Mail Blues

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Well, I'm giving up for the night. Wrapping things up...

I started with .pst files on cd (well under the 2gb limit) and the goal was to import the .pst files into Evolution. The first obstacle was that Evolution simply wouldn't import the files. My prior post listed the options given to me by Ximian's support center and a quick google search - and they basically told me to get Mozilla or Netscape. That route had problems as well and I had to scrounge to find a Windows box with Outlook still on it.

Then began the arduous process of re-importing my .pst files one-by-one, because importing multiple files would've been too intelligent for some Redmond engineers to handle. Sigh. Once they were all imported into Outlook, I got to import the folders and messages into Mozilla - which intelligently enough, imported them all at once. Unfortunately, that's where Mozilla's intelligence ended. Instead of the .mbox format of previous versions, the latest version (1.5) stored the mail in .msf format - which Evolution can't import. Yuck.

So tomorrow I'll be reverting to an earlier version of Mozilla and starting the process all over again - simply because Microsoft hasn't learned its lesson regarding proprietary data formats, and the world hasn't learned its lesson regarding Microsoft. I need to research this new .msf format and find out why in the world Mozilla made the switch.

Interestingly enough, Apple's Mail.app uses the .mbox format. If i were switching from that, it'd be easy.

Website Syndication

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

A little late on this particular bandwagon, but I've finally signed up over at blogrolling.com. A new side panel has been added for my "techroll" - that is, the technical sites that I frequent and subscribe to via NetNewsWire.

Blogrolling has some nice include options - I'm using javascript, but that may change if this site ever goes php. I was also able to populate my first blogroll with an exported .opml file from NetNewsWire.

I've also installed NewsMonster on my linux-on-the-desktop box, err, laptop... though it doesn't appear to be working quite yet. I'll dig a little deeper later. Right now my mail filter process is just about done and I'm itching to see if I can get this stuff into Evolution.

Mail Fun(k)

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

The goal was simple, import my old Outlook .pst files into Ximian Evolution. It's a sort of Outlook clone, y'see. This should be simple, nay?

Evolution itself wouldn't import the .pst files, so I hit google in search of an answer. Word on the net says Netscape or Mozilla can handle these imports. No sweat, I say, Mozilla comes standard with RH and I'm all up-to-date with my patches. Let 'er rip. Nope. Won't work either. So I download Netscape - which believe it or not is up to version 7.1 now. Besides needing to use a netscape.net/AIM-network login to launch the app, it won't import the .pst either. Egads.

It seems there's no way to import a .pst into Evolution without quite a hassle. There's LibPST, but that seems like quite a hack and was last updated about a year ago. My other options restrict me to using a Windows machine - and they are Outport or Mozilla for windows. Why on earth Mozilla for Windows would allow you to import .pst's and Mozilla for linux would not, is beyond me.

Luckily, I brought two projects to entertain myself with tonight. The mail can wait, the really fun stuff is .opml, RSS feeds and php. Woo.

Panther Installation

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Panther came yesterday, so I backed up the data in my home dir on my laptop and installed it. The whole process took just over an hour and went without a hitch.

When reading the following, please keep in mind that the installation is being performed on an 800mhz Powerbook with a 1mb L3 cache and 512mb of RAM. Here's the breakdown:

Minutes/Action

• 1-15: 12+ gigs of home dir being backed up to firewire drive
• 16-33: Reboot, begin installation - skipping disc verification, I choose to erase and install from scratch.
• 33: Disc 1 prompts a reboot, finishes installing and asks for disc 2
• 33-48: Disc 2 goes through its installation process and finishes successfully
• 48-53: User interaction begins. I'm prompted to create a user, fill out product registration information, set up a network connection, and enter Mail configuration.
• 53: Finder launches for the first time and software update immediately launches itself.
• 53-58: Software update installs new iPod software, iSync 1.3, iTunes 4.1, and Security Update 2003-10-28 (which requires a restart). While this process is running, I begin to clean up my dock.
• 60-66: Disc 3 installation begins. I have chosen to install X11 and the additional fonts (as I can barely read some Arabic) - but not the additional drivers for ancient printers. While this process is running, I begin to explore the System Preferences and start personalizing my OS X experience.
• 66-79: I begin the XCode disc installation with the default settings. I continue to tinker with my System Prefs. Oddly enough, when I try to turn on FileVault it prompts me to log out and log back in - but the Installer cancels the logout request automatically and prompts me to tell me I'm an idiot. I shrug and let it finish.
• 80: Fully up-to-date, usable, Panther installation on my laptop. Hooray!

So there you have it. It takes an hour and twenty minutes to get Panther installed from scratch. Figure another half-hour or so of meticulously going through my backed up ~/Library to selectively restore preferences for applications like Safari, iCal, iChat, NetNewsWire and my Keychain... but while I'm doing that I can be installing Panther on my iMac.

Webalizer

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Today I got a localized copy of webalizer up and running on the web server.

I ran into a snag when the webalizer binary couldn't find libgd.so.2 even though I had compiled it with the --with-gdlib and --with-gd flags to point to the proper directory. With some minor messing about, it was quickly resolved by re-configuring with a new --prefix set. It's important to note that this snag was simply a result of my trying to install webalizer and gd into my $HOME dir instead of their rightful places in the system. Such are the constraints of not running your own server. :)

A few config files later and all three of my websites have usage statistics for the month of October. All that's left to do is set up and hourly cron to run the script for each of the sites using their respective config files. To be honest, I had no idea I had so many readers - and the search strings that found me are rather funny. Perhaps I'll compile a list of them.

Quick Change

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

I changed the CSS for the side menus because bolded links were beginning to wear on me. I've also changed the archive link format and added a list of categories.

I'm considering adding Google search results for the topics I blog about. It's a neat way to use the API, on the other hand, you're all perfectly capable of googling things yourself. Anyone have any thoughts?

RedHat 9.0 for the Desktop User

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Tonight in a fit of misguided geekdom, I resurrected my old ThinkPad, which had been kicking around my room. I didn't expect it to fully boot, but when it did, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity. With Panther on its way and my Yellow Dog installation a fun success, I felt it necessary to try out RedHat's desktop experience.

While I suffered none of the installation issues I had the other night with YDL, the ThinkPad doesn't seem as responsive as the iMac, which is odd since they're similarly spec'd. A pleasant surprise came when my Lucent Orinocco card was found and easily configured for wireless access.

With YDL using KDE, I chose Gnome for my RedHat installation, and I have to say I still like Gnome better. Maybe it's the fish.

Mozilla Firebird 0.7.1

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

I haven't used a Mozilla product in a while, but was prompted to do so today with the news of 0.7.1's release for Panther compatibility. It doesn't launch quite as fast as Safari, but once it's going navigation seems to be just as fast. Page rendering, however, is a tad slower.

Even though Firebird is a lightweight version of Mozilla, it still sports more features than Safari. If not for the speed issue, it'd be a toss-up as to which would become my primary browser.

Yellow Dog Linux

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

I'm typing this from Konqueror in YDL 3.0. There were some initial problems with Monitor detection and Screen configuration in the XF86Config file. Trolling around the ydl-lists I found the correct configuration and got myself up and running.

I was pleased when my XHTML standards-driven sites rendered properly. I was also pleased to find MT working smoothly.

After a celebratory bottle of root beer, I'll begin to tool around with my first Linux-on-the-desktop environment for the PPC.

Yellow Dog Linux & a Rebuilt Server

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Now that my legit copy of Panther has shipped I'm feeling the urge to explore new horizons. To that end I've begun a download of Yellow Dog Linux to run on my iMac. It looks neat, I just hope it doesn't destroy anything.

Meanwhile, I've built another server since the HD in my PowerEdge died. It's got RedHat 9 and I've begun configuring Apache, Jabber, PostgreSQL and MySQL. I'm also copying my backups from HQ over in order to build a repository of code. I've been given a verbal all-clear to display generic versions of the code I wrote for HQ on my site, so hopefully that'll give me something productive to do and maybe help in the search for finding the right job.

In My Dock

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Almost a month ago a craze swept the blog world, but I was too busy to take part. Rabid Mac users posted screenshots of their docks and explained what they have in them. I won't waste time with a screenshot, but my dock contains:

Finder, System Preferences, OtherTime, iPulse, iSync, Activity Monitor, iTerm, X11, VNCThing, iCal, AddressBook, Mail, Safari, NewNewsWire Lite, iChat, Psi, Fire, X-Chat Aqua, Sherlock, BBEdit, Stickies, TextEdit, Preview, Quicktime, iTunes

I order mine roughly by function. Since the new version of iPulse (of which I use the Tron.2 jacket), I've been keeping the iPulse window on my desktop and keeping the icon from rendering the changes in the dock.

