Neuroactive - As If We Didn't Know

Thanks to DG [Digital Gunfire]

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds...

is it something in the air?...

[Good Morning Silicon Valley] "NTT looks to high-end jewelry market with 81 GHz diamond semiconductor engagement ring: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp made headlines last week for developing a diamond semiconductor device that operates at 81 GHz... Ralph Merkle, Mr. Nano, explains: 'Because diamond transistors can be hotter, are more easily cooled, can tolerate higher voltages before breaking down, and electrons move more easily in them, they make better transistors than other materials. Diamond would be ideal for electronic devices if only we could manufacture it inexpensively and with precisely the desired structure.' "

inexpencively?! do i have a deja vu?...
...and now we're interrupting our non-regular blah-cast to remaind you about cheap diamonds technology that's been in the news recently:

gemesis and some small buzz around it...
NY Post: MAN-MADE DIAMONDS ARE A STEAL AT $5/CARAT
Forbes: Cultured gems challenge long-held diamond myths
Telegraph: De Beers fears lab gems

Lights Of Euphoria - True Life

applied theory of complexity - money upside down

[theory-edge [RSS]]

From: "vznuri"
Date: Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:33 pm
Subject: "money upside down"

hi all, I am dancing in the street today.
1st scientific citation(s) to my paper published
almost 1.5 year ago, in an incredible 226 page Phd
dissertation challenging the very core foundations
of the economic system, including fractional reserve
banking. he even cites me on some of my much
more controversial claims of economic warfare.

by harald haus.. he hasnt told me yet if he has
gotten his Phd or about the dissertation defense.
a fellow molotov cocktail thrower .. he tells me
in email that he was about to publish a book on it
with baron jp. von bethmann of bethmann bank, frankfurt.
I hope he still gets around to it.

"money upside down"

http://elib.suub.uni-bremen.de/publications/dissertations/E-Diss601_Dis_Money_upside_down.pdf


see also this "future of money summit" in denver
which has signed up a lot of incredible speakers..
some high wattage brainpower all lined up.

http://www.futureofmoneysummit.com/

i've started to read the paper it's very intriguing... more later after i finish reading. it's a manuscript of 226 pages long...
as of vznuri, - i've got *hooked* up and i'm keeping my eye (a.k.a lurking) on *theory-edge* after this discussion post in march 2002

DeVision - Call My Name

and hi-energy drive by

Front Line Assembly vs die Krupps - Neologic Spasm (dislocated mix)

then calming

Neuroactive - Put Your Trust In Me [Seismic Mix];

Delerium - Enchanted,

La Floa Maldita - Moonstruck (Diary Version),

[Active] Media Disease - Lost,

Spektralized - Truth (v2.0),

Beborn Beton - A Wish Come True

, ...
another beautiful sound bite from [Digital Gunfire - Industrial Strength Aural Assault]

gotta say that... user interfaces are not *usable*, they are *UGLY*!

It's all started with a simple phrase i've posted couple days ago: "w.bloggar is the good tool to post everywhere..." and my quest for a user interface that does not take attention aWay from primary information activities: reading, typing, sketching, and looking at something...

Update: w.bloggar is good, but too much resembles the word processor with all of the buttons and controls

What I'm looking for is a simple application that allow me type text, hyperlink it, format it, and then determine where this text is going: e-mail or maybe save it on the local hard drive or stick it on the web or... maybe it's a piece of code to compile.

...ah, well! It seem that i have to write it myself :). Another failed attempt to avoid an increasing entropy (make sure that you spell it right ;).

Think for a moment about it: software on computers is overloaded with ui features: menus, buttons, toolbars, browser companions... We are not using programs anymore, instead we're navigating, browsing, selecting, clicking, dragging, dropping. Much less time left for typing, sketching or handwriting and the most important,- less time for thinking. I personnaly spending many priceless moments of my time preparing the user interface for specific action: sent e-mail or writing a little essay. Then I spent another chunk of time organizing results of my activities on my local hard drive. and if I would not do it, - my information property is f*cked up. Our thoughts in sofware development are about improving productivity of a person who works with computer through an user interface that is not designed for a productivity, but to give multiple choice at any given moment... It does not work this way. I guess that first crop of primates using sticks to dig did not have all this luxury of multiple choice user interface with a stick. They did not need it! They've invented other effective uses of the same stick.

