...more recent posts
I've been experimenting this morning with a very basic caching scheme for this site. I have a very crude version working for my page. You can see the difference between this dynamic page, and the cached static page by following either of these links. In most cases, as would be expected, the cached page is tremendously faster. The downside is that it is not being configured for known users (i.e., no indication of new posts, and while you still see how many comments, you don't see which ones are new to you, plus, seeing posts on the static page won't effect the number of new posts shown on the main page - in other words, the system will keep telling you there is a new post until you see it on the dynamic page.) Also, for most browsers, you won't see any updates to the page unless you consciously reload the page. Overall I think the speed gain is probably worth it. I'll be doing more tests on this, and we could deploy this change rather quickly if we wanted.
Oh yeah, slightly new (anti-)design. Wooohooo.
Macintouch has some great pages of reader reports on wireless connectivity. One on short range (airport, wireless lan stuff,) and one on long range connections (ricochet, ect.)
3ivx is a development effort toward producing a cross platform (windows, mac, unix, be, and amiga) MPEG-4 codec. I hope they can do it.
I guess it's mobile computing day. Here's a more technical piece about a complete wireless portable computing package. More technical than the last link. He calls it Ambu-lan. It's based on the ricochet wireless modem I have been salivating over recently, and also uses Apple's airport (802.11) Good reference point to what is possible (if you're a real geek) right now.
Here's a first hand report from a self styled "digital guerilla" about his travels in Brazil shooting digital video and editing on the fly with a powerbook G3. Not too technical (and I guess, really, not too interesting,) but this whole stlye is about to start happening. I'm hoping we'll be on the band wagon some time this year (i.e., by this time next year.) I still need a new server arrangement (I'm presently canceling my sDSL order and opting for colocation) and Apple (or Sony I guess) still has to make the right laptop (more speed, more disk space, longer batteries.) The cameras have been ready for over a year. And, of course, people need faster internet connections (dsl, or cable.) In the article, he was compressing 5 minute videos with sound down to 16 megs (from 1 gig.) It's not quite there yet (for instance, he ended up just fed ex-ing tapes back to the states because he couldn't find a fast enough connection,) but it's very close. And if there is any way to make traveling around the world into a job, we will find the path.
The Red Herring (strangely) has an article about female tetrchromats, that is, women who have 4 different cone photopigments in their retinas, instead of the usual 3 (red, green, blue.) Some quirk of genetics precludes males from having this mutation, but it seems like some women do. When I read the intro I immediately wondered if they see CMYK color space, but I guess it is more like a fourth color somewhere between red and green in addition to the usual RGB trio. Looking around at the color scheme in this apartment I'm beginning to think that MB must be so blessed. I knew there had to be an explanation.
Is this completely off the deep end? I keep hearing in my head that sample Public Enemy uses: "The government you have elected is inoperative." Anybody know where that comes from?
That Transmeta chip is finally starting to show up in some very small portable computers. Lots of pictures in this tech-report article. That Sony VAIO (last one) sure looks sweet.
Wow. CNN and the Environmental News Network are both reporting that a microbe has been recovered from the upper earth atmosphere which could have extraterrestrial origins. From CNN:
"The living bacteria, plucked from an altitude of 10 miles (16 km) or higher by a scientific balloon, could have been deposited in terrestrial airspace by a passing comet, according to the researchers. The microorganisms are unlike any known on Earth, but the astrobiologists 'want to keep the details under wraps until they are absolutely convinced that these are extraterrestrial,' said study participant Chandra Wickramasinghe, a noted scientist at Cardiff University in Wales."I'm trusting genehack on this: "If they're right, it's huge, but I fear that eliminating all the other, more likely explanations is going to take quite a bit of work."
Riothero's familly was part of a usaweekend piece on weblogging families.
On the web development front: Here's an interesting plea for developers to start coding web applications using the DOM. (via tremendo.)
Another great lights at night from space picture from the good folks at NASA (via robotwisdom.)
The BBC has a short piece about recent breakthroughs in direct computer to animal brain connections. Spooky/cool.
Here are some shots from Iceland. Again, I was mostly shooting video, so these are just from two of our stops where we pulled out the still camera. In the right light that thing (Canon S10) can take some pretty good pictures. Especially so in Alex's hands.
