March 2006 Archives
Just to follow up a recent post... Tonight's bill dealing with net neutrality... sucks.
UPDATE: original link was confused, then lost. I've included a couple links re: the introduction of the bill, in leu of the AP article. Can't find the article outlining the passed bill. Help?
I'm increasingly interested in the role of technology in, well, life. Yes, I know, this is broad, ungainly, and pretentious. I'm convinced that technology as a social platform for replacing the physical is not the correct path. There seem to be so many applications to fulfill too broad a spectrum. Intelligent technology is great, wonderful, in certain ways. Computer-love is like a pandemic—a negative result of the current object zeitgeist. MSNBC just put out an article on some services here, naming a few notable online services that really seem to miss the mark. Conversely, there are a number of projects that seem more conducive to tech-enhanced [as opposed to replaced] life, as in this business app featured in Wired.
We need more applications to find and aggregate content [apps/forums/whatever] and let us break away from the screen. Better yet, mobile devices with all the bells and whistles to enhance the actual. There is an inherent need for embeded, pervasive computing objects in this paradigm [I speak of]. These aren't necessarily [or anything near] networked blogjects, spimes, or the like... But embedded sensors are a possibility in the solution.
Ben Worthen at CIO.com just posted a sweet map of [just about?] every router (internet) in North America. Non-geographic, placement of nodes is just for organizational aesthetics.
Who cares? Think net-neutrality. Think big fish, big telecom—and what they can do with this backbone.
I have resumed the search for ways to catch SMS messages sent under normal circumstances in J2ME. Found some promising links that may lead to a solution in a major issue retarding one of my current [side-] projects.
Every web 2.0 app/project/site needs a google/yahoo! map. It's right there in the rules. But why? What does a map do for us? Why are maps so great? Physical location-based applications are vital to the current paradigm of pervasive and ubiquitous computing. But does an online map do anything, much less fit the context? The devices need to be location-aware for any real good to come of all this.
The article makes some points, some relevant, some asinine.
Yes, I have been MIA for the past 10 or so days—throwing myself down snow-covered cliffs.
In network objects, focus should lie on creating passive sensors - connected to a network. An interesting addition would be the ability of augmented MESH - where every object functions both as a transmitting agent, receiving agent, sensing agent, etc. Each object would comprise gateway functionality to extra-nets - and thus communicate a unique response - though influenced by all other objects.
Processing resultant data from networked sensor objects should be left to an external agent. This process should be considered a best practice in aggregation. The data must eventually be made human-readable without [outside] the given object serving the data.
Dialog lies in control and observation.
The author argues for the personification of networked objects that aggregate, parse, transmit data - in terms of conversation.
The mere concept of objects that blog is ridiculous. Blogging is a buzzword offering a new name to a public, social, searchable journal. The concept is deeply rooted in paper-culture - anachronistic.
The economics of blogjects make little sense.
What is the context? In the current world wide web, blogjects have no place. Personalized journalism of some sort - Main Stream Media even more so - makes up the gross majority of consumed information. The output of blogjects would require human parsing and contextual repackaging as such. But I'm not saying the current internet is necessarily correct.
There are two types of people in this world - those who believe in binary and those who don't [as the joke goes]. This division is much like that of physical-humanists vs. virtual-humanists. These fractures come and go in waves - phases. Proponents of the physical are deeply invested in historically-based traditional interaction and the established placeness of physical structure. Virtual-humanists escape the meat [of the corpus, the physical] and transcend to an updated Plato's 'world of ideas.' A concept I seem to mention in everything I write.
Friday lecture: Keith Malvetti, internet superstar. As I entered the lecture, Dave leaned over towards me and said "I'm waiting for someone to come in here and ask 'Is this where we find out who owns the internet?'." The question was cynical, poignant, and very relevant. And, turns out, it was that lecture.
We discussed the history of the internet, network architecture, and the politics of the internet addressing system—a very interesting subject.
I was pointed to an NYTimes article about a new service for mobile phones (thanks, Christine)—that uses assisted GPS (cell-tower signal-strength enhanced satellite GPS) to give a subscriber excersise stats. A subscriber has the option of uploading the data to the web. And of course, it's for select Sprint/Nextel phones only.
It's good to see these services coming out—hopefully the exclusive proprietary, crippled nature of location-awareness for mobile-phones will be a thing of the past. Developers need easy access. Period.
The seperation personal computers extended in networks with traditional broadcast media is on-demand, control of content, and personalization (and lots of spam). Streaming is an extension of the concept of broadcast—great for showing live, real-time content. But, migrated to the smart personal computer (as opposed to the dumb, ubiquitous television) some kind of context is required. What am I going to do about it, you ask?
Along with Megan, Quanya, and Olivia, I am developing an application that allows users to collectively impact the focus of streaming content. We are still deliberating on the actual interface functionality, and just how to get the collective direction from viewers of the stream in the best way. The app will comprise a comment and chat functionality, camera control, as well as the traditional streaming video content.
Shawn gave us a nifty pan/tilt camera that is controlled via serial to play with. The quality is great, and reacts well to our Java testing app. Tomorrow will bring more content.
Yahoo has developed a location-based photo-tagging/sharing app — think Merkitys-Meaning. I wonder if this is a direct rip, as Merkitys is open-source... Thought food.
