Dave The Web Guy

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Latest Troubles.

Tough Road Back to the Original Social Media

02/17/2024

While browsing YouTube I came across this production by Lauren who makes the case to abandon social media and instead rely on a personal website.  It's exciting that someone like this 20-something young person seems to have independently contemplated the ramifications of self expressing  on social media platforms with a commensurate conclusion to use a personal website instead. 

As one who has tried to delete all social media platforms myself in favor of this very blog and website, I want to add to her points by mentioning at least one other that she either misses or inadvertantly glosses over which is the weening off of a desire for dopamine hits.

If conducted in a way where one completely deletes their social media accounts and then resumes posting at their own URL, expression becomes very lonely and can seem eerily pointless.  Although Lauren and indeed the entire new IndieWeb movement do address connectivity to others (engagement) and discuss solutions, it's important to understand that they are all less tangible than the "like" or the flattery of someone leaving a remark that is had through, say, an Instagram post.  

In making this point I am absolutely not saying don't do it.  I'm pointing out a substantial layer of bedrock to be prepared for, when you do.  I think Lauren in the video, speaking mainly to artists, covers the mental and emotional pathways to exclusive web publishing well enough, including overcoming the immediate perils.  But in calling out this other force, I hope to add some longer-tail resilience -- the grit necessary to carry past the 2 month point or in general, well after the initial rush of declaring one's digital independence. 

That emptiness by the evaporation of dopamine flow is going to feel heavy at first.  In time, as Lauren says, you will come to be focused on your message and your product rather than random validation of it.  Eventually validation will come from IRL engagements with your site that are discussed and appreciated through more intimate online connections or even offline completely.

That all being said, keep in mind too that if a "return to the WWW" sentiment evolved into a full-fledged movement, enough people might rediscover the enjoyable pastime of sitting with a cup of coffee and an open browser on an actual computer, clicking from place to place, person to person, perspective to perspective.  When people return to doing that, and begin interlinking and sharing their URLs again, so might that original form of external appreciation by a random audience.  

Yes, it will be a feat because in the time away we have as an online populace been away from that style of digital interaction, the world has moved to handheld devices where the "clicking" from one place to another has been replaced by the tap-as-needed one.  There really are literally only a fraction of devices left in the discretionary world where people who don't need them even buy a PC.

The other area of friction in making the transition is the learning curve, which aside from the promise of instant engagement and visibility, is the other major perk point social media platforms offer by all but eliminating that.  Learning some degree of HTML and scripting is far and away more difficult than simply "signing up" to something.  Again Lauren covers this nuance, turning it, rightfully, into a positive learning experience.  Doing so would in fact allow one to develop those skills, but crucially, it would happen slowly over time.  Perhaps more or less depending on where one is starting from.   

But by god I would advise anyone:  Try it anyway.  I was excited to come across Lauren's video because it just shored up my suspicion that yes indeed people are seeing the foils of the big platforms, all while beginning to appreciate the control and versatility of the original WWW one.

Linkage



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

socialmedia video www

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The Little Creature Made It, But Just Barely

11/05/2023

Had to Make a Slide For Home -- But It Did It

It's not uncommon for me to encounter deer while commuting. But earlier this week my dashcam caught the perilous panic run of one almost going straight into the side of the car ahead of me as it shot for the safety of the other side.  It took a pretty bad slide but it seems to have made it unscathed, albeit shaken.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

omg video

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The TV Couch Profile

07/09/2023

I adopted Gina from the Ten Lives Club organization. She's classified as "special needs" due to being extremely anxious and skittish. For months she hid under the bed all day but finally began to thaw.

She has her own coping tactics however, one being that she won't be social until I am in a specific resting profile such as sitting on the couch watching TV (yeah, specifically -- she likes me there but distracted).

