May 2003 Archives

"The Laws of the Virtual Worlds". Sounds like an interesting article from the University of Pennsylvania Legal Studies Department, it really fits into this whole "ownership" question wrt online spaces. I've included the abstract below.

There are two Lawrence Lessig interviews up at AllwaysOn: Silicon Valley vs. Hollywood and Scrapping Copyright Law As We Know It.

"Documents from the Phoenix Program" contains all kinds of "lost" documents relating to the CIAs Phoenix Program:

"Created by the CIA in Saigon in 1967, Phoenix was a program aimed at "neutralizing"—through assassination, kidnapping, and systematic torture—the civilian infrastructure that supported the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam".

I find this kind of thing most interesting in todays world where the CIA and other government agencies, even the Justice Department, are pushing for looser rules and more centralized information databases of the general population. The Patriot Act II, TIA and other bills send shivers up my spine. I can only hope that Canada is slow to follow its bigger brother down the road of paranoia, governmental control and oversite of our lives.

"Lucky Wander Boy" sounds like it could be quite a hoot. Salon has a review of it up in their premium section, so you have to watch an ad before you can read the review - sorry.

The "css Zen Garden" site is a great place to see what can be done with a little CSS and XHTML. I keep sliding back into using tables myself, but seeing this stuff, and even what can be done to this blog with just a change of linked CSS file, i really have to take some time and start designing using CSS.

While it seems that there is no policy about the public taking photos in starbucks, i think the issues of public vs. private spaces still exist. If i can get my brain in gear i'll try to talk (rant) some more about this later...

There is a fresh edition of Game Studies available for your reading pleasure! Minted just this May, it includes articles such as: "Play Dead - Genre and Affect in Silent Hill and Planescape Torment" and "Computer Games as a Part of Children's Culture". Great stuff!

Interestingly, I was going to do a post about BitTorrent, and there just happened to be a story at cNet that talks about it! The good timing continues as the Red vs. Blue guys (see previous post) are also using BitTorrent to distribute their files.

So, what the hell is this thing? Is a tool that helps with the distribution of files. It reduces the load on a site or server, and splits it up amongst all the people that are currently downloading the file. This can greatly help network congestion, and also manage costs to those offering highly desirable content. Its a browser helper, in that when you click on a BitTorrent file, it launches the app. The app contacts the server and starts to download the file, both from the main server, and anyone else that is currently downloading the file. This, obviously, splits the bandwidth, potentially across many other users. If you have ever looked at the costs for bandwidth usage, you know what kind of a savings this could create. I think the biggest usage of this tool was to help distribute the new Redhat disk images.

Some interesting discussions going on in the Blogsphere about Starbucks no-photos-in-our-stores policy. Lessig's got a post with about a million comments, one of which links to the "legal handbook for photographers", a handy thing.

I don't think is such a big deal, if they want to use such a policy, so be it. I do think it has repercussions for their customer service, but it hasn't seemed to hurt their bottom line yet, so why change it?

The whole public/private space debate is an interesting one right now, especially as we start to live more of our life online. If you are in a hosted Chat room, or playing in a MUD or MMORPG, those are basically 'Private' spaces, and anything you say or do could be 'owned' by the owner of the "space". Or regulated, with no recourse for the participant. Unlike if you wanted to use a park or such in the Real World (tm), you could talk to the city or municipality, but if its a private space, and virtual at that, the only person you can talk to is the owner, and they can run their space however they see fit. This is only an issue, if its even that, as we do live more and more of our lives online. What are the responsibilities of those that make spaces where people congregate, to chat, play games? Is there a responsibility to have true "public" spaces? Who would run them? And pay for them? Anyway, lots of questions, not too many answers!

No, i don't think there is a Hollywood Halo movie in the works, but some dood's got together and made their own movies using Halo. I was a bit skeptical too, but, damn, they are funny. You can download them in QT or DivX avi formats. And if you donate, you can get the hires versions. I'm sure this has or is going to be on Slashdot, but i don't care. Its worth pointing to again.

