1. 26 June 2006

    834 days ago

    Essentials, 2006 edition [dive into mark]

    I’ve been tempted to try the switch to linux for a while now. I’d have to give up textmate in favor of emacs, which I’d also have to learn how to use. But otherwise I think I’d do just fine. Also my airport express would go kaput. Ah, vendor lockin. Plus, mac so pretty.

    via Kjell Olsen834 days ago

  2. 11 September 2005

    Dockless

    1122 days ago

    For the last few days I’ve had my dock hidden on the left side of the screen – and I haven’t missed it yet. The 1024×768 resolution on my powerbook is starting to get to me, and the sixty or so pixels the dock uses wastes are just too precious.

    Surprisingly, I’ve hardly even needed it. Command-Tab switches between applications just fine, and Quicksilver can do anything the dock can, only better and quicker.

    The dock is still good for forcing apps to quit, but I shouldn’t have to do that all too often.

  3. 25 June 2005

    1200 days ago

    O'Reilly Radar > John Hagel: Attention as a resource

    We’re being bitten by Gilder’s and Moore’s Laws—bandwidth and CPU increased to the point where naive systems flood us with information. What we need now are sophisticated systems: we need to use that bandwidth and CPU to hold back the flood: data mining and the other machine learning disciplines will all play into this.

    via Kjell Olsen1200 days ago

  4. 10 May 2005

    1246 days ago

    The Computer for the 21st Century

    Whatever happened to Xerox PARC? They did some cool stuff in their days, did Xerox drop the whole computing idea and go into building office machines like printers and copiers?

    we are trying to conceive a new way of thinking about computers in the world, one that takes into account the natural human environment and allows the computers themselves to vanish into the background.

    Peripheral computing, using a machine with the ability to aid us somehow, but without knowingly sitting in front of your keyboard and moving into the computers world of applications and keys.

    The “virtuality” of computer-readable data—all the different ways in which it can be altered, processed and analyzed—is brought into the physical world.

    We have found two issues of crucial importance: location and scale. Little is more basic to human perception than physical juxtaposition, and so ubiquitous computers must know where they are.

    Pads differ from conventional portable computers in one crucial way. Whereas portable computers go everywhere with their owners, the pad that must be carried from place to place is a failure. Pads are intended to be “scrap computers” (analogous to scrap paper) that can be grabbed and used anywhere; they have no individualized identity or importance.

    I’ve started keeping most of my documents on the internet – spread between flickr, here, and a wiki I use for schoolwork and brainstorming, everything I can think of thats important to me but for large files (videos and mp3’s on my iPod/external HD) and my address book is at my fingertips anywhere there is a computer handy. Sweet.

    So tabs, pads, and boards; individual computing devices. On the front end of interaction, none of my virtual things are stored anywhere, yet the back side everything is always centralized somewhere.

    By pushing computers into the background, embodied virtuality will make individuals more aware of the people on the other ends of their computer links. This development carries the potential to reverse the unhealthy centripetal forces that conventional personal computers have introduced into life and the workplace. Even today, people holed up in windowless offices before glowing computer screens may not see their fellows for the better part of each day. And in virtual reality, the outside world and all its inhabitant effectively ceases to exist. Ubiquitous computers, in contrast, reside in the human world and pose no barrier to personal interactions. If anything, the transparent connections that they offer between different locations and times may tend to bring communities closer together.

    When almost every object either contains a computer or can have a tab attached to it, obtaining information will be trivial: “Who made that dress? Are there any more in the store? What was the name of the designer of that suit I liked last week?” The computing environment knows the suit you looked at for a long time last week because it knows both of your locations, and, it can retroactively find the designer’s name even if it did not interest you at the time.

    Machines that fit the human environment, instead of forcing humans to enter theirs, will make using a computer as refreshing as taking a walk in the woods.

    Fun stuff.

    via Kjell Olsen1246 days ago

  5. 20 April 2005

    1266 days ago

    EVDO StompBox Project

    Impressive linux box running broadcasting a wireless signal with a verizon cell data card to give an always connected link, even in the middle of nowhere.

    The weekend of April 15 two of us took the system along during an 800mi drive through the high deserts of Southern California (Mojave and areas near). I’m quite surprised how far 1xRTT covers! We had continuous data for >90% of the trip. If the connection was re-established within 2 minutes (not hard when driving highway speeds) established TCP sessions resumed without worry. The only time we had extended data losses were when we stopped behind blocking geologic features (hills, ridges, etc) that kept us from seeing the nearest cel tower.

    Also with gps and an ultra cool web app to google map the car’s exact location at any time… sweet. Also a camera to show where you are.

    This should be good for security situations. If you point a camera inside at the driver’s position (from, say, the headliner or dashboard) you can make the video router start recording upon motion-sense. It would constantly upload the results to an offsite server along with timestamp and GPS coordinates. Even if the thief ripped the system out it would get a few good frames of him/her and store them offsite. If the equipment is hidden correctly it’ll give live GPS tracking and video to help with retrieval of the car.

    Man, this stuff is cool.

    via Kjell Olsen1266 days ago

  6. 02 February 2005

    1343 days ago

    Extreme Programming

    Nice wikified summary of the ideas/processes behind XP. (the c2 wiki freaking rocks)

    via Kjell Olsen1343 days ago

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