...more recent posts
Another great space picture. That's the MIR orbiting the earth with the moon to the right. (via robotwisdom.)
This interesting tidbit was supposedly part of a memo leaked from CNN (posted on Drudge.) Good stuff for you media convergence revolutionaries.
"We intend to accelerate our plans to introduce compact hi-tech newsgathering gear. Look for the quick introduction of small, high-quality DV cameras and laptop editing equipment (a Mac laptop), enabling us to deploy smaller reporting teams one or two people at times when it makes sense. Larger gear will be with us for some time to come and will be used as needed. But the days of routinely dispatching three- and four-person reporting teams with cases of bulky equipment are approaching an end. As we introduce this new gear, correspondents would do well to learn how to shoot and edit (even if called upon only occasionally to utilize those skills), and smart shooters and editors will learn how to write and track. While this is not a one-size-fits-all strategy and CNN will always value exceptional ability, the more multi-talented a newsgatherer, the more opportunity the News Group will provide that person."Now all we need is for these multi-talented micro-gadget equiped reporters to realize that they don't really need the bulky behemoth CNN either. (via ars)
The controversy is heating up over Apples new "Superdrive" (DVD-R/CD-RW.) John Gilmore is saying that Apple is not disclosing the content protection mechanisms built into the drive. He, and others, contend that Apple's drive (OEM'd by Pioneer) will not record industry recorded digital content (i.e., other DVD's, HDTV signals, streaming webcasts, ect...) A lot of people are mad about Apple not mentioning this little "feature", but others aren't so sure this is a real problem. I quote from HTP:
"BTW, I'm not so sure that Gilmore is correct. You can already use software from RipDifferent to extract MPEG-2 bitstreams from DVDs. AFAIK there is no way to tell whether an MPEG-2 bitstream came from a DVD or whether you encoded it yourself. So then all you'd have to do is use DVD Studio Pro to burn the bitstreams to a blank DVD. If you can't find DVD Studio Pro on Hotline, maybe someone will use the drive documentation (if it exists) to write a freeware burning tool."I guess we'll get this sorted when Apple finally ships the drive.
Here's a Joel on Software review of the Richocet wireless modem.
For no apparent reason I decided to download the latest Mozilla browser build (0.7.) Wow. Much better than the last one I tried (M14.) Perhaps I'll find stability problems over several days, but right off the bat it feels better than 4.7.6. I had no idea I would think that. If you've got a fast line, or some to kill, give it a try.
Can't believe I never found this one before: the internet encyclopedia of philosophy.
Here's a weekly tech-news sort of site (think TBTF crossed with /.) Looks good.
Here's a new Samsung flat panel display I'm keeping my eye on for MB.
Here's a massive XML-RPC howto.
Not counting vacations (and even counting some of those) this past week seems like I've been away from the web more than ever before. I guess I was ready for a little break, and then my monitor situation gave me the excuse. I read Bruce Schneier's new book "Secrets and Lies" which isn't really meant for me, but was fairly interesting nonetheless. Mostly though I've been thinking about what I'm always trying to think about: the next version of the mythic "perfect web publishing system." Of course this beast doesn't really exist because "publishing" means so many different things. Anyway, it's been a productive week. At least in my head. This slashdot article about this project aiming to make mySQL into file system really got me started. I'd always wondered about this possibility, but since I'd never heard it mentioned I figured there was some basic problem that I wasn't seeing. Maybe not. Now I'm thinking about my project under the name FFS (for Fluid File System - I stole this from someone posting in the slashdot thread,) or alternately as VSFS (for Very Slow File System) just so I remember the main problem I am facing. One quick (although slightly misleading) way to describe what I'm thinking about is to ask this question: What if every Get request to your web site (no matter what the URL requested) 404'd, except instead of serving a static page informing the surfer that the page couldn't be found, the 404 page is a script that parses the path info (of the requested URL) and uses the directory structure of the request to form an SQL query on the database and return a page with posts that seem to fit the request? Hmmm.
Still broken.
Sick of IT yet? Today the speculation turns toward sterling engines. And oh yeah, now there's a whole site dedicated to monitoring the event.
Nope, still broken.
