Was Bush a terrorist for scaring us into war in Iraq?

Bush said Saddam Hussein had WMD - chemical, biological, and possibly nuclear weapons. Cheney said it. Rove said it. They told us Iraq could be responsible for nukes detonating in Miami, DC, LA and NYC. They further terrorized an already stunned American public into believing there was a link between Saddam Hussein and what happened on 9/11.

But there was never such proof in Iraq.

Were we attacked by terrorists on 9/11? Yes. We were right to invade Afghanistan where we had known for years there were terrorist training camps and cells? Yes. Despite not catching Osama, were our operations there mostly succesful? Yes - without a doubt.

If anything, why wasn't Saudi Arabia a target? The 9/11 terrorists (and, no doubt, thousands of other fanantics hellbent on destroying America) were from Saudi Arabia.

This web host rocks!

I just switched my personal web site over to a new web host called NATHosting (http://nathosting.com) and -- after shopping quite a bit -- can't believe what a great deal this host offers.

I got 1 gig of storage, 15 gigs of bandwidth/month, unlimited emails (with IMAP), unlimited MySQL database, unlimited subdomains, unlimited FTP accounts, a great control panel, php, python and perl support, and more.

Did I mention the 30 day trial and you have 15 days without even putting down a credit card!

I'm a fan.

Handling of Katrina

I'm astonished, amazed and embarrassed by our country's lack of preparation for Katrina and its aftermath. It's just incredible that with several days warning of the storm's intensity, we could not evacuate people in areas most likely to be affected. Why not? Why was there no disaster plan in place on the part of the states and counties in Louisiana and Mississippi? Are there no agencies responsible for it? Why was there no mobilization of rescue teams, military, national guard, and search and rescue teams and equipment in the days leading up to the disaster?

This should be a warning to other states vulnerable to natural disaster, particularly California, which has more people than any other state. Schwarzenegger should immediately appoint someone to be in charge of scenario planning for earthquakes, which, unlike hurricanes, strike without any warning.

I'm also just stunned to see that virtually every picture you see of our citizens taking refuge in the Superdome -- as well as those on rooftops, clinging to life or already dead, wading through the streets to get food or necessities from flooded conveniences stores, struggling to help those too sick to move in hospitals -- are black. I've been to New Orleans twice and remember a racially mixed city. I checked the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center statistics here and found that in the greater New Orleans area, approximately 66% of the residents are black.

Is the sluggish response in the wake of the disaster a clear sign of racism? There's no substantive basis I can come up with for arguing for or against the assertion. It's disgraceful, racist or not.

Another interesting question: These same areas were virtually annihilated in 1969 by Hurricane Camille. Now, 36 years later, they've been destroyed again. Should we rebuild New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, and other cities again? Nature will certainly destroy everything again. The only question is when, not if. This is more than a local question. This is a national question. Because much of the disaster relief funding will come from federal dollars. And that makes everyone in the US have an interest in the answer. My biased answer is: Sure, go ahead, build away. But earmark a fixed percentage local property and sales tax for future disaster relief. Self-insure against the certain disaster. Adjust the rates depending upon the property's location and storm-worthiness. Should be the same model for other states in disaster prone areas.

Let the cleanup, relief efforts, and finger pointing begin.

This is a test of the Blogger Word Add-In

This is a test of the Word add in for Blogger. I’m particularly curious to find out if pictures will upload with the text or not.
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I also wonder if the text will carry over as formatted here. And what about links to sites like Personal Google?

Sweet ride, or what? Spotted in downtown Seattle.

The spoiler and grille treatments are exceptional! Not to mention the classy interior and secure trunk. Two thumbs up!

I don't like SPAM!

This is just too perfect. Fun and cathartic!

Opera 8.02 for Windows Changelog

Opera 8.02 for Windows Changelog
Woot! Opera 8.02 includes much better support for XMLHTTPRequest which means it finally works with Backpackit and a few other sites that I formerly previously had to fire up Firefox or IE to view.

Excellent!

Lessons in Life... From Blackjack?!?

Interesting post from Steve Pavlina about life lessons learned from Blackjack. Practice, discipline, knowing when to take risks -- it's really not so different from stock trading, playing baseball, or anything else you want to succeed at in life. Practice, study, discipline, being comfortable with risks and pressure, experience, planning, preparation, and more practice pay off in almost every area of life.

Pikes Peak Hill Climb - The Real Deal

Having only ever climbed Pikes Peak from the comfort of my living room couch, courtesy of Gran Turismo 3/4, this video was a complete eye opener. WSrld class rally drivers are absolutely amazing. I give the fans credit for courage, too. I'm sure safety regs have changed since 1990, but do they get close to a fast moving ton of steel and carbon fiber or what?