Kilogram Scale

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

As happens so often this late at night, I've just had a relatively mundane eureka moment.

As I stared down at the nutrition information on a package of fake hot dogs, I realized the fat, protein, and all the rest of the good stuff was measured using the metric system.  Whereas I, like any good American, measure myself in pounds.

So rather than bother with unit conversions, I've decided to start keeping track of my weight using the metric system.  It should help me get a better grasp of the actual amounts I'm ingesting.

I just wanted to remind myself to find an appropriate scale.

Wong Kar-Wai

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

Julie and I have just finished watching Wong Kar-Wai's film Fallen Angels for the first time as a couple.  I first caught this flick late one night on IMC back when I was living in Murray Hill.

What initially drew me to the film was the blend of "kaleidoscopic" color, cinematography and the amazing soundtrack.  The fact that it was filmed in an urban asian locale (Hong Kong, which I had initially mistaken for Tokyo) was also a plus.

Jules loved the execution of the film and is looking forward to experiencing both the works that came before and after Fallen Angels.  As I've never seen anything else from this director, I'm quite intrigued as well.

(actually this entry was posted by jules and i together)

Minor Crisis

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

Nothing dreadfully serious, but Julie and I may be offline for the next few days.

Dell and the iPod Generations

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

stevenf has a great rant about Dell's iPod-clone (DellPod?) and online music store. I was quite taken aback to see the similarities between the iPod and the Dell Digital Jukebox. Shameless.

While Scotty awaits the delivery of his new 3rd-gen iPod, we briefly discussed the pros and cons of the connector design. The 2nd-gen iPod that I've used for almost a year now has a standard firewire port. This allows me to lose firewire cables at my leisure and replace them with a cheapy from the local Radio Shack. It also avails me the option of toting multiple firewire devices and only stowing a single cable.

The 3rd-gen iPod uses an icky Apple-proprietary connector between the iPod and the dock. This ickyness can almost be overlooked by the practical application is provides. The dock can then connect via USB or firewire. So, no more Windows- or Apple-only devices. This undoubtedly makes business-sense for Apple, but... icky.

Still, with my 20gb iPod maxed out, the 3rd-gen devices are mighty attractive for their disk space.

Panther Build 7B74

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

This one came in on 3 discs. The first disc was, again, the system disc. I decided to upgrade my 7B68 installation instead of installing fresh. The installation prompted me for the second disc, but errored out nicely when I didn't provide it.

After the first reboot, I was presented with the newly-styled Apply logo at the login prompt. I then installed the third disc (skipping the second for now, as it would only have applications on it) which, alas, did not include XCode. However, it did include an X11 with true GUI-system integration. Very slick.

On to disc two, which actually included the new versions of iCal (1.5) and iSync (1.2) which are rumored to be days away for release on 10.2 systems. I got to play with the new iCal for a bit and think the improvements make it much more usable. I'll blog a bit later about the specific improvements, when I actually have it in front of me. I did not get to play with iSync, since my iMac is not my production machine and has no AddressBook entries, iCal calendars, or Safari bookmarks. Come to think of it, I don't have any mail accounts set up on it either, which means I haven't had a chance to play with the new version of the Mail client. I'll have to look into that.

Panther Build 7B68

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Much much much better than the alpha that was released at Apple's 2003 WWDC. Here's a list of what I've found in the first two hours of playing:

• The system itself is both more stable and more responsive.
• The new DVD player seems to lack the memory leak of the old one.
• The new Finder has a less-buggy implementation of the column view.
• The Accounts prefpane now has user limitations implemented.
• The Simple Finder limitation for Guest users is pretty slick.
• Fast-user switching is, well, faster.
• Default bash shell.
• echo $SHELL /bin/bash
• Expose's desktop feature doesn't completely hide open windows.
• The new Activity Monitor has a process filter and is more usable in general.

Phew. Fantastic. I can't wait until they release this to the general public.

BitTorrent

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

BitTorrent has some flaws, but what p2p app doesn't?

I was exposed to trackers and seeds and .torrent files and all sorts of oddities while trying to figure out how to get what I wanted.

A tracker is a service (web, app) provided by a server to categorize and keep track of the seeds that people are offering, the number of current downloads, and meta-data of that variety.

A seed is a file-for-offering. The first time a specific file is made available via the server, a hash is made. When people complete a download of the file, a checksum is run against the original seed's hash to validate the download.

To download a file, you'll need its .torrent - which is a pointer back to the BitTorrent server which brokers a connection with users who have what you need. As you download the file, you're also uploading the same file to others as brokered by the server. This is the first problem I encountered.

I don't mind sharing, but the issue is that the download turns into a pyramid scheme. There's a broad base of users who have some of the file, but only a few users who have all of it. Therefore, the beginning of your download is pretty snappy - but the more you download, the fewer the sources you can download from and the slower your download goes.

For a whole day and a half I was stuck at 94.8% of my file download waiting for someone to come online who had the last 5.2% of the file. Such aggravation!

The next drawback is that you just can't be sure of the validity of the file you're downloading. Just because the checksum against the original seed passes, doesn't mean you'll have downloaded any meaningful data. This isn't a BitTorrent-specific problem, but it's one I encountered when the installation disc I burned from the .dmg I downloaded didn't pass its internal validation process - which, luckily for me, was a skippable step of the installation.

What have I learned? Depending on what you want, it may be difficult to find trackers. Once you've found the right tracker, you still can't be sure you're getting what you want.

P2P user: "I also like to live dangerously."

Yesterday's Adventures

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

Yesterday was an interesting day.

Julie had a "girl's night out" with some of her friends at a festival in the city.  I stayed at her place for a bit and hung out with her mom and sisters.  Her mom beat me at Scrabble, again, and I watched the first two Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy episodes with her sisters.

Later on, Cory and I ended up watching Dead Man, a strange black and white film starring Johnny Depp as an accountant accused of a double-murder out on the western frontier.  I won't stoop to call Depp's performance "quirky," but he plays an odd character in an intriguing way.  The movie had plenty of hilarious moments, but the most striking thing was the feeling that it portrayed life in the American West much more realistically than your average Hollywood western.

After a few games of billiards, and a few rounds of Soul Calibur 2, Cory took off and I headed upstairs to check my various downloads.  I was pleased and confused to find my download of Cornelius' new PM album showing up in my "uploads" pane - when it didn't even show as being finished in the "downloads" pane.  Lo and behold, I had a complete copy of it that never registered as being downloaded.  Twilight zone.  It's an interesting album, but definitely not easy-listening Cornelius-style.  The best bit was when I went to cornelius-sound.com and found the flash link.  My favorite little game is the lightning-bug one - I spent a good 15 minutes making music with Cornelius.  What a great time.

I went to sleep and woke up to a completed Panther 7B68 build download, well, CD1 of it at least.

Radiohead Rorschach

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

It is no longer possible to have an original opinion on Radiohead, or so this article claims.

Someone subjected fifth-graders to Radiohead music and had them draw out what the music invoked in them.  Some of them are quite interesting, but what interested me most was the lack of color.  Eleven out of eleven pictures were done in black-and-white, which seems to indicate the children weren't given color media to use in the task.  Wonder why...

Safari's Auto-Tab

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Here's a Safari feature that I just ran across today that has a very slick implementation. It's called Auto-Tab, and you can turn it on inside the Bookmarks pane.

Basically what it does is take a sub-folder of your Bookmarks Bar and turns it into a button instead of a context-menu in the bar itself. Normally the sub-folders of the Bookmarks Bar are displayed with a down-arrow to the right of them, indicating that if you click-and-hold, you'll get a menu of the items in the sub-folder. Auto-tabbing turns the down-arrow into a square, and changes the functionality from a menu to a button. Pressing the button loads all of the items inside the sub-folder in tabs of the current window.

So what? Mozilla does bookmark groups, too. Indeed, but the implementation is simply less polished.

I'm now using a mix of sub-folders and auto-tabbed folders in my Bookmarks Bar.

Quick and Easy

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

With the experience gained from setting up ninjafish, it was quick and easy to rebuild the MT installation for this site.

