WILT

What I learned today

2009-10-20T13:17:00.004-04:00

It takes 8 lightning bolts to take down a 7-foot monster.
VirtualBox, by Sun Microsystems, is a popular free virtualization technology.
The Mars Global Surveyor takes nice space pictures.
Apple Inc. had a great quarter.
Carbon Nanotubes are similar, but different from Bucky Balls. They can be used to make flexible batteries and give you spider powers, but don't breathe them in! (also on Jalopnik)
Soon we'll all be carrying our own portable electric Yikes into the office.
Falcon Heene doesn't know Wolf.
TV reporters have to deal with a lot of crap behind their backs.
An irrelevent B-list celebrity thinks an irrelevent A-list celebrity is weird.
Salmon Rushdie could play Rick in the Broom of the System movie.
Gawker Media is looking for junior tech writers to berate and enslave.
There's still a healthy debate about whether the iPhone is a valid business machine or an expensive toy.
Computer nerds will still waste time making it harder to play geeky Dungeon's and Dragon's games.
The Ebook reader market will become oversaturated in 2010.
Apple fanatics will attempt to decode new Mac products based on a leaked list of product codes much like lazy hackers attempt to decode rumored and possibly fake Bill Clinton's private tweets.

Blinkx video wall

2009-05-12T23:59:00.001-04:00

For Mr Show:

We Live in Public

2009-05-05T17:25:00.001-04:00

"at first everybody's gonna like it... but then... the big brother aspects of the internet are going to become insidious to the point of madness..."
--Josh Harris, internet pioneer

SFW trailer (some nudity):

NSFW extended trailer (nudity, sex):

We live in public trailer from RADAR on Vimeo.

Simple Rules for E-mail

2009-03-05T16:01:00.006-05:00

The NY Times has a popular article explaining how to organize your inbox. I've also adapted David Alan's "Getting Things Done" to manage my inbox, and the techniques are easily applied to Gmail. Here are some of my time savers:

Filter your mail
I have a bunch of labels to sort various reference-related e-mails. Newsletters, product information, and e-mail flyers from stores automatically go into a "News" label. When I have time to read them, I search through this label. I also have separate "Notifications" and "Facebook" labels to flag e-mails that come in to let me know that Netflix has received my DVD or a friend has commented on my Facebook page. These could also go under the "News" label if you don't want to call them out separately.

Create action labels
I have four action labels: "_Resources", "_Someday/Maybe", "_To Do", and "_Waiting", for sending items that I have to deal with later, or want to keep on hand. The underscores at the beginning of each is to keep them at the top of Gmail's list of labels. Resources are e-mails sent from friends about helpful sites, or attachments with pictures from family, and other items that I may need to reference later. Someday/Maybe is for e-mails I'd like to get to eventually, usually for things that I'd like to do, not responses. I clean these out once every few months. To Do and Waiting are used daily. To Do includes any e-mails I need to respond to or take action on. For example, someone invites me to a party and I RSVP. To remind myself, I label this To Do until the party is over. Then I unflag it. Likewise with Waiting-- if I forward an e-mail to someone and I need a response, I flag it Waiting and check on it later to make sure I received a response. This method has improved my productivity considerably without the stress of having 50 million uncategorized e-mails sitting in my Inbox.

Empty your Inbox
I also archive old mail. Gmail makes this easy with one button. You can always search old e-mail to reminisce about those old conversations, or find something you need. I definately don't spend any time categorizing mail by date or sender, as Gmail makes it easy to search under these parameters. I make it a goal to keep my inbox empty, so that any new mail I receive either needs a response and a label, or to be archived.

The key is to keep things simple, but not too simple. If you open and read an e-mail, you shouldn't have to open and read it again to figure out what to do with it. Use labels to jog your memory about what had to be done, and put the stress of managing your life onto the computer, so you can enjoy your life.

Source:
1. Basics: An Empty In-Box, or With Just a Few E-Mail Messages? Read On, FARHAD MANJOO, March 4, 2009.

There is no time.

2008-11-26T11:48:00.002-05:00

How to Win

2008-11-05T10:02:00.003-05:00

David Plouffe seems to be every bit the opposite of Lee Atwater, and a welcome change for politics. He used Deval Patrick's campaign for governor in Massachussets as a test case for Obama's grassroots popular appeal, and the strategy worked. This is a welcome change from the win-at-all-costs strategies of Lee Atwater and his protege Karl Rove.

I can't find the Chicago Trib David Plouffe article referenced on his Wikipedia page, but found it on this howieinseattle blog:

As Sen. Barack Obama's campaign manager, Plouffe was the mastermind behind a winning strategy that looked well past Super Tuesday's contests on Feb. 5 and placed value on large and small states.

The campaign had the money to make such a potentially low-yield wager, and Plouffe had long understood that the Democratic Party's complex system for apportioning convention delegates meant winning even one congressional district in a state could help generate the total needed to reach the magic number.

From his 11th-floor Michigan Avenue office, he sent resources to such states as Nebraska, Idaho and North Dakota that Sen. Hillary Clinton virtually ignored, putting extra emphasis on those with lower-turnout caucuses instead of primaries.

The plan, which had been in his head at least as far back as late 2006, was partly out of necessity because Clinton's early name recognition and party ties gave her advantages in big states.

The strategy proved itself in the two weeks after Feb. 5, as Obama won 11 contests in a row and achieved a delegate lead he never would lose. In late February, Plouffe reportedly confided to a colleague that he believed a mathematical tipping point had been reached.

'A rare talent'
Marking one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history, Obama himself saluted his behind-the-scenes general at the start of his victory speech last week in St. Paul.

"Thank you to our campaign manager David Plouffe, who never gets any credit, but who has built the best political organization in the country," he said.

As Obama's campaign transitions to the general election, Plouffe (pronounced Pluff) will lead the way. Ironically, it will be against someone he listed in 2003, in a Washington political journal, as his favorite Republican, Sen. John McCain.

In a campaign filled with alums from the 2004 presidential efforts of Sen. John Kerry and former Rep. Richard Gephardt, Plouffe comes from the Gephardt branch.

