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Aug
25
Waffle bike or the reason #984,239 why I love the internet
Filed Under Stuff, Social web, Film, Funny | Leave a Comment
Waffle Bike is a fully weaponized waffle making device complete with call to prayer public address system:
Aug
13
CRM
Filed Under VRM, Stuff, Business | 6 Comments
Sums it up really.
Aug
1
Pilobolus
Filed Under Stuff, Film | Leave a Comment
Something for the weekend.
More on Pilobolus.
Jul
8
Reaching limits of silos not of networks
Filed Under Network, Individual, Stuff | 1 Comment
There is talk of Metcalfe’s Plateau. Not convinced at all! Networks can but don’t need to plateau, which is defined as a point at which the marginal value of another node added to the network decreases. Depends on a type of a network and to what extend is the nature of the network understood and utilised.
Alas, no time for deeper analysis so just a few thoughts thrown into the spokes.
1. In non-networked (e.g. channel world) scale happens via aggregation. But in a decentralised network scaling happens via distribution. And yet, we still aggregate online rather than design for distribution indigenously. We still think ‘centralise’, get it all in one place so we can then find our way around and control our environment that way. It’s like going to one giant car park where everyone keeps their car every time they wish to start a journey, instead of taking their car with them as they need it and parking it as suits them. And so using as the entire road system as the platform, not the parking lot.
2. Search is the most primitive form of filtering. Also, it’s still centralised. So the limits of the web are not due to ‘there is simply to much info/too many friends etc’ but due to lack of tools that help the individual to benefit from the network to the full. Outside platforms and locks in.
3. So we may be reaching a plateau or a ceiling of our centralised channel world thinking as applied to and within the networked environment of the web, not necessarily a plateau in the Metcalfe’s law.
4. And Doc is right about the distinction between networks and groups. Groups are still siloed - an attempt to lock in the benefits of networks in the social context (social graph etc) into a ‘monetizable’ platform. No wonder it’s not working as planned! Long live the two natural online platforms - the individual and the web.
Jun
20
My del.icio.us in Wordle
Filed Under Stuff, Social web, Tools and applications, Metablogging | 1 Comment
Couldn’t get it any bigger, so if interested, click on the graphic.
And here is the Mine! paper in Wordle.
Jun
19
Open source pr0n
Filed Under Open source/IP/DRM, Stuff, Film | Leave a Comment
Fantastic! A feast for geek eyes.
code_swarm - Apache from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.
An experiment in organic software visualization, code_swarm:
This visualization, called code_swarm, shows the history of commits in a software project. A commit happens when a developer makes changes to the code or documents and transfers them into the central project repository. Both developers and files are represented as moving elements. When a developer commits a file, it lights up and flies towards that developer. Files are colored according to their purpose, such as whether they are source code or a document. If files or developers have not been active for a while, they will fade away. A histogram at the bottom keeps a reminder of what has come before.
via O’Reilly’s radar
Jun
12
Are current business structures and processes actually institutionalised sabotage? It would seem so as the following tips from a 1944 manual (pdf) on how to sabotage a business could read as a description of what happens in corporations around the world… (just replace “patriotic” with corporate BS about leadership and innovation).
(11) General Interference with Organisations and Production
(a) Organizations and Conferences
- Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
- Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
- When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
- Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
- Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
- Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
- Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
- Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
via Joho the blog
Boing Boing comes to the same conclusion: Sabotage manual from 1944 advises acting like an average 2008 manager
May
27
Need to get myself one of these!
via Machine Thinking
About 7 years ago I was reading an article on Claude Shannon and came across one of the funniest ideas I had ever heard. Claude, you see, was one of these incredibly brilliant engineers with an obviously great sense of humor. As I understand it, he, along with Marvin Minsky came up with an idea they called the “Ultimate Machine”. Basically a plain box with a switch on the top. When you flip the switch, a hand comes out of the box and flips the switch off. Thats it.
Well, after reading the article, and laughing out loud, I decided that I HAD to build one of these boxes. So simple, and yet so funny.
May
23
Frozen in NYC
Filed Under Stuff, Funny, People | Leave a Comment
A new type of ‘crowd control’? Talk about collective action! Is this what Clay Shirky means when he talks of the cognitive surplus no longer sucked up by TV? 
Wonderful.
via Scott (commenter on an Endgadget post)
Dec
17
Quote to remember
Filed Under Stuff, Quotes, Web/Tech | Leave a Comment
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.
- Gall’s Law via Tim Bray
Oct
19
There is no “top” to the World-Wide Web
Filed Under New models, Stuff, Social web | Leave a Comment
This is a must-watch. Brilliant. Just passing it on…
Sep
25
Cinderella in ppt
Filed Under Stuff, Communication, Funny | 1 Comment
Another reason why presentations in powerpoint must die.
via Dave Snowden
