The Way of the Spoon

2006-03-25T18:07:00.000-05:00

Note: This blog has been dusted off and started again over at http://thewayofthespoon.wordpress.com/. Check it out over there from now on.

Wireless Internet...

2004-11-04T20:52:00.000-05:00

This cartoon is undeniably very true (and also serves as a wonderful reminder for the fact that I really do need to read the Onion right now)... from toothpastefordinner, a great collection of little drawings pointed out to me by Jon, rivalling Hugh MacLeod's gapingvoid, another blog I've added to my feed reader.
In other news, part of ~~-my excuse-~~ the reason I haven't been writing much here lately is that I've been trying to get a new school blog off the ground. It's called the eXponent Online. I'm not even going to go into the problems i've been having with setting everything up, but do take a look at it even though it's still under construction.

OneNote - some ideas

2004-10-18T17:21:00.000-04:00

When I first got OneNote, I didn't use it much, mainly because I didn't like the way it handles ink. I used it most for keeping track of homework and the side notes feature (that was a great idea, very convenient), but after SP1 I began to use it more and I'm gradually "falling in love" with it. The more I use it, the more I realize what a great job the team did with it. It's a great tool for both notes and organization.
I do have some suggestions though. First of all, I know it's not easy to do, but I would love it if words were grouped separately from each other. If I'm writing and want to move part of a line, I can't do it. That and the lack of color choices are what is keeping me from ditching Journal. Also, did love to see a browser with features like Maxthon's integrated with One Note, taking advantage of the multi-layer tab system, a built in feed reader, and maybe even that whole desktop search thing that's so popular nowadays. And how about some serious Outlook integration? I know I'm asking a lot and I'll probably never be content, but hey. these would make OneNote much better in my oppinion. Do you use OneNote? What would you like to see added?

Information Addiction

2004-10-11T22:43:00.000-04:00

   Is a constant flow of information addicting? Are you addicted?

   There are so many sources of information on the internet nowadays. Blogs are becoming more and more popular and feed readers are becoming more common as well, allowing you to subscribe to more and more feeds. The very nature of a blog, that which significantly sets it apart from a magazine, is the fact that it is practically a constant flow of information released at irregular intervals. Then when you add to that the fact that feed readers allow you to read more blogs more often (Scoble, I know you're blushing, Mr. Too-Many-Feeds-To-Count ;-) ), you get something that seems great at first, but then presents a possible problem. When I first started using a feed reader, boredom wasn't a problem I had to deal with. Got 30 seconds? Let me peek at BoingBoing. Done with homework? Why don't I sift through Scoble's link blog or check out Engadget and Gizmodo. I started reading more and more often. Now, i've noticed that I'm approaching the point where, if I have a minute and there's nothing new posted, I update my feeds again and again and become desperately bored. Thinking about things to entertain myself has become harder. Have I become addicted?
   I'm not entirely sure, but I'm definitely going to be careful with how I spend my time. After all. that big yellow thing they call the sun sure is shiny! I don't want to stop, no. but I don't want this to become a problem. Geeks have lives too, you know, they're just buried under nondescript CD-R's, papers, wires, circuit boards, etc. :-)
   This whole thing was once a fear many people had of television, and while you definitely can't think of blogs and TV as similar in too many ways (after all, blogs do require more thought), the results seem strikingly similar. And I don't even watch TV! Could this be a problem we'll encounter more and more in this time of broadband internet, WiFi, and SPOT watches? Are we all susceptible? Is there a compromise, a way to enjoy our blogs without becoming zombies? Can we have our cake and eat it too?

Browsers aren't done getting better.

2004-10-10T15:08:00.000-04:00

I'm a huge fan of tabbed browsing. In fact, i depend on it. My tabs even act as a sort of task list for me, reminding me of things I have to look at, blog about, do, or who I have to email. When I'm doing research on something or working on a project, I often end up with the tabs from one project getting mixed up with another group of tabs. Rather than have one window per group of tabs, how about a tree-style tab interface. You could separate your tabs into groups. This is similar to what the OneNote interface has: You have a sub-page under a page under a tab under a notebook. I currently use Maxthon for my tabbed browsing fix, but I'll use anything as long as it's got the features I need (and it's free!). I'm not going to go into why I use Maxthon primarily over Firefox or Opera or any other IE mods (I use just about every browser that isn't IE), but if anyone knows about a browser that has this feature, or if any coders able to make a browser or currently working on one want to toss this in, please let me know!
In other news, someone gave me an Apple Airport they didn't need. Anyone know how to make this a WiFi adapter and/or repeater (to increase the range of my current wireless network? The only thing I can think of is to buy a WiFi adapter, plug it into the ethernet in jack on the Airport, and set the Airport to operate on a different channel. Any suggestions?

