Technology Archives
August 28, 2007
Let's live in the past! Yeah, that's the ticket.
Imagine an egalitarian world in which all food is organic and local, the air is free of industrial pollution, and vigorous physical exertion is guaranteed. Sound idyllic?
But hold on… Life expectancy is 30 at most; many children die at or soon after birth; life is constantly lived on the edge of starvation; there are no doctors or dentists or modern toilets. If it is egalitarian it is because everyone is dirt poor, and there is no industrial pollution because there are no factories. Food is organic because there are no pesticides or high technology farming methods. As a result, producing food means long hours of back-breaking physical work which may end up yielding little.
There is - or at least was - such a place. It is called the past. And few of us, it seems, recognise the enormous benefits to humanity of escaping from it. On the contrary, there is a pervasive culture of complaint about the perils of affluence and a common tendency to romanticise the simple life.
"Towards an age of abundance: Ignore the critics of economic growth who claim that prosperity makes us unhappy. We need to win the war against scarcity once and for all, so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of longer, healthier and wealthier lives," by Daniel Ben-Ami, Spiked, August 2007
Posted at 07:57 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Narcissism , Stupidity , Technology
June 12, 2006
Wikipedia - "online collectivism"
Reading a Wikipedia entry is like reading the bible closely. There are faint traces of the voices of various anonymous authors and editors, though it is impossible to be sure. In my particular case, it appears that the goblins are probably members or descendants of the rather sweet old Mondo 2000 culture linking psychedelic experimentation with computers. They seem to place great importance on relating my ideas to those of the psychedelic luminaries of old (and in ways that I happen to find sloppy and incorrect.) Edits deviating from this set of odd ideas that are important to this one particular small subculture are immediately removed. This makes sense. Who else would volunteer to pay that much attention and do all that work?
The problem I am concerned with here is not the Wikipedia in itself. It's been criticized quite a lot, especially in the last year, but the Wikipedia is just one experiment that still has room to change and grow. At the very least it's a success at revealing what the online people with the most determination and time on their hands are thinking, and that's actually interesting information.
No, the problem is in the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used; how it's been elevated to such importance so quickly. And that is part of the larger pattern of the appeal of a new online collectivism that is nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and force. This is different from representative democracy, or meritocracy. This idea has had dreadful consequences when thrust upon us from the extreme Right or the extreme Left in various historical periods. The fact that it's now being re-introduced today by prominent technologists and futurists, people who in many cases I know and like, doesn't make it any less dangerous.
There was a well-publicized study in Nature last year comparing the accuracy of the Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica. The results were a toss up, while there is a lingering debate about the validity of the study. The items selected for the comparison were just the sort that Wikipedia would do well on: Science topics that the collective at large doesn't care much about. "Kinetic isotope effect" or "Vesalius, Andreas" are examples of topics that make the Britannica hard to maintain, because it takes work to find the right authors to research and review a multitude of diverse topics. But they are perfect for the Wikipedia. There is little controversy around these items, plus the Net provides ready access to a reasonably small number of competent specialist graduate student types possessing the manic motivation of youth.
"Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism," by Jaron Lanier, Edge, May 30, 2006
hat tip: ALD
Posted at 07:57 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
December 03, 2005
How to start a blog network
"How to start a blog network and hang onto your pajamas." by liberalcowboy, November 30, 2005
Posted at 04:52 PM · Comments (0) · Categories: Technology
December 01, 2005
CarChip
This for Mom or Dad and provides piece of mind in the form of a USB device called CarChip. The number one killer of teenagers nationwide are not drugs, alcohol or violence (guess I was wrong!) it is the family car.CarChip plugs under the steering wheel of any 1996 or later model vehicle in the port mandated for emission controls testing. CarChip is a smart chip that records up to 300 hour of driving data telling both how the vehicle is being driven and how the vehicle is performing.
"CarChip and CarChip Alarm," gadgets weblog, November 30, 2005
Posted at 09:35 AM · Comments (0) · Categories: Technology
November 08, 2005
Cool Tool - FlightAware
FlightAware is "A free and powerful flight tracker that will change how you think about flight status, tracking, and analysis."
