Traveldudes.org

SU - Paris, the most popular tourist destination in the world | Traveldudes.org: "In Sardinia the Bed and braeakfast 'I GERANI' from 50 euro to the day to couple offers comfortable rooms with pernottamento and breakfast in villa with garden to 2 km from the sea of Posada Nu."

Baia Dei Fiori

Baia Dei Fiori: "Nocera Scala, Calabria, Italy"

Lets Get Stupid!

Is Google Making Us Stupid?
[Atlantic July 2007]

Maybe I’m just a worrywart. Just as there’s a tendency to glorify technological progress, there’s a countertendency to expect the worst of every new tool or machine. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.”
--Nicholas Carr

I have little choice. If Carr says he is getting stupid, forgetting how to read etc., I need to take him at his word. Carr's understanding of Turing, AI, and measurement reflect the habits of someone who browses too quickly and misses quite a bit.

More thoughtful presentations of this class of problem are available. Brain Rules, for example. Naturally, Brain Rules makes use of extensive text, a DVD, and You Tube video. For those who make use of it, the net allows a much more human interaction than linear text. Words, music, video, photos. Best, the level of formality has dropped. Not so good for the elite, but fine for the rest of us.

More soon on this topic!

O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies

O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies: "'ve long been a fan of WordSpy, Paul McFedries' site that features definitions and first use of new words and phrases. It's a great trendspotting tool. The words we use give surprising insight into popular consciousness. Many of them, like junk sleep, silent disco, free-range kid, or Blackberry prayer illustrate new social trends, while others like phantom load or quake lake are terms of art that have entered popular consciousness, and still others, like naked street are like deli.cio.us links to things you've never heard of, but could end up being important or useful."
say something interesting

The Weird Sisters - Olivia Judson - Evolution - Opinion - New York Times Blog

"They just keep getting weirder. The “they” I’m referring to are the bdelloid rotifers — small transparent animals that live in damp places such as puddles, or patches of moss. Among evolutionists, these animals have something of a cult following, because they have a lifestyle that is not supposed to exist. As far as anyone can tell, the bdelloid rotifers are ancient asexuals: they appear to have been living entirely without sex for more than 85 million years. And each time we learn more details of their lifestyle, the wackier it becomes."

Scientists Changing Theories About Memory : NPR

Scientists Changing Theories About Memory : NPR: "By looking at brain activity during the scans, scientists are concluding that earlier notions of how memory works need to be revised. The old model of memory, says Lehrer, is that the brain was like an immense filing cabinet, where knowledge was stored in a logical order. 'Now, thanks to 'tip of the tongue' research,' says Lehrer, 'they're realizing that it's not like a file cabinet at all but like a very, very messy desk, cluttered with big piles of paper, so when you misplace a word or a name, what you're trying to do is find one piece of paper amid all these billions and billions of piles of paper.'"

Interesting program, but phrases like "...earlier notions of how memory works need to be revised." are both annoying and misleading. Whose 'earlier notion'? How much earlier?

Lehrer's research, interesting as it is, is hardly the first time people noticed that a file cabinet was a poor metaphor for memory.

Slow Food in SF Labor Day 2008

Taste delicious food, meet farmers, wander urban gardens, and discover the recipe for a fair and sustainable food system.

Connect Visual Studio Tools to Eclipse

Teamprise : Client Suite

Teamprise is a suite of client applications for accessing Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server from outside of the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Teamprise enables software development teams to use the source control, work item tracking, documents, and reporting features of Team Foundation Server from within the Eclipse IDE, and from other operating systems, including Linux and Mac OS X.

JAZZwave - About us

Jazz in Auroville (South India) :: Who Knew?

JAZZwave - About us

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School | Brain Rules |

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School | Brain Rules |
Funny videos & this guy believes in naps!

Colorado Yurt Company - Yurts, yurt info, photos of yurts

Colorado Yurt Company - Yurts, yurt info, photos of yurts
about 15 grand for 30' diameter & strong enough for winter.

Michelle Kaufmann Designs

Michelle Kaufmann Designs
Interesting and exciting pre-fab (more or less) prefab housing.
Michelle's blog has an interesting sustainability comparison of typical Menlo Park house and the Breeze house she designed in conjunction with Sunset magazine.

Mobile Internet - O'Reilly Radar

Mobile Internet - O'Reilly Radar
Good stuff on optimizations for mobile platforms

Can Asus repeat eee sucess on the desktop?

Asus released the Eee, an amazing solid state mobile computer in October. The 4G (4 gigs of solid state storage is jumping off the shelves and the 8G is in even more demand.

The P22 looks like it may rule on the desktop.

The ASUS Nova P22: The Powerful, Portable Dual Core Mini-Desktop PC
The ASUS Nova P22 is diminutive in footprint but powerful in performance. Designed for space-conscious users who demand ultra-quiet operations, the Nova requires only 122 cubic inches of space and incorporates a robust Intel Core 2 Duo processor that is cooled passively and actively by a heat dissipation module, heat pipes and fans. Supporting the 802.11n wireless standard, the Nova’s high 300 Mbps transmission rate allows users to easily download a 30-minute HD video in just 44 seconds! Completing the ensemble, a pair of built-in speakers housed at the front of the Nova offers convenient high quality audio output. For home theater configurations, the Nova also supports 5.1 speaker configurations with Dolby® Digital Live or DTS® connect technology. Additionally, the Nova accommodates nearly any environment with ease, thanks to its flexible horizontal/vertical placement, slot-loading drive and its sleek exterior. The Nova P22 will be available through ASUS authorized dealers in North America in late January at an introductory MSRP of $799 USD.

