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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Holy Shit! Transparent Aluminium Really Exists
Have I Told You Lately...
Five Rules For Running A Conference Panel
What Can Venture Capitalists Do For You?
Can We Get Socially ORL?
Video of Tool Use in New Caledonian Crows
Feds demand more security for online banking
Is Truth More Important in Web Advertising?
The Road Ahead
I-Worm/Mytob Clogging the E-mail System
The Art of The Quick Study
Have I Told You Lately...
Five Rules For Running A Conference Panel
What Can Venture Capitalists Do For You?
Can We Get Socially ORL?
Video of Tool Use in New Caledonian Crows
Feds demand more security for online banking
Is Truth More Important in Web Advertising?
The Road Ahead
I-Worm/Mytob Clogging the E-mail System
The Art of The Quick Study
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Holy Shit! Transparent Aluminium Really Exists
I remember transparent aluminum from the 1986 movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where Scotty talked to a Mac mouse and transparent aluminum helped them save the whales, and thereby the world. Most science fiction has some basis in reality, I guess I just figured it would take a little longer. Time flies [via BoingBoing]
Transparent armor
David Pescovitz: The US Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is testing a new kind of transparent armor, clear aluminum aluminum oxynitride, that can stop hardcore .30 and .50 caliber armor-piercing bullets. From a press release:ALONtm is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability. When polished, it is the premier transparent armor for use in armored vehicles, said. 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, transparent armor sub-direction lead
"The substance itself is light years ahead of glass," he said, adding that it offers "higher performance and lighter weight."
Traditional transparent armor is thick layers of bonded glass. The new armor combines the transparent ALONtm piece as a strike plate, a middle section of glass and a polymer backing. Each layer is visibly thinner than the traditional layers.
ALONtm is virtually scratch resistant, offers substantial impact resistance, and provides better durability and protection against armor piercing threats, at roughly half the weight and half the thickness of traditional glass transparent armor, said the lieutenant.
Have I Told You Lately...
Just how much I hate Outlook?Filed under "Productivity - lack thereof"
Five Rules For Running A Conference Panel
Tony Pierce leaves a recent blog conference with some rules for running a successful panel. These apply to almost everything. Cant think of where they wouldnt help even the funny hats.
- blogging conferences should have extention cords and outlets just as available as chairs
- panels should be limited to one moderator, two panelists, a three minute intro, a twenty minute discussion, and a ten minute q & a
- anyone who takes the stage needs to come prepared with a joke
- blogging conferences should have really good wifi capable of handling all the bloggers in the room
- everyone should have to wear a funny hat on the last day of the panel
What Can Venture Capitalists Do For You?
They can get you partnerships and exposure like this, even when your business is fundamentally broken. |The upside is that maybe, just maybe, this sort of exposure will force the T-guys to fix some of the more visible problems with their service.Washington Post Incorporates Technorati Links
While reading an article in the Washington Post this morning, at first I ignored the boxes to the right that provided additional sources. But then my eyes fell upon the familiar green Technorati logo.
Turns out, the Washington Post links to the weblogs that refer to their articles by incorporating Technorati data. Cool.
[UPDATE] Ah, and it works too. Because I wrote this entry, I showed up on the Washington Post's website. How long before we see spam blogs trying to exploit this? Ads in the Washington Post for pills etc.
Can We Get Socially ORL?
Radio Userland product manager Steve Kirks proposes a new nickname for this weeks geek topic, OPML Reading Lists. I know lots of people hate OPML because Dave Winer thought of it, but I like it (Id love to see a real outliner for windoze that used it) and I like the idea of a standard way of publishing reading lists.
Nick Bradbury of FeedDemon/TypeStyle/NewsGator fame explains a little more what ORL is about:OPML Reading Lists need a nickname
OPML reading lists (an OPML file containing links to selected XML syndication feeds) are the hot topic this month and personally, I'm tired of typing all of those letters. So, in the grandest tradition of the blogosphere, let's find a good way to shorten those words. I'm proposing ORL pronounced "oral". Usage: Person A: "I need new stuff to read. Got any recommendations?" Person B: "Download this "orl" file into your aggregator?" Person A: "What's an aggregator?" Person B: "<SIGH>" ORL isn't the prettiest name, but if I pick something, someone else might make a better stab at it. I'm going to start tagging these types of post with ORL, too.