This dynamic is so predictable that I was able to set up my camera to record it.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

video

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Rumors of Looting Might Not Be Exaggerated

02/21/2023

Note:  This post was originally made on December 25, 2022, the day of Buffalo's deadly Christmas Day blizzard.  It's a little out of the posting order which you can read about here.

Rumors are circulating that businesses (and in particular the Aaron's Rental on Grant Street, a few blocks up) in my neighborhood are being looted. If so, that might be one explanation for things like this my Arlo camera caught this afternoon.

I'm being wary though - I also suspect these folks and the stream of folks that came before and after them with goods, are just helping friends move. I mean, it is Christmas after all. These could just be gifts.

I conclude and therefore I judge nothing.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

interesting video wtf

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My (Dream of A) Near Death Experience

11/02/2022

"Near Death Experiences" refers to a loose contingent of perspectives that are had while someone is either (medically defined as) clinically dead or in some cases have a brush with most certain death. Some people also include experiences while in a coma, or while under the influence of certain drugs such as DMT.

I first became of aware of these by reading one of Raymond Moody's books way back in the 70s, and was drawn to the mystical yet somewhat logical premise that our consciousness likely "has no end". Something I remain self-convinced of on the obvious demonstration that we are cognizant of the present.

Being cognizant of the present means, to me, that we never enter a devoid state of non-consciousness. Self-awareness itself is evidence of access to our information or experience of ourselves, for all eternity somehow. In this way, the specific construct of the afterlife is unimportant to me.  Whether it has a theological basis or a chaotically natural one, the point is that there is an afterlife.

For all my belief that there's "something to them", I take people who experience and then convey their stories of NDEs with a grain of salt. I put more legitimacy in the stories of people who told their tales prior to the money-minting of doing so (meaning, basically any story pre-70s). And I definitely scrutinize the stories of people in the age of social media and in particular YouTube. There, some of the people strike me as overly-eager "storytellers". I immediately click back from such videos that open up with someone declaring "I've had five near death experiences!", or who seem to affirm a particular theological perspective with it, or who allude to having picked up "mystical psychic" powers afterwards.

To my mother's tale, I myself died twice within 24 hours of my premature birth.  I have nothing notable to report, but, then, how much of one could the brain of an hours-old infant delineate and build in the first place.  Perhaps I did then, but nothing lasting in any intellectual sense.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

personal video

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Leaving 2021 Burning

01/01/2022

This happened across the street from me yesterday (New Year's Eve).  I was at this very keyboard working on the blog launch when the call came through on the scanner.  

I'm always in "response" mode for local public safety incidents, so long as such incidents are relatively close.  Being across the street, this event qualified.  I made it to the scene before the full battalion even arrived.

These clips were broadcast or shared to the BuffaloScan Twitter feed, but I also did a live video via Twitter on said feed which provides an additional angle, and some incredible water works shots as fires make quick work of putting out the blaze. 

This WGRZ news report echos what I already knew from the Buffalo Fire Department's standard verbal summary over fire radio -- something they give to the dispatcher just after they've put out the fire and are about to leave the scene.  The fire was apparenlty arson.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

buffscan fireground video

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NYC Nostalgia, Interview With Livestreaming Guy

12/12/2021

Nostalgic NYC stuff.  I operated a blog title called "Tech for the City" very briefly while there.  I tried to dig up unique technology for exhibit at the blog, and at some point finally decided to walk up and interview this guy -- an early live streamer before Periscope and live feature components of Twitter and the like.  He was a regular at Union Square Park.

He had some beef with Turkey politics and I believe he was in some kind of voluntary exile.  Livestreaming was his chosen opposition voice, and he was certainly committed to it.  

Not exactly sure what happened to him, but I do know from his blog at the time he was staged to head back.  He was pissing people off, I hope he is okay today wherever he is.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

interesting socialmedia video

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Deli Firebombed, Hero Most Certainly Saves the Day

11/01/2021

Welp, here's a firebomb attack on a deli.

