Three sites have been dedicated to the late Ken Braithwaite

His friends and family may be pleased to know: three sites have been dedicated to the late Ken Braithwaite.

• A "Friends of Kenneth Braithwaite" FaceBook Group has been created. This social networking site accommodates text, still images, videos, links, music, and other media posts, and facilitates communication amongst participants.
  
• The Social-Organizational Psychology Program at Columbia Teachers College has posted Program Information: Memorial Service for Doctoral Candidate Kenneth Braithwaite.


• A guest book has been connected to Ken's online obit at boston.com. I won't post the link, as: (1) the guest book will be deleted in November, 2008 unless someone pays to sponsor it, and (2) there's no need for anyone to sponsor a commercial guest book, as Friends of Kenneth Braithwaite (or another site like it) can serve the same purpose, in perpetuity, for free.

Merry Christmas!

Images: courtesy of Wikipedia.org>>Nativity of Jesus:

(1) Grotto of the Nativity in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem — where it is believed Jesus was born, and

(2) Relief of Nativity, Cathedral St. Peter, Worms, Germany.

Merrry Christmas! Do you know the reason for the Christmas season?

To learn about the history of Christmas, click the link above or access the following books and cds.

Kenneth Noel James Braithwaite: Contact Info, January 10 Memorial Service at Columbia Teachers College, Published Research

INTRODUCTION:

The blogosphere is a powerful tool. Case in point: many people have contacted me in response to Tribute to Kenneth Noel James Braithwaite (August 1966-November 2007).

Apparently, some had learned about Ken's death through this electronic grapevine. Others had found the post via online searches and word of mouth, and contacted me to obtain and share details about Ken's death, life and going home services. In all cases, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but glad my online tribute has been informative.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

I don't mind being contacted about Ken. However, I'm reluctant to provide unpublished personal details to strangers. Of course, a telephone conversation can easily "qualify" folks as legitimate friends of Ken's, and I welcome such chats. They tend to prove informative and comforting for me as well as for those who phone.

Additionally, I'd like to refer those with questions to his family's place of worship, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church [239 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, Tel. (617) 354-8582], and to the Social-Organizational Psychology Program office at Columbia Teachers College ("TC"), where he was close to completing his Ph.D.

MEMORIAL SERVICE:

Ken's professors and colleages at TC will be holding a memorial service on January 10, 2008 at 7:00 P.M., Eastern Time. A small reception will follow. The location will be 179 Grace Dodge Hall, at 525 120th Street, New York, NY 10025 [get directions]. Please RSVP to Lynda Hallmark, Program Manager for Social-Organizational Psychology by January 4th [email: hallmark AT tc.edu], and specify: (1) that you will attend, and (2) whether or not you would like to say a few words.

Feel free to invite other friends of Ken.

PUBLISHED RESEARCH:

Interested in reading Ken's published research? He co-authored the following article with his doctoral advisor:

Westaby, J.D., & Braithwaite, K.N. (2003). Specific Factors Underlying Reemployment Self-Efficacy: Comparing Control Belief and Motivational Reason Methods for the Recently Unemployed. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 39, 415-437.

Tribute to Kenneth Noel James Braithwaite (August 1966-November 2007)

Thanksgiving weekend 2007 was not festive for everyone. Case in point: the sudden, unexpected loss of Kenneth Noel James Braithwaite (August 1966-November 2007), earlier in the week, gave a new, darker, meaning to "Black Friday."

Nonetheless, the week's events gave me a new reason to give thanks.

Instead of driving up from the Big Apple on November 23, 2007 (the day after Thanksgiving) to accept Ken's invitation to "hang out" in Beantown, I made the trip for a solemn reason: to attend Ken's Celebration of Life services. The wake and funeral services were held at Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Cambridge; interment was at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett (in a plot shared with his mother, Audrey).

What a contrast to the last times Ken and I had hung out in Massachusetts. On another holiday weekend, he, another Columbia classmate, and I had had a grand time driving there in my two-door coupe. For this planned, November trip, Ken and I had assumed that we would use my four-wheel drive vehicle to access out-of-the-way haunts, and otherwise pahk the cah neah Hahvahd Yahd and take the "T" around town. [I enjoyed teasing Ken about his Massachusetts accent.]

You know what they say about the word "assume." Ken rode not in my green SUV with New York plates or on Boston Mass Transit's Red or Green Line this weekend. Rather, he took his final ride on Friday at noon, in a shiny black hearse with Massachusetts DMV plate number 2025.

I rue not visiting Ken sooner, as he'd suggested. I still hadn't learned my lesson: death never comes at convenient times. Consequently, those in the know prioritize opportunities to spend time with loved ones, and accordingly avoid suffer the consequences I'm currently experiencing.

