Steve Mann is still leading in new directions …
As always, I am impressed with Steve Mann and his thoughts on “cyborgs” and the extension of humans using technology. He has already run into numerous societal issues, and always explores the extreme edges of wearable computers, and “mediated” reality.
Cyborgs unite!. Professor Steve Mann just may be the world’s first cyborg rights activist. It is a future, he says, that is no longer the exclusive preserve of science fiction. [CNET News.com]
TMDA … an anti-spam solution …
Several years ago, while at Novell, I began work on a simple idea that I called AgreeMail. It never went anywhere, however it was an anti-spam solution based on an idea that I got at a Foresight Institute conference.
The idea was pretty simple. For any e-mail that was sent to me, the AgreeMail engine would check to see if it came from an “approved” sender. If it wasn’t, then it would automatically kick back an e-mail to the sender with an “agreement” that had to be replied to. When the AgreeMail engine received the “agreement” it would add the person to the approved list and let their e-mail through.
Well … years later … here is the solution as an Open Source project! I am now updating my mail server, and will soon be installing the TMDA engine.
This article is a great overview of TMDA, and the benefits!
TMDA Ends Spam. Tagged Message Delivery Agent (TMDA) is a challenge/response style anti-spam system which I’ve been using successfully for about six months. The system is based on a white list. When someone not on the list sends me a message, their message is held in a queue, and a challenge is emailed back to them. When they respond to the message, they’re added to my white list, and their original message is delivered to me. I’ve seen some resistance to systems like TMDA. This resistance comes in two basic objections: (1) it doesn’t work, and (2) it’s too rude. These objections are based on encounters with systems with various obvious faults, but condemning all challenge/response systems based on some bad implementations is like saying that cars are a bad idea because the Model A Ford has some problems. I intend to show that TMDA works well and that the real debate is over whether a system like it makes victims out of the people who aren’t using it. [kuro5hin.org]
Google … an amazing entity …
From my early days on the Internet, I have been facinated with Internet Directories and Search Engines. The various players have come and gone … and some have stuck around. Yahoo! is still one of the “old-timers” in the industry, as Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, and Altavista have all gone there own ways.
The one “newer” player that has come to dominate the landscape is Google. With their radical new architecture for gathering, storing, and indexing web content, and then “ranking” based on URI linking frequency, they have created an amazing solution for managing the wealth of information on the Internet. Ouside of all of this technology, there is also the “clean” and lightweight design of their website. Google appears to be the most used resource for searching the web.
There is another side to Google that many people do not see, nor understand. It is the core technology, and how is can be used and repurposed … and expanded. This is what I am most interested in with Google. If you have not visited their Advanced Search page, or explored the Google Labs, then you might not have seen some of the other aspects of Google.
Over the next month of so, I am going to be posting about a model that I have created in my observations of Google and what they are developing. I am hearing more and more about the impending IPO of their company … and I have to admit that I believe they are on to something. I believe they are creating something that is truly amazing.
Time Management for kids and ???
While I’m here writing about Utah companies, I might as well mention Time Scout. Time Scout is a cool little product for controlling the amount of time that any electronic product is used. The target market is for parents who want to control the amount of time their kids watch TV, play video games, or even use the computer.
It’s based on a simple hardware device that plugs into the wall. The electronic device is then plugged into the Time Scout and locked. There is then a simple control panel that consists of a card scanner and LCD display. The child is given a card that identifies them, and the parent assigns an amount of time in minutes. When the child wants to play, they scan their card and the LCD display shows their remaining time and counts down the minutes. When they are done they scan their card and it stops the counter.
This is a pretty cool gadget that allows parents to allocate an amount of time, and allows the child to learn how to manage the time that they have. I’m thinking that there might even be other uses for this product … I’ll be thinking about them!
Skiing with my MP3 Player and Cell Phone …
With this latest snow fall (which is still going as of today!) I can only start thinking about getting out and doing some skiing and snowboarding. Lately when I have been going, I like to take some CDs or an MP3 player. Of course I also carry my cell phone.
One of the problems with this is how do you listen to tunes, and also be aware of your cell phone? Well, a little company called Skull Candy from Park City, Utah has a solution. With their product, I can plug a single set of headphones into my MP3 or CD player, and my cell phone at the same time. I can then listen to tunes, and hear my phone ring. I can answer the phone and then return to my listening.
