“One little thought:
If complex systems self-organise, where do leaders fit in? Put another way, if Big Tony is Prime Minister because of British self-organisation, is there anything that’s his fault?”
Author: moleitau
It’s up to you, New York, New York
Rodcorp, on Calvino, on New York as a story-machine:
“Occasionally I decide spontaneously to set totally imaginary stories in New York, a city in which I have lived only a few months in my life: who knows why, perhaps because New York is the simplest city, at least for me, the epitome of a city, an kind of prototype of a city, as far as its topography, its visual appearance, its society is concerned. Whereas Paris has huge depth, so much behind it, so many meanings.”
Calvino’s so cool. Rodcorp rocks.
Wow
Via BoingBoing, a remark of a Judge on the Grokster p2p vs Hollywood case to one of the content-industry lawyers:
“Let me say what I think your problem is. You can use these harsh terms [“piracy,” “theft”], but you are dealing with something new, and the question is, does the statutory monopoly that Congress has given you reach out to that something new. And that’s a very debatable question. You don’t solve it by calling it ‘theft.’ You have to show why this court should extend a statutory monopoly to cover the new thing. That’s your problem. Address that if you would. And curtail the use of abusive language.”
The adventure of Link
- Francis Wheen: How Mumbo-jumbo Changed the World
“By 1989, Francis Fukuyama was declaring that we had now reached the End of History. What colonized the space recently vacated by notions of history, progress and reason? Cults, quackery, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of mumbo-jumbo.”
- Cool design solution – the citynipple: Spinning cones on the underside of pedestrian crossings to allow blind people to sense when it’s safe to cross.
- Aphorism of the day #1: “There is No Demand for Messages”
- Amazing, detailed comparative mythological/historical analysis of the Zelda canon.
- Aphorism(s) of the day #2:
“Margaret Mead once said Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Generations of zealots have tacked these words up on various walls, never noticing that the two systems that run the modern world markets and democracies are working right precisely when they defeat these attempted hijackings by small groups.”
- (Abraham) Blazin’ Squad:
“A good social software programmer could do well learning from the great social engineers and machines of our time, the waiter and the restaurant. The restaurant provides a table of you and your companions. It provides the setting (food and drink) to make the conversation comfortable. And then it disappears in the background, allowing your conversation to develop on its own.”
- “You Won’t Believe What We Put On A Phone!”
- Global Frequency TV pilot gets the go-ahead
- Singularity-ho! Wardrobemalfunction.com gets registered in hours after the event.
- I’m enjoying the provocative, prolific bubblegeneration
- Free PDF downloads of Shell’s scenarios looking forward to 2020-2050
Link’s awakening
- More Beyonce: Hypergene on the ultra-fast hitmaking machine of iTunes + RSS.
“P.S. We’re still amazed at how few businesses (and we mean those selling products – Amazon, BestBuy, JCrew, Macy’s, etc.) are utilizing RSS as an advertising medium.
- Will Davies on the split between information and criticism
- “Do I look stupid in this TrackBack??”
- “The trouble with architects is that they talk so much about teamwork, but actually believe that architectural practice revolves around the cult of personality.”
- KunzruWatch: When Hari met Toby. He has a new book coming out apparently, where he goes all Michael Crichton… Excellent!
- Twisted my knee on a ski-lift yesterday. Tiger Balm is awesome.
- Veen and I are going surfing
- One of the world’s greatest pieces of architecture is in San Diego: The Salk Institute by Louis Kahn.
- Oh, and there’s some conference-or-other on too.
SMS = Send Mappings Sharpish
I’m not about to turn into one of those corporate evangelist bloggers, but I have to say this is pretty cool. Nokia have announced GPS snap-on covers for their 5140 model, which has the ability to send annotated GPS waypoints as SMS. Potentially connecting SMS hackery to geowankery.
If they are cheap enough, and could reach a sufficient mass of urban explorers, this could inspire a wave of ground-up collaborative mapping efforts.
The covers even make the jock-friendly ‘active sports phone’ acquire a geek-chic, in a kind of smokey-black Borg way…
Question*
If I buy a cartload of Pepsi in the USA, and bring all the little yellow bottletops back to Europe – will I be able to finally download some songs from the iTunes Music Store?
The T’s and C’s seem to suggest I won’t:
“7. ELIGIBILITY: You must be thirteen (13) years of age of older and a legal resident of the United States residing in the fifty (50) states or District of Columbia to be eligible to win a prize(s). Employees of the Apple Computer, Inc., Pepsi-Cola Company, its bottlers, their respective parents, subsidiaries, divisions, affiliates, distributors, suppliers, printers and advertising, promotional and judging agencies (collectively, “Sponsor and Promotion Parties”) and the immediate family members of such employees (parent, child, sibling, spouse) and/or persons living in the same household as such individuals (whether related or not) are not eligible to win. No groups, clubs or organizations can participate in this promotion on behalf of the group, club or organization.”
So how will they enforce this? Pseudo-geographical IP range stuff? Or will I have to show my passport when buying Pepsi?
—-
* I cannot read, write or say this word without immediately repeating it in my mind in a Beyoncé voice. That’s all.
Stigmergy
The sign above these two holes in a canteen says “please dispose of food waste separately from other waste” – but does not specify which hole to use for which. That is done by the debris around one of the holes and the relative cleanliness of the other.
Stigmergy at work.
I.G.Y.
Elizabeth has a great post on her blog (which is rapidly becoming a favourite) about the orthodoxy of ubicomp future visions:
“I love the ways our visions of the future never quite see the real changes to come: who could imagine now a world in which female military officers wear miniskirts? We’re always crucially wrong on those small details — and the larger cultural changes that create them.
But one vision of the future seems to remain constant: the idea that somehow computers will magically read our hearts and minds, then respond appropriately”
My shorthand for this sort of thing:
Then Chris finds this neat counterpoint:
“Aaron Marcus: 12 Myths of Mobile Device User-Interface Design
Developers share many illusions and delusions about mobile-device user-interface design. In the UI development world, there are many assumptions or myths floating around about the future of mobile devices. Myths are useful in civilizations. They summarize inherited wisdom and guide us to the future. Some become obsolete, like the ones about the flat earth and the sun as the center of the universe. Let’s make sure our ideas about mobile device UI design remain fresh and useful.A 35-year veteran of user-interface design pops a few conceptual balloons and puts a few new twists on others.
Myth: Users want power and aesthetics. Features are everything.
Myth: What we really need is a Swiss army knife.
Myth: 3G is here!
Myth: Focus groups and other traditional market analysis tools are the best way to determine user needs.
Myth: If it works in Silicon Valley, it will work anywhere.
Myth: The killer app will be games, er, no, I mean, horoscopes, or
Myth: Mobile devices will essentially be phones, organizers, or combinations, with maybe music/video added on.
Myth: The industry is converging on a UI standard.
Myth: Highly usable systems are just around the corner.
Myth: One underlying operating system will dominate.
Myth: Mobile devices will be free-or nearly free.
Myth: Advanced data-oriented services are just around the corner.”
Myth systems and orthodoxies in design and strategy for technology… Hmm. Kuhn I guess talks about it in science – what about design and technology, which goes through paradigmic change far more quickly I’d assume. Any notable thought and writing on this you know of? Peter?
User experience is what happens while you’re busy makin’ other plans
Apologies to John Lennon.
Petafloptimism 