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Shiny happy people
An Event Apart Austin. Monday 6 November 2006. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown. Austin, Texas, USA. Design and code. Macs and mics. Was it good for you, too?(Photo pool.) Tags: aneventapart, austin, design, conferences, events From
Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Color coding cables
As I crawl through the jungle of black vines under my desk, I'm led to wonder: If you were able to create a standard—no folksonomies here!—for color coding the cables going into and out of a computer, what sort of scheme would you come up with? [Tags: doep puzzle taxonomy everything_is_miscellaneous]... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Knowing knowledge
George Siemens has put his book, Knowing Knowledge, online for free: Knowing Knowledge was developed in a non-traditional process. Instead of an extensive writing/editing/publishing process (often in excess of 18 months), I adopted a democratic, end-user controlled process. It seems a bit silly to write a book on how the context and characteristics of knowledge are changing, and then subject it to the slow, plodding process of traditional publishing. The stages of traditional publishing are valuable (peer review, editorial review, typesetting, etc.). The challenge is the pace at which a book m From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
A Web of Ideas discussion, with Paul Graham: Taste and the Aesthetics of Design
I'm going to talk with Paul Graham as part of the intermittent Web of Ideas series at the Berkman Center this Wednesday evening at 7pm. You're invited. And we serve pizza. Paul Graham is a software guru, entrepreneur, essayist and painter. Inhis essay, "Taste for Makers," Paul argues that successful design, from math to software to painting, relies on the same aesthetic principles. Taste is therefore not a matter of subjectively appreciating fine works but is a required capability for creating great software. But is taste as timeless as Paul suggests? Do the design principles Paul po From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Be afraid
Allison Fine at Personal Democracy Forum rounds up some of the scarier and more ridiculous problems with the current generation of electronic voting machines, including the fact that J. Alex Halderman writes: The AccuVote TS machines — all of them — really can be opened by a key that is widely used for hotel mini-bars. Ulp. (I'm doing poll watching tomorrow.) [Tags: democracy voting_machines politics allison_fine ]... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
An idea for Deval Patrick tonight
My father-in-law, Marvin Geller, has a good idea for Deval Patrick, assuming (knock wood) that Patrick wins the governorship tonight. MG suggests that Patrick invite Grace Ross, the terrific Green Rainbow party candidate, to his acceptance event, and have her speak first. After she concedes, he should thank her "for her intelligent contribution to the debates and indicate that he would like to have her have a job in his administration." Cool idea. [Tags: politics deval_patrick]... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
[berkman] Lisa Williams on PlaceBlogger
Lisa Williams is giving a Berkman Tuesday lunch talk. The room is packed. Dan Gillmor introduces her. (She generously credits the Berkman Center with supporting her and helping her develop her ideas.) [As always, I'm paraphrasing. It sounds choppy only because of the way I'm taking these notes.] Dan says that he's proud to be associated with Lisa's PlaceBlogger.com project. (Lisa runs H20Town.info, a place-blog for Watertown, MA.) PlaceBlogger began with Lisa betting Jay Rosen that she could find 1,000 placeblogs. So far, she's found 700. A placeblog "is an act of sust From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Broken news
On an election day that will determine America's course, CNN just sent out a news alert under the title "Breaking News" to let me know that Britney is divorcing K-Fed. [Tags: journalism media]... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Brazil to end Internet anonymity and pseudonymity?
