"BBS" Means What, Now?

There's a note on CrunchGear today that takes me back to my earliest web work. Yesterday, apparently, was the birthday of the first-ever public "BBS," which stood for "Bulletin Board System."

A BBS was a dial-in, text-based computer bulletin board; not quite "the web" as we know it now, but a start. That first one started in 1978!

I was not involved in BBS work that far back, but I did run a BBS for Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control back in the early 1990s when I was a Community Relations Officer.

Our intent was simple -- we wanted to provide a place for the regulated community to access the latest versions of the state's environmental regulations. That meant translating all of the regulations into text files -- ascii text files with no formatting.

Of course, many of the regulations in those days dated back to before the widespread use of word-processing systems. In some cases, we were scanning and translating old, several-times copied typescript.

And we were struggling to create a usable system that the few very computerized engineering firms could use. I think we succeeded.

Later in the 1990s, I was working for the Economic Development Office and got to set up a series of World Wide Web pages to present census and other data to small business and other data users. I was using very rudimentary HTML coding and every section of the site was a new design challenge.

Things have changed a lot. Today, almost all state agency web sites use a "common look and feel" web page design put together by the government Information Center. We use twitter and RSS feeds and, in some cases blogging software and other tools.

But if you trace back from today's gov 2.0 web sites, you find simple, text-based BBS systems that were accessed over phone lines using modems that beeped, and booped, and transferred data via some strange wash of white noise.

RIP Phil Harris

I was saddened to read this morning that Captain Phil Harris has passed away. He was 53 years old.

He was the captain of the fishing vessel Cornelia Marie which was featured on the discovery Channel program Deadliest Catch. He suffered a massive stroke at the end of January and died yesterday, February 9.

I did not know Phil Harris personally. He was just a person whose job was featured on a very well-filmed, well-run documentary program. But I am a great fan of that show and Phil Harris was a fascinating part of the story.

I found some personal resonance in his suffering of a blood clot and pulmonary embolism on the show recently. I had a similar event in 2005, though mine was not nearly as serious or scary as his. His lifestyle was much more unhealthy; he smoked, ate poorly, went long periods on little sleep, and had a ridiculously high stress level.

He was a character and fascinating to listen to as he tried to run a risky fishing business and teach that business to his sons. I can't say that I was surprised to read of his death, but I will miss watching him.

I am thinking this morning of his sons, the rest of his family, and his friends and crew.

Sliding on the Walking Dune

sliding on the walking dune
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

We were all home again today. School was canceled and state government was shuttered in Kent and Sussex Counties because of the terrible great snowfall.

I spent the morning e-caucusing with my conference planning committee, talking about whether or not to postpone the 2010 Delaware GIS Conference which was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. We used e-mail, cell-phones, google sites, and EtherPad to determine that, with roads still a mess from the week-end storm, and another sizable snow storm on the way, we should postpone it.

In the afternoon, I took a ride out to Cape Henlopen State Park and headed up to the walking dune to watch people sledding. We don't really have hills here so when there is enough snow, people head for the walking dune.

Coming back through town, I poked around and checked on the status of several streets.

It's pretty snowy around here.

Digging Out

We spent much of our day digging out from the Great Delaware Blizzard of 2010. It was a family effort. We had great help from the City of Lewes road crew, who were kind enough to plow away the snow bank at the end of the driveway.

The Blizzard of 2010?

We've had a bit of snow around here. It started snowing late yesterday afternoon and continued pretty steadily until around 7 this evening. Along the way, we think it changed over to rain for a little bit overnight last night. But most of it was heavy snow and high winds.

Our Saturday was blizzardy and wild.


This was mid-afternoon when the white-out was at its height. I took this video from the garage door, without venturing out. The girls asked me to leave the driveway alone until they can get out and romp in it tomorrow.

A bit later I went out in the back yard to check the heat pump. There I found drifts up over my knees.

This has been a rare sort of a storm for us. We don't usually get this much snow and I don't recall ever seeing "Blizzard Warning" on the evening newscast before. Also unprecedented was the order from Governor Markell last night through most of today banning all but essential folks from driving.

As a state, we hunkered down and waited it out, except for emergency crews, snowplow drivers and National Guard troops who were out helping the few morons who did try to drive -- and moving folks whose power died get to shelters.

We're suffering a bit from cabin fever, but here in Lewes, we've been lucky. we kept our power all day (but for one 10-second blip). We lost the cable for a short time, but had lots of Lucy and other favorites stored up on the TiVo.

Tomorrow, it's snow shovels and aching muscles for all!

Shoveling the Driveway

shoveling the driveway
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

We don't really get a lot of snow here in southern Delaware, so when we do, we get pretty excited about it. That's one reason why I was all revved-up about shoveling the driveway this morning. The other was that it gave me an excuse to try a time-lapse photo thingy.

When I first came out and took a picture from the garage door this morning, Barry, from across the street, asked whether I expected photography to melt the snow away. He's originally from York, PA, and snow is nothing too special for him.