By George, I think I've finally got it now. The school of hard knocks is quite effective.

So I finally made it to Ken's home in Massachusetts, but for the wrong reason. His bicyles in the hallway, his laptop on the table beside the sofa, his blue jacket draped over the loveseat arm, and his passport and photographs were eerie, material reminders of his accomplishments as an athlete, professional, globetrotter and debonair bachelor. Ken was also a gifted scholar with degrees from Buckingham Browne and Nichols, Tufts College and Columbia University, whose dissertation proposal had recently been approved by his doctoral committee in Organizational Psychology.

Ken's profile was impressive, yes. However, it was the presence, the shared stories, and the tears of those of us who loved him that demonstrated the real measure of the man. Kenneth Noel James Braithwaite was a beloved son, uncle, and friend who will not be forgotten. I am truly thankful for his friendship and for the time we shared.

Happy Thanksgiving, 2007

Image: Courtesy of Microsoft.

Here are links to some worthwhile holiday reading and other media:

• Emergency Preparedness & Safety Tip #15 - TURKEY TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
• Answers.com>>Thanksgiving - Articles and links to information about Thanksgiving history, traditions and recipes.
• Amazon.com>>Thanksgiving- A bounty of Thanksgiving-related products and services.

Can you tell what time it is? American clocks fell back later than usual in 2007

The image above is from a 2001 public service announcement that reminded people to adjust clocks manually. Source: www.defenselink.mil/afis/editors/lineart_oct.html {{PD-USGov-Military}} category:time.

Since I frequent crowded places, and address many groups, I'm often asked, "Can you tell me what time it is?" Usually, that's no problem. But this past week, answering that question's been challenging. Perhaps you can relate.

Here's why: many timepieces have been showing different faces lately. They've seemed unsure about when to say, "Sayanora!" to daylight-saving time (DST) and "Aloha!" to eastern standard time (EST). For example, my desktop computer clock (then set by time.windows.com) automatically fell back a week early. (That was unacceptable, so I've since reset it to time-a.nist.gov. Read "Does your computer know what time it is?" for instructions about resetting your computer's time server. )

In contrast, my wristwatches, old-fashioned electric and battery-operated clocks, and vehicle dashboards will continue reporting DST until someone changes them manually. Fortunately, the drafts autosaved by Blogger have switched to EST timestamps mid-post, my laptop and the atomic clocks Dad gave me (which are governed by the NIST computers) fell back this morning (presumably at 2 A.M.), and my Treo "smartphone"/PDA should catch up by falling back sometime today.

Why all the hullabaloo? The switch from DST to EST occured one month later than usual in 2007. In time zones that observe DST, the backhanding of timepieces occurred on the first Sunday in November (today, November 4) at 2:00 AM rather than during the last weekend in October. Learn why.

The following mnemonic makes it easy for those who observe DST to remember HOW time changes twice yearly: "spring forward, fall back." However, WHEN to reset clocks can still be confusing.

Fortunately, there are three easily accessible resoures for getting time and staying on track:

• The news media (which requires no forethought to access, and precious little brainpower to keep up with).
  
• www.Time.gov. As stated at About Time.gov: "This public service is cooperatively provided by the two time agencies of the United States: a Department of Commerce agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and its military counterpart, the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO). Readings from the clocks of these agencies contribute to world time, called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time maintained by both agencies should never differ by more than 0.000 0001 seconds from UTC (see recent comparisons). "

The URLs for those sites are: Time & Frequency Division, NIST and Time Service Department, USNO.

• WebExhibits.org>>Daylight Saving Time. WebExhibits (curated by Michael Douma at the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement in Washington, D.C.) is an interactive, web-based museum that challenges visitors to think and explore scientific and cultural phenomena in new ways. The Daylight Saving Time exhibit is supported by IDEA, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), Time and Frequency Division, as a complement to time.gov.

To take advantage of the extra hour, I chose last night to untwist my hair (a decidedly GNARLY undertaking). Now, if only there were a way to confine such intricate operations to twice a year, and better yet, to program a computer to accomplish them automatically, at a pre-appointed time. ###

Lord & Taylor's CAPTCHA takes the cake!*

* Image courtesy of LordandTaylor.com Credit Services.

Efforts to can spam, foil phishers, and baffle bots are becoming increasingly creative. One delicious example is Lord & Taylor's CAPTCHA technique, which really takes the cake!