Usability? we don need no sinkin' ...problem
It's all because of an *ugly*and overfeatured user interfaces, - we have *the usability problem*. i just laughted after a momentary thought about cave men in discussion about *usability problem* of a stick used to hit branches with ripe fruits. There's no such thing as *usability problem*, *usability study* - is a correct term, and it is a half-of-an-invention, because it's a study about inconveniences when something is used.

Capability
There at least few promising ways to approach the *non-ugly* (i intentionally did not use words like ideal, excellent or beautiful) visual user interface:
1. so called *skins* - not as cool image with a bunch of tweaks, but rather skins that use css-style layouts that binds to functional presentation layout (XHTML is an example of a functional presentation layout).
2. XUL (from Mozilla.org) is a good attempt, but it seem very heavy yet... it gotta become scalable - similar to J2EE, J2SE and J2ME, but for the user interface.
3. Macromedia Flash - i have not studied it deep enough, but it's obviously is a *tool of choice* for the *best looking* interfaces on the web. I'd say Macromedia Flash is a high-end of a user interface fashion...
4. I bet there are some more...

Decoupling
To make the user interface *usable* :) few things have to be achieved in sofware architecture too. And the first one - decoupling of a mysterious *business logic* and *the presentation*. It's been a subject of numerous studies, and created zillions of design practices, but still hangin' around... as a design problem. It's no more a design problem, it's big enough to be a subject of the techonology. Technology is about improving something, so now it's a time to invent the technology of decoupling a presentation software from a business logic sofware . Does not it seem familiar? Oh yeah, that's a new kid in a buzz-words block. It's been called different though - Service Oriented Architecture (SOA for short). Maybe?! Its current promises are fuzzy and non-validated, but it may grow-up someday, if it would not screw-up too... :)

The Game
The sofware model, described briefly here, introduces new shape of a software market, where talented and successful artist is able to sell it's user interface work independently from original software manufacturer (OSM). You'd say what to do with brand promotion? I say, - nothing! There are another ways to promote OSM brands, similar to market of vendors in other industry sectors.

We still have some troubles to overcome, - a controversy around Copyright Laws. Right now there are almost polar camps: RIAA and EFF, SCO and OpenSource. RIAA wants almost a monopoly in music products distribution. and SCO wants money from something they've had, but could not make a successful product. Same thing could happen with software industry combined with designer industry... right? What has to happen, in order to move on, is the appearance of third parties that just want to have good business instead of protecting the greed. Creative Commons has that potential, but does not provide enough commercial copyright control yet. Existing Patent Laws are not efficient anymore, because of inability to catch on with a pace of invention, and therefore invalidating itselves. Every BigCo software vendors are desperate to retain a grip on market to ensure continuing business. All this will never disappear, - it's a part of *a game*, - you just have to watch your back.

...txt.net reading habit

we don't need no stinkin' servers
this one is important because it emphasizes the change in the IT business model...

According to an NYtimes.com article
"...Lego will replace virtually all of its Hewlett-Packard computer systems (it's about 230 Hewlett-Packard server computers) with 34 new I.B.M. computers and Tivoli software to manage these servers...

...The centerpiece of the deal, ... is an arrangement that allows for Lego to pay I.B.M. based on the amount of computing power it is using...

"Lego's costs will swell during the fall when it is shipping its colorful building blocks and other toys to retailers for the Christmas season, but will fall sharply when its information processing needs drop off. The pricing, which I.B.M. refers to as on-demand computing, will also respond to short-term spikes in processing needs like rush orders to design and build a new product.

...the deal would cut Lego's computing costs by at least 30 percent.
...this pricing model is known as utility pricing because it resembles the way that power companies bill their customers.
[via NYTimes.com]

new kind of software? nope it's hardware! t3 sequel - i'll b bak!

Developer News: New Schwarzenegger Platform. Yep! It will allow Hollywood state finally get a Hollywood governor.

internet gods and myths. rss is suffering a high school grad personality crisis.

rss war? or an attempt to find a purpose?

it seems that everybody in *what is rss?* society have that feeling about rss and blogging in general. there's definitely *something*, but... what is it exactly?