I took a picture from the same spot every two passes across the driveway. I tried to remain consistent as to angle and aspect; I used Mary and Barry's dormer window, in the upper left, as a reference point.

This sequence starts at about 9:30 a.m. and runs until around 11:15 a.m. I took my time, enjoyed my coffee and came in at one point to take a phone call.

More Snow Video

Snow is still pouring down on us here in Lewes. We're probably up to 4 or 5 inches by now. So how to spend a snowy afternoon? Why not try out a video editing software tool?


This is video from our front yard, taken around 3:00 p.m. And this is my first-ever attempt at video editing. Be kind.

Backyard Snow

backyard snow
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

It started snowing at about 10:00 a.m. here in Lewes, Delaware. When I stepped out on the back porch at a bit past one to collect this minute of video, there was already about two inches on the ground. We're expecting a few more before this ends this evening.

It's pretty. There is nowhere we have to be today. We have enough food and firewood on hand.

I was trying to capture a sense of the peace that's possible in this situation and almost succeeded -- until the neighbor's air-pump kicked on.

Unforgiving Grammarian Moment #298

I know this is petty of me, but I get annoyed by bad grammar in newspaper writing. It is usually the subtle little errors that irk me the most; so subtle that sometimes I'm not even sure they are errors.

Like this one from a story on a fish kill in today's News Journal:

Unlike many other regional species, DNREC Fisheries Manager Craig Shirey said the croaker spawn late in the season, in the early fall, and are therefore less equipped to handle cold temperatures and rough surf.

My first question is, what do the other species say about when the croaker do their spawning? And is Craig Shirey really a distinct species? I've met Craig, by the way, and he is a nice fellow, but not that unique.

The fix is simple, by the way. Simply insert a comma:

Unlike many other regional species, DNREC Fisheries Manager Craig Shirey said, the croaker spawn late in the season, in the early fall, and are therefore less equipped to handle cold temperatures and rough surf.

Or even better:

Unlike many other regional species, croaker spawn late in the season, in the early fall, said DNREC Fisheries Manager Craig Shirey. They are therefore less equipped to handle cold temperatures and rough surf, he added.

You could probably leave off the "he added," I suppose.

Yes, I know. I am being petty. And I am often guilty of equally egregious grammatical errors. But newspaper writers and editors get paid to write.

I'm just blathering on here for my own amusement.

Fans? In January?

left behind
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

Walking to the post office in Dover today, I went past Legislative Hall in Dover. Lying on the grass across from the Capitol Building were a pair of "lobbying fans" from a protest out there yesterday.

A group of workers -- union members in a variety of trades -- had turned out to urge the General Assembly to act to support job creation in Delaware. They were supported in part by the folks proposing a new horse-racing track and casino complex: DelPointe.

That project would require General Assembly action, and it would lead to jobs -- at least in the short and medium terms.

So the DelPointe folks brought hats and lobby fan signs to hand out. These fans are a long-standing tradition. They are cheap and easy to hand out and they function both as signs and, in warmer weather than we've had lately, as fans. They are handy when things get sticky in the heat of political debate.

It seemed odd to see them out there in January.

This demonstration also gave our Governor a leg-up to a great headline, by the way: Markell calms angry crowd of jobless.

The newspaper reports that the protest had gotten a bit heated when the Governor stepped-in and stepped-up:

The rally ended after Gov. Jack Markell, scheduled for an appearance a few feet away, climbed onto the front of a state police SUV to address the crowd through a megaphone, promising to work to bring jobs to Delaware.

Nice press if you can get it.

On a Less Clear Day

The Atlantic Ocean from the dune at Fort Miles
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

This morning started with dreadful wind and rain, but by mid afternoon the skies had partly cleared.

I was off for a day of car service, eye exams, and furnace-checking and by the time things cleared I was free and ready to head out to Cape Henlopen State Park to have a look at the ocean. I went up to the dune gun emplacement at Fort Miles and found empty dunes, beach and (mostly) ocean.

A closer (telephoto) look revealed a distant freighter in the mist that clung to the water well off-shore.

I watched until the mist, drifting out to sea, revealed the ship was heading out as well.

Social Media Success Story #286

Meet Phineas Gage... Or how flickr changed our life
Originally uploaded by photo_history

This is an old Daguerreotype found by a couple and posted to Flickr. They thought he was a whaler, but comments from viewers eventually led to the discovery that he is a man named Phineas P. Gage who, in 1848, had an iron spike accidentally driven straight through his skull.

There's a more detailed story on NPR.com: The Face Of A Famous Skull Found On Flickr. This is, to me, one of the great values of social media tools; we can, collectively, by sharing and talking across all of many societies, learn so much more.

What's for Lunch?

I have a new obsessive compulsive symptom habit: cellphone photos of lunch-specials chalk boards.

I work in downtown Dover, Delaware -- a really pretty city. I like to walk uptown at lunchtime and usually will get lunch from one of several places along Loockerman Street, the main commercial street.

