I Have a Reading Problem

I like buying books. I like picking up heavy, pretty, difficult, image-laiden books in the store, buying them, and then starting to read them. I like finishing books, but I haven't done that in a long time; lately I get 10% - 70% through, and then just move on.

Who cares.

Anyway, for your blogging pleasure, here are a few books I'm thumbing through:

Just Bought 'em

Partially Through 'em

I Lack the Fortitude to Finish These

I Read 'em and Recommend 'em

Signing out from Schuylerville, NY...

-g

Wargames, or G-Fav's 300-baud Modem

If a movie is ever made about G-Fav and his wife, perhaps we will be portrayed like this.

Actually, if you're a fellow nerd wondering about that IMSAI computer in Wargames, there is a whole website just for you.

Well, trusted reader, enjoy the long weekend.

-g

Coffee Shop Increases Revnue by Shutting Wi-Fi

1369 Coffee House - Cambridge, MA
"Went Here 'til it Got Too Crowded"

This article isn't about 1369, but I like 1369 and would paste little stickers of it everywhere if I could.

Slashdot led me to an article at Wi-Fi Networking News about a Seattle coffee shop whose revenues improved after disabling free Wi-Fi on weekends.

The symptom they experienced prior to the shut-off was that "cyber squatters" would come in, grab a seat, and work all day. The owners complained that the spirit of the cafe changed.

Although I feel I spend way too much for drinks at places like Starbucks, I would be willing to pay for guaranteed access to a decent table and "free" Wi-Fi on an hourly basis. I love local coffee shops like 1369 Coffee House and the Diesel Cafe - but I don't love buying coffee and then standing in a holding pattern waiting for people to free up a seat.

This forces me to get to the cafe earlier, forcing others to get there earlier, creating a freakin' arms race at 1369.

Ok, I digress.

Punchline: I'd be willing to pay for hourly access to tables at cafes in return for sane coffee prices, Wi-Fi, and an outlet for my laptop.

Awful Realization: This whiney rant sounds too much like what I didn't want to create in this Blog. Sigh.

Sightseeing from Satellites

Memepool links to a fun site for "Google-tourism."

This website of an electronic/conceptual artist modifying a hot-dog to incorporate a robotic speaking parrot made me laugh. Click on Cybernetic Parrot Sausage or the flying synthetic doughnut.

Gizmodo links to a brief piece on the origins of the Macintosh cold-startup sound. Actually, the blog containing that story, Music thing, has pieces about: Brian Eno and the Windows 95 startup, the THX sound, and others...

A certain B. B. among us may enjoy hearing our dream come true: a song composed of Macintosh alert sounds. Or, perhaps most impressive, a virtuosically minimal presentation of a song made out of PC sounds.

SID 2005: Displays as Far as the Eye Can See

Today I attended the Society for Information Display's 2005 International Symposium, which is the place for display manufacturers to strut their stuff commercially and scientifically.


Click picture to read story at The Clock Magazine

The only comment I'll make about 3-D displays is that several global consumer-products manufacturers are telling us they're convinced that cellphones and mobile devices are going to have 3-D displays in them. Soon. That'll be great, if they have autostereo displays which have more views (40+, not 2-12) and a viewing angle of 30 degrees or more. (That is, the imagery should look inches deep, and your neck and wrist must feel comfortable while looking at the handheld screen.)

Electrophoretic displays (electronic ink-based systems) are gaining ground, or at least more firms are working on them. E-Ink, Kodak, Philips, and other firms exhibited flexible rollup displays which looked very cool. In the Philips booth, their flexi-displays were mounted to an automated motor that rolled and unrolled the rectangular displays into tight cylinders while the imagery on them changed. Guess that's the whole point. Actually, a Kodak rep said the point was that display flexibility implies lower cost because the backplane is simpler.

Walking down the street in your browser

Looking for something to read at night? Technorati's list of the top 100 blogs.

I mentioned a website to people, with horror, that allows folks to hunt using remote-controlled gear over the Internet. Here is a story about it from Defense Tech.

The Holography Forum is a public BBS to trade ideas, methods, and photographs of/about holograms.

a9, via Amazon, actually allows you to virtually stroll down major city streets. This is an example of a fine coffee establishment, 1369 Coffee House, on Mass Ave in Cambridge, MA. Try it out! You can "walk" up to Arlington. (Howto: go to a9, search for something, click the "yellow pages" tab, type in your ZIP code, and if Amazon took photos of your location, it should appear as a thumbnail.)

-g-fav

Who knew mixing could be this much *fun*?

Our idyllic weekend in the burbs of Norwalk, CT

Jed defiantly displays his camouflage for the feral net

A member of the world-famous Black and Blue team 

J n' R 

We modeled the latest fashions from JNerd. 

Gopher's Eye View of Our Friends

Here we are, all staring at D's camera-on-a-mini-tripod.

Water: A Public Service Announcement

I am the Chief Spokesperson for Water.

Friday's Findings

Elise Co's reactive LED bracelets: Lumiloop :: elise co

I found the work of Patrick T.-T. Doan (Montreal, DEFASTEN) quite moving. It includes some very refined audio/visual/motion pieces with ambient (and surprising) qualities. I gotta remember to return to watch everything.

Pixel-hungry? Eboy!


IDEO Method Cards remind me of Eno's Oblique Strategies (this links to the 4th edition)

This website (in French) has gorgeous design.

I will never tire of Nine Inch Nail's free footage of a rehearsal session for "just like you imagined."

Well... that's it for today.

Glitch Art, Edge, Hillis's 7 Stages of a Mythic Experience

GLITCH ART presents digital visual glitches as artwork.

Edge pulls together ideas from some of the West's most amazing intellectuals. They're organized and/or represented by John Brockman. Here are the first and second parts of an article about Brockman, who evidently described himself to Wired Magazine as wanting to be considered "post interesting."

Danny Hillis's concept that "mythic experiences" have seven stages has stuck in my head since reading about it on the Edge website.

You might find it an enduring passage (no pun intended). His seven stages are: The Image, The Embarkation, The Labyrinth, The Draw, The Payoff, The Return, and The Memento. I think that a savvy marketer or "experience engineer" should bear these in mind. Read about it in Stewart Brand's The Mountain and The Clock.

E3 2005 - New Game Boxes

Nintendo [DS] Mfr's Site

Nintendo [Game Boy Micro] Mfr's Site

Sony [PSP] Mfr's Site

Science? Art? Business?

Welcome to my Blog, which hereby begins its life as a resource for... me. To keep track of neat links. To keep track of neat art. To keep track of neat advances in science, technology, and business.

And if you're not G-Fav, Hello! I encourage you to drop a comment, a link, or... whatever.

I think every Blog lives somewhere along an axis which has personal-tell-all-diary at one end and sterile-because-executives-keep-life-and-work-apart at the other. This blog begins at the distant, impersonal extremum. I founded a tech startup.

Here's to hearing myself talk.

G-Fav