ColinAke.com…until I write a book.

One of the biggest advantages of owning an iPhone as a blogger is the ability to blog from anywhere. I downloaded a WordPress app to the phone, entered my contact info and admin info, and I’m off to the races.

I plan on using this in two weeks when we are isolated in the North Carolina mountains outside Asheville, NC. No Internet? No problem. I’ve got myself a mobile blogging platform in the gorgeous little iPhone. And you better believe I’ll be taking my camera. I am going to try and write a lot of content for a new photography oriented blog as well as take some pics and maybe some video while we’re up there.

Be on the lookout for some sweet pics soon. More on the photography oriented blog soon.

Take care. I need to run.

Colin

Posted from my iPhone. In the bathroom. How’s that for mobile blogging?

The New York Times had an interesting article on flipping undervalued websites a couple says ago. It’s an interesting read, so give it a look-see. http://is.gd/18Vd

Interesting concept for thought… I’m not sure I could flip a website I knew nothing about, but If I found the right topic I think it wouldn’t just me fun, it wouldn’t be that hard. Just have to find an area I am an ‘expert’ in.  If you know me well at all, you know there aren’t many of those areas.

What are your thoughts on this website flipping concept?

Colin

Written from my iPhone.

Well folks, I write this post walking into work from my very own iPhone 3G. It cost far too much, but it is an awesome piece of equipment. After arguing with AT&T tech support for an hour and a half, they were entirely unhelpful and I was left to purchase an iPhone with no discount.

Anyways, I have an iPhone and it is awesome. But AT&T sucks, hands down.

Colin

Written from my iPhone.

The pictures are a little big - if you cannot see the whole picture, click the article title. -Colin

Last night I took some pictures of a 1996 Collector’s Edition Corvette my girlfriend’s Dad is selling.  It’s a great car (drove it for date night beforehand) :) - and I wanted to do it justice with some pictures he could use to help sell the car.  Without further ado - the pictures.

All shot with an AlienBees AB800 in a softbox.  The top two were time exposures with multiple pops of the softbox at different angles, and the bottom picture is just a 1/50th second exposure, I think.

Enjoy!  If you want to buy the car - only 96K miles and he’s selling it privately.

Take care,

Colin

Remember how I posted a few months ago that I couldn’t get an iPhone until October because of the equipment upgrade clause?  Yeah.

Here’s the screenshot from AT&T’s webpage.  I’ve removed my phone number and account number.

Now, here’s the same screen after I went into a store two days ago because this CrapJack (the third one in under a year) is making screeching noises at people on the other end.  He told me he could do nothing for me about letting me buy a new phone cause this one is CRAP, but he could sure change out my SIM card (it’s been done before, by the way).

Here’s the same screenshot now.  Notice anything different?  Like the upgrade date?

What the hell is going on, AT&T?  I just try and be a loyal customer and you decide to pick a fight with me?  It’s going down now.  I’m NOT a happy camper.  I wanted to LIKE AT&T, not hate their guts.  I WANT to like them, and they’re trying to screw ME over.

If ANYONE has any clue what’s going on, please enlighten me.  Anyone work at an AT&T store?

Colin

Sorry I haven’t been around to post much this week!  Work and after work activities have been absolutely crazy.  I’ve had at least one thing every night after work, and I can’t wait to eventually go to bed at 9 PM and get a ridiculous amount of sleep.  Before I get there (sometime next week, maybe?), I’ve got some great fun ahead tonight and this weekend!

Tonight I’m taking my wonderful girlfriend, Annie, out to dinner for her birthday.  Should be really fun - and I’d post where we’re going, except she reads my blog and it’s a surprise.  After that, I’m shooting some pictures of Mr. Lackey’s 1996 Corvette for some for sale ads - trying out some car shooting methods.  Then Saturday I’m working some for some friends, and helping throw a big birthday party for Annie.

Happy Birthday Annie!  Everyone have a great day and great weekend.  Try and get some rest if you’re feeling weary.

