theories

I have discovered i do not write down my theories enough.

This is merely the spark for discussion.

So, there is always this idea of balance in the universe, some kind of supernatural fairness. And, being the pattern seekers that we are, we are always trying to ascribe some system of balances that fits the universe well. The craftiest one I know of so far is the concept of karma, because we cannot know what we did in a previous life.

Anyway, the theory I posit is this, what if suffering and such is bestowed, not just upon those that have earned it, but those that can withstand it. Not so much to forge them into greater people, build character, or the like, but simply because life requires that certain amount of suffering and thus it must be deposited somewhere, and since some people seem able to withstand more of it than others they are given more of it than others.

*shrug* just a thought, there is more to it, but I have to be doing other things, just wanted to get it in writing.

today in review

to the librarians in the audience
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/30/1310235&from=rss

to the paranoid folks that don't want to be seen
http://gizmodo.com/5030958/face+swapping-tech-keeps-your-privacy-online-by-making-you-look-horrifying

and finally, to people that like to have pants in their pants
http://gizmodo.com/366779/pants-in-a-pinch-change-of-clothes-in-your-pocket

Today in review

First, for all those collectors with books that need some touching up
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~preserve/repair/repairindex.htm

Now, for those posters of many flickr albums, a great way to get your friends to see every last detail in all your photos.
http://lifehacker.com/399338/blow-up-shows-off-flickr-photos-full+screen

finally, something more for me to remember than anything else, but for the tech savvy, DNS.
http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Set_Up_OpenDNS/

once a... moon?

It's scary how hard I find blogging every day...
oh well, here's today's.

http://kotaku.com/5029827/mercenary-group-to-airdrop-360s-guitar-hero-to-us-troops

http://gizmodo.com/377955/the-future-of-broadband-were-totally-screwed


http://lifehacker.com/399403/gallery-of-nature+themed-desktop-wallpaper

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/28/automated-friendship-bracelet-maker-made-of-legos/

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/new-riaa-lawsui.html

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/a-group-of-demo.html

Today in review

Google takes on wiki? this is interesting

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/knol-is-open-to-everyone.html

Today in review.

First, a note on the "new" economy. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/22/are-facebook-ads-going-to-zero-lookery-lowers-its-gaurantee-to-75-cent-cpms/

It's interesting that we are approaching the information economy, and it is already fluctuating, if not floundering. I suppose on the one hand, it isn't so strange. The dollar is a dollar. If you give the US Government a one dollar bill they will give you one dollar, probably in the form of a one dollar bill. Money is abstract, it has meaning because we give it meaning. So why shouldn't the product be as well? Information, ads, software, when you think about them all, they are all things we pay for, and many GET paid for, but they don't REALLY exist. They are not tangible things. An ad is simply information. A picture or text you put on your web site that someone pays you for. To them they view it as more business (and thus more money) for them, but really, they are paying you to do, in essence, nothing. Information has become it's own market too. Not just in the sense of the news, but with the explosion of the Blogosphere. These days you are just as likely to get your information from someone's blog than anywhere else. And then there is software itself. Were it not for DRM (which complicates everything) the product of software, once the "design" phase is complete, is just a matter of hitting copy, paste, eject. They have machines that can copy cd's at a rate of hundreds an hour, then there are upgrades and maintenance. Now, I am not trying to make light of anyone's job, hell, I work in this industry, but it does, in a way, mean we pay abstract currency for things with abstract value. I feel like I should take Econ, just to get a better view of this phenomenon.


While we're on the subject of money:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/23/with-the-number-of-landline-telephones-decreasing-telecos-scramble-to-replace-lost-revenue/

You'd think telephone companies would have been expecting this for years now wouldn't you? I figured they had their plan all worked out. Honestly, I figured that being able to charge for each phone on a plan would have more than made up for losing one line per household...



Now, a small glimpse of the future
http://www.nanotechproject.org/

Yes nanotech, I went there. But it's true, we are heading there too. Soon, and sites like this are important, because we really will need to pay attention to setting policy. When a technology that promises to grow as quickly, and permeate as much of our society, as nanotechnology does, we CAN'T ignore it and call ourselves responsible people. This is looking like it may be what the 1980's were for computers, only with 25 years of Moore's law going for it. Probably not the singularity, but certainly not something to let slip by unnoticed.



How about a nice view of the here and now






Is what productivity studies telling you bullshit? maybe multitasking isn't so bad.
http://lifehacker.com/399078/what-productivity-studies-really-show


and to wrap things up, a couple neat DIY's.

http://www.gmilburn.ca/2008/07/21/the-ultimate-home-laser-show/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Swiss-Army-Keys-Key-and-Leatherman-Mod/

My links of the day

Just some links to keep things interesting, trying to redo this blog thing a bit.


http://gizmodo.com/5024550/zing-laser-brings-laser-cutting-goodness-to-the-average-guy

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=all-wet-astronomers-claim

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/15/genius-junk-food-6-snacks_n_112903.html

http://gizmodo.com/5027238/invisible-near+weightless-nanotubes-could-support-humans-buildings-space-elevators

sometimes you just can't eat it all

The next time someone reminds you that there are starving children in place X when you don't clean your plate, Show them THIS site and tell them to get off your back ans start writing letters if it is such a big deal to them.

Ah, military research

Terminator armor, here I come!

The price of panic

RICK ROLLED!!!!!!















For those of you that don't know what rickrolling is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling

a couple videos you all should see.

First, When NASA gets bored:







Second, academics and scientists are always loopy:

For those of you that think the matrix is silly sci fi.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS!?


It defies my ability to use the english language, it is... stupifying...

This thing walks better than PEOPLE I know....



on ice, sand, snow, steep slopes, you can KICK the thing and it just stumbles, I just pray we don't give it a way to fight back...

life

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402203.html?hpid=sec-health



Yes, just that close to creating artificial life... so, when will we get animals tailor made for being food, built from scratch from the DNA up? when will we get to gatacca our children? when will we begin creating organic robots?