August 28, 2003
Around the World
Warren Ellis is having people send him photos with their phones. (K5)
There are many entries, each with two pictures a piece, and a little blurb. (K6)
On the one hand, it is awesome and compelling looking at the various things people have chose to send him; pictures from around the world. (K7)
On the other hand, this is a very small segment of the world: the world made up the people with the money and leisure to live the life of the future phone. (K8)
Is that gang going to pull us into a world of happy information sharing peers or once they have a sufficient number of pals, do they roll up the carpets, close the gates, and turn themselves into a class? (K9)
I'm split. (KA)
August 24, 2003
The Email is Falling!
Adam Curry, in Email is Dead, Long Live Email!, declares email broken: (JT)
Let's face it, email has become unuseable, the latest worm to strike is likely only the tip of the iceberg we're about to collide with. I've never liked the metaphore of an 'inbox', certainly not one that fills up and can't accurately be filtered. (JU)
At this point I'm willing to try anything that will keep my personal communication channels functioning with the least amount of hassle and zero static. (JV)
Oh, I bent my wookie. Please. (JW)
Adam then goes on to suggest private RSS subscriptions for communication between individuals. (JX)
Some of us rode through that worm "strike" with nary a concern (if we can answer the why of that, then we will have the real answer to the problem). Spam and other unwanted email is certainly a problem, but hardly a reason to jump out of the plane in search of yet another way to bastardize a protocol (RSS) already trying to do too much. (JY)
Once we get everyone lined up in our little subscriptions, let's then invite them over to our gated communities where they will have to provide a secret key to get in the gate at the front of the neighborhood. Oh sure, you can get the filtered-for-decency and market acceptance public newsfeed outside the gates but don't try coming inside for a real conversation and cup of tea unless you've been granted an audience and proper introductions. "Mr. Curry, there's a Mr. Dent to see you." "Never heard of him, tell him to check the news." (JZ)
August 22, 2003
PurpleBlog
I'm going to try a little experiment. (JK)
Now that PurpleWiki has reached some degree of stability, it makes sense to create a demonstration site for the PurplePlugin that allows people to experiment with what I've been enjoying for a few months. (JL)
So...I've created a MovableType / PurpleWiki combo that can be used by other people in two ways: (JM)
- There is a test blog where people can create entries that use the plugin. (JN)
- I can host blogs, if it doesn't use up too many resources, on this server that can use the plugin. (JO)
Both options are linked to a shared purplewiki (not much there yet, you can change that, it's a wiki after all). (JP)
What's most interesting, to me, about the second option is that the content that is generated in all the hosted blogs and the associated Wiki is available for TransClusion because they will all be using the same PurpleNumber sequence generator (assuming the blogs opt to use the PurplePlugin). (JQ)
Let me know if you want to give either of these options a try. (JR)
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August 21, 2003
Purple Upgrade
With PurpleWiki's 0.9 release, I've had to upgrade my blog and wiki to use the released code. Since I've been using this blog to experiment with data formats for the last several months, this was no small feat. (JG)
But it appears to be working with a few problems: (JH)
- Incoming #nid links will not work correctly. The link will land on the right page, but the because of sames changes in data storage and presentation the named anchors are oh so slightly different. This was pretty much unavoidable. (JI)
- Node ids in the wiki have completely changed so any references into the wiki or transclusions from the wiki are buggered. This was completely avoidable but I messed up a regular expression in a quick script that I didn't bother to test and I was bit... (JJ)
August 20, 2003
Crony Capitalism in a Potemkin village
Things worth reading, that fit together, and fill me with dread: (0001IC)
From Guardian Unlimited Private Passion: (0001ID)
It is impossible to say whether the cult of privatisation owes its grip more to an ideological commitment by the White House, or the close personal ties between its inhabitants and the businesses they used to work in. (0001IE)
As in most regimes built on crony capitalism, the two have become indistinguishable. (0001IF)
From Toby's Political Diary: A Bad Day in Bush’s World: (0001IG)
All this is not what Bush imagined when he was recruited for the presidency. So why is Bush’s world upside down? (0001IH)
The reason is that never before in his life did he have to achieve anything on his own, or ever take responsibility for his own actions. As a result, he missed the experiences that teach most people the difference between empty slogans and fantasies and reality. We have a President who has basically spent his life in a Potemkin village, and is now overwhelmed when real world experience confounds expectations. (0001II)
And my good pal Jeremy points out from Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby the following recapitulation of Marcuse that ties it together nicely: (0001IJ)
Old George Orwell got it backward. (0001IK)
Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. (0001IM)
He's making sure your imagination whithers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. (0001IO)
And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world. (0001IQ)
August 17, 2003
PurpleWiki 0.9 Released