O.K. here are a few pictures off the still camera from Amsterdam. I was mostly shooting video, so there aren't too many pictures. Later, if I get some time to go over the video, I'll pull some more stills from that. Nothing too impressive, but you can see where we stayed. Shots from Iceland are on the way.
We made it back safely last night. Whew. An amazing trip all around. I have lots of pictures, but it will take me a little while to get them together. I did a lot of thinking about what technology would be necessary to cut down the post processing time. I'd like to be able to merge the image capture and image processing into a single operation. Point, click, publish all in one step. Of course, that won't happen, but I think we'll get a lot closer this year. I know someone (Kodak?) has a digital still camera out (or about to be out) with a built in modem so you can just connect your camera to a phone jack and then email the pictures to someone. Neat, although this system mandates you connect to their central server and send everything through their system, so I can't see that design working well. But the idea is nice. Personally, I'm more interested in a full powered, relatively small notebook computer with global wireless internet access (yeah, right.) Then I want all my peripherals (cameras) to wirelessly connect (bluetooth?) to my notebook. This way I can walk around with my notebook in my backpack and take pictures. I could script fireworks to do a batch resize (can you script photoshop? Not that it matters, I could do something with imageMagik) and the pictures would already be on my server without much intervention. Video is a little more complicated, as editing needs more of the human touch than resizing photos, but still, just having all the batch capturing done automatically would be great. I'd get back to the hotel at night, and all my video would already be on my notebook's hard drive. A couple glasses of wine later I could have it crudely edited and on the way to my server. I guess eventually my notebook could be my server, but that global wireless connection isn't coming this year (or next) so that will have to wait. Still, eventually I expect to have the digitalmediatree on a computer the size of a pack of cigarettes that I just carry around in my pocket. I don't know how long for that. Seven years?
Anyway, Amsterdam is a great city. Beautiful old city. Reminded me of parts of Cambridge Mass, but I guess the similarities probably run the other way. More like the West Village than Midtown, except with canals running everywhere. Lots of people on bicycles, and they have the right of way over pedestrians which was a little hard to keep in mind. I had thought that the city might be overrun with kids (listen to me) or deadheads or whatever, but this was not the case. Maybe it is worse in the summer, but even the coincidental happening of a rather large counter cultural event made little impression out in the streets. But thanks to that event we were able to see Patti Smith at the Melkweg Club. I had never seen her before and I am converted. She rules. I almost cried during one song.
The food winner was a fish restaurant called Lucias (I'll check that spelling, and you'll see the pictures.) We went twice. Mussels and frites are my new favorite meal. I don't know if Bellgo (Lafayette St., NYC) will do it for me, but you can bet I'll be stopping in there soon for a little cross pond comparison.
In Iceland our accomodations were a little more "poshed up" (as the phrase goes.) The Hotel Borg is definitely the place to stay in Reykjavic. After sharing the little (and very cool) houseboat in Amsterdam, having three rooms was quite a luxury. The main thing to do in Iceland is drink. And on the weekends it is the only thing to do. I thought it was some kind of festival we were there for, and indeed, it was quite festive, with the crowds going strong out in the streets past 6:00 am (or so the Wheel reports.) Evidently I was mistaken though, and this is what they do every weekend. Mostly they drink hard liquor (which I try to stay away from, not couting those vodka berry drinks at the Melkweg) but a few places have started to introduce the vine. A nice wine bar just around the corner from the hotel, and a great restaurant called Sommalier where I had a small bite of reindeer and another of smoked lamb carpaccio. Sometimes you just have to cut loose.
I didn't think that late November was the right time to head almost to the arctic circle, but it turned out to be great. The light, as I mentioned before, is really spectacular. We took two long drives in our rented four wheel drive vehicle (a must.) Lots of pictures from these ventures, so I won't describe execpt to say that it was spectacular. The second drive up the coast especially. I definitely have some suggestions for routes, so feel free to email me for more info if you are planning to head to the icy north.
One week in tight quarters with four people and possibly a bit too much partying can be trying. I think it has probably been the end of more than one friendship. I'm glad to report (at least from my perspective) that we came through with barely a scratch. To Mike and Alex and MB: thanks for everything. You guys are the best. What a short great trip it's been.