And now, to regurgitate my internet catches to you baby birds...

2004-10-05T22:59:00.000-04:00

I usually don't have much time to blog, what with school and side projects and such. However, I am still a rabid internet addict, so here's some of the stuff I've been diggin' lately:

GBlog: a new blog program, finally launched. Looks like it's got tons of features and is simple to use. Until now, I've been eyeing NucleusCMS (found it through Open Source CMS, another great site for trying out content management systems) as the blog software I'm going to install on my server (once I get it working...), but I'm definitely installing this as well. More information is yet to come on their site, but so far, it looks delicious. Also, soon to come is Collablog, apparently powered by or by GBlog. It's a collaborative blog, should be a cool new twist.

Speaking of delicious, look at del.icio.us and Furl. Haven't had a chance to dig in more, but they seem to be link lists you can publish.

I don't remember how I came across this, but GeoURL must have struck me as interesting. If I remember correctly, it's a way to link your URL to your location, allowing you and others to look at your "neighbors" on the internet.

Just remembered something I came across a long while ago, but since forgot about and should check out: BlogShares - a sort of blog stock market that assigns monetary values to a blog's incoming link. You use virtual money to invest in blogs. It's a pretty cool idea; Technorati meets stock market simulations (also very fun, there are tons out there, just search for them).

And now for some interesting open-source approaches to note-taking or text management in general.

--- Notebook: a wiki-like tool on your computer. So far, I haven't found a good use for it, but being the packrat that I am, I'm keeping it to play with.

--- KeyNote is a tabbed notebook with a file-tree-like interface and tons of other features including fairly heavy encryption, one file with all your notes in it, and more.

The Geek Chart [PDF]: very funny.

Strafe's Guide to Streetspeak: funny and useful. I'm trying to incorporate (some of) these in my daily speakage to maximize confusion and show off my geekiness.

Nowadays, when everyone ('specially us geeks) has so many shiny toys that need batteries. And since everyone likes rechargeables more, those are spreading more and more. The Battery University will teach you how to make the best of your batteries and make them last longer.

For you morbid folks out there who are "children on the inside" (whatever that means...), dig these!

--- The Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club (via the J-Walk Blog)

--- Plushy death art (via BoingBoing)

The Free and Legal Music Wiki

George Soros blogs

Peter Rysavy is blogging again! Yay! If you don't know, Peter's Tabula blog is about the tablet pc. Definitely worth a subscription if you're into tablets, but do check his other blogs out as well regardless.

A real lawn chair

That's it for now! Enjoy!
PS: This may happen more often, because I often don't have much time and it also lets me store links with my own descriptions. I'm not a fan of "bookmarks" or "favorites."

Woowoo!

2004-09-21T17:40:00.000-04:00

   I am excited. Why, you might ask. Well, let me tell you. Someone I admire named (Robert) Scoble, who has a section of virtual space on a large networked collection of computers that covers the entire planet earth, has added to his section a small collection of typed characters unlike many of the others on his "site" or "blog" as some call it, in that these letters are blue (rather than black) and underlined (rather than not), and has set these characters up (with HTML coding wizardry) in such a way that when others on the " 'net " click their pointing devices upon these characters, they are whisked away to my small and rather unknown corner of virtual space. (That was one tremendously long sentence!)
   In other words, I got "Scobleized," as they say, though I find the word "Scobleized" somewhat inferior to my decription of the process above. ;-P In any case, I would like to welcome new readers, and (in a typical self-plugging fashion) urge them to check out this little bit of blog I've got going here. In fact, I realize, that I have forgotten to post this, but:
   For your convenience, www.BurningFlare.com leads to this blog, as well as http://thewayofthespoon.blogspot.com.
   I also realize that my template is somewhat... default, for lack of a better term. This is because I had to delete my last one and kept putting off the modifications on this new one, including links and maybe even Technorati integration. No worries, I'll eventually find time to work on that as well. And yes, I do have a feed (Atom) which I'll link to as well.
   Finally, I realize I need to clarify something. I wasn't clear in my letter to Scoble about this, but I didn't single-handedly get the school to start using tablets. At the time I got mine, Learning Unleashed was already seriously thinking about using tablets. I only provide input and ideas as well as a student's point of view.