I've created category archives, and re-done the archival structure of individual and monthly entries. I'm sure there'll be some CSS kinks to work out, but I'll deal with them as I find them.

Testing New Blog Layout

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

This is a test of the emergency blog-redesign system. If this were an actual redesign, sirens would be going off.

Stereolab's New EP, Site Update

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

It's called Instant 0 in the Universe.

It comes out the day before Naqoyqatsi, and there are RealAudio files on their website for a nice preview of what's to come.  I listened to them all today, which was quite a welcome break from the hectic household.

Yes, today we found the betta fish on google and photoshopped it together and added it to the site.  It took me quite a while to find the picture of the waves at the bottom of the side bar, but once I did, it was pretty easy to implement.  And yes, Microsoft's IE gave me issues when implementing standards-based CSS.  The bastards.

Site Update

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

Where to begin?

First, I exported all the entries from bigbadgeek and imported them to ninjafish.  Then I culled the ones related to technology or my tech-studies.  Later, I'll need to cull the non-tech entries from bigbadgeek.  Then I went through the remaining entries and categorized them, creating new categories as I went.

Then I went through the MT config, got Google searching working and chose a Creative Commons license for the site.  I chose the ShareAlike license, which means I'm withholding rights from anyone who won't share their derivative works in a similar fashion.  BTW, very cool of Six Apart to include built-in CC licenses with MT.

Still need to show Julie how this all works so she can start posting.

Testing Kung-Log

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

Just testing Kung-Log with the Ninjafish installation.  I'm hoping that the archival system works with KL, I can't see why it wouldn't.  I still have XHTML/CSS validating to do.

Timing

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

You were off by just a bit, dear.  I had leftovers around 4:30, just finishing now.

This evening I've been playing Soul Calibur 2 on the GameCube.  Fun, fun, fun.  I've unlocked all but one character, but I've got quite a ways to go.  I've left three high-level dungeons for tomorrow, and then I simply must catch up on my chores/studies.

I've also got to move the MT entries over and put up a "reconstructing" sign on bigbadgeek.

But now that I'm dozing off, I'm not really in the mood for either of the Qatsi movies - but I did find out that Naqoyqatsi is being released on October 14th.  Let's mark our calendar!

I'm putting AYBS? in and drifting off to sleep.  G'night.

New Archival System

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

Thanks in no small part to Joi Ito, I've set ninjafish up with a better way of archiving our entries.  Granted, he basically told me to RTFM, but he did it in a genuinely nice way, and that's what really matters, isn't it?

For the record the string I'm using for the individual entries is:

<$MTArchiveDate format="%Y/%m/%d"$>/<$MTEntryTitle dirify="1"$>

Pretty neat, I think.  Now that I've tinkered a bit more with MT 2.64, I'm thinking of adding a Creative Commons license and replacing my standard MT search with a Google search via the Google API.  It's about time I put that dev key to some use, I figure.

Third Test Entry

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

Alright, just about everything seems to be up and running for the main page.  I've created a new user because MT has silly ways of dealing with user information and I didn't feel like going through the db and updating what needed updating.

I'm still going to be screwing around with the CSS to get it just right.  Perhaps later tonight or tomorrow I'll try the MT export/import process to move my entries over from bigbadgeek.com.

Second Test Entry

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

hmm, first entry didn't show up after the blog was re-built.  investigating by adding another entry.  please bear with me.

Test Entry

(originally posted at ninjafish.org)

the first test entry for ninjafish.org.

meanwhile in the background, wil wheaton as wesley crusher is putting the moves on some princess in the holodeck while her shape-shifting bodyguard is strangling lieutenant worf.

MS Bites Back

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Got a kick out of an article over at Infoworld called Microsoft releases Windows Rights Management client.

Here's the kicker:

When detailed in February, Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) was described as technology for Windows Server 2003 designed to give enterprises the means to secure internal business information such as financial documents.

Richard M. Stallman couldn't be reached for comment, but I wonder how pissed he is about this. When I think RMS, I think of a man who fights for open standards and open software - definitely not a rights management package designed to restrict what users can or can't do with their software and documents.

I really can envision a team of MS jerks sitting around late one night trying to come up with a suitably "closed" product to attach RMS to. Evil, I say, just evil.

Change is Afoot!

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

In a previous entry I spoke of a new project space.  I've registered ninjafish.org for use as a personal space for myself and Julie.  That means new email addresses and all that jazz.  It also means this blog is moving, and that Big, Bad, Geek will be born anew, as my technical/professional outlet - complete with resume, sample code, and blog-as-I-learn journal.  Consequently, both sites will tend to be in a state of disarray until everything is sorted out.  Meanwhile, I need to thank David of Lucifer Media Corp. for helping me find the right place for everything and getting everything set up and working properly.  Also, I'm rather excited to have gotten Kung-Log working, as it'll make managing the blogs on each individual site just that much easier.  Hooray!  Anyway, please by patient during the move - which could happen at a moment's notice.  Keep you on your toes, I will.

Test from Kung-Log

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Very strange problems getting Kung-Log working - we'll see if this gets posted or not...

Update: wow, it works... but it has revealed a potential issue with my CSS... testing.

Updated Update:  nope, it's just hoe kung-log interprets line breaks.  it'll just take some getting used to.  this is a keep app that i should have gotten up and running earlier.  xml-rpc sounds like a difficult thing to implement, but just RTFM'ing gets it over and done with rather painlessly.

ChumpBot

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

I found this tasty Google-culture morsel from the #joiito chump bot. It sits in the chan, listens for URLs and blogs them for later perusal via XML feed.

Apparently the bot also allows IRC users in the channel to post comments on the link which are reflected on the blog. Neat.

RSS Feeds A'Comin'

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Tonight I headed over to DailyRotation and picked up the rest of the news feeds I'd been missing since I switched to using NetNewsWire Lite as my aggregator.

They're organized into the following categories: Apple, Development, Devices, Group Blogs, Personal Blogs, Technology News. I've got 70 feeds total for my own futuristic Personal Newspaper.

I figure eventually I'll head over to BlogRolling and sign up for an account. I'll split my Personal Blog list up into people I actually know and the online personalities I merely keep tabs on.

In other news, I heard from Nora today and she's back in NYC and getting ready for school - which is a relief. Also; Friendster mysteriously started working with Safari today. I haven't gotten an email back from the team, but I suppose whatever was broken is now fixed. Hooray!

Bug Report to Friendster

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Yesterday I finally got around to submitting a bug report to Friendster for their incompatibility with Apple's Safari browser.

It's not a difficult problem, either. The Safari browser has a security mechanism that disallows a page to automatically redirect to a page that redirects back to the first page - which, apparently, is a method that Friendster utilizes for their login script. There are certainly ways around this.

I was pleased with the quick response from the Friendster team - not quick enough to be an automatic kickback, but definitely a scripted response of some sort. Anyway, it's the thought that counts. We'll see if they get it fixed. I'm sure they'll be glad to be getting a bug report that's unrelated to their database issues for a change.

FCC Feels Bad for AOL

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Awww, merger didn't turn out to be as good as you all hoped? Here, we'll lift some of the merger restrictions for you... no hard feelings?

I see this as a mixed blessing. AOL was supposed to work towards interoperability with the other major IM networks (Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ.. err wait, they own that one) before they were allowed to implement video chat capabilities to their AIM client. That was a stipulation of the AOL/TW merger. Fact.

Now, AOL sneakily got around the video chat ban by allowing Apple to license and use their network with Apple's iChat AV client. But let's face it, Apple's hardly a market, hardly a demographic. Since it was Apple's client and not AOL's that was implementing the video conferencing feature, the FCC didn't really notice or care.

Fast-forward a few months and Apple's iChat AV is a hit, people love it, it gets rave reviews from the Wird's and C|Net's of the world, and AOL sees an opportunity to poke and prod the FCC and see if they can get the restriction dropped. "Woe is me," cries AOL, "we're losing customers because we can't get our act together." A few days later the FCC votes to drop the restriction.

Back to the mixed blessings bit - this shows what everyone knew to already be true: the FCC are a bunch of wimps. On the plus side, I'm betting that Apple will actually help AOL to implement standards-based voice and video chat to make it interoperable with Apple's iChat AV client. It would be disasterous for Apple to have its user base cut off from the rest of the AIM network for voice and video. At the same time it's an opportunity for Apple to show off how much more advanced their iChat AV client and iSight webcam really are. Win-win for Apple.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

PeopleSoft to Use AOL IM

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

PeopleSoft harnesses AOL IM

At first I was shocked that they hadn't chosen Jabber - especially after taking a look at the big-name companies that did. However, I think this makes more sense if looked at from a marketing/legal standpoint than a technological one.

