Friday, March 30, 2007

The Internet Will Save Us All, or, The Great Equalizer

OK, I've had this idea for years that universal connectivity could lead to an end of scarcity and war in our world. That's the inner idealist/optimist.

The inner wise-old-cynical-nihilist says there is nothing new under the sun, and people will be people, regardless of technology and education.

The inner optimist got a boost today when I read the following from the KenRadio Daily Tech News Clicks:

Wi-fi buses drive rural web use

Buses equipped with wi-fi are being used to deliver web content to remote rural villages in the developing world. In rural India and parts of Rwanda, Cambodia and Paraguay, the vehicles offer web content to computers with no internet connection. The buses and a fleet of motorcycles update their pages in cities before visiting the hard-to-reach communities. As well as offering popular pages, the United Villages project also allows users to request specific information. A small box, with an antenna, onboard the buses and motorcycles communicates with the rural computers. In many parts of the developing world it is too expensive to lay the fibres and copper cable to deliver a standard internet connection. Wireless technologies also do not reach many remote places.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Time... the big lie

Time is a man-made abstract- a comparison of measured actions. Action is primary. Without action, there's no time.

Elaboration: we Newtonians travelling at very low speeds measure and perceive time as a ratio of motion to motion, whether the motion is the distance traveled by the hands of a clock, or the vibrations of a quartz atom. Unfortunately right now I can't pretend to know much about Einsteining physics, except something about time being squishy, and light speed being absolute.

What I do know is that if you stop the motion, then you cannot measure the time.

If action is primary, then experience is key, and priorities definitive.

Perception of time as a primary/fundamental unit can be convenient for understanding our world, but it can also be used in conjunction with our fears/desires/mortality to create a cruel illusion of scarcity that can blind us from quality experience.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

real security vs. a sense of security

3/21/2007: Revision: Looks like we should all panic... IMMEDIATELY! Lock bumpers will break into your house and eat your babies.





this is my second mobile blog entry via MMS... although the future is yet to provide me with flying cars or even personal aircraft (how about a jet-pack?), this connectedness is cool (although thumbing is silly... when I can dial by voice, why can't I dictate messages, too? Still, all things considered I give the state of technology a thumbs up... hooray!

Know any good locksmith blogs? After surviving the past three days protected only by a mini sticky-note deterrent, I am pondering the various symbols we cling to in order to feel a sense of security. I mean, what good is a deadbolt when I have barless windows all around my house? Real security comes from one's societal environment, I believe. Specifically a stable society following rules of law. Only then can my sticky note protect me.

Monday, March 19, 2007

In Microsoft we Trust

Woke up this morning to find my computer clock had "sprung forward" according to its best understanding of daylight savings time.

Or was it that my handheld "fell back?" Seriously, I'm not trying to be funny. But something has happened, and I no longer now what time it is.

I am going to use the kitchen oven clock as the standard, because I know I set that clock accurately a couple weeks ago based on the new rules.

Perhaps the real effect of our government changing the daylight savings time rules is an increased awareness of how deeply our lives are integrated with technology. Microsoft technology, specifically.

Ted Kaczynski must be pacing in prison. In Ray Kurzweil's, "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence," I read an excerpt from, Kaczynski's, "Industrial Society and Its Future." I thought that some of his points were reasonable, but his PR campaign certainly sucked.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

"hope you brought your a-game, bitch."

"Hope you brought your a-game, bitch," is one of the taunt moves in the new video game, Def Jam Icon. I caught the following advertisement while watching TiVo'd Family Guy last night.



Anyone who has ever downloaded music can see that artists need a new way to get paid for making great music. Music as an experience-enhancement, specifically in video games, is one solution to the artist's dilemma.

On another topic, are hip-hop artists the cowboys and indians, or mobsters of a generation? In other words, is this healthy, harmelss fantasty? Or have today's artists crossed a line by BEING, pretending to BE, or BECOMING the violent, drug slanging, gun-toting, bitch-slapping characters they rap about?

This comes to mind as I picked up the latest copy of Source, and felt a pang of nostalgia.

I grew up with this stuff, but it was not just fantasy about which they rapped. Real people really died.

Forgive the multi-theme, un-wrapped post. This idea has been marinading for 2 weeks, and it is to move on. RIP Tupac/Biggie.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

doppleganger


All of the Crock-o-pottami (that's plural crock-o-pottamus) in Crock-Town are a little sad right now. Why? Because of THIS: apparently, according to the advertisers at Dice, I look like the opposite of a better boss: the bad boss!


Evil me:



Real me:


That's OK. My friend Ned's nemesis is a stand-up comedian on Comedy Central. At least Ned's evil twin follows the proper goatee convention, so as to avoid confusion.
Evil Ned:

Real** Ned (still searching for photo. Real Ned is elusive.):


**Note: Real Ned is only slightly less evil than Evil Ned.