Hello from Iceland! The weather is fine. Not much sun, but the advantage is that the whole day is like that magical time at dawn (first half of the day) or dusk (second half of the day.) Great light. The Hotel Borg has fully assimilated us. We have a little Suzuki 4-wheel drive and have seen some amazing country. About to head out on our longest drive up the coast. Then tonight is the big festival (which I think means drinking binge in Icelandic.) We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at a Vegetarian restaurant in Reykjavik last night. Tomorrow is a quick stop at the Blue Lagoon, and then home to NYC. Have you Yankees sorted everything out?
O.K., almost there. Everybody be good while we're gone, and I'm expecting you to have this presidential thing figured out by the time we return. We'll try to post some from over there, so check in if you are missing us. Cheers. (oh yeah - for best results, use my inch account for email while I'm gone. Thanks.)
Today's the day. We leave at 5:00 pm for the long flight to Amsterdam. Lots to do before then.
Ricochet is finally here. 128k wireless connection for < $100/month. San Francisco had this years ago.
This morning I ran out to the store to buy a centronix to DB-25 SCSI cable so that I could hook an external zip drive to H.'s machine to replace a defective internal drive. In my rush (lots of last minute errands before the trip) I bought the wrong cable. $30 - d'oh! Later, I returned, figuring I would just buy the right cable and put the wrong one in my growing inventory of "extra parts that might be useful someday." The owner of the store, who I had spoken with a few times, listened to my story, and then he said "Why didn't you bring the other cable back?" I explained that I had already opened the box, and there was no way to do that without tearing it, so I thought I couldn't return it. It was my fault, I had figured. "Oh no" he protested, "we're not that kind of store. You bring that one back, and we'll switch it." I was rather taken aback by his goodwill. "The box is damaged" I made clear. "That's O.K." he assured me, and then picking up the right cable he handed it to me "Here, take this home, make sure its right, and then bring me back the other one." And sure enough, I walked out of the store with the new cable on just my word that I would bring the other one back. I had to double check out in the street that I was indeed still in New York City. A few hours later I returned with the old cable. I showed him where the box was torn. He didn't care. He honestly seemed happy. He actually said "Well, the important thing is that you got it working." I'm serious, he said that! And then, to top it off, he noticed that the one I had bought was 29.95, but the correct one was only 17.95. "Here, let me get you the difference" he said, walking toward the cash register. Now this was really too much. "Look, let's just call it even" I offered, hopefully, "it really was my fault for buying the wrong one." "No, no" he protested, "fair is fair." "But I'm just charging it to someone else" I countered (don't tell H.,) "and I really appreciate you letting me exchange it. Let's call it even." "O.K." he said, in true statesmanlike fashion, and then thinking for another minute he said "how about a zip disk?" "Done" I said, and I walked out 100 megabytes richer. He might have lost on that deal, but he's got my business. If your needs run to the Mac side of things make sure you check out Digital Society on 10th street just west of Broadway, NYC.
Does one vote really matter? Dave Winer and rc3 have posted similar views on the issue. Unlike the major media that seems to be going with the "shame on you for ever thinking your vote doesn't matter - this election proves that it does" line, they take a more logical approach. If the election is not close then your one vote doesn't matter. If the election is close then it will be fought out in the courts and decided by a judge. Either way, your one vote doesn't matter.
It's mid month, so that means it's crypto-gram time. This month author Bruce Schneier explains the problems with digital signatures, and takes a quick look at both the SDMI hacking challenge, and the Microsoft hack. Schneier is the man when it comes to codes. Always interesting. The misunderstanding around digital signatures is going to be a real legal problem.
Today's picture (archived here) is of the geothermal bath outside of Reykjavik, Iceland. I'll be there late next week after a few days in Amsterdam.
I had never seen this one before. It's called the slashdot Cheesy Portal. It doesn't look good, but it does have all the latest breaking geek news on one page. I think this one is going to replace 10.am for me.
Netscape 6 has been released. Do not bother to download this beast. Probably you should be using Internet Explorer (although it pains me slightly to say that. Yes I'm silly that way.) If you insist on using Navigator, stick with 4.75. I'm saddened by this whole episode, but since I wasn't able to do anything directly to help, I guess I can't really complain too much. Maybe there is still some hope for Mozilla, but it seems pretty clear at this point that Netscape is never going to release a good browser. I wonder if icab has those javascript problems worked out?
