|
|
Description: the sound of one mind thinking
Last Update: 06:41:50 03/04/2006
|
| |
Additional Info
First Fetched: 00:16:34 01/31/2004
Last Updated: 06:41:50 03/04/2006
Headlines
|
|
|
Coordinates, measurements describes a pattern commonly used when representing measured data to humans. Presenting measurements associated with coordinates on a graph helps people intuitively grasp complex sets of spatial data. Graphs can be as simple as the timeline of last night's party or as complex as a three dimensional map of asteroids less than a light year away. iSPOTS represents wireless devices as geographical points on a map of the campus. The exhibit will be open until January 13, 2006. Study hall is less often desirable when there's a comfy couch at the coffee shop next door. Data collected will influence how student services money is spent. Simcity represents urban health indicators such as traffic congestion and police coverage as spots of colors on a map of the city. Recurring congestion in a downtown area indicated that it was...
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Coordinates, measurements describes a pattern commonly used when representing measured data to humans. Presenting measurements associated with coordinates on a graph helps people intuitively grasp complex sets of spatial data. Graphs can be as simple as the timeline of last night's party or as complex as a three dimensional map of asteroids less than a light year away. iSPOTS represents wireless devices as geographical points on a map of the campus. The exhibit will be open until January 13, 2006. Study hall is less often desirable when there's a comfy couch at the coffee shop next door. Data collected will influence how student services money is spent. Simcity represents urban health indicators such as traffic congestion and police coverage as spots of colors on a map of the city. Recurring congestion in a downtown area indicated that it was time to consider replacing a high-rise office building with a park (or build a light rail). This visualization could identify local or ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This cycle can feasibly be completed in under an hour; most of the time is spent filling out forms over and over again. PayPal account verification steps may take up to 5 business days, though, but that shouldn't prevent purchases from taking place. Using Blogger, get a blog (and configure it to use your FTP server, if so desired). Using Picasa, create a new Hello account and configure it for the blog. Using PayPal, get a merchant account. Using Picasa and Hello, send a merchandise photo with a short description to BloggerBot. Using PayPal's merchant tools, generate an add to cart button for the item. Using Blogger, edit the new post to include a title, a description, and add to cart and view cart buttons. Feedback welcomed as to how this performs for y'all out there.. One interesting side effect of this process is that, without any advertising on the site whatsoever, it's a new way to (theoretically, at least) make weblogs profitable....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There isn't a compelling business argument today that would suggest that giving away our content is a good idea. (more) What tangible benefit does the New York Times get in return for being a world news library to us? It's neat to be revered by all as a repository of information, but without a visible associated profit, I can certainly understand why it could be rejected by higher-ups. In the interests of simplifying things, I'm going to make a gross generalization of this and call it: "How do I make money while giving everything away for free?": Advertising I'll award a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate to the person who emails me a screenshot of their Google toolbar having blocked the most pop-up ads. I ask only one thing: take the screenshot against the NYTimes.com site (more) The scourge of optic nerves everywhere can still be useful when done tactfully. Loud, garish ads can send people into seizures, drive people to distraction, inspire thousands to write code to block them all ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Walls of file cabinets can be found at any institution, containing thousands upon thousands of manually indexed documents. When someone's interested in using a folder within, they take it out, bring it to their desk, and work with it. Once done, it's put in a "to be filed" stack (or filed immediately). This is the most common way to structure a filesystem on today's computer as well: cabinets of folders of files, all carefully packed away on the wall of the office, waiting to be carefully taken out, worked with, and then carefully put back. The translation of a carbon-based filing system to a silicon-based filesystem leaves out one key component: most people don't have someone to file their "to be filed" stack. The clearest sign of this lack is a directory filled with thousands of files, distinguishable by filename;...