Antonio Airport [ 9800 Airport Blvd, San Antonio, TX 78216 ] 5:10pm – Enterprise Rental Return
    • 6:10pm – San Antonio -> ( American 1524 SAT/DFW record loc# DTAVUF 23A/23B ) 7:24pm – -> Dallas
    • 8:00pm – Grand Hyatt DFW ( reservation #57871455 ) 972-973-1234 [ 2337 South International Parkway, DFW Airport, Texas 75261 ]

    Thursday Dec 21

    • 7:00am – Breakfast – Grand Met – Dallas Fort Worth Grand Hyatt
    • 8:50am – Dallas -> ( American 2940 DFW/ASE record loc# DTAVUF 9A/9B)
    • 10:20am – -> Aspen ( Avis Rental Conf# 03175408US5 – Subaru Forester)
    • 10:30am – Aspen Square #220709 970-923-3036 [ 671 East Cooper Ave Aspen 81611 ]
    • 11:00am – Inline Ski [ 555 E. Durant Ave Aspen, CO 81611 800-992-2979 ]
    • 11:30am – KitLender #KL12760 (888-473-3111) Lorenzo Semple – 970-920-0295
    • 12:00pm – Lunch – The White House Tavern [ 302 East Hopkins Ave, Aspen CO 81611 ]
    • 7:00pm – Dinner – Matsuhisa ( 970-544-6628 ) [ 303 E Main St, Aspen, CO 81611 ]

    Friday Dec 22

    • 7:00am – Breakfast – Poppycocks [ 665 E Cooper Ave ]
    • 8:00am – Aspen Mountain Lifts Open
    • 12:00pm – Lunch – Grey Lady (Lobster Roll) [ 305 S Mill St ]
    • 4:00pm – Aspen Mountain Lifts Close
    • 6:00pm – La Crêperie du Village [400 E Hopkins Ave]

    Saturday Dec 23

    • 8:00am – Breakfast – Victoria’s [ 510 E Durant Ave ]
    • 9:00am – 12:00 Apsen Mountain
    • 12:00 – Lunch – Spring Cafe Juice Bar [ 119 South Spring Street, Aspen CO 81611 ]
    • 1:00pm – Aspen Pitken County Airport – Avis Rental Return
    • 2:00pm – -> Aspen ( American 2945 ASE/DFW record loc#DTPUEN 14A/14B )
    • 5:15pm – -> Dallas – Dinner – Layover 1:36 DFW Airport
    • 6:51pm – -> Dallas ( American 2477 DFW/GSP record loc#DTPUEN 9A/9B ) 10:06pm -> Greenville
    • 11:30 – Return Home for Christmas

  • Satisfied With Life

    This survey question from 23 And Me gave me a moment to pause and be appreciative. Perhaps I’m just having a good day, but I think I’m being sincere overall.

  • Solar Eclipse

    Solar Eclipse

    Solar Eclipse

    I took these images of the solar eclipse from my driveway ( Lat: 34.176529 | Long: -82.204683). The birds were quiet, the crickets were chirping, and it was nice. We were talking afterwords about how nice it would be to travel to Tuamotus for the next total one on July 2, 2019

  • Butterflies

    Monarch Butterfly

    These are some butterfly images I’ve taken around our Buddleja davidii (butterfly bush). It’s a really nice plant to have around the yard because of how many hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinating insects it attracts.

  • Physicians Directory

    I recently published a physicians directory system I built for a local hospital system. They wanted to migrate away from a proprietary system they had been using and they wanted it to be integrated into their other websites which had been built on WordPress. I’ve built a number of custom content management systems over the years using WordPress, so it was a relatively straight forward build using custom post types and taxonomies. The directory provides an easy way for the hospital system to manage practices, providers, and practice specialties online. They have several hundred providers and fifty or so practice locations. I used the provider as the root custom post type since the other taxonomies would be tied to a provider. The built in WordPress taxonomy and post functions allows users to query by physician, location, or specialty.

    On projects like this one, I’ve developed a series of functions that essentially strip all of the unused parts of the WordPress content management system out, so that the user experience is greatly simplified. It helps the admins get a handle on learning to use the system. In this case, in order to manage the data, they only need access to the media library, physician post type, the location, and specialty taxonomies.