I’m really thinking of getting one of these to try. The one limitation that I can think of is that I carry three devices with me … not two. When I ski or board, I’m always carrying my tunes, my cell phone, and a Motorola FRS radio. My friends and family use the FRS radios to stay in touch on the slopes.
The continued growth of RSS and blogging …
This is an awesome example of the breadth of coverage and use of RSS as a standard for information syndication. PRWeb is now offering a broad range of RSS news feeds of information for free.
I still believe that this is simply the tip of the iceberg for the various uses of RSS. Some friends and I are currently looking at using this as a medium for the distribution of work and applications to do work. What would be delivered to me via RSS would not be just a flow of inforamtion, but instead a flow of work for me to do.
416 new RSS 0.91 feeds from PRWeb. # [Scripting News]
Improved efficiencies in information processing …
While I was working at Novell, I used the GroupWise solution that they offer for e-mail and collaboration. One of the terms that was used over and over again was the “Universal Inbox” … meaning that they wanted all of your incoming information to be delivered through the GroupWise user interface. It was actually a very impressive product, and I have to admit that I really miss using it. It never became what the creators envisioned, however it took great strides in the right direction.
This project at MIT is also moving in this same direction. It is exploring ways to consolidate a wide range of information sources into a user interace for optimal information processing by humans. It has some very impressive customization features, and I like many of the concepts behind it’s personalization.
This is more of a trend towards, what I call, Humaneural Software … software that enables humans to operate in a neural fashion …
Haystack – Universal Information Client [Nooface: In Search of the Post-PC Interface]
Very extreme human behaviors …
It is often very startling these days to see someone who has made the choice to alter their physical appearance in an extreme way. Or at least what I might have thought was extreme. I want to be clear that I am not against this, or for this … just sometimes caught off guard by what people do. Tatoos and body piercing are now being seen everywhere, with much of it very interesting and subtle. But every now and then I see someone and think “Wow, I wonder why they chose to tatoo their entire face?”, or “Man, having that many piercings on your face must have hurt!” The extremes that we are seeing in society only continue to grow and get … well … more extreme.
A number of years ago, a friend and I were following many of the Idea Futures claims years ago, and there was one that we found interesting. The specific claim was written in February of 1995 and stated that “By the year 2010 cosmetic surgery to alter the “natural” appearance of human beings will become fashionable.” and this is looking like incredible foresight. (No pun intended!)
The article that is linked below will be extremely disturbing to some people, and I recommend reading the warning below and understanding that he is very serious. I spent some time last night looking through these links and reading some of the articles … and seeing pictures that left me stunned. I had no idea the extent that people are pursuing “Extreme Body Modification”. It goes well beyond anything that I would have imagined. What is interesting to me is that the prediction was made in 1995 … less than 10 years ago … and we are – in my opinion – well beyond what the original claim was based on.
We live in a very wild world …
Extreme Body Modification. Warning: this story contains disturbing, graphical and un-worksafe links. Click them with caution. Superficial body modification has become, to a certain extent, acceptable and mainstream. While tattoos and body piercings were once markings of outsiders and special subcultures, celebrities and the public now display them as the latest fashion accessory (although they can still damage your employment prospects). It is clear that such modifications have become commodified and are no longer regarded as deviant, but merely as another consumer item. However many subcultures still exist that take the idea of body modification to extremes. Genital removal and limb amputation are examples of the hardcore, permanent body modification that members of these subcultures aspire to. These practices go far beyond the bounds of what society deems as acceptable body modification. While the mainstream may view this behaviour with revulsion and bafflement, it raises the interesting question of what is and what is not acceptable body modification in today’s liberal society. [kuro5hin.org]
Microsoft, Blogs, Aggregators, and programming …
Microsoft seems to have taken an all-out effort to embrace and explore the possibilities of RSS and Weblogs. This article is a simple ASP.NET project to create an aggregator – an application that gathers news articles from a range of RSS feeds.
Outside of this article, it’s interesting to see how many Microsoft employees have begun to blog, and that they even are supporting the blogging of their various events such as their PDC conference next week.
When I was at Novell a couple of years ago (has it been that long?) I was proposing several possible ways that blogs would become important mechanisms for information dissemination. Seeing more and more RSS-oriented content coming from Microsoft tells me that they are looking at the same thing.
MSDN: Creating an RSS News Aggregator with ASP.NET. # [Scripting News]
Bayesian Filters … for e-mail spam!
I have read a variety of articles on Bayesian filters, and of using them to solve some of the problems of spam. This is a very good article that compares some of the “popular” POP3 Spam Filters that are available.