Tuesday, October 01, 2002

"THE LIFE OF CHARLES JOSEPH MINARD (1781-1870). Among his favorite studies, I will cite especially his figurative maps and his graphic tables, the use of which he popularized and to which he attached a well merited importance..." [xBlog: The visual thinking weblog | XPLANE] Edward Tufte spends quite a bit of time discussing Mr. Minard in both his first book and his course (which I highly recommend attending, next time it's in your town).  Tufte considers Mr. Minard's map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia to be the best information graphic of all time.  It contains multiple dimensions on the same map, including time, geography, the path of the Napoleon's army's march, significant milestones, the size of the army (both graphically and numerically), and even the temperature (IIRC).  As a result, the graphic's information density is very high. I have the poster, which is one of the take-away's from the course.  It's more impressive in dead trees than it is online.  One of these days, it will find it's way into a frame and on my wall. 11:29:35 PM

John Densmore tells it like it is.  I've always like The Doors.  There were times in college when that was all I would listen to, for many hours, late in to the night... but I digress. I can't imagine these guys ever getting annoyed by fans downloading their songs on mp3.  I guess they do have enough yachts to waterski behind. 10:50:05 PM

"Another angle on the same subject. Yesterday on NPR's All Things Considered, a report on a college town in the state of Georgia that's installing WiFi over the whole downtown district. The college is paying for it (only $85K). Of course this is a great idea, it'll make the college much more attractive and the town more useful. But they totally have the wrong idea about what it will be used for (or ATC asked the wrong people). It will be used for email, instant messaging, reading news, and blogging (and probably porn too). It's not just about finding out what's happening in the town or at the college -- it's about what's happening in the world, and creating stuff that's part of the world. People still think of the Internet as something like TV, so by extrapolation of course town-level WiFi must be like local TV, but geez folks, get a clue -- the Internet is two-way not one-way." [Scripting News] Dave heard the same interview I did.  There's more details, including a couple of CNN interviews (CNN is based in Atlanta, after all.), on on the group's web site. I agree with Dave.  I think the WAGz will be used for all these things.  But I also hope that they can find some useful applications to add a local flavor to it.  Perhaps even to extend the local flavor to the global network, or bring a little more global flavor to the hometown streets.  That's what it's all about.  Global influences local, which in turn influences global. 10:43:02 PM

"Yahoo to run multimedia ads. Under pressure to boost sales in a lifeless ad market, the Web portal launches AdVison, a full-page ad that broadcasts commercials, and runs Web pages, surveys and online games." [CNET News.com] One more reason not to have My Yahoo as my homepage anymore. 1:51:58 PM

Today's fortune cookie: It is not the person who has too little, but the person who always craves more, that is poor. 1:24:47 PM

"Dan Gillmor responds to Jack Valenti. Dan Gillmor interviewed Jack Valenti last week in his column and did the impartial thing, representing Valenti's beliefs as fairly as possible. This week, Dan takes Valenti's arguments apart, looking at what Hollywood's agenda really entails: "So the movie and music companies are going back to Congress for another helping. They are asking for laws that would force technology innovators to restrict the capabilities of devices -- cripple PCs and other machines that communicate so they can't make copies the copyright holders don't explicitly allow. Amazingly, the entertainment industry also wants permission to hack into networks and machines they believe are being used to violate copyrights. "Here is what it all means. To protect a business model and thwart even the possibility of infringement, the cartel wants technology companies to ask permission before they can innovate. The media giants want to keep information flow centralized, to control the new medium as if it's nothing but a jazzed-up television. Instead of accepting, as they do today, that a certain amount of penny-ante infringement will occur and then going after the major-league pirates, they call every act of infringement -- and some things that aren't infringement at all -- an act of piracy or stealing. Saying it doesn't make it so." Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog] What is it that makes the record companies think they are so special?  Since the dawn of capitalism, industries have been made extinct due to changes in technology.  Why should the music industry be any different?  Perhaps if more artists were about the art, rather than about the money, then they would realize that it's about getting your art out there, not keeping it closed and controlled.  How many yachts does one need to waterski behind? 11:34:07 AM