The purpose of computers is human freedom.

Like "maturity" and "reality" and "progress", the word "technology" has an agenda for your behavior: usually what is being referred to as "technology" is something that somebody wants you to submit to.  "Technology" often implicitly refers to something you are expected to turn over to "the guys who understand it."

What we really need is software designs that go into realms that cannot be visualized on paper, to break ideas and presentations out of their four-walled prison.

Cyber means "I do not know what I am talking about" or "I am trying to fool and confuse you."

And please, Mr. Programmer, leave the choices to ME, not labyrinths of software outside my control, because I DO NOT TRUST YOU.

The Web is a foam of ever-popping bubbles, ever-changing shop windows.
The Web is the minimal concession to hypertext that a sequence-and-hierarchy chauvinist could possibly make.

If you haven't read Ted Nelson you're not really a hacker.

] Pushed by their government, Chinese firms are shunning
] technological protocols invented abroad and developing
] their own.
]
] They want Chinese-made video discs to run on
] Chinese-invented players. They want Chinese consumers
] linking up with China-developed mobile gadgets.

A very interesting strategy. If Chinese people have Chinese electronics that only communicate using Chinese protocols then incompatibility will limit their exposure to "corrupt" western culture.

CNEWS - Tech News: China seeks to develop its own technology standards

] "These people don't tune into today's radio channels
] which are aimed at a young audience. Our service allows
] them to discover their own music," Ashcroft said.
]
] Consumers can tailor the music stream by pressing a
] button on their phone to indicate they like or dislike a
] song.
]
] "It's self-learning. The channel will adapt over time,"
] Ashcroft said, adding wireless carriers are expected to
] charge a monthly fee of between 10 to 15 euros for the
] service.
]
] Sony's service, for which it has no name yet, will work
] on advanced multimedia handsets running on the Symbian
] software system, available on phones from Nokia, Siemens
] AG, Sony Ericsson, Sendo and others.

Interesting. This was being worked on at MongoMusic back in 2000 at time of assimilation. Sony and Nokia were even the primary investors for its last round of funding. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, this means someone really does not want (or was unable) to work with Microsoft. They already put out the capitol to develop the technology they speak of here once before. Mongo's secret sauce was based on the "Sounds Like" technology, but MongoRadio did have a direct feedback mechanism for its playlist generation. MS re-implemented everything done at Mongo (it was all *nix based), and the radio player seems to exist in the Music section of MSN as "Radio Plus", however I can't use it. It requires MS as a platform.

What existed in 2000 fits the description made here. I wonder if the technology continued to be developed independently, if it would have gotten more use. I wonder if the company could have survived. Hrm..

Sony to deliver collaborative filtered music over cellphones.

No, officers, we're computer scientists and engineers.

All the pictures are really neat. An autonomous vehicle of every shape and size. I think some of the video's audio overdubbing got mixed up in a few places. Maybe it was the stream. Nevermind, its not important.

Elite soldier units supplied by autonomous vehicles, "really smart" land bombs disguised as SUVs and cars, robot scouts, and many more products of science fiction are on the way, given the will to proceed by taking some very natural steps. The armies of the future are going to include much enlisted metal and many officers bread by video games. I either feel terrified or safe. I am not sure which.

What I truly fear is what will happen if we wind up with too significant a portion of our overall R&D capability as a country focused on building weapons. When we decide to lay new ground, we wind up creating things like the atomic bomb. WWII showed some amazing examples of how we could leverage our manufacturing capability and ingenuity at the time. We know our high tech creation engine is capable of performing similar amazing feats today. If we turn that on, we better be aware that once its on, its going to be pointed at something. Just based on the fact that humans don't seem to practice much restraint in the face of threats, we should assume we will wind up using whatever we create. Lets be careful about what we create.

In terms of robots, I see us at being able to either reach beyond ourselves, or reach out and crush someone. I would really rather be making Mars Rovers then Robot Warriors even though I see reason for both. As long as certain other people are also thinking in that same direction, this is a very good thing. The work of NASA may be the most peaceful way to exercise the power of the state. We have China to compete with now, and I think we can see eye-to-eye just enough to complete peacefully.

At any given time, I'm not sure if I should be in awe or scared shitless of DARPA. I do have the Internet here to sit and pontificate on, so I guess it can't be that bad. I hope our future robot masters are benevolent. :)

Robot Race Is Giant Step for Unmanned Kind

] The dispute over who controls key portions of the
] Internet's address system erupted into open conflict
] today when VeriSign Inc., the world's largest addressing
] company, sued the Internet's most visible regulatory
] body, charging that it has been unfairly prevented from
] developing new services for Internet users.

VeriSign's power grab attempts continue.

Verisign Sues ICANN to reinstate Sitefinder!

] There developers creating "virtual Earth"
]
] The Department of Defense is commissioning a re-creation
] of the entire planet from online-sim maker.
]
] As a rule, the developers of There prefer calling their
] creation a "virtual world" rather than a "game."
]
] Now it looks like that statement will no longer be
] hyperbole.
]
] According to a report on the BBC and HomeLAN Fed, the
] Department of Defense has commissioned the Menlo Park,
] California, company to create a replica of the entire
] planet. According to the report, the Earth sim will be to
] scale, featuring real-world distances--so if a user's
] avatar wanted to spend three months riding a bike around
] the Australian coastline, it could.

Dare I make a Matrix joke?

There developers creating 'virtual Earth'

] Stratton Sclavos, chief executive of VeriSign Inc., told
] investors in a conference call last month that the
] company might relaunch its "Site Finder" service as early
] as April.

Sometimes it feels as if there is not to be a moment of rest, on any front.

Where are the non-wildcard DNS based methods of directing browsers to lookup services? I remember there was much talk here of other ways to approach the problem. A quick search revealed this thread: http://www.memestreams.net/thread/bid8950/

washingtonpost.com: VeriSign Reconsiders Search Service

This is fun to watch, and doesn't take up *too* much bandwidth.

This is neat, I've previously only been exposed to NASA TV via various friends' satellite TVs. It has that "high school tv station" feel to it. Meaning, that they are either playing some educational tapes, showing a blank screen, etc.. Although, it tends to get interesting whenever NASA has something going on of public interest. In the past, I've seen everything from just idle shots of the earth spinning coming back live from the shuttle to cycling through various information screens from probes they are in current contact with. For instance, during shuttle flights they usually relay some telemetry data and the comm channel if they do not have other programming..

[ Update: NasaTV hasn't changed that much since the last time I exposure to it. However I don't think I emphasized enough how much random rad stuff they pump over it whenever they have something going on, and its easy to forget how much NASA has going on at any given time. The ISS (and its leak), animations built from Chandra data, the current Mars activity.. As I typed this, I just caught a series of gnuplot graphs fly by plotting out various rover related stuff. This is a nice feed to have chilling out on monitor #2.. ]

Live stream from NASA TV

] Matt Adams has a different idea. He's the co-founder of Blast
] Theory, a digital-arts group based in the United Kingdom
] that creates mobile multiplayer games that fuse wireless
] virtual space with real space.

Worth a look if you're interested in how people might use location based services.

Wired News: On Your Mark, Get Set, Unwire!

] It's called the Segway Human Transporter, but
] the Pentagon is drafting the two-wheeled scooter
] as part of a plan to develop battlefield robots
] that think on their own and communicate with troops.

Just in case you were wondering; Yes, Virginia, they are making Terminators in a lab somewhere...

The Pentagon starts building Terminators