The first lob was devastating enough, but the second would have surely been fatal.  Fortunately an apparent hero emerges to prevent that. Let's hope they find and credit that guy.

The bomber, Joel Mangal, was arrested.  Of course one can't be sure it's the same "Joel Mangal", but there's a name and locale match on LinkedIn where a one Joel Mangal professes "experience in heating and air conditioning".  If it's the same guy, he sure did heat things up, and, he's surely now cooling down in jail.

Linkage



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

crime video

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Accident at Delaware Avenue and North St.

10/29/2021

Rollover vehicle accident, Delaware Avenue & North Street, Buffalo.  Occurred @ approximately 8:33 PM. Scanner traffic hints at a female driver rescued, though there is no information on condition. Media contains 2 images and initial dispatch audio.

This incident occurred within "response range" of my studio. It gave me an opportunity to test out my empathy documentation protocol using a stealthy camera device I recently purchased for this specific type of incident .

For the moment I am not posting video from that device as part of the presentation here, nor would I anyway if it contained clear human trauma  (the fact that such a protocol exists should not be taken to mean that respect for humanity in content collection and ground journalism are somehow "dropped").  The run was simply a test.

Fortunately there is nothing to suggest that anyone was seriously injured, though as I mention above, there is no word one way or another on that. It just strikes me as survivable.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

accident buffscan video

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That Shooting Involving an NFTA Bus

10/03/2021

Here's a linear collection of video clips I recorded on the evening of September 20, 2021 while in commute home from work and a trip to the laundromat (and, KFC).

While heading south on Main Street I overheard a call on the scanner that a shooting had just occurred only blocks ahead of me, and that it somehow involved an NFTA (Buffalo City) bus.

I do not generally "respond" to active crime scenes that are still as hot as this one was at the time, but I realized that the police presence was already strong and getting stronger, so I rationalized it was safe enough to park and document the events as much as might-could be.  I mean, I was driving straight into it in any event.

Although the shooting event itself and scene were dramatic, the closure on this event was actually fairly tame.  According to the police radio traffic sampled later, a victim was shot in the leg and the wound considered non-life-threatening.  

That being said, it's never been cleared up in the open media how the bus actually figured into any of this outside police radio traffic, which suggests that the shooter had direct contact with the bus in such a way that its passengers were terrified and fled off it. 

Part of the  confusion is because the victim themself was treated at the separate location nearly over a block away.  Nonetheless WGRZ TV, at least, did report a bus window that appeared shot out, suggesting the shooting did in fact occur on the bus.

Whatever the case, the bus driver apparently tripped the "Call 911" message on his public-facing displays.

The video collection starts with me driving up to the scene, having just heard it come through on the scanner; then paramedics treating the victim in a parking lot just beside "Dr. Bob's Dentistry";  then me walking approximately a block away to the bus which somehow factored into all of this;  then me, having walked back to my car, marveling over a spent bullet shell casing just behind my car. 

Turns out I had parked in a space adjacent to the area where the shooter actually fired from.

Video 1 of 4 - Hearing the Call, Approaching the Scene

Video 2 of 4 - Apparent Victim Being Treated

Video 3 of 4 - Walk to the NFTA Bus

Video 4 of 4 - Bullet Shell Casing Next to My Car

For what it's worth this is not the first time someone opened up with gunfire on a city bus.  While Googling for the details of this event, I came across a separate 2019 instance.

Yikes.

Understandably it is bad press for the NFTA or any transit agency (note that the NFTA press release site does not explicitly provide a notice of this event), not to mention the city itself, to have something like this sort of thing lathered all over the nightly news.  Police, the media, and the general public are accustomed to shootings occurring in a contained area of high crime neighborhoods, and we all cope day to day believing that "we" are safe in our structured more economically secure lives.  Any city politician or private developer is going to cringe at any hint of incident-leakage into the mainstream public, which is of course, an eventuality.