AOL's IM brand is far-and-away more used and recognized than any other service. On the other hand, being extensible in nature, Jabber allows for AIM-transport components at the server level. Of course, that could become a legal hassle for enterprise clients, as transports are usually written by reverse-engineering a proprietary protocol. Sigh.

It would be nice to get my hands on some AOL Enterprise IM software, just to figure out the leeway given to AOL's enterprise clients.

Bots, Bots, Everywhere

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

It started back in the day of the old #blade channel (efnet) for the online art group Blade Nation. The bot was called, I think, y0da-1. You could talk to the bot and it'd make fun of you.

Lately, bots seem to be getting a whole lot more functionality thanks to API's and XML-RPC and the like. Over in #virus on irc.lucifer.com there's the LogLady - Twin Peaks inspired - who, when voiced, records everything anyone says into a database that's searchable on the web. The channel also has googlebot, which was written in Python and uses the Google API to send queries and format responses.

But lately, spurred on by my quest to master Jabber and become a part of the social software community, I've been hanging out in #joiito on irc.freenode.net. There, lives the open source Python bot: Jibot. That's right, check the link and bask in the glory of what this bot can do. Then head on over and read Kevin Marks' entry on Social Botware, which does a damn good job of describing the channel's dynamic and how the bot has fit into it and ultimately helped shape it.

And if you're asking yourself why I'm awake and blogging so early, it's to vicariously attend the Supernova conference on decentralization.

AOL Will Blog

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Oh yes, AOL Will Blog.

Forget for a moment about their lack of IM interoperability. Forget the way they've mismanaged the WinAmp and Netscape products. Apparently, they're gonna do blogging right. Nevermind that people have been posting to blog-like pages via IRC and Jabber for ages...

AOL users can use their homestead pages, Apple iChat users can post to .Mac, win-win-win. Would be nice if they use the Blogger API with XML-RPC for users to choose their own site to post to... on the other hand, it's another chance for a large company to lock-in users.

It'll be interesting. I'm eagerly awaiting screenshots.

june studies & the panther shots

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

if you pay attention to my sidebar you'll have seen that i'm reading up on java in an attempt to teach myself. i've been using Sun's tutorials to get a good handle on the underlying concepts. the osx for java geeks book is simply steering me on my platform of choice.

i've also begun reading the programming jabber book to get a good handle on the jabber protocols and server architecture. osx's address book application has a place-setting for jabber addresses, but i'm not holding my breath for jabber integration with iChat. best that can be done is make an iChat-clone until Apple gets on board. of course, i'm not sure it's in Apple's best interest to play around with Jabber. AOL might have an exclusive agreement for the iChat client. Or maybe Jabber just doesn't have the critical mass at this point to warrant the development effort. it's a shame i didn't get into jabber when i was still with HQ, i could've whipped up a dilly of a support-bot.

and this morning at 6am, before i went to bed for the evening, i came across the leaked screenshots of Apple's next OS release codenamed Panther (templink). i'm very intrigued by the Expose feature, which uses some Quartz magic to show you scaled-down and geographically-placed versions of all your windows so you can see what you've got open. the new metallic Finder also looks pretty interesting, although not many people seem to like it.

Folder actions are back, though as they were an OS 9 feature, I've never used them before. The basic idea is that you can associate a script with a folder. Say, "every item in this folder, ftp to my web server," and you've got an instant drag-and-drop scripted addition to the OS. Seems pretty slick. Labels are also back, but I don't think I'll make much use of the feature.

A new version of iChat is also on the horizon, but I don't think Jobs will announce ICQ compatibility this Monday. Since the Panther release isn't slated until September, there's plenty of time to implement the protocol, especially if AOL cooperates. Hope springs eternal.

HTML fun

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

as i said, i've been reading o'reilly's definitive guide to html & xhtml in an attempt to bring my mad skills back up to speed.

two new bits that i thought were interesting were...

this tag, which prints things right-to-left instead of left-to-right

and this tag...

which you may see once, or you may see twice, depending on your browser

which you may see once, or you may see twice, depending on your browser :)

keen, eh?

technology in the wild

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

over the past week or so, i've seen two relatively new bits of technology in the wild that i've not seen before.

the first is the danger hiptop, a portable device for all your geekish needs. i passed a ghetto thug on 3rd ave who was walking with one in his teeth. the world's a strange place.

the second was a strange IBM product called a TransNote. a strangely-dressed man on the subway brought his out and it immediately caught my attention. the screen was so flat! simply amazing. he tooled around with it for a while and i went back to my book.

the last strange piece was an Apple Newton - which, as old as they are, i'd never actually seen anyone use one in public. scandalous! i couldn't imagine anyone lugging around a PDA that size.

in other news; i've got a website re-design in mind, if i ever find the time. the denizens of the #virus chatroom on irc.lucifer.com helped me come up with a few new definitions for my initials - crw. my favorite was "creativity running wild," and perhaps i'll incorporate that into the site design. those wacky virians. they're not unlike michael palin's description of monty python fans: "intellectuals, insomniacs... y'know... burglars."

technology update

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

i'm typing this from apple's new safari browser.

it lacks tabs, but is still only in beta and is faster and more stable than any other OSX browser. it has the best bookmark organization utility i've ever seen.

i managed to catch the second half of the macworld keynote by steve jobs today. 802.11g, new powerbooks, and firewire 800 were all announced. i'm interested in talking my company into buying me one of the new 12" powerbooks as a portable desktop replacement so i don't have to continue to bring my 15" powerbook to and from work. i don't think i'd be able to make it through the work day without OSX by my side. whether they'll go for it or not, remains to be seen. :)

apple also released a beta version of an X11 binary. i've already worked through replacing XDarwin with their new binary, and i've got ported versions of native linux apps running alongside OSX apps pretty seamlessly. no small feat for someone of my command-line ineptitude! i also installed FinkCommander tonight to keep better track of the ported apps at my disposal.

apple keeps moving in the right direction. one of my favorite quotes from the keynote speech was "some other guys don't like open source, but we love it." mhmm. other guys indeed.

Rewind

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

year in review. noteworthy things.

2002 was the year i achieved a greater amount of balance in my life.  thanks in no small part to the sudden cognitive shift of being without an aram.  he was fired on 6/21 and those of us who worked for him refer to that day as six-twenty-one, as the impact of his sudden removal was similar to nine-eleven.

that evening i went home and had a new energy in me.  i took up fuzz's bike and rode for miles and miles and it felt so good.  every day for weeks after that i did the same.  biking before and after work.

my outlook on the company changed that day as well.  management took action to make a positive change for the team and the department as a whole.  i didn't think they ever would.  since then, however, things have continued to slide downhill and my faith in the company as a whole has continued to decline.  as i've recently come to ask myself - if i'm a technologist, what am i doing working for a real estate company?

outside of work, this year has seen an increase in my own personal studies.  i realized that studying was exactly what i've been doing.  once that realization hit, i was able to focus my energy more acutely.  when i took a look at what i'd been studying and why, i realized that i couldn't be doing these studies in a vacuum and began to get further involved in the extropian/transhumanist community.

luckily, i got in on the ground floor of the New York Transhumanist Association and met a wonderful gentleman named Mike Treder.  i look up to mike as a sort of role model.  he's very active in the aforementioned communities and will be able to independently guide my studies to keep me on track and prevent me from going off the deep end.  being involved in NYTA, i've been fortunate enough to meet some really Interesting People and participate in stimulating conversations.

on a personal front, dave and i lost fuzz as a roommate but alex has moved in.  in a way, i feel bad that they're stuck with me.  however, space in nyc isn't cheap and they're living together for the first time - so i think it suits us all.

my relationships with the three women who are closest to me (not counting mom, of course) all strengthened this year.  jenelle and i had our ups and downs as she struggled through to the end of her relationship with joe.  at the end of that relationship she had a very traumatic experience which, strangely enough, could keep her from returning to joe in the future.  i haven't quiet explored the depths of that, but it's definitely interesting.  jenelle's my best friend and i love her dearly.

laurie and i continued to get to know each other.  we've had a few opportunities to meet which we've let slip by us.  she allows me to be myself and we've reached a certain level of trust where we can talk about damn-near anything.  she's tech-savvy and continues to have good aesthetic taste, and it all leads to some interesting conversation.  hell, i'm talking to her right now. :)

tina and i also continued to get to know each other.  being online has opened up channels of communication that i didn't know were possible.  as i've watched her struggle through various situations in her life, i've come to admire and respect her strength as much as i already admired and respected her creativity.

towards the end of the year i've made an attempt to be more social - culminating in some new friendships.  i finally met kathy of kochanie.org.  somehow, nora managed to find me online and we met and have seen each other a few times.  she's such a gifted artist - i really and truly believe her and tina could become close friends.  imagining them working together on a piece of art... it would be magical.  and through some strange coincidence i managed to meet angela - who i'm also talking to online at the moment.  hi angela! :)

as late as last night, i also met julie, who's quite an interesting person... but i'll get to that story in the next post.

so 2002 saw some positive changes in my life that i'm grateful for.  although the biggest negative part of the year continued to be the work situation, i have a feeling that in the long run that negativity will turn out to be the catalyst that propels me into my next venture.  green pastures, and all that.  always in my mind i'm thankful that i'm still employed.