I'm pleased to announce the availability of the long awaited PurpleWiki version 0.9. (0001HW)
PurpleWiki is a WikiWikiWeb? implementation derived from UseModWiki that adds several features and modularizes the code for easier development. Some of the features include: (0001HX)
- Purple numbers, a system that allows fine-grained linking to content elements in a web page. (0001HY)
- A flexible parser that supports pluggable output formats and use by other tools. Plugins for use with the MovableType and Bloxsom weblog tools are included. (0001HZ)
- RSS feeds of recent changes. (0001I0)
- TransClusion of content between pages managed by the parser (within and without the wiki). (0001I1)
The release includes extensive code cleanup, refactoring and documentation. (0001I2)
Access to the release, documentation, and development information can be found at http://www.blueoxen.org/tools/purplewiki/ (0001I3)
The distribution package itself: http://www.blueoxen.org/tools/purplewiki/purplewiki-0.9.tar.gz (0001I4)
The fun usefulness that is PurpleWiki is better experienced than explained. Follow the links below for some samples: (0001I5)
- The PurpleWiki home wiki: http://purplewiki.blueoxen.net/ (0001I6)
- This blog, using the PurpleWiki MovableType plugin, including a collection of entries on the PurpleWiki development process and many things purple. (0001I7)
EugeneEricKim's blog, using the PurpleWiki Bloxsom plugin: (0001I8)
http://www.eekim.com/blog/ (0001I9)
There are announce, user and developer mailing lists for PurpleWiki. Find more information about these at: (0001IA)
http://purplewiki.blueoxen.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?MailingLists (0001IB)
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August 16, 2003
Rolodexes of Doom
Taking a dip into the Augmented Social Network mailing list I came across the following from Brad DeGraf?. (0001HR)
Re: Monetising Social Capital (Distributed Capitalism): (0001HS)
not sure about a technical answer, but here's an anecdotal one. the best connected people, especially ones whose livelihoods depend on their rolodexes (i.e. social capital), will be least inclined to participate in any system that reduces the (monetary) value of their social capital to them. (0001HT)
I read this and the veil lifted. Here is the reason why the social capital, social networking parade raises my hackles: The whole model reeks with the stench of salepeople, fresh out of bed with their motivational speakers, top ten tips for making connections, and associated drivel all bent on moving more information and product for the final end goal of acquisition of stuff. (0001HU)
August 13, 2003
Dudes, hang loose
Someone to Believe In (0001HH)
I expect to see Governor Whybark making great strides in public transportation and the revitalization of urban living. (0001HK)
Mike, I think cafepress can probably help with your campaign. Get thee with the t-shirt making. (0001HL)
Yeah, what he said
TeledyN: Power of the Superpower (0001H8)
Power is work done over distance, so if there was any 'spontaneous organization' going on, why should the social impetus anneal to Theatre of the Absurd instead of Random Acts of Kindness? (0001H9)
Have there been any instances of Flash Mobs doing positive action? Smart Mobs swarming for the Greater Good? (0001HA)
Read it. And then think about how to make it happen. It made me feel rather guilty. (0001HB)
Even though I'm on Friendster, Ryze (which because of its general lack of use goes without a needed update) and now even have some FOAF, this is where I should be. Hundreds of people hanging out with a dinosaur? No thanks, but if you'd like a cup of coffee, stop by, you might even bring one or two friends, but if its more than that we'll need to make some plans and then I'll hedge and soon I'll have wiggled my way out of things. (0001HC)
But for random acts of kindness, change or action, I might be able to find some courage, motivation, desire, will, fortitude. But those things take some time in the oven, and we are back, and I've wiggled my way out again. (0001HD)
I need to do something about that. (0001HE)
On why it hasn't happened much: Perhaps because 'good' and 'kind' take on new weight when paired with power and action. What actions I choose to be good and an appropriate act of power are born out of more substantial thinking and feeling than a playful lark. You and I can agree that bowing to the dinosaur is good for a giggle, but should we feed the masses or teach them to fish? (0001HF)
August 12, 2003
Nice tidbit of gasoline wisdom
Advice from the gas station: (0001H6)
Smiling as I jump into my rig to meet my climbing partner, I think, yea, some days are like that. So when you are in between the lines, gassing up, I hope you are on the right side of the pump having a great day. (0001H7)
August 11, 2003
Purple commentary
Danny Ayers has been doing some thinking about PurpleNumbers and the URI refs that they create. Rather than respond to him in a comment, I'll put my thoughts here because it is a TrackBack kind of day. (0001GJ)
In the second half of his posting Danny reiterates his desire for a trackback anchor that provides a sort of more public and open version of a development list for, well, anything. (0001GK)
Unless I'm misunderstanding Danny (which I do a lot) Topic Exchange is some of the way there but doesn't really provide support for comments (although every comment does get a wiki). In MovableType, a category could be created that receives pings. I've just tested this by creating a PurplePings category with the following TrackBack URL: (0001GL)
It gets the basic principle, but implementing comments is something other than trivial, but should be possible. (0001GN)
Somewhere other than my blog is probably a better place. (0001GO)