I bought a winter jacket yesterday in anticipation of next weeks trip. I haven't had a real winter jacket in a long time. It sure isn't fashionable (as MB pointed out) but I am laughing at the NYC winter. Ha! Bring it on.
IBM has a new display that everyone is talking about. Very nice. Too bad there is only one in existence, and it cost 20K. Here are a few facts from someone who saw it.
The religious experience of Philip K. Dick by R. Crumb. (via ethel)
Seen on Honeyguide: "Schroedinger's candidate." LOL.
Phpbuilder is having another go at benchmarking the (open source) database holy war. This round of MySQL vs. PostgreSQL seems to give the lead to PostgreSQL (using pre-beta 7.1.) The slashdot hordes comment (although nothing very useful as of 65 comments.) Maybe it's time to give PostgreSQL a look. Mmmmm, transactions.
Nice dinner last night with a few ridiculously old white wines. Afterward, around midnight, we suddenly decided to go see Charlies Angels. The fight scenes were good, but the whole package was pretty embarassing. No, on second thought, make that very embarassing.
Hillary has already pledged to reintroduce a bill that would abolish the electoral college. I tend to agree, although here are some reasons we may want to keep it.
Here's some links in the area I'm trying to get at (see the long ramble below.) First up, if you don't know what is meant by "semantic web" check out this W3C page. But more importantly, read Jorn Bargers reasoning why xml won't get us there. I no longer think we can attack the semantic (or lack of semantics) problem at the mark up level. I think we can attack it at the bookmarking level. Something like a dmoz meets napster meets blogger kind of thing.
If you're looking to sail off the edge of the scientific map, you could start here and probably get to nowhere. If you're into that sort of trip. (via riothero.)
Here's a picture of the new Gateway (/AOL/Transmeta) Touch Pad computer. We're going to see a lot of tries in this space, but I'm unconvinced so far. I think this one falls too much in the middle space. Either you want a full fledged general purpose computer, or you want specific digital media devices (mp3 players, digital VCRs, ect...) I don't think anyone wants a low power general computing device. But we're definitely going to see. (I guess you could argue that this is a specific digital media device, the specifics being web surfing and email.)
Disclaimer: This is very long and rambling, and has not even been edited once. I am trying to get my head around how to discuss some ideas I have been having, and this is a first shot. Read at your own risk.
The November 13, 2000 issue of Red Herring is a special "intertainment" issue titled: The sorry state of digital Hollywood. With the failures of pop.com, pseudo, and the digital entertainment network (den) it seems like a good time to step back and reassess the digital media landscape. For the big players, who I guess hoped to make quick millions with their Hollywood - Silicon Valley media convergence, things haven't worked out very well. Even the small independant media producer hoping for a low cost route to the big money has found the internet to not be living up to its hype. One might almost suggest the whole thing is a bust. But I think that is a bit premature. In fact, it might be the case that the internet is living up to all its "future of entertainment" hype, but that the people focusing on money have missed the point. It may well be that there is no way to make money on digital content distributed over the internet. If this totally shuts down your web plans then I don't think you have a very good web plan.
This site is an experiment. Total costs for running the site amount to $25 a month. We committed (in a very vague, rule of thumb way) to trying to produce things for one year. I had thought that if things were still going by this point (a little more than a year, or a little less than a year later, depending on how you count) that we would be involved in, how should I say it?, producing something that more closely resembled a "professional" digital media product. Instead, we have something that, while somewhat unique from our insider perspective, is basically what thousands (or more?) individuals and groups of individuals are using the web to do: text messaging. Maybe a still picture here or there. But personal. And I would bet to many it seems like nothing at all is happening.
The common come back to what I am getting around to saying, is that when broadband access becomes more widely available, internet content will converge with more traditional entertainment media. You won't read usenet if you can be watching full screen movies. But I think we are starting to realize that this might not be the case. I can already watch full screen movies on my T.V., which is already set up in such a way that it is comfortable to do this (i.e., I can lie in bed and watch T.V., but my computer is at my desk where I work all day.) I want to watch T.V., or movies, late at night, after working. It helps me turn my brain off. We might complain that the content of T.V. is really stupid, but it may well be that is what we want. I don't want to think hard, and Seinfeld or the Simpons, or whatever T.V. you like, doesn't require you to. It's a pacifier. But the internet is different. Even very short flash (or shockwave) animated shorts are annoying to watch. There is nothing for me to do. It's too much like T.V. Internet entertainment ("Intertainment" in Red Herring speak) is more interactive. And this is the same as saying its not really like entertainment at all. And, I think it's already here.