Time Travel

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

i left home this evening in 2002 and returned in 2003.  reminds me of the calvin and hobbes strip where calvin tries to go through time in his wagon by racing down a steep hill.  when he came to the bottom he was in the future.  i like that.

i'm not too coherent, but i'm home; safe and sound and even sober.

i had a most wonderful evening and will share it in detail after i get some rest.  in the meantime, laurie's had a good idea for some year-end journal entries, so go take a look.  i'll be following her lead tomorrow.

ooh, i almost forgot.  some of you who read this may know my former classmate and co-worker (and all-around nice guy) scotty allen - well, he's set himself up a journal - and you can take a look at that too.  he's traveling around the world (in laos right now, he says) so his adventures may be of interest to a particular few people who should know who they are. :)

Anti-Globalization

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Opening of SMART Letter #80 - Trans-Pacific tour, part one:

"I'm distressed that huge multinational corporations have given globalization a bad name.  Notwithstanding, people who oppose tyrannosauric actions of big companies ought to stop calling themselves "anti-globalization."  Globalization itself is a fact.  There are more ways to be globalized than there are to be American; some of them are wise, human and life-affirming, while others are toxic, taxic, imperialistic and exploitive.  Most of the time it is easy to tell which is which.  We share a small, beautiful planet "Anti-globalization" sounds so head-in-the-sand.  C'mon people.  You're not against cheap, easy, international air travel or instantaneous international communications are you?  If you're SMART you're not against treating our planet as a single complex system.  I hope you're not anti-roundness or anti-blue or anti-anybody-but-your-own-tribe.  Let's find a better descriptor!"

That's by a fellow by the name of David Isenberg.  I've read a bit of his stuff lately via cross-posts on the transhumantech list.  I see further down in SMART Letter #80 that there's a section on Japan, so I'll be interested in reading that.

Suffice it to say, I'm definitely pro-globalization - just not in its current form.  As dkp reminded me yesterday - "nothing gets done right the first time."  I guess it's just a matter of surviving the first time.

The following two lines satisfy re-distribution criteria on the quote from David Isenberg:

Copyright 2002 by David S. Isenberg

isen@isen.com -- http://isen.com/ -- 1-888-isen-com

The Family Music Collection

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

my father, aiming to clean out the former music room in our house for his new office, has seen fit to hand down his old music collection to me.  this is very exciting.  i've never really had much experience with vinyl and practically none with reel-to-reel tape, but now i'll have a chance.

i plan to bring the stuff back to nyc, buy a decent turntable, and digitize the rare stuff in my spare time.  i'll also be bringing the reel-to-reel recorder with me to fool around with.  i'll be able to record stuff, make loops, experiment like some of the forefathers of electronic music did.

very exciting indeed.

Japan's Dark Valley

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Yesterday i got to reading about Japan's "Showa Era" (1926-1989).  Showa means "Enlightened Harmony."  The Japanese now call it Kurai Tanima, or the Dark Valley.  It's interesting to draw parallels between earlier empires and present-day America.  Here's a sample of the text that I found particularly interesting:

Faced with international opprobium, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933.  Ultranationalism, resentful in its isolation, became more focused.  Efforts were made to purge Japan of foreign concepts and words; regressing to nationalistic Meiji-era emperor worship, education promulgated historical disinformation (mythical emperors and warriors were presented as fact) and the glorification of the Japanese race.

This eventually lead to a deviation into empire-building which was corrected through the Pacific war and the nuclear attacks on Japan.

The interesting part is the reason why they were faced with "international opprobium."  Japan had its mind set on annexing a part of China known as Manchuria.  In 1931, the Japanese army staged a sabotage of a railroad in Guangdong, China - which gave them an excuse to move in and take over.

What instantly sprang to mind was the current American administration.  We've got our minds set on war with Iraq, and now we're just looking for the right way to sell it to the American people.

That's the difference between an Empire and a Representative Democracy.  An Empire only needs to convince the international community that what it's doing is right.  A representative democracy needs to convince its representatives and the people they represent as well.  Truth be damned, sell them the story you want them to hear.

Thinking about it, it's hard not to personify countries.  You see America being sort of punch-drunk and out-of-control, not knowing how to behave under the circumstances.  You can look at Empires the same way.  When they get far enough out of line, the rest of the world corrects the problem.

When it's America's turn, I'd rather be with the rest of the world.

Family Ritual Yields Holiday Loot

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

news at 11.

i'm sitting in the kitchen of the only home i've known since birth.  listening to the city of lost children soundtrack.  my fish swim around my desktop and keep me company.

we had a new addition to the family this year - my sister's boyfriend.  i have to admit that it made me rather uncomfortable to have him with us during our unwrapping ritual.  but the discomfort is unwarranted, and i realize that.  just triggered a little cognitive dissonance, that's all.  i can't say "this holiday is religious bullshit and materialism" and then complain about "the way it should be."  and so i concede that christmas is whatever we want it to be.

...on to the loot!

• The Golden Bough
• Falling Out of Cars
• The Libertarian Reader
• Black Holes & Time Warps
• Seth Speaks
• After Capitalism
• The Mystery of Capital
• Globalization and its Discontents
• The Universe in a Nutshell
• The Annotated Alice
• Everything You Know is Wrong

...all books from my wishlist.  Running from political theory and economics to philosophical and spiritual, making stops at anthropology, physics and fiction along the way.

I'm most interested in reading Falling Out of Cars, which is Jeff Noon's latest work, which my mother went to the trouble of importing for me.

But now I must go, I'm being summoned to brunch.  Happy holidays, all.

hooray!

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

i love when things just work.

today i sat down and wrote out the second part of a reporting script with a  decent amount of intelligence for a work-related project.  and it just worked.  no real debugging or re-writing was required.  felt great.  i'm really getting a good grasp of perl and having fun at the same time.  go fig.

anyway, it just makes my job easier and the reports empower the field team to take responsibility for a certain portion of their job which as been lacking.  feels even better.

i'm about to head out and pick up groceries for a salad i'm making for the family tomorrow.  we've gotten a little snow and the driving was a bit tricky last night... but it looks beautiful out.

i'm sure i'll be posting more over the next few days.

cold weather

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

it's quite late and i'm tired, but i felt like posting a quick update.

i've been slowly battling through my email during the day and hanging out with cory at night.  we rented some video games - metroid prime, being the most fun of the bunch, and we've been taking turns battling through it.

new media acquired today.  the serial experiments of lain dvd box set.  i've only seen the first 3 episodes, but i just couldn't resist.  who says piracy hurts sales?

also; i picked up The National Geographic Traveler: Japan... which I've been reading through this evening.  i'm not quite sure yet whether or not i'd be able to function in japanese society.  but it sure is a romantic escapist dream...

time for sleep.

vacation, errata, japan

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

well, for the most part, i'm done with work until after the holidays.  quite a stressful time, but i suppose this time of year always is.  i've been more and more dissatisfied with my work environment and i'm beginning to seriously consider a change.

the only problem is, the market is awful right now.  american foreign and domestic policies are... well, disturbing.  i just feel like less and less at ease with where i am in life and in the world.

