February 2002 Archives
Sorry for the delay in new posts - pain, server down time and other unavoidable hazards have conspired to keep me away from this (also explaning the missing org for a few days). Thanks again to Geoff for providing the server and taking care of it when it has its little problems.
oh ya, go read secretlair and thoughbubble if you find nothing here...
Ok, so i'm going to be away next week, so don't expect a whole lot o blogging going on.
However, before i leave, here are 2 videos for your viewing pleasure.
- Killer Sofa (2.2meg mpeg) - good for all of us sedentary types
- Pyromid - quite a good video from burning man (20meg mov)
Here are two video's i've watched recently: The man eating sofa (2.2meg .mpeg) and a burningman video (20meg .mov) . The burningman one is really good... well, i think so anyway!
Here is an excellent report on the continuing development of the "national missle defence" project. Here is one of my favourite quotes
But the intercontinental ballistic missile is not just one among the many vehicles that might be used by terrorists or a rogue state to attack us with nuclear weapons—it is the least likely vehicle.
Anyway, more uplifing talk about Nuclear Weapons and the constant threat of the extinsion of humanity they pose. (Go get
20 Years of Censored News
- their are some great stories about how close to nuclear annihilation have come, mostly due to operator error or miscommunication. Actually, is just a great book regardless)
Ok, i know, nothing new for a few days. Still getting over being sick during the weekend. Gah.
This research paper on the dynamics of people and their relationships in
Massivily Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). Pretty interesting shit. I was having a conversation the other day about how for folks that have had the 'net their whole lives, relationships that they create online are
going to have the same value as 'real life' relationships. Very interesting stuff...
An interesting view on the end of Ars Digita. I remember being a member of the commuinty there - reading Philip's stories and looking at his photos. Kinda sad.
I'd mention the Olympics and how badly we got screwed last night, but that would just show my bitter angry side. Oh, wait...
I'm sure there is more going on, but i just wanted to get this stuff out of the way!
Ah, more patent fun! I remember reading about this last year - i had hoped that it was just a bluf, but no, BT Group PLC thinks its got a patent on hyperlinks and wants some cash everytime somebody clicks. Fortunatly, it sounds like there is a fair bit of prior art, so i hope the court case goes well... cuz, boy, would that suck ass if they won.
Ok now, don't get me wrong or anything, but in reading this new law that Vermont's put in place - a new privacy rule that basically states that all info gained or used from state residents, has to be gathered
through opt-in only! The state is being sued because "...the rules will hike business costs and hurt customers" say the local corporations. Ya, right it will. Give me a fucking break. Its really going to hurt me not to
get all the shit ass spam email i get right now. The atricle puts an interesting spin on this ruling itself in the following paragraph:
... are warning that Vermont residents may be excluded en masse from the kinds of offers and information that data sharing allows.
Oh no, excluded en masse from spam, junk mail and other unwanted offeres, for shit that i didn't ask for! How horrible! I can see why the corporations would want to move
quickly on this kind of legislation, it might give some power and privacy back into the hands of the individual! Isn't that anti-capitalistic! Burn the heritic! Burn!
Fuckers. I hope they get thrown out of court.
Am sick, got nothing to say.
Ok, i know most of you have seen this, tho maybe not, so go check out page six and page seven of get your war on . Page seven gets into Enroniban... I love that they are so right on, and that this would never ever get seen in a mass media publication. Ah, freedom of the press (Abbott Joseph Liebling - "...freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those
who own one").
Here is something you should all read - An open letter to G. W. Bush from Micheal Moore.
hehe, Digital Data Porn. "1024% Extreme Hardware!".
Well, Adam Curry's got me all thinking about "CalServices" now. Went and read the iCalendar RFC. You might want to look at the short version.
Anyway, this got me thinking about XML-RPC and how a network-able calendar might work. Most notably are the difficulties in 'addressing' a calendar, as pretty much the only way to get in-touch with somebody is via email. So, there would have to be Calendar Servers, where you could register to host your calendar. Then, you could send the URL for your calendar to folks that might want to send you notes, event, etc...
As stated before, you'd have some kind of XML-RPC interface to allow seperate Calendars to communicate. If i was setting up a meeting between multiple participants, all on different calendar servers, i'd want changes to propagate to all involved, if the meeting had to be rescheduled. Anyway, i'm sure you will hear more about this.
Yes, i'm sure most of you know (tho i didn't), Neal Stephenson's new Novel
"Quicksilver" is due out March 7th. You can read an interesting interview
with him here. He apparently also has another novel on the go, "Interface", due May 22nd. (from slashdot)
Also on the subject of GUI's and Interfaces, here is Stephensons "In the Beginning Was The Command Line".
Six Degrees claims to be "timefreeing" technology - "continually make connections between the messages you send, the files you create, and the prople you work with". They talk about it being the google for the desktop. Huh. There was another product, i think it was called "fish" something, that did this kind of thing - created a database of all your files and messages and created relations between them. Also, the brain is another way of looking at your files. I wonder why the metaphor of the desktop has stuck around sooooo long, when there have been all these other interesting ways of displaying the data that your computer holds? Like, do you really think that the desktop is the "best" one? I don't. There has got to be something better. Why it hasn't been discovered yet, or if it already exists, hasn't taken off is a mystery to me.
Wow, there is some action over at SuperCrazyMayhem! Now, that action might be just making fun of Ryan and me, but hey, its something, right? Right!?
