Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

The last two-plus years of writing this blog (and the millions of iterations that it has entailed) have been an incredibly fun journey. I’ve started sites that died almost immediately, started some that kind of work, built a whole bunch I’ve never told anyone about because they could’ve been coded by a third grader in 20 minutes but took me four months, and had a boatload of fun learning about all of this stuff.

But this change is the last one.

No, it’s not. It’s definitely not. But there are a couple of changes, additions and subtractions here that I think will be sticking around for a while. Nay, I oath it.

What Digitizd is Going to Be

I love what Digitizd has become – it’s a great place to share, to discuss, to learn, and to discover new and cool stuff. I’ve learned way more from you, the attractive and well-rounded readers that we’ve got here, than I can possibly share. I want to do more of that, in a somewhat different way.

Show Us Your Stuff

Believe it or not, I’m not the only person on the Web with things to say, or ideas, or tips. So to that point, I’m making two changes. One, there’s now an actual, easy way to submit stuff to Digitizd: http://digitizd.com/submit. I get a ton of great emails with links, thoughts, and ideas – many of them become posts, and have become some of my favorite posts ever here at Digitizd. I want this site to be less about me and more about you guys, so submit away! I’ll always give credit where credit’s due, and might be able to throw some people your way.

Going Around the Web

Along with the submissions, I’m going to be folding Digitizd Plus, the satellite part of Digitizd, into the main site. I’ll still be writing feature articles (I’ll be writing those 3x/week from here on), but I want to use this site to share things that don’t get a 500+-word post: great articles, funny infographics, and lots of tips and tricks for how to live digitally. I’m constantly encountering things I want to share with you all, and this is my way to do that.

Both linklog and feature posts will be on the front page – there are links in the navigation to the individual streams.

If you like the idea, and want to get more content and have more of a chance to interact and participate, don’t change anything – the default feed will have all the content from Digitizd. If you think that’s the worst idea ever, that’s cool – there’s a way to subscribe, and see only the Feature articles on the site. The feed address is here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DigitizdFeatures.   If you want to subscribe to that feed by email, do so here:  http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=DigitizdFeatures.

If, likewise, all you want is what I’m calling the Linklog (what used to be Digitizd Plus), that’s here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DigitizdLinklog. To subscribe by email, go here: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Digitizdlinklog.

If you want it all, change nothing (or subscribe, if you haven’t)—you’ll get all the goodness.

I’ll save the other announcements for another time – that’s plenty confusing, I know. But it means everything’s in one place, means the conversation can be richer and more interesting, and frankly saves me a lot of work.

If you encounter any problems with this stuff, let me know! Thanks again, for the millionth time, for all your patience as I learn my way around this crazy blogging world.

Photographs taken by Tony Russell at Riverview Park,
Charlottesville, VA. September 7, 2010

As the newest member of Standing Partnership, you can imagine my surprise when I was given the opportunity to travel my third day on the job. Though I've only been at Standing for a little over a week, I've already experienced Standing's commitment to hands-on learning.

Last week, I was provided with a chance to travel along with a co-worker and a few of our agriculture clients to a vegetable grower's produce distribution facility in northern Illinois. While there, we met with the farm's owner/operator, toured the distribution facility, learned about the operation and inspected produce.

I can assure you I am forever changed. Never again will I enjoy a cob of sweet corn without first thinking about the science behind its development, the struggles the farmer had to overcome in order to grow an edible piece of corn for me to enjoy and the hardships he or she faced when shipping vegetables to grocery stores around the country.

In my opinion, farmers are often viewed as being just that-farmers, when in fact they are so much more. After meeting with and speaking to the owner and operator of the produce facility, I realized his job encompasses countless responsibilities. He acts as CEO (he makes all of the business decisions), an engineer (he built much of his own equipment), a chemist (he must understand how to properly maintain his crop by keeping it insect-free), manager (his facility employs more than 200 seasonal employees) and accountant. Additionally, his success depends greatly upon the weather, his hours are long and his job can, at times, be very dangerous.

As I reflect on my new role here at Standing, I realize that while my job presents challenges and includes a variety of tasks, I won't have to think about how uncontrollable factors,  like rain, or lack of it, will impact my paycheck. I won't have to think about how worm infestations will affect bottom line, and unlike a farmer, I won't be solely responsible for all business decisions.

Next time you enjoy a meal, take a moment to consider the farmers' work that made it possible.

I’m easy to find. And beat.

A couple of months ago I posted a request to help The Harry Potter Alliance win a 250k grant from Chase Morgan… and they won!  I choose to help them out because they fight for the little guy, advocate for GLBT issues and are just an incredibly awesome and motivated group of do-gooders.

So I was very happy when they pitched in to help get me and Gwenn some votes for the Pepsi Refresh grant, in which my little positoid pecker is currently being knocked in the dirt in terms of our ranking.  Pleaaaaaaaaase, vote.  Links below.  Here’s what I posted over on the Harry Potter Alliance web site, it’s an introduction and explains why winning this grant is so important to me.

Positively Yours,
Shawn
—————–

Hello! My name is Shawn. The kind folks at the Harry Potter Alliance have graciously posted my bid to educate 50,000 teenagers in all 50 states about sexual health through the Pepsi Refresh Project. So I thought it would be a good idea to tell you a little bit about myself, and why I think the HPA rules.

