I watched an episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' a little while ago, in which Sheldon refused to leave his room and instead interacted with the world through a 'digital presence machine'.. basically just a monitor, webcam and speakers hooked up to a wi-fi connection and a tread system for movement. It got me thinking about how easy it would be to make a similar transition.
I live most of my life in a digital world anyway... very little of what I deal with on a day to day basis has any sort of physical reality attached to it (and if you're reading this blog, then that's probably true for you too): At work I deal with information and how to store and access it... all of it digital; I get payed in money, which hasn't been based on anything physical since the world stopped using a gold standard; I spend a lot of my leasure time in Azeroth... running around in a virtual world; and for a long time most of the interaction with my friends happened in a digital medium.
Now with Japanese coming up with holographic pop-stars (Thanks for the link Jonathan), and robotic actors (see the news section). I'm wondering if maybe we're all loosing track of the physical world...
Probably not.... but still it's something to keep an eye on.
In The News:
Gold nano-particles could transform trees into street lights - this is possibly the best looking piece of tech I've seen all year.
Robot actor makes debut in Japan - ... or should it be actress? what's the correct mode of address for a robot?
Stuxnet bot may have been targeted at nuclear programs - Fascinating! I knew digital warfare was happening, but I didn't know it could have this sort of physical effect... wow... I wonder which country started this off?
Video games can enhance visual attention - told you they were good for you ^^
LHC scientists create and capture anti-matter - they've proved it possible with anti-hydrogen... this could be the first step in a massive jump in energy science.
Word of the Week:
Intangible (adjective)
1. not tangible; incapable of being perceived by the sense of touch; as incorporeal or immaterial things; impalpable
2. not definite or clear to the mind: intangible arguments.
3. (of an asset) existing only in connection with something else, as the goodwill of a business.
Thanks to all who read this blog. If you liked it, then please tell your friends to stop by. Post a comment if you have any opinion, comment or argument ^^
-Odd
"There are intangible realities which float near us, formless and without words; realities which no one has thought out, and which are excluded for lack of interpreters."
-Natalie Clifford Barney
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Lamentable Limits of Language
I may have mentioned this before but I think it's an important point, so you'll have to bear with me.
Regular readers (all five of you), may have noticed a new section to my blog. Namely the 'Word of the Week', I'm doing this largely to highlight cool words that I find and to expand my own vocabulary. Why should I want to do such a thing? Well.... The English language, or any language for that matter, is a seriously flawed tool. We have words that sound the same but mean different things, or different words that mean the same thing... Frankly it's amasing that we can have any sort of meaningful communication.
However, until someone comes up with a technological means to share our thoughts directly; we're stuck using language with all it's little foibles and pit-falls. If you've ever tried to have a philosophical, religious or political argument with someone, then you've probably ended up arguing about the meaning of certain terms (like 'reality', 'god' or 'communism') instead of dealing with the issues themselves. A lot of this cannot be avoided: basic words get co-opted as jargon by various disciplines, often meaning vastly different things depending on the context or who you're talking to.
Some of these troubles can be avoided if all participants in a discussion have a good grasp of the language they're using. If we have a large vocabulary to chose from, we can select the words that best encapsulate the subtle meanings and emphasis of the idea we're trying to convey.
So if you've found, heard or used a cool word recently, drop me a mail or post a comment and I'll share it here.
In The News:
A Robot In Every Korean Kindergarden By 2013 - I think that with the state of education in South Africa and the quality of teaching in rural schools, a slightly more advanced version of these things would be a massive boon to this country.
Real Time Holograms Beam Closer - So cool.... "Help me Obi-Wan Kinobi, you're my only hope".
50th Anniversary of SETI Commemorated With New Observing Project - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence has been running for 50 years... wow.
Implanted Retinal Chip Allows Blind People To See - a new wave of cyborgs are about to hit the street... cool.
Precognition study at Cornell University - and it's coming up positive...
Word of the Week:
Specificity (noun):
The quality of being specific rather than general
E.g.: add a desirable note of specificity to the discussion
E.g.: the specificity of the symptoms of the disease
I hope you enjoyed this weeks post, as always if you liked it: post a comment and tell your friends. See you next week.
-Odd
"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water"
-Franklin P. Jones
Regular readers (all five of you), may have noticed a new section to my blog. Namely the 'Word of the Week', I'm doing this largely to highlight cool words that I find and to expand my own vocabulary. Why should I want to do such a thing? Well.... The English language, or any language for that matter, is a seriously flawed tool. We have words that sound the same but mean different things, or different words that mean the same thing... Frankly it's amasing that we can have any sort of meaningful communication.
However, until someone comes up with a technological means to share our thoughts directly; we're stuck using language with all it's little foibles and pit-falls. If you've ever tried to have a philosophical, religious or political argument with someone, then you've probably ended up arguing about the meaning of certain terms (like 'reality', 'god' or 'communism') instead of dealing with the issues themselves. A lot of this cannot be avoided: basic words get co-opted as jargon by various disciplines, often meaning vastly different things depending on the context or who you're talking to.
Some of these troubles can be avoided if all participants in a discussion have a good grasp of the language they're using. If we have a large vocabulary to chose from, we can select the words that best encapsulate the subtle meanings and emphasis of the idea we're trying to convey.
So if you've found, heard or used a cool word recently, drop me a mail or post a comment and I'll share it here.
In The News:
A Robot In Every Korean Kindergarden By 2013 - I think that with the state of education in South Africa and the quality of teaching in rural schools, a slightly more advanced version of these things would be a massive boon to this country.
