No Speed Limit Towards Techno Town

I think maybe that the whole explosion for naming generation should really be an opportunity for people to try and influence how peers view themselves. Someone once said we are generation WWW. Not X or Y or even the loathsome Z, but WWW like three paper dolls holding hands. I wonder if people in the past using abbreviations thought about the effect they were having. Those holding onto Latin's Et Cetera thinking someday everyone will know ect... or even . . . I mean the evolution of language is strange. I think about it as a way people are judged, how people say "he sounds like an idiot" not he is an idiot but he sounds like it, that somehow his use of language was the signifier of his intelligence. But what if the point of language was just to communicate, not to impress. When does shorthand degrade the actual use of words, of course when going for detail for visual recreation through words it is almost alway better to pick and choose carefully, but in daily discourse does it really matter if you tell someone BRB rather then be right back, or if you save seconds or minutes on your text message by using shorthand aren't you the more efficient and in some cases intelligent one? I wonder what stenographers think of text messages? are they good at them, or even faster at texting then at writing shorthand for courts. But who knows they could loose their jobs to a computer. Fall victim to the horrors of Automation. But maybe the generation of WWW will level the playing field that mastery of language won't matter so much as communication of ideas. Really it's all 0's and 1's anyways, all of it even as you read this.

No Speed Limit Towards Techno Town

I could almost hear him talking to himself.

Listen here

Knuth: I am against software patents on any idea that is so obvious that you would expect a

typical student to invent it. I can maybe be persuaded that it is okay to have a patent on

something really deep, like some interior point algorithm or something. But, certainly if I had to

write the TEX system in today’s environment I would never start, because I would have to worry

too much about getting permission to use hundreds of ideas. Of course, fortunately, we got most

algorithms into software before people started taking this dumb view of patenting. But I think,

anyway, I think software writers should be paid for services, for customization, for adapting

programs, for the knowledge they have on how to maintain things. But not for the algorithms;

not for the methods that are used. The method, that is something that is usually – consider the

analogy I made to the patent office. I wrote an open letter to the patent commissioner. I said that

algorithms are like words to a writer, or like lawyers have precedents. What would the law

become if every time lawyers had a precedent they would charge a fee to other lawyers for citing

their precedent. That would be, I think, very much analogous to what people want for software.

This is something I am writing a paper on. Very interesting I think, how countries determine what is something to own and be paid for if others use it and what is common and for everyone?

Book TV

the way to get a B.A. is by being well versed in BS, and the way to a P.H.D. is to just pile, higher, and deeper.

I heard that today while watching my favorite weekend distraction of Cspan's Book tv. They were discussing Allan Bloom and his criticisms of American collegiate education. It was way up my alley as I find myself more and more frustrated by this experience of college. But biking around the city last night I realized my privilage, my ability to find work after college will be greatly increased. Work is really the thing that most people dedicate their lives to, by choice or obligation. Besides sleep I wonder what besides work is really as encompassing in the lives of people?

Lemmings

I work with this woman who swears that people tend to sit in certain sections of the resturant based upon the fact that other people are sitting there. "Fricking lemmings" she whispers in my ear as another couple plop down into the less sparse sections. I wonder if the lemming effect is at all related to the Social Contract that is philosophically so often spoke of. Por ejemplo: today as I was doing my laundry I poured the eco-friendly detergent into the water. I don't know why I bought such a product as I am not really sure the world is supposed to last forever or even if nature is something to be respected, as if Jupiter's vast area is any more of a wasteland the earth, is our favorable bias towards the organic compositions justified? But nonetheless I bought such a product, possibly because of that ingrained (socialist catholicism) notion that everybody acted in such a manner that the air would be cleaner and as a result so would our bodies. Maybe it's the lemming effect, I like to watch it happening. Especially these days with media, it's all free to the computer literate. And it's becoming more and more socially acceptable, as PMP's become the standard for youngsters and cd's and tapes fade in the social memory, the idea of free downloading becomes more and more acceptable. Copywrite laws are not nearly as powerful as the social laws that motivate us.
I wonder if Steven Colbert's thwarted attempt to run for office will expose the rediculosness of our election laws. Who is this FEC? http://www.fec.gov/
And how is the sponsorship of Colbert's show by Doritos any different then the corporate sponsorship of the other candidates campaign. I don't know if he is trying to expose the farce of election laws or not but money is essential to be elected. His show is doing a good job of pointing that out. click here to watch
sham

Title

While losing my phone this weekend I have been constantly reviewing my connection with technology. Thus far my only connections since the loss of the Cellular phone have been email and internet messenger systems. My hope is one day that the internet will encompass the phone technology and systems like skype and vonage will exploit the abundance of broadband cables in the world to allow us to connect without the stranglehold of the cellular companies. Principally I may get another telephone if mine is not recovered, but this is one option I stumbled across.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU4kgauFuP0
Maybe someday... I'll travel across the country with something like this.