Google is the most successful entertainment site on the web. I think this is where people should start thinking about the future of on line media. Do you use search engines for entertainment? Try it some time. Just start with a word. Maybe you've been hearing a word lately you don't understand. Maybe you want to see how others understand something you say a lot. Maybe there's no real reason, but you've just been thinking about some idea. Type it in. See what comes up. Start clicking around. Open new windows with new links. Get going in a million different directions. Follow anything that seems interesting. I guess this is called "surfing." It's best when you aren't sure where you're going. Each page may not be that great (in terms of traditional entertainment value) but the connections you make by tracing threads through multiple (perhaps never before connected pages) is interesting. It's fun even. The entertainment is not ON the web, it's IN your head, and the web helps unlock it.
Ramble alerts are now flashing for this post, so I'll try to wrap it up. Text works on the web. Information is entertaining, although maybe not like Hollywood (or any big money interest) expects. The web will not replace T.V. (or if it does, it will be the end of the web I am speaking of.) Web logs are important, although clearly not in a money making way. They are important like bookmark lists are important. They sculpt our view of the information space that is the web. I don't know where we're going, but it's not quite where I originally thought. It's not toward everyone making their own movies. It's not toward fully immerisive 3d virtual worlds. It's nothing that flashy. It's just a buch of text, and a bunch of other commentary on that body of text that serves to interconnect it all. If it doesn't look "fun" in a traditional entertainment industry way that is because the fun is in your head instead of in the packaged product. So much so, in fact, that there may never be a packaged product. But we'll keep writing and linking, and having our own kind of fun.
This has all been background to get to my new idea (which isn't particularly new, nor in any way really "mine".) I want access to other people's bookmarks. The sites you visit are like a blueprint for your on line personality. Web logs are a way to share your surfing with others. They are a way to share yourself with others, but perhaps they are too chronological. Or maybe they should be chronological (because this is fun to tune into on a continuing basis,) but the specific entries should also be more permanent. And not just as archived chronological entries. Different views on the same data sets are something computers are very good at. After a year of accumlating web log entries I feel like I am building a sort of digital brain - one that is based on my brain in the sense that it contains the things I have found to be interesting. But I need to be able to access this store of information in more sophisticated non-chronological ways. I need to be able to access it more semantically. I want my site to start to be able to communicate with me. And with other people's sites. I think this may be possible. And for me, that would be entertaining.
Here's a PDF (via megnut) from an MIT professor detailing the statistical probability that Buchanan really got as many votes as he did in Palm Beach (answer: 1 in 3,000,000,000,000,000.) That seems significant, but still the question remains as to what does the law say about situations of this sort. Lawrence Tribe (Harvard constitutional law professor with ABC news affiliations) was on TV last night making a very strong case for the legality of a Gore challenge in Florida. There is definitely precedent in the state for adjusting the vote count. It happened in a Miami mayoral election. Tribe even pointed to a recent Florida supreme court decision that seems to mandate adjustments to the vote count in such cases. He didn't exactly seem unbiased, but he is a heavyweight.
Maybe this is a good time to start looking into the purchase of your own private island.
I'm actually kind of intrigued by this election. I can't help feeling like Bush and Gore are two different versions of the same underlying thing, and so America just tossed a coin to pick it's next President. And it landed right on its edge. That's something you don't see every day. Feels about right too. I don't want either of those jokers as President, so maybe we can just drag this recount out for four years and be done with it. I keep hearing from the news media that this is an historical moment, but isn't it just that neither candidate could generate even one bit of interest or momentum, and therefore it was only a "close race" in the sense that two winless teams fighting to stay out of last place is a "close race" - it's close, sure, but that doesn't make it interesting, nor does it make it a good game.
I'm starting to see how this works. Verizon makes an appointment, but can only give you an 8:00 am to 5:00 pm window (thanks, that really narrows it down.) Then they don't show up, and not only do they not acknowledge this fact, they say they did show up and it is your fault for not being there. This happens a few times, and then when you get mad enough to start writing semi-nasty emails to people, Covad somehow "loses" your order!