I don't want to jinx my good luck by speaking too soon, but I've rebooted my computer 3 times today and the monitor has come back on every time. I'll try shutting down when I go for dinner and see if that works too. Not sure how it could have fixed itself (or even that it really has,) but here's my theory. There are two batteries in the monitor, one big one that powers the storage of all the preference info for the on screen display settings, and a smaller one that serves to just protect the most important low level stuff that allows the monitor to work at all. The problem I was having was "solved" by unplugging the monitor for > 2 hours, which I think was just draining the main battery and forcing some sort of internal reset which would allow the monitor to work again. But the problem was in the secondary battery which has a much longer life. This one had never run down during the unplugged times until this weekend when it was off for 4 days. Maybe this finally cleared out the problem? I can hope right? In any case, if it is actually fixed, this will be good evidence that procrastination can sometimes pay off, as I would have spent at least $200 to have someone else solve this (potentially) simple problem. Keeping my fingers crossed...
Interesting article by Eric Davis on wireless technology and the changing notion of space.
"Though we "know" that electromagnetic modulations of the spectrum are no less material than waves of electrons cruising along a wire, wireless nonetheless amplifies the experiential sense that we live and move in a world of invisible intelligences, a magic world verging on telepathy. Simply put, the more the physical apparatus disappears, the more we are simply listening and responding to voices in our heads."If you like this sort of thing, definitely check out his book Techgnosis. Worth a look.
In case you want another link to a good Jorn Barger explanation of why XML, and all container-based hierarchies don't really work, here it is. This is exactly what I was trying to think about this weekend. I might be getting somewhere in the sense that the question is coming into focus. Getting the question right seems like at least 85% of the battle (according to my top secret rigorous scientific testing....) Anyway, what I want is something like atomic storage of all "digital media bits" (as if they can all be classified together like that) and then a dynamic containerization (hierarchicalization? folderizing? treeifying?) of these bits depending on the context of the question I'm asking. Here's an example: I have a picture of MB I took this weekend. It is one of, say, 35,000 pictures I have on my computer. I store it in a directory structure that looks like this "/documents/travel/2001/january/montauk/pictures". This looks good. My hierarchy at least has several levels, so it's clearly a step up from having all 35,000 files in one folder called "/pictures". But now imagine that next year for MBs birthday I want to go back and pull up all the photos of her to make a little collage. In that case I'd would have wanted the picture filed in "/documents/photos/friends/MB". D'oh. And worse, for practically every situation I can think of, I would want the file hierarchy to have been different. So that is the problem, and the solution (at this point in time) seems to me to involve storing all the files (what I called "digital media bits" above) in a giant blob, or cloud, or .net, or whatever you want to call this non-hierarchical storage space. And then I want tools that dip into this storage space (I guess "cloud" is the most popular term right now) and construct container based (i.e., folders inside folders like /documents/travel/2001/january/) file hierarchies based on the context of the question I'm asking ("Select all pictures from january 2001" gets you one type of file hierarchy - namely, /pictures/2001/january - while "select all pictures of MB from the last year" gets you a different one - "/pictures/mb/2000/".) Of course, this amounts to something like teaching the computer how to think, so I'm not saying I have any insight into how to generate these on the fly hierarchies. But you have to have something to think about.
More on IT, the mystery product from Dean Kamen's DEKA research. Here's a patent (granted in 1999) that some people are saying is IT, although others are saying that this patent is for a wheelchair device which has already been released to the public. Huh? Looks like a pretty strange wheelchair if you ask me. In response to all the recent hype (which you can only suppose DEKA was somehow the instigator of,) they released this press release intended to deflate some of the more outrageous speculation. It reads, in part:
"DEKA is currently working on several exciting projects. The book proposal referred to one. However, the leaked proposal quoted several prominent technology leaders out of context, without their doubts, risks and maybes included. This, together with spirited speculation about the unknown, has lead to expectations that are beyond whimsical. We have a promising project, but nothing of the earth shattering nature that people are conjuring up."Maybe it is that weird scooter thing after all. $2000? It better be fast. Or something.
Wired had an article about this guy Dean Kamen a few months ago. I'll have to go back and take a look at it. Supposedly, he is developing a top secret technology product that is going to "change the world." Unfortunately, nobody knows what it is. MSNBC has this story about journalist Steve Kemper, who has been documenting the story from the inside, selling the rights to his book on the development of the technology for $250K - even though he wasn't allowed to reveal anything about the device to the publisher shelling out the dough. Most intriguing is reports of a meeting between Kamen and Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, and John Doerr (super VC.) Apparently, if we are to believe Kemper who clearly stands to gain from any amount of hype, these three techno luminaries were completely blown away by the demonstration. Dig these quotes from the article:
Bezos is quoted as saying that IT “...is a product so revolutionary,
you’ll have no problem selling it. The question is, are people going to be
allowed to use it?”