In 2003 and early 2004, he served as a senior adviser to Gephardt's short-lived presidential bid, a dozen years after getting his first taste for presidential politics working on a campaign for Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa.

That Iowa experience helped him understand the state's arcane presidential caucus system and just how important an early win there would be in knocking the air of inevitability out of Clinton.

Lean and about 5 feet 10 inches tall, Plouffe can seem almost shy compared to more gregarious campaign personalities. But he can swear like a sailor, and his near-broadcast-quality voice exudes confidence on the many conference calls he holds with reporters and donors.

"He's not a weirdo, and a lot of the people who you meet at the senior level of presidential campaigns are eccentric or difficult or egomaniacs," said friend and Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf. "If you look at the high command of the Obama campaign, normalcy seems to weave through them."

Plouffe, 41, is a business partner with Chicago-based media strategist David Axelrod and worked with him on Obama's winning 2004 U.S. Senate campaign. But Plouffe, unlike Axelrod, rarely appears in front of television cameras.

"He's the most disciplined and focused person I have ever met in politics," said Elmendorf, who previously supported Clinton. "It is very easy to get distracted by the press and donors and activists. David just has a great filter and he doesn't let any of the noise bother him. In a presidential campaign, that's a rare talent."

Stealing bases, not show
Plouffe, who declined to be interviewed for this article, believes the airing of campaign disputes in public should be avoided at all costs and that the candidate should always be the focus. Even with a rapidly growing staff of about 800, unintentional leaks are rare.

"He is smart and scrappy and doesn't bring a huge amount of ego to the table," said JoDee Winterhof, a political strategist who has worked with and competed against Plouffe at several points of his career.

Like a baseball manager who knows it is a long season, Plouffe tends to avoid highs or lows, similar to his candidate. While his boss cheers for the White Sox, Plouffe prefers the Phillies (a reflection of a childhood in Delaware).

Plouffe's singular focus on running the campaign was displayed last week when he refused, despite encouragement, to fly with Obama to Minnesota for a victory rally. He stayed behind with the staff in Chicago, where he gave a pep talk about the historic moment.

"He was about as happy as we've seen him," a campaign aide said.

Guarding the coffers
Plouffe's campaign office door is always open, but his wallet isn't.

Although Obama's campaign has shattered fundraising records, Plouffe, the survivor of congressional campaigns that have run short on money, is well-known for his frugality.

Staff members are often paid less than their Clinton counterparts were, many double up in hotel rooms while on the road, and the "L" is the preferred form of transportation to and from Chicago's airports. At least early on, workers who wanted business cards were typically expected to pay for the printing themselves.

By guarding the campaign's coffers, Plouffe was able to ensure Obama had the money he needed after an expensive Super Tuesday advertising surge.

A specialist in tactics, Plouffe also understands the workings of the media and has offered lines for Obama speeches that were powerful enough to make the final cut, a skill he honed working on many other campaigns and with Axelrod.

'They will have a plan'
While there is no time for the sandlot this summer, those who have worked with him say he brings his same zeal for statistics to politics as he does when he is pitching in recreational leagues or following the batting averages of his favorite players.

"He's fascinated by numbers," said Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, who worked with him in 1999 and 2000 when Plouffe was executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "He just has an insatiable appetite for this stuff and he could keep all of it in his head."

Carrick credits Obama's success with his campaign's long view.

"From the very beginning of this campaign, David was very focused on the calendar and the sequence of it," he said. "The Obama campaign planned for the potential of it being a longer campaign all along."

In politics since college, Plouffe worked with Axelrod on the successful 2006 campaign of Deval Patrick for Massachusetts governor. An earlier big win came in 1996, when he managed the campaign for Bob Torricelli to fill Bill Bradley's U.S. Senate seat.

Plouffe joined Axelrod's consulting business in the winter of 2000 and was named a partner of AKP&D Message and Media in 2004 (the "P" is for Plouffe).

"He has the capacity to handle more details in his head at one time than anyone I know," Axelrod said. "David is very determined at whatever he does."

Elmendorf, meanwhile, said he looks for more of the same from Plouffe in the general election.

"It was probably the best-run presidential campaign in a generation," he said. "They will have a plan. It may not be clear yet, but they will execute it."

Sources:
1. Frontline: Boogieman, the Lee Atwater Story
2. Wikipedia: David Plouffe
3. McCormick, John (2008-06-08). "Obama's campaign chief: low profile, high impact", The Chicago Tribune. [broken link]
4. Howie Martin: "Obama's campaign chief: low profile, high impact"

A Father Dies

2008-09-24T13:40:00.004-04:00

21 years. You could even say more because it was 21 years since it was published. Gestational periods vary on a first born. So his baby grew up into a privileged college junior who probably took one of his own classes and showed up, feeling superior and special, clever and ironic, and pissed him off so much that when it graduated early he thought there was nothing more to do but hang himself.

Now, his child, fresh out of college and entering the workforce, can do nothing but slave away in the marketplace and die the same anonymous death that most of the masses face, never reaching the level of fame or renown as it's father. Sure, people talk about it, but talking about its birth and growth is not the same as appreciating its accomplishments, the things it was able to do on its own, the lives it transformed, single-handedly, without any help from Daddy.

It's sad, though, because its father is always in its shadow now-- and that becomes part of the narrative of its own life-- did it cause his death? The question is as unanswerable as why it was born.

DFW 2/21/62 - 9/12/08

The Economy

2008-09-15T16:20:00.001-04:00

STATEMENT FROM SENATOR OBAMA ON THE SITUATION IN FINANCIAL MARKETS
September 15, 2008

This morning we woke up to some very serious and troubling news from Wall Street.

The situation with Lehman Brothers and other financial institutions is the latest in a wave of crises that are generating enormous uncertainty about the future of our financial markets. This turmoil is a major threat to our economy and its ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills, save for their future, and make their mortgage payments.

The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren’t minding the store. Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.

I certainly don’t fault Senator McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. It’s a philosophy we’ve had for the last eight years – one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. It’s a philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise, and one that says we should just stick our heads in the sand and ignore economic problems until they spiral into crises.