That is precisely why documenting these events at a chaotic level outside the control of the status quo stakeholders is ever important.  If you are there, you are the reporter.

Linkage



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

buffscan crime video

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Dead Body in Allentown Parking Lot

10/02/2021

[ Note this event occurred earlier than the entry date stamp.  It is a blog post ported from another hosting arrangement. ]

I want to say up front that there is nothing particularly newsworthy about a dead body turning up in a city parking lot.  Sadly with the drug situation being what it is, I don't guess this is as uncommon or shocking as it probably should be.

However, I am posting this to BuffScan because this dead body turned up in my neighborhood and I just happened to drive through the incident scene, granting me the "content".  This is a BuffScan posting of principle whereby if you are there, you are the reporter.

Make no mistake  though, this is not to trivialize the death of what the MSM channels have so far been calling a male victim.  A victim of what, the police are not yet saying.  It could be natural causes as much as anything nefarious.  

Otherwise the facts are simple.  Police were contacted about a man down at approximately 7:20 AM in a Franklin Street parking lot.  Over the course of the next few hours, according to recorded radio traffic, they called for evidence and photos as part of their addressment.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

buffscan video

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Two Shot in Allentown

10/02/2021

[ Note this event occurred earlier than the entry date stamp.  It is a blog post ported from another hosting arrangement. ]

Again in my own neighborhood there has been a dramatic incident, this time a shooting that apparently sent two people to the hospital.

I swear it isn't me, but I'm starting to wonder.  

I was prepping for a gym and laundry run when I noticed the sound of multiple sirens swelling up outside.  Although I'm a born firetruck-chaser, as you might guess, living on Delaware Avenue has actually sort of conditioned me from reacting every time I hear them.  But in this case, there were a lot, and in the next room the scanner chatter, which I wasn't paying particular attention to either, had suddenly gotten dense and excited.  Something big was going on and it was nearby.

Mentions of the actual address were long past by the time I got to actually absorbing the content of radio transmissions, so after a few minutes hoping to learn exactly what was going on, and where, I decided to simply investigate on foot.  Turns out it was all just down the street.

Linkage



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

buffscan crime video

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Buffalo Wild Police Chase

10/02/2021

[ Note this event occurred earlier than the entry date stamp.  It is a blog post ported from another hosting arrangement. ]

And, here we go yet again! 

This video is from last June 20 but is being migrated to this blog from its previous host.

I was standing at the corner of Allen Street and Delaware Avenue trying to snipe video of the Blue Angels which were occasionally flying over the neighborhood, when this happened.

I was a little tipped off when I spotted a Lackawanna Police vehicle pull up to the intersection with its overheads lit up -- no chase yet, just this out-of-jurisdiction vehicle making a presence.  But, I know from being a scanner junkie that when you spot a foreign police car lit up like that, it might mean a cross-jurisdiction police chase is in progress.

The Lackawanna cruiser turned up Delaware Avenue and I was not disappointed.  It met up with the oncoming chase head-on, which is where my video begins.

Frame capture of running vehicle in police pursuit.

Frame Capture of the runner.  Looks like it could be a girl or woman.

There are no MSM stories or indicators of this event.  Sans my lucky shot with the camera and this blog, this would be a never-happened.  

What is evident is that the chase originated in Lackawanna as all the units pictured are Lackawanna.  And, it probably involved someone doing something serious enough to merit the chase (though oddly, not much media attention).  It's unclear how Lackawanna Police's chase policy differs from Buffalo.

I also know that the chase involved or culminated in a crash involving at least one of the Lackawanna police units, as I was able to reach the scanner in time to hear that much.  My recording system was "down" it turned out, so I couldn't replay to hear more details about what led up to it.

I have sent Lackawanna Police a Facebook message via their page asking if they plan to issue a release.  However, given that police chases are more dramatic to us lay people and a bit more routine to them, it's not likely we'll hear back from them.  And, in any event, said Facebook page looks pretty neglected.

