The owner of the riding school that we visited yesterday breeds both Labradors and Jack Russell terriers. Here’s a shot of one of the Jack Russells.
(Ed and Chris – this one’s for you!)
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Online Memorials
Danah Boyd, over at Apophenia, comments on an emerging phenomenon: the use of social networking services to act as sites for mourning and remembrance. What struck me about the example she uses (the online social profiles of Christine Dao, who has just died in a car crash), was the tone and the manner of Christine’s friends when leaving their messages of remembrance on her profiles. Not that they addressed her directly, as though she still lived – that’s a fairly common thing – but the casual, almost flippant, tone of most of the messages. These are young adults, for the most part (Christine was 20), but the comments seem to me like the equivalent of children’s finger-paintings. Are young adults really this immature these days?2 responses to “Online Memorials”
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The comments made on Christine’s profile by her friends and family are made in the manner in which she communicated with them. Just because someone is no longer physically with us, doesn’t change who they were, so why change the way we communicate with them? She may have said a lot of silly things (things you may equate with a child’s finger-painting) but she spoke from her heart, and her friends responded in the same way. Please don’t judge her, her friends, or young adults as a whole, for that matter. They’re not on her page to write a gramatically correct essay, they’re speaking from their hearts.
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Lo, thanks for your comment. I’m not judging Christine at all – as I said I was responding to the manner in which her friends reacted to her death, and I found the manner of response surprisingly immature for young adults. I wasn’t asking for grammatically correct essays. But I was somewhat taken aback by the fact that the responses seemed to me to be at an emotional level that I would more readily associate with 10 year-olds, not, as I say, young adults.
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Autumn Trees
Yesterday, we rode through woods in a horse-driven carriage. More on that later. One of the reasons for doing it was because the trees are showing their Autumn colours.Carl Zimmer, over at the Loom, points out that there are two main theories as to why the leaves turn red and yellow in Autumn. I had always thought that it was simply a side-effect of the trees preparing for Winter, but it turns out there is another theory that has been proposed to account for it. And now there’s some new theorising that seems to tie together both of the competing theories. Go and read Zimmer’s piece for more info.Leave a comment
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Cameras and GPS
One day soon, the majority of cameras will come with built-in GPS like this Ricoh Pro G3. Then it will become so much easier to add geo-spatial metatags to photos. And once the online photo services such as Flickr start to handle this stuff under the covers, then I’ll be able to use Google Earth to show and navigate photo odysseys without any effort at all…3 responses to “Cameras and GPS”
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You might want to check out http://www.magnalox.net/ which allows you to create animated GPS track stories (and include photos), and output the track, stories, and photos to Google Earth.Also, a program called RoboGEO also allows you to georeference photos in mass and output them to Google Earth along with the GPS track.
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Frank, thanks for these pointers – I’ll take a look. I find the community that has sprung up around Google Earth to be an interesting phenomenon.
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[…] applications that use either Google Earth or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. While, as I predicted, cameras with built-in GPS receivers are coming onto the market, I don’t want to throw away […]
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Library Downsizing
Wendy Lesser, in today’s Guardian, explores something that I try not to think about: downsizing one’s library. I know that at some point in the future, it will be inevitable that I will have to let some of my books go, but hopefully that will not be for many years yet.4 responses to “Library Downsizing”
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Your link is empty – that’ll teach me not to read yesterday’s paper fully – goes to find paper copy!Getting rid of books??????
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Oops – link now fixed! Yep, I know, getting rid of books is a horrendous prospect, but one day, when I move to my one-room granny flat in a warden-controlled apartment for distressed gentlefolk, it will have to be faced!
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It depends on the book. _Programming_MS_Access_95_, for example, may only serve as a mediocre doorstop.
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Mike, it’s true, and I’ve already got rid of most of those. But I have kept some back for their curiosity value – "The SAA Handbook", and "SAA and UNIX, IBM’s Open Systems Strategy", for example.
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Turing’s Cathedral
Interesting piece penned by George Dyson that has been posted over at the Edge. Dyson is reflecting on his visit to Google in the context of the history of computing, from von Neumann and Turing onwards.My visit to Google? Despite the whimsical furniture and other toys, I felt I was entering a 14th-century cathedral — not in the 14th century but in the 12th century, while it was being built. Everyone was busy carving one stone here and another stone there, with some invisible architect getting everything to fit. The mood was playful, yet there was a palpable reverence in the air. "We are not scanning all those books to be read by people," explained one of my hosts after my talk. "We are scanning them to be read by an AI."And he raises a nice little frisson in the mind of this reader with:Google is Turing’s cathedral, awaiting its soul. We hope. In the words of an unusually perceptive friend: "When I was there, just before the IPO, I thought the coziness to be almost overwhelming. Happy Golden Retrievers running in slow motion through water sprinklers on the lawn. People waving and smiling, toys everywhere. I immediately suspected that unimaginable evil was happening somewhere in the dark corners. If the devil would come to earth, what place would be better to hide?"
Is there a John Connor in the house?