Well now, instead of prosperity trickling down, the pain has trickled up – from the struggles of hardworking Americans on Main Street to the largest firms of Wall Street.
This country can’t afford another four years of this failed philosophy. For years, I have consistently called for modernizing the rules of the road to suit a 21st century market – rules that would protect American investors and consumers. And I’ve called for policies that grow our economy and our middle-class together. That is the change I am calling for in this campaign, and that is the change I will bring as President.

STATEMENT BY JOHN MCCAIN ON THE FINANCIAL MARKETS
Monday, September 15, 2008

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, U.S. Senator John McCain issued the following statement on the situation in the financial markets:

"The crisis in our financial markets has taken an enormous toll on our economy and the American people -- first the decline of our housing markets followed by the collapse of Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and now Lehman Brothers. I am glad to see that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have said no to using taxpayer money to bailout Lehman Brothers, a position I have spoken about throughout this campaign. We are carefully monitoring the financial markets, including the duress at Lehman Brothers that is the latest reminder of ineffective regulation and management. Efforts must also be focused on ensuring that the deposits of hardworking Americans are protected.

"It is essential for us to make sure that the U.S. remains the pre-eminent financial market of the world. This will be a highest priority of my Administration. In order to do this, major reform must be made in Washington and on Wall Street. We cannot tolerate a system that handicaps our markets and our banks and places at risk the savings of hard-working Americans and investors. The McCain-Palin Administration will replace the outdated and ineffective patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight in Washington and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street. We will rebuild confidence in our markets and restore our leadership in the financial world."

McCain's bullshit stinks more.

Separated at birth?

2008-08-29T12:27:00.002-04:00

McCain's new VP candidate Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin and SNL alumna and 30 Rock Creator Tina Fey.

Conspiracy theory or controversy?

2008-07-11T17:56:00.005-04:00

Is the press focusing on black leaders and black controversy?
In what may seem to be a conspiracy theory in advance of a historic presidential race which may lead to the first black president in American history, stories about black people in power and their actions and reactions to racial issues are creeping into the headlines at an alarming rate.

In a moment reminiscent of the Human Stain, where Coleman Silk, a black professor passing for white innocently calls two black students he has never seen in his class "spooks" and inadvertently causes his own downfall, a black county commissioner in Dallas took umbrage when a white commissioner used the term "black hole" to describe how traffic tickets seem to get sucked into the county's collections office and never come out. From the reaction, you would think he said they were being processed in CP time.

This controversy came on the heels of a Denver Jazz singer's interpretive reworking of the National Anthem, prompting many reporters to get Barack Obama's response (strangely, I don't remember what John McCain said about it, nor do I see him being turned to whenever an elderly person does something controversial, like Max Mosley's S&M German war fantasy). This was followed by Jesse Jackson's swift apology for his hot mic castration comment on Barack Obama, before it even had the chance to blow up into a full-fledged controversy, and Charles Rangel's recent impromptu sidewalk press conference on his four rent-controlled apartments. These garden-variety (is that a safe term? Please don't misinterpret) scandals wouldn't mean much if there weren't a black Democratic Presidential Candidate with overwhelming support and a promise for true political change running against an aging, forgetful, and frankly, losing candidate on the Republican side.

What worries me is that these talking points, intentional or not, may come back as disassociated doubts in voter's minds come election day in November, thanks to some new studies reported recently in the Times ("Your Brain Lies to You"). This source amnesia occurs when facts, true or not, stored in the hippocampus, are transferred into long-term memory. Even if a lie is qualified as such, it can become true in the few months it takes to be transferred from short-term memory to long-term.

The studies go on to show that in the long run, the old adage is true, people only hear what they want to hear (unless they are encouraged to keep an open mind-- but who does that?). It doesn't help that the focus these days continues to be about race rather than unity.

Sources:
1. Jazzy Anthem
2. Jesse's nuts
3. Black holes
4. Rangel-controlled apartments
5. Human Stain book and movie
6. Mosley sex scandal
7. What is a fact anyway? (Your Brain Lies to You)

Obama/Edwards

2008-05-15T09:52:00.002-04:00

Potential Running Mates

2008-05-09T19:20:00.007-04:00

For Discussion:

Edwards' politics are more in line with Obama's than any of the other candidates.

This might be the worst of both worlds, with Hillary and Bill to contend with, Barack would find it difficult to make the changes in his administration he promises in his campaign. Plus, he has already categorized Hillary as a divider rather than a unifier.

(No, not the little girl). Bill may not be eligible for the number 2 spot. I'd have to check the constitution for that.

While not a winning combination, the difference in style between Sharpton and Obama would be a field day for the press. Again, Obama is looking for someone who bridges gaps, not creates them.

Jackson certainly has been around, but would not add anything to this ticket.

Kennedy could get the feeling for the reigns of Executive power without getting his hands dirty holding them. He could take a page from Cheney's book and be the real power behind the throne. Is this the future of American politics?

The year 2000 was such a long time ago. Why was Lieberman on any ticket?

Oprah certainly knows how to unify people -- or at least the target audience for her show.

Who do you want in charge of your budget?

2008-04-23T01:53:00.000-04:00

"Mr. Obama is spending 75 cents for every dollar he is taking in; Mrs. Clinton is spending $1.10."

How trustworthy are Google Ads?

2008-01-11T14:04:00.001-05:00

Doublingstocks.com promises untold riches for only $47.00. For less than the price of a coffee machine, you can get daily picks of penny stocks that promise to break trend and move up drastically, according to Marl, an automated "stock picking robot" that scans the market, analyses trends, and picks only the best stocks poised to breakout in a matter of days. Want more? You can licence Marl outright for $28,000.

Sound too good to be true? Well, apparently, it is. A group of people in a number of forums have investigated Marl and the claims of Doublingstocks.com, and found them to be, for lack of a better term, bunk. Mistlethrus, a commentor on skeltoac.com, bought the program and decompiled it to review the original source code to find that the program merely contains a database with two tables-- one with random stock symbols that scroll rapidly through the application with randomly applied messages such as "Good Buy!" and "Stock is Recounding," while the other table contains Marl's "pick of the day."

