...more recent posts
The Wireless Commons Manifesto. This sounds like what I believe, although I wonder if leaving out some of the utopian language might be more effective? Still, I don't mind that sort of talk myself. I'll be watching where this one goes. The Community Wireless Definition is certainly right on the money.
Anybody else here those helicopters all night? Nothing in the news today...
Just saw this in the changelog for PHP 4.2.0: "Fixed HTTP file upload support to handle big files better."
I'm not sure if "better" means the problem is actually fixed, but this sounds like there has been at least some improvement over the dismal performance of large file uploads in 4.1.2.
I'd really like this to work because the FTP step I'm having people do now is really breaking the whole "everything inside the browser" concept.
Manhattan under 400 feet of water. (via kottke)
Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin points to tropisms.org, a video log on the internet. Yes, this is where we're going (although hopefully we'll lose Flash along the way.) Read Xeni's synopsis.
A Canadian group who call themselves the Raelians (who believe, among other things, that humans life began 25,000 years ago when some aliens visited this planet and cloned themselves,) are saying that they have produced the first human clone.
Alex MB and I are waiting for Two Towers to begin. I don't think I have a data connection right now, but here we go....
I'm on the train to Boston to see my sister, her family and my mother. Hectic last couple of days. Be back tomorrow night.
I haven't had a data connection all day on my mobile. Email here is a better bet.
Tom's Hardware review of the D-Link DWL-900AP+, a $100 wireless (802.11b) access point that doubles as a wireless repeater. Nice.
A series of interviews with author Howard Rheingold: Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. (via Bill Seitz)
Getting closer. Canon EOS-1D full review.
The EOS-1Ds features a full-frame 11 megapixel CMOS sensor. The sensor makes this camera the first Canon EF mount digital SLR without any field of view crop (focal length multiplier), that 16 - 35 mm lens will provide the exact same field of view on the EOS-1Ds as it would on an EOS-1V with film.
We were talking about future scenarios involving web cameras built into the human body. While we're not there yet, these come strangely close.
I like this line of reasoning: "Alternatively, no transmitter or recording device is needed. Simply wear the satchel as a deterrent against crime. With such a conspicuously concealed camera, nobody will know whether or not you're live, so they will simply have to be on their best behaviour at all times." (Italics mine.)
Tell me that's not going to become a phrase: "you live?"
radical manhattanismLooks good. Nice name. Check it out.
Gawker is a Manhattan weblog magazine edited by Elizabeth Spiers, designed by Jason Kottke and published by Nick Denton. It is a live review of city news, and by news we mean, among other things, urban dating rituals, no-ropes social climbing, Condé Nastiness, downwardly-mobile i-bankers, real estate porn -- the serious stuff.
I'm not sure what has happened. The spam filters in my email program were working so well, and now recently, they aren't catching anything. Are spammers getting better (more clever,) or is there something wrong with my mail.app setup?
I'm not sure what has happened. The spam filters in my email program were working so well, and now recently, they are catching anything. Are spammers getting better (more clever,) or is there something wrong with my mail.app setup?
7 new design plans for Lower Manhattan. (These are the new ones, right?)
I've temporarily lost my mobile (it's in the building somewhere,) so if you need reach me my email here is the best bet.
Thinking, again, about implementing categories. This way you could assign posts to specific categories, and readers could select views of the page containing only content in specific categories.
But every time I start to think about this the idea grows into some general purpose meta data scheme, and eventually ends up competing with the idea of web pages. In other words, if you make a really complete category system for a weblog, aren't you just duplicating the idea of having multiple web pages?
That's not very clear. I'll try to explain this again soon.
Bruce Sterling has a new non fiction book out: Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years.
Mildly interesting year end Google Zeitgeist featuring most searched for terms in a variety of categories.
In other google news, this wired article: Google vs. Evil has gotten lots of weblog attention. Seems like a non story. But there sure is a lot of attention being paid to whether they will slip up or not. Sounds like jealousy if you ask me.
December's Cryptogram is a good one. Bruce Schneier has some interesting comments on the Department of Homeland Security.
It's so interesting to read someone who's mind is trained on computer (and computer network) security write about national security. I hope someone is listening.
The Creative Commons has launched. This is the Lawrence Lessig backed non-profit that is providing ready made intellectual property licenses that creative folks can download and use to properly place their works into the public domain.
In one way this doesn't seem like much to me, but I think it may turn out to be important. Any project that raises the visibility of donating works to the public domain is a good thing in my opinion. And making the process completely simple, and free of legal fees, is even better.
OK, I admit it, I'm kind of hoping there will be a transit strike tomorrow. I'm sorry Wheel, I know it will hurt. But I can't help it. It's like the feeling I used to get hoping for a snow day. The city will be absolutely brought to a halt. It'll be something to see. If it does happen I'll try to take a walk and get some pictures.
Still, I imagine they'll come to some eleventh hour settlement. And that will probably be for the best.
Forgot to mention that I was walking by Katz's Deli yesterday morning and noticed there were about 50 Santa's inside. That probably explains something but I'm not sure what.
A look at the Chandler Agent Framework.
"I can't tell what's Massive and what's not anymore."
Wired article about the computer tech behind the battle scenes in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.
Hmmm. So I was having a problem uploading large files through a web browser to PHP HTTP connection. It would work, but be extremely slow. Then I found some mailing list postings about PHP having some sort of problem that causes this. But I couldn't ever find out what the problem was exactly. So I wrote the back end over in Perl, but it's just as slow. Maybe this is a more general problem. I know HTTP wasn't designed for transfering large files (that's what FTP is for,) but I don't understand the specifics of why this is the case. Are there any fast HTTP binary file upload solutions? Is it even possible, or is HTTP by definition not equiped to do well at this?