    The custom taxonomies for the practices and provider specialties also gave me the chance to work with the Term Meta functions introduced in WordPress version 4.4. Using term meta really improves the extensibility of taxonomies in WordPress. Previously I would have had to use Drupal or a custom built content management system to accomplish something like this. Here’s an example of an address field using term meta for the custom location taxonomy.

    add_action( 'init', 'srh_register_location_address' );
add_action( 'location_add_form_fields', 'srh_new_term_address_field' );
add_action( 'location_edit_form_fields', 'srh_edit_term_address_field' );
add_action( 'edit_location', 'srh_save_term_address' );
add_action( 'create_location', 'srh_save_term_address' );

function srh_register_location_address() {
    register_meta( 'term', 'address', 'srh_sanitize_text' );
}

function srh_sanitize_text_address( $address ) {
	$address = sanitize_text_field( $_POST['srh_term_address'] );
}

function srh_get_term_address( $term_id ) {
    $address = get_term_meta( $term_id, 'address', true );
    return $address ? "{$address}" : $address;
}

function srh_new_term_address_field() {
    wp_nonce_field( basename( __FILE__ ), 'srh_term_address_nonce' );
}

function srh_save_term_address( $term_id ) {
    if ( ! isset( $_POST['srh_term_address_nonce'] ) || ! wp_verify_nonce( $_POST['srh_term_address_nonce'], basename( __FILE__ ) ) )
        return;
    $old_address = srh_get_term_address( $term_id );
    $new_address = sanitize_text_field( $_POST['srh_term_address'] );;
    if ( $old_address && '' === $new_address)
        delete_term_meta( $term_id, 'address' );
    else if ( $old_address !== $new_address )
        update_term_meta( $term_id, 'address', $new_address );	
}

    One way I significantly speeded up the development time was by using the Custom Meta Boxes plugin instead of building out each of the fields for the physician custom post type. It’s a solid framework that’s a real time saver. The only other dependency I used in the project is Taxonomy TinyMCE to convert the plain text fields for the practice (location) taxonomies. This allows the admins to essentially have an editable page for each of the location taxonomies.

    As is usually the case in projects like this, as the developer I work with the agency on revisions and changes as administrators begin using the system. For this project, I worked with a fella named Andy Johnston, who did a great job with the meetings and project management. I built the initial project in under 40 hours. For me, the most rewarding part of projects like this are the technical challenges of building a custom system to accomplish specific goals and I sincerely get a kick out of tackling those challenges. My initial demo is available at http://srh.davidawindham.com and the project site is available online at http://www.selfregional.org/providers/.

  • Lemon Tree

    Lemon Tree

    I just noticed that the Sorrento citrus limon tree I’ve taken care is finally putting out fruit. I remember the guy at the greenhouse where I picked it up saying “good luck with that”. Lemon trees can’t really survive below 45°f and I’ve been dragging this fella in and out of the house over the last five years. It was about a foot tall seedling when I got it. I tried to kill it the first cold day of fall, but I nursed the dead branch until spring and got another offshoot. It’s now about six feet tall and I trim it occasionally to try to keep it short.

  • It’s Electric

    We got a new car a couple weeks ago. It’s an electric BMW i3 1. and we nicknamed it ‘toasty’. In an attempt to humblebrag, I’d say my main motivation for sharing my experience with it, is that I think everyone should drive electric cars. I have a buddy who’s a car guy and he said to me “I didn’t think you’re a – green – guy” to which I responded “it’s not just about being green”.

    I recently read that Britain and France will both ban the sale of all Gasoline and Diesel automobiles by the year 2040 2.. Norway kinda spurred the issue when they said they would heavily tax fossil burners by 2025 3. and India is shooting for 2020 4.. Volvo announced they will only produce electric vehicles by 2018 5.. Meanwhile in the U.S. we’re in the process of… I won’t go into it, but I will say you don’t have to be ‘green’ (or a science denier) to consider driving electric. It’s safe, it drives great, it’s quiet, you can ‘fill er up’ in your garage, it’s comfortable, and it can be a good value for transportation.

    What does ‘green’ mean anyway? Yeah, I know… we recycle, compost, and are generally considerate of the environment regarding our actions and purchases. Regardless, we put a lot of other considerations into this purchase that just make sense on so many other levels that I thought I share those that may be making the same decision in the coming years. We started looking for this car about eight months ago. We finally found a lease trade in with under 8,000 miles on it. We have two other vehicles, a 2014 BMW 328d Touring and a 2004 Nissan Frontier Pickup Truck. The truck… well because I can’t seem to get rid of it and everyone needs a truck. It’ll easily run another 100,000 miles of dragging a trailer, picking up mulch and random DIY stuff from the hardware store. The wagon is a diesel and I had been following along closely on the diesel-gate issues with Volkswagen when we started considering electric options. The main issue we have is that is much as we’d like to think we’re out on the highways getting 50mpg @ 80mph with a 500 mile range between fueling, we were starting to rack up the miles just running around town and we want to preserve the wagon for our road trips because it’s perfect for just that.