My friend, Andrew Slack, told me about the HPA. I was inspired to spread the word via my Poz Magazine blog when the HPA
was in the running for the Chase Morgan grant, and was thrilled when you guys pulled off the victory because I knew the money would go to many great causes that I believe in. I met Andrew years ago when we were both attending a college speaking conference, he as a member of a comedy troupe (The Late Night Players) and me as one half of an HIV/sexual health educating duo (with my wife partner, Gwenn). We all became friends, and years later Andrew told me about the work that he was doing with the HPA, how a group of people inspired by the Harry Potter books banded together to create magic in real life… off the pages, and off the big screen…

Where it counts.

I’m no stranger to real life magic, and I’ve needed a lot of it.

The reason why I educate about safer sex and HIV prevention is because I was diagnosed with HIV when I was 11 years old, having been infected through tainted blood products used to treat my hemophilia. I was the victim of discrimination as a result, and was even kicked out of my 6th grade class when my status became known. When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, effective medications for the virus were about a decade away… my parents were told that I probably had two years to live. My imagination and the ability to distract myself with it is probably one of the ways I was able to survive. Now, at age 35, I still carry around those same qualities- that part of me was frozen at my diagnosis. In some ways, that aspect of my diagnosis was a gift.

Since the age of 20, when I opened up about my HIV status, my life’s mission has been clear: do my best to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections while giving those who are already living with an STI hope that they can find love… that they can cope and have a life filled with meaning and joy. You know, some modern day magic.

It is possible. When minds and hearts are open, and we look out for the best interests of others, realizing that we too will benefit from their sense of happiness and health, then anything can happen. I know this from my own journey, and I love to share that sense of peace with others.

So, if you have a little magic dust left in your wands, it would be much appreciated if you could vote for me and Gwenn in the Pepsi Refresh Project. You can vote every day, via online vote (Facebook has a Pepsi Refresh application that is very convenient) and also via text. Our goal is ambitious, it would be a lot of work but I know we could reach a lot of people. We are trailing in the votes, so every click counts. To learn more about us, you can visit our website, Shawn and Gwenn We are also on http://facebook.com/shawnandgwenn

WAYS TO VOTE DAILY: (you can vote twice daily, once online and once via text)
On the Pepsi Refresh site: http://refresheverything.com/shawnandgwenn
Via text message: text 102299 to PEPSI (73774)
Sign up for Shawn and Gwenn’s daily email reminder:
http://ymlp.com/signup.php?id=guswjbygmgm

VOTING ENDS on SEPTEMBER 30!

cnnwtf:

CNN.com, now more Fox-y

Loved that guy on “Firefly.”

You can really taste the carnies!

Once just ain't enough for these local dudes.

Wrote John Matson in the September 2010 Scientific American, "Researchers have invented a real-life Transformer, a device that can fold itsef into two shapes on command.... The concept could one day produce chameleon-like objects that shift between any number of practical shapes at will."

"'Instead of programming bits and bytes, you program mechanical properties of the object,' said Daniela Rus, a roboticist at MIT."

"The system... consists of a thin sheet of resin-fiberglass composite... segmented into 32 triangular panels separated by flexible silicone joints [below]."

"Some of the joints have heat-sensitive actuators that bend 180° when warmed by an electric current, folding the sheet over at that joint. Depending on the program used, the sheet will conduct a series of folds to yield a boat or airplane shape in about 15 seconds."

Wrote Charles Q. Choi in a June 28, 2010 msnbc.com story, "The achievement could help pave the way for 'programmable matter' that could one day serve much like a Swiss Army knife, bending and creasing into any number of tools.

"Instead of carrying a toolbox with all these specific items in them like screwdrivers and wrenches, you could carry around a small pallet of these sheets that you would use to create something for a particular function," said Harvard roboticist Robert Wood.

The researchers foresee a number of potential applications:

• Measuring cups that fold to hold anywhere from a quarter teaspoon to multiple cups.
• Shelves that fold into as many divisions as required.
• A puckering sheet that can display information for the blind or people in the dark.
• A Swiss army knife of sorts able to form a tripod, wrench, antenna, or splint.

Instead of employing shape memory alloy strips, the actuators could be made of a number of other materials as well, such as artificial muscles, the researchers say. "We could also think of sheets that not only change shape but also structural or electromagnetic properties as well," Wood said.

The researchers detailed their findings online June 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The paper's abstract follows.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Programmable matter by folding

Programmable matter is a material whose properties can be programmed to achieve specific shapes or stiffnesses upon command. This concept requires constituent elements to interact and rearrange intelligently in order to meet the goal. This paper considers achieving programmable sheets that can form themselves in different shapes autonomously by folding. Past approaches to creating transforming machines have been limited by the small feature sizes, the large number of components, and the associated complexity of communication among the units. We seek to mitigate these difficulties through the unique concept of self-folding origami with universal crease patterns. This approach exploits a single sheet composed of interconnected triangular sections. The sheet is able to fold into a set of predetermined shapes using embedded actuation. To implement this self-folding origami concept, we have developed a scalable end-to-end planning and fabrication process. Given a set of desired objects, the system computes an optimized design for a single sheet and multiple controllers to achieve each of the desired objects. The material, called programmable matter by folding, is an example of a system capable of achieving multiple shapes for multiple functions.

From Gizmodo:

The first few hours of any new PCs existence are critical. Set things up right and youll enjoy years of stability and longevity. Get things wrong and… well, you know how that goes. Every mistake, oversight, and wrinkle introduced during a new PCs inception will compound itself over time. Here are the essentials to getting it right.

The whole list is worth a read – you’ll learn how to get rid of the crap that comes on new PCs, how to lock down your wireless router, and how to get all handy and upgrade your computer yourself.