SIDEBAR: If you're wondering WTH (What The Heck)?! I've got some 'splainin' to do. CAPTCHA is an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. CAPTCHA applications combat fraud perpetrated by humans and bots. Bots, in this context (as opposed to the biological, musical, economic, or thermomagnetic), are described by Answers.com>>CAPTCHA as "software agents [...] developed to automatically perform illegitimate transactions over the Web, including overloading online opinion polls, performing dictionary attacks to find names and passwords as well as grabbing thousands of free e-mail accounts for sending spam."

Are you with me?

BACK ON TRACK: One creative use of CAPTCHA is employed by Yahoo! to combat phishers. Yahoo!'s login page offers an option to create a text or image badge to authenticate the login form and distinguish it from those of imposters seeking to steal Yahoo! login information. One enters a three-part alphanumeric phrase (e.g., ABC-123-xoxo or I-Eat-Cake), or uploads an image from their hard drive, et voila! one's created a unique, authenticatable [yes, that's a word!] sign-in form.

Lord & Taylor's CAPTCHA application, on the other hand, presents an image - in my case, the tasty tidbit pictured above - to registrants at LordandTaylor.com Credit Services, and instructions to create a caption. Subsequently, account access requires: (1) entering one's email address, (2) verifying one's unique Site Key Image [i.e., picture-caption combination], and (3) entering one's password. Piece o' cake!

The process protects users' accounts from hackers and scammers, and is actually fun to follow. As Ralph Kramden would say: how sweet it is!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Intrusive registration process requests cellular number, and makes me mad as hell

As Howard Beale (Peter Finch) said in Network: "I'm mad as hell and I'm just not taking anymore!"* (NOTE: I'm not suicidal (as Beale was), just spitting mad.)

"Cell, no! I say." And I say it again as my bottom line.

What's gotten my goat is the proliferation of purveyor and solictor intrusions. I encountered the latest, this morning, from a company I otherwise trust.

Amazon.com had invited me to join askville, which benefits Amazon.com Associates (i.e., affiliate marketers). Step one was painless: entering my Amazon.com login details. However, the intrusive next screen in the registration process stopped me dead in my tracks.

Enter my cell(ular) phone number and provider/carrier? Heck no, Joe!

I'm already sick of spam in my e-mail boxes, junk mail in my mailboxes, and unwelcome, unsolicited phone calls on my land lines. However, those are mere nuisances compared with unwanted, unsolicited cellular calls that waste time, distract, and squander precious peak-time minutes. If time is money, the first three buggers are costly; the fourth: a double dipper.

Thankfully, good spam filters, junk busters and do not call registries screen and stem many unwanted communications, and it's illegal for telemarketers to dial most cell phone numbers (except those furnished voluntarily or unwittingly). Goodie for us who don't want to be bothered. TDB (Too Darn Bad) for scammers and solictors biting the bit to breach others' privacy and wallets.

Of course, creative, persistent intruders have found other ways to skin the proverbial cat. For example, scammers have gone phishing, and solicitors have set their sites on mobile devices.

Don't get me wrong. I trust Amazon.com (unlike some other companies) not to spam me or bombard my mobile phone. Moreover, Amazon.com is only one of an increasing number of service providers to request cellular numbers; e.g., vendors that proffer made-to-order maps, directions, ring tones and many other wares do, too.

To reassure potential registrants, askville, by Amazon.com shares its FAQ, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and answers to the following questions here:

• Why do you want my phone number?
• Okay, but will you ever call or text me again?
• Will receiving a text message cost me any money?

I believe askville's answers. What I don't trust, however, is ANY entities' ability to secure my sensitive 411. Credit card companies, hospitals, academic institutions, Google, and heck, even Uncle Sam, have been hacked and their clients' identities and sensitive information compromised. Consequently, I'm in no rush to weaken my already-permeable privacy by dipping my cellular number into one of the world's largest marketing pools.

To most who ask for my mobile number, here's my answer: "Cell, no!"###

* My source: Wikipedia >> Network (film). Wikipedia's source: www.threemoviebuffs.com/review.php?movieID=network. Quotation and screenshot for the film, Copyright MGM, and possibly also Copyright Peter Finch. It is believed that the use of a limited number of web-resolution screenshots for identification and critical commentary on the film and its contents on the English-language Wikipedia, hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law. Any other uses of this image, on Wikipedia or elsewhere, may be copyright infringement. See Wikipedia:Non-free content for more information.To the uploader: please add a detailed fair use rationale for each use, as described on Wikipedia:Image description page, as well as the source of the work and copyright information.

Lindsay Lohan sez rehab was a "sobering experience"

According to print and electronic media, Lindsay Lohan sez rehab was "a sobering experience." What a bloggable statement! I'm glad to hear it, and hope it's true. (I wonder if Lindsay was aware of the pun, and if so, whether she or one of her flacks crafted that quotable line.)###