Take care,

Colin

I wanted to post some pictures from the wedding I shot last weekend - Lauren is my cousin and I was thrilled to see her marry Pace, a great guy.  It was a fun wedding to be a part of and I am thrilled to have some great pictures from the ceremony.  Without further ado, check out the first glimpse of Lauren and Pace’s wedding pictures.

Lauren starts the morning right: A newspaper and Coca Cola

Lauren’s hair isn’t done yet, don’t worry.

Pace starts out the morning at Starbucks with his groomsmen.

Well the hair is done.  Time for some makeup!

Still going…

Those black beads are rosepetal beads from Lauren’s great-grandmother’s bouquet.

Pace kissing his Bride!

Lauren walking to the reception with the two men in her life.

Pace decided to smash the cake in Lauren’s face!

Lauren getting a kiss goodbye from her Dad as she heads off with Pace on their honeymoon.

The wedding was awesome - it was great to be a part of it and I had an absolute blast shooting it!  Best wishes to Lauren and Pace on their honeymoon!

Colin

If you need a wedding photographer or know someone who does, please contact me!  I love shooting weddings and would be thrilled to come shoot you or your friends getting married.  I want to shoot your wedding!  678.977.7039 (Mobile) or http://www.mementoshots.com

I also do portrait photography - so if you’re thinking about Christmas pictures or Christmas cards, I’m your guy.  Families, couples, kids, or just you I’ll shoot it.  http://www.akephoto.com for my portrait portfolio.

I’ve used Jott for a few weeks now and wanted to give a quick update of what I’ve found to be useful about it.

Jott is a to-do list with some sweet features - you can call it from your phone and leave yourself a to-do.  Or your can call Jott and send a friend a to-do or reminder.  You can organize your Jotts into lists and keep track of them easily using their web-based tool, as well.

You can also call up Jott and have it read you RSS feeds (never used it).  Or use Jott to write to WordPress or Twitter (I use those some).  But I think that the simplicity of Jott and the accessibility of it from a cell phone makes it a great to-do list.  I am using it to remind me of stuff I need to do (via text or email), as well as just keep track of the stuff I normally would forget about.  Great stuff.

I hear it has an iPhone app, but I wouldn’t know about that now, would I? *pouts*  Someone like Nathan Fowler would have to chime in to tell me how awesome he is for having an iPhone and tell us how awesome Jott is on the iPhone.

If you’re looking for a way to organize your to-dos, Jott may be your answer.  Check it out and see if it helps.

Take care everyone!

Colin

Recently I posted a basic statement by Major James Neushul, USMC Communication Officer and Information Management Officer. Below is his full statement - available nowhere else online - I’ve highlighted some key points. It’s a bit of a long read, I know, but it’s worth it.

Military software – by and large – sucks.

• Most military professionals don’t know or care about software, and do not distinguish software from systems.
• Military Industrial Complex (MIC) corporations cannot and do not compete in the real economy.
• MIC corporations are protected behind “Systems Engineering” requirements that are layered with policies enforced by military professionals who don’t understand them.
• “Systems Engineering,” “System of Systems,” “Configuration Management,” “Systems Integration,” and “Security Accreditation” are MIC supported concepts that are used to preserve system-centric MIC profit motives and cannot be associated with verifiable success models.
• MIC corporations persist socialist style mediocrity behind a facade of legalistic capitalism.
• DOD system architectures are completely divorced from DOD operational architectures to the detriment of Warfighting effectiveness.
• Net-Centric Warfare Doctrine is an excellent effort that has never been realized, despite widespread claims of success.
• Net-Centric Warfare objectives will not be achieved until exclusive use of open standards and public domain Open Source software are mandated and enforced in the DOD.
• The DOD owns all of the software it has paid for, but demonstrates ownership of none of the software it has paid for.
• The vast majority of U.S. Military software development is duplicative.
• Code re-use is unheard of due to the complete lack of policy, neglect of existing network resources, and abrogation of responsibility by DOD leadership.
• All products of DOD software development belong to the people of the United States and must be made available to them.
• Through the ignorance of their military overseers MIC corporations take de-facto ownership of the DOD software that they develop, and in doing so they steal from the people of the United States. By allowing this, military professionals and DOD officials violate the public trust.
• Failure to require that ALL products of software development activities in the DOD be made completely available to ALL DOD entities, organizations and developers using existing software repository tools is reprehensible.