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Only 80%?
So I’m not Mr. Spock then, but at least I’m down in the bottom left corner, where I expected to be…You fit in with:
AtheismYour ideals mostly resemble those of an Atheist. You have very little faith and you are very focused on intellectual endeavors. You value objective proof over intuition or subjective thoughts. You enjoy talking about ideas and tend to have a lot of in depth conversations with people.
60% scientific.
80% reason-oriented.
Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com 2 responses to “Only 80%?”
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Hi Geoff, Aad here. I did the test too and came to 100% — only. But I guess you might have guessed that. P.S. I’ve just started my own space, so rather empty still.
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Hi, Aad, welcome to the club!
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George Takei Comes Out
If you have to ask who’s George Takei? then you are clearly not a Trekkie – a fan of Star Trek. Takei is the actor who played the role of Lieutenant Sulu, the helmsman of the Starship Enterprise in its first incarnation. Apparently, at the age of 68, he’s finally decided to come out of the closet. Oh well, better late than never, I suppose.Update: Here’s the interview that Takei gave where he acknowledges who he is. It’s a good interview and he comes across as an honest human being. Go read it.Leave a comment
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Why Bother Going to the Cinema?
That’s the question that Diamond Geezer raised on his blog recently. He rightly notes that the time between a film being released in the cinema and it being released on DVD is becoming alarmingly short. It used to be a year, now it seems to be a few months.He argues that we should still continue to go to the cinema (a) because it’s cheaper and (b) because it’s on the big screen. In an ideal world (b) would be true. There can be something magical about the shared experience of the audience sitting in the dark. But too often these days the experience is tainted for me by people talking, eating or slurping huge cartons of coke before tossing them aside. Increasingly, I find myself content to wait a few months (or even a year) for the DVD. Yes, it may cost more initially, but I see some good films being reissued at little more than the price of a cinema ticket. And every time I watch a DVD again, the value increases. I estimate that I’ve seen 30% of my collection at least three times and 40% at least twice. Basically, I’m willing to pay good money for a good DVD secure in the knowledge that I can devote my full attention to it, and not be distracted by my neighbours discussing the charms of the actress on the screen.2 responses to “Why Bother Going to the Cinema?”
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I agree and disagree (why else would I be commenting, eh?). My wife and I go to the movies to get away from home, away from a ringing phone or the urge to do some laundry while just sitting there. We go so we can see the epic sweeping views and the fully immersive sound. I’ve only been in one home theater that gave me close to that feeling and it cost upwards of $20k. Movies like LOTR would lose a lot in my eyes, even on a "small" screen of a 63" plasma.I do agree that the people text messaging and talking are a huge annoyance, as well as the people that think it’s ok to kick the back of my chair or make rude comments about the high school girl in the tight skirt that just walked in. I’ve found that people need to become more social to help curb these things. When you ask, "hey, would you mind keeping it down." in a polite way it tends to take a lot of the rebel steam out of people because now if keep doing it they are the ass, not you. I’ve yelled at people at the movies and all that did was egg them on while a polite tone almost always works. A slight trick that it helps when the oppisite gender does the asking.I don’t really buy DVD’s because I almost never re-watch them so a movie theatre is actually more expensive for me but I’m still willing to pay the $9.50 vs. $1.09 rental just for experience, warts and all. I believe the future is actually *more* expensive theatres with tickets upwards of $15 or $20 a person, slightly smaller with comfy chairs and the ability to bring in cocktails. Make the cost prohibitive for those that are just picking up a flick on a Friday because they are bored and want some place to hide out from their parents for awhile.
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The problem is that the very films that depend on the immersive experience (LOTR, etc.) are the very films that seem to attract proportionally greater numbers of those who prefer to use the film as backdrop to their comments or conversations. And yes, while I might have a small circle of influence on those around me, I can’t reach those a few rows away who are doing the same thing. The only time I bother going to a cinema now is to see small art house films, because there’s a greater chance that the people in the cinema are interested in the film itself and not in themselves.
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Going, Going…
… Almost gone. The Routemaster bus from London, that is. The red double-decker Routemaster bus, with its open platform at the back is an icon, but it is being removed from service in London. Today, it vanishes from route 38, leaving just one route left on which these buses are used. That too will lose its Routemasters by the end of the year.I’ll admit to a feeling of nostalgia about this, when I was 17, I had a summer job working on the buses as a conductor, and liked the Routemaster buses most of all. Another link with the past vanishes…Leave a comment
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Another Recruit to the Ranks
It was just over a month ago that I was writing about the retirement of an ex-colleague of mine. Last night I was back at the Shell offices in The Hague to join the farewell celebrations of yet another well-liked and respected colleague. David was always quiet and unassuming, but he kept his head clear and got on with the job. He came into computing later in his career, but it seems to me that he has been intimately involved with most of the major developments in IT within Shell. He was a great colleague to work with.It really does feel as though the old guard are fast disappearing. As the culture of an organisation is shaped by its people (and in turn the people are shaped by the culture), I do wonder how it will feel in a few years time when the next generation have entirely taken over the reins.2 responses to “Another Recruit to the Ranks”
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Mwahahaha… All part of my master plan.Seriously, though, do realize that the "old guard" have been influential enough to have left a relatively lasting mark on the rest of us.