Oh yeah, and before I forget, is there a way to get traffic information from Blogger? Right now, the only way I've got of seeing the effects of my "Scobleization," if you will, is though Technorati. Drop me a comment if you've got a solution.

Ooh, Harsh, Scoble, Harsh! (Blog Ethics)

2004-09-20T16:17:00.000-04:00

   There is a very blurry line between journalism and bogging. In my opinion it is your decision as to how close to serious news your blog falls. This isn't to say that blog's of different journalistic quality can't mix; it is just that if you want to post something you saw somewhere else and be a very reliable source, you have to double check. Not because that other blog is lying purposefully (although, this is the internet, so you never know), but because people make mistakes. Now, if you make a mistake or post someone else's mistake, it's just that: a mistake. All you have to do is make a note later saying that it is a mistake. More than that is unnecessary.
   Here's why I'm talking about this:
   Scoble posted something that he found on Rich Manalang's blog. His readers pointed out that it was a hoax, so he added the following note to his post: "Update: this photo is a hoax, my readers have pointed out. Proves you can fool me, but you can't fool everyone." All fine and dandy so far. But then, he posted the following:

I have unsubscribed from Rich Manalang's feed. Why? Because I can't trust what goes on his blog anymore. The photo I pointed to yesterday wasn't attributed. Turned out to be a hoax. I bit on it, and bit on it hard. Shame on me. I should have known not to because he didn't explain where the image came from.

You only get one shot to ruin your credibility. I ruined some of mine by putting that on my blog. It's a cautionary tale. Know where stuff comes from.

Thankfully my readers pointed out this was a hoax.

In my opinion, this is taking it way too far. Rich (whose blog I didn't know about, but will check out) simply posted a picture of what was reported to be a prediction of what home computers will look like in 2004, without adding where he found it at first. Not saying where you got something is not a great thing to do in the blogging world, but we don't know why he didn't. Maybe he was in a rush? Maybe he was momentarily lazy? Who knows? But regardless, Scoble's assumption that Rich purposefully roped him in, sacrificing some of his credibility to take away some of Scoble's is, in my humble oppinion, silly. Even more so is the idea that a simple mistake over an amusing picture which is not even offensive can take away someone's credibility. This is the internet. We gain whuffie and we lose whuffie.

Also, Jeremy Wright of Ensight is of the same oppinion. What do you think?

How often do you think of the Clipboard?

2004-09-14T18:33:00.000-04:00

The sole purpose of this post is to remind everyone about THE CLIPBOARD. For those of you who don't know, the clipboard is a function built into Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems (why, I've even got it in my TI-89!) that lets you "cut," "copy," and "paste." Whether you use the keyboard short-cut or use your mouse, I've decided now is a good time to think about what is perhaps the most unrecognized but most useful feature ever. In fact, I challenge any computer user who has been using a computer for more than a year to truthfully say he or she has never used the clipboard. What? No one? Thought so. So, the next time you're pasting a site address into an email or IM, cutting a paragraph out of your paper and pasting it back in somewhere else, moving or copying a file, or any of the countless uses for this classic tool, take a moment to thank this tool for its tireless and reliable service. Should you choose to say "Thank you, clipboard!" out loud, look right back at the people giving you funny looks and remind them that they too at least partially owe their carpal-tunnel-free (or less-carpal-tunnel-ful-than-they-could-be) fingers, tentacles, or whatever to THE CLIPBOARD.

After all, what else would let me do the following so easily?

Thank you, Clipboard!
Thank you, Clipboard!
Thank you, Clipboard!
Thank you, Clipboard!
Thank you, Clipboard!
Thank you, Clipboard!
...
I'll spare you the torture.

Next up: Pixel Appreciation Day.