Real Time Holograms Beam Closer - So cool.... "Help me Obi-Wan Kinobi, you're my only hope".
50th Anniversary of SETI Commemorated With New Observing Project - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence has been running for 50 years... wow.
Implanted Retinal Chip Allows Blind People To See - a new wave of cyborgs are about to hit the street... cool.
Precognition study at Cornell University - and it's coming up positive...
Word of the Week:
Specificity (noun):
The quality of being specific rather than general
E.g.: add a desirable note of specificity to the discussion
E.g.: the specificity of the symptoms of the disease
I hope you enjoyed this weeks post, as always if you liked it: post a comment and tell your friends. See you next week.
-Odd
"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water"
-Franklin P. Jones
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Taking on the Big Boys
Even though I joined the evil Microsoft empire (resistance if futile), I do enjoy seeing somebody... anybody... take on this multinational goliath and win. So on the off chance that you don't know about them, this week I'm going to tell you about some easy alternatives to Microsoft products.
The first Microsoft product you should replace is your web browser. Even though IE9 is a lot better than it's earlier incarnations (I'm using the beta for work and it's pretty good), it still can't hope to hold a candle to Google's Chrome bowser, which is my personal favorite. Microsoft is under serious threat in the bowser market, so if you're still using IE, trade up to chrome and be prepared to be astonished by it's silky smooth operation and lightning speed.
Next in line is your Microsoft Office suite. You've probably already paid for this (unless you're a pirate, Aarrr!), without ever considering that there might be alternatives. There are alternatives... in fact, they're free! The first stop for me would be OpenOffice, even if they've recently lost 33 of their top developers to the new solution, LibreOffice... Either way you get a free product that does the exact same things as Microsoft Office.
If downloading and configuring your office product doesn't sound like your cup of tea, why not keep your head in the clouds and use Google's office solution: Google Docs. It runs right in your web browser, so you can access your files from anywhere at any time and with broadband and mobile internet in South Africa only set to improve, it's not a bad bet at all.
So expand your thinking a little, have a look at the incredible Open Source alternatives on the 'net and stop paying 'The Man' such a huge chunk of cash... unless you're paying me to do something Microsoft related... then it's necessary.
In the News:
Electric car recharges in 6 minutes - One of the greatest drawbacks to 'green' cars is being solved.
The Pope warns against a digital world - .... well... he would... wouldn't he?
Military "Laser Beams" getting closer to mass production - so they're still so big they have to be mounted on a truck... who cares? they're Lasers!!! so cool.
NASA Survey Suggests Earth-Sized planets are common - and a good thing too, since we're close to befouling ours beyond hope of redemption.
NASA's Mars Rover Spirit Finds evidence of Subsurface water - so a colony on mars is possible... if you were offered a one-way ticket to the red planet... would you go? .... I think I would.
Kindle Allowing Chinese Unfettered Access To the Web - Awesome! go Amazon!!!!
Word of the Week:
Hypocrite (noun) -
1: A person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2: A person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
Another week, another post... Thanks to everyone who gives my random scratchings a read... I do appreciate it. If you liked it (or disliked it), post a comment with the links below.... and I nearly forgot... check out my friend's blog Business Minds. :)
-Odd
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
-Winston Churchill
The first Microsoft product you should replace is your web browser. Even though IE9 is a lot better than it's earlier incarnations (I'm using the beta for work and it's pretty good), it still can't hope to hold a candle to Google's Chrome bowser, which is my personal favorite. Microsoft is under serious threat in the bowser market, so if you're still using IE, trade up to chrome and be prepared to be astonished by it's silky smooth operation and lightning speed.
Next in line is your Microsoft Office suite. You've probably already paid for this (unless you're a pirate, Aarrr!), without ever considering that there might be alternatives. There are alternatives... in fact, they're free! The first stop for me would be OpenOffice, even if they've recently lost 33 of their top developers to the new solution, LibreOffice... Either way you get a free product that does the exact same things as Microsoft Office.
If downloading and configuring your office product doesn't sound like your cup of tea, why not keep your head in the clouds and use Google's office solution: Google Docs. It runs right in your web browser, so you can access your files from anywhere at any time and with broadband and mobile internet in South Africa only set to improve, it's not a bad bet at all.
So expand your thinking a little, have a look at the incredible Open Source alternatives on the 'net and stop paying 'The Man' such a huge chunk of cash... unless you're paying me to do something Microsoft related... then it's necessary.
In the News:
Electric car recharges in 6 minutes - One of the greatest drawbacks to 'green' cars is being solved.
The Pope warns against a digital world - .... well... he would... wouldn't he?
Military "Laser Beams" getting closer to mass production - so they're still so big they have to be mounted on a truck... who cares? they're Lasers!!! so cool.
NASA Survey Suggests Earth-Sized planets are common - and a good thing too, since we're close to befouling ours beyond hope of redemption.
NASA's Mars Rover Spirit Finds evidence of Subsurface water - so a colony on mars is possible... if you were offered a one-way ticket to the red planet... would you go? .... I think I would.
Kindle Allowing Chinese Unfettered Access To the Web - Awesome! go Amazon!!!!
Word of the Week:
Hypocrite (noun) -
1: A person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2: A person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
Another week, another post... Thanks to everyone who gives my random scratchings a read... I do appreciate it. If you liked it (or disliked it), post a comment with the links below.... and I nearly forgot... check out my friend's blog Business Minds. :)
-Odd
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
-Winston Churchill
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