...more recent posts
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.