Jobs is quoted as saying: “...If enough people see the machine you
won’t have to convince them to architect cities around it. It’ll just
happen.”
Kemper says the invention will “profoundly
affect our environment and the way people live worldwide. It will be an
alternative to products that are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and
often frustrating, especially for people in the cities.”
O.K., I'll bite. What is this thing? Supposedly we'll know in 2002. (When I first read that 2002 date I thought, "Oh great, another thing that won't hit the market for years..." and then I realized that 2002 is next year! Damn the future is going fast.)
Still digesting yesterdays announcements. Seems like one of the biggest things was the introduction of the "superdrive" in high end desktop Macs capable of burning DVDs (regular DVDs that is, ones that will play in home DVD players, not the older, non-compatible, DVD-RAMS which are in cartridges a la zips or 3.5" floppies.) This is very cool, and represents a massive price drop considering stand alone DVD burners were going for +$5000. Now you can get a fully loaded high end Mac with DVD burning capability for less than $4000. I wonder how the MPAA is going to feel about that. And oh yeah, the "superdrive" is also a CD/RW burner! To go along with the drive, apple has some new software. iDVD (along with the popular iMovie) will be bundled with the new PowerMacs giving you the ability to burn DVD movies right out of the box. For professional use apple is also offering DVD Studio Pro which I guess is to iDVD as Final Cut Pro is to iMovie (i.e., it costs $999 instead of $0, but if you're a pro, this is still insanely cheap for serious DVD production.) The big question, for me at least since I won't be buying one of these machines, is if Apple is going to sell this drive as an external unit. Please?
In a slightly related story (or, in what would have been considered totally cool if Apple hadn't introduced the stuff above,) Roxio has unvelied Toast 5, the newest upgrade to the popular Mac CD burning software. And this new version will support burning video CDs (VCDs) that can play in most DVD players. That's good news, but I think I'd rather just burn full on DVDs, thanks.
I guess it's still unclear whether Job's vision of the everyman as multimedia producer will ever pan out, but he is sure offering the tools. They're not cheap, per se, but compared to what you would have needed a few months ago the prices are very attractive. And compared to pre Final Cut Pro days I'd say that the new high end desktop Macs ($3500 for the 733Mhz w/ superdrive, 256K, 60gigs + $1000 Final Cut Pro + $1000 DVD Studio Pro + $1500 monitor = $7000 for what would have cost...what?...close to $200K back in Avid days? More?) actually do represent a real desktop publishing revolution. But like I said, the question remains whether the average person really needs to be making movies of their life. If you just want to play Doom, a Windows 98 system is going to rock these Macs. But if you cling to the idea that computers can be used to make something akin to art, Apple is still leading the way. Now if they can just keep from going out of business...
Jobs did announce single processor 733 mhz desktop G4s, but they won't ship until February, and even then supplies will be limited. This is total vapor meant to calm Wall St. It is well known that Motorolla cannot presently make anything over 600 mhz in quantity, so this announcement basically means nothing. Or worse. I'm prepared to eat my computer if they are shipping quantities of 733 machines before March 1, and frankly, I'll be highly surprised if they are shipping before May 1. Anyway, the big news is the powerbook. Exactly as expected. 400 and 500 mhz g4 models. 15.2 inch screen! DVD, firewire, usb, irda. 1 inch thick! (This is .15" thinner than the thinnest Sony Viao!) 5 lbs. Titanium enclosure. Jobs calls it "unreasonably thin." :-) 5 hour battery life, DVD, and that wide screen are going to be turning a lot of heads on those cross country flights. Unfortunately I coudn't get the webcast (don't ask) so I am still searching for a picture of this beauty. Regardless, my pavlovian responses are in fine working order. Now if only they've made enough of these things. If so I think this could be the best selling Apple ever. And boy do they need it.
updated: here is a small, head on shot from Apple's site.
Speaking of cool notebooks, what's the deal with this Sony PCG-GT1? I don't think it's for sale in the U.S. yet (although you can maybe get one from the ever strange chuckmeister) but it looks pretty interesting.
The wide screen powerbook rumors that I thought had been debunked have surfaced again with some vigor. 15.2 inch screen, capable of 1152x768! That would be very cool. I'm still doubtful, but we'll know a little bit past noon. You can watch Steve crank up the hype machine yourself here.
