So many of my friends ask me – what the hell is that foursquare/gowalla/brightkite thing I see popping up on your Facebook, Twitter or blog feeds. Well, for those not in the know, it’s possibly the next big thing (or possibly just annoying). Anyway, these are all so-called LBS or Location-Based Services. These services are all variations on the idea of ‘checking in’ to physical locations via a GPS-enabled mobile device to let your friends know what you are up to. Some, like Gowalla, involve a game of sorts, where virtual objects are available for pickup when you check in, rather like a virtual version of Geocaching. Gowalla ran a scavenger hunt in December for actual prizes – t-shirts, $10 iTunes gift cards etc – and I managed to find an iTunes card on my last trip to NYC, although I’m still waiting for the card to arrive. Anyway, as seen above, there is this spiffy site Wheredoyougo that creates a heatmap of your check-ins by using the Foursquare APIs along with Google maps. No surprise there that I pretty much stay ITP (or at the airport, ahem). There’s also a cluster of activity up on Buford Highway where I drag the family to get our ethnic on as frequently as possible ;-).
I’ve wanted to post this since we entered 2010 – so I’m not too far behind. The image above, created at Wordle.com – creates a beautiful rendering of a source text – in this case, my 2009 ramblings on Twitter – and creates an image giving greater prominence to more frequently used words. Read on for some other examples. Or head over to Wordle and try it for yourself.
We lost a great man on Sunday. My brother-in-law’s father, Chuck Sagan, passed away suddenly as he and his wife and a large group of friends were returning from a holiday cruise in Ft. Lauderdale.
Chuck was such a sweet man – a classic Bostonian – and a true gentleman. I remember meeting him at my future father-in-law’s surprise 70th birthday party when I was just meeting the extended family I would eventually marry into, and loved him from that moment on. Talking Red Sox – or Patriots – or golf – Chuck had a thousand opinions on these topics! And the sense of family he represented to the Sagan clan was remarkable. Living in the same area as both his children – and his four grandchildren – Chuck had a tremendous impact on their lives in ways atypical in today’s culture.
I will think back to his grandson Austin’s bar mitzvah this past Fall and remember him (as pictured above) providing a blessing before the Shabbat meal with his wife and soulmate Phyllis. His life was a blessing, and he is already missed, terribly, by all those he touched in Swampscott, Boston and beyond.