Here's a case I expect may set an interesting precedent

If Google prevails, it seems that Microsoft (or any other company, for that matter) employees under non-compete contracts will have significantly lower barriers to leaving to work for direct competitors. There may have already been other test cases along these lines, but I believe Washington state has a history of upholding non-competes while California does not generally uphold them. It will be interesting to see what precedent this case sets for the future.

Guess I could have saved myself $100k

Great business book list. But while mastering the principles in these books can help to make you more effective, reading these books alone is unlikely to open new doors for you - and you can't exactly put them on your resume. The sheepskin effect is real in many places.

Can you succeed without an MBA? Of course. Can you fail with an MBA? Of course. But much of the same can be said about *any* formal education, be it high school or college.

Opera Overlooked RSS/OPML export and import

But this clever guy in the UK has a hosted script that accepts an upload your Opera .ini file and immidiately coverts it to a valid OPML file. Very useful. Very slick. Thanks!

Verizon CEO sounds off on Wi-Fi, customer gripes / Seidenberg also explains phone company's reasons for wanting to buy MCI

Verizon CEO sounds off on Wi-Fi, customer gripes / Seidenberg also explains phone company's reasons for wanting to buy MCI

Thank you for guaranteeing I will avoid doing business with Verizon whenever possible, you arrogrant demagogue. Thank you for reminding us poor, dumb consumers when our expectations are unrealistic.

Hey Seidenberg, can you hear me now? Good.

This could possibly be the dumbest CEO interview in some time.

My wedding song?

Shania Twain - From This Moment On Sheet Music Download

This song may be overplayed, but it just moves me like few songs move me when I hear it. Today, I teared up listening as it moved through me. I hope I can keep it together on my big day as I look into Anita's eyes, heart, and soul and hear these words.

( ( D O N O V A N R A D I O ) ) : Deep, Sexy House from San Francisco

( ( D O N O V A N R A D I O ) ) : Deep, Sexy House from San Francisco

Sweet deep house DJ in San Fran. May have to check out his Thursday nights at the Top of the Mark. Looks like a great party (see photos at the web page).

Opera8 has won me over... Corrections, additions

Well, Opera has won me over as my default browser.

I discovered that there IS find-as-you-type built-in to Opera. Simplytick off the "enable inline search" box on the preferences page andyou're set. From then on, just hit CTRL-F to search for any matchingtext or , to search for links only and you're intoinline/search-as-you-type mode. Just like Firefox. Granted, you dohave to hit one more key, but it's not a function key so you can do itwithout looking. ;~j

I also overlooked the awesome notes feature built into the browser.See something you like on the web? Select it, hit CTRL-SHIFT-C ratherthan CTRL-C, and it automagically saves it and the original URL youpulled it from to a note. Your notes are instantly searchable usingthe same instantaneous search/filter feature as with email and RSSfeeds.

I still wish Onfolio were integrated with Opera - I love its newspaper view -- but this is not technically possible. But this isless of a deal-killer than I originally thought. I think I can probably get by using Opera's built-in RSS reader and then capturing content to Notes and/or saving them the "old fashioned way", thensearching them using a desktop search tool, rather than Onfolio.

Opera is also a FANTASTIC browser for those who do web development. It enables you to easily figure out how your web page will performagainst web standards, with various browsing featuresenabled/disabled, on small-format browsers, with images disabled, etc.But, then again, most people who do web dev already know this.

I also forgot to mention gestures. There most common mouse gestures are built in: Such as hold right button, click-left to to move back a page.

I also discovered the "browse to parent directory" (aka the "up" directory command): CTRL-BACKSPACE. Very nice.

For those interested in evaluating Opera deeply, you really shouldread a couple of fabulous tutorials: The Opera7 tutorial (still mostly relevant to Opera8) and the Opera8 tutorial.

Over the hill at age 30?

Yesterday, I played basketball for about 2 hours. While I made several poor shots and a couple bad passes, on the whole, I did alright for someone who has only played a few times in as many months.

Ok, so this wouldn't be anything to blog about except for my body and mind's reaction these past 24 hours afterwards.

After I got home, took a shower, and ate dinner, I was completely prostrate and useless. I was a physical and mental zombie. Not only that, but today, after sleeping nearly 9 hours, I could literally not get out of bed. It wasn't just soreness - it was total, utter physical and mental exhaustion. Even now - almost 30 hours later, I still feel vapid, unfocused, physically and mentally a hollow shell of a human being.

Dehydration? Possible - but I drank quite a bit of water and other fluids last night and have continued to drink them today.

Glucose/glycogen depletion? Possible, but nothing has really changed around my diet these past few days. I've also tried recharging with pasta, cereal, bread, and pizza.

