Competition vs. Cooperation

Competition breeds a better product, especially in a free market, where resources are plentiful. This takes more time, however.

Cooperation robs the individual of the Tony Starck-Effect, but the achievments can be far greater in a shorter period.

I think, for the purposes of discovery, cooperation is the best method. For the egomaniac, competition is the only option. This is why many, if not most egomaniacs fail.

- Posted using my iPhone

Negative Avatar Press

I feel, with many large releases that garner much attention from the Internet crowd - the fanboys, the trolls, the 12 year old boys - will always suffer reviews which are motivated by ego. Speed Racer was too colorful. Dark Knight was too dark. Bad press gets attention when a movie has this much publicity.

"I want to be different, not objective" feels like the mantra for many journalists reviewing this movie.


- Posted using my iPhone

Guilty Pleasure #22

Gyroscope plus world-class laser pico projector equals fun!
Also, the next generation of handheld gaming might require a firearms license in Canada.

Unrestrained Diarrhea of the Brain

More specific than just a boring old length of insomnia, but rather I'm doing alot of online reading.
I guess gathering information for all sorts of projects that I'd like to work on eventually. I figure where's a better place to talk about the internet than on the internet. It's like... why not contribute the results of my personal, somewhat insignificant fact-finding mission to the overall girth of the net. No one reads my posts, I'm no Doctorow. Alas.

Making a replica Jurassic Park Ranger outfit, I dont know why I thought this would be fun, it's just a khaki shirt with lapels with one or two logo badges sewn to the the sleeves. Finding the badge? Not so easy. So, after a bit of reading, I found Westerfield Studios, who is more than happy to ship internationally. The company also sells replica badges from Firefly and some from Lost. Business seems good and they've got new products on the way. The more well known competitor I think is The Intergalactic Trading Company. Same market, two URL's.

Another thing I've been interested in for some time is the notion of the wearable PC. Once you go down that rabbit hole you almost never ever find your way back. There are a host of different places to get information, but I finally discovered a de (waitforit) lightful wiki on the subject.  From here I learned a little more on the topic of HMDs (which has become troublesome after my main contender: Vuzix recently announced backorders on their new product the Wrap920). I learned about a man in Toronto who has an MIT doctorate and specializes in wearable computers.
Infact, Steve Mann practically invented the idea. Below is the actual image from the wearable computer entry from Wikipedia. I've, of course, seen this image before, but knowing I might be able to obtain his autograph...

 Currently he's teaching at UofT and oversees a project known as EyeTap.
The project really excites me and I'd love to be able to learn more. Judging from the website, this man is interested in receiving all forms of input including that from designers (not an engineer, not a computer scientist, what am I?). I plan on making the attempt at contacting him sometime before the holidays at his eyetap.org or UofT email address (though I worry because the site hasn't been updated in some time).
One idea that's crossed my mind is producing a series of questions for him and interviewing him for Urbane Magazine and perhaps using my production skills book a BB practice room and make it filmed and snappy.
Mann is an MIT post-doctorate. My chances of this dream being realized are slim.
I also located the supplier of most of the components for these projects - Tek Gear. A Winnipeg-based electronics supplier specializing in HMD and micro displays. 

What else? Looking at cyberpunk fashion online. I found an interesting wiki on the Cyberpunk Review website. A site I noticed iGargoyles work on earlier in the week.  Most of the links are dead, but it was fun to find. One thing I like the idea of is making a t-shirt (cotton or poly) with panels of bullet resistant kevlar.
Like this guy's shirt I found on German Xtrax website. I doubt this shirt exhibits any properties of bullet resistance, but hey, this exist in the world so they can be made better.

This shirt reminds me of Adam Savage's Kitanica MarkIV jacket. One of the best ways to drop $500 in my opinion.

The design of the MarkIV with it's spinal absorption padding has really made me think about how an pico-ITX based computer (Like the new version of Compulab's FitPC2i - due for January) into a wearable rig could work.

The idea of a slim-profile wearable rig isn't exactly new though.

Really though, all this focus came from was a sweater designed with love and care by Marc Ecko, and trying to find it online. To say the least it inspired me, but I've also been thinking of the idea of customizing a white sweater into a space suit - either NASA's EMU or the fancier Chinese Feitian suit.

Anyway, I plan on getting the latter from ebay. Marc hates Canada, and shipping thereto.

Firefox: beyond 25 tabs you're just playing with a toy.

Grossman said "The universe is speaking to me, if you listen closely"

The front page of Digg.com features three links.
The first is on tech growth from the BBC.
The Second is this

It gets a couple things right, but it's moot.