[Edit]: PS: Have a blog? Show your appreciation for the Clipboard but pasting this post into it! (And a link back to me would be nice!)

RSS Calendar: Goodies for Organizers

2004-08-12T14:50:00.000-04:00

Organization and collaboration geeks (including myself, of course), rejoice! Behold the beauty and simplicity of RSS Calendar! It allows you to have a calendar that you share with whoever you want just by giving them a link to an RSS feed! Naturally, everything's Outlook importable, but best of all, it's FREE! Fill the streets with joy and may bandwidth run aplenty for all!
(Via The Red Ferret Journal, apologies, no link easily found.)

What does Ashcroft think he's doing!?

2004-08-04T14:20:00.000-04:00

From the sectors of WTF and politics:
The justice department ordered public libraries to destroy certain documents that it feels are not necessary to the public, or, as it says, are not "appropriate for external use." Sounding Fahrenheit 451/9-11 -ish yet? Wait, there's more:
The documents are public law documents. They would be accessible only to those with access to law libraries!

The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).

Luckily, they later decided that the documents are "not sufficiently sensitive to require removal from the depository library system."
However, when a country can "detain" anyone it wants without a clear reason for any amount of time and when it comes this close to keeping necessary public information from the public, it's time for some serious changes.
Looky here! (Via BoingBoing)

Gizmodo Logo Design Battle

2004-07-31T15:52:00.000-04:00

Some members of KirupaForums have chosen Gizmodo's logo for a make-over in their logo design battle (where those involved make a logo and post it, and the best is chosen). The guy who creeated the battle emailed Gizmodo out of courtesy, but was surprised by the answer: Gizmodo offered a prize to whoever wins the contest! You can check out the current entries here, and details are here.

Disruptive Technology

2004-07-31T15:31:00.000-04:00

In response to Scoble's post on Disruptive tech:
Disruptive technology is everywhere. For example, there's Skype or cameraphones. I, for one, never expected a cell phone with a camera, I mean, why would anyone want to take pictures with a cell phone!? ;-) And yet, now I have one, and really like the addition of the camera.
Other things that one might think of as disruptive technology are alternate user interfaces. I really enjoy a good user-interface, but I feel that it is hard to come up with radically different ones because most of us have become thoroughly stuck on the point-and-click and keyboard interface. If someone suggested that augmented reality would become the next big, almost ubiquitous technology, how many people would listen? It's like saying that the sun is at the center of the solar system! Nice try, Galileo!

Final version of Skype has finally arrived!

2004-07-29T00:33:00.000-04:00

Skype, the p2p free internet telephone is finally out of beta (for Windows at least)! You can get the latest version, 1.0.0.10, on their site. This software has been spreading virally since the first beta release. By virally, I mean that without ads, friends passed it onto friends so that they could talk to eachother. Now, true to their word, this and the previous release have had SkypeOut capability, meaning that, for a much lower price than regular telephones, you can call from your computer to a conventional telephone. I forgot to post the price tables when they first came out, but here they are (in euros). So spread the virus! Give it to your friends and their friends! Pass Skype along!

Life Inside the Bubble

2004-07-28T19:35:00.000-04:00

Introducing the newest in housing concepts in crowded London: Marcin Panpuch's floating pod house, currently on display at "Royal Institute of British Architects' (Riba) exhibit of innovative housing, Future House London." I REALLY wish I could check that out, if anyone has pictures or more information about it, please let me know!
The pod's surface is made almost entirely of glass, but you can draw down blinds to keep out those prying eyes and feel more comfortable in your entirely transparent, floating house. Naturally, to keep it from turning belly up, the bottom part is used to house the solar panel charged batteries and for storage. I know I'm a sucker for design, but I want one!
Check it out! (Via both Engadget and Gizmodo)

Mmm, Pizza... WHAT???

2004-07-26T19:34:00.000-04:00

The wired future is ahead of us. Time to think about privacy? The ACLU has a little parody of what it might be like to order pizza in the near future here.

Blogging on the Cheap

2004-07-21T22:26:00.000-04:00

Your blog's Pagerank determines your discount on software
A software developer, Thinstall, has a pricing structure based on your blog's pagerank. The more popular you are on Google, the cheaper your price is. Link (Thanks, Mark!)