Several years ago, I could think of few things that would raise my spirits and energy like the vigorous exercise that only a sport like basketball can provide. Now, it seems at age 30, I am over the hill. Maybe I can only handle basketball 1 hour increments or face a horrendous physical toll in recovery the next day. Obviously, I'm not in the physical condition I was when the first hour of basketball was just warmup for the second. But I would have never expected to be so utterly decimated as I have felt these past 36 hours.

It is a painful part of growing older: Coping with physical limitations you never thought you'd have to deal with. And dealing with long recovery times. Better get used to it. I'm not getting any younger.

Opera vs. Firefox

I've been trying out the latest version of Opera 8 (Beta) for about 2 weeks now in order to get a better personal feel for the browser feel, advantages and disadvantages. I've been a Firefox user for about 1 1/2 years and have written about my reasons for favoring Firefox.

Overall, my impressions of Opera are extremely favorable. It is very well suited for power surfers, but is even better for first-time non-IE users than FireFox.

Keyboard shortcuts: It has a few really nice keyboard shortcuts for those of us who dig that sort of thing (space bar scrolls the web page down / shift-space bar scrolls up), it supports continuous page scaling to increase or decrease text size (use 9 and 0), and has nice keyboard shortcuts for switching tabs (1 and 2). Tab support and keyboard shortcuts are very similar to FireFox, with the addition of nice touches like undo close built-in for those times when your Control-W gets out of hand.

Tab behavior: I wish Opera gave me a choice after closing a tab to move to the adjacent tab left or adjacent tab right rather than directing me back to the original tab from which it was opened in the first place. FireFox's Tab Browser plug-in enables you to choose.

Built-in RSS reader: Very nicely done in Opera - much better than Sage or "active bookmarks" for FireFox. I've also used Onfolio with FireFox, which is a killer combo. Unfortunately, Opera and OnFolio are not integrated. The interface in Opera is identical to that of it's built-in email handler. The quick-search feature is very nice - just start typing in the search box and the results are immediately filtered. The effect is similar to that of several of the desktop search engines (X1/Yahoo! Desktop Search, MSN Desktop Search toolbar, Copernic).

Speed and stability: I found the start-up speed, shut-down speed, and browsing speed to be outstanding, although on broadband, the difference is probably imperceptible to most. It also never crashed or even hiccuped at all during my trial period, even after browsing for hours and hours and hours and hours.

Pop-up blocking: Absolutely perfect in my brief experience with Opera. FireFox is good, but occasionally fooled and seems to be no better than IE SP2 at stopping pop-ups.

Session support: Opera comes built-in with easy session management. Save and retrieve tab sessions. I definitely prefer this to needing a plug-in, as with FireFox.

Built-in Email client: I played around for a bit with Opera's built-in email client and it is fantastic. If I were not an avid and extremely satisfied Gmail user, I'd definitely use Opera Thunderbird or Outlook express. The program nicely supports flat or threaded (conversation) views, uses labels, offers quick search to instantly find items you're interested in, enables saved searches, attachment search, has contact lists, filters, and a spam filter, and supports POP and IMAP.

Web site compatibility: My main problems with Opera are really with its compatibility with certain third party products and web services. For example, I can't edit posts on Blogger with Opera. I don't get access to rich text editing in Gmail. OnFolio -- a superb product for information management -- doesn't plug into Opera. These problems almost certainly stem from its very low market share, which I believe is under 2% of the overall market. Granted, with FireFox, inexplicably, some sites simply refuse to open at all with no visible error message. I never have that problem with Opera, which never had a rendering problem or a problem displaying pluggable content (flash, real media, windows media, etc.).

Download management: The download manager is very good, although I'd like the ability to delete downloads if I don't want to keep them, rather than simply removing them from the download list. I'd also like an easier way to access where downloads are saved. It's a bit buried to access and the first time it is used, Opera should prompt the user where to save future downloads.

Other features: I'd like Opera to be a bit more flexible in setting up search shortcuts. I couldn't find a way to create a Yahoo! search shortcut, for example. Also, I absolutely LOVE the way that FireFox, by default, begins highlighting web pages for string matches as you begin typing on any web page. This makes keyboard navigation very simple - just start typing the first couple letters of a link you want to nav to and they're instantly highlighted. Hit your return key and you're off. Hard to describe, but great for power surfers. Opera does have a nice "scroll up or down" from link to link feature by simply pressing Q or A to scroll up or down through the links on a page, then you hit ENTER. But it's not nearly as fast or elegant as FireFox's behavior.