Then I read where the indomitable Judith Meskill at the Social Software Weblog has finally, unbelievably, indisputably had enough of entering all her stuff into all these different services (I actually felt this way the second time I did it. Judith must have done it hundreds of times.)In a nutshell, the idea is that you'd subscribe to an OPML document which contains a list of feeds that someone is reading, some organization is recommending, or some service has generated (such as "Top 100" list). Changes to the source OPML document would be synchronized, so that you're automatically subscribed to feeds added to the reading list. Likewise, you'd be unsubscribed from feeds removed from the original OPML.
So I have to ask, isn't there a path here for ORL to capture a "lifestream" that populates all these things and just fills them in as we hop from one container service to another? Now, I know we have FOAF and LOAF and RDF and BFD and whatever, but theyre all so freakin complicated I cant deal with them. OPML I get maybe because it gets rendered as a human-readable outline but I get it. I dont know how this stuff works so maybe its all just so-o-o-o-o-o much more complicated than someone like me can grasp. But Id be happy for people to tell me why ORL cant begin to do what Ive described.Swagroll lists and shares your stuff again
I caught a glimpse of Swagroll last week and saw it again on Emily Changs excellent eHub list of Web 2.0 apps and figured Id mention it here. Why didnt I mention it last week? Well... Im of the same mind as Stowe Boyd -why do I feel like Im doing a lot of work Ive already done elsewhere? Add books, music, movies, and more to your own swagroll - my god, do I have to? Again? Didnt we do this already with Delicious Monster? Havent I done this in iTunes? Havent I done this on Amazon? On All Consuming? On Netflix? I have zero desire to do any of it all over again. Zero. [...]
Posted by: 
Terry Frazier at 10:53 AM
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Categories: Automation, Collaboration, RSS
Terry Frazier at 10:53 AM
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Video of Tool Use in New Caledonian Crows
Check out this cool video of a New Caledonian Crow deciding she needs to make a wire hook to retrive something.Introduction to tool use in New Caledonian crows
New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are known to make and use complex tools in the wild (Hunt, 1996; 2000). We are investigating the cognitive and neural correlates of these natural tool using abilities in a colony of captive crows (the photo shows our first two subjects - 'Abel' and 'Betty' [on the left]; sadly, Abel died of old age in August 2002).
In the wild, the crows make a wide variety of tools from a number of different materials, and we have found that they will also readily do so in captivity, even with unfamiliar materials. They usually remove the leaves and side branches from twigs, and also make tools from other bits of material they find, such as their own moulted feathers (by removing the barbs), cardboard (by tearing it into strips), and leaves. They are even able to use techniques which would not work with natural materials to manufacture a tool for a particular task. We (Weir et al., 2002) found that Betty was able to bend a piece of wire to form a hook, which she then used to pull a bucket containing food from a vertical tube (see movie in panel on left; for more movies, see Photos and movies).
Feds demand more security for online banking
It's become apparent that US banks are simply not going to act on their own to increase security in online banking. Despite the absurdity of using nothing more than a 7-character pasword to protect a person's entire asset base, that's all BankofAmerica has in place. Even though I've written several letters to them complaining about the dangerous lack of security I've never gotten so much as a "how do you do" in response. It's about time regulators actually did something for us instead of to us. [via Freedom News Daily]HoustonChronicle.com - Feds demand more security for online banking
Associated Press BOSTON Federal regulators will require banks to strengthen security for Internet customers through authentication that goes beyond mere user names and passwords, which have become too easy for criminals to exploit.
Bank Web sites are expected to adopt some form of "two-factor" authentication by the end of 2006, regulators with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council said in a letter to banks last week.
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 7:05 PM
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Categories: Business & Finance, Security, Technology
Terry Frazier at 7:05 PM
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Is Truth More Important in Web Advertising?
I’m a Blogjet user, and I like it (this post was created in Blogjet.). This tidbit (found via Jack Vinson) is an interesting little commentary on how our expectations for truth in advertising are increasing. It’s no longer that we just don’t like being lied to (we never did,) but now it’s a matter of “just how stupid do you think we are?”Lies laid bare, fast
Someone is claiming to be the only WYSIWYG blog editor and buying AdWords to prove it. Dmitry Chestnykh, the creator of BlogJet, found something entertaining. Competitor is a liar? The power of telling the truth.
There’s a competitor to BlogJet. I won’t call its name but it has something to do with rockets and posts. One more hint: it costs $150.
