...more recent posts
It's getting pretty exciting on the software front. Microsoft's new .NET strategy has really stoked the fires. Perhaps because it sounds just like what everybody except Microsoft has been saying for the past couple of years. Now that Microsoft has bought in, things are going to evolve fast. Tune in to scripting news for near constant reports from the trenches. Here's a typically insightful link. Lots of buzzwords, sure, but that may be the best explanation of what's happening I've heard lately. The key point, I think, is that we are trying to enable our data (content, documents, ect...) to be understood (read, processed) by software. Until now we've only been concerned with our data being accessible to people. Making the jump from human readable to machine readable is a big jump. It is like we are turning our minds inside out. The process of externalizing our minds is the process of completely specifiying how it is that we process information in our minds. Producing this complete specification is the same as producing software that can do the job. XML is not any sort of answer. It's the starting point. It's a specification for how we are going to describe this externalization of our thought. It's not the externalization itself. That will be something implemented using XML (not XML itself.) I think the real fun part is about to begin.
The BBC has a funny article on Russian crop circles. I like how the Russian government just talks matter of factly about the existence of UFO's. Vasily Belchenko, security council deputy secretary, said "An unknown object definitely landed there. It obviously used an unknown landing principle."
Had a great dinner with MB, Mike, and Linda last night at Blue Hill (75 Washington Place.) Get in before the word gets out. Trust me.
Lots of quick links today. First up, genehack refreshes our memory with a link to As we may think, the 1945 essay by Vannevar Bush. Amazing. Is it that he saw the future, or that people built the future he saw? I can't think of a better starting place for the historian of computers. A modern example of the knowledge sharing made possible by the information devices Mr. Bush predicted is nanodot.org, yet another slashdot style site, this one run by the foresight institute and of course covering the world of nanotech research. Looks good. Tord Jansson gives us his first draft of Why software shouldn't be covered by patents (from advogato) while the Free Protocols Foundation explains why we should just say no to WAP. Will Sanchez (lead Darwin developer from Apple) outlines, interestingly, some of the problems integrating the MacOS and UNIX (if you're into that sort of thing.) And finally, Simon St.Laurant tries to poke a little hole in the hype, as he explores some of the problems generated by the transition to XML.
shouldexist.org is a promising slashdot style site where users contribute "stories" that are ideas for products/services they think should exist. Then other users chime in either furthering the idea or ripping it apart. Nice interaction. Thumbs up.
Here's a collection of links about the possible water on Mars story. (Links aren't underlined on Kuro5hin, so run your cursor around.) This looks promising, but until they find something I'm going to stay on the first-contact-on-Europa bandwagon.
Just in case you were curious, here's a shot of the server room at Napster (you mean that's it?) P.S., I love Scripting News.
Woke up at 5:45 yesterday to get an early start on the summer. Drove up to Bear Mt. with Alex and friend Matty (sp?) for a little hiking and introduction to bird watching from the man himself. Like most other pursuits these days, the technology really makes a difference. Good binoculars are a must for enjoying this very peaceful and meditative endeavor. And looking through them all day is not unlike staring at a screen (although a very high resolution one.) Thought a lot (again) about using natural landscapes to model data. Also I realized (although this may not be true) that xml has some serious problems. It might be the case that the data (the content) is itself the most consise (meta-data) description of itself. Or, in other words, it might be that we will not be able to decide on any but the most trivial schemas to share in common. Oh well. Still more thinking to be done.
This is not a real product. There is a strange tradition in the Mac watching world where external (non-Apple) third parties produce concept designs of rumored products. The apple pda/cellphone is one of the more widely speculated on new products (apple never says anything about stuff in development, but sometimes those engineers have a hard time not talking about what they are doing...) In any case, this concept design is looking pretty good. And it's from the same people who previewed a clamshell notebook enclosure well before the ibooks hit the market, so this might not be a total guess. I'm ready for this phone. (Although I'm guessing 2003 before good net access.)
Here's a very interesting piece on the future of computers and information space. Non technical, but obviously written by someone who knows what they are talking about. It's called a manifesto, but I always use the ridiculous phrase 'intuition pump' to describe writing like this. It doesn't go into detail, it just gives enough shape to get you thinking. I agree with almost everything, especially number 20. (from eatonweb)