    And now we’ve found the perfect ride for around town. Anytime I take someone for a ride or let them drive it, they are always smiling. For those of you whom never driven or ridden in an electric vehicle, do yourself a favor and go test drive one. This car is roomier and drives better than any other car I’ve ever owned. It took just a couple days of getting used to while driving. It’s one pedal driving. When you remove your foot from the gas it decelerates to regenerate power. It’s great in that I rarely every use the brakes anymore. I installed a 220v charger in the garage and it only takes 3 hours for the full 100 mile change. It’s the REX model and has a little scooter engine to extend the range another 100 miles if needed. I ran it dry one time just to test it out and I’m guessing we’ll ever use it, but it does give you a little comfort if you’re stretching it on a day trip. I pegged it at the top speed one afternoon to see how it handles it and I’m completely comfortable on the interstate with it. The acceleration in the 40-80mph range is superb. What I like most is how connected I feel while driving it. The windows are huge and it’s quiet. There is something about pulling into a parking lot or out of our driveway without any noise. It just one less jarring thing in your life. Honestly, I haven’t yet found one single complaint about the car and I’d recommend anyone who’s even slightly considering to take the plunge.

    * update 24/04/29 – We traded the i3 in on an i46 so I wanted to write a quick follow up here. 

    When my better half first suggested that we buy an electric car, I contemplated the risks, and in retrospect realized it was a smart financial decision. We didn’t have a single issue with the i3 except that it had a tendency to burn through tires. We traded it in mainly because it was a good time to upgrade. We considered keeping it, but I didn’t want the insurance on a third car. Kudos to BMW for taking the initial risks on the i3. The i4 is an upgrade. BMW got the mix just right on this one. Aside from the lack of engine noise, regenerative braking, and instant torque, it handles like a 4 series. I took a buddy for a ride yesterday who’s a car guy with a Porsche and a Tesla. He commented on how he prefers the Tesla because he doesn’t sound like a jerk when he’s got the pedal down. My dad, who has a Ram truck, spends a hundred a week on gasoline just running to the golf course and grocery store. I’m still a bit leary of possible repair costs but we’re under warranty again. Overall, I can barely come up with any complaints. 

    So again, I think the transition to electric vehicles is going well and I encourage anyone on the fence to go take a test drive and consider the long-term maintenance costs. I think our next step will be solar panels on the garage so the gas is coming from the sun. By the time our X3 is ready to retire7, BMW should have a more affordable electric SUV so that we can completely shed the dinosaur juice. 

    1. BMW i3 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_i3
    2. Britain Joins the Shift to Electric Cars – https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/opinion/britain-electric-cars.html
    3. Plug-in Electric Vehicles in Norway – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_Norway
    4. Electric Vehicle Industry in India – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_industry_in_India
    5. Volvo, Betting on Electric, Moves to Phase Out Conventional Engines – https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/business/energy-environment/volvo-hybrid-electric-car.html
    6. BMW i4 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_i4
    7. Automobiles – https://davidwindham.com/automobiles/

  • Today I Learned

    Today I learned that Google will translate to and from Zulu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_language).

    I believe that the words “Ubuntu” and “Mongodb” triggered this translation offer. My page is referring to the database and computer operating system and not the Zulu philosophy of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy))

    While working on another project yesterday afternoon, I ran into set of documentation (https://docs.feathersjs.com/) that I spent a lot of time reading and will likely forget about sometime soon after I abandon using the library in other projects. Of course I stuffed a bookmark of the documentation into my quasi organized set of chrome bookmarks based on each project, but the fact that the documentation was hosted using Gitbook, reminded me of a practice I’ve seen others do.

    One of the best sub-reddits is TIL and other organizations have published thier own TILs (https://github.com/thoughtbot/til & http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/til) . I figured that since I spend most of my working time with the terminal, git, and text files, a more efficient and easier method of documenting the time I spend reading other documentation would be to build my own gitbook TIL. This way the information I acquire will be easy to record, search and edit.

    I’m often searching online documentation for answers to commands, configurations, and error messages. The problem is that I’ve found myself repeating those searches because of the breadth and depth of the amount of functions and libraries involved in development. My wife suggested I call it TIHIDI (this is how I did it) after explaining what I was working on. It makes sense to put my daily explorations into this publication in lieu of publishing them in the database of my main site because Gitbook is quicker, easier to search, and I can keep all the files in a version control repository on my local machine as well. It’ll help keep me keep my bookmarks as little less cluttered and it’ll leave my desk page free for longer form essays.

    Today I Learned – https://davidwindham.com/til