Many others chimed in as well with similar stories, including how it seems the stocks that Marl "picks" jump in value at the same time as the newsletter goes out, and quickly degrade after. Could the programmers of Marl be profiting from their advance knowledge that they will be sending this pick to hundreds or thousands of hungry penny stock traders? Apparently, Marl is also a good poker player. The same graphics and picture of the programmers (albeit, with different names) were featured on Pokerbobby.com, an automated online poker player, which is now defunct.

The good news is that the company they use to process payment, ClickBank, is not a fly-by-night. They honor refunds and stand behind the product, even if it does appear to be nothing more than a smokescreen to promote the stocks of companies that pay to advertise their shares.

The more disturbing aspect of this story is that Google seems to be, inadvertently, in on it. Allowing a questionable company like this one to advertise using Google Ad words dillutes their brand. If any fly-by-night scammer can pay a small fee to appear on every page on Google that mentions stocks or the stock market, or in a respected newspaper like the New York Times (The Stock Trading "Robot" was advertised on the Times business page today), how are consumers to trust other Google Ads?

Granted, most may not trust this ad, believing that what sounds too good to be true usually isn't, but what of the person who is taken in? A Google search does not point users to a fair assessment of this application. As an added twist, the creators of "Marl" have co-opted the "too good to be true" idiom in fake reviews that appear first in a search results list when you search for "doubling stocks scam" on Google. These links point back to the DoublingStocks.com site. By allowing unfiltered advertisements into its system, as well as no method for judging the trustworthiness of the companies behind them, Google is doing a disservice both to its customers and its brand.

PKD2

2008-01-08T17:39:00.001-05:00

They've had an android Philip K. Dick since 2005. At first it just repeated what it was programmed to say, but after upgrades installed to make it learn, it started writing. At first the books were derivative rewrites of PKD originals, some better than others, the most inventive going off on new, modern tangents, incorporating the latest technologies in the paranoid fantasies of Dick's old works. But most were long-winded and in need of a good editor. Lawrence Sutin, Dick's formal biographer, edited a few, but soon grew tired when they proved to be as popular as Dick's original works when they were first published-- that is, not very. Pulp didn't fare well in the 50's and 60's when Dick was writing and was even less popular in the 00's, with competition from movies with computer-generated graphics, video games, and the internet. It was only after the android completed rewriting all of Dick's work that it started to become noticed, particularly with the sequel to Dick's last work, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, itself the third book of a trilogy.

The sequel picks up 10 years after the previous book ends, and follows the lives of Angel Archer's fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, Philip and Mary, whose lives parallel what might have been the lives of Philip K. Dick and his unborn twin sister, had she lived. The book follows the twin's lives as they grow and separate. Philip becomes a failed novelist unable to publish more than one work. Mary is a successful public speaker, who speaks to a growing fan base of the links between science and religion. Mary ends up funding studies and experiments that attempt to bridge the gap between faith and fact, ultimately trying to build a telephone that talks to God. Philip, meanwhile, loses his apartment and ends up sleeping on the street, quietly resenting his sister as he sleeps under posters that advertise her latest speaking engagement. "How can she draw so many in just by talking," he wonders? As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Philip intends to kill Mary as he dreams of a life without a sister, where he is a successful author of novels blending science and religion. But before he can carry out his wish, in the final pages, as he confronts his sister in her office, the telephone to God rings and Mary encourages Philip to pick it up.

There is a lot more in the book. As in a typical Dick book, the lines are blurred between fantasy and reality. Philip's dreams of becoming a famous writer act as a pseudo-biography of Dick himself, complete with his yearning to know his sister who died at birth. Sometimes the real Philip can't separate himself from the dream Philip, and he wakes up depressed, believing he doesn't have a sister, then, seeing the poster of her above him, exists in a limbo state where he actually loves her and wants to get to know her, before he reverts back to anger and rage at her success.

There are religious facts and fantasies, including one that supposes that God talked to man regularly at one point in history. It is all very surprising and the book is greeted with wide success.

Movie Writing Software

2007-12-17T18:58:00.000-05:00

Sophocles -- cheap and easy.
Final Draft -- industry standard bloatware.
Movie Magic Screenwriter -- fan favorite.
Celtx -- independent new kid on the block.
Scrivener -- critic's favorite.
Screenforge / MS Word macros -- poor man's choice.
Scriptware -- member of the pack.

Source: Metafilter

Be sure that your recycling really does help the environment

2007-11-18T23:59:00.001-05:00

American Consumers Unwittingly Fuel Toxic Global Trade in Electronic Waste
You may think you're doing a good deed when you bring your old computer and electronics to an Earth Day drop off point, but if you don't check out the organization you are giving it to, you may just be adding more waste. Some companies ship the old equipment to other countries, where they are torn apart or burnt to get at the precious metals inside.

"It is being recycled, but it's being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities. "We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world."

Many activists believe the answer lies in requiring electronics makers to take back and recycle their own products. Such laws would encourage manufacturers to make products that are easier to recycle and contain fewer dangerous chemicals, they say.

Fortunately, Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony take back their own products at no charge. It's not very easy to find out how, though. But here's the link to the Dell product recycling program.

Jim sounds like a character, here's what he said about the companies that aren't considering the environment in their recycling efforts: "Reuse is the new excuse. It's the new passport to export."

Rabbit Holes

2007-09-27T18:32:00.000-04:00

On the net, there's always a new subculture to explore. I see them as rabbit holes, and I'm amazed to find new ones every day. Here's a list for today:

Someone forwarded me a link for living frugally, which lead me a bunch of different places, like
NetworthIQ, a site where you can track your networth on and share it with others.
Through their tagging search feature, I found this guy,
Buster McLeod, who
wrote a book about an 89 year old city planner who didn't want his life to end without meaning.
He has a morale-o-meter that you can use to track your morale over the course of time.
Another link from the frugal site took me to a story about Japanese women who play the currency markets with their savings.
Which was a blog site commenting on this NY Times story.