I was at dinner the other night with Janet and Theo (who is nine.) Theo really wanted to go home, but Janet didn't want to leave to walk her the block and a half from the restaurant. So she took Peter's cellphone, called herself, and then handed her cellphone to Theo and sent her on her way. Janet sat at the table and talked to Theo as she walked herself home. Cool.
Extending the ability of parents to keep an eye (or ear) on their kids seems like such a natural use of technology that it got me thinking. Is the wireless webcam implanted behind your child's eyes only a matter of time? That would be really weird. Obviously a big adjustment to our sense of individuality would follow. Coming of age might be marked by literally getting your parents out of your head. I can imagine the fights over when this time should come. The future version of when is your daughter old enough to date might be something like: when is she old enough to not wirelessly stream her life to Mom or Dad.
"Don't you turn your eyes off on me young lady!"
Note I'm not endorsing this scenario, only saying that it seems unlikely not to come about. In fact, weblogs are like a low bandwidth opt-in version of the mandatory life sharing described above. I know my mother still keeps track of me through this page. And I like that. Having it built in from birth is a different story though. But it might not seem so different in the future.
A 1973 journal about crossing the Darien Gap - a stretch of jungle between Panama and Columbia - on motorcycle. MB Hannah and Alex had to ship their truck at this point when they did it. But evidently it is possible to cross.
Jen wonders, jokingly, about the possibility of Iraq having put a virus in the CD ROMs they handed over to the UN. Obviously those disks are going to be put into some serious machines.
That's going into my next terrorist screen play for sure.
Complete list of macintosh key sequences. (Thanks whump)
For the past two days I have been completely disabled with some sort of acid stomach condition. Not sure if this was a direct result of GSI (doubt it) or the result of a longer running dietary imbalance. Either way it hurts like hell. Feeling better this morning, and keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully the worst is over.
Jeff should return today from his Philly visit, and I'd like to be able to do some more hanging out. Still tentatively scheduling the Lupa lunch for Tuesday if people are interested.
Understanding the Microprocessor, an introduction by one of the best tech writers on the web. Great great article. In depth yet accessible, and given the complexity of the subject that is saying quite a bit. If you want to really understand your computer, this is where to start.
Our friend Jeff arrives from Montana today, providing us with yet another sorely needed opportunity to live it up. For his sake, of course. We're selfless like that.
Prototype 1.6 megapixel digital camera that is 2 mm thick! Insane. Get this to market.
Hopefully posting should be getting back to something like normal around here. If only I could remember what normal is.
Check out Earth as Art, featuring images of earth from the Landsat-7 satellite, selected for their artisitc qualities.
I don't have a link, but I was interested to read in the paper that baseball statistics (sabrematrician) guru Bill James has been hired by the Boston Red Sox. Among other duties he will consult on all trades.
I started buying Bill James' yearly Baseball Abstract when I was a kid growing up in Massachusetts. What little mathematical facility I have is due in large part to my fascination with his elaborate and rather arcane formula for quantitizing player performance. Great great stuff. And the idea that he will be helping the utterly hapless BoSox is icing on the cake. I'd like to see it work, but I'm not sure even Bill the great can turn baseball in that town around.
Austria 2002. What a short decadent trip it's been.
I have the new upload scripts working. And I've uploaded all my Austria pictures. It works pretty well. I'm about half way through writing the small amount of textual explanation I want to include. Doing so has made me realize how much my writing style has degenerated. This is thanks to blogging, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.
I could write better. But then I wouldn't write very much. Everything you see on this page is straight off the top of my head. It's unusual that I even proof read one time. Obviously this leads to lots of sloppy writing. It's probably embarassing even, but I don't notice. I'd rather write more, poorly, then not as much. Of course, your mileage may vary.
Still, I used to be able to write better. Which is to say, I used to go over my words many times. Reread and rewrite and rethink. That's fun, for sure, but I don't have time for it. Blogging takes up so much time already. If I made myself proof read, or even think twice about what I was saying, then I wouldn't have any time for it at all.
I guess that's why some people don't understand what I'm doing. I can see that it could seem low quality. It's just that it's not the quality that I'm after. It's the constantness. Is that even a word? See, I don't care. You know what I mean.
Or do you? I think it will become more clear as things turn more multi media. Bandwidth is still a bit constrained for pictures, and certainly for video. So text is where it's at right now. But it's all about the immediacy. Rewriting is something else. I hope I haven't lost the ability to do it, but I seldom run across the instance where I want to give it any practice.
In any case, I should have the pictures all done by tomorrow. Not that it's so interesting. It's almost like it's too late now. That's what I mean by immediacy. If I could have been broadcasting live it would be more interesting. Like you could have come along on my vacation with me. Now that it's after the fact it's more like I'm boring you with lame vacation pictures. But I'll put them up anyway.
I guess the other side of the coin is that they might be interesting to me many years from now. Probably at that point I will wish I would have proof read more. Or maybe I'll just be happy that I kept a record at all. I wonder...
We're back. Safe and happy. A little heavier around the middle and a little lighter in the wallet. Always nice to come back to NYC.
I am denying all rumors that I ordered a rack of lamb on the final night.
This was possibly the most well documented vacation ever. Lots of pictures coming, but I have to implement my new photo management scheme first. Hopefully tomorrow.