It looks like you're thinking

I caught another great Kinkenborg piece on the road about e-mail, sms and instant messaging.

So why does I.M. seem so radical? I think it's the slight delay built into the system -- the pause when the software indicates that the other person is typing. On the telephone, that would sound like the awkwardness of dead air. In I.M., it sounds like thinking, and anything that can make the chatter of two people typing over each other sound like thinking is incredible.

From Wiring the Frog, or Personal Tales From the Electronic Present, 16 August 2007.

I [apple] You!

In a bit of geeky bliss, Apple sent out a number of valentines yesterday, one of which I was very happy to recieve: update 10.4.5. Quietly, I've had a new CoreDuo iMac for just over a week... and it had this little problem. But now it's fixed and all is forgiven. Now, who should the flowers go to?

My valentine to my parents was cobbling together a video conference, courtesy of the built-in iSight on my end, and my folks' video camera. True to Apple's reputation of simplicity, it really was as easy as their plugging in and turning on their camera. And, it was fun, though mom's behavior seemed to suggest she didn't quite believe what she was seeing.

Testing A Shout Out

I'm fiddling with a few things.... First I haven't uploaded many of my own photos, though I know Nancy and Steve frequently do. So, to paraphrase Greg Brown, it's a picture of a picture taken and printed my good friend Annie Murdock. The original happily hangs in my apartment.

Secondly, I just installed Adium on my iMac to consolidate my IM clients (MSN, Jabber, iChat & Yahoo), and so far I'm very impressed, though I've yet to chat with anyone.

Thirdly, I just installed Skype too, which seems a bit redundant to IM, or vice versa, but you've got to use it to know... which is all to say, does anyone else here use skype? Norm & Judy have it on their Macs but I don't think they've set up accounts.

So for the geeks, what else do you use? I know there's some Flickr folks, Delicious anyone? Who's gearing up for Web2.0? I'd love to pick your brain.

Teleflip: Texting computer>mobile

I had a big tech geeking weekend with my folks last week (and they're here in NYC this weekend too!). I set up an airport express for Wi-Fi, network printing and music streaming for them, helped my dad do some movie editing in iMovieHD (astoundingly easy!), and got my mom up to speed for some online commerce and her own gmail account. We even talked about text messaging (which Judy is pretty good at).

But one question was left unaswered: How can one send text messages from a computer?

Well today lifehacker had this cheatsheet, which seemed ok, if you knew what carrier the phone number is on--but how likely is that? Too headachy, so I dug a little deeper and found Teleflip.

I tested it out on myself and works as promised and free. But I'm still not sure how legit/kosher it is. I found variations of this article, but not much in mainstream press. I'm a little concerned of the potential for abuse, but if it works as promised... it's awesome. Just send an email to: phonenumber@teleflip.com

Just imagine, towards the end of the work day, you're at your computer, you're about to meet someone, but you can't get through (maybe they're on the train, maybe in a meeting, maybe sitting in church) so you send an text message... "running late" , "I'm wearing the bunny suit", "pick up some milk" Done. And with a full keyboard.

But why haven't more people heard of it? Anyone else know? So far so good.

Yahoo! Free! (updated)

Malware is often defined by, among other things, browser hijacking, and unauthorized installation.

Today, when I got a notice of Yahoo! Messenger's new audio function, I downloaded it, and checked it out. I used to use MS Messenger for IM, but had been looking to eliminate my hotmail account. So I started using Yahoo last summer, and have been fine with it, though suspicious of it. I could tolerate the overuse of Flash, and I used the email for a Friendster profile for Joe Hill.

While installing the update, I noticed a lot more was being installed than I thought I agreed to. Then afterwards, my homepages were changed to Yahoo on both the browsers I used (an unable to change in IE), while also installing the Yahoo toolbar on both.

I didn't ask for this, I don't want it, and it really has nothing to do with instant messaging. In short I felt hijacked. Fortunately, Yahoo being a big public company, I was able to uninstall it all... and I mean it all. I'm not using Yahoo anymore, for anything.

