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| There are great benefits to connectedness, but we haven't wrapped our minds around the costs. |
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What is happening to Silicon Valley's talent pool? |
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| Topic: Local Information |
12:06 am EST, Dec 20, 2004 |
If you are a current or former tech worker in the SF bay area, then this data may be of particular interest to you. For the more casually interested reader, two items in particular are notable. Slide 15 shows where workers who left high-tech industry went, as a function of what they were doing at the height of the boom. Slide 16 shows that workers who bailed out of high tech have fared poorly, whereas those who stayed in tech jobs have done well. (I found it amusing that the surveyors refer to parts of the Golden State outside the bay area as "ROC".) What is happening to Silicon Valley's talent pool? |
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Engineering Expressiveness |
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| Topic: Technology |
11:49 pm EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
I got to thinking once again about how computers have changed the way we engineers communicate in writing and in planning presentations. On the one hand, computers have given us this vast freedom of expression, but at the same time they have established a pattern of conformity that has narrowed the range of expression to a tiny sliver. In the future, perhaps the paper clip will ask whether you would prefer this in the style of Hemingway, or perhaps in the style of Dickens. As computers empower our expressiveness, they also plot to take it away. Engineering Expressiveness |
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Menus document history of Chinese eateries in US |
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| Topic: Current Events |
7:33 pm EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
dmv wrote:
] I thought that, in today's column, I would heal the
] nation.
]
] The nation suffered a wound during the recent
] presidential election as a result of the rift between the
] red states -- defined as "states where 'foreign cuisine'
] pretty much means Pizza Hut" -- and the blue states,
] defined as "states that believe they are smarter than
] the red states, despite the fact that it takes the
] average blue-state resident 15 minutes to order a single
] cup of coffee." I know Dave is trying to be funny, but those characterizations are just dead wrong. Here's an excerpt from a New York Times article published on September 22, 2004. There are now close to 36,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, according to Chinese Restaurant News, a trade publication, more than the number of McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King franchises combined. What began in this country as exotic has become thoroughly American. A study by the Center for Culinary Development, a food product development company, found that 39 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 13 who were surveyed said Chinese was their favorite type of food, compared with only 9 percent who chose American. "It has become part of our consciousness." "It is quintessentially American." Menus document history of Chinese eateries in US |
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God Speaks To Me Through Scrabble... |
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| Topic: Arts |
4:53 pm EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
... so I joined the NSA. Life is a game of patterns and chance. Be the craziest. Triple triple. Eight minutes of flash you will enjoy. God Speaks To Me Through Scrabble... |
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Long Life, Fleeting History and the Wisdom of Silence |
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| Topic: History |
12:03 pm EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
The end of the year is near, a time for reflection. So, in search of understanding, I recently visited my grandmother, who is 104. Over 104 years, a lot happens. Although she has seen a lot of it, she never liked change much. "The things you see when you don't have a gun" was a favorite expression, delivered on encountering any novelty or irritant. Long Life, Fleeting History and the Wisdom of Silence |
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Sizing Up the New Toned-Down Bin Laden |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
11:28 am EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
Counterterrorism officials and terrorist experts are listening closely and debating an important question: Is Mr. bin Laden committed to destroying America, or has he become more pragmatic, trying to begin a rational foreign policy debate about its presence in the Middle East and even appealing to Americans' pocketbooks? "He is tuned out by most Americans and Europeans, and it's begun to really annoy him." Sizing Up the New Toned-Down Bin Laden |
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Knowing It All: The Pursuit of Knowledge, From Genesis to Google |
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| Topic: Literature |
10:27 am EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
They attempted to read everything they could find on every branch of human endeavor and, from their readings, cull the most outstanding facts and ideas. What they discovered is what we have always known but seldom believed: that the accumulation of knowledge isn't knowledge. In Alexandria, it became clear that the greater your ambition, the narrower your scope. But our ambition persists. All we need to do is remember that reading, in order to allow reflection, requires slowness, depth and context. Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context. Knowing It All: The Pursuit of Knowledge, From Genesis to Google |
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That Present 'Neath the Tree I Bought for Me |
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| Topic: Philosophy |
9:18 am EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
For years, I have been ridiculed and maligned for buying my own Christmas presents in a wide price range and selling them to anyone who wishes to give me presents. This reasonable approach gets exactly what I want and saves the gift giver from having to shop. And we both avoid that awkward moment of exchanging gifts and reassurances about said gifts. That Present 'Neath the Tree I Bought for Me |
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| Topic: Technology |
4:00 pm EST, Dec 18, 2004 |
Decius wrote:
] this author seems to be confused about the greater point,
] which is that books and buildings full of them
] are rapidly going the way of the horse and carriage.