That is the importance of being vigilant with your cameras and your blogs.  Remember, if you are there, you are the reporter! 



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

buffscan video wtf

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Video of Buffalo Police Cruiser Crash, Arrest TikTokked

10/02/2021

[ Note this event occurred earlier than the entry date stamp.  It is a blog post ported from another hosting arrangement. ]

I guess TikTok is increasingly gaining credibility as a citizen journalism tool, or tool of serendipitous witness as may really be the case here.

TikToker SarahMarie716 captured this takedown of an apparent police suspect, which also includes a Buffalo police cruiser inadvertently ramming the back of another, while arriving to help.  All in all, "I got this on video gold!" type of situation.

The picture below links to the video, but if you prefer now, here's the link too.

Scene of Buffalo Police takedown

It's not clear exactly what the suspect in this video was wanted for, but he knew he was in trouble, since, as police caught up to him he immediately got on the ground and assumed an arrest position.   

He is subsequently cuffed and the arrest is complete.

There is a lot of "inert" negative commentary on the TikTok's thread for this video about how many police had to run over to the already complying suspect, but the arrest itself looks clean and routine.  

But that crash?  It was probably minor in police terms, but it sure sounded hard!  I am sure the actual ouch to BPD ego will be on the Dukes of Hazzardness flavor this whoopsie endears.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

buffscan video

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Revolt Against the Ruinous Commercial Web

03/04/2021

Enough said here by the man in the video sayin' it - though I been sayin' it forever. The revolution against the ruinous "commercial web" is winding up. The YouTuber here is being kind however. He clinically refers to developers who partake in this as being "SoyDevs" at the mercy of clients. But the actual word in my book is "talentless". You don't take one of the greatest innovations of humankind and get to wreck it under guise of needing a paycheck. No. You're participating in the wrecking of it because you never "got it" in the first place.

The bloated world wide web.

Note, the YouTuber Luke Smith has release a follow-up to the video.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

video www

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New Shocking Video Shows Buffalo Police Helping Old Man Off Sidewalk

02/11/2021

In this shocking video clip captured in the early AM hour of August 23, 2020, un-identified Buffalo, NY police officers are caught compassionately and patiently helping an old angry and agitated man off the sidewalk at the intersection of Delaware Avenue and Allen Street.

In this two minute video, which is not for the soft of heart who tear easily at grim acts of kindness, officers convene around the patient, hear him out, then gently help him from the ground and usher him to a waiting ambulance.

The video nobody thought would leak.

For some reason, this "shocking video" probably isn't going to go viral.

I make this satirical posting on the same day that several Buffalo police officers had charges dropped for supposedly willfully (as some anti-police types would cry) knocking another senior 75-year-old to the ground during one of the chaotic protests which occurred in this city over the summer.

I never agreed that's what happened and have always been perplexed that people were so eager to interpret what was clearly an accident, as something malicious.

It's not that I take swipe at the protesters who march or protest bad and biased police behavior where it may occur.  And it's not simply that I know that there are bad apples but rather I believe impulsive actions and prejudices are too natural even among good people -- ergo, even among good officers.  My feeling is, protest and solidify positive ideals against real racism, keeping those who might get too casual, in check.  

But the simple facts are that there was no purposeful intent to harm Martin Gugino, who by the same viral video that show him falling shows him wading his way directly into an advancing police line.  A bit too naive perhaps, but definitely reckless and contributing to the chaos.

Maybe I think the Buffalo police and other departments need to brush up more precisely on what to do in such instances, but to think that a crime was committed is over the top and intellectually dishonest.  The Guardian article to which I link points out that Gugino is a peace activist.  I maintain that if he really is, he would have acknowledged his culpability in the clumsy event and everyone could have parted ways embarrassed, but wiser.