Macworld San Francisco is tomorrow (well, all this week, but Job's keynote is tomorrow, so that's when the big announcements from Apple will come.) Hopefully debuting will be the powerbook g4 with its often rumored but never seen sleek new ultrathin design. Some people claim the whole machine is the thickness of the bottom half of the present powerbook. Nice. New desktops also, but I'll be highly surprised if they announce anything over 600 mhz (or if they do announce something higher, you won't be able to get one for months.) Small chance that OS X will be officially released, but I think Macworld Tokyo is a better bet (end of February.) Also possible is the long awaited 17 inch flat panel. I'll be watching.
I'm still trying to digest this article which is subtitled "how to make the free distribution of content profitable." I think he may have something here. Sort of radical, and I think the big content publishing industries are going to have to go through with (the failure of) the "trusted client" model first, but Mr. Copley has at least hit upon a scheme that could work. I wasn't sure this much was even possible. Very intriguing.
The Swiss are going to have a national referendum to decide the question of giving animals legal status as "beings" and not "assets." (from kuro5hin)
Macs in space. Using orbiting G4 Cubes to provide low cost wireless internet access anywhere on the globe.
Desktop Websites is the latest catch phrase from the userland camp. He's definitely got something here, but I wonder if it can be bootstrapped into existence. The problem, as usual, has to do with Metcalfe's law which states that "the usefulness, or utility, of a network equals the square of the number of users." Or, in other words, it won't be cool until a lot of people are using it, but how do you convince people to invest the time and/or money associated with adopting a new technology before it's cool? As always, we're watching. It's not out of the question that I would move to their platform.
Here are some really good photos of the monolith that "appeared" in Seattle after New Years.
Oh good. I've been looking for a reason to uninstall flash.
From 7CR:
"... I have to give professional spammers a point for creativity with the recent flock of email that says, 'Is this XXXX, if not sorry for the bother.' I can only imagine how many valid email addresses that must have harvested. Still, should I ever meet the purpetrator on the street, I can think of some fine action involving a ball-peen hammer and really bad opinion of direct marketing. It's the cowardice. At least beggars have the courage to look you in the face and ask for money with no suppositions..."I got one of these too. I was going to mention it, as this was probably pretty effective for them. As I've said once before - DO NOT REPLY to any message that you do not want, or that you don't know what it is. Spammers want to get lists of active email addresses to sell to other spammers who want to fill you mailboxes with useless offers for off shore tax havens, and various get rich quick schemes. If you reply to a message like this, then they know your address is good, and YOU WILL BE SOLD and resold untill your mailbox is no good to you anymore (unless you are really lonely, and you'd rather get these spams then nothing, in which case you are in luck...) No one will ever read your message, so all the cursing or pleading or whatever you try to do is all to no avail. Just ignore them, and while they won't go away, they might not bother you as much. And just for the record, although I do hate spammers, and would love to meet one in real life, I'll take them over a total government monitoring program that would be needed to stop them. Stiffer penalties might be a good way to go though. How about $250,000 fines for convicted spammers, and the money goes into funding existing and new MAE nodes (is that what you would call them?)
Yes, hello, I am still here. Just barely. The Wheel throws a mean party. I'm going to put it in the top 5 on my all time best time list, although I'd be at a loss to pick out the other four. My monitor is still causing me problems, and while it occasionally (like now) does work, I had moved it to the floor, and now my back will not have anything to do with moving it either back up to the desk or out to get repaired. My kingdom for a flat panel display. Maybe I'll just wait for the powerbook g4 announcement later this month and jump to the portable world.
Talked to another old friend from Montana a few days ago. Always makes me feel good, although now there is a certain vertigo associated with thinking back so long in time. I guess I'm still young enough that this is a novelty. Not so long ago there was no such thing as "long ago" or if there was it involved me as a child. Now I'm starting to have a long ago where I was out on my own, ostensibly an adult, although I have to admit that the person I remember as me was pretty lost and clueless. Still am, I guess, but now I'm a little more clever about it. I guess that comes with the "long ago" bit. Anyway, it's nice to hear from the past. Especially from this person. I lived for a few years with her and two other guys in college. All four of us combinded had maybe the motivation of one regular person in terms of thinking or planning for future careers. I guess this was something that drew us together. Sort of like a black hole. Fun fun times though. Now one of us is a big shot money manager type guy, the other male is a high powered computer consultant, and now she is in law school and loving the work. Go figure. I guess everyone gets it together after a while. Maybe there is still some hope for me.
Sitting at our table on New Years Eve, a girl to my right was asking people about new years resolutions. None of us had any, of course, but Alex had the best reply: "I'm low resolution this year." Cheers to that. I'm feeling a bit pixilated myself. When's that Montauk vacation?