Thursday, September 23, 2004
John Dvorak Hangs Up on Social Networks
"When you closely examine the networks you find that everyone who is anyone (really) is not there. It's all 'B' and 'C' list people (myself included, sorry to say). Larry Ellison and Hillary Clinton do not have time for this crap." /ABCNEWS.com (link gone)/
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Love's labors . . . lost?
"Among the reasons for that lack of interest, of course, is that work itself has changed. Says Muirhead, 'Maybe it's hard to depict work in a post-industrial economy because so much of it is done at computer screens.' Consider the work of Cayce Pollard in William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' (2003) -- it's all glowing PC screens and downloading and midnight text-messaging. No beef-boning in sight." /Chicago Tribune (paid article)/
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Can the Sims 2.0 Think?
"For EA programmers, a character appears to possess intelligence if it behaves intelligently. Behavior is a collection of actions and each action is governed by a choice. And so the Sims face a web of inter-connected choices. If they make a friend, they have the option to hug the friend. If the friend accepts the hug, they have the option to kiss. Each choice leads to other choices. The Sims make choices and therefore they seem intelligent.
"All this turned the Sims into more intelligent beings who now had real human baggage in the form of data: a pattern of connections that captured their inclinations and relationships and thereby restricted their behavior to doing things in`character.'" /MercuryNews.com/
"All this turned the Sims into more intelligent beings who now had real human baggage in the form of data: a pattern of connections that captured their inclinations and relationships and thereby restricted their behavior to doing things in`character.'" /MercuryNews.com/
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Magnet-making bacteria could target tumours
"Bacteria that make tiny magnetic particles could be harnessed to create drugs that home in on a specific site in the body. The particles come ready-wrapped in their own biological membrane, so molecules such as anticancer drugs could easily be attached.
Doctors could then direct the drugs to a certain area of the body using magnets, says Andrew Harrison of the University of Edinburgh, UK. Confining the medicine where it's needed could, in theory, reduce the harrowing side-effects of chemotherapy." /news@nature.com/
Doctors could then direct the drugs to a certain area of the body using magnets, says Andrew Harrison of the University of Edinburgh, UK. Confining the medicine where it's needed could, in theory, reduce the harrowing side-effects of chemotherapy." /news@nature.com/
Monday, September 06, 2004
Bogging for Dollars... Not!
My vote for the most unsung value of blogging is that blogs benefit the writer first and the audience second. While most of the "literature" focuses on how blogs are competing / underming / whatever the mainstream media with non-mainstream opinions, I believe the most significant impact of blogging is that it encourages people to form new opinions and then revise them in light of the public writing process.
Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff might agree: "I believe the greatest power of the blog is not just its ability to distribute alternative information - a great power, indeed - but its power to demonstrate a mode of engagement that is not based on the profit principle."
Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff might agree: "I believe the greatest power of the blog is not just its ability to distribute alternative information - a great power, indeed - but its power to demonstrate a mode of engagement that is not based on the profit principle."