my thoughts have taken me back to japan, which was a teenage obsession of mine.  seems more and more feasible.  i've read a bit about it, talked to some americans in japan and native japanese people online, and have searched for jobs in the country.  surprisingly, there were a few posts for exactly the kind of work i'm interested and skilled in.

so what to do?  who knows... bide my time and save some cash.  research japan and perhaps a new industry to migrate to.

in the meantime, laurie's visiting nyc with her husband.  i won't get to meet her which will be twice our paths have unsuccessfully crossed.  it's a shame, really.

jenelle, dave and i had middle eastern food for dinner and i'll be packing for our trip back to rochester shortly.  i've tried to meet interesting people from rochester online with little success... i'll give it some more time.  maybe i'll find a way to have fun on my vacation.

public service announcement

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

you.  yes you.  the lady i saw on the train yesterday.  you're an elderly lady.  maybe you've got some nerve damage, maybe it's another type of problem...

but you had a tic.

i shouldn't have noticed.  i wouldn't have noticed.  i shouldn't have stared.  but i did.

for those of you out there where this may apply, please heed my advice:  i fyou have a nervous tic or some other medical condition that makes your head jerk around in a spastic manner... do not wear dangly earrings.

you're only drawing attention to yourself.  if your dangly earrings are long enough, they may even whip around and catch the person seated next to you in the eye.

be mindful, and good luck overcoming your ailments.

the stupidity tax

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

jenelle arrived yesterday.

her train was delayed five hours.  i sat.  and sat.  in penn station.  i read from eliezer's work "levels of organization in general intelligence" and ran down the batteries on my ipod.

the manitoba song "people eating fruit" reminded me of a coincidence i had with nora during her last visit, so i left her a voicemail.

i sat at penn station, in the courtyard of the restaurant just beyond the main junction area.  my table was directly adjacent to the hudson news' lottery machine next door.  i was amazed to see the people who came up to the lottery machine.  the moral struggle that crossed their faces as they tried to decided whether to spend just one more dollar.  they all looked down on their luck.  just a bit behind in the game of life.  some of them looked downright pathetic.  i was reminded of the saying regarding the lottery being a tax on stupidity.

anyway, last night jenelle and i went grocery shopping and made salad and fell asleep watching koyaanisqatsi together.  it was wonderful waking up in her arms again.  she felt comfortable being close to a friend whom she could trust not to get too physical.  today we met for lunch and i bought a virgin wool hat and scarf set.  the scarf is 90" long and fantastically soft.  the colors are a bit off for me, but i needed something new and we stumbled on them walking around the christmas shops in bowling green.

tonight we made dinner (i even helped a little) - cajun chicken, cous cous with toasted pine nuts, and a salad.  it was fabulous.  i felt bad that dave and alex couldn't join us, but jenelle was most understanding.  after that we cuddled up and watched royal tenenbaums.

tina thinks i'm obsessed with the movie.  she knows me better than i let on.  she started work at a daycare today.  she's been avoiding my questions about it, but i do hope she enjoys the work.

regarding royal tenenbaums, i do need to expound on why the movie touches me so much.  i'll save that for a later date.

quick redesign

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

just a quickie.  pulled a div here and there.  added some spacing, did a little indenting... just minor stuff that had annoyed me with this layout.

Thanks a lot, see you later

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

i slept a good 14 hours and feel totally refreshed.  i woke up to an empty house, but soon alex and dave were back with a breakfast croissant for me - which i had with a strawberry yogurt smoothie.

talked to tina for a bit.  josh and angela, too.  watched dave trying to catch a mouse.

quite an eventful morning.

and soonish i need to start getting ready for jenelle's visit.  she gets here tomorrow.  i'm more than excited.

the title of this entry is what mary said after the encore performance of come and play in the milky night, when they played it in sweden on september 18th, 2001.  i've got a bootleg, if you're interested.  perhaps my favorite bootleg.

Digital Snowstorm

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

I couldn't really focus at work today.  I've had a headache since I woke up.  But I found new OSX drivers for my old USB webcam... which I had to pay for!  They were cheap, but I've never paid for drivers before.

Anyway, I took some pictures and fooled around in my *ahem* legal copy of photoshop.  And the above is the result.  After grayscaling it, I just played with the curves, contrasts, and levels until I was happy with the result.  The picture was taken in my office, sitting at my desk.

Obituary

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

the Independent has an obituary for mary.

also; her family asks that donations be made to CanTeen - a charity for the younger sufferers of cancer.

the more i listen, the more i wonder what the future of stereolab will sound like without her.

Remembrance

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

On the 9th of December, 2002, Mary Hansen died.

It was a cycling accident, in London.

For those of you who don't know, Mary was a vocalist/guitarist with Stereolab.  She masterfully provided the offset harmonies that supported the melodies sung by lead singer Laetitia Sadier.

This is very sad indeed.  The whole magic of Stereolab was in the subtle complexity of interwoven harmonies and melodies.  The music was written in a style that considered the human voice to be just another instrument.  This allowed for a much more vibrant group dynamic.

I saw Mary and the group a handful of times, and it won't be the same without her.  There's no word yet from the group on whether they plan to continue.

I talked with koly today - he runs ultra-high frequency, the unofficial stereolab site - and we were discussing ways for the Peng! list members to pay their respects.  I've suggested we sponsor a community garden in Mary's home town in Australia.  If anyone has any other ideas, please get in touch.

A sad, sad day.

and...

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

i totally forgot the thing that prompted me to post a journal entry in the first place! it's the quote of the week from the Harrow Technology Report (Dec. 2, 2002)...

Storage space and computing power are dirt cheap; our task isn't to "use them efficiently", it's to "squander them creatively."

That's from David Gelernter, Professor, Computer Science at Yale. He's also the Chief Scientist of Mirror Worlds Technologies.

Good stuff. Where's the nano? Where's the VR? I want to squander my creativitiy. :)

let it snow

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

eh. it snowed all day.

i'm still alive, though - haven't had much time for journal entries. the month of november literally flew by. i spent a whole shitload of time on this project for work, and it's finally getting somewhoere. of course, i've had to bribe dave to help me out. it's the project he was working on while he was still working there. but he saved me a lot of time.

i'm still reading blackmore's "the meme machine" - which has taken a strange turn... talking about religious memes, memes of supernatural stuff... she tries to make it respectable, she really tries... but it makes her book harder to take seriously.

when i'm done with it, i won't be reading any more books until i've read all of eliezer yudkowsky's works (which are all online, if you look for them). he's an AI researcher whose style i happen to like. he's written a whole lot of material that i haven't gotten to reading yet, but i've read his stuff on the extropian and sl4 lists and i'm curious about his more formal pieces.

angela's let me borrow some godspeed you black emperor! cd's. and i love their stuff. i had a lo-fi peel session mp3 by them, but i didn't like it as much as their album work. i let her borrow some of my mogwai. godspeed reminds me of mogwai mixed with sigur ros. great stuff.

and... i got an iPod. and... i love it.

and... tomorrow i'm meeting nora after her portfolio review. the other night we talked for hours and hours and it just felt good.

felt good to hear about jeff noon's new books and projects, too. more writing, a vurt film and a piece from cobralingus being done by brian eno. awesome.

and... that's my snowy day update.

smiling since saturday

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

this past saturday was a very good day for me. i regret not having time to update the journal since then.

i started my day with a great exercise session. all upper body work. i'll straighten out my posture yet! then i had a nice, cool, iced chai and caught up on email for a couple hours. then a quick chinese dinner before i ran out to see powaqqatsi, the second in the qatsi trilogy.

powaqqatsi is "life in transition." the juxtaposed images of third world suffering and celebration again reminded the audience of where humanity came from and where we're going. this film moved slower than the first, and presumably *much* slower than the third - which, unfortunately, isn't in the theaters anymore. another unfortunate thing is that nora missed the screening.

but celine showed up. and nora was waiting for us outside the theater afterwards. with mike, it made four, and we high-tailed it to a diner for tea. followed by an hour or so of great conversation, where we introduced nora to transhumanism and discussed the film we'd just seen.

after that nora and i escaped off to the megastore in union square for some more talking about uploading and the future, and where we are in life. we walked around and found a few good books. just got to know each other a bit. i had a great time and i'm looking forward to seeing her again soon.

are we only animals?