]
] The ability to provide instant access to all of this
] information anywhere in the world will be a revolution
] in many quarters of the planet that have suffered for
] lack of knowledge. Increasing the speed and ease of access to information is a commendable goal. For those who previously lacked access by any means, these new electronic capabilities can be quite transformative. For those in developed countries with well-stocked public library systems and retail super-bookstores in every neighborhood, the digital library is definitely handy but ultimately less profound. In the United States, access is basically a solved problem. While not perfectly efficient, the combination of Amazon, Borders, and the local public library have produced an effective solution. The much harder problem, and one which the Google project as currently described would seem to do little to resolve, is the learning process itself. On a whim, I can go to the store or library and come home with a printed copy of Democracy in America in less than 30 minutes. Much of the effort of the "access" step is physical (getting to the store) rather than mental. However, it will take a substantially greater investment, both of time and mental effort, to actually read the book and incorporate de Tocqueville's insights into my worldview. The specific mechanisms proposed by Google to assuage copyright concerns will exacerbate the already significant risks of full-text search. You can already see these problems with Google Print. By relying on keyword search as the index and interface into the library, a selection bias is introduced. By strictly limiting the ability of the reader to explore the rest of the book upon finding a "hit", the system substantially increases the likelihood that statements will be taken out of context and misunderstood by the reader. Google and God's Mind |
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The Information Age and the Printing Press |
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| Topic: Technology |
3:24 pm EST, Dec 18, 2004 |
It is difficult to see where the information age is leading ... With so many areas of society being affected, many effects are transitory, many are insignificant, some are contradictory and some are even undesirable. The future of the information age will be dominated by unintended consequences. The technologists are unlikely to be accurate. It will be decades before we see the full effects of the information age. We are not yet to the point we can see the capabilities of networked computers. The printing press changed the conditions under which information was collected, stored, retrieved, criticized, discovered, and promoted. "The first century of printing produced a bookish culture that was not very different from that produced by scribes," and "one must wait until a full century after Gutenberg before the outlines of new world pictures begin to emerge into view." "...roughly during the first century after Gutenberg's invention, print did as much to perpetuate blatant errors as it did to spread enlightened truth." In science, the notion of cumulative and progressive knowledge was absolutely revolutionary. As they read a given manuscript, the marginal notes of "wandering scholars" added any corrective or additive thoughts they may have. As scholars wandered, they carried the knowledge from the manuscript with them and could offer it to others. This capability opens the book into a new dimension with immediate accessibility to definitions of words, alternative means (say, more visually-oriented) of understanding a concept, active discussions of a given topic, further research on the subject, alternative interpretations, etc. The dissemination of knowledge is importantly changed by the immediacy of this new referencing capability. The printed book brought a variety of changes that led to a more orderly, systematic approach to the printed word. These had both obvious and subtle effects. Anyone connected with the network can become a "super librarian," searching remote databases via full-text search for any combination of words imaginable. That the printing press wrought significant changes in this system of learning cannot be doubted. People shifted from being listeners to being readers. Such dramatic structural changes should lead to significant societal and cultural changes, but pinning those secondary changes down is very difficult. Sometimes the unintended consequences come to dominate the intended ones. The printing press belongs in that class. The printing press era was dominated by unintended consequences of applications of the technology and we are already seeing the dominance of unintended consequences in some areas of networked computers. Unintended consequences are not only possible but likely to upset conventional extrapolations of current trends (or even historical parallels). The Information Age and the Printing Press |
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