Monday, December 09, 2002

I Totally Need A Pensieve To Hold Those Thoughts And Memories

In today's AlertBox, Jakob Nielsen uses Harry Potter gadgets to illustrate where real-life gadgets should be moving...

"Much of the Harry Potter books' charm comes from the quirky magic objects that surround Harry and his friends. Rather than being solid and static, these objects embody initiative and activity. This is precisely the shift we'll experience as computational power moves beyond the desktop into everyday objects."

I totally use my digital camera to hold the memories and ideas that continually are crowding each other out as I move from experience to experience. My weblog holds the notes and 'second draft' of those memories, using the camera as that 'first draft'. Tomalak's Realm provides an appropriate link today by pointing to both this story and a Wired story about MyLifeBits...

"...a new Microsoft research project that aims to record the essence of a person's life on computer disks: every photograph snapped, home movie filmed, Web page browsed, e-mail scribbled, phone call made or bill paid."

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Phil Windley Resigns As CIO of Utah

The fully blogging CIO with lots of good things to say is bowing out. If you read a little bit more of his blog, you get a taste of the why...

"At one point during the lunch, he said something to me that left me incredulous: "remember, process is more important than results." Maybe I misunderstood him, but nevertheless his words were full of wisdom. The bad news is that even as late as the final week of my career in state government, I found that statement to be ludicrous. The good news is that even as late as the final week of my career in state government, I found that statement to be ludicrous. When you start to believe that, the borg has won."

His "Road To The Future" (of IT in Utah) sounds like it might be a good read.
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Who Do You Want To See (You) Today?

Here's something to do with your digital recording device on Christmas Eve 2002, WSD (World {Sousveillance, Subjectrights} Day)

"Taking pictures of the surveillance cameras will cause models to appear very quickly for you to photograph. When you point your camera at their cameras, the officials watching their television monitors will very quickly dispatch the models for you to shoot. This is a universal phenomenon that happens in nearly any large organization where video surveillance is used. Models often carry two--way radios and wear navy blue uniforms with special badges. Most will be eager to pose close to your camera, especially the hand models..."

Thanks to Doc (as for other links today)
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San Fran Weekend Wrap-up: Dottie's, MOMA, Drakes Party, Luna Park, Oh My

Before I launch into a quick blogging session between work and lunch, thought I'd do a quick wrap up of the weekend in San Francisco, which overall was fully enjoyable. Took lots of pictures which I hope to be a tad bit creative with, so hopefully you'll see some results here.

After that last Saturday morning post from Chai House on Geary, we met friends of friends at a cabbie-recommended bfast-lunch spot called Dottie's True Blue Cafe (bean cakes, poached eggs, yam-carmel onion-gruyere tart, grilled cornbread, etc.) and now have a new best breakfast spot in the Union Square area (bumping out Sear's). We then walked down to SFMOMA and I had a truly great experience that deserves a separate paragraph.

After the fantastic atrium, we quickly moved to the Koret Visitor Information Center which is a fantastic space to either prepare for or come down from the emotional overload that always comes with visiting a museum as large as SFMOMA. I was then blown away by the August Sanders exhibition People of the 20th Century. As much as the photographs captured people important to a working society of any time, Sanders method of categorizing his people reflected a view of all aspects of society being important...totally opposite of the Nazi, Germany uber alles, of the time he lived in. Wow. The descriptions in the exhibition of each set of photos really opened it up. Then the Gerhard Richter Forty Years of Painting was stunning...so many different styles and reasons and ideas. Check out the Richter Interactive Feature for more info and visuals. And in the ed. center I was get (for free) a loaner CD player of music that jazz guitarist Bill Frisell composed for Richter's 858 collection. The music was a perfect accompaniment to the entire Richter exhibition...and a Jazz connection...ideas. What a great museum and great exhibitions.

Wondering out of the museum, we were magically transported back to Toronado's in Lower Haight for another session, and we end up running into the Drake's brewer, who's beer we fell in love with on Thursday. He sort-of hooked us into a little party they were having in the back room and free IPA ensued. Gotta love it. And the sausages at Rosamunde next door. From there it was a quick refresh at the hotel and then to Luna Park for dinner (menu: briskett...on a stew kick, pork cutlett, spicy rigatoni). Another winner. Rolling home for fuzzy TV and dreamland (or snoreland, depending on who you ask).

Sunday started with a return engagement to Dottie's and a cab to Oakland airport for home.

Everyone was glad to see us and all in one piece on our return. More cabinet's came into the new kitchen while we were away, so progress on many fronts.
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