The future

2007-08-29T17:10:00.000-04:00

Remember when there was only one internet?
Now everyone knows what everyone else is doing all the time.
Now that there is a way that computers can automatically e-mail you about where people are, where they are going, and when they have gotten there.
For example, if you arrange to meet someone at a certain time-- for example, you e-mail them "hey, let's meet at 6 for dinner at Y bar," your computer will automatically put that into a central calendar that you can choose for anyone to access and it can link to a map so all your friends know where you are and when. It just makes communication richer so you don't have to talk about logistical things-- they are built into the system, like concrete in the roads.

So now you have a phone that goes everywhere with you and can double as a half-decent camera and radio/music machine. And it also has your calendar and access to the internet, and you have a social networking site that gets updated with the latest information about you, where all of your friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintences are on, and you can set it up so that the GPS in your phone updates your location live on the web, and record a video that instantly goes live if you want. And you can communicate with everyone at once if you want. So basically, everyone is a star to someone, or some group of people. You can produce a television show while you are walking down the street, and interview other people who are walking down it with you, and all the technology and know-how to do this is built right into your phone, the thing you carry all around with you anyway.

2007-08-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

I've been getting back into Alan Moore lately. Just bought all the Swamp Thing and Promethea graphic novels for about $10 a book (check eBay and Amazon Used books for great deals).

A bunch of mp3 Alan Moore interviews:
The Alan Moore Chain Reaction thingie
right-click this link to download mp3

Alan Moore on fanboy radio
right-click this link to download mp3

The Bomb Shelter
right-click this link to download mp3

I'm ready for my podcast interview with alan more in 3 parts.

Bush Admin Cuddles Press

2007-07-17T15:01:00.000-04:00

with plush new seats and wireless access in the reopened Washington press room. But will the newly opened press room lead to more open answers and transparency in the Bush Administration in it's waning lame duck year plus? We will see. Helen Thomas asks the same question. One interesting factoid from the article:

"She also says there are actually fewer desks for reporters than before with so much more room devoted to equipment and storage."

More coverage:

Yes, I took these from the top results from a Google News search, and no, I haven't read them all yet.

White House Press Briefing.

I'd like to include an embedded video of the briefing, but since they don't make it easy, click on the Video link to the right of the transcript.

Third Opinion on Dvorak's Second Opinion (Update 2)

2007-03-30T17:15:00.000-04:00

John Dvorak argues that Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone in his latest column. He says Apple products work best in emerging or declining markets. For example, the MP3 player:

Then there was the online music distribution business, again unfocused and out-of-control with little marketing and a lot of incompatible technologies. So Apple comes in with a reasonable solution, links it to the heavily promoted iPod and bingo. A winner.

He's got it in reverse. Apple came out with iTunes first, then the iPod. The iPod was Apple's portable solution to the music distribution problem that they solved years before with their Rip-Mix-Burn iTunes software. And I'm not sure the business would be languishing without Apple-- it just wouldn't be as sexy. Sony, Sandisk, and Microsoft have music players, as do a number of phones, and the party's just starting-- Verizon is heavily promoting it's music-playing cellphones, for example.

He argues that the cellphone market is in the process of consolidation, with Nokia, and of all companies, Motorola, being the two leaders. Nokia may be a leader, but it's hardly buying up the competition-- LG, Samsung, Kyocera, RIM, and Palm all have stakes in this game, and they're not going quietly (at least Palm isn't). And Motorola just crashed after announcing lower earnings due to lack of cellphone sales and management departures, and sources say there isn't much advanced R&D for future products either.

He also says the margins are small. This is completely untrue. The reason for the excitement for the iPhone is that people will pay a premium for portable technology that works. If Mr. Dvorak uses a cellphone he would know that most of them have too many features that no one knows how to use, most of which do not do what we want them to-- like tell us how many minutes we have left and what each call is costing us, or get us on the internet without limiting us to a 10x10 pixel view.

What naysayer Dvorak is missing is that the Apple iPhone is a paradigm shift in cellphone architecture-- it's no longer the hardware that will drive sales, but the software. Apple is shipping a blank screen-- what is on it 3 months from now when your average razor-flip-camera-phone becomes unhip depends on the latest software release Apple-- or another third-party vendor--pushes onto it.

Don't mistake the iPhone for just another entree on your provider's menu of products-- it's a whole new menu.

No Impact Man

2007-03-23T12:01:00.000-04:00

The Times has an article about a guy attempting to have "no impact" on the environment for a year:
The Year Without Toilet Paper
I wrote my comments on his blog:

I have to say that this makes me angry-- self-congratulatory sustainable living in a city is much like bailing water from the titanic. I wish I could see it as a baby step towards better living, but I'm afraid things have to get much worse before they get any better. It seems like a great experiment while you can afford it, but what happens if you both lose your jobs and have to declare bankruptcy? Do you continue your experiment when you are struggling to put food on the table, or do you throw all your high and mighty ideas out the window? I'm sorry but I can't help thinking that people like you can live any way they please. Good luck in your exclusive club, New York Times articles written about you, guests marveling at how brave you are in taking this on, writing about your experience so that the other 1% can support you and think for a second about their impact on the world before they reach for another canape and change the subject.

And more comments on another blog:

It is clear to me after reading Mr. Beavan's reaction to the Times article (his "If I could change that bit..." PR move) that he is doing this to make money off the resurgence of the green movement and to sell his book and documentary. How quaint for two upper class, young professionals and their small daughter to experiment with no impact living, while not giving up their New York penthouse and privileged jobs. In the past year I have done my part to reduce my carbon emissions-- I live 15 minutes from work and ride my bike there everyday, buy from a CSA during the spring and summer months, and practice the three R's-- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. But I am not writing a book about myself or stand to gain economically from my living. I think Mr. Beavan's extremism and time limit on his "no impact" lifestyle is detrimental to the whole idea behind leaving no footprints. What is he going to do when the year is up? Return to his old ways? Lighten up a little? His reaction-- drastic changes to a problem that has been ongoing for longer than he has been alive (increase of greenhouse gasses)-- is overdone. Instead of swearing off toilet paper and trash for a year, he should consider the small changes he could do now-- or even the drastic change of moving to the country and starting a small farm... but then he wouldn't have a book deal, would he?

