Todd's World

2009-04-02T22:08:00.000-05:00

Testing out the possibility of a future post. I wonder if this will actually work. Maybe, maybe not. The documentation is unclear.

2004-06-27T02:59:00.000-05:00

Listening to Oasis for no cool reason. RHAPSODY Link

2004-06-24T12:01:00.000-05:00

Info on computer topographical mapping products. at Ny Times

2004-06-24T11:34:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth Hand is about to release a new novel: Mortal Love. An interview with her was posted at Arte Six. See also her homepage: Winterlong.

2002-10-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

Mozblog test - test.

2002-10-11T00:52:00.001-05:00

2002-10-11T00:52:00.000-05:00

Mozblog to MT. Come in. Come in.

2002-10-11T00:48:00.000-05:00

Test test. Can anyone hear me via mozblog. Of mozblog.

2002-01-22T12:37:00.000-06:00

Innovation Architecture
More musings on navigating the balance between control and disorder. The internet forces us to remodel the balance between the two, in order to build truly creative enterprises.

A flock of birds, a school of fish and the Game of Life all show how systems composed of many elements following simple rules can exhibit emergence or spontaneous self-organization.

Can we combine simple elements of innovation architecture to create self-organizing web sites and intranets? Perhaps. But only if we relax control and encourage experimentation.

2002-01-21T14:25:00.000-06:00

New Book by Critic of Distance Education Describes Privacy Threats
Here is yet another example of how the internet forces us to make choices between efficiency and privacy. I personally have no objection to participating in online discussions for school classes and so far most of these discussions have been ad hoc or created without any central administrative oversight. If that changes I still think the benefits will outweigh the risks to my privacy.

In much of his book, Mr. Noble's recurring complaint is against the profit motive behind online learning. Today, he says, that gold rush seems to have ended.

"I think the phenomenon is over, and the phenomenon was caused not by the pioneers and well-intentioned people who wanted to use this stuff for teaching," Mr. Noble says in an interview. "The phenomenon was caused by the smell of money,"

2002-01-21T14:03:00.000-06:00

What to Do With your Life
Here's an interesting article about taking scenario planning ideas from business and applying them to your personal life. It reminds me of a class I took called Desiging Professional Futures at the University of Minnesota Masters of Liberal Studies program.

When life goes foggy and fragmented, how do people figure out what to do? Frequently with their heads on tumble dry, mixing together fear, hope, desperation and instinct in unpredictable measure. Even in tempestuous times, however, there are ways to think long-term.

At one level, scenarios are something we cook up for ourselves all the time, when faced with a decision. In the shower, or lying awake at night, or tanning at the beach, you've probably done it. In our heads, we are constantly writing the histories of our own futures.

At an organized level, however, scenario planning is what fighter pilots do when they spend endless hours running through situations they may face, rehearsing their reactions.

Remember those carrier pilots who came back from the first runs over Afghanistan and said, "It wasn't as bad as the simulator?"

That's the idea.

2002-01-18T18:05:00.000-06:00

A Cop in Every Computer

It appears that the battle over intellectual property is only going to continue to heat up during the next year. This story from law.com is about a bill by Seantor Fritz Hollings to mandate anti-piracy protections be built into every electronic device or software produced.

The content and technology industries differ over an initiative that would build infringement-sniffing powers into new computers.
In short: The content industry wants to place a copyright cop in your computer. It also wants to station one anyplace else on the Internet where an unauthorized copy might be made.

I think it's time for all of us to start writing our congress people.

2000-09-08T19:26:00.000-05:00

Just read an interesting essay about Hamlet and the digital age by Wen Stephenson on the Atlantic web site. I haven't seen the new film of Hamlet nor have I read the book by Frank Kermode which Wen reviews but the ideas were interesting.

I was particularly struck by the way in which we move away from the verbal to the digital. This may be an inevitable part of the brave new world we are creating but we need to be reminded that we don't lose the parts of the past which we value.

Finally here is a quote from Kermode's book which deserves to be pondered.

Hamlet is literature's greatest bazaar: everything available, all warranted and trademarked. The sense that it constitutes a quantum leap in the development of English poetry and drama is widely shared. Some will say that greater achievements lay ahead, but in that case Hamlet was an essential preparation for them. Whatever a critic's approach, this will remain true; for example, the whole idea of dramatic character is changed for ever by this play.... we may think we know the type or put together from experience a good idea of it, but no one much like Hamlet ever existed before. That is why images of Hamlet usually reflect what came after, not before him. To take him as the herald of a new age is neither idolatrous nor hyperbolical. In this new age we need not expect matters to be made easy for us. The new mastery is a mastery of the ambiguous, the unexpected, of conflicting evidence and semantic audacity. We are challenged to make sense, even mocked if we fail.

2000-09-08T19:18:00.000-05:00

I'm blogging. "I just saw the strangest thing.." and I'm going to post them here.