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February 19, 2004
Dan Gillmor points to a page that tells you how to figure out if your Pepsi bottle is a winner in the free iPod song contest. Says Dan:
Once upon a time, Pepsi would have reconciled itself to knowing that people in one or two communities were in on the design flaw. Now they have to know the news is everywhere.
And in a related story, Michael O’Connor Clarke provides all the answers you need to win a free trip to Florida. See you in Miami!
The people re-creating the cultish game Paranoia (about which I know nothing) have a blog where they’re talking about the process and the business.
February 18, 2004
I’m talking at the Wireless Future conference. Here comes the blurb:
Time is running out to register for the Wireless Future conference, which will be held March 12-16 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Explore the future of licensed and unlicensed wireless technology with such luminaries as Howard Rheingold (author of Smart Mobs), Kevin Werbach (organizer of Supernova and author of New America Foundation’s Radio Revolution), Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the legendary Dave Hughes, David Weinberger (author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined, Dewayne Hendricks of Dandin Group, Joichi Ito of Neoteny, Ltd., Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury, John Quarterman and many more! This is a great conference for wireless entrepreneurs, business strategists, developers, inventors, creative thinkers and anyone else interested in the promise of mobile technology. Sponsored by Andrews Kruth, Metrowerks, Motion Computing, RockSteady Networks, The Futures Lab, Polycot Consulting, Austin Wireless Alliance and Ink PR. [Link to Wireless Future] [Direct Link to Registration – currently $225.00 for four days, includes access to South by Southwest Interactive programming.]
There are interesting facts and ideas at this intro to Alfred Crosby’s The Measure of Reality. For example, did you know:
Because Europe did not straddle the equator, and because old traditions dictated twelve hours for each day and each night, Europeans developed a system of unequal “accordion-pleated hours that puffed up and deflated” so as to ensure a dozen hours for each daytime and each nighttime, winter and summer.
February 17, 2004
Here and Now is running an interview with me (I’m their tech commentator guy) today about GIS and mapping. It’ll run in Boston at around 12:20, probably, on WBUR; the show is syndicated to 40+ NPR stations. You may be able to hear it on the Internet here or here.
February 16, 2004
From eagle-eyed Mike O’Dell comes this image, which he says is “pretty hard to explain.”
No argument here.
While I was away at Emerging Tech, the electric company installed a special meter on our incoming line to see if the voltage is clean and sober. The guy left it there for three days.
When he picked it up, he told us that he’d have to do it again because the machine broke.
Coincidence? I think not….Bwahahahaha.
Meanwhile, I have now thrown out my bookshelf-style stereo system because it lost all bass and the remote stopped working; the tuner can only be tuned through the remote. (Yes, I did put in new batteries. And I did get a Mac.)
For those who care (= no one) I’ve replaced the stereo with a $25 set of Creative Labs speakers for my laptop which will now serve as my tuner as well as my CD player. Nice sound! (Ah, the benefits of middle aged hearing loss!)
According to the side of the Cheerios box, if we send in $5, First Book will “give children from low-income familes the opportunity to own their first new books.”
As school districts routinely ask parents to chip in to pay for the basic supplies the school needs, it’s good to know that educating our children – a basic government service – is being outsourced to General Mills.
Look, I’m glad Cheerios is asking us to support a charity, and First Book seems to be a worthy group. I’m just not enough of a libertarian to prefer largesse to taxes when it comes to the government’s basic obligations.
February 15, 2004
I took the red eye back from Emerging Tech Thursday night, napped a little on Friday but otherwise put in a full day, and have been asleep ever since with what appears to be a virus thingy. I even missed having a family lunch with Seth Gordon, which I had been looking forward to.
Here’s a further indication of just how knocked out I’ve been: I haven’t checked my email since Friday night.
I offer this final bit of evidence: On Saturday morning, I watched all of Chain Reaction, starring Keanu Reeves, my mind feverishly weaving in and out of the plot holes.
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