fed up with concept of a *killer app* and *bleeding edges* rss is finally graduated from a high school and is ready for a big time... overwelmed with an excitement to find that purpose and be a well addmitted business or even common humanity player along with http, html, and other *gods of internet*. what am i gonna be? tinderbox, clevercactus, radio userland and manila symbiotic ecstasy, or maybe amazon search agents

it's a technology. so it has its practical purpose: it seem that almost everyone agrees that rss 2.0 is good for *manually* crafted xml feeds and rss 1.0 was posed to be good for programs and for *industrial production* of xml feeds, therefore it do not require readability, but conformance with formal *specification contracts*. both are now waiting what the_thing_had_been_known_as_echo will put on the table and demonstrate what it can do *better* than two those *colledge sofamors*. meanwhile none of bodies mentioned, yet become more than news update feeds, along with pop3 and nntp, the only differnece that rss are carrying xml-ized hypertext and each message is hyperlinked to some source web page. it's time to grow again little buddy...

btw, readability is important when it is necessary to fix a bug in xml. and that's it... i always thought if xml produced by the program the cost of a bug (or manual mistake) is less than when xml is crafted manually. another purpose of readability is during attempts to *hack* some *undisclosed* xml semantics or figure out what's the hack are this data about...
and xml in the raw form will never be read by Mrs. Wong

Front Line Assembly
- Oblivion (Was It Worth It Mix)

Assemblage 23
- Opened (lyrics)

[DigitalGunfire ibroadcast] -- of course! hehe... [im]

steampowered by valve software

Steam is a broadband business platform for direct software delivery and content management. At its core, Steam is a distributed file system and shared set of technology components that can be implemented into any software application. With Steam, developers are given integrated tools for direct-content publishing, flexible billing, ensured-version control, anti-cheating, anti-piracy, and more. Steam consumers enjoy the benefit of starting their favorite applications within minutes of confirming their purchase. They can access their applications from any PC. They are no longer challenged to find the latest updates for these applications. And they no longer need to wonder if their device drivers are compatible with the latest software
VALVe Software

Where is the *bleeding* edge of the sofware nowadays? I think - in games programming. Those folks are getting the most powerful computers and squeeze out of them pure performance...

Neuroactive - Play

song of the moment

Diary Of Dreams - Mankind

[via DigitalGunfire ibroadcast]

am i the straightgayman?

in my recent post i've been grunting about ads on the pages and what they are for. the source of my grunting is the freaking color mismatch between overall page style (colors, fonts etc...) and the ugliness of an ad-widget. maybe i'm the straightgayman? i like cooking and plant veggies too! :)

re: ads. i think that the best is to allow users to choose from the ads categories. this model will give priceless feedback to ad sales of the hosting company, and the same time helps to filter out *crappy* products and fraud... fighting SPAM one user at a time. ;)

what is in your url? bragging about terminology... and *semantic*? web

(... today is the day of writings without capital letters)

you know, smtp and pop3 are for e-mail, nntp is a protocol for news, http is for *everything*, ftp is the one that everybody expect to be dead by now, but it still crawling around... :)

my big question for today is, why in urls http: and ftp:, but mailto: and news:?
does it seem more reasonable to have smtp: and nntp: instead, just because it have to be a protocol name? if so i'm still confused (or just pretending to play dumb) what is the news: protocol nntp or rss/rdf/echo?
or maybe better to have something opposite, - like xippertext: and bloodyblah: in addition to mailto: and newsgroup:
then we will have something like that - "you have to install bloodyblah client in order to view this stuff..."

you'd ask what's the point? the point is simple:
the main rule is, - all rules have exceptions...

if you build so-called program or created so called standard and expect it's prefect test it by applying the rule #1. if your creation is able to handle any exceptions - be proud you've build a really elegant thing...

PS: so even i know all the history of url standard development, - i'm still curious... what's up with thaaat?

Cheer Up! It's one of the hell Job Market!

"Letters of Rejection is a web application designed for venting frustration. The goal of this site is simple; to display failure in a laughable environment. It is not our policy, nor is it the point of this site to offend, anyone or any company." - it's one happy website... :)

waaaaazzup! neah, just reading...

5:10PM PST - some politics again...

COLEMAN CONCERNED RECORDING INDUSTRY’S RUBBER-STAMP SUBPOENAS INADVERTENTLY TARGET UNWARY CONSUMERS
Norm Coleman (R-MN): "Law of unintended consequences" may be needlessly threatening American citizens. [via blogcritics a post by Michelle Dittrich]

5:03PM PST - i've thought that i've been doing something useful ;)...

Procrastinology or Procrastiscience. Does a study of procrastination considered as utilization time?
Procrastination 101, Structured Procrastination, Procrastometer via Antony J Hicks's weblog

2:30PM PST - little break to continue my reading...