"Thank you for contacting Covad Customer Care. Unfortunately, I was unable to retrieve any information pertaining to your order. I attempted to run a search in our database, but to no avail. If you can, please resend the following message indicating the Covad order number. Once we receive this piece of information, we will be able to assist you immediately."I don't think I will ever get my DSL.
What happened?
Happy Birthday MB!
Here's a great looking new site called Untold History. It is documenting "the untold stories of software innovation."
"My ultimate goal with this site is to show people that most innovation in the software industry starts with small teams of extremely creative and persistent people (working for themselves not large corporations)."The first installment is an essay by Jonathan Gay, inventer of Flash. Very interesting. Very well presented. Great idea.
"'I, for one, would like to see the so-called evidence this school has that a 15-year-old girl made a grown man sick by casting a magic spell,' Bell said. A lawyer for the school district declined to comment."
All I wanted was a DSL line, but somehow I've ended up in a Kafka novel.
I've been gearing up for a new (personal) project. Practically this just means I've been thinking about a bunch of stuff, and it seems to be converging on something I could build. It's about bookmarks. I'm trying to follow the "scratch an itch" philosophy which states you should try to make things (tools?) that fill a personal need, as opposed to filling a potential need of some hypothetical market segment. And the bookmarking abilities of the big browsers are not really cutting it for me. Hopefully more info will follow as this develops.
Now that Napster is in a deal with BMG, I'm seeing headlines like this: "Napster goes legit." But who would pay money for the chance to download mp3s using another customers bandwidth, when the song might not even match the title, and even if it does the encoding probably sucks, plus the host machine might disconnect you at any moment? Peer to peer only works because its free. That's the whole point. That's why people make these sacrifices to use Napster. If you pay money then you will expect some quality of service guarantees. And you can't provide that in a peer to peer network.
Slashdot had this great link to a Christian Science Monitor article speculating that today (October 31) will be the last day with no human in space. The 7:53 GMT lift off of the Soyuz rocket carrying 2 cosmonauts and 1 astronaut to the International Space Station is planned to be the beginning of humankinds continual habitation of space.
"I'd say there's a decent chance that Oct. 30 may be the last day we don't have humans in space," says John Curry, the station's flight director at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston."Maybe this is a little overblown, sure, but it's fun to think about. Space colonization seems realistic to me, but of course we don't have too much experience yet, so it's probably too early to tell. My favorite argument against humans ever colonizing space is based on an idea called the "Copernican principle" (I can't remember who argued this, I'll try to find out.) It seems like bull at first, but if you really think about it there is some sense to it: There is very little chance that your particluar point of view is very special, and therefore it would be highly unlikely that you would be living in a time during the span of the human species that is in any way special. Yet if we do go on to colonize space and spread throughout the galaxy then it would be true that right now we are living at the very start of this incredible celestial journey. Your short life span would just happen to fall exactly at the birth of humans as a spacefaring civilivationl. But as we assumed to start, this sort of special perspective is highly unlikely, and therefore it follows that humans won't colonize space and live far far into the future. If we were going to colonize space, it would be overwhelmingly more likely that you woulld have been born in the vast chunk of time that makes up the middle 90% of spacefaring humankinds existence, in other words, you would have been born somewhere during the fantastically long ride we would have to go through to get anywhere in space. But since you (and me) were born right here on the home planet, it's highly likely that we are falling somewhere in the middle of our life span as a species, and therefore won't live that much longer than we have already been around, or again, in other words, not long enough to spread out through the galaxy.
Well, I said it sounded like bull. But the guy I'm paraphrasing argued this as a statistical argument. If you see the math, it's a little more convincing (deceiving?) Anyway, I don't buy it because I like being a bit more of an optimist. Perhaps this date actually will become significant in the far future as the day we first left home.
You can find out more about the ISS here. And here's the slashdot thread.
Aha! Maybe this helps explain Verizon's missed appointments.
"...the Department [of Justice] noted that Verizon's performance in providing DSL lines to its competitors appeared to be discriminatory with respect to installation times, quality of service, and repairs."A covad operator told me that Verizon was showing up for only 50% of their scheduled appointments. But I'm sure now that the government is involved everything will be worked out in a timely manner ;-)