Who have you stopped using?

(Update 9/2/05: Cnet had this article on Yahoo's computer jacking: Yahoo IM users get more than they bargained for so there you go.)

Pencil Revolution

Cnet of all places, linked to this gem: Pencil Revolution: Pencil Philosophy: wooden wisdom, product reviews, ephemera, etc"

The first piece I read about the Blackwing 602, was so loving that I want to go to an art supply store after work.

"I began using Blackwing 602 pencils as an art student years ago and have never found another pencil to compare with the richness of the lead. They give a deep dark black without being overly smudgy, and all the silvery range of greys are there too. The feeling that comes to mind is 'smooth' and it is a pleasure to put this pencil to paper."

For all the talk about digital futurism, the internet has done wonders to connect folks to kindred geeks obsessed with the non-digital.

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In a separate note, I was very interest in how Podcasting has found it's way into museum tours and church sermons. The Times had this on "godcasting" I'm hoping that Clint takes a stab, and maybe I'll start listening to Lutheran sermons again. Then MoMA got in the act two-fold. First there was this spring's emergence of Art Mob's audio tours of MoMA, now MoMA has made their own audio tours available as podcasts. Download it here, or through iTunes before your next visit.

Engadget 1985

Summer issues so often suck. But Engadget pulled a rabbit out today. Let's blast back to the cutting edge of 1985, and see what the buzz was about. Among the gems are Apple's $7000 laserwriter, and Windows 1.0.

It's, like, plastic

It pervades every other sentence seemingly, this filler, "like" that one often hears a sentence such as "This is, like, totally a tree" when referring to living breathing tree. How does language develop or devolve so ludicrously?

I've been reading Plastic: the making of a synthetic century by Stephen Fenichell lately, and came across an interesting passage towards the end:

The most depressing thing about this brave new synthetic universe was that every thing in I seemed to set off by quotation marks: trees had become “trees” and leaves “leaves.” Nothing was what it was, but some spiritually impoverished simulacrum of what it was supposed to be. (276)

By this time in commerce, there had been decades of “like silk,” “like wood,” “like glass” It’s no wonder that “like” lost much of it’s real meaning, becoming a filler one’s vocabulary. Because plastic seemingly could be made in to anything, resemblance melted away and all we have is synthetics...

There are many great stories, particularly how the Leo Baekeland first made his forturne with inventing photo developing paper, sold to George Eastman. He then when on to develop bakelite, the first real ubiquitous plastic... from ash trays to telephones.

The chapters on Cellophane and Saran are interesting for any foodie who wonders why we eat such shitty processed food. It's all about the perception of freshness and sanitation.

One Last Run To Get A First Run

I returned from the BWCA a day early, leaving me with a Wednesday night free. But the day before Barb and Nick finalized their purchase of a 27-year old Ski Nautique.

My dad, sensing the great timing, suggested that I go up with Nick for a final trip to the Lake and see the new boat. The timing seemed a bit tight for an early return Thursday morning and a 1030 flight, so Norman put on his thinking cap and came up this humdinger of an idea: Nick would drive me, him, and mom up to the lake, we'd ski for 3-4 hours, and Norm would drive us back down around 9pm. Crazy... like a fox.

We go going early in the afternoon and had pleanty of light. The Nautique took some adjustment, but was a clear improvement over the old Larson. Here are some pics of the afternoon.

[8/15/05 note: I've been pretty delinquent with posts, but I think getting this one out of the "draft" box will help out. So please come back, and often.]

Cool Like a Space Ship

Whitney and I did some home improvement this weekend. The toilet's flush lever broke and needed replacement, so we walked over to our neighborhood Lowe's near Smith and Ninth Street. Of course there were other things to consider while we were there.... paint, a new toilet seat, dream tubs, and a ceiling fan.