This is a really cool idea, I think. Talk about an incentive. Who doesn't love cheap stuff? Now if I could actually get a couple readers... ;-)

The Virus is Spreading: 2 New Tablets to Watch For

2004-07-20T18:45:00.000-04:00

Engadget: IBM and Dell joining the party?

Recent report in our Engadget blog indicate that IBM and Dell are prearing to joing the Tablet PC party. Welcome news indeed.

HA! This is just what we tablet users need to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!! No, seriously, this is awesome.

Via the Tablet PC Weblog.

Random Sites I Have Open Right Now

2004-07-18T23:59:00.000-04:00

Of course, in tabs, cause tabbed browsing "pwns," as they say.

White Box Robotics

The Super Megason Game Console

DIY Cellphone Charger Sling

The Party Party: Bush Remixes

Open Source Web Design

AverMedia USB Radio: I WANT ONE!

FolderBlog Software

I Love Google.

2004-07-18T23:31:00.000-04:00

Why? Because Google buys cool companies like Blogger and now, Picasa. They give the companies tons of resources in doing so and make the product free! Microsoft does this too, but I am mentioning this because Picasa is now FREE!! YAY!

2 Plus 2 is 0, Right?

2004-07-18T13:26:00.000-04:00

How to get someone to answer your questions (from: KC Lemson [MS])

I learned a wonderful trick today that completely resonates with me, and I wanted to share it. Perhaps I should start a new program management category for this kind of thing, seems like I've been writing about it a lot recently. ...More

I'm posting this through Sauce Reader (<3!) which has built in blogging abilities and may even replace w.Bloggar (I kinda like that too, though. Oh, wait, Sauce is compatible with w.Bloggar too!) Anyway, back on topic: This is from Scoble's link blog. It's an interesting morsel of insight into the corporate world of flourishes and decorum, Just as you can't tell someone what to do, you can't force someone to give you an answer quickly, if at all. When you want someone to do something, you have to patiently suggest it, listen to their oppinion, explain yours and hope for the best. To get a quick answer, this post says you should give the definite wrong answer and wait to be corrected. Don't ask what 2 + 2 is, ask "2 plus 2 is 0, right?" "You'll be amazed at how quickly someone will take the time to correct you, particularly if the question was aimed at more than one person, since it's an opportunity for that person to prove their knowledge in front of others (which is just human nature)." However, as the post states, unless you're careful, you'll start to look pretty stupid. Tricky stuff!

Sleep

2004-07-17T23:27:00.000-04:00

Ever have that feeling that you don't want to sleep because there's so much fun stuff to do out there, but you really like sleeping...? Note to self: sleep more.

Woohoo!

2004-07-16T22:44:00.000-04:00

Okay, template problems solved. Unfortunately, before I was able to solve the problem, thinking it was something with the template, I erased it and got a fresh copy, so the tiny personal touches are gone (not that you'll notice much...).
Anyway, I apologize for not blogging much lately, but I ... nevermind. Just busy. Anyway, now for an update on... me!
I am in Cleveland, Ohio right now, attending the Equinox summer program at Case Western Reserve University. I'm taking the robotics course, where we work with Lego Mindstorms and NQC to make robots. Lots of fun! We went on a trip to NASA on Wednesday, so I will post pictures of everything (except of the classified areas...) as soon as I can.
~Jules~

eCycle

2004-06-21T09:40:00.000-04:00

The eCycle is cool looking bike, no? It starts to look even cooler when I tell you that it's a hybrid... Wait, it's not over. The gas ~~guzzling~~ sipping part of this bike is a multifuel engine that takes "petrodiesel, biodiesel, [and] kerosene." That means you can use used frying oil that you can get for free from Chinese food restaurants to fly down the street, accelerating from 0 to 60 in 6 seconds and topping off at 80 mph.

I WANT ONE.

2004-06-20T21:24:00.000-04:00

Click for full size I got to see Andy Goldsworthy's Stone House Exhibit on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum (in New York, for those who don't know). Andy Goldsworthy is undoubtedly one of my favorite artists, so I was very excited to see it. While the title would lead you to believe he made a house of stone, he actually made two houses for stones. While I was on the roof, I also took some pictures of the view because it was a beautiful day. Here are links to all the pictures in all their glory (full size):