Brazil is on the verge of requiring everyone to log onto the Net with their social security number. This does for free speech what requiring people to sign every stupid statement they ever made would do. [Tags: brazil digital_rights anonymity]... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Questions for Paul Graham - Simplicity and beauty in art, science and programming
I'm interviewing Paul Graham tonight as part of my perpetually intermittent Web of Ideas discussions at the Berkman Center. (Yes, you're invited. It's at 7pm and we serve pizza, just in case Paul Freaking Graham isn't enough of an enticement for you! [map.]) We're going to be talking about his Taste for Makers article. Here are some of the issues I think I want to talk with him about: I think the article isn't so much about the role of taste as about what makes good design. Some of the elements he lists have directly to do with taste and... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): 100-hour mischief
The Democrats are (smartly) committed to a 100 hours of introducing legislation that defines them as a party, little things such as raising the minimum wage from Debtors Prison level to full Squalor. But after six years of watching the worst president in our lifetime strut his time upon the stage, don't you think the Democrats are entitled to a little fun? In those first 100 hours, what legislation could the Democrats pass just for the pure hell of it? Require Bush to deliver the State of the Union topless so we can all see how amazingly buff he's gotten... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Tab catalog for Firefox
I've been using Tab Catalog for a while, but it seems to have gotten better. I'm not sure if that's because the Firefox 2.0 version was upgraded or because somehow my preferences got switched, but I'm enjoying it a lot in either case. Tab Catalog shows thumbnails of the pages in your tab bar. So rather than having to rely on the truncated names in the tabs, you can go for the gestalt. Since I often have twenty or thirty tabs, being able to see the pages themselves is very helpful. Very cool. And free, of course. Thank you, Shimoda... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Massachusetts does the right thing: Same-sex marriage not up for a vote
Massachusetts lawmakers postponed a vote that could have put gay marriage up for popular vote in 2008 ballot, which likely means the proposed amendment is dead. While I'm not just certain that allowing gay marriage is the right thing to do, I'm overjoyed about it, I understand that there's an argument for putting it up for a vote. But I'm happy that my state today decided not to put it on the ballot, and not only because it means my position won't be overturned in the near future. First, in our system, we allow the judicial system to recognize and... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
RootsCamp
Zack Exley is seeing his idea for "RootCamps" really take off. As of now, RootCamps are planned for SF, NY, Bloomington, Columbus and DC. These events (with the exception of DC " see below for details) are free and open to all progressives who participated in the 2004 or 2006 elections " or even those who plan on being a part of 2008. These are "open space" conferences that allow all participants to hold sessions about their speciality, to present findings, tell stories, or important questions. You attend only the sessions that interest you " and there is plenty of... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Aristotle's sandwich
A front page story by Jenn Abelson in the Boston Globe today covers the great sandwich controversy. It seems that a Panera's in Worcester sued the shopping center its in for allowing a Qdoba (sic) burrito shop to open. Panera claimed its lease forbids any other sandwich shops from opening in the shopping center. The case went to court, and after the testimony of sandwich experts, the judge ruled against Panera. A burrito is not a sandwich. This would have been a great example for my book of the absurdity of Aristotelian definition, and also its occasional necessity. (Unfortunately, I&apos From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Video of interview of Paul Graham
Thanks to Indigo and Colin Rhinesmith, a 46-minute video of my interview of Paul Graham is now available. It starts after the overflow crowd had introduced itself. Paul raised some issues that I've been thinking about since. I fully intended to blog about them before this got posted, but Indigo and Colin beat me to it, damn them! ;) Paul is, to put it mildly, a stimulating thinker, speaker, writer, programmer and painter... The discussion glancingly refers to a post of mine from earlier that day. (I've listened to the first few minutes and already have found places where I... From
Joho the Blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:49 p.m..
Dear Kids, You Don’t Have to Go to College
Dear Tess and Tucker, For most of your young lives, you’ve heard your mom and I occasionally talk about your futures by saying that someday you’ll travel off to college and get this thing called a degree that will show everyone that you are an expert in something and that will lead you to getting a [...] From
weblogged News on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
Blogs and YouTube as Political Oversight
It’s still going to take some time for the use of these tools to become more legit and have even more effect, but here’s an interesting shift from last night’s elections: Blogs of all political stripes spent most of yesterday detailing reports of voting machine malfunctions and ballot shortages, effectively becoming an online national clearinghouse of [...] From
weblogged News on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
So What Do We Do Now?
My brain feels as tired as it has in a long time, and it’s a combination of the challenging (at least for me) discussions that I’ve been having both on and off blog this week. I’m still humbled by the fact that over 40 people responded to my vent last week. In some ways it’s [...] From
weblogged News on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
K12 Online Conference Wrapup
I’m still sifting through the amazing presentations from the last few weeks at the K12 Online Conference as I know many of you have. If you have viewed any (even one) of the presentations from the Conference, please take a few minutes and complete the post-conference online evaluation form. technorati tags:k12online, k12online06 Listen [...] From
weblogged News on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
Feed your enterprise with RSS
Conceptually, 'news feeds' are quite simple, allowing content such as news articles to be delivered over the internet without the need to browse a website. News feeds first came to our attention during the mid 90s when the hype surrounding... From
Column Two on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
Intranet kiosks or remote access?