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

mike seemed slightly shocked, though mildly amused that i so effortlessly spun the words "but we're only animals" out onto the table for discussion. a day or two later, i came across a few passages in blackmore's book "the meme machine" - which, ironically enough, only makes me want to put her book down so i can read the books she references. meme machine, indeed.

she references Baldwin and Dennett - the latter of which has co-written a book i've read and own called "the mind's i" - with hofstadter. i'd like to put a few passages in here, for the heck of it.

As Baldwin himself puts it - the highest phenomena of intelligence, including consciousness, the lessons of pleasure and pain, maternal instruction and imitation, culminate in the skillful performances of human volition and invention. 'All these instances are associated in the higher organisms, and all of them unite to keep the creature alive... By this means those congenital or phylogenetic variations are kept in existence, which lend themselves to intelligent, imitative, adaptive, and mechanical modification during the lifetime of the creatures which have them. Other congenital variations are not thus kept in existence.' (Baldwin, 1896)

Yeah, 1896. Animals indeed! Good passage, although it's not very forward-thinking. "The highest phenomena of intelligence... culminate in... human volition and invention." -- and what then? Is it inconceivable that human intelligence can create something more intelligent?

And then... Dennett's "Tower of Generate and Test."

• 1st floor: Darwinian - natural selection
• 2nd floor: Skinnerian - operant conditioning
• 3rd floor: Popperian - creatures use hypotheses
• 4th floor: Gregorian - intellectual positive feedback loop

So now I've got Dennett on the reading list.

But what does it all mean? It means, yes, we're animals. But based on the environment we started with and the resources we've had to compete for means we've evolved into a special kind of animal.

Thinking about environment and competing for resources has me thinking about how an AI will behave given the environment it finds itself in and the resources it'll have to compete for. But that's a topic for another day.

doubletake

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

a funny thing happened at work just a little while ago. one of our client's had their machine compromised by a host originating in brazil. heavy traffic was being pushed on port 1501, which is the "satellite data acquisition system" port.

say what?

granted, anyone with half a brain can configure a daemon to listen on a specific port, but that just shook me up. it also makes me think about the how's and when's of involving local or federal authorities when working on network abuse issues. most times, they won't care... but... satellite data acquisition? huh?

the chris salad

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Available at your local PAX Wholesome Food store:

• Mixed greens
• Shredded carrots
• Chopped cucumbers
• Cajun chicken
• Black olives
• Alfalfa sprouts
• Cherry tomatoes
• Croutons
• Balsamic vinaigrette

If you're a vegetarian, replace the chicken with egg whites. If you're a vegan, tofu. If you're in need of protein, just add both. With a Granny Smith green apple for dessert, the total comes to $8.88.

synchronicity - it is now twelve o'clock

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

such a strange day.

long, super-hyped-on-caffeine day at work. tons of progress on the boring project i'm working through. can't wait to get it behind me. if i were to be less cynical, i could look at it as a great experience in project management. marshaling the resources of a team of technicians distributed nationwide to implement a system to save the company valuable time and money. but really it's just nasty telecom stuff that i don't care much about.

after work i picked up some new media. grosse point blank. little nicky. koyaanisqatsi and powaqqatsi. all on dvd. came home, came online. great japanese dinner. i'm trying to condition my body to the taste of seafood. it started a week or two ago with a delicious tuna filet that alex prepared. tonight was salmon teriyaki. my stomach's still not used to it. and it's not all that pleasant-tasting. but it's good for me, or so i hear.

it turns out angela, an online acquaintance of mine from a few months back, has moved to my block! the odds for that are staggering. so we met tonight. watched Y Tu Mama Tambien. all the good things people have said are true. great mexican film. the luisa character's mindset reminds me a great deal of jenellle. i miss her and will be glad to be with her shortly.

speaking of people i miss, tina's visiting errica this weekend. it's a first for me. having a friend from college meet a friend from the internet. it's always weird when remote parts of your life happen to cross when you least expect it. i remember feeling the same way when dave and carrie were chatting online. but tina and errica are apparently getting along famously, which is exciting.

and i've been hearing more and more from tina's friend/sorta-ex-boyfriend joey. conversations with him are interesting. almost a struggle for me. his recovery seems to be going very nicely, which is equally pleasing and satisfying. i'm glad that tina has someone else in her life that appreciates her for who she really is.

the irresistible force song was playing as my iPulse pinged 12 o'clock. a night of synchronicity.

the best - and most out of place - scene in Y Tu Mama Tambien was when Luisa asked Tenoche and Julio whether they ever thought of living forever. she asked it with such a passion... she was in love with the idea. and as blockheaded and immature as these boys were, they were receptive to it. who wouldn't want more time?

why i wear headphones

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

for the first time in my life (that i can remember) a stranger offered me candy, today. he looked like he had slept on the street. a tattered glove held out a little round peppermint candy wrapped in plastic.

did he expect me to take it? was he trying to sell it to me?

just keep walking. just keep walking.

in other, less creepy news, i've continued to read Susan Blackmore's "The Meme Machine" - which I had commented on earlier. She discounts imitation in "lower" animals by adhering to a strict definition of what counts as imitation. She pits imitation against social learning, and I'm not quite sure I followed her all the way through her explanation. I'll have to re-read that part.

i'm closing in on the halfway point in the book, and she's still in the middle of proving that imitation was the catalyst for the evolution of our advanced brains. Given how much space she has left to work with, I doubt very much whether she'll succeed in swaying me.

I'm in the middle of a chapter on the evolution of language, and it's reminding me that I still need to finish my book on the world's major languages. For some reason, my interested dropped off when I got to Dutch. It's a rather dry, technical book on language, which could explain it.

At tonight's NYTA meeting, John Klos will be giving a talk on neural networks. Given my recent dinner with him, Elaine, and Mike, I'm excited to learn the math behind the process he describes. It's an especialyl relevant and well-timed talk, given that the gov't has just given IBM a contract to construct a computer with a computational capacity that's equivalent to a human brain.

wined and dined

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

well, tonight's been an interesting one.

two of our biggest vendors were in town and wanted to take us out to dinner. a limo took us to spark's steakhouse, where we had a private room waiting for us. i had to dress up. i hate dressing up. slacks, a shirt and sweater, nice shoes. it's the least i could do, but i didn't enjoy it.

wined and dined. swapping stories about how terrible local exchange carriers are and just basically talking shop. as expected, the engineers and operations crew migrated to one end of the table and the management and sales crew migrated to the other. i think it was a healthy split.

i got to speak to the VP of Operations at one of the companies for a while, and he seemed like a really nice guy. the only vegetarian of the bunch, and from australia, too. i didn't get a chance to ply him with questions on immigration or tell him how i think australia's AI research groups are neat.

one thing i'll have to research later on, is why red wine gives me a headache and white wine doesn't. all i can come up with is the flavor and texture. red has a full-bodied feeling, while white is crisp and dry. i should learn more about wine.

in other news, i just got off the phone with tina, who is back safe and sound in the states. quite a relief. hearing about that bus explosion really freaked me out. she's going to visit errica later this week to see a tori amos show. i wonder how that'll turn out. :)

Koyaanisqatsi

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

I saw Koyaanisqatsi tonight at the American Museum of the Moving Imagine, in Queens. It's a documentary from 1983 on American life. No dialog, no plot. Scored by Philip Glass.

It was very powerful, but it seemed that the filmmaker wanted to instill in the audience the notion that humanity is small, fleeting. That no matter how we may try, there are forces greater than us that are beyond our control.

It backfired. It instilled in me an optimism. How far we've come and how far we still have to go. Our future is open-ended. Our technology may cause problems, but it also has the ability to solve them.

During the scene on cars, all I could think of was clean fuels. During the production-line scene at the car factory with the works, I could only think of nanotechnology's coming effect on manufacturing.

Koyaanisqatsi means "life out of balance." Which is certainly befitting the time in which we live - but it isn't necessarily a sentence passed down on humanity.

Maybe I'm naive.

disappointment can be pleasant

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

So I've finished Drexler's "Engines of Creation"; and will be journaling up a review sometime soon.

But this morning I picked up Susan Blackmore's "The Meme Machine" which has been collecting dust on my bookshelf for the better part of two years now. Lo and behold, she cuts to the chase and by page 3 I'd discovered that I already disagree with her entire thesis! Get a load of this...

The thesis of this book is that what makes us different is our ability to imitate... Certainly, other animals do not take naturally to it."

