a variety of factors have conspired lately to keep me from making regular updates. some fun [extended weekend r&r] and some not-so-fun [funky home computer problems]. access is likely to be spotty for the next couple of days. stay tuned for updates.
there really are far too many perfect juxtopositions in the online auction of a copy of the u.s. declaration of independence:
“”What price liberty? A copy of the Declaration of Independence that was printed in 1776 and discovered behind a $4 flea-market painting in 1989 was sold yesterday for $7.4 million, 23 percent more than Sotheby’s highest preauction estimate and a record for a copy of the document.
It was also one of the highest prices paid for a document sold over the Internet.””
it could only have been more perfect if the auction had been fully ‘democratized’ a la ebay
i’m not one to go googoo over wacky interface navigation tricks. but i think the recent release of jazz would be fun to play with as a visualization method for the dynamic topical index that i rambled on about yesterday. it’s far too perfect that this type of application appears to be just what the designers of jazz had in mind [and there’s the added bonus that it’s released under the gpl]:
“The “Jazz” platform is a Java-based zooming user interface (ZUI) development toolkit. Applications implemented in Jazz can easily zoom, pan, and transform graphical and text objects organized into a scenegraph of hierarchical cameras, nodes and objects. The views offer smooth, animated transitions throughout an infinite plane of information. With Jazz’s close integration with Java and Swing, all Jazz applications are platform independent and run in any browser with a Java 2 Run-time Engine (JRE)”
“In the future, Bederson says the Jazz Band also expects to see Jazz being used to rescue users from information overload, even where applications don’t yet exist. For example, applications built on top of Jazz could maintain your surfing trail on the Web so you can find your way back; could organize your email and documents; and could help you find what you need through e-commerce storefronts or search engines.”
previously on kottke – jason wonders about a web app that serves as a browsing prosthesis [no. i’m not sure why that word came to mind]:
Idea: a little Web-app or browser plug-in that follows me around while I’m surfing, caching pages along the way, either on my local machine or preferably somewhere on the Internet like X:drive (up to 100 Mb of online storage, free!), and then allowing me to search/sort those pages by keyword, date, domain, &c. That way, I’ll never lose track of those bits of information that seem insignificant at the time, but which are important at some point down the road.
i like the idea. well it turns out that personal web indexer has some of that functionality. i’m posting it here on the slim chance that i’ll remember that it could form the basis for a dynamic topical index that i’ve been hankering to work on. and yes. i do realize that this makes the second reference to kottke this week. i’ll pilfer links loudly and proudly!
as if anyone needed more proof that i don’t actually come up with my own ideas for links. The U.S. Software Industry and Software Quality: Another Detroit in the Making?:
“Consumers have been putting up with bug-ridden software for one simple reason: They don’t realize there is an alternative. And once they find out, commercial software vendors are going to lose a big slice of their business. Where’s my evidence for this claim? History. I’m sure you’ve heard the famous Santayana quote: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (No, that’s not a typo; it’s Santayana the philosopher, not Santana the guitarist.) If you’re looking for an example, I’ve got a
doozy for you. According to Mark Minasi, author of a very fine book entitled The Software Conspiracy (McGraw-Hill, 2000), the U.S. commercial software industry is making exactly the same mistake that U.S. auto makers once made, and the results could prove catastrophic to the U.S. economy.”
[via hack the planet]
ack! in trying to aleviate some of my backlogged bookmarks i nearly deleted this rather, ummm, cynical analysis of the recording industry written by steve albini:
“Whenever I talk to a band who are about
to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them
in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet
wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with
runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good
friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this
trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other
end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.Nobody can see what’s printed on the
contract. It’s too far away, and besides, the shit stench is
making everybody’s eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody
that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract.
Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to
get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin
wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other
under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there’s
only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey
says, “Actually, I think you need a little more development.
Swim it again, please. Backstroke.”
it’s got some nice numbers that complement the intellirant by courtney love.
[via rc3]
having grown up near machias, maine – i still tend to imagine things like this. big on things outdoors. little on support for high tech [although, i have to admit that my grade school was pretty aggressive in getting a few apple iie’s when i was in 6th grade (circa 1982)]. however, from the sounds of it, the current governor would like to make maine a tech mecca:
“One, many people don’t realize we have one of the best telecommunications infrastructures in the country — maybe the best, in terms of high-speed Internet access, digital switch networks, (and) fiber optics — all the pieces that go to making a really good telecommunications infrastructure.
We have high-speed Internet access in towns of 2,000 people. I like to say that New Sweden, Maine has better Internet access than Manhattan. And that gives us a real opportunity for any kind of telecommunications-based businesses.
The second thing is we have great people. We have a very long tradition of a really good work ethic, going back 100 years, 150 years. Maine was one of the early pioneers of the Industrial Revolution — textile mills, shoe factories — and there’s a carry-over work ethic that’s really good.”
i love the intentional juxtaposition of infrastructure with the mythic new england work ethic. imagine silicon valley without the need to pamper the young turks. salty, high tech captains of the digital seas, smoking pipes, saying -“aaaayuh. suuuuuuure e’nuff.”.
b.t.w. if you’re looking for a good look into the psyche of those that grew up ‘downeast’ – i really can’t recommend Down East Maine : A World Apart highly enough.