5.21.2003

Celebrating happy 4th

Celebrating happy 4th

This contributor to this blog is happy to announce the 4 years of wedded matrimony to the sweetest and smartest lady I know.
Although we fight like cats and dogs, her smile and looking into her eyes is the light of my life. Her loving approval is my greatest reward.

Blue collar redefined?

Blue collar redefined?
Very interesting note about a possible shift in labor classism by Glen Reynolds at MSN. The point being that with desktop work being shipped out of the country, manual labor could have a sudden increase in value. I think it will happen, and it is an overdue correction on a false notion that formal education being superior to learned skill is an absolute. I do draw a slightly different conclusion then the columnist though, knowing how to prosper in a corporate setting and manual labor skills will become the new virtue.
via futurismic

UPDATE: Check this more pessimistic post by Rick DeMent on jobs flowing out of the country. Personally, while I believe in a free and open market, trade with other countries, and that their is a new globalism, I think the willingness to go for the lowest dollar and send job out of the US- even when there is a shortage of skilled workers here, is irresponsible. One example: I have a friend and former client, who opted to send some design work out of the country to India, it was a much lower cost. With a little trouble and behind deadline it was completed in a good way. I am not offended, because business is business (and art is soooo subjective) but, he just weekend the local and national economy and strengthened India's. I think this should be allowed, but there should be some sort of return or interest to our country when we hire out, and that people should use more discretion in these matters. 30 years or a 100 years ago there would be no question about this, as even the very rich were aware of the poor in our country and would not turn a blind eye to them. Instead of a stockholders approving work transfer overseas, maybe they should consider taking a loss once in a while and putting money into training the poor. While I know some traders and investors would scoff at that remark, some things should be done because they are right, not just because they will make us money. This used to be common sense. Rick is right about "hidden costs" too. My wife just called and is trying to cancel a check that was lost or stolen, and the lady she was talking to was from Pakistan and likely at a call center in India, and could only repeat what her screen prompt said. She ended up going to the bank and talking to the branch manager. You get what you pay for, and we are getting a new bank.

(OT) Lawyers ain't all bad

You have to pop over and read this post about the day in the life of a lawyer- okay it was not a normal day but it is a blog must read. Made my day brighter. TPB at Unbillablehours your my hero. (Off topic other than this is the type of first hand literature released in near real time that blogging technology is all about and that the NYT will never be able to replicate.)

5.20.2003

Go out in style Go out in a 'pod


Go out in style Go out in a 'pod
When you die you can't take your Ipod with you however, you can take your EcoPod to the grave...literally.
A holistic mystical flavored coffin made of 100% recycled paper and bedecked with various nature/pagan decor from the other side of the pond. If you are over 6' your out of luck though. I think they should just have everyone play a game that sucks you into an incinerator like Logan's Run. Or maybe recycle the biomatter to feed the poor like in Soylent Green. (Okay I am not really that insensitive, I worked for a cemetery for 6 years, but any excuse to mention two of my favorite sci-fi flicks.) While I like the idea of alternative deathcare products as the industry is seriously backward ingrown and run by mom and pops and mega corps, the EcoPod just doesn't seem sturdy enough to deliver me into the arms of Saint Peter, I want wood or maybe if the EcoPod floats, put me to sea in a rain of flaming arrows.

Find Stuff Fast!

I just added a search to the site so that you can find stuff without sifting through all the archives...okay I added it so I can find stuff without sifting through all the archives. But you can use it as well. If you are not familiar with Atomz, check it out it rocks. They program custom search engines for websites and they have a free one with no advertising as well.

5.19.2003

Follow up to Tron

In the "making of" portion of the Tron DVD,
one of the things that drove the original concepts behind the movie were many poeple who were not "about the money or the fame", or even success, they just knew making the movie would be cool, fortunately Disney bankrolled it, and it had modest returns in the box office. Would it not be great to show those folks my appreciation for a job well done through punching in a vote that translated to thier Whuffie readers? A virtual pat on the back.

One of the other things that Lisberger mentioned on the disc, was that his concept was to get artists involved with this project because the fact was that computer programmers and cgi guys were not that creative. He firmly believed in teaming the techno geeks with the creatives and it paid off in a large way. It pushed the animateers into learning cgi applications for thier work, and computer graphics were pushed beyond thier normal boundries resulting in what producer Mike Kushkin said was " technology 2 or 3 years ahead of it's time".