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Walls of file cabinets can be found at any institution, containing thousands upon thousands of manually indexed documents. When someone's interested in using a folder within, they take it out, bring it to their desk, and work with it. Once done, it's put in a "to be filed" stack (or filed immediately). This is the most common way to structure a filesystem on today's computer as well: cabinets of folders of files, all carefully packed away on the wall of the office, waiting to be carefully taken out, worked with, and then carefully put back. The translation of a carbon-based filing system to a silicon-based filesystem leaves out one key component: most people don't have someone to file their "to be filed" stack. The clearest sign of this lack is a directory filled with thousands of files, distinguishable by filename; the silicon brings is the ability to manage a stack of thousands of papers with very little effort, and all that's asked of the user is to choose a unique title. Over ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jon Udell's been paying a lot of attention recently to categorizing XHTML elements. Two of his readers suggested that he use the class attribute, delimiting the categories (if necessary) with spaces; this is also valid CSS. I'm in favor of it as well, as it has worked well for me in two other circumstances. At del.icio.us/crysflame, I keep a notebook of interesting links. Each link has several pieces of metadata; of interest is the tags field. The content of this field is a space-delimited list of categories, so to speak; a blog post about Google's IPO would be assigned "blog business", while a paper about graphing social dynamics would get "science social math". It's worked out very well for me, so far; I can find things easily enough by selecting individual tags, though more complex slices of the data aren't...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jon Udell's been paying a lot of attention recently to categorizing XHTML elements. Two of his readers suggested that he use the class attribute, delimiting the categories (if necessary) with spaces; this is also valid CSS. I'm in favor of it as well, as it has worked well for me in two other circumstances. At del.icio.us/crysflame, I keep a notebook of interesting links. Each link has several pieces of metadata; of interest is the tags field. The content of this field is a space-delimited list of categories, so to speak; a blog post about Google's IPO would be assigned "blog business", while a paper about graphing social dynamics would get "science social math". It's worked out very well for me, so far; I can find things easily enough by selecting individual tags, though more complex slices of the data aren't provided. With the release of iTunes 4.2, a new field was added: grouping. At first, it was thought of as a similar sort of categorization field as the tags field: a ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've written a procmail filter that checks incoming mail against several identity networks; when the sender's email address is listed, it adds a new header: X-Reputation: friend. Currently, plugins are provided for Orkut, FOAFweb, Reputation Research Network, and CPAN. # When someone's listed as a friend, add X-Reputation: friend. :0 f |/usr/local/sbin/filster.pl An addition to SpamAssassin's local.cf allows mail from these senders to pass through more easily, while allowing super-spam (scoring 20+) to remain blocked. header REPUTATION_FRIEND X-Reputation =~ /friend/ score REPUTATION_FRIEND -7.0 header REPUTATION_PEER X-Reputation =~ /peer/ score REPUTATION_PEER -5.0 Combined with SPF, it becomes quite feasible to tie one's social networking profiles into a list of all the email addresses from which you don't receive spam. The code is included in the extended entry of this post; please be aware that it is to be considered pre-alpha 0.0.1...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've written a procmail filter that checks incoming mail against several identity networks; when the sender's email address is listed, it adds a new header: X-Reputation: friend. Currently, plugins are provided for Orkut, FOAFweb, Reputation Research Network, and CPAN. # When someone's listed as a friend, add X-Reputation: friend. :0 f |/usr/local/sbin/filster.pl An addition to SpamAssassin's local.cf allows mail from these senders to pass through more easily, while allowing super-spam (scoring 20+) to remain blocked. header REPUTATION_FRIEND X-Reputation =~ /friend/ score REPUTATION_FRIEND -7.0 header REPUTATION_PEER X-Reputation =~ /peer/ score REPUTATION_PEER -5.0 Combined with SPF, it becomes quite feasible to tie one's social networking profiles into a list of all the email addresses from which you don't receive spam. The code is included in the extended entry of this post; please be aware that it is to be considered pre-alpha 0.0.1 pencil draft code. That said, it works quite ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A growing segment of the technologically-enabled population is developing what I would best describe as a "derision" towards those who are not technically competent, for whatever reason. This sentiment is immediately apparent in the technical support industry, but I've seen it from peers who've never been formally introduced to tech support as well. The common factor in the derision appears to be a result of differences between the two groups of people involved: those who feel they have invested much time in competence, and those who they feel have not. Over time, repeated communication failures left unaddressed appear to result in a build-up of resentment towards one (or, more often, both) parties. One of the clearest examples of this can be found in comics that focus on these conflicts, such as Dilbert, Userfriendly, or w00t; in each, one can find...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
