Category Archives: Personal Life

Posted on by
Reply

The future of urban art … a very cool new version …
This is one of the coolest ideas that I have seen in art and the urban landscape. Using the office lights in a tall building at night to create a giant animated canvas. People are then able to download an application to create the animations and contribute them to the groups running the project.

I’m almost interested in finding a company here in Salt Lake City that would be interested in doing the same thing!

A German Computer Club’s Eight Story Hack. I originally found this site from a story posted on ABC News. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the German Chaos Computer Club has turned the top eight stories, eighteen windows per floor, of an East Berlin building into a giant display. The project, called Blinkenlights has downloadable software called Blinkenpaint that allows anyone to create a simple movie that can be played on the giant display. View some of the contributed movies here. My favorites include das Monster and this Internet pop culture retread. If you want to direct dial a German phone number you can even play Pong. See a current web cam image here. [kuro5hin.org]

Posted on by
Reply

Peer to peer and community proxies will wipe this out …
If you read this article, you might get the idea that people can track down your geographic location accurately when you are cruising the web. Although this is true for now, it is becoming easier to “mask” your location with simple peer to peer or community proxies.

A proxy is a machine that someone places on the internet which allows you to “relay” your web requests through. Any web site that you then visit will see the requests coming from the proxy, rather than your computer! In the example in the article, if you were to locate a proxy in the UK, you would be able to visit the UK gambling sites since they would see the traffic coming from a UK computer … not yours in the US.

This entire situation gets more and more complex as more people allow for the sharing of computing resources on their laptops and home computers. As the desire for more privacy increases … at least among groups of computer users … I believe that people will begin to install proxies to share for a variety of purposes …

Geolocation will not have a chance against these types of proxies and relays …

Geolocation Enables Internet Borders [Slashdot]

Posted on by
Reply

Continuous connectivity … even in the air …
As I continue to look at the ways that we will be “always connected to the net” I can see that the number of “gaps” in conmnectivity is constantly decreasing at an ever quickening rate. We are now going to have Internet connectivity while flying!

I have recently been leaving my laptop – equipped with an Orinoco/Lucent 802.11b wireless card – on all of the time. As I go from home, to various offices, and to friends houses, I am starting to observe the amount of connectivity that I have. And the “gaps” in my connectivity – the time that I am “off the net” – are getting smaller and smaller. I even noticed lately that it is becoming a “driveway to driveway” experience … I don’t lose my 802.11b access till I am driving on to my street, and I regain access in the parking lot of one of my clients!

With the purchase of my new generation of wearable computers I am looking at the new cellular data services to see how I can cheaply have “low speed” access almost all the time. What’s cool about this project at Boeing is that I’ll now be covered while traveling on the various airlines.

An always connected world is not too far away …

FCC Approves Airline Internet Service. The Federal Communications Commission has approved Boeing’s Connexion service, putting high-speed Internet at the fingertips of flying passengers one step closer to realization. [Product News]

Posted on by
Reply

A very cool proxy/redirection script …
I have recently been working on learning Perl. It’s a fairly amazing and flexible language, there is a ton of open source code written in Perl, and it’s available for almost every platform out there.

In looking around recently, I found this Proxy script that is a very powerful script. It provides a flexible proxy for HTTP and FTP that can strip various content, manage cookies, and provide nearly anonymous browsing. There are a whole slew of things that I can think of possible using this code. The author even added a number of features similar to the Crowds proxies with groups of proxies.

I’m going to install this on a couple of my servers and do some experimentation. If you want to see a demo of this, visit the authors homepage and he has a demo version up and running!

CGIProxy 1.5. Anonymizing, filter-bypassing HTTP proxy in a CGI script (in Perl) [freshmeat.net]

Posted on by
Reply

Art and Music … very cool article and site …
This is a “must keep” web site … this guy is extremely creative. Not only is he modifying toys and other sounds producing devices in artistic ways, he is adding jacks and pitch controls so that they can be used by bands! You too can plug a noisy kids toy into your amp and add a whole new dimension of sound to your bands music!

Tech Toys Become Modern Instruments [Slashdot]

Posted on by
Reply

More mapping software …
As location based services become more and more a part of our lives we are going to want to know where important things are located – including ourselves!

I like this project due to the “moving map” capabilities, and also the support for BSB charts. These are a format used in the Marine Navigation market … something that I love … being out on a boat!

Hugo 1.2.1. GPS-capable moving map software. [freshmeat.net]

Posted on by
Reply

Lapse from posting …
I have been swamped lately … living in complete overwhelm. With the various consulting opportunities that I have, and creating a 802.11 wireless network, and creating a digital identity application, and assisting with some local conferences, AND continuing my R&D into memetics and ontology … I have been quite busy. In addition, I am committed to my house and my family.

So as of today I am continuing my reading and posting … and I also promise to update to Radio v8 soon … within the next week or so.

Posted on by
Reply

And so Gattica begins …
For anyone who has not seen the movie Gattica, I can only suggest they they rent it and watch. It includes a wide range of very interesting perspectives on the implications of our advances in understanding genetics, and some of the social and community issues that will develop. One of the core conflicts is that of unstoppable genetic discrimination …

We are on the verge of having some of the technology to create many of the scenarios that are shown in Gattica … at one point in the movie they even show a “corner store” that provides instant genetic analysis. Although this seems sophisticated and a ways off, the ability of a corporation to do this type of analysis – even if it takes days – is just around the corner. The article below shows that this is something coming quickly … and Gattica explains why these types of laws are going to be difficult to enforce. Go rent the movie …

Insurers barred from using genetic tests. The Times Oct 23 2001 6:32PM ET [Genetics news]

Posted on by
Reply

From mail to e-mail … from travel to e-travel?
I too agree that these anthrax mail scares are going to make people think about mail and “junk” mail. One of the areas that I wondered are what new lawsuits might erupt from this whole affair?

One area will be companies that “force” a person to accept mail. For example, if you receive bills for services from a vendor – say your credit card bill, or electric bill – and they do not offer an alternative e-mailed e-bill, then are they potentially endangering your life by “forcing” you to accept potentially lethal mail?

E-mail a savior amid anthrax scare. Use of e-mail could skyrocket as an ever-widening anthrax investigation turns “snail mail” into a suspicious and potentially lethal form of communication. [CNET Tech News]