There are many staff that have little (or no) access to a computer during work hours, let alone the intranet. To name but a few, these staff include: nurses, factory workers, construction engineers, parking inspectors, mobile salespeople, community centre staff,... From
Column Two on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
Intranet as a mirror to the organisation
Every organisation has a unique mix of culture, business processes, history, technology and strategic directions (to name but a few factors). When it comes to intranets, it can then be said that they hold up a mirror to the organisation.... From
Column Two on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
World Usability Day (Sydney, November 14, 2006)
Who said users don't matter? On November 14, 2006, in towns and cities around the world, life will be a little easier. That's when the second annual World Usability Day takes place -- a global event promoting the value of... From
Column Two on November 10, 2006 at 6:48 p.m..
CSSEdit
CSSEdit appears to be one of the best CSS Editors for Macintosh around.
Xyle Scope was a perfect tool to analyze CSS, but CSSEdit includes a very good editor.Related: From
owrede_log on November 10, 2006 at 6:47 p.m..
Going Into Godmode in Left Behind
Glorious and nearly gore-less, the new Christian strategy game works as entertainment. As prophesy, not so much. Commentary by Clive Thompson. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Social Bookmarking Showdown
The ability to save and share links to your favorite web destinations is revitalizing the lowly browser bookmark. But so many online services offer diverse features -- where should you park your links? By Scott Gilbertson. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Silicone Cleavage Bounces Back
Recent Canadian approval for silicone implants could signal a green light soon in the United States for devices banned for more than a decade because of health concerns. By Kristen Philipkoski. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Snap, Crackle and Pop
Once upon a time we took great pains to remove clicks and crackles from our audio recordings. Today, we worship at the altar of those same glitches. What happened? Commentary by Momus. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Six Apart Leads With Vox
Of all the contenders promising to up the ante on MySpace, few sites have emerged as serious threats. But a new offering from Mena Trott's Six Apart might have what it takes to become the biggest player in social networks. By Chaddus Bruce. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Death Is a Long, Strange Trip
Getting shot into orbit is an increasingly popular method of shuffling off this mortal coil. But remember: Death is forever. Your ashes orbiting the Earth is not. By John Hudson. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Delete Your Bad Web Rep
ReputationDefender prowls the web for damning evidence, seeking and destroying photos, blog posts and other embarrassing tidbits that threaten your good social standing. By Scott Gilbertson. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Picture This: A Novel Approach
Should graphic novels be taken seriously as literature? Guest blogger and National Book Award nominee Gene Yang takes The Luddite to task. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
EULA La Vista, Baby
What's in an end-user license agreement? In the case of Windows Vista, a lot of creepy clauses that will freeze your blood. Commentary by Lore Sjöberg. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Hot New Engine Drives Gears
Epic Games' Tim Sweeney says Gears of War is oiled by a powerful new rendering engine built with next-gen consoles in mind. By John Gaudiosi. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:46 p.m..
Let Post-Election Debugging Begin
E-voting gaffes prove plentiful on Election Day, and both political parties find some reason to complain. Maybe now we can start reforming the system. Commentary by Jennifer Granick. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Russia Growls at LiveJournal Deal
Within the former Soviet nation, Six Apart's LiveJournal site is synonymous with free speech. But the U.S. company's new partnership with a Russian startup has local bloggers crying, "Nyet!" By Quinn Norton. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Election Spawns New Hope for Tech
The Democrats' resounding victory in the midterm elections portends changes in all spheres of American life. What will it mean for science and technology? A Wired News report. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Web 2.0 Replaces Music Teachers
A web application that teaches you how to play your favorite instrument, and critiques your performance, is the crowd favorite at the invitation-only Web 2.0 Summit. Of course, the immersive 3-D web browser is pretty cool, too. Michael Calore reports from San Francisco. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Oh, the (Lack of) Humanity
Next time a bum asks you for a quarter, look him in the eye. Give him a quarter or tell him no, but look him in the eye. We're all in this bloody mess together. Commentary by Tony Long. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Attack of the Perv Trackers
Thanks to the passage of a California proposition, satellites will monitor tens of thousands of sex offenders strapped with GPS devices. Unless they take them off. By Randy Dotinga. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Supercomputing's Next Revolution
The future of high-performance computing lies in graphics chips developed for the consumer video game market. By Paul Tulloch. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Abby Casts Lustful Eye on U.S.