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Thanks, Mike – I can rest easier now!
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Amazing Ad
I’ve just come across this amazing advert for Honda cars, which I hadn’t seen before. Heath Robinson would have been proud. According to this, there is no computer graphic trickery involved – it is all real. It did, however, take 606 takes before the perfect sequence was captured. The filmcrew’s patience must have far exceeded that of Job.One response to “Amazing Ad”
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Recognising Faces
We humans do it easily – at least with people we are familiar with. But it’s a bit more tricky for computers to do it. At least, it used to be.I’ve just upgraded my copy of Adobe’s Photoshop Elements to the latest version, version 4.0. While some aspects of that software irritate me beyond belief, there are some interesting features. A new feature with version 4.0 is the ability to pick out faces in your photographs. It’s surprisingly effective, even if not always 100% accurate. It also picks out the faces of cats…But there’s a difference between picking out an area in a photograph and saying that "this is a face" and actually identifying the face, e.g. "this is your uncle John".However, that day may not be far off. TechCrunch has news of a new software application – Riya – that promises to do just that.Leave a comment
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Spray It Loud
I came across a photograph reproduced on the Feministe blog here. I know this photograph. It was taken by Jill Posener (apparently in 1979) and collected, along with other photographs of graffiti, in her book Spray It Loud, published in 1982 (ISBN 0-7100-9458-2). She captured brilliant graffiti – mostly around the streets of London. I’ve got two copies of the book in my library – one is signed by Jill, dated November 1982 – I think it was bought at a CHE Winter Fair in London. She followed it up with a second book of graffiti photographs: Louder Than Words in 1986 (ISBN 0-86358-086-6).When I came across the Feministe entry, I didn’t know what had happened to Jill. A quick Google reveals that she’s very much alive and kicking, and now living in Berkeley, California. From starting out in the theatre company Gay Sweatshop, she became a professional photographer, and has published lots of stuff since then. I hadn’t realised it until now, but she was also the photographer who worked on another book in my collection: Out In America (ISBN 0-67085-850-1). More on her life and work at her website.Leave a comment
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What Lies Beneath
As part of the process of selling our house, the buyers have commissioned a technical report on the construction and state of the house. So yesterday they turned up with a building engineer in tow whose task it was to examine it from top to bottom.This being Gouda, our house is built on piles, and the way it is constructed means that there is a hollow space underneath the house – totally inaccessible, apart from via a hatch in the garage floor. As part of the inspection, the building engineer raised the hatch and peered down into the pool of water that collects under every house built in this way. He suddenly called us over to take a look. I peered down and saw at first what I thought was a silhouette of two crayfish painted on the concrete base under the water. Just as I was thinking why would anyone bother to paint crayfish on the floor, I suddenly realised that one of the crayfish was moving…Yep, we have freshwater crayfish living under our house. Dunno how they got there, or what they live on, but they seem happy enough. So the next time I need to make Sauce Nantua, I’ll know where to go to get my fresh crayfish…
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Elephants and Their Dead
Fascinating story in New Scientist this week about research that seems to show that elephants are one of the few other species besides our own that pay homage to their dead.Leave a comment
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But Is It Art? – #3
Kader Attia’s Flying Rats. Not for the squeamish or those with a hyper-active imagination – even though no animals or children were harmed during the making of this.Leave a comment
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Perceptual Illusions
Here’s a fascinating perceptual illusion: Dr. Angry and Mr. Smiles (scroll down on the linked page). Perhaps even more terrifying is the illusion that follows: Thatcher/Blair. Art imitates Life?Leave a comment
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Good Design
I mentioned Hillel Cooperman yesterday in connection with his presentation on good interface design in software. It turns out he has a blog, and I came across this entry on good design of physical objects – in this case a sink in a French railway station. He likes this design, on multiple levels, and so do I. Kudos to the original designer.BTW, this sort of stuff – good ergonomic design – is explored in at least two of Donald A. Norman’s books: The Psychology of Everyday Things, and Turn Signals Are The Facial Expressions of Automobiles. Worth reading. Ooh, I see he’s got a new book out: Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. I must get a copy – particularly since it has a picture of one of my bête noirs on the front cover – the beautiful looking, but completely impractical Alessi juicer.Leave a comment
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The Softer Side of Software
The material from Microsoft’s Professional Developers’ Conference for 2005 are now up online as video streams as well as downloadable presentations.One aspect of software development that has always interested me is that of user interface design and usability. There’s a fascinating, opinionated presentation on user interface design given by Hillel Cooperman. Well worth watching. In addition, he uses as an example the photo-sharing application Max developed in Microsoft to show off some of the features of Vista. It’s interesting (well, to me at least) that the sharing aspect is a P2P experience like Groove – i.e. it’s really simple and transparent to use.Leave a comment
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