Yes, they are angry and negative, but that's how I feel when upper class people with better lives and more choices than me preach about how I can sacrifice my life to make things better for their world.

Synecdoche, New York

2007-01-24T17:29:00.000-05:00

Synecdoche, New York

I'm searching for the script for Charlie Kaufman's upcoming Synecdoche, New York, about a theatre director who may be dying or may be going crazy, or both, who, among other things, is building a life-sized replica of New York in a warehouse for his latest play. I'm sure the description is much like saying Being John Malkovich is about John Malkovich playing a life-sized puppet of himself, because there are many other elements, like stories within stories and time jumps. Check the links below for all the info.

Reviewed on Ain't It Cool News
IMDB listing
BeingCharlieKaufman.com blog
CHUD.com post (stands for Cinematic Happenings Under Development, watch out for pop-ups).
Synecdoche Wikipedia entry
Jay Hernandez's Los Angeles Times review of the screenplay
BeingCharlieKaufman.com main page

From what I can tell, it has the key elements of a Kaufman film-- self-referential scenes, a lonely guy who can't quite connect with women, obsessive hobbies--

January 12, 2012

2006-12-03T01:25:00.000-05:00

The longest heat wave in history will continue for at least another week along the East Coast as temperatures threaten to push into one hundred degrees by Thursday. Yes, you heard it right, by the end of the week we should hit triple digits. But don't let that fool you, because we do have a cold front that may get us down into the low 60s sometime next week. It's been a record-breaking winter, or should I say Indian Summer? And if you think we have it bad, let's look at the temps around the rest of the country.

Flooding in Florida and the Mississippi delta continues to displace thousands who were not able to move in time, and California has been experiencing--well, it's been 2 years now and we still can't call them hurricanes--but that's just what they are--tropical storms resembling hurricanes causing massive devastation.

emotional society

2006-11-29T19:48:00.000-05:00

the idea is to keep us highly emotional so that we can spend our money on things that we don't need. so you have movies and television shows mixed in with commercials and sensationalized news stories. you have polarized positive and negative feelings projected onto screens and at your face using electron guns, reflected dots, or energy discharge. on top of it all we are bombarded daily by radio waves and electromagnetic fields, which affect us in ways that we are not entirely aware. if you did not buy emotionally, you would only buy what you needed, not what you wanted. it might be a boring life but at least you would have enough money to retire comfortably.

alternate reality games

2006-09-25T20:06:00.000-04:00

read about the wonderful world of alternate reality games. i guess this is what people do to regain control in a world where they feel, consciously or not, that they do not have any control. or they do it to pass the time as they've already satisfied their needs for food and shelter.

The Class

2006-09-18T15:41:00.000-04:00

I just want to be the first to say it-- The Class will be the Friends of the 00s.

Do your own research:

popsugar says no.

the cbs site. With Crane and Burrows on board (both of Friends), it's hard to see how it can't be. this may be the breakout show that puts jason (ritter) on par with his late father.

review on sfist.

doubtful review on tvfodder.

variety.

Watching

2006-08-06T02:06:00.000-04:00

I am an audience.

refuse

2006-01-27T23:01:00.000-05:00

Digital Technology will soon litter the streets like paper.

On Break.

2005-12-22T08:29:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture.

Squeeze Me

2005-08-12T14:26:00.000-04:00

Way back on August 5th, which is like decades ago in vlogger time, Mica posted a link to Luxmedia's remix of Squeeze. I thought it was interesting that Charlene posted a sequel to her measure video, measure 2wice. cut once. So I decided to make my own squeeze remix.

Shannon: why?

2005-06-27T03:45:00.000-04:00

It appears that Shannon Noble has taken down his videoblogs. But I was able to find my favorite videoblog of his by some Google™-assisted sleuthing. I remembered its name, bug mountain, and guessed that it was a .mov(ie). Here it is, rebroadcast from his site, for however long he keeps it up:

[Link to Shannon's site]

Glass

2005-05-31T13:32:00.000-04:00

[The video was called Glass. It is no longer posted.]
Music "Any Ideas" by AOR, courtesy CC Mixter

Birds

2005-03-22T09:59:00.000-05:00

[The video was called birds. It is no longer posted.]

outside

2005-03-19T14:17:00.000-05:00

a response.

[The video was called outside. It is no longer posted.]

Surreptitiously taping

2005-02-23T00:59:00.000-05:00

Surreptitiously taping while walking in the city.

[The video was called whirley things. It is no longer posted.]

Picture from a very tall building

2005-02-17T22:32:00.000-05:00

A nice view. They thought so too. Click to view movie.

[The video was called picture of a picture. It is no longer posted.]

Xacti arrived

2005-02-03T14:00:00.000-05:00

The camera arrived Tuesday morning. I have been playing around with it. No complaints so far-- there are many features. Can save a range of quality images-- over 7000 JPEG images at 640x480, over 350 at 8 megapixel. Over 40 minutes of video and audio at 640x480 30 fps high quality, or 16 a 1/2 hours of sound only. Easily connects to the TV for playback. Connects to both Mac or PC via USB for transfer. The issue I have is not related to the camera, but editing. The software that comes with the camera for editing, from Ulead, is sub-standard. I'd like to pick up an Adobe Premiere package for about $100 before I post my first video. Either that or spend $500+ for a Mac...

By the way, the eBay deal was great. Ordered Sunday evening, arrived Tuesday morning before 10.

More later...

Xacti arriving from HK

2005-01-31T08:45:00.000-05:00

I went with the Hong Kong dealer on eBay for $515. The Xacti should be arriving tomorrow. Thanks for your comments.

Xacti Mania

2005-01-29T16:10:00.000-05:00

Preparing to Vlog

2005-01-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

I've been looking for a good camera to use to vlog. So far, I've narrowed it down to the Sanyo Xacti DMX-C4, which is the updated version of the Fisher FVDC1. It also comes in blue or orange!

