I missed the news of his death. Larry Lessig has written a generous tribute.
The postmodernism generator
Jon Crowcroft found this…
The essay you have just seen is completely meaningless and was randomly generated by the Postmodernism Generator. To generate another essay, follow this link. If you liked this particular essay and would like to return to it, follow this link for a bookmarkable page.
I could have used one of these when I was an undergraduate.
Twittervision
Bill Thompson and I had a hilarious conversation the other morning with an incredulous former newspaper editor in which we tried to explain why Twitter might be interesting, even if it is currently just leading-edge uselessness. Afterwards I thought that perhaps a movie might help. So I made one.
Later… Martin Weller pointed me in the direction of Flickrvision, in which David Troy (creator of Twittervision) does the same thing for photographs.
Still later… Liz Lawley has some interesting thoughts about it, e.g.
What Twitter does, in a simple and brilliant way, is to merge a number of interesting trends in social software usage—personal blogging, lightweight presence indicators, and IM status messages—into a fascinating blend of ephemerality and permanence, public and private.
The big “P” word in technology these days is “participatory.” But I’m increasingly convinced that a more important “P” word is “presence.” In a world where we’re seldom able to spend significant amounts of time with the people we care about (due not only to geographic dispersion, but also the realities of daily work and school commitments), having a mobile, lightweight method for both keeping people updated on what you’re doing and staying aware of what others are doing is powerful…
Google tactlessness
Idly doing a crossword today I concluded that the only possible solution to a particular clue was ‘Lothario’. I Googled it to see whether it was plausible — and then noticed this ad, carefully placed by Google on the right-hand side of the screen.
It’s the kind of thing that got Lord Browne, the former CEO of BP, into trouble.
Retired colonels go online
Well, well!
Who’d have predicted this — the Torygraph encouraging its readers to dip a toe into the Web of iniquity?
Ministry of Silly Walks (Royal Division)
One of these chaps won’t be going to Iraq, ‘cos it’s too dangerous, apparently.
Nice hats, don’t you think. Perhaps they’re thinking of joining the Orange Order.
Microsoft news
Charming message in my university in-box this morning reads:
We are aware of a significant number of people experiencing problems starting their computers this morning. After initially starting up normally, the machine becomes ‘bogged down’ as applications are started. This is apparently down to a widespread problem with Windows Update and Microsoft think they have a solution.
There is a process on machines called svchost.exe running under the System username and during updates, some machines find this takes up 99% of the processor’s resources. If you press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select Task Manager, under the Processes tab, you will find references to svchost.exe. If the instance running under System is showing 99%, then leave the machine to run through this for 20 minutes by which time the process should have run its course and the machine will operate normally.
If you cannot raise the Task Manager, then a manual shutdown of the machine might be the best approach before attempting the advice above.
As advised, there is a proposed fix from Microsoft and this will be applied during the next month.
Hmm… Just as well I don’t use the desktop PC so kindly provided by my employers. And it’s so consoling to know that the bug will be fixed “during the next month” too; I’m sure my colleagues will be delighted.
Etch-a-sketch goes broadband
Photo courtesy of BT
From Technology Review…
British Telecom (BT) is working on a plan to eliminate the keyboard and mouse, and use accelerometers with tablet PCs instead.
The pilot project enables a user to scroll through menus or applications simply by tilting or rotating the tablet PC. The system starts with a specially designed adapter containing tiny accelerometers, which measure acceleration. The adapter plugs into any tablet PC via a USB cable. When a user moves the PC, the sensors detect the motion. Special software then interprets the PC’s movements and translates them onto the computer screen.
“What we want to create is a kind of broadband Etch A Sketch,” says BT researcher David Chatting, who wrote the applications for the prototype.
The trick, he says, is getting people sensitized to how moving the PC affects what happens on the computer. “One of my initial applications entails using the PC to manipulate a marble on the screen. I want to demonstrate to the user that how they’re holding the device affects what’s happening–that they have an almost physical connection to the content on the screen.”
For now, Chatting’s applications are simple. A user moves the machine left or right to toggle between a few menu choices on-screen, and then pulls the machine forward to select a menu item. “We aren’t trying to duplicate all [of] Windows Vista or Mac OSX,” Chatting says.
Phew! That’s a relief.
More Bush jokes
When told that Prime Minister Tony Blair was stepping down as Britain’s leader, a confused President Bush said, ‘Hey, wait a minute. If he’s the leader of England, who was that old lady with the crown who was just here?’
–Jay Leno
eyePod video
Mmmm…. Here’s an interesting gizmo. You plug it into your video iPod and — Bingo! — you’ve got a 50-inch virtual screen.
Alas, I do not possess such an iPod. But even if I did, would I want to look like this?
Er, no, thank you very much.
Wonder what he’s watching.
Readers with thicker hides can get one for £149.00 from here.