Bitstream Vera (it's a font) will be released for use under a special open license agreement, giving advanced font capabilities to all free and open source software developers and users. Here is something that's wierd - I've that font installed sometime ago and I still have it. Why the text refers to the future release?

J2EE or not J2EE? Hamlet is a sucker...

"For vendors to legally claim that their software is J2EE compatible their products must undergo a series of tests. Sun makes money on J2EE by administering those compatibility tests and licensing the logo to vendors.

Sun has claimed that JBoss misled customers by using the J2EE brand in its marketing materials without having performed the tests. JBoss, which sells consulting services based on the freely available JBoss application server software, had complained that Sun's licensing price for the testing suites was too high. It also argued that the value of J2EE certification was on the wane."

AOL 9.0 plastic surgery, - a Desperation for Love in Autumn.

America Online ...will begin offering its next-generation online service as part of its effort to rescue itself from plummeting online advertising revenue and a corroding narrowband subscriber base.

My Source of Visual Intoxication. Indeed!...

Now Cisco have something to buy. Who is next? Belkin?

Networking-technology maker Netgear raised $98 million in an initial public offering Thursday, posting a strong debut and contributing to some signs of life in the beleaguered initial public offering (IPO) market.

Leap for Cheap?... We cannot do outsourcing, because it will make our software cheap... Atta Boy!

More U.S. jobs at American technology and services companies will flow to developing countries, as offshore outsourcing becomes an attractive financial option, according to Gartner.
A study released by the research firm on Tuesday states that one out of every 10 jobs at information technology companies and at companies that provide IT services will move to emerging markets. It also forecast that one out of every 20 jobs within internal IT departments will shift overseas by the end of 2004.

Geekery Geekery Geee... mpt (by Matthew Thomas) is an excellent blog to read (if you are in a geeky mood ;) My favorites today: Keyboard Shortcuts with a link to a hilarious article from The Onion: The Area Man Knows All The Shortcut Keys. and the post about *cruft* in permalinks That's my kinda reading today... It makes me wonder... and discover another plцgg(s).

now a little new theme for SPAM letters... (oops! correction) i meant - political news...

Get rich quick! It's a new business in United States of Iraq - a tipster.
AP News: Two of Saddam Hussein's daughters took refuge in Jordan on Thursday, while the Bush administration approved a $30 million payment to the tipster who led U.S. troops to the deposed Iraqi leader's two sons.

NNTP//RSS and Bayesian Blog Classification

does OSX make developers more innovative?

Clutter by Sprote Rsrch.

"Clutter is a small MacOS X application that lets you put music CDs on your desktop. You can drag them anywhere -- they're really windows. Line them up neatly or put them in piles, it's your choice. Each one looks like the real CD's cover, and double-clicking it tells iTunes to play that CD.
Think of Clutter as an alternate user interface to your music collection. When deciding what to play next, instead of searching through a huge alphabetical list, let your eye roam over the covers of your favorite CDs and those you've been listening to recently."

Here is another one (also for MacOS X)
Eastgate Tinderbox: the tool for notes
The best feature of Tinderbox is Tinderbox's agents automatically scan your notes, looking for patterns and building relationships. Agents help discover relationships and help make sure important things don't get lost. Agents are easy to make and easy to modify. They're flexible and powerful.

NYT: Is It About to Rain? Check the Typeface

The parametrized typeface that morphs, - the concept is simple and very appealing. people in general like to change style: in fashion, in interior, and now in typeface... beatuful work...

NYT article: Is It About to Rain? Check the Typeface
"Residents of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul may soon have a new way to assess quickly if their summer picnic is about to turn frosty. A digital typeface developed for a local graphic-design competition can change in response to such real-world factors as temperature fluctuations and traffic conditions. When a heat wave is imminent, motorists passing an electronic billboard might view an advertising message with rounded letters, while rectilinear text might signal an approaching cold front.

Twin, as the interactive typeface is called, was created by Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum, co-founders of the Dutch design firm LettError. They were commissioned to develop Twin by the University of Minnesota Design Institute, which invited six designers to submit proposals last year for a civic typeface that would represent the urban area. Their idea was chosen, and the prototype was unveiled on Saturday at a typography convention. The prototype can be seen at the Design Institute's Web site (design.umn.edu)."

NYT: Techies by Necessity, Not by Choice

Techies by Necessity, Not by Choice
This article is a perfect illustration of a computer ugliness for the non-tech people...

Google Web Search Features