I’ve noticed it when I typed "blogjet" in Google and found its AdWords ad that claimed: "Faster than BlogJet". ...
The guy just doesn’t get the nature of the Web and the power of blogs. If you don’t tell the truth, somebody will notice it and blog about it. Then somebody else will see the post and blog about it. Then everyone will be blogging that you’re a liar. Do you want this to happen? No? Tell the truth.
I use BlogJet for authoring, and the company has also created a targeted ad Qumana too. Google for BlogJet or Qumana to see the offending ad. The same thing happens at Lycos, AskJeeves, About, but not at MSN or Yahoo.
The Road Ahead
A group discussion on what trends will most shape our lives in the future. Participants include the usual suspects - Tim O'Reilly, Esther Dyson, Moby, Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Dery, Clay Shirky, David Brooks - but it's still interesting. Some excepts (out of context):TIME Magazine - The Road Ahead
We assembled some of the smartest people we know to identify the trends that are most likely to affect our future. What we got was a fascinating discussion about religion, technology and politics and why no one's golf scores seem to be getting any better.
[...] MOBY: I know a guy in Barcelona who has started a company to develop algorithms to determine whether a song is going to be a hit. It analyzes music to figure it out--and they're selling it to the record companies, and it's quite effective. If you expand on that, there's no reason you couldn't have your own personal search engine that understands your taste and can instantly analyze music based on a whole bunch of different, very subjective criteria to determine whether you might like it. [...]
[...] GLADWELL: One of the big trends in American society is the transformation of the evangelical movement and the rise of a more mature, sophisticated, culturally open evangelical church. Ten years from now, I don't think we're going to have the kinds of arguments about religion that we have today. [...]
[...] DERY: The democratization of available avenues of possibility is always phrased in market-friendly terms. It's about purchasing power--the cornucopia of options available to those who can stuff their shopping carts and proceed to checkout. How many options were available to those who were marooned in New Orleans? [...]
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 2:31 PM
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Categories: Business & Finance, Economics, Globalization, Religion, Strategy
Terry Frazier at 2:31 PM
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I-Worm/Mytob Clogging the E-mail System
I-Worm/Mytob is running rampant today. I've gotten about 100 infected e-mails from customers, even my travel agent. Thankfully I keep my AVG Anti-virus package and firewalls updated. This is such a hassle, and windoze is so crappy. When am I going to get a Mac?
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 10:08 AM
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Categories: Security, Technology
Terry Frazier at 10:08 AM
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Monday, October 17, 2005
The Art of The Quick Study
Some good suggestions on finding the structure and meaning of complex subjects – be they new markets, new philosophies, or new strategies. The idea of learning the language – a concept called coming to terms in the classic reading text How To Read A Book – is central to learning any new subject. Having a framework and good tools for doing so gives you consistency and reduces errors. [via Jim McGee]Becoming a better quick study of new markets and technology
Tim Oren offers his process for coming up to speed on a new market or technology. Although it's oriented towards his specific needs as a VC evaluating potential investments, it is general enough to offer an excellent starting point for any of us whose lives are characterized by having to make sense out of new environments on a regular basis. Certainly, there have been times in my career as a consultant when it seems that the primary skill requirement is to be an adept quick study on anything.
Here's Tim's key graf:There are two observations behind this methodology. First, every technology and market has a private language. It's built of terms of art, but also names of landmarks such as products, famous papers and projects, labs, and researchers and other experts. To begin to understand the market you need to learn this language. Fortunately, such a distinctive use of language and interlinkage of people and information artifacts is the very best thing you can have to feed Google or other modern search tools. The second observation is that the best way to learn a field is to watch experts argue about it. [Due Diligence]I would add two suggestions to his approach. First, give some thought to using a mindmap or something similar to manage your growing knowledge base. I'm a fan of MindManager for this kind of effort, and the newest version adds a number of new features to support this kind of organic research strategy. Jerry Michalski is a fan of a product called Personal Brain. I used it a few years back and, while I liked it, ultimaely concluded that mindmaps suited me better. Second, give some thought to how you want to manage the collection of electronic resources (links, captured webpages, pdf files, etc) you will ultimately collect. Lately, I've been having success with a combination of MindManager and Onfolio.
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 7:16 PM
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Categories: Business & Finance, Productivity, Strategy
Terry Frazier at 7:16 PM
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