My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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I was part of an ACLU-sponsored panel discussion last night that the UCLA School of Law. Here are some photos from the evening.

My fellow panelists were:

• Heidi Kujawa (Founding Member of Kode Corporation – a company dedicated solely to intellectual property protection)
• Nicole A. Ozer (Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California)

If you can’t see the slide show, please view the ACLU Next Digital Privacy Panel Discussion slideshow on Flickr

Video and audio recordings of this panel should be coming soon.

I’ve been invited to be a part of this panel discussion sponsored by the ACLU of Southern California. Join me, if you can, for a night of delving into digital privacy and what it means for us all. — Douglas

PANEL DISCUSSION ON DIGITAL PRIVACY

“Party Like It’s 1986″(the last time electronic laws were updated)

Date: Tuesday, March 20thTime: 7p

Panelists:

• Douglas Welch (Independent Technology Consultant for New and Social Media Strategies)
• Heidi Kujawa (Founding Member of Kode Corporation – a company dedicated solely to intellectual property protection)
• Nicole A. Ozer (Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California)

Location:

UCLA School of Law (385 Charles E Young Dr. East, Room 1347 Los Angeles, CA 90095)

Parking: Lot 2 (attached is a UCLA Campus map)

Cost: FREE

Also, light hors d’oeuvres and wine will be served, along with a chance to network before and after the panel presentation.

I have been invited by the folks at Sideskills.com to be part of their booth at the 17th Annual Community Job Fair sponsored by the LA Dodgers.

I will be doing career consulting for the people who stop by the booth as well as chatting up CareerCampLA which is only 6 weeks away. If you attend the event, stop by and say Hello!

(Watch for an announcement soon on some more career consulting work I will be doing for Sideskills.com, too)

Click picture for complete information on the job fair

Sideskills.com

“SideSkills is the one-stop-shop to find a full-time, part-time, or contract job, or make extra income. Market yourself, your services, or your products. Now over 1,000 skills to choose from.

Welcome to the easiest way to make extra money, received custom offers, and monetize your skills. No-fees for accepting payments through the site! It’s time to start making some extra income with your talents.”

My friend, Jeanine Colini, has some new Easter-related art for sale on her Etsy page. You can also find here regularly at the Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber Art Walks regular held in Montrose. You can pick up notecards and other art directly from the artist at these shows.

Here are some examples of her work.

Jeanine Colini Design Associates on Etsy

Here is a selection of free wallpapers for your computer desktop or smartphone. Right-click and select Save Image As… to download them to your own computer.

Desktop Wallpaper – Plain

Desktop Wallpaper with March Calendar

Smartphone (iPhone/Droid) Wallpaper

Like the LAPD scanner link I posted week or so ago, this link to LiveATC.com lets you listen in to that is happening at Van Nuys airport as aircraft arrive and depart. Van Nuys is the business general aviation airport in the US, so there is always a lot going on. You can also listen in on what other aircraft, like LAPD, are doing near the airport, as they need to stay in contact whenever working in the Van Nuys airspace. Van Nuys is also the base for LA County Fire Helicopters.

This feed could also be useful if you happen to visit the Van Nuys Airport Observation area off of Woodley Avenue. Using your iPhone or other mobile device, you could listen in on traffic as you watched the planes arrive and depart. When my son was younger, we used to visit here so he could watch the airplanes up close.

Link: Van Nuys Ground and Tower – KVNY radio feed via LiveATC.com

Living in a big city like Los Angeles, you can see and hear a lot. In such a large city, helicopter activity is nearly constant. Nearly every day I hear an LAPD helicopter orbiting overhead covering some police activity.

In the past I have often found myself wondering what was happening. Recently, though, I stepped up my search for access to radio scanner audio via the web. I had been to RadioReference.com before, but hadn’t located a scanner feed that delivered the best information. On this visit, though, I found the scanner feed labelled, “LAPD – Code 3/Hot Shots, Air/K9 and Van Nuys/Valley Traffic“. (Click to Listen)

In the last few days, this audio has proven very useful in discovering where a police incident was happening and also learning a bit about what was happening. Whenever I heard the chopper overhead, I would tune in listen for a few minutes. The quick mention of an address what usually all I needed to understand how the incident might impact me and in nearly every case, move on with my day. One of the biggest reasons for wanting to know the location of an incident is simply to avoid the location so as not to get involved in the incident itself, but more importantly for Los Angeles, not get involved in any traffic jam that might be caused.

RadioReference.com has scanner links for many metropolitan areas, so even if you don’t live in Los Angeles, you might find something useful there.

Waaaaaaay back in the 1996 we were looking for a contractor to do some small work on the house we had just bought. Being a tech guy, I headed over to the Internet to see what I could find. Brian had an AOL web page that came up in a search, we contacted him and hired him for this small job and several larger jobs over the years.

He is GREAT to work with — professional with a great crew. In every case, he was able to clearly see what we wanted, offer great advice, and make it happen.

If you need a contractor for your project — large or small — give Brian a call. I think you will be as happy as we have been with his work over the years.

Brian McCarthy Associates

Licensed and insured general contractor in Southern California – License no. 668801

We specialize in residential remodeling and room additions, and we’ve done everything from fixing a chair to building a house.  We’ve also done many select commercial/hospitality jobs.  I personally designed many of our projects and have worked with some of the most talented architects and designers in the business.

You can see examples of Brian’s work on the web site linked above and also on these additional sites.

Tell him the Douglas and Rosanne sent you!

Blog | Brian on Houzz

A good friend, and local artist, Jeanine Colini has some great Christmas Cards, notecards and posters available for sale. Here “Spyrograph” cards immediately caught my attention when she first showed them to me. Fond memories of plastic gears, stickpins and pens flooded back. You can contact her directly using the information included below.

Buy local! Buy Often!

Click for full resolution versions of these PDF flyers

Every year my friend Ric Turner does some amazing light displays for Halloween and Christmas. This year’s Christmas show is a version of Angry Birds that plays on his Christmas lights?!?!?!? Watch the video below or see it for yourself on Philbrook Avenue in Santa Clarita, CA.

Watch “Angry Birds Christmas Light Game” on YouTube.com

Video Description:

“Help! The pigs are trying to ruin Christmas. Grab the sling shot and fire those birds! From the people who brought you the Guitar Hero Christmas Light game! Running on two computers and 10 Light-o-rama 16 channel controllers, uses more than 20,000 lights and less than one cent of electricity per game. Audio is broadcast on 99.1FM, and the controller has a long enough cord for people to play in their cars on the street. Easier than the iPhone version, and bigger too.”