Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Source: [Ming the Mechanic] New social rules in a newly wireless society.. Smart Mobs mentions an article about the results of studies of cell phone usage, partularly among young people in Japan. The keitai (cell phone) use is so pervasive that it is effectively 100% for teenage girls. And now, the standard cell phones you get for free from the phone company have color screens, built-in cameras, Internet connectivity, etc. Particularly, the prevalent text messaging habits will seem strange to Americans, as text messaging hasn't really caught on here yet. High school and college students generally do not have the home phone numbers of any but their closest friends. Before initiating a call to a keitai, they will, almost without exception, begin with a text message to determine availability; the new social norm is that you should "knock before entering." By sending messages like "Can you talk on the phone now?" or "Are you awake?" text messagers spare each other the rude awakening and disruption of a sudden phone call.One teenage couple that participated in our study exchanged 30 text messages over the course of three hours as they watched television, ate dinner and did their homework, before engaging in a one-hour phone conversation. This voice contact was followed by another trail of 22 messages that kept them in contact until bedtime.Keitai-wired youth are in persistent but lightweight contact with a small number of intimates, with whom they are expected to be available unless they are sleeping or working. Because of this portable, virtual peer space, the city is no longer a space of urban anonymity; even when out shopping, solo youths will send photos to friends of a pair of shoes they just bought, or send fast-breaking news about a hot sale that is just opening. After meeting face-to-face, a trail of text messages continues the conversation as friends disperse in trains, buses and on foot, nimble thumbs touch-typing on numeric keypads.Just as Weblogs are distributing journalistic authority on the Internet, mobile media further de-centers information exchange by channeling it through networks that are persistently available to the mobile many. There are some things I find appealing about that whole thing, about being in constant contact, even though I don't use my cellphone like that so far. Here's another article . People are less concerned about being late for appointments, because they're in constant contact. And they walk slower than they did 10 years ago, because they're always on the phone. 7:51:45 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Source: [Ming the Mechanic] The world as energy. From Open Space and Whiskey River: "See the world as energy, and become responsible for your energy. Realize that everything you do, say, and touch, everything you pass - even for a fleeting second - is affected and changed by you. You impact the animals and plants; the air, water, and buildings; and people - the energy of each drops or rises to reflect the subtle etheric pressure you place on it.When you are angry, fearful, mean and vindictive, the energy of the room you are in starts to wobble and act chaotically. It metaphysically starts to implode. Anyone standing nearby will be robbed of energy and pulled down. Everything gets sucked into the vortex of your negative implosion.With perception comes responsibility. Understand that if you are infinite you are everywhere, and you can be anywhere, and you are inside all things, and you affect them. Remember that the solidity of the world is an illusion created by the speed at which atoms oscillate. If they slowed down just a little, you'd be able to walk through walls. In an out-of-body experience, you have consciousness inside a subtle body that we believe weighs four grams. You can pass right through the wall.In effect, physical reality is both opaque and ethereal - just a collective feeling. It's only by habit that you consider yourself solid. In a sense, you are a collection of particles, transmuted from being in the solid-particle state of physical existence to the more ethereal wave-state.In the wave-state, you are an amorphous oscillation, existing at no particular place in space or time, with no particular human definition. That wave state contains your consciousness and can be driven by your force of will. Through it, you have an immense potential to exert yourself on the etheric reality. The wave can move, so you move. It's everywhere, so you can be everywhere."-- Stuart Wilde, Silent Power Indeed. Life is non-local. The illusion of the solid stuff comes from the way we think and feel and perceive. 7:49:21 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Source: [The .NET Guy] Don't Stunt Your RSS. Adrian Bateman posts today pleading that people should leave the entire post content in RSS. I whole-heartedly agree. The reason I use RSS is so I can avoid opening dozens of browser windows. I only have a VERY SMALL handful of RSS feeds which only give 'intro' content, and those are only around because I know that they have the potential to offer a lot of value. The honest truth is that if I get a new RSS feed and it's partial content, I delete it immediately. I don't have time to mess around with browsers, and I'm not going to bother to complain about it, either. The only web site I visit on a regular basis without an RSS feed is CNN. At this point in my life, if a site doesn't offer RSS, I don't have the time to consume it. If anybody was hoping to drive people to their site by offering only partial content in RSS, I think you're making a reasonably large mistake. I use RSS precisely to avoid going to sites. Don't tell me you want my eyeballs for ads, because I use popup blockers and I never click ads. Never. Ever. In fact, if I find out you use popups or popunders, I won't go to your site even though I never have to see them. It's a rude thing to do to your readers. If you want me (and others) reading you and talking about you, then offer your full, marked-up content in RSS. 7:47:29 PM    trackback []     Articulate []