KMPings is an implementation in MovableType that's quite clean but it doesn't do comments. (0001GP)
Either of these options, if publicized would go some distance to accomplishing some good. And I bet the Lazyweb could do or has done the tuning to make it better. (0001GQ)
Update: Actually, the Lazyweb site is already doing it: trackbacks with comments all nicely lined up. Maybe that's easy to do elsewhere? (0001H4)
On the URIrefs and associated stuff. Danny says: (0001GR)
In HTML this is put in place using an anchor, the convention being to use the hash symbol as used for blog permalinks (it's essentially the same idea) : (0001GS)
<a name="nid123">some text</a> <a href="http://example.org/archive-123.html">#</a> (0001GT)
But is the expectation that the anchor will always refer to the same information item? (0001GU)
Several thoughts in response to this: (0001GV)
- Eugene and I have been in the habit of putting id tags in the anchors with the same text as the name attribute. This is part of the reason for the (I think bogus) 'nid' text. IDs can't be numbers. Where did that come from? (0001GW)
- I've never been sure about where the close tag on the named anchor should go. Danny has wrapped the text (which seems more correct), PurpleWiki (and anything it parses, like this blog) puts the anchor, empty, at the start of the chunk. (0001GX)
- The ideal is that the anchor will always point to an evolving information item (the same chunk of text) as it is edited and is moved around. If the chunk is deleted a reference would return some kind of pointer to a version history. Part of the reasoning behind creating domain wide PurpleNumbers, rather than per page, was so that information items could be accessed by nid alone. SpaceCGI is a test implementation of that. (0001GY)
- The reality is much different. At the moment, if a nid is deleted, using it as a reference will land you on the page where it used to be. In the current implementation of PurpleWiki, if a chunk of information is moved from one wiki page to another, the index which manages NID:URL pairs is not updated (the index entries are created but then not maintained, maintenance is possible, just not done yet) so the ref goes down the wrong street. (0001GZ)
I've experimented with nodal styles of information storage that represent the wiki page (or whatever else) as a graph of nodes, each with an ID, each with a history, each mobile across multiple presentations. (0001H0)
The long term PurpleReligion?, at least in my branch of the church, is that cool information items (the granular chunks) have URIs and because they are cool, they don't change. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that I'm also in the church that says identifiers are to strictly persistent, strictly unique, and strictly meaningless (so they can be unique and persistent), so I don't much like URIs as they are generally implemented because they are so, ewww, meaningful. Labels should be meaningful, and they should be pointed to by identifiers. (0001H1)
Given time, funding, motivation, etc I'd like to create an implementation of Purple that uses handles as the identifiers for the chunks. (0001H2)
All of this stuff, though, raises the spectre of how to deal with versision and doing identification of versions. (0001H3)
Purple TrackBack Category
DannyAyers suggested a place where trackbacks about PurpleNumbers could be sent. This entry provides the header of such a category. If you want to play along, send your purple number related TrackBack pings to: (0001GG)
Given time, help, and energy comments and RSS will show up. (0001GI)
August 05, 2003
More reasons to keep on writing
A couple of things I read today deserve some more thought, perhaps mostly to get past my initial reaction: well, yeah, isn't that actually kind of obvious? (0001FY)
That kind of reaction with these kinds of things is probably a bad sign. (0001FZ)
Logic and Meaning (0001G0)
First off, Erik Benson's been reading some Hofstadter, making him think about the difference between logic and meaning: (0001G1)
The point I'm trying to make is that there are at least two levels here, and they don't communicate directly to one another--they don't speak each others' language. One speaks in rules, the other speaks in meaning. Meaning emerges from lots of rules, but does not work according to rules of its own. Meaning exists in latter level, but cannot be divided up into micromeanings on the bit level. (0001G2)
This made me perk up; it resonates with some thoughts I've had about the differences between what can be accomplished with the psuedo-intelligence of computers and what comes from the complexity of human thought. I've always traced those differences back to my feeling that there is a fundamental difference in the way that computers and people do grouping: (0001G3)
- Computers follow rules, they create classes, they are doing classification. (0001G4)
- People mess around with associative meanings, make comparisons, create categories (in this context I mean something with open or changing intension and extension). (0001G5)
Erik suggests ways to create meaning in computational environments by allowing pieces to interact in complex ways that will allow emergence. That makes some good sense. (0001G6)
No Now Now (0001G7)
Browsing Teledyn led me to a press release about a scholar presenting a new understanding of time. Basic summary is that other models work with time as something that can have an instant. Lynds, the author of the paper, shoots this down arguing that no matter the interval of time described, that which is moving in time is still moving. (0001G8)
If you read the article you'll see why this might be relevant. (0001G9)
I liked it because it reminded me of my endless grumpiness with calculus and the notion of a limit. (0001GA)