Check out this very cool movie ... "Animation of all flight movements tracked by FlightAware during a 24-hour period in September, 2005"
Live Flight Tracking: "View schedule and track activity for any private (IFR) or commercial flight. See scheduled, enroute, and recent flight activity for any airport."
via Lifehacker
Posted at 12:05 AM · Comments (0) · Categories: Technology
November 02, 2005
DMCA notice and takedown procedures
from Chilling Effects:
- DCMA notice and takedown procedures for web sites
Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) about DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions
Posted at 10:32 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
October 24, 2005
"The way online communities evolve where everyone has an equal voice."
On the Internet the volume of messages posted by idiots plus those posted by morons always exceeds the number posted by well-meaning moderately intelligent people, squared.
Scripting News, October 13, 2005
Posted at 10:13 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
October 17, 2005
"Hidden snitch codes in color laser prints"
Many color laser printers hide information about your printer's serial number and the date and time of your print job in every job you print. It's believed that this is done to get your equipment to incriminate you without your knowledge. Now EFF has decoded the information-hiding scheme on the Xerox Docucolor series, by getting EFF supporters to print out pages from their printers and mail them to our researchers, who examined them under magnification and special light and cracked the code.
"EFF cracks hidden snitch codes in color laser prints," BoingBoing, October 17, 2005
Posted at 09:46 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
October 14, 2005
ColorBlender
ColorBlender – your free online tool for color matching and palette design!To get started, choose a preferred color using the color picker below, and a 6-color matching palette (a "blend") will be automatically calculated.
very cool
Posted at 11:06 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
"The Battle for the Internet"
Richard Wray of the Guardian writes that the EU says internet could fall apart unless the US yields control of the Internet to the United Nations. "The European commission is warning that if a deal cannot be reached at a meeting in Tunisia next month the Internet will split apart."
Viviane Reding's warning is as hollow as a chocolate Easter bunny. China, Saudi Arabia and Iran can go ahead with their threat to create a proprietary DNS system and govern the hell out of it, which will guarantee that it will never achieve universal acceptance. All the United States need do to maintain its control over the Internet is simply to leave it alone.
"The Battle for the Internet," Belmont Club, October 14, 2005
so long, farewell, we hate to see you go ...
Posted at 06:18 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
October 07, 2005
"Fresher Under Pressure"
[A] new technology may be responsible for increasing demand for avocados - I know it has for my family. The process (see http://www.fresherunderpressure.com/) uses pressure rather than heat to pasteurize foods. This makes things like orange juice (and - relevant to this discussion - avocados) taste fresh and unprocessed for weeks.AvoClassic (http://www.avoclassic.com/) uses the technology to make their tasty and extremely inexpensive pre-made guacamole. For many years I was a die-hard about making guacamole using only fresh, ripe avocados, garlic, limes, and salt (with an occasional minced chili pepper). But at a price per pouch of fresh-tasting guacamole that is about equal to the price of a single [frequently unripe] Haas avocado, AvoClassic guacamole is responsible for multiplying my family's consumption of avocados over the last two years by 5-10 times the previous rate.
This is almost the entire post of "Trade, Technology, and Avocados," Dynamist, October 6, 2005, but if you want live links you'll have to click through to the post.
As a former grocer, I am still fascinated with grocery merchandising (e.g., Trader Joe's gets merchandising AND marketing in a big way), packaging, sizes, and variety. I had not heard of this technology, although I have eaten the AvoClassic guacamole - it is excellent. We get it at Costco, and the price is incredibly reasonable.
Very interesting technology.
Posted at 06:52 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
October 01, 2005
New ThinkPad has built in EV-DO
After reading this article on the new ThinkPad Z line, with built in EV-DO, we're going to start thinking about updating our T20s ... we've been using the Verizon Broadband service a lot more lately ... just renewed our contract at $60 per month per line for 2 lines ... works well in DC ...
"New ThinkPad Is All Work, and Some Play," by David Pogue, NYT, September 29, 2005
Posted at 11:58 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
wikis
So my experience and my bet is that wikis will take the enterprise by storm. Because they are simpler, easier, and better.They are proving it already on the web. It's just a matter of time before they do it with even more impact in the enterprise.