Ok all you iPod snowboarders out there, check out this wired Burton Jacket. I has built-in controls for your iPod. Like, built into the fabric. That is just so cyber. (from : Pnut's Thoughts)

I'd love to have one of these Escher inspired Backwards Water Fountains in my yard.

Conor grew by 2 inches to 23, and is up to 11 pounds 4 ounces! Way to go! Ciara and i guessed 11 pounds and 11 and 1/2 pounds respectivly, so the boy managed to appease both parents - i can see that he is going to grow up to be a diplomat already...

Hey, i'm adding some extra navigation to the site. The photos link takes you to a page which contains all the entries that have photos or link to photos. The comments link, well, i'm still playing around with the page it takes you to. It will show some kind of list (?) of all comments... Just not sure how that is going to be formatted yet. Work in progress. You can also see this blog in horizontal mode if you want. Warning! Very ugly. Just a test.

Hey, I just read a great review/overview of the SpamBeyes project - an Open Source tool for sorting spam out of your email, from Jon Udell. You should also read the companion piece and its followup. I've been using SpamBayes for sometime and it does an excellent job. Read the article, see what you think. If you get tonnes of spam, its worth checking out.

Another article talking about calorie reduced diets extending life spans. I remember reading about a guy that was only eating 2/3 of the recomended total calories as an experiment on himself. I think the biggest issue was how to make sure you took in all the needed vitamins, minerals, etc. While i do think this is pretty cool, it would be hard to go hungry all the time, regardless of the payoff...

You could start here.

Check out the links here. Rock paper scissors is good, just for the audio. Arm wrestle made me laugh out loud.

Pie in a jar

Here is a bit of a preview of Stephenson's new book "Quicksilver". Very excited about this one, 'specially since i've finished Gibson's new one several times over, just waiting for this one.

Having just finished lunch, I should give a quick thumbs up to Chippy's, the new fish and chips joint on Queen, across from Trinity Bellwoods park (893 Queen St. W.). We got some take-out yesterday, and the fish was excellent, not too greasy with just the right about of crunchy batter. The fries were also nicely done, light on the oil. You can read a history filled review from the Post and another glowing one from Now.

Yaaa! WVUM is broadcasting its webstreams again! Excellent! I was getting musically behind the times.

3dhtml - a DHTML toolkit for 3D Applications. Yep, do 3d in a browser. No plugins, just javascript and a decent DOM compliant browser. Crazy. Check out this interactive example. As much as i hate to admit it, this example seems to work much better in IE on a PC then on Mozilla. Bummer.

But its cool - a HTTP event router. What is an event router you ask? Boy, that's a great question, and i really wish i could answer it for you, but i'm still figuring it out myself! It all seems very interesting tho - start with this blog post, then go to the mod-pubsub.org sourceforge site, then on to the folks that built it, KnowNow. The most interesting thing to me is that Scott got Flash to talk to the mod-pubsub server. Now, i'm always looking for new Flash stuff, and this does seem pretty cool, 'specially with the server being written in Python, so i could actually do something with it. Anyway, like most of the cool tech i find on the web, i'm sure i'll tire of it soon enough.

Ok, so i haven't read it yet, but this article "Cyberspace as Place, and the Tragedy of the Digital Anticommons" is sitting on my desktop, ready to go. Even if the whole thing is a bit too long for you (117 pages), the abstract is pretty interesting, and much shorter.

An interesting article at the Guardian by Thomas Pynchon (author of Gravity's Rainbow) about Orwell's 1984.

Here i am, back at work. After three weeks off trying to figure out what being a parent is all about, and i haven't really nailed that one down yet, i'm now supposed to switch back into being a productive worker. Ha! I think its going to take more then just one day to make the switch. Aside from the lack of sleep, feelings of loss at not being home with my new family and so on, trying to wade through my 2800 plus emails is going to take some doing. I'm sure Ciara is also having a time adjusting to having to make do without any other support at home. But somehow we will both pull through...

I have my reading list filled out now. The latest issue of "LAW AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS" has all the papers from the Public Domain Conference. I've only read the intro, but most of the papers sound pretty interesting. I have no idea when i'm going to get it these...

