...more recent posts
Here's a piece explaining how "printable" computers will work. Supposedly, credit card sized disposable cell phones are going to be the first widely distributed printed circuit product, and we might see them this summer. I'm not sure if disposable cell phones are really what we need, but it definitely is a cool technology.
Here's a piece explaining how "printable" computers will work. Supposedly, credit card sized disposable cell phones are going to be the first widely distributed printed circuit product, and we might see them this summer. I'm not sure if disposable cell phones are really what we need, but it definitely is a cool technology.
Great time last night. Thanks to everyone. Hello Friday.
Great time last night. Thanks to everyone. Hello Friday.
Probably, like everyone else, I've linked to this before. But here it is again. Neil Stephenson's (short for a book, long for the web) In the Beginning was the Command Line. It takes some time to get through, but Stephenson (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, etc...) is a great writer, and really knows a lot about computers. This might well be the first text on the syllabus for some future college class on the Early History of Computing. So, in case you want to get a jump on the other kids, dig in now. I'll be over here on this $!@#%&' Linux box trying to get that %^&*!!@ wu-ftp to work by typing cryptic strings of characters into the command line. There's a lot to learn when you start from the beginning.
Probably, like everyone else, I've linked to this before. But here it is again. Neil Stephenson's (short for a book, long for the web) In the Beginning was the Command Line. It takes some time to get through, but Stephenson (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, etc...) is a great writer, and really knows a lot about computers. This might well be the first text on the syllabus for some future college class on the Early History of Computing. So, in case you want to get a jump on the other kids, dig in now. I'll be over here on this $!@#%&' Linux box trying to get that %^&*!!@ wu-ftp to work by typing cryptic strings of characters into the command line. There's a lot to learn when you start from the beginning.
"Claude Elwood Shannon, the mathematician who laid the foundation of modern information theory while working at Bell Labs in the 1940s, died on Saturday. He was 84."I don't think you could name anyone who would be clearly more important in the formation of our global techno culture. You can read more about information theory here. "Information Theory regards information as only those symbols that are uncertain to the receiver." Yes, you read that right. "Information" is what is uncertain. A completely random process (if such a thing exists) emits maximum information. The incomprehensible ravings of a madman contain far more information than your nightly news report. As often happens with science, the more you learn about a particular topic, the more you see how scientific knowledge is greatly at odds with the "common everyday understanding" of many things. I thought about this Shannon stuff for a long time and it really turned my whole cognitive landscape inside out. Here's more from that lucent page: "The amount of information, or uncertainty, output by an information source is a measure of its entropy. In turn, a source's entropy determines the amount of bits per symbol required to encode the source's information." Shannon worked out in detail the mathematics dictating the maximum amount of information one can transmit over a given communication channel. This work formed the basis of all our computer network engineering, from the early voice (telephone) networks, to this internet thing we're talking on now. But his work also had more abstract influences. As we formalize the mathematics that seem to work in building machines (computers) that mimic human abilities (like communication,) we profoundly effect our understanding of how we, as humans, are able to accomplish those operations in the first place. I think Shannon's work on information was a prime motivator in the explosion of theory of language and theory of consciousness type philosophizing that took place in the 50's and 60's (and continues to this day.) His basic idea might seem simple today, but it was not in the 40's, and I bet that if you really think about the consequences of information being uncertainty, you'll start to be a little confused too. And confusion (is that uncertainty?) is the first step toward thinking something really informative. The world has lost a great mind.
Sure MP3s are cool, but now that Napster is trying to go legit and all the huge consumer electronics manufacturers are supporting the format, what does a young trend bucking anti-corporate music swapper have to do to stay ahead of the curve? Download the latest (beta4) preview of Ogg Vorbis, of course. It's the really free really good digital music CODEC. Or if you're like me, and you still find yourself using cassette tapes, but want to sound like you're on the cutting edge, you can just read this interesting interview with the guys behind Ogg. Burn baby burn.
Baaaa. I made zero progress yesterday, but I may have screwed some stuff up, so at least I wasn't completely ineffective. It's remarkably hard to work for eight hours on something you are not accomplishing (but I guess that's where the screwing stuff up part came in.) Must get out of the house today. Perhaps it will put itself in order while I'm gone. Seems about as likely as me being able to do it.
Spent yesterday in linux land. I think the new box is going to be called tulip, although I still have to consult my tree specialist about that. Anyway, I'm now able to telnet into tulip from the iMac, as well as browse html pages on tulip from Netscape on the iMac. But I couldn't get FTP to connect (or, it seems to connect, but then it just hangs while getting directory information.) This is a problem, because I need FTP working to upload the latest PHP and MySQL. But after I get that done, I'll really be getting somewhere. Hopefully today will see some good progress.