That is the point of this blog. As a creatives, we do not have the industry savvy of Tim Oren, the writing prowess of Cory Doctorow, the financial intrests of OpenCola, Social Text or other social rep IPOs, the the knowledge of power laws like Ross Mayfield or Adina Levin, but we do have creative vision, my hope is to dialogue on a the simple implementation of a Whuffie system at best, and at worst help the average'Joe to decode what all this hooey is about. What is in it for us? Whuffie? I just think it should be done. But maybe if the right people like the way we think they will hire us to as creative consultants and producers.

After some thought I have decided that the focus of that system though very multi-faceted should be social recognition of achievment as "Our current social system does not formerly recognize this, and often attention-wealth comes too late, as in the case of artists, engineers, or humanitarians who recieve recognition after their demise."

Therefore, political whuffie is not that important, because who cares about their current political affilliation if they have achieved something that is great for humanity. My hope would be that most would opt out of stating thier political affiliations, unless it was important to them. Reagan was once a Communist, Al Gore was a Republican, but the internet was invented and the Berlin wall fell. This reward type system would both point out human achievement and encourage good works regardless of party or ideology.

This seems to be the focus of the decidedly commercial affero.org so I am going to do some study on what they are doing.



Tron reloaded


Tron reloaded
If your like me, the more hype around a movie the less it interests me, maybe it is street smarts, maybe something deeper and self aggrandizing, but Matrix Reloaded is mildly of interest to me. Not because of it's great effects or cool sci-fi story line, but because I like movies, and I think it might entertain me. However, in lew of standing in long lines, I went to the video store and rented the classic Tron with then young Jeff Bridges. (speaking of the computer revolution) This was the a classic Disney investment, that showcased early Walt-style innovation in place of big budgets. Director and writer Steven Lisberg was running a small moneyless adhoc animation studio that was tanking after their first big job flopped when the Olympics were canceled. He came up with a benchmark process that inspired Toystory and today's CGI movie craze. While the video game was better than the movie, the movie was light years ahead of it's time visually and was the first showcase of computer generated art. There is a rumor that they will do a 2nd Tron movie (How about a trilogy?). Rent the DVD, take the time to watch the special features. Learn more here at tron-sector.com

Historical framing and whuffie politics


"2 U (under the sea)
Mark how the telegraph motions to me,
2 U (under the sea)
Signals are coming along
With a wag, wag, wag;
The telegraph needle is vibrating free
And every vibration is telling to me
How they drag,drag,drag
the telegraph cable along."
James Clerk Maxwell The father of modern physics (written when the transatlantic cable was laid.)

I was talking with my wife about technology and convergence, and the conversation began with the political change in the 1700's with The American Romantic Movement, the industrialization of the 1800's, and the scientific convergence in mid 1900's of the atomic era trains,plains, and autos, and how relative that is to the latest convergence of computing and communications. I have been pondering my suspicion that these are becoming accelerated from 100, 50, 25, year intervals to what appears to be 15,10 and 5 year intervals. In this process industry and investors are quick to translate new technology into the last great benchmark. Going back to the Revolution 1 E-litterati like Ross Mayfield have picked up on the social and political ramifications of convergence, (though decidedly left). So I wonder about the new genomic era which appears to be realized in the next 5-10 years, and what that will entail. This leads me to comment on the networking process that would be potentially realized with a Whuffie system. Imagine being able to quickly locate, and contact multiple human resources on a global level without all the time and expense, and constraint of today's networking systems. To date I have discussed the trust measurement, currency or unit value, and network value factors of a literal Whuffie system. In the vein of left handed and right handed Whuffie, what would the political ramifications be? While finding someone's political affiliations is often dubious, or done after the fact, as in the case of a dating relationship, business partnering, or hobbyist/enthusiast- How would it affect relationships if you knew of someone's political affiliation ahead of time, would that not attend to polarize and isolate groups. Or worse would this have the affect of compromising our democracy , with potentially entire state and federal agencies, corporations, and groups sifting whuffie databases and cherry picking. But then again would that not just be an acceleration of a process already in place with unions, voter registrations, districting? Would legislation be imposed to keep this from happening? What type of positive effects on politics could Whuffie have?