The third link is from Humanity+ winter issue and an article on the DIY Transhumanist.

Life...

Tie Patent Application

A tie loaded with:
A 3G (or even GPRS) radio.
An LCD of suitable size.

How it works. People get the tie. The tie is location aware, and is the output of the LCD is controlled by the data received from the radio.
This network is controlled by a company who represents ad agencies.

The display can be in the form of a pepsi logo, or something more elaborate like a full video commercial.
The tie will track the location of the user and this will be stored and compared to an existing model (the model may even be live updated via camera feeds) that track population density in certain areas of the city at certain times.

The tie wearer earns some revenue by wearing the advertisement and silently, but actively participating in the promotion of the product.

Now, throw in the concept of ad revenue developed by Google. The real-time auctioning of the ad space between competitors against a mathematical model ensures maximum revenue.

So, there you have it. I will attempt an early prototype someday soon

Theatre for the Future///

Ok, creative juice spiliage.

The only thing that will remain in entertainment that you travel to will be the seats. I mean, even movie theatres are passe because of HDTV. Maybe that's why the networks dragged it through the mud for so long.

But I imagine a building. Four walls and seats. That's about the only thing that could stick. I think for the most of it there will still be a screen, but maybe the audience will 360 around a stage in the center with massive holographic on display.

But that's only the half of it, the audience will at this point totally be interfaced with the digital world of this entertainment. Chemical smellovision? Don't make me laugh, this is about brain interface.

I'm sure the corporate collaborates of this tech will have varying disciplines of immersion. Like evolved models of the same product, which might be proportional to the experience. What I mean is brain-bugs (nano machines which facilitate this interface and latch on to neurons and synapses- and also possibly complex receptor sites) will evolve and newer forms of the tech will always increase in resolution over time. So, there's a huge class-aspect to it, money buys the experience. Ticket price does not relate to this at all and is something completely different. Infact, you might be able to enjoy the experience if you're complety un-modified. And I imagine that's how the baby boomers will approach this form of theatre.

I dunno if live actors come into this form of entertainment. It's a hard thing to predict. Especially if our relationship with the performers is what it is now. And that is to say human. If it were augmented in a way which allowed the communication of thoughts and feelings than it would be a completely different experience.

Imagine simultaneously watching a world-class dancer perform and yet be in sync with the thought process they're experiencing. The nervousness, and the excitement juxtaposed with elegance and the desire for perfection. And what if this dancer is genetically enhanced from birth? Than perfection would be altered, and it would become the norm. The feelings associated with this aspiration might also be muted, but new feelings would come over.

That's irrelevant. I imagine a theatre where the audience jacks in. The magnitude of resolution associated with jacking in changes with the consumers ability to have the 'latest and greatest' upgrade between the frontal and the occipital.

What does that mean? It means live performance might finally be given justice and finally have the capability of mass distribution.

I want to build transhuman entertainment.

My friend Ian...

My economic genius pal from the good old days in Bradford has sent me a few videos that all relate to the recent Climate-gate scandal. It appears that the most recent 007 flick, QofS, was actually more real than we thought. That's abstraction, here are the videos I've been watching.

That's Murry Rothbard.


Here's Van Rumpoy talking about EU's desire for World Government.

I wish I understood what side of this to be on.

On Adult Swim development deals...

If I ever happen to produce a cartoon for that network, make sure to end every episode by whatever character is in the last scene by breaking the 5th wall and saying "We're cancelled".

Like seriously, what adult swim show has gone beyond 3 seasons. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the exception.

There are 38...

John Morgan's on IMDB.
I really wish I had more elaborate parents.

Adam Savage. Producers love him.

These guys have insurance?!?
I want to work Stateside when I grow up! Here you'd have to get that crane rated and examined by an engineering team. It would go through months of bureaucratic examination with a mustachio comb. Or maybe I'm wrong and on episode 213, M5 had more going on with this test than meets the eye.

The world would suck without The MythBusters.

Mice Feedback

Man, I would love it if Logitec made a mouse with force feedback. Not even for games, just as another sensory reception to information.
The mouse could signal email reception, or like... download complete. What Growl used to do on the Macs and what Windows always did. (mean and false, but patriotic)
Algo goes something like:
figure 2: mouse moving + timed period = yes
Figure 1: typing = no

Duh.

Can we please get this shit off the ground. I know some company has a patent on it, and besides its used in VG controllers by every one of the competing forces, so there's your lawyers whine-song right there.

Hello? World?!