We settled on this bargain $88 48" Cobra Elite Ceiling Fan with lighting fixture (bulbs not included). Upon installation we were very happy with the cool air flow, though less so with the lighting. The bulbs are halogen and fairly sharp focused. So while we are free to focus where we want, the effect is more of a "close encounters" variety.

Nonetheless, we're stoked on the ceilin fan, so we're thinking of moving the cobra to the bedroom, where accent lighting is more functional, and getting aonther fixture for the main room.

Revisiting a Throne and a Bike

Earlier I've written my admiration for the Shift Concept Bicycle and the Kohler's Purist Hatbox. Now I've read that both have won 2005 Industrial Design Awards from BusinessWeek. You can see the complete slideshow winners here.

Y292,271,023.045K Compliant

Boing Boing had this tip from Kevin Kelly's COOL TOOLS on making your Mac Y10K Compliant. Unfortunately the hack doesn't really work, but the commentary is stellar and much more interesting than the original post.

I didn't check the math but all 64-bit computers should be able to calculate the date for 292 billion years. Mali, can you double check this in finite math? That's peace of mind for you lucky G5-ers, and at least a consolation to the XP-64 crowd (way to go Joe!).

The rest of us need to make sure we have 64-bit machine by 2038 or else the computers will think it's 1970 all over...again...

First I Reconnected with Music, Now It's Radio

A while ago I followed my early adopting friend Sully and aquired an iPod. And I feel that my realationship with music got a major shot in the arm after a bit of neglect. I had moved to New York, didn't care to tote a diskman and CD wallet, so left the music for when I was home. But then suddenly I had 100s of albums (well really the best of 100s) with me, and much smaller than a diskman and I reconnected, especially to those songs stranded on otherwise awful albums.

But in this same time, relationship with radio has also steadily declined.... bad reception at work or home, a tendency to listen to my music rather than the radio. I tried to save some radio habits...listening to streams, particularly of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. But many other shows only streamed lived and not archived, and it was tethered to a computer. I thought Audible was a good idea for on the go, but I didn't want to pay to listen to This American Life.. maybe twice. So it really wasn't good to go. But today... today is the release of iTunes 4.9 with it's podcasting support. My first impression is: awesome.

In a few minutes, it was easy to find, subscribe and download podcasts. I'm choosing to listen at my desk. You can easily find and download older shows. If you stop, it bookmarks where you left off. It's brilliantly easy. It looks like new broadcasts will be easy enough to add. So I'm looking forward to the Prairie Home Companion et al. And to think of all the PHC shows we recorded on tape growing up...

Goodbye Plunger

It's been a while since there's been something new in the toilet world to report on. But the NYTimes has a piece on American Standards' new Champion Series toilet. It creates a higher pressure flush with less water, thus doing away with a plunger, while being smaller than the compressed tanks you find in restaurants. But "Champion"? I like a good bowel movement too, but it's really not a competition.

Also of note is this great site: Toilets of the World, a much more dedicated site for all things toilet.

Remote Server for free: Gmail!

I got this tip from David Pogue's blog: the GMail Drive. It sets up your gmail account as a drive on your Wintel machine:

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

Sweet. I've been searching for cheap remote back up for important Foundation documents, this seems like a a dream come true! For those who don't know, GMail's storage limit is about 2.1 GB now and growing. It's still in beta, so you need an invitation. Anyone who hasn't tried Gmail should, and I'd be happy to toss you an invite.

My Comic Life

For all us zany mac users, you can now annotate your pictures comics style with Plasq's Comic Life. More than anything, it reminds me of the Italian soap opera magazines: real photographs, but dialogue in balloon's a la comics"

Digital tapestries and Google Maps

This week's New Yorker has a fascinating article on how two mathmaticians helped the Metropolitan Museum of Art stitch some 200 cds worth of digital pictures of one of the Unicorn tapestries at the cloisters into a single composite digital image.