Did that happen or will it happen, who can say?  But what I can bet, because this video shows off the more routine helpful and patient nature of police -- when there isn't a chaotic situation going one -- is that this will be the video of an old man, a sidewalk, and Buffalo police, that won't go viral.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

blm buffscan video

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How to Broadcast Live Via Twitter in 2021

02/06/2021

Broadcast Live via Twitter Demonstration

Don't you hate when you search for an answer to something you think is pretty straightforward, but it turns out your brain is so weird you're the only person either dumb enough to be asking (hence, no content to support an answer has ever been created), or, your brain is so complex, you are the only one who could ask the question (hence, no content to support an answer has ever been created).

Twitter is discontinuing Periscope in 2021 (and here is a Periscope of me postulating a theory of why livestreaming seems to be getting rolled back and complicated these days).  I used Periscope as my main "man on the ground" live feeding platform for such things as house fires and riots, or the occasional weird attempt to produce regular weekend programming.  

With news of its impending demise, I panicked.   Instagram (Live) is not built for serious stuff -- it presumes pictures and broadcasts are personal social objects shared between people good looking enough to have enough friends to do that between.   For your average content weirdo like me who still thinks the web and its products should be a bit unpredictable and uncontrollable regarding real matters, the Twitter ethos, however evaporating from the principle of that it may be these day, fits the bill.   

YouTube Live or Twitch have just way too much overhead for spot live streaming, and Facebook for all intent and purposes requires you to sign in before  showing someone's live video rationally.  Facebook is not really about an "open" web.

But luckily as my video shows, you can still feed live via Twitter in what is basically an "integrated Periscope engine" resulting in something that is not so much different in experience at all.   I had to make the video above because I could not find a clear answer that the lazy typing in of a YouTube query (I don't even think I bothered with Google) might yield.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

demonstration twitter video

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Speed Camera Ticket

11/27/2020

Video demonstration of the speed camera ticket and its website. It's better full-screened. 

I'm going to guess that most people here in Buffalo have yet to be issued a speeding ticket resulting from a violation caught by one of the city's new speed cameras. 

I am ashamed to admit that I was negligent and reckless enough to be someone  that was.

If eventually you do yourself, this video shows off the ticket that you can expect to receive, and a quick walk through of the website where you will be allowed to view your violation and either pay the fine, or initiate the process of contesting it.  

As it appears, I apparently triggered the camera exactly one minute and 46 seconds into the control period (meaning, the 15 MPH speed limit I violated had just kicked in at 7:30 whereas I caught at 7:31) sooo, yay for my timing.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

interesting video

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The New Exchange Street Train Station

11/21/2020

Buffalo has two (Amtrak) train stations.  One is called the Depew station, and is certainly interesting.  But the other is located downtown on Exchange Street, which is my lifeline to New York City -- as if I'm always rolling back and forth there, which I do not these days because it's always expensive to go, and because, well, now COVID.  But, I like the idea of being in some way at New York City's doorstep.

Last weekend I stopped by the new station which opened the weekend before and took pictures and videos.  You can view the result at the New Exchange Street Station Google Photo Album.

Link to Exchange Street Station Photo Album

Buffalo New Exchange Street Station

The train to New York is both comfortable yet suspiciously impractical.  Booked well enough in advance, some flights out of Buffalo to New York are actually about the same cost, or, certainly not much more expensive, than a two-way Amtrak ticket.  And flights are usually listed as taking just an hour and a half, though, in practice, it takes about one hour.  The train takes a whopping nine hours and it is generally accepted that in fact it will take longer.  There's always some issue in the journey that causes a delay.    

But that comfort thing is a big deal if you're in no particular hurry.  There are no stifling crowds and none of the airport-grade security checkpoints.  You just show up about a half hour before the train's arrival, board, then take advantage of plenty of leg room, wi-fi, and the occassional jaunt to the cafe car for drinks and snacks.  It's nine (advertised) hours, yes, but they are actually pleasent making plane versus train worth the debate.   The other real advantage is that the train slides into New York's Penn Station which is smack in the middle of where you likely want to be if you're going to New York, and connections to any other place you might.  