Voice features: Although I haven't used Opera's new voice features to input voice commands, it's ability to read web pages to me is sometimes handy if I want to clean my desk or do other things while listening to a long article. Just highlight the text you want to hear, right click and hit Speak. I haven't used it frequently, but it's a very nice addition.

Bookmarks: Opera's bookmark manager readily imports from IE, Firefox, and other sources.

Plug-ins: Although skinnable, Opera lacks serious splug-ins, which is a mixed blessing. On the one hand - I like many of the plug-ins offered by FireFox. On the other hand, I hate the fact that my plug-ins break every 3 months whenever I need to update my FireFox browser. I then have to track down all the new versions, reinstall them, reconfigure my preferences, etc. It's a complete buzzkill. I'd prefer that my favorite features are simply built right into the browser. Opera does a very good job of integrating most of these features (althouh voice is a 10MB download) right into the browser. For me, this is preferable to having tons of plug-ins to download and manage, as is the case with FireFox.

Memory/system resources: Opera seems to be about the same as other browsers I've with respect to memory use and management, which is to say, they are all massive resource hogs. After a full day of surfing, reading RSS feeds, using email, etc. my memory use is around 100 MB with up to 200 MB of virtual memory used. However, Opera seems to be able to release from virtual memory much faster and more efficiently when I quit than FireFox, which seems to grind away at the hard drive for several minutes when closing after a long day's work.

Bottom line: Opera is a very close second behind FireFox as my favorite browser. I could live quite happily with Opera by itself if it were to do four things:
1. Integrate a tool that enables me to quickly capture the web page I'm viewing to a local saved directory - similar to Slogger plug-in for Firefox or Onfolio's capture function.
2. Offer an "Up" button that enables me to navigate up a level on a web server's URL hierarchy.
3. Offer the ability to browse in "fast search" mode where you just start typing letters and the selection moves to the first matching string on a page -- similar to FireFox's built-in search behavior. Make this toggleable on or off by a keyboard shortcut - like Alt-F.
4. Since it can't always control what features are supported on their browser, offer a right-click link to open the page in IE -- similar to a FireFox plug-in that does the same thing. This will help when we need it. It won't hurt our usage or loyalty to Opera - it simply gives us an easy way to deal with the problems we face living in an IE-dominated world.

Postmodernist deconstructionist metaphysical epistemological ontological Marxist constructivist nestructuralist babble

I wonder sometimes if some people way out on the fringes of literary and social criticism, modern philosophy, and even social "scientists" realize how completely absurd their doctines come off sounding. Their ideas might be substantial, maybe even valid and useful - but the problem is that they have become so untethered that, like the ingredients list on the back of a shampoo bottle, they are completely incomprehensible, sometimes even to other non-specialists.

Proof? Or at least, an amusing reductio ad absurdem in support of my argument?

Check out this postmodernist essay generator.

Another enlightening and amusing read along the same lines is a story from the mid 1990s of a New York physics professor named Sokal who submitted an article to a respected social science journal describing the social and political implications of the latest advances in physics. It was reviewed by the editorial board and published. To the board's chagrin, it soon emerged that the article was a satire intended to show the lack of intellectual rigor and even political favoritism found in today's reviewed academic journals.

It's a fun read and an excellent reminder that there is a fine line between artful abstract arguments and pseudointellectual sophistry.

How did I arrive at these links? Credit goes to the amazing MIT Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Lab that generated a random computer science paper generator. The underlying techniques for creating these papers truly are fascinating. I wonder if the mechanisms are similar when inscrutible academics begin to drone on about the phenomenology of feminism...

Caffeine withdrawal: Not so simple

Is Caffeine Withdrawal a Mental Disorder?

Research seems to show that a certain percentage of caffeine users suffer pretty serious withdrawal symptoms.

I've been rethinking my use of caffeine lately. I'm finding myself increasingly dissatisfied with the peaks and troughs it's creating in my energy and concentration patterns. I definitely believe it helps me to feel highly motivated and focused. I learn more quickly, and feel fully engaged in tasks.

Sometimes, this peak mental focus can last 4-5 hours, or even longer. There have been periods where a single large cup of coffee (8 oz.) can have me focused and productive from 9 pm to 4 am (although, strangely, a single cup of coffee at 9 am never seems to sustain me until 4 pm). I always seem to "get more done" when I've got a cup of coffee at hand.

But on the other side of that peak, as I come down from the caffeine high, I find myself not just returning to baseline, but dipping into a deep trough of mental energy. I begin, ever so slowly, to feel drained, devoid of motivation to begin tasks, as if my brain is starving for oxygen. I avoid what I need to work on, I sit like a zombie browsing news sites or drifting in and out of a talk show or IT conversations episode. I want to nap or watch TV or play video games. I don't want to get out of bed. I move sluggishly between tasks. I cook the simplest meal possible. I forget things. I find myself with a greatly reduced supply of mental energy.

