Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

audblog audio post

I wrote up a brief explanation, with pictures, about what TrackBack is and how you use it.
Let me know if you have more questions.

My good buddy Martin has undergone the unkindest cut. His story is all too familiar and true. I know from personal experience.
His weekend will consist of sitting on an ice pack and watching TV.

I had heard that people were encountering ‘Live Chat’ interactions where they had trouble determining if there was a person on the other end or a clever bot.
I had such an encounter tonight.
Please enjoy My Chat with Nathan Corbis

Last night instead of doing much productive, I ended up watching Dogtown & Z-Boys, a documentary about the early skateboarding scene in Santa Monica in the 70s. Amazing stuff. Lucky for the world, Craig Stecyk and Glen E. Friedman were there from the beginning with the Z-boys, armed with film and movie cameras to record everything. It’s an impressive glimpse at the crew that brought the world everything we consider to be an Extreme Sport. It’s on cable, so set your Tivo to snatch it up. It’s also on DVD if you want to Netflix it.
After the movie, I got into my Nazi Killing groove. I understand some of you don’t understand what I mean when I say that. There is a game called Battlefield 1942 in which you play the role of a WW2 soldier circa 1942. You can use a multitude of weapons, including tanks, artillery, and even aircraft.
Here’s a picture:

Here you can see me about to execute a knife kill. In this type of game, getting close to the opponent and scoring a kill with a minimal weapon like the knife is a mark of skill.
Getting into the world of BF1942 makes me focus on the game and let’s the other stress in my life fade in the background. Michele doesn’t like the killing aspect of the game, but I find that it is a definite pressure relief for me.
In other news, some the people I met at SXSW have introduced me to Friendster. Friendster looks like it’s orginally intended as a dating/match-making service but is being used now as way to keep track of friends and see the inter-relations between circles of friends.
I haven’t spent alot of time examining the details or even writing about others yet (sorry Mike & Rannie), but it looks to have potential for fun. SO don’t be suprised if you get a Friendster invite from me someday soon.
OK, time to get ready for work. I’ve got a thrilling 9AM kickoff meeting about Forecast & Planning Software. Woo hoo! Who needs coffee when you have a meeting like that?

Salon has an excellent article on Dani Bunten. Dani was the creator the best computer game I ever played, M.U.L.E. She also made Seven Cities of Gold, a revolutionary game for the time that was the forerunner for all the RTS games that followed.
It is truly sad that a woman that brought so much innovation to gaming was stuck by cancer just as the internet opened up a whole new world of gaming.

I feel like I’m at low tide of the day.
Usually I get up pretty energized in the morning. Today I’m not. My back is sore, sinuses hurt, and my body is pinging me regularly for caffiene.
Last night I went to bed at 10:15. That’s about 3 hours early compared to my normal schedule. I think I am suffering from too-much-sleep syndrome. It’s the only answer.
Four meetings today at the office. Joy.
There are plenty of things I’d like to be doing like sorting the pictures from SXSW, clearing up my desk, and going through my mail, but it will have to wait.
Hopefully the drive to work will wake me up a get me rolling for the day.
Have a good day.

I’m sitting on the couch with the laptop. Zoe is playing a game on the gamecube and Mira is playing with paper & scissors.
I’m feeling more together today than yesterday. Yesterday, my eyes were bothering me quite a bit and I had to take out my contacts. We went over to the Diggs for Audrey’s 1st birthday party. It was one of the first time I’ve worn my glasses out in public in recent years.
Thanks to the Andersens, we had a bottle of Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey to celebrate S. Patrick’s day with group shots. Between the glasses giving me a headache, the 4 shots of whiskey and the slices of pizza, I was hardly the energetic life of the party.
After we got home and put the kids to bed, I tried to watch some TV. The rain was so intense that the signal from DirecTV was blocked. I went to bed to get some sleep, hoping that the signal would clear up later and Ali G would get Tivoed.
Today I’m feeling better and having fun with the girls. Michele is off to do some knitting thing somewhere. We are watching the Inspector Gadget 2 movie for the 5th time in four days.
Politics
We saw the President speak from the Azores. It looks like we will be at war soon. Nothing will convince him to wait on the attack. Everything is in place and ready to move out.
I predict that he will attack tomorrow. Probably around 3PM Pacific. That’s 2 AM in Baghdad. They will launch the attack in the middle of the night.
I hope as few people as possible will die as a result. Unfortunately I fear that many, many people will die.
We need to remember this when it comes time to vote for President in another year. Our President is shredding the Constitution, ignoring America’s problems, and going to war without the support of the American people or the rest of the world. We can do better than this. We need a President who believes in the values in our Constitution, not in the words of chickenhawks looking at the world as a game of Risk.

[Forgot to post this earlier. It was in Draft limbo….]
This panel is with Bruce Sterling & Derek Woodgate.
Brief notes:
Open Spectrum – Sterling -> Coming on strong. Symptomatic of the social struggle between law & order and the multitudes. The people who are running the spectrum allocation are concerned. Motorola Canopy, a tower spewing radio over an area. (not sure of the point here) If wireless data people could get access to the good spectrum, they could do wonders.
Woodgate -> The tipping point is the car. Hard drives in the car standard in 2007. Satellite radio is dying. More work in the wide area.
Sterling asks ‘Where’s the business model?’ There is no model. Death of ISPs & portals are a problem. Traditional media & business is clueless . ‘How many times to these guys get punished?’
Round of applause about Americans reading other countries news to learn about what’s happening in America.
There may permanently be no business model. Everything (news/information) may be free, but it may be incorrect/bad.
Woodgate -> Look at drivers. Entertainment is still a valid driver. Moeny will flow to entertainment. Money will also flow into security.
(running out of battery…)
Ubiquitous Computation – Sterling -> Example is traffic monitoring. In London put video cams in town to enforce the permitting. The problem is mission creep. If the ‘security people’ can use this system, it’s a problem. Privacy suffers from so much technology.
Woodgate -> Positive aspects. The everywhere aspect and the invisible aspect. Wearable & wireless computing is coming. Materials Connection, some cool company. They travel the world looking for new physical materiels.
Technology needs to be invisible for people expect it to do something for them.
UviJunk – Embedded technology that does’t work or is outdated, in things that are being used. Tech in a chair or room. What happens when you have an outdated intelligent car?
Open source in manufacturing – Sterling -> What happens when you can get foamed aluminum at Home Depot? What happens to GM is people can make their own cars? Would a $400 car wreck the car industry? What are we going to do when hackers can build ‘stuff’ and not just DVD ripping software.
Woodgate -> Yes, it is concerning. Community structures are place this will change. A break down of traditional centers, an increase of the connection between individuals. A different attitude toward work & play. People want more
(Out of batteries – sorry)

I wrote to my congressman, Adam Schiff, about my concerns about electronic civil liberties several weeks ago. While I was at SXSW, I received this reply:

I suggest you contact your Representative too.