When you consider the airport endpoint hassles, and the time getting from the airport to the places you want to actually be in the city when you arrive, the total time you need to spend in a discombulated transition state dramatically narrows the time gap advantage between the plane and train.  For many, the comfort factor then settles the argument.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

photo railstuff video

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Here's My Deal About the Deal

08/29/2020

I'm causing a ruckus all over town.  Let me explain what happened....



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

video

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Six Minutes to OUCH

08/26/2020

This guy pulled up alongside me at one point in traffic while I was driving home from work.  

Six minutes later down the road, he's nursing a bad hit on his noggin'!

People sometimes see things like this and with a prejudice against reckless motorcyclists think "Aha!, he got what he deserved!".  

But in this case, this dude was completely lawful for as long as I could see him and, although it was a bit of a minimalist shortie, there was a helmet.  Maybe he wishes it covered a little more now, I dunno.  

It appears that he bumped into, or got side-swiped by, another vehicle.  The crash happened while he was well ahead of me so my dashcam didn't catch the actual event.

He was writhing in pain with his arms and hands wrapped around his own head while the people on the sidewalk around him provided immediate comfort as best they could.  But, I think he was largely okay or at least hope so.  I heard the medic call go out on the scanner about a minute later so help was on the way.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

accident video wtf

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A Jaunt to the (New) Exchange Street Train Station

08/23/2020

As may have been hinted at by about 15 years of websites and the occasional mention at this blog, I have a fascination with transit rail systems.  Subway systems, light rail, high speed rail -- and to a lesser degree, conventional commuter rail.  Don't ask me to explain the intense specificity (why not freight rail or Amtrak?), I can't.  

Video Pan of Progress on the Exchange Street Station, with Commentary.

Buffalo is building a new train station for its Amtrak NYC cross-feeder called the Exchange Street Station, which is a replacement for the old standing one of several decades, and which goes by the same name.  Today was sunny and warm and, shoot, I showered, so I indulged in some ground footage on how the construction is going, including this video pan with some pretty limp commentary.  

You can check out Buffalo Rising's June 2020 post on the progress for some more insightful exhibition, and its Exchange Street tag for even more.  Tasting this project for content has excited me for its future.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

Buffalo video

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Ye Olde Computer Support Website

08/21/2020

I never went on to develop web pages or to code at professional grade levels, but for as long as the web has been a thing I have always developed web pages and coded.  Here are two videos (you'll need to full-screen these bitches to see them completely) showing off some work I did for the computer support department that I worked for from the mid-90s to about 2006.  

Ye Olde Computer Support Website Nostalgia 1 (Watch full-screen).

Ye Olde Computer Support Website Nostalgia 2 (Watch full screen).

I worked at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida, which at the time had an independent (versus campus-centralized), computer support center.  There was a small crew of us supporting maybe 200 users or up to 500 PCs in that specific research building.

Back then formal lines between technical roles were not as defined or regulated, or, at least weren't for our small shop, yet.  A system administrator might just as easily be called on to install MS Office on a user's PC, as they might to add a printer to a server -- and vice versa.  Roles solidified in my 5 or 6 years there, but early on, anything was on the table in your role as a "PC tech".

If you could log into it, you were the dude doing it.

Under this liberal arrangement I at some point picked up the role as webmaster of the departmental website.  It was a natural for me because it did in fact involve coding (HTML and the old "Cold Fusion", AKA, the language of MySpace - fun fact), and it allowed me to craft in departmental service structure directly to the interface that people would be using to call upon it.  The website, to the extent I had control, was in effect support policy and procedure.  For years this worked out well. 

I was able to take this trip down memory lane using a weird archive site I had not heard of before called oldweb.today .