Here are two places to start if you want to get a wiki
JotSpot - For consumers and small businesses
SocialText - For larger companies.
Wikis, A VC, September 20, 2005
Posted at 01:06 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
September 21, 2005
"The MF Digital Baxter: rip 25 music CDs at a time"
engadget has a post about "The MF Digital Baxter: rip 25 music CDs at a time" ... rips ... and duplicates ... CDs and DVDs ... from Baxter ...
Posted at 09:28 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
September 12, 2005
The Telecrapper 2000
engadget has a great post on the Telecrapper 2000, which "identifies incoming telemarketer calls and using caller ID (or more specifically, their lack thereof), and is programmed to ensnare the caller in a software-driven conversation in order to keep them on the line as long as possible."
See this flash animation for a "Telecrapper 2000 virtual conversation" ...
Posted at 08:50 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Humor , Technology
September 10, 2005
RCA Cell Docking System
engadget reports on the RCA Cell Docking System ... allows you to use a cordless phone to use your cell phone and your landline /VoIP line ... "now much easier to gobble up those free evening and weekend minutes" ...
Posted at 07:35 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
September 06, 2005
Blog Analytics
Brad Feld has a post on the tools he uses on his blog, Feld Thoughts ... Blog Analytics, August 16, 2005 ... he's since moved to FeedBlitz instead of Bloglet ...
Posted at 08:39 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
August 24, 2005
Google Talk
downloadsquad has a Google Talk Review ... "Basic IM capabilities, high-quality and easy to use VoIP, complete integration with Gmai" ... "Google tells us that SIP support is coming soon and are in talks with Skype, AOL, and Yahoo! concerning interoperability. Another big feature they're working on is 'joint search,' which would allow two or more Google Talk buddies using Google and surfing the web together." ... sounds interesting ... but we wonder about security ...
Posted at 01:49 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
August 21, 2005
facial attractiveness
the daily isolato links to a very interesting study on facial attractiveness ...
Posted at 01:39 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
Space Elevator
Interesting article about a space elevator.
Rockets are getting us nowhere fast. Since the dawn of the space age, the way we get into space hasn't changed: we spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on a rocket whose fundamental operating principle is a controlled chemical explosion. We need something better, and that something is a space elevator—a superstrong, lightweight cable stretching 100 000 kilometers from Earth's surface to a counterweight in space. Roomy elevator cars powered by electricity would speed along the cable. For a fraction of the cost, risk, and complexity of today's rocket boosters, people and cargo would be whisked into space in relative comfort and safety.It sounds like a crazy idea, and indeed the space elevator has been the stuff of science fiction for decades. But if we want to set the stage for the large-scale and sustained exploration and colonization of the planets and begin to exploit solar power in a way that could significantly brighten the world's dimming energy outlook, the space elevator is the only technology that can deliver.
It all boils down to dollars and cents, of course. It now costs about US $20 000 per kilogram to put objects into orbit. Contrast that rate with the results of a study I recently performed for NASA, which concluded that a single space elevator could reduce the cost of orbiting payloads to a remarkably low $200 a kilogram and that multiple elevators could ultimately push costs down below $10 a kilogram. With space elevators we could eventually make putting people and cargo into space as cheap, kilogram for kilogram, as airlifting them across the Pacific.
The implications of such a dramatic reduction in the cost of getting to Earth orbit are startling. It's a good bet that new industries would blossom as the resources of the solar system became accessible as never before. Take solar power: the idea of building giant collectors in orbit to soak up some of the sun's vast power and beam it back to Earth via microwaves has been around for decades. But the huge size of the collectors has made the idea economically unfeasible with launch technologies based on chemical rockets. With a space elevator's much cheaper launch costs, however, the economics of space-based solar power start looking good.
