Author Archive

Don’t Boost The Trolls

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Oct 15th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Picture of trolls

On Mastodon, the “retweet” feature is called boost, and it has no capability for you to add commentary. This means if you boost something to your followers, you are amplifying the message. There is no mechanism for the user to boost something while providing commentary on it. This means almost …



Google Maps Features I’d Like To See

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Oct 14th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Google Map logo

Google Maps is a mature product and innovation seems to be lacking with it. In other words, it’s like every other Google product. Here are a few things Google could add to Maps to make it more useful. I believe Google has the data to implement all these ideas now …



Live the life you’ll love

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Sep 15th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Photo of endoftheinternet.com

Two years ago today was the worst day of my life. It was the day Michelle called me from the parking lot of the hospital, in tears, because the doctor had just told her she had breast cancer. Somehow I had the clarity to insist she sit there and not …



The Internet Needs To End

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Sep 4th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Photo of endoftheinternet.com

I was reading the news online recently and realized something. I’ve been making an effort to get my news from the local paper via their online edition. By online edition I mean a digital representation of the day’s newspaper, not the website. I literally flip through the pages, just like …



Won’t You Be My Neighbor

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Sep 2nd, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Photo of Mr. Rogers

We went to the Fred Rogers bio-documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor last night, and it exceeded my expectations in every way.

We saw it at the amazing Byrd Theater, a silent era movie palace that hasn’t changed a whole lot since it was originally opened in the 1920s. That …



Petersburg VA Battlefield

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 31st, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Photo of Petersburg Battlefield

My son and I visited Petersburg National Battlefield yesterday. Visiting a civil war battlefield with a civil war expert makes the experience much better. I highly recommend it. Petersburg was basically Lee’s last stand that turned into a 9 month siege in which Grant bet (correctly) that he could outlast …



How to cook a burger indoors

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 25th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Photo of hamburger/

Like most right thinking people, I prefer my burgers grilled outdoors over charcoal. However, that is not always possible. I’ve tried a bunch of different ways of cooking a burger indoors, and the usual result is a less than satisfactory burger and/or the smoke alarm going off, because the …



Five Reasons to Sponsor and Attend Open Source Camps and Conventions

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 24th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Photo of Washington Monument at night

At Drupal GovCon this week somebody asked me if sponsoring the event was “worth it.” I answered yes enthusiastically, and gave two reasons to support my answer. I’ve thought about it a little further and expanded that to five reasons more broadly relevant to open source camps and conventions in …



Five Reasons to Sponsor and Attend Open Source Camps and Conventions

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 24th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Photo of Washington Monument at night

At Drupal GovCon this week somebody asked me if sponsoring the event was “worth it.” I answered yes enthusiastically, and gave two reasons to support my answer. I’ve thought about it a little further and expanded that to five reasons more broadly relevant to open source camps and conventions in …



27th Anniversary Haiku

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 18th, 2018 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

An anniversary haiku, in two parts
At the Outer Banks
Anniversary weekend
Beach, booze, and seafood
It’s hot on the beach
27 years later
I’m still hot for her