I may buy one from Semsons & Co. Inc. for $680.98, which includes the Xacti for $549.99 plus a 1GB SD memory card for $90, extra battery for $15.99, and $25 for shipping. I hope this company is reputable. I'll report more when I get it.

UPDATE: I went with a Hong Kong dealer on eBay for $515 including shipping. Highly recommended. Ordered on a Sunday, arrived Tuesday morning.

It looks like camcorders of the future will take advantage of video blogging by appealing to people who want to record videos directly onto a hard drive or memory card. Video tape will go away much like audio tape has, as it is simply easier to record directly to digital to edit. Pretty soon, in camera editing will become much easier to do, with software like iMovie installed right on the camera so you can edit on the LCD, or when you plug in to a TV. The pros are already using cameras that record to directly to hard drive. By this time next year, hardware manufacturers will be selling a lot more of these. But I can't wait... I need one now. If you are interested in my research, here's what I found out about some other cameras that record directly onto memory card or mini-hard drive.

Sanyo Xacti

The Xacti was released on Aug 23, 2004. Here's a google translation of the Japanese press release. (Be patient, it took about 5 minutes for it to work for me) If you can read Japanese, here's the original press release.

This seems like the perfect videoblogging device. It is small, it can record Mpeg4 video, which is standard for most vlogs these days. It can record an hour's worth of video on a 1 GB card. It has image stabalizer technology, which was one criticism of the Fisher camcorder (it didn't). It records up to 30fps in a 640 by 480 pixel resolution.

Reviews:

MacUser

Computer User UK

Research Notes

Please understand, this is all in my opinion and not a professional review of any of these cameras. I'm simply writing up my notes for geeks like me who like research. I'd like to update this page, so watch for updates if I have time.

Panasonic SVAV50 MPEG-4 SD Video Camera. $300-400. Reviewers say this is not good in low light. The camera also does not look very ergonomic.
Panasonic SVAV50S MPEG-4 SD Video Camera.
Panasonic SVAV100 D-Snap MPEG4 Digital Video Recorder w/10x Optical Zoom.
Panasonic PVDC252 MiniDV. This got good reviews, but it is minidv.
Canon Powershot S400. Steve Garfield uses this. Reviews said the camera has some noise issues.
Fisher FVDC1. Jakob from Vimeo uses this. Check out his videos to see the quality. It records to mp4, which is great for posting to the web. Released Nov. 13, 2003 for around $800. This past November Sanyo dropped the price a couple hundred dollars for the holidays. I am sure they are ready to release another version, but I haven't seen any news about it. However, I looked around some more and found the Xacti. You can get the Fisher on Amazon for 569.99.
JVC Everio GZMC100 2MP Digital Media Camera with 4 GB Microdrive & 10x Optical Zoom. $1000 new. This is the camera with microdrive technology. However, the drives are expensive. One reviewer says it cost him $567.33 on the JVC site, so instead he "found the same Hitachi 4GB drive on Amazon for $219.88." JVC sells batteries for $73.12, but this same industrious reviewer found one on eBay for $22.80. Reviewers complain about the zoom noise, pale colors in weak light, how both units take 8 seconds to turn on, the microdrive can overheat, it was hard to handle, and there was weak image-stabilizing. However, this looks to be the direction the manufacturers are going. There's also a horizontal version but I don't see what that adds. They were announced in the New York Times on November 25, 2004, and released in December 2004. (FYI-- The Times requires that you register to view the article, I find it easier to use Bugmenot)

With a lot of these cameras, the software isn't very good, for instance with the Panasonic cameras, the output is a non-standard .MOD file that you have to manually change to .MPG if you want to edit it using most other editing software.

Blogging

2005-01-17T12:10:00.000-05:00

Why would you go with TypePad when Blogger is free and offers unlimited blogs?

The sun is dimming

2005-01-16T15:06:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Why the Sun seems to be 'dimming'

The greenhouse effect is being countered by particles in clouds reflecting the sun's light back into space. Therefore, the greenhouse effect may actually be worse than we know, but we don't feel it because we are getting LESS sunlight.

Make Your Computer Intenet-Safe

2005-01-14T18:54:00.000-05:00

It amazes me that there are people out there who don't know how to use the Internet safely. To me, it is like crossing the street. You have to know to look both ways and observe the rules of the road, or you will get hit by a speeding car. This article makes it sound like there are many people out there surprised they are getting hit when they walk blindly out into the middle of the road. The internet is being sold like the telephone network. It is safe, secure, and nothing can happen to you when you go on it. That's just not the case. The internet is not the phone network. It is dangerous, and to use it, you must protect yourself.

There are a few programs that are helpful in protecting you on the internet. They are free, and very useful. There are also some very helpful sites that are trustworthy and worth looking at every once in awhile for security updates. If you just bought a new computer, I recommend that you download all of these programs, including the latest Windows updates, and burn them onto a CD to install onto the new machine BEFORE YOU EVEN CONNECT IT TO THE NET. I've read some other articles about how some people who just bought their new computers in December plugged them in and immediately got hit with worms and viruses, AS THEY WERE DOWNLOADING UPDATES FROM WINDOWS UPDATE! It's a rough world out there. And you have drivers looking for pedestrians to run down... so check these programs out.

Zone Alarm - a helpful firewall, the free version does just as much as the paid version.
Ad Aware - protects against spyware and malicious programs.
Spybot Search & Destroy - gets rid of most spyware if you have been unfortunate enough to have any on your system.
Firefox and Thunderbird - the best alternatives to Internet Explorer and Outlook that you can get for free.
Gmail - the best free e-mail service you can get. It's in beta now and you can only get an account if you know someone else who has one, but if you ask around, there should be someone who has free accounts to give away. I have 9. Ask me. I'll give you one.
Norton Antivirus - I've never had a problem with this virus protection software. You have to pay for it, but it's worth it.
Windows Update - If you are using Windows to connect to the Internet, be sure to run Windows Update every month, week, or day. As bad a reputation as Microsoft has gotten for their security holes, they do offer helpful patches that should be installed as soon as they are released. The only unfortunate thing about Windows Update is that you have to run in on IE. But if you protect your system with all of the above methods before you go here, you may be safe.
Leaktest - tests your internet connection to insure that it is free of leaks-- that is, that you can surf the net without opening up your IP address or computer to malicious users.
Gibson Research Corporation - Steve Gibson is the best security/Windows programmer on the net. His Leaktest program is proof that Zone Alarm is the best firewall out there, and that a firewall is needed to make your system safe. Check out his site every once in awhile. There are a lot of good programs there. And another good thing about his work is that it is free. However, I keep meaning to give him some money one of these days...