Fed up with British men, who she says are too passive and can only relate to women when drunk, notorious sex blogger Abby Lee wants to give the Yanks a try. She's weighing a move to New York, which will no doubt spur sales of her lusty memoir, already a best seller in Old Blighty. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Digg Touts Rumsfeld 'Scoop'
Kevin Rose, founder of social news pioneer Digg, boasts that his site beat Google News, Netscape and other aggregation services to the punch when Donald Rumsfeld resigned. Live coverage from the Web 2.0 Summit in Monkey Bites. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Flex Vehicles Can Feast on E85
Thanks in part to government funding, 167 new ethanol fueling stations will make shunning petroleum a tad easier. See if your area is on the list. In Autopia. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Moose Tops Swede's Space Menu
International Space Station inhabitants will be stuffing their faces Scandinavian style after the first Swedish astronaut docks. The intrepid Swede plans meals of moose meat, gingerbread and "space yogurt." In Furthermore. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Smart Knee Replacements
With sensors measuring force and torque inside the body, technological body enhancement goes wireless. In Gear Factor. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Haunted by a Nazi Legacy
Genetic research was carried to grotesque extremes during the years of the Third Reich, leading postwar Germany to place all kinds of restrictions on the science. Now, German scientists are asking the government to liberalize these laws so they can keep up with advancing stem-cell research. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Adobe Gives Browsers a Boost
Software giant Adobe Systems releases its web-scripting engine under an open-source license, putting the code that makes Flash tick onto the table for all web browsers to use. Whether or not big players like Microsoft and Apple will take a bite remains to be seen. By Scott Gilbertson. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Bare Down There or Square
When Darpa created the internet, its engineers probably did not envision how the web would affect our most intimate grooming rituals. Commentary by Regina Lynn. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Family Guy and Other Funny Games
The video game adventures of Peter and Stewie look, sound, and offend exactly like the show. It's just one of a passel of new games that'll make you laugh. By Chris Kohler. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Orson Scott Card Builds an Empire
The award-winning sci-fi author strikes back at video game homogeneity with a title that pits red states against blue in an all-out civil war. Which side is he on? Wired News interview by John Gaudiosi. From
Wired News on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
KQED Podcast
Here's the archive and podcast of my Tuesday appearance on
KQED's Forum (the best-produced talk show on radio). I haven't had a chance to listen to it, yet, but I think it went quite well. It may have ended up a bit "left coast" in tone - focusing more on the return to passion and meaning than all my research on the Industrial Age and its diminishing returns. But maybe the value of passion is the more important message contained in my last book (Get Back in the Box), anyway. Still, I was glad for a ca From
rushkoff.blog on November 10, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..
Richard Sandford, Mary Ulicsak, Keri Facer and Tim Rudd - Teaching with Games - EA futurelab
Good report, intended to "provide a rich picture of the factors which shape how teachers develop games-based learning in schools." The focus is on the use of games to support learning, an activity that, as the authors note, depends as much on the skill and facilitation of the teacher as on the properties of the game. The success of the activity also depends on those features of games students enjoy (not just any game will do): "having fluid and autonomous control over a responsive environment, or the extent to which it is the enjoyment of using games familiar from home and leisured play in whi From
OLDaily on November 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..
Peter Shanks - ICA05 Deconstructed - Bathurst TAFE
What I like about this is the way a group of people on the outside show how its done. The focus is the (Australian) ICA05 training package, currently available only as a PDF. The author writes, "I don't have much time for searching through two 600 page PDF documents, cutting and pasting and re-formatting units, and wondered why this information wasn't availiable as a database or an XML file... Well... I had a couple of spare days so I kludged together some code that read the original PDF documents and fed the results into a database... Why stop there? How about: auto-generating moodl From
OLDaily on November 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..
Robert H. McDonald and Chuck Thomas - Disconnects Between Library Culture and Millennial Generation Values - EDUCAUSE Quarterly
When you say something like this, you know it's not going to be a positive report: "accommodating changing user preferences is not the only priority that drives library decisions." This article identifies the disconnect between libraries and new technologies across three domains: technology, policy and opportunity. In particular, it is worth noting that "services and policies are equally limiting, seemingly guided more by fear of litigation than any other factor." Libraries are obsessed to the point of inability to act by concerns over privacy and copyright. More articles are also availab From
OLDaily on November 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..
Learning 2006, two days after
A blessing in disguise: My laptop had 4% battery left when I arrived at Orlando airport to come home on Wednesday. No reason to lug it around. It went into my suitcase and rode home in the belly of the plane. Consequently, instead of writing a description of the last two days on the way [...] From
Internet Time Blog on November 10, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..