It begins with the common analogy that tapestry stitches are analogous to digital pixals, and therein lies the problem. The digital shoot happened while the tapestries were being restored in '98. After a bath in distilled water, and some time off the wall, the tapestry warped enough to make a composite picture difficult. (note: they were shooting at a resolution of 50 microns, or half the width of a hair). Even the process of shooting created inconsistancies, the ref. paper that slid on top as they captured each segment, the camera's sliding mechanism being off by millemetres and so on.

Without meaning to, this segways nicely into Google's news of the week: satellite imaging in maps. Again, we're talking about stitching many thousands of images together to create a compsite, a small fraction of which the searcher sees in their window. High in the blogdex is this man's annotation of Google Maps to indicate various sites from his childhood. Here are some instructions to do one yourself. I just did a brief tour from 409 Wilmers to Lincoln High School.

Bionic Eyes

The CNET/BBC reports on the development of a bionic eye. The New Yorker had an article a year a so ago on the issue. Both pieces tend to concentrate on the techonological aspects, which are pretty interesting, such as, how does the visual cortex code stimuli from our eyes to create the image in our head. But neither delve deep into the psychological or emotional impact of regaining a sense after adapting to life without.

Brian Friel's play Molly Sweeney, which is based on an Oliver Sacks' casestudy, does, and results in less enthusiasm for sight restoration. One element is vast amount of brain power it takes to translate the sight of ring, with the word "ring", and the circular motion touching it creates. In short, it is overwhelming. I know in this case, the images are very crude, but still, the bioethical dillema persists. To see, then becomes the basic, elemental component of vision; it is recognition and incorporation with the other senses that is the real trick.

There's a fair amount of musing and joking about becoming cybernetic, but science fiction is becoming science fact. Thinking of all the consumer goods that are so poorly designed and thoughlessly made, and all the issues that come up with user interface, perhaps technologists should think deeper into how to intergrate these machines into our bodies.

Unrelatedy, there was all the hubbub over the new powerbooks having sudden motion detection, thus allowing for hacks to control video games by tilt. Anyone who grew up with video games can relate to the tilt that psychically helps move your avatar. Moving from a legacy interface (joysticks & control paddles) to an intuitive interface. Likewise the segway, President Bush excepting.

Legacies are an anchor, by which I mean: a drag

Last Wednesday, I breifly mused on on how legacy features in Corp. IT helps keep Mac integration out, thus making those shops more vulnerable to changing technological environments. In this week's Times Magazine, Tom Friedman considers the "flattening of the world" by globalization, in part aided by freedom from legacy features:

That is why there is nothing that guarantees that Americans or Western Europeans will continue leading the way. These new players are stepping onto the playing field legacy free, meaning that many of them were so far behind that they can leap right into the new technologies without having to worry about all the sunken costs of old systems. It means that they can move very fast to adopt new, state-of-the-art technologies, which is why there are already more cellphones in use in China today than there are people in America.

Over dependance on oil, microsoft, a strong dollar (dare I include social security?), these are some of our economic legacies, grown strong from maximizing profit yields in the short term, but perhaps a drag overall in the long term. The one thing we can count on is change, not the legacies that we try so desperately to hold on to.

Looking at the wrong costs

I'll admit that I like my Mac a lot. I read about it online, I got one for my folks, and I'm going to bring one into our office. A while ago there was this musing in techworld about corporate IT opening up to Macs. Among the cited barriers to adoption are needs for serial ports, scsi,tape drives and floppys, also known as legacy features that maintains compatiblity with older equipment.

It seems to me 1) that Corp. IT is looking at the wrong costs, the sunk costs; and 2)that they haven't learned all the lessons there were to be learned regarding necessary reduncancy and diversity. In age of spyware, viruses and trojans, it seems clear that having a mixed shop of Wintel & Macs are a good defense, especially if Macs have far fewer known issues.

Furthermore, when I entered the job market I used my dual profieciency as a strength, IT should do the same. If Macs 10 years out face more problems, and linux is more stable, then an IT shop should be able to respond, that seems like good business to me.