In short, I feel hung over days later.

In my undergrad days, I began drinking coffee as I studied. This began at coffee shops. I would study for hours and hours on end, never seeming to run out of energy. To some degree, I believe age and fitness levels buffered me a bit more from the negative effects of high levels of caffeine usage. But even then, I would have huge crashes after finals ended. I would go home and sleep for 13-14 hours a day for 3-4 days at a time to recover from the tremendous energy drains.

In high school, I did drink a fairly large amount of diet soda, but that only began around age 17. Before that, I remember having much more even energy levels.

I think what I'm slowly acknowledging is that mental energy is malleable and manipulable over a period of hours, but fixed over a period of days. There are probably ways to increase the level of fixed mental energy the same way as one can become more physically fit -- through proper diet, physical and mental conditioning, management of stress, etc.

But in any given period of, say, a week, caffeine can help to concentrate mental effort - but you're borrowing from the future. The fact that you're approaching a "zero balance" on your mental energy account doesn't materialize for a couple days, though, and that's the insidious part. Instead, you feel okay, continue to have a cup or two throughout the day, but suddenly, by Thursday or Friday, or on the weekend, even after a cup of coffee and a diet soda, there is no motivation or energy left. You have the 10,000 yard stare. You don't want to get out of bed, and all you can do is think about trying to get a nap in. You've borrowed from the future, and now the future is demanding you pay back that debt of mental energy.

I credit futurist John Smart with reminding me that, as much as I would like things to be otherwise, evolution has bred into us a certain constraints due to necessary physiological homeostatic mechanisms. And our brain is, ultimately, a physical biological system. Like all such systems, it gets fatigued and needs rest. It's capacity for sustained work is, like our physical bodies, impressively malleable in the short term, but relatively fixed in the longer term. By analogy, I could probably slow jog/walk a marathon today if I absolutely had to, but there's probably not a chance I could slow jog/walk a marathon for three days straight without a massive breakdown which would require weeks or months to recover from. Granted, I'm probably more mentally in shape than physically, but even trained marathon runners or extreme distance runners do not train all-out for 12-14 hours a day. They structure recovery time into their plans. And they spend years developing their capacities through structured diet and careful periods of exercise and recovery to get into such condition.

These principles are compellingly covered in depth by Dr. Jim Loehr and Dr. Jack Groppel, authors of The Power of Full Engagement. I highly recommend the book and a visit to their web site.

So, getting back to the caffeine question: What to do about it?

The simple and obvious answer is to dump caffeine. But the more complete answer is less obvious and more complex than that.

It has to involve a change in behavior and beliefs about the way the world works. I need to shift away from the belief that I can do 5-6 hours of concentrated work at a stretch to one where I only expect I can do 1-2 hours of concentrated work at a stretch. It involves a shift in comfort level from needing to start tasks only if I can finish them, to a comfort level starting and stopping tasks several times without tasting the satisfaction of completion. It has to do with being content to work on something for 20 minutes, then changing tasks. It has to do with recalibrating my expectations of what I can get done in a sitting, a night, or a week - and that affects how I schedule my days and weeks.

In short, it's less about leaving behind caffeine and more about leaving behind a decade-long, caffeine-distorted world view that has deeply shaped my perspective and experience with time, space, work, and energy. It's about acknowledging a different set of personal limits.

A minor headache is an irritation. A few hours of withdrawal-induced fatigue and depression are annoying. I love the taste, smell and experience of good coffee. I love the refreshing fizz of diet cola. But there's decaf alternatives for both.

But changing to a decaf world view? It's going to take some serious discipline, pain, and reacclimation. But as I get closer to starting a new life with my new spouse, I'm ready to re-examine a lot of old habits and beliefs and let go of them. Not just for my own sake, but also for the sake of her and our shared future.

Excellent weight training program, particularly for hard-gainers and time-pressed individuals: Hypertrophy-specific training (HST).

I came across this site while comparing several programs in an attempt to determine a more effective and efficient way to build strength and muscle. I'd been working out very inconsistently, was dissatisfied with my results, and wanted something that would help me achieve the following goals in 3-4 months:

• Increase lean body mass to 90% (10% body fat)
• Increase total body strength by 33% - measured by maximum weight of 5 reps with good form on squat, pull down, bench press, and bicep curl
• Keep time in the gym below 2 hours per week

Tall order? You bet.