Say what? It seems she's taken Dawkins' idea of a meme to a most illogically extreme conclusion. When a hungry chimpanzee sees one of its brethren fetching bugs out of the earth with a stick - it learns that behavior or it continues to grow hungry and will eventually starve. Predators mimic bird mating calls. Non-poisonous butterflies have evolved the bright coloring of poisonous butterflies to blend in and not get eaten. Imitation and mimicry seem to be prevalent in nature.

But still, I can't judge a book by the preface and first 3 pages. I'm looking forward to reading on, with the author trying to convince me every step of the way.

It's refreshing to read a book whose thesis I don't particularly agree with. Perhaps it'll better prepare me to handle Fukuyama's work.

odds and ends

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

I never updated the journal on last week's NYTA meeting. Guest speaker was Andrew Zolli, editor of TechTV's The Catalog of Tomorrow. Which presents dumbed-down descriptions of cutting-edge and future technologies for lay-people. The "grandma" demographic. He was a cogent and coherent speaker; intelligent. He brought to the table degrees in Computer Science, Cognitive Science, and Philosophy - precisely the areas i'm interested in pursuing.

He understood that to be an effective speaker, especially to special interest groups such as NYTA - you have to go against the grain a bit. Preaching to the choir bores everyone involved. So he talked to us about trends and statistics and presented the view that our full-speed-ahead attitudes were admirable but probably unrealistic. And in a way, he's right. His talk wasn't meant to discourage us - though some seem to have come away feeling more discouraged... I came away feeling empowered. He understood what many transhumanists don't - that we can't leave the rest of humanity behind. The way society and the (human) world works is far too complex for that.

I came away from the talk feeling reaffirmed in what I already knew to be true - that an effective transhumanist has to focus on more than just science and technology.

An interesting sidenote: hanging out in the transhumanist circles I'm seeing and hearing extropians berated more than I'm used to. Perhaps my defense of them is more emotional than logical; as that community was how I was introduced to futurism/transhumanism. It's something I'll need to explore more in-depth.

Tonight I meet Elaine for the NYC-Geek dinner. Wonder how that'll be. She says the group has been meeting for many years now. Hope all goes well.

I've decided to explore my life insurance options. If they can pay for cryonic suspension, I'd be a fool not to go for it - as I have no dependents. I told my boss that I plan to use my company's policy on me to fund being frozen after death and he had a good laugh. We'll see. Drexler's book paints too pretty a picture. :)

Also; as it's still National Novel Writing Month, I came up with a wonderful scene for a novel - if I ever write it. I'm letting my subconscious work it over for a while before I put it on paper. But I think it's pretty good. The problem is finding a plot to glue all these pretty scenes together.

the music was better than a backrub

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

i more or less just awoke. last night was quite a night. i took dave and alex out to see bonobo, strictly kev, p-love, and amon tobin at this wonderful venue called the warsaw, in williamsburg, brooklyn.

i listed the artists in the order that they performed, although p-love was already tooling around with the turntables when we got in. he transitioned mr. scruff to the cure to towa tei to... oh, i forget, but it was rad.

bonobo came out and hooked his tibook up. hot shit. unlike his production work (the album animal magic was quite amazing) he used many ethnic beats and samples. traditional religious instruments and newer indian bollywood raga jazz. all on top of some nice and heavy beats. alex and dave shook it while timmy and i hung up in the balcony.

actually, the balcony is where i stayed for the entirety of the show. my back was still hella sore, which was quite a shame - since the music seemed good enough for me to overcome my natural disinclination to shake my funky white ass.

strictly kev, i thought, was pretty good. he just seemed to be having such fun on the stage. he definitely wasn't "at work." the video projector played this strange cartoon while he played. crazy 70's animal animation, all tits and ass and cops coming in to bust the place up. i've no clue where he found it, but it was a riot.

amon tobin didn't come on until about 12:30am, but the crowd was still really really worked up. i stood to get a better view - as i was in the dead center of the balcony. the music and the crowd just danced together. this is where i get all lit101 on yer asses: "it was an undulating mass of beats and bodies the likes of which mine eyes had never before seen." (re-read that last sentence with a hoity-toity brit accent for full effect).

but as the title of this post says, the music was much better than any backrub. the beats were so heavy that they pulverized my spastic back muscles into submission. brooklyn better recognize!

pain and more to read

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

i threw my back out this morning walking to the subway. i have no clue how it happened, but i suppose it was bound to happen eventually. anyone who's met me - or even just knows me really well - knows that i have horrendous posture. the question is, was this due to my posture or my current sleeping arrangements? my mattress is on the floor until i get a new frame. bah.

anyway, professor bostrom plugged his new book on the WTA discussion list yesterday. it's called Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy. and i'm excited to read it. it's been added to my wish list.

i've recently heard from tina, which was delightful and unexpected. she seems to be doing very well in india. i can't wait until i get a chance to talk about it all. i just hope she's kept a journal that captures her unique view of the experience.

argh, my back hurts.

good, bad and quiet

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

paperwork came through. i'm now senior network engineer for hq global workplaces.

also; from simon, an old explodingdog.com comic.

and i'm listening to vincent gallo's album. especially "her smell theme." beautiful.

interesting ignorance, life and death

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Just a couple of selections from Drexler's "Engines of Creation":

In recent decades, the very quality of our remaining ignorance has changed. Once, biologists looked at the process of life and asked "How can this be?" But today they understand the general principles of life and when they study a specific living process they commonly ask, "Of the many ways this could be, which has nature chosen?"

And...

Physicians once declared patients dead when the heart stopped; they now declare patients dead when they despair of restoring brain activity. Advances in cardiac medicine changed the definition once; advances in brain medicine will change it again.

Interesting, no?

I started the day off with a thought experiment from Changesurfer's James Hughes, who wrote to the WTA discussion list about a panel he's on to supervise a show on the next 1000 years. His specific topic was the human body, and what it'd be like after 1000 years. Of course, everyone was quick to point out the futility of guesswork - but to think about it, the question should be whether humans even have bodies that far into the future...

If you're really interested, parse through the WTA thread on the yahoo board to find my reply.

funny how that works

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

"just because i'm a brilliant genius, doesn't mean i'm not a complete retard."

pooka?

technology woes

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

argh.

coinciding with the installation of linksys wireless card drivers and the wap11 control software, my iMac could no longer set up a samba share to my thinkpad. linksys didn't want to pay microsoft's API license on wireless cards and built their own stack, which completely fucked things up. argh. they've been removed and it's still not working.

i wish there were a soulseek client for osx. best p2p software there is at the moment, IMHO. i've recently downloaded rolling stones, velvet underground, modest mouse (live stuff, too), and sigur ros (life stuff too, too :) -- and it looks like i'll need to set up ftp services on the iMac in order to get the files transferred to my firewire drive, as this linksys thing has completely fucked everything up. argh.

oh, right. on top of everything, the well's pop server has been down all day. just as i had caught up on email, i lose a day of productivity. bastards.

but grand theft auto: vice city has chainsaws. so it's all better :) quite a sweet game.

biomimicry is a dirty word

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

"Evolution isn't a perfecting principle; it works on the principle of 'just good enough.' If you really want to design something for a task, you have to look at the diversity of organisms out there and then get inspired by principles."

- Robert J. Full.

a day of woe, corrections

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

first with the correction. university of arizona, tucson, says staci. that's where she's at. that's where the killings were. scary.

today dave was laid off at work. some major re-organization is happening. my job seems secure. my new title will apparently be "senior network engineer." i'll be talking to dave and alex tomorrow regarding financial and housing arrangements, to make sure everything is alright for the next few months.

mind you, alex is a great cook. we've actually *made* dinner the past few nights and it's been fantastic. of course, by "we" i mean "her"... but i suppose that goes without saying. but i said it anyway. argh, i dunno. i'm kinda loopy right now.

i'm still in shock about the changes at work. it seems inevitable that my job will be re-homed to Dalals. i've never been, and the stigma surrounding all things texas is just too much to bear. if it ever came up, i'd let them fly me there to look around and evaluate.

so dave's playing the copy of grand theft auto: vice city i picked up for him. it's such a sweet game, we all agree. i'm still struggling through old email. the transhumantech list doesn't have the high volume of the extropian list, but the quality of each post is pretty impressive. of course, they're all pointers to resources elsewhere, but i probably wouldn't find most of this stuff on my own.

tonight i've been reading about quantum information systems, wearable device interfaces, and virtual governments. that last one i'm only partially done with. i wonder if they'll get into the economic models of current MMORPG's.

ah well. signing off on this strange and interesting day.