Hopefully those "rules of the road" will help some of you that use Windows how to make your systems safe. I never wrote them all down as I assumed everyone knew about them! But I guess, everyone has to take a driver's test at least once, and learn about all of this stuff at some point in their lives.

BBC Vlogging article

2005-01-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

This BBC article quotes vlogger Raymond Kristiansen, a regular on the videologging list.

more on mobile gaming

2005-01-14T13:01:00.000-05:00

From Mobile Games Blog

CANOE -- CNEWS - Tech News: Tech At Home Mobile games get fancier, more social

Mobile Phone Real Games

2005-01-14T12:48:00.000-05:00

From this videoblogging list message, I was introduced to the concept of Mob Art, which includes Mobile games that you can play on your cellphone. I clicked on a list of these games, and saw one called Raygun, by a company called Glofun, which uses GPS to track your location and send "ghosts" to you which you must then "zap" with your phone by moving towards them.

Sounds fun.

Fly like an eagle

2005-01-01T23:54:00.000-05:00

Animal Planet :: Spy on the Wild :: Bird Technology

Mini-cameras mounted on an eagle let you see a true bird's eye view...

Holiday Traffic

2005-01-01T23:40:00.000-05:00

Spent the day following links:

Daily Experience - This guy has been video blogging significant moments in his life for a couple years.
c 7 11 23 - This guy has taken a picture of himself every day since 1998.
Tehching Hseih - A performance artist that did one year performances in NY, like living in a cell for a year, and punching a time clock every hour for a year.
Jobs in Antartica
Family photos - a family documents their life through yearly photos.
Same thing as above, with sisters
American Mile Markers - A guy drove across country from NY to San Francisco and took a photo every mile.
More obsessive photo projects, courtesy of c71123.com.
Ten Years of My Life - A guy takes a picture a day, for the next ten years.

Cumbre Vieja

2004-12-29T10:28:00.000-05:00

Tsunami's could hit anywhere, even the east coast of the US:

vlog business week articles

2004-12-29T09:06:00.000-05:00

Business week articles about vlogs or videoblogs, both feature my friend Ryan's videoblog:

Let a Million Videos Bloom Online

Online Video: The Sequel

tsunami videos

2004-12-29T08:58:00.000-05:00

on waxy.org.

videobloggers

2004-12-29T08:27:00.000-05:00

I will add to this later, but just wanted to get down a list of my favorite video bloggers so far:

Mica's videoblog - Hello: A videoblog study
Jay's videoblog - Momentshowing.net: Adventures in Videoblogging
Shannon's videoblog - Vlog
Leslye's videoblog - Phatalspin
Charlene's videoblog - scratch video
Ryanne's videoblog
Dylan's videoblog
Michael's videoblog

new technologies

2004-12-28T10:48:00.000-05:00

Followed this link about new from Sony. They, among other companies, are working on cell microprocessors which will complete with Intel and AMD.

Lead to a story in R&D Magazine about the hot new technologies of 2005.

more blogdex

2004-12-22T19:51:00.000-05:00

Graphic calculator story about an Apple skunkworks project that went good:

Grumpy gamer

beastles

2004-12-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

trackback to the original post. A Beastie Boys message board, remix section.

mashups part 2

2004-12-22T09:33:00.000-05:00

Sounds of science

Tracking back the links...

jason buckley
empty-handed
- comment says the Beasties themselves made a better mashup on Sounds of Science
dr menlo
orbitalworks
Weird, boing boing is listed as a trackback, but I can't find the link on the site. Was it removed? Google's cache of boing boing starts at the 20th, so no luck there.
metafilter got it
- In comments, someone points to the Mash Ave site and DJ BC's site.

mashups

2004-12-22T09:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, I didn't care much for Dangermouse's Jay-Z mix, but I like this one...

[There used to be a link to the Beastles mix here, but it is gone now]

Which lead to some reading about the mashup on the Fleetwood Mash band. And the history of the mashup.

Potter

2004-12-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

networks

2004-12-20T23:50:00.000-05:00

Blogs are networks. This is the key:

"The real-time visual processing performed by insects, as described by Tom Daniel in his PopTech lecture this fall, is just one example of how efficiently biological systems can crunch data."

From The network is the blog

useful links

2004-12-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

Bugmenot

Provides a password for logging onto news sites that require a password to read them, like the New York Times or LA Times.

Blogdex

Reposts links from a bunch of blogs, sorted by popularity. A good way to get a list of what people are interested in during the day.

lincoln fight club

2004-12-20T01:23:00.000-05:00

Too much shampoo

2004-12-06T14:50:00.000-05:00

Overdosing on methylisothiazolinone.

Mathematics

2004-10-10T14:10:00.000-04:00

Math and Sex

Apparently you can use mathematics to find patterns in just about anything, including relationships. I often wonder if I am a mathematician and I don't even know it. I often intuitively find patterns in items of entertainment... movies, television shows, books, computer games... I get bored very easily if one of those items fits the patterns I recognize. I haven't diagrammed it out but I can grasp it intuitively. I wonder when the culture will shift-- when a new algorithm will come around to replace the old ones and the things that keep us distracted in the world are replaced by something new and more complex...

How I got here:

Did you see the gorilla

2004-05-11T11:13:00.000-04:00

You can only see four things...

"There have been some arguments that limits on visual memory are related to limits on the number of items we can attend to at once as well as to limits on the number of items we can count at a glance (typically both have capacity estimates of around three to four)," added Dr Simons.

See some of the videos at the Visual Cognition Lab at the University of Illinois.