I'm now 7 weeks into the program, though, and I can say I'm happy with the results so far. With all weight training and fitness programs, mileage varies, and, of course, gains come faster and easier early on in any program. It's just a simple question of diminishing returns as you approach higher and higher levels of fitness. I'm very skeptical of some of the miracle claims on the front page, but if you're meticulous about diet and making sure you get enough calories and protein (I'm not) and don't do any cardio work (I do a little bit), and you have the right body type (easy-gainer), it's not inconceivable to me that you *could* gain 8-12 pounds of muscle in 2 months.

Anyway, I've not had my body fat tested, but I have lost some amount of body fat (6 pack is becoming quite a bit more clearly defined), gained 4 pounds, and my 5-rep maxes have increased by 20-33%, depending on the exercise. Not sure what my current body fat is. Anyway, all this in just three 30-40 minute workouts a week.

Bravo, Bryan (site owner).

Things I find utterly amusing in hierarchical list format:

• Song lyrics
• Glam rock ballads
• Queen
• Def Leppard
  
• 80s new wave
• Duran Duran
• Depeche Mode
  
• Rap
• Dre
• Eminem
  
• Edgy rock
• NIN
  

Things you should spend the next 30 minutes of your life doing:

• Perusing http://www.livejournal.com/users/qwantz/28155.html

There's a neat tie-in of what Ryan has done here to some of the concepts we're exploring in my Foundations in New Media course. He's created a novel grammatical format or structure into which he and hundreds of inspired music fans have adapted existing creative content. It's amusing and strangely poetic, at least to this set of Powerpoint- and XML-adapted eyeballs. Very creative.

UPDATE:
I had to make my own. Check it out here.

I miss SmallBlack. I miss Thunderhill. I will return sometime soon. I'm not sure in what set of wheels. But I'll be back for sure. 

Cherry blossoms in bloom. Spring is here! 

One of my favorite audio listening sites is ITConversations, a portal
and host for a variety of talks by notable thought leaders,
practitioners, historians, authors, critics, pundits and luminaries in
areas of technology and new media.

Notable among my favorites is this fantastic
talk by Doug Ruskin on the subject of the "New Renaissance" of the
Internet and new media. He compares and contrasts current trends
and phenomenon to the European Renaissance, and along the way
deconstructs and criticizes many aspects of modern economics,
politics, culture, values and technology. He ends by synthesizing
these elements and outlining potential futures.

A must listen.

I find it interesting that Webster's definition of art is inextricably linked from the concept of beauty.

I quote these pertinent definitions:
2a. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
2b. The study of these activities.
3b. The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.
3. High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.

To state it simply: art is the study and practice of beauty. And what, then, is beauty? Referring again to Webster:

1. The quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality.

Clearly, there is circularity. Let's overlook that problem. Instead, let's ask the question of whether jarring, discordant art can be beautiful? Can a painting or drawing of a disturbing or violent scene, or a photo of an ugly person be beautiful also?

What concerns me a bit about the defintion of art -- and the reason I was thinking about this in the first place -- is that it doesn't mention anywhere the concept of art as a mode of human expression, nee communication.

Is art nothing more than another form of communication? Is art created with the intent of communicating something? Clearly, there are artists who create their works with a sense of purpose -- a bold intent to communicate some idea or set of ideas. To them, their art works are encoded communications which we, the audience, must analyze, decode, and reconstruct. This happens at both conscious and unconscious levels. Then, there are other artists who paint or draw or photograph or write about a scene because there is "truth" or "beauty" or "movement" or "grace" in it and that is all. What do these artists' works communicate to us? We must look to understand the artist as much as we look to understand the work to answer this question. We must understand the person's personal experience, world view, cultural environment, and state of mind was at the time of creation. Context is crucial.

An photo of a shuttered lighthouse in a storm shot in black and white in the 1920s might be considered symbolic of the beacon of US industrialism snuffed out as the great depression descended. The same lighthouse shot in the 1960s might be symbolic of the loss of cultural beacons such as Martin Luthur King or John Lennon. And today, the same lighthouse might be a symbol used by a conservative religious group as a comment on the rise of secular cultural relativism.

The next time I consider a piece of art, I will begin with the questions: Who is the artist? In what context was this piece created? What clues does this information provide in interpreting what the work is communicating? Why? How?

Tuner2 - your ears will know

Very cool site features a new lower-bandwidth, high fidelity streaming standard called MPEG-4/aacPlus. You can get CD quality sound over a 48k connection. How? I'm not really sure, but check it out. It's pretty spectacular.

Yoshop.com

Uh, this house is *deep*. Why didn't I discover house in the 90s? What an amazingly tasty genre of electronica.

Seth Godin <claims that we should stop looking for case studies, templates and rules about marketing. We should ignore marketing failures; and since marketing successes are each unique in their own way, studying them is pointless.