Major premise: Failure to make ALL products of software development activities available to the general public using existing software repositories except in cases where CLEAR and PROVABLE security concerns exist is wasteful, unnecessary and abusive of public trust.

Minor Premise: With current object oriented procedures that effectively allow the separation of presentation and data, software that CLEARLY and PROVABLY demonstrates or reveals controlled or secret information is so poorly designed as to represent a WORST practice – and should be prohibited in the strongest terms and eliminated.

Conclusion: All DOD software development products should be in the public domain as open source.

• Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures rely intrinsically on common, collaborative, open source technologies that derive relevance from widespread use and from the “Many Eyes” principle.
• NCW objectives will not be achieved until “Off-The-Shelf” products are replaced with “Off-the-Net” products.
• The requisite skills to achieve “Off-The-Net” capabilities do not exist in MIC corporations and are actively resisted in order to preserve traditional system-centric profit models. Service Oriented Architectures require service oriented profit models that existing non-competitive MIC corporations cannot be expected to achieve.
• Adherence to traditional development practices will result in continued failure to achieve NCW objectives.
• The “Many Eyes” principle is a cornerstone security factor that cannot be matched by any closed source processes, and without which truly reliable software cannot be developed.
• Explicit mandate of open source software that leverages a community of worldwide proportions is imperative for true security and reliability.
• Explicit mandate in the DOD of open source software that leverages public domain collaboration, re-use, and development will create a revolution in military affairs (RMA), and will represent an appropriate and effective expenditure of public funds in a way that will improve national defense, promote general public security, and support critical public infrastructure.
• Arguments that posit security or legal concerns to oppose the use and support of public domain open source software are vapid, uninformed, irresponsible and support MIC profit motives that are not in the best interests of the public or of the Warfighter.
• Version control has been solved in the public domain. It has not been solved in the DOD and represents billions of dollars of waste.
• Emulation of the public domain in the DOD is not sufficient.
• The use of Microsoft Software represents blatant violation of NCW principles, waste of public funds, ignorance of real security principles, and reprehensible complacency.
• Use of Microsoft software in the DOD caused friction and inertia that retards progress and is a clear detriment to Warfighting effectiveness.

NCW capabilities will not be realized until there is congressional or executive level mandate of open standard, open source, public domain software in the DOD and all government agencies.

As Neushul quotes in the header on the original document - “You cannot solve your problems using the same thinking that caused them.” - Einstein

What do you think? Is Neushul off his rocker or the only sane person related to Military Software? Hope you enjoyed this refreshing bit of fresh thought on the subject!

Colin

Happy Monday to you all out there.  Wanted to share a little bit about the weekend and talk about a new purchase I made.

The weekend was great - my cousin Lauren got married and I got to shoot the wedding - which is always tons of fun.  I shot with Tracey Long, a photographer friend of mine I’ve shot with for a year or so.  The wedding was at the Canton Theatre - a small, old timey theatre with almost no light to speak of.  So I was thankful we rented 24mm f/1.4s (for those of you unfamiliar with photograph speak, that low f number means it lets a lot of light in).  The wedding was simple and small, but I thought it was very nice.  I’ll have some pictures for y’all to look at Wednesday night or Thursday, most likely.

I made a purchase I think will get some good use in the months and years to come - a nice flash unit from AlienBees and a nice stand, boom arm, and softbox.  Should let me shoot some sweet portraits - which I’m sure I’ll post here soon.

The day has been good so far - finally to a point in the summer where I can turn from researching CRMs and their capabilities to beginning to become an expert with one of the systems.  Off to dig more into the world of open source.

What did you do with your weekend?

Take care,

Colin