Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Love Gibson's writing - not aware of the Blog til now - Time to dig in (or did i just forget?) Wm. Gibson suspends blog to write novel. True to his word, William Gibson has taken a hiatus from blogging to focus on his next novel. This interests me because I have ongoing fiction and other narrative projects of my own and I can't figure out if I'm in the Cory Doctorow school of composting ideas in a blog or the William Gibson school of keeping a lid on the stockpot so it can get up to the boiling point. If nothing else, blogging certainly competes for time and attention with other efforts, writing or no. Plus, the instant gratification may tend to short-circuit the delayed gratification that may be necessary to complete longer coherent works. I'm no expert on discipline and I take forever to complete fiction and even longer essays, so I'm still trying to figure this out. As fun - and important to me - as blogging is, I'd halt it in a moment if I determined it was preventing me from completing other forms of writing. [Radio Free Blogistan] 8:35:19 AM     Just downloaded the Chris Lydon mp3 interview of Julie Powell - think I'll listen to it before I dive into the actual reading of it (if ever...) The Julie/Julia book. Add The Julie Powell to the list (along with Salam Pax) of bloggers whose weblogs have landed them sweet book deals. Congratulations to Julie for conceiving of her brilliant project and then - most importantly - executing it. So now, is the book going to just be a slightly edited rendition of the yearlong cooking project or is it some other kind of derivative work? [Radio Free Blogistan] 8:32:59 AM     Ideo Method Cards - Interesting concepts from the industrial designers of how they do their work.  Not sure if it's just trivia or inspiring - something to think about. Why would I want to have these cards? To give me ideas for how to solve problems... Or to give me inspiration for how to solve problems...  Do I need this???  Is there some problem or class of problems that I am facing now? Nothing more than the age old one - How to focus on the right things at the right time for the right amount of time and get great results...  Would they help here?  Well, what they do is suggest to me(indirectly) is that physical action beyond the expected is an important component of the answer (e.g. make kits, do unusual experiments, engage small teams to explore stuff, BE PLAYFUL)! 8:21:42 AM     OK I'm rolling on the floor already - I'll should fire off an email to Leland Wallace of Symdex - And of course to Niel Ayer.  But maybe they'll just read it here! What's the Opposite of Macgyver?. Geek Eye for the Luddite Guys "This is no ordinary reunion of the nerds. These geeks—as different from nerds as orcs are from trolls—have been assembled as part of an audacious experiment: Can they deliver digital happiness to a small part of America and enable FORTUNE to ride the success of the hit reality show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?... So we assembled a Fab Three, headed by Heistad, and paired it with the most typically tech-less family we could find: the Burkes of Sterling, Va., who consist of a salesman father, a stay-at-home mother, and two small children. Heistad grilled them on their tech needs—really, all they wanted to do was send digital pictures of the kids to Grandma. Heistad came back with a shopping list that would get them that, plus a home theater, a wireless network, new computing, a tricked-out music system, and GPS positioning capabilities. FORTUNE's requirements: The products needed to be practical, easy to use, fully installed, basically idiot-proof, and very, very cool. We'd pick up the bill for the Burkes, paying a set media rate when companies offered it, retail when they didn't. (We let the geeks pick their own uniforms, though: They chose The Matrix: Reloaded T-shirts and Tevas.) For three days the Fab Three took over the Burkes' home. And at the end, it was nearing digital nirvana. But, O, Fortuna! It is not so easy being geek." [Fortune] [The Shifted Librarian] 8:06:13 AM     Fascinating - Voice over internet being rolled out to all freshman at Dartmouth! Could save KaZaa's butt as their byzantine entity organization structure is revealed (tax havens, and third party managers in third party countries).  Absolutely fascinating (I repeat myself). It will probably take off, but it seems to me a bit premature - Wait for the videophone, or just use IM.  Who wants to be interrupted all the time while you're using your computer (apparently lots of people who are not me!). 7:40:36 AM

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