Very zen. Also very wrong, in my opinion. I may be biased as someone in business school, who reads and studies case histories every day. But I would argue that those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Even on the creative side of marketing, where "rules matters less," I believe there's much to be learned from studying what's worked and what hasn't. That's one reason I read blogs like Seth's!

If I were preparing a new ad campaign to launch Nike into a new product category, I can't help but think I'd do better by knowing the history of Nike's previous entrances into new categories; I'd also do better by knowing what's working -- or worked -- and what's not worked in the sports/fashion apparel world. I'd like to know what's relevant and what's been relevant to my target audience. You learn about these things by studying the market, competitors and, yes, history.

Ambience Dore: office furniture, ergonomics, seating, cubicles, and designer furniture.



That's out of the box thinking. I love the design vesatility, but shudder to think of what these cost...

AOL integrates buddy lists with Microsoft Outlook: "

Beginning Monday, users of America Online’s instant messaging service will be able to automatically see from Microsoft Corp.’s popular Outlook e-mail application if their friends and colleagues are online."

Microsoft could have easily beat AOL to the punch on this by integrating MSN Messenger and Outlook. I know there's integration on the enterprise side mediated by Exchange, but this would seem a logical consumer integration point.

My take: This is building features for the sake of building features.

Most people who use IM have their IM client open. If they want to IM someone, they can just check to IM them first. If they're not available, you right click the person, click Send Email and you're done.

Not sure I see the logic, but I'd be interested in the research that motivated this. Maybe it was just some engineer's programming project to learn how to build Outlook plug-ins.

Pew Internet & American Life Project

Great reports from a well-known nonprofit industry group that tracks the changing media - the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Has a great mix of broad snapshot, in-depth interview and longitudinal reserach studies on internet usage trends and impacts.

The New York Times > New York Region > Internet Fame Is Cruel Mistress for a Dancer of the Numa Numa

I loved this so much, I posted a link to my blog. Apparently so did everyone else. Guess this guy was *NOT* happy with his 15 minutes of fame.

Dude needs to stop moping about this, though, and look on the upside. He's brought smiles and mirth to millions of people around thw orld - how many people can claim the same?

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What does it mean to "Think different?" when everyone else owns an iPod? How does one express one's individuality when donning the white earbuds? How many people have bought white earbuds and connected them to other types of music devices just to be like everyone else?

Brilliant satire.

Saw Jeff Hawkins speak today. I took a lot of notes and published them here at the school's tech news web site.

I've always been fascinated with cognition, neuroscience, and the basis of intelligence. I've been reinvigorated to go and learn more about this field. Added to my book list: On Intelligence (Hawkins), Society of Mind (Minsky).

ASP.NET Resources - Search Engine Twins

Hmm... coincidence?

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This is just awesome.

MSNBC - Detainees accuse female interrogators

If this isn't evidence that one man's heaven is another man's hell, I don't know what is. How many American men would sign up to be tortured like this?

I don't mean to trivialize the issue. I realize that this kind of treatment debases the victims. I am morally opposed to torture and I am embarrassed and ashamed for my country.

I just can't help but be struck by the irony.

Google blogger has left the building | CNET News.com

This isn't about rights or power. It's about stupidity. Anyone who is so publicly critical of a new employer in the *first week* on the job has revealed himself to have exceptionally poor judgment.


Furthermore, you can't have loose lips about (a) sensitive company financial information; (b) secret internal plans and projects. Message discipline matters in highly compeititive markets. Disclosure timelines matter.


Clearly, this guy is pretty smart - Microsoft, Google and Yahoo wouldn't have hired him if he weren't. But being wise ain't got nothin to do with being smart.

Yahoo! News - Microsoft Will Rename Windows XP Reduced

I have to say, the intended name might have been seen as strategic, but was clearly a slap back at the EU. It could just be called something long and descriptive like "Windows XP - European Union Basic Edition - Without Windows Media Player Edition". Perhaps casting the words European Union Basic Edition in there would have leveraged national pride as an effective cause to purchase Windows XP - Germany, instead.

The more interesting question is what the price difference will be between the versions with and without WMP.

Yahoo! News - Apple Edges Google as Top Brand

Congrats to Apple. I think the company has definitely captured the attention of the public and the press. It's got a great deal of momentum -- but I think it faces significant challenges as subscription-based music services become increasingly attractive. Unless Apple jumps on it, power may shift towards the WMV-format players that have been designed with that in mind from the beginning.

That Google is #2 globally and in North America is utterly amazing, considering that the company does *no* significant commercial advertising.

By the way, I just noticed that Real has a promo for Google Toolbar on the bottom of its web site. Could there be a possible partnership of some sort in store for these two companies? Yahoo! and AOL both have substantial media/music businesses. Google doesn't. Hmm...