Looking at this today it's stunning how static my web skills have stayed.  You'll notice that my preference for the clean uncluttered mechanical social path between the various pages is the same you'll find, say, here at my very blog.  I have always preferred that a website look and behave like a document.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

video WWW

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Predicting The Fall Of The Useful Web

07/19/2020

The world wide web might have been a way to share all kinds of information in a useful way that ecompassed the input of multiple presenters for every topic imaginable, sometimes for the same topic many times over.  

Malcolm Gladwell effectively predicts the 2020 web in 2002.

It was imagined by the still-living web founder as something that would be an indexed resource of a million perspectives, all able to interlink and evolve in infinite digital interplay.

And then, commercialism.

Now web page/site development can only be justified by the amount of money it might procure its producers.  Web pages that don't or can't take on the architecture of e-commerce equate to content that might be better moved to evolving social media platforms such as Facebook.  Places where any universal search mechanism breaks down.

Malcolm Gladwell made the prediction above in 2002 that seems to hold up well in the 2020 web.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

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Two Chips Bump In The Night

07/03/2020

More evidence of a sub-civil society growing beneath our feet.  The waning foundation of education, the chips on everyone's shoulders, the stress of poverty (or worse, the stress of staying functionally 'middle class'), and the win/lose nature of the capitalist game we are all just pawns in, are beginning to take their crystallized toll.  Before these charged times (thank you Trump for the little things), we had only the aisles of big box stores or the under-enforced rules of our fast food restaurants to hint of it. 

But the sub-civil society is apparently real.  This latest example is like a Curb Your Enthusiasm sketch. 

They bump once at the door, and after the probably-unneeded heated exchange after that, the bumpers get into their car and pull out, bumping the original bumpee's mother with their vehicle in the process.  In the span of a few minutes you have two caustic bump events going on meaning that this is apparently the universe's grand design for these people.

The rest becomes a viral cock - of a gun.

Another lawful gun owner in action.

There were so many opportunities for this not to have happened.  The alleged bumping party at the door could have said "excuse me" or "sorry", whether they did the bump or not (scientists say that more than half the bumps that happen are undetected by the would-be bumpers). 

The black mother did not have to strike the car, but inasmuch as she did, and she may have done it instinctively to alert the driver she was there, it was no cause for the passenger and her husband to leap out and draw a goddamned gun.

All the people here were way too wound up with the chips of the times on their shoulders.

And, once again, a gun-bearer learns the hard way that whatever situation they believed merited the proper application of one, does not necessarily jive in the eyes of law enforcement or even among most reasonable people.  

Now they've got an arrest record that includes gun violence, which sucks for them and will for the rest of their lives.  The legal defense cost alone -- even if they dodge legal consequence, will be way more than they counted on for their flippant gun decision.  Though, at least they have their fellow gun-loving peeps to hug them into believing "they were right".



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

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Buffalo's Mayor Brown Interview Does Not Disappoint

06/23/2020

Just watched the (Buffalo) Mayor Brown interview.  I have been impressed by this guy every single time I have heard him play out in the media for any reason, but more for this than any other.  

He is one the best mayors I've been a constituent of -- and is on par or maybe better than my other hero, Bloomberg.  As a ticket they would be a home run.   Balance is where the torturous victories lie, and these guys master it perfectly.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

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Defunding Police, An Explainer

06/23/2020

By the time I am posting this to my blog, it's a bit dated. I originally posted it to my Facebook feed before the tenant of "defund the police" was parsed more by the big media explainers.

If you're wondering, I'm just caching some of my social media posts here at the blog. Both to feed it so that I can continue developing (I need to hammer out an archiving architecture for example, so I need posts, lots of posts!), and also to solidify the principle that posts and feeds should exist on personal blogs first, not Facebook or Twitter. Though, clearly in playing catch up, I am doing the clear opposite.



  By Dave for for BuffScan.

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