A few weeks ago, a coworker asked me to let her know what the soups were for that day at 33 West, a very popular eatery (my favorite, in fact). I was thumb-typing the  list of soups into my cellphone to send to her when I thought, "why not put this out via twitter? There may be other folks trying to decide what to have for lunch." So I tweeted the soups and lunch specials.

I did that a time or two more before I realized that it would be easier to simply snap a cellphone photo of the specials board and post/tweet that.

So began an occasional habit. On those days when I do walk up town, I stop to snap the specials boards of the two lunch places that routinely have them -- 33 West and the Dover Newsstand.

The Newsstand, it should be noted, does post its specials each day on its web site. That's a good practice, though I think it would make sense for restaurants to routinely post their own specials to their own twitter accounts. Twitter is a "push" medium; it goes out to all who subscribe (or follow re-tweeters), while a web site is a static thing and of no use unless someone is specifically looking for it.

So, if you are in Dover and wondering what to have for lunch, I invite you to check my twitter-stream. It won't be every day, but on many days, I'll post links to pictures of the chalkboards that will tell you what's for lunch.

Oh, For The Love Of...

The following came in via e-mail today from the head of a local right-wing, anti-government, property-rights group:

Glenn Beck has announced he will be doing a series of documentaries on the history of the progressive movement. The first is this Friday.

The Glenn Beck program is on at 5 PM and 2 AM on the Fox News Channel. I have set my DVR.

I truly believe this series of documentaries will explain much of how we've gotten to where we are today.

Okay... I know this is ridiculous, but I also know that there are people who will take this seriously. And that makes me sad.

Roots of the Tea Party Party?

The "tea party" movement seemed to just appear last year. The link to the Boston Tea Party of colonial America seemed a little forced to me; why that connection? Why now?

Reason.com has an interesting post up today that provides, if not a full background, at least an interesting connection and a hint. The post -- The First Anti-Ted Kennedy Tea Party: Boston's Anti-Busing Brigades --includes news footage from 1974 of an anti-busing protest in Boston.


These protests were in response to the legal rulings that schools shouldn't be segregated. These are white people angry that they will now have to interact with black people.

They use the tea bag metaphor too.

February 5 Will be George HP Smith Day in Lewes

The City of Lewes has set aside February 5 of each year as "Hon. George H.P. Smith Day." The City Council chose that day to honor our late former Mayor because it is his birthday.

George Smith was our Mayor for many years and he did a great job. I wrote a detailed memorial for the Mayor back in 2005, shorty after he passed away. I stand by what I wrote then; he was a fine man.

This year on the 5th, current Mayor Jim Ford will dedicate a marker honoring Mayor Smith at a tree planted in his memory at Smith Park. His family will launch an annual appeal for contributions to a scholarship fund in his name, and Grotto Pizza will donate a portion of its proceeds on February 4 to the fund. (it's a shame I don't care for Grotto's pizza)

I think this is a good idea.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Dr. M.L. King

Unstable isotope has posted the full text of the speech at Delaware Liberal. So, naturally, I plugged that into wordle to create a word cloud of the speech.

From My Bucket List?

I had my picture taken with The Count, from Sesame Street, today. I was very excited about this.

I didn't realize that I wanted this until earlier in the week, when I looked at the media advisory from the US Census Bureau about the Census in Schools event I was planning to attend.

Right there, listed along with the Governor, a Senator, and the Director of the Census, were The Count and Rosita!

The Count was there for the students at Bancroft Elementary and a demonstration of the educational materials about the Census that the Bureau is making available to schools nationwide.

But I did get to pose for a picture after the lesson. Great fun!

Though when you compare this picture of me with the picture of my Grandfather at about the same age that I posted earlier this week, it makes you wonder about my level of dignity.

It Seems Possible That I Could Look Dignified

My brother John has turned up a small collection of pictures of our grandfather in the online collection of the Library of Congress.

Our father's father, Charles Delahunt Mahaffie Sr., was a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) from 1930 to 1955 (he was appointed by President Hoover). At some point during that time, I believe, he sat for this portrait. I think he would have been in his late forties or in  his fifties here.

He's very dignified in this photo, and in all others that I've seen. Perhaps there's hope for me?

Of course, my grandfather was a really remarkable man. He was born in 1884 in Olathe Kansas, but moved to Oklahoma as a homesteader as a boy. He graduated from Kingfisher College in 1905 and went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After practicing law for a few years, he came to Washington DC and worked for several agencies before becoming an ICC commissioner.

He also married Isabel Ruth Cooper and fathered my Dad, for which I am most grateful.

It Takes Me Back, What Can I Say?

I've been enjoying the new Pearl Jam song, Just Breathe, lately. It is a great song in and of itself, but it has been plucking a memory chord for me as well.


Listen to Eddie Vedder's voice here. He has that deep resonant sound to his voice that takes me back to the early 1970s, when I was a kid and my mother brought home an LP by a fellow named Roger Whittaker who has pretty much that same sound.



Of course, there's a fair amount of space between Eddie Vedder and Roger Whittaker. But that new Pearl Jam song really takes me back to when I first heard Roger Whittaker.