Very interesting set of investments and advancements in the local search space by A9.

I think it's a great way for Amazon to learn more about what kind of local merchants people are shopping for (>> insight into consumer behavior), with the additional benefits to Amazon of being able to monetize the search traffic through advertising and offer testing.

This move continues to blur the lines between offline and online shopping. It adds value to local merchants by making the local search experience more rich and compelling, and...

While the visuals are capturing the press buzz, the most significant part of the search experience is the "Click to Call Business" in the upper right corner.

Actually, it enables the business to call you back, but that will evolve into a direct VoIP connection to the store or a customer service agent. It will enable you to complete a transaction and then pick up the goods or have them delivered even from merchants that don't know the world-wide-web from a cobweb. It's taking virtualization of the real world to the next step, and positioning Amazon to capture a few more percentage points of the consumer share of wallet along the way.

Of course, that's the ambition behind *every* local search service, be it Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

But the visual representation by A9 is very, very clever. I'm not sure it's too hard to replicate, but it is very clever.

It also introduces the possibility of local vendors paying for leads on a "pay per call" commission structure. This could tap into a larger pool of merchant advertising dollars.

All in all, I love the strategy and execution. The major challenge for them is to continue to build awareness and use.
 

PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column

Interesting "trojan horse" theory. Looks like a lot of players will be vying for the position of media center, doesn't it? A system that will enable you to download (legally) movies and record television broadcasts, replay them on any screen in the house or even stream them to yourself on a remote or mobile device over the internet. There's Sony with its PS3/PSX, TIVO, ReplayTV, Windows Media Center, why not Apple?

Is there room for all of them to win? Probably, although the vast majority of consumers will probably prefer something more appliance-like and sexy, so those with the best designs (Apple, Sony) may have an advantage. This will certainly put pressure on the other PC makers to improve the packaging of their PCs. No one is going to want a huge Dell box with P4-loud fan noise in their living room.

Skype - Free Internet telephony that just works

Holy freaking cannoli. I just tried Skype two days ago for PC-to-PC calls and I am still agape at how good it is. The quality of sound really is better than any phone I've ever used. It literally sounded like Anita was hiding somewhere inside my speakers. Better still, I didn't need any special microphone (on the head or boom mike). My built-in laptop mic in my trusty Dell 600m produced outstanding sound on her end, and her built-in Toshiba Tablet PC mic sounded superb. There is *no* feedback, *no* latency, and no need to upgrade equipment... It's utterly magical. Did I mention it's free for PC-to-PC calls? We just leave it on and we talk when we feel like it. No "push-to-talk" or anything. Utterly amazing.

Now, one caveat. I've tried SkypeOut, also. It enables you to do PC-to-phone calls, and it was a markedly different experience. There is a small, but noticable, latency and it did require me to wear a headset mic and speakers to avoid feedback and avoid call jitter. Still, it's the best VoIP experience I've ever had. And $0.02 / minute ain't bad.

It also comes with traditional text chat features, supports file transfer, emoticons, chat session logging, and the ability to search for registered Skype users that match names in your Outlook address book. It doesn't support the same kind of detailed buddy list management features that other chat apps do. Nor does it have the over-the-top backgrounds and themes that the latest Y! and AOL Messengers do.

But I don't really care about these kind of superficial features. I'm less about the style, more about the substance.

Skype, I think I love you.

Of course, I'm still cold on the iPod. Yes, I've played with them, and yes I listen to digital music. But it doesn't really do that much for me. I'm still a price/performance shopper more so than an image/design shopper and I'm not sure I want to be locked into Apple's pay-per-song model. I'm actually leaning much more towards the Napster/Rhapsody model of subscriptions. Anyway, having all of my music with me all the time isn't that important to me right now. 

Mac mini is definitely cool. I last owned a Mac in college and its portability and durability were wonderful. Granted, having a tiny (what was it, 10"?) monochrome screen wasn't all that great, but it was excellent for moving around when you changed dorms every year, came home for the summer, etc. I've used and owned PCs exclusively ever since, though, primarily for their price/performance advantage, although I've also enjoyed the larger software libraries of the Windows world. Of late, though, I've been really impressed with the price/performance ratio and stellar design of the new iBooks. The form factor of this new mini blows even the smallest fanless Shuttle PC form factors I've seen out of the water. This means nothing but goodness for both Mac and PC users, as PC designers begin to take cues from Apple's design leadership. I can't help but think how much $$$ Dell could save on shipping and warehousing if it were able to reduce the bulk and weight of its desktop PCs to this size. Granted, manufacturing and component costs would almost certainly rise significantly.