Asus Eee :: Solid state, Mobile computing

Sure there is a lot of hype, but the Eee G4/8 from Asus is an amazing machine at ~$400. The "8G" means 8 gigs of solid state storage -- i.e. no hard drive. It weighs about 2 lb so its a wonderful travel machine that can do real work.

But how to find one -- especially the black edition.

The ASUS Eee PC is once again in the limelight. This time, it has been billed as America’s most wanted Christmas gift among notebooks products. Several large American shopping websites have started investigating what the average American would want as a Christmas gift in lieu of the fast approaching Christmas buying season; and the result from the American Amazon shopping website and CNET based on 14th of November unanimously places the ASUS Eee PC at the top spot on the wish list.

Irresistible Popularity
So overwhelming is the Eee PC’s popularity in America that all the units were snapped up – creating a lack of stock; and stores were inundated with orders for the Christmas season as soon as it was put on the shelves. Long queues were noted on launch day as people flocked to put their

Tables in Haystack

adobe contribute,publishing,blog,tools

empty table
	thanks	to
		Contribute

Expermenting with Adope Contribute today.

 

Zurfer, the location-based photo browser from Yahoo! Research Berkeley

Zurfer, the location-based photo browser from Yahoo! Research Berkeley
The hits just keep on coming...
Yahoo's Berkeley research group has a research prototype supported by Nokia's S60 devices and Motorola's Razr Vx3 -- possibly others. I had no idea how many phones are S60 devices.

• See what's around you

  Zurfer shows you photos taken around you, and exposes interesting 'local highlights'.

• Follow your contacts

  Get the latest photos from your Flickr friends, and follow recent comments on your photos.

• Take your photos with you

  Access your entire Flickr photo collection and your favorites when-
  ever & wherever you need them.

• 'Flickr inside'

  Customize Zurfer to use the power of Flickr; get interesting photos; and search for any topic.

ETech 2008 CFP is Open

ETech 2008 CFP is Open
The Call For Participation for the 2008 edition of the Emerging Technology Conference (AKA ETech) is open. We are going to be expanding the scope of ETech this year. We're going to look beyond the web to manufacturing, biotech, large-scale systems, sensor networks, alternate reality games, visualizations, robotics, policy, human enhancement and clean tech. The CFP closes on September 17th so submit soon! The conference will be held in San Diego from March 3-6, 2008.



A few topics

Energy
Abundant and Ubiquitous Comuting
From Virtual to Physical
Visualization
From Physical to Virtual

Yahoo! Pipes: Deconstructing a Pipe

Yahoo! Pipes: Deconstructing a Pipe
Pipes and filters for the net.

3D Models from 2-d photos

Its not the online world, its the world online
-- EveryScape tag line.

3d, 2d, photos, who cares? Architecture, travel, geography, culture are about to change. Google earth is so 2006. If you teach yoga, take pictures for a newspaper, are a photo journalist, or are Italian, checkout EveryScape before reading further.

Companies like Advanced Scientific Concepts (high end) and EveryScape (low end) are changing the rules. Checkout the Advanced Scientific Concepts LADAR system on youtube.

HyperMedia V2.0
EveryScape supports HyperMedia. Not my kind of demo, but check it out.

Becoming a ScapeArtist
All this does not quite make sense, unless you realize that EveryScape is signing up people at several levels of commitment and expertese to shoot the world.

Graffiti Artist
Amateur Artist
Master Artist
Commercial Artist

A Graffiti Artist doesn’t require any special training or skills — just that you are interested in sharing the pride, passion and knowledge you have for your world.

You’ll need to be an experienced Web user and spend a couple of minutes reading and accepting the rules and regulations for adding content. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to embed links and content like Web sites, photos, videos, reviews and commentary into scapes. You’ll also be responsible for reporting and removing inappropriate content and ensuring the accuracy of content.

As a Graffiti Artist, it’s up to you to represent your world.

As an Amateur Artist, you will need the passion, pride and local knowledge of a graffiti artist combined with panoramic photography experience. We’ll provide online training resources to help you turn your panoramic art work into the immersive 3D images you see in scaped locales.

After completing the online training and accepting the rules and regulations for posting content, you’ll be able to post panoramic photos that are geo-tagged to locations or on map screenshots. You can also embed links and additional content including Web sites, photos, video reviews and commentary.

Required equipment: Point and shoot digital camera; IPIX Starter Kit; IPIX Interactive Studio Essentials Pack (minimum)

Master Artists share the same passion, pride and local knowledge with our other artists. Because of the increased expectations that go along with being a Master Artist, you must have panoramic photography experience and an understanding of photographic principles like composition, lighting, staging, etc., and more sophisticated equipment.

We’ll provide the same training that Amateur Artists get as well as additional training and information regarding where to take photos and expectations for quality. Once you accept the rules and regulations for posting content, you’ll be able to do everything that an Amateur Artist can do and earn money for your high-quality, relevant work.
Required equipment: Digital SLR; Fisheye lens; PeaceRiver camera head.


Commercial Artists are where the rubber meets the road — literally. As a Commercial Artist, you will travel the highways, byways, avenues, alleys and side streets of locales acquiring GPS-tagged panoramic photos. With this critical work, you are creating the canvas that all other artists will work on.

After 2-3 days of training in the use of the EveryScape car-mounted photography rig, image acquisition and logistical coordination, you’ll be ready to roll. Because of significant time investment, equipment requirements and expectations for quality and consistency, Commercial Artists are compensated for their efforts. And loved by all.

Required equipment: EveryScape car mounted photography rig; access to a car.