Cool video game fonts - i especially like the silent hill one. Can you ever have too many fonts? [from Todd]

Cool video game fonts - i especially like the silent hill one. Can you ever have too many fonts? [from Todd]

I think today was the first day i did some work that is not directly involved with the baby. Ok, other then cleaning the motorcycle on Sunday. Anyway, i cleaned out the garage. Now, this may not sound like a big undertaking, but the amount of crap that had to be picked up, cleaned out and dumped was quite astronomical. Really. Anyway, this is the first step toward making the garage useable for the car and bike. Hopefully this weekend i will get to fixing the doors. I also have some internal distruction to do, to make more room inside. There is still more crap to take out too. There is only so much i can do in a day!

Also took Ciara's sister Roisin out for a quick drive on the motorcycle. We went over to McBrides to check for some riding pants for me. I've seen some pretty nice denim jeans that have kevlar armour in them, but they didn't have anything like that at the store. Going to phone around some other toronto stores and see if anyone else has something like it. Would be a lot cooler (literally) then leather, aside from the fact that i think i'd look pretty silly in leather pants, and much better then the army pants i currently ware (which probably have a skid-pad rating of about 3 feet)!

It seems that my camera just needed a night without batteries to 'reset' itself. All is now good. Thank goodness! I was pretty upset there for a bit. Now i can go back to being photo crazy!

Well, one thing i am sure of now that we have our own kid - they never stop eating. Ever. I can already see us at the Supermarket: One of those folks with the huge over filled shopping carts, with the sleepless look about their eyes. I shouldn't really complain, he isn't colicy, so if he is crying its pretty much that he is hungery, has a dirty diaper or just a bit over tired. That's it. Its easy enough to figure out what he needs, and he calms down right away. Such a good baby!

Well, it seems that my digital camera (Olympus c3000) is giving me grief. No mater what smart media card i give it, it gives me an error message. I've tried all 3 of my cards, same deal with all of them. They are all view-able on the PC, and i've tried to reformat them using the smprep.exe, still no dice. So. I'm going to have to take it into the store to get it fixed. For some unspecified sum. Damn.

So my quest to find a thumbnail and image rotation program has ended. I found PolyView, from PolyBytes software. Its got batch image rotation, which what i've really been looking for. It also has some simple image editing tools. For any real editing i'd use Photoshop or the Gimp. At $30 american, its a good deal.

Was out cleaning the motorcycle yesterday afternoon. It managed to weather the winter quite well, only a bit of dust on it. I was pleasently surprised to find that the battery also mantained its charge over the winter, and started the bike quite quickly. One thing leads to another and soon i was out for a bit of a ride. Yes, i left the baby and mom to go riding on the motorcycle. What can i say? Anyway, it was great and i'm looking forward to more cycleing this season. Will have to take the camera and do some photography too.

I know that some of you out there have video cameras, and i'd like you to let me know what you like and don't like about your current camera. I'm starting to look to buy one, and i don't really know what things i should be looking for, and which don't really matter. Any hints or tips would be great, thanks!

I thought that i'd be doing more posting once we got home, but its taken (and is still going to take) a little while before we are all into any kind of a routine. Things are good, the baby is healthy and pretty fuss-free, just likes to eat. A lot. All the time. This makes it a bit hard for Ciara, but he is sleeping longer over night now, which kind of makes up for it. Four hours straight! Woohoo!

We have started on the cloth diapers part-time, still on the disposable over-night. I really like the cloth, and i like to think that Conor does too, but they are bit more effort to use. Still figuring out how best to clean them, what cycles and temp etc. Its all going very well tho and it fun to see him in the cloth diapers cuz they make his bum look huge! Very funny for the parents, i'm not sure what he thinks.

What else? The two sets of Grandparents have been a huge help, the dynamic duo of the two Mary's especially, and we would just like to say thanks so much to both of them again.

I should be getting some more photos up over the weekend, and will set up a photos page, so you can bookmark that instead of searching through old blog posts. Will post when that is done. And add it to the side bar.