During last night's game of Monopoly, I introduced a new twist into the game: right of passage. Trading properties with other players always results in a hotel war, so I tried a new twist: instead of asking for large amounts of cash or trying to execute an imbalanced trade, I requested mutual right of passage: that is, neither of us pays the full rent on the property being traded; instead, only minimum rent will be charged. It worked out spectacularly. The other player got a complete set, I had passage to one of the three hotels, and the game continued. As time passed, we both had several chances to exercise the new agreement. Near the end, I escaped a loss by landing on a space that couldn't charge me; while I lost, it was an unexpected reprieve. The dynamic of...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The community push to syndicate every viewpoint, every post, through semi-interoperable standards like RSS and Atom has resulted in a dramatic shift in the media power balance; media organizations can no longer embargo certain topics, hoping they'll fade into the background noise. In most media organizations (newspapers, radio stations, etc.), you can find topics that are "blacklisted"; I'd never turn to Fox News to hear more about how Fox nearly sued itself over a Simpsons episode; I'd never turn to a corporation's blog to read more about one of their internal memos. In each case, I can rightly presume – these days – that they'll put their short-term interests ahead of longer-term goals, such as honesty and forthrightness. The problem with embargoes is that they have a dramatic effect, in a world where the media is controlled by a few,...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Based on the top 100 listed at scripting.com's community feedlist, one third of the news I read is read by the other 125 people. This list is generated from the top 100 feeds out of everyone who's uploaded OPML; you can do so, too. Just create an account and you're set to go. With this data, you could identify what blogs the top 100 most-read bloggers *aren't* reading, read them, and feed them interesting tidbits that they might not see otherwise. You could customize your blogging for any audience. You could target only B-list bloggers. You could create a directed network graph of who's reading who, find out who isn't reading who, and fill in the gaps. If this new service provided an aggregate dataset, I could teach people to become supernodes. Unfortunately, the aggregate dataset being collected by this...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recently, I've noticed more flirting than usual from the girls I interact with in my daily life; standing at the bike rack, working at the coffee shop, playing pool at the bar; I'm rather unaccustomed to the attention. It seems to be unrelated to my physical appearance, or at least the parts of it that I can change (haircut and clothes); I surmise, then, that I've started broadcasting some sort of "low-key" signal expressing interest. It could be the other way around, though; I may have just recently learned how to interpret some "low-key" signal that I'm not aware of, such that it seems that now everyone's flirting with me; maybe they already were, and I just couldn't tell. Maybe it's both. I think that successful low-key flirting requires both parties to actively work towards communication, even if the total...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many put a lot of effort into the look and feel of their website, and then watch it reduced to plain-looking HTML in RSS readers. After seeing Joi's feed reduced in this manner, I decided to try applying the rather elegant style from his site to his feed. I met with success. Here's how I did it. Update: Sam Ruby provides some technical guidance; I've updated the RSS 2.0 and Atom instructions. The RSS instructions may change again soon once a way is found to move the stylesheet out of the content and into the XML; the Atom feed is now HTML and XML compliant, however, readers will need to be configured to look for the stylesheet link. Thanks, Sam! Notes Backup your templates before trying this. If you're the auther of software that renders the HTML it receives...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My goal is simple: I'd like to bring anyone who's willing to participate into the videoconference I'm holding with the world. It's a live performance; y'all are invited.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After AccordionGuy posted this missing persons report, I realized that missing persons reports would be a wonderful application for geo-tagged RSS feeds. If I could subscribe to all missing persons reports within 100 miles of me, odds are that I'd see at least one of them someday, identify them, and report it. The Amber Alert system is a wonderful idea, intended to let citizens know about missing persons the instant something happens; I feel that providing tech-enabled citizens with an easy way to see missing persons reports relevant to their locality would be a highly beneficial activity for a non-profit to take over. In the meantime, if you live in the Toronto vicinity, please click the link above and keep your eyes out; it's the most I can do from out here in the northwest. A primary reason for having...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Normally I'll have nothing to do with any sort of organized religion, as almost every one has an aggressive branch of proselytism. It's interesting, though; I've never been averse to being spiritual, to having faith in things, etc. Howard Dean's found a way to proselytise without being rude: provide an open forum for people to congregate, and never waver from what's in his heart. I think this method works for anybody, but I've never seen anyone with the power to go for President realize this; it sounds like JFK might have been the last. Interestingly, those are some of the core principles that we're discovering at the roots of this whole "blogging" thing; you cannot waver from the guidance of your heart, you must be honest and direct. The technological implementation of blogging is where we find the community-building, though;...