"A Hoist to the Heavens: A space elevator could be the biggest thing to happen since the Stone Age, but can we build one?" by Bradley Carl Edwards, IEEE Spectrum Online, August 2005
via Instapundit
"Carbon Nanotubes," by Tim Worstall, August 21, 2005
"Nanotube sheets come of age," by Mark Peplow, news@nature.com, August 18, 2005
The Space Elevator Reference blog
Posted at 12:12 PM · Categories: Technology
August 20, 2005
Classified trouble for newspapers ... and eBay
AdJab links to a story "about the impact of craigslist on classified advertising, especially the growth of it online."
We use craigslist to advertise job openings ... and my 77-year old mother-in-law uses it to sell things that she used to sell on eBay ...watch out eBay ...
Posted at 04:14 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Free Markets , Technology
August 16, 2005
Blog from MS Word
If your blog is hosted on Blogger, you can now publish to your blog directly from MS Word using the new "Blogger for Word toolbar." ... sure makes spell-checking easier ...
Posted at 05:59 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
August 15, 2005
Blogads - cost per cpm
Danny Carlton at JackLewis.net has written a script that provides an anlaysis of the cost per 100 visitors at sites selling blogads.
Posted at 06:03 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
August 13, 2005
Potable water
A company named Water Security has developed a water filtration system that produces potable water for about 3 cents per gallon.
"It can take some of the dirtiest, nastiest water on the planet and produce clean, safe drinking water." says company vice president Ken Kearney.
Water Security has already begun putting the technology to work in areas where freshwater is in short supply. This summer, global relief agency Concern for Kids deployed a foot-powered purification unit in northern Iraq. Robert and Roni Anderson, Concern's founders, loaded it onto the back of a Toyota pickup and drove to dozens of villages to purify their groundwater. The unit pumps out 5 gallons per minute, and a single day of purification can sustain a village of 5,000 people for a month. The cost is about 3 cents a gallon. Iraqi water companies, by comparison, charge $4 a gallon.
"The Big Gulp: NASA pisses away millions hauling H2O into orbit. But there's a better way - recycle astronaut urine. Just one question: How does it taste?," by Tom McNichol, Wired, August 2005
Posted at 01:06 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology
August 12, 2005
X-ray backscatter technology
The Blemont Club has an interesting post, "Unintended Consequences," on how the military is using mobile X-ray backscatter to look for bombs and people hidden in cars.
What's new is the ability of these vans to "drive by" whole streets at normal speed and examine each and every vehicle it passes. The manufacturer's website describes this capability in more detail and provides a video, complete with cheerful music, showing how the equipment can turn everything it passes into the opacity of clear glass. The backscatter X-ray is tuned to organic wavelengths, enabling it to find hidden people and explosive. But this is not all it can do. For an optional extra, the Z-Backscatter Van can also find those pesky dirty bombs and nuclear weapons that every well-managed city wants to be rid of, all at a low price and in an environmentally responsible manner: getting frisked by the Z-Backscatter Van only requires an exposure equivalent to a fifteen minute flight on a commercial aircraft.
Coming soon to ports and large cities near you ...
Posted at 08:45 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology , Terrorism
August 11, 2005
Asymmetrical Warfare
In a good story about what "arms race" really means, The Belmont Club gives some interesting historical examples of the competitive development of weapons and tactics in "The Unstoppable IED."
Many bomb jammers work by preventing the triggerman from sending his detonation signal to the explosive device. Other equipment relies on detecting the electronic components of bombs, which echo a signal from a sniffer. The JIN neutralizer, now being test fielded to Iraq is an interesting application of directed energy weaponry. It works by using lasers to create a momentary pathway through which an electrical charge can travel and sending a literal bolt of lightning along the channel. A link to a Fox News video report on the manufacturer's website shows a vehicle equipped with a strange-looking rod detonating hidden charges at varying distances, some out to quite a ways.Just as the enemy has resorted to bigger bombs to defeat better armor, so too will they seek ways to defeat the new American countermeasures. Yet it seems clear that the IED, like the submarine and bombing airplane before it, is not some mystically invincible device, but simply a weapon like any other caught up in a technological race with countermeasures arrayed against it. One consequence of this development is that while the enemy may employ larger numbers of IEDs against Americans, the number of effective IEDs -- the bigger and better ones -- available to them may actually have declined.
There are many links in the original article.
Posted at 08:52 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Technology , Terrorism