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A common thread between the most effective forms of online advertising is the introduction of a hyperlink to a targeted user. In this respect, there is no difference between Google text ads, Orbitz pop-ups, and DoubleClick banner ads: for the advertisement to be effect, the viewer must follow a link. The browser market is ripe for plugin that, like Vipul's Razor, harnesses the efforts of many humans to identify and block unwanted advertisements. Users have proven with the SpamNet that they are willing to flag spam for the greater good, as long as it serves them as well; browsers should provide a mechanism for them to do so. Once the browser detects a community-reported ad, it can automatically obscure it – or remove it completely. This solution is in no way limited to banner ads. When a blog comment is...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forty-five minutes at my local Kinko's has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Even with the help of the friendly staff, I was unable to accomplish one simple goal: get a digital scan of my student photo identification onto my laptop. Stopped at every turn by limitations of their operating system as configured, the only immediately alternative was to spend five times as much money to get my data. My card was refunded for my time, and I'm taking my business to somewhere that can be of actual service: a friend with a scanner, for free. Things started off well. I put my debit card into their machine, logged onto the computer (after accepting a ten-page terms of service agreement), and spent the first minute locating and opening Photoshop. Two more minutes were spent working around their...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are lessons to be learned from the first round of online journals, hammered out over time in the private spheres of close friends and associates. Many from that time have moved on to other things, but their legacy remains at the core of blogging's foundations. Write for an audience of friends. When you have an audience of a million people, there's no way to anticipate what the best viewpoint to reach them all is; remember that your writing is an expression of your viewpoint, and express it as such. Express your viewpoint as if you were talking to a group of friends: clear, to the point, and perhaps a dash of humor. Aesthetics speak a thousand words. The appearance of a site frames the content contained within, setting the tone for the reader. If your color schemes makes it...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We talked about the fact that many blogs are abandoned, and yet many others go on posting, unlinked-to and perhaps unread. You have to admire these people. (more) Many bloggers are bringing to the table the online journal experiences from the end of the last century, before LiveJournal had collected a force of online diarists. If you wrote an online journal, it was for your own benefit, and for the benefit of your immediate friends; random visitors were a curiosity. As Google brought the masses into the journal communities, many writer locked or shut down their sites, in an effort to keep out the prying eyes of the many. "The private intermediate sphere, with its careful buffering, is shattered." Nowadays, we've turned things on their end; no one is safe any longer from the prying eyes of the indexers;...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dean's campaign seems to be learning to take advantage of social networking. Last night's meetup included a directive from the official campaign to "bring a friend" to the meeting on November 5th. Coincidentally, I read "Emergence" this week; it seems as though the campaign is taking a leaf from emergent network theory to build a base of voters. There's currently more than 100,000 people (120,167, right now) participating in the Meetup system; by asking each of them to bring a friend to the next meeting, there's huge potential for growth. If 15% of the people bring one friend to each meetup, each month, the population of the meetup could more than double. If 30% bring one friend, the population reaches close to 500,000 people. If 50% bring one friend, the population grows to a million people in six months, in...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After a couple days of using Mutt to read my mail, thanks to the constant crashing of Mail.app when presented with six years of email, I've recorded the steps I took to get sendmail communicating over an SSH tunnel to my actual host. Tips: I've added a '\' where each of the long commands is wrapped, to indicate that it's all one line. sendmail.mc and sendmail.cf are two distinct files. If you're not copy-pasting these instructions into your terminal, double-check these filenames before executing the commands. At various points throughout I use the monikers such as relayhost.com to indicate the mail server through which you'll be relaying mail. Please replace these with the public hostname of your relay server. It appears that 10.3 no longer uses sendmail; as such, these instructions are intended only for 10.2. Open a terminal...
|
|
|
|
