Magic School Bus

thegongshow: Ethan Kurzweil has a presentation posted on his...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:41:00 -0500

Ethan Kurzweil has a presentation posted on his blog from 8 months ago that I just saw for the first time today. This is my favorite slide in it. I would love to see the fit curve on this slide proved out with empirical hosting/development costs data from startups over time. Considering how long Bessemer has been in the business, I’m sure they could do this if interested.

This graph feels intuitively right to me… but what does it mean when it costs pennies to build and host a high-scale web service? As costs approach zero, I’ll bet there will be an explosion in the number of vertical-specific services that serve small niche audiences. By explosion, I mean increasing by orders of magnitude. I can already feel the reverberations of that explosion today echoing backwards in time as the number of web services launching everyday is accelerating.

Very few of these services will be businesses, but that doesn’t matter because they’ll cost nothing. That’s the point… businesses are hard to create, web services will be trivially easy and cost zero.

Or think of it this way:

What every dotcom spent well into the seven-figures, hundreds of thousands of hours, and countless cycles for to get content up online, one person can do by himself with tens of hours, Drupal, and a shared hosting account.

That’s revolutionary. It means we can take for granted so much of the “infrastructure” part of the equation, but not lose the knowledge. And because the basic tools are becoming cheaper and more metatools keep coming out, it means there isn’t much comparable cost in rewriting pretty big parts of the stack.

"The Canadian health care system kept her alive. Maybe it is evil."

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:30:21 -0500

“The Canadian health care system kept her alive. Maybe it is evil.”

- Reddit (via nickdouglas) (via topherchris)

Missouri HB2131 - Or is Powerball the new face of government fiscal responsibility

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:54:29 -0500

Missouri HB2131 - Or is Powerball the new face of government fiscal responsibility:

Answer: no.

In perhaps the stupidest protestation of the Federal stimulus yet, Missouri state representative Mark A. Parkinson has a plan to restore fiscal order to his state.

In short, he wants to withhold $2 from Democratic governor Jay Nixon’s paycheck to buy a Powerball ticket every week.

Where’s the money supposed to go?

26.310. 1. There is hereby created in the state treasury the “Governor Nixon’s Federal Scratch-Off, Match-Off Fund”, which shall consist of moneys collected under this section.

So why would I give space to an idiotic bill like this, when there’s important legislation to consider (like Complaint Free Wednesday, which I’m on record of supporting)? Because the bill’s true purpose isn’t “hah hah lets mop up our fiscal crisis” but to pretend that the stimulus is designed to bankrupt the state.

The bill’s own preface reads:

AN ACT

To amend chapter 26, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to the Nixon-Obama let’s gamble on Missouri’s future fund.

Why the opposition to an economic stimulus that hasn’t “bankrupted America” but has helped to jump-start the economy and provided jobs, growth, and demand?

Edward Tufte (ET) is appointed by POTUS to track stimulus funds!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:45:02 -0500

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 5, 2010 President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts WASHINGTON President Obama announced his intent to appoint several individuals to serve on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. Their bios are below. President Obama said, “These impressive individuals will be valued additions to our team as we work to confront the challenges facing our nation. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

Edward Tufte, Appointee for Member, Recovery Independent Advisory Panel Edward Tufte is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Statistics, and Computer Science at Yale University. He wrote, designed, and self-published The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations, and Beautiful Evidence, which have received 40 awards for content and design. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Society for Technical Communication, and the American Statistical Association. He received his PhD in political Science from Yale University and BS and MS in statistics from Stanford University.

Infographic | A Brief History of Senate Reconciliation -...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:00:53 -0500

Infographic | A Brief History of Senate Reconciliation - SunlightFoundation.com

lonelysandwich: SHAKEDOWN! Shakedown E-Street

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:52:17 -0500

lonelysandwich:

SHAKEDOWN!

Shakedown E-Street

Fake Steve speaks truth

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:15:07 -0500

Also worth considering: We charge $99 per year for a MobileMe subscription. Google gives you the same stuff and all they ask for is, um, permission to totally invade your privacy and to “monetize” (God I hate that word) your personal information. You think your personal information is worth less than $99 a year? Then you’re getting a hell of a deal with Google. The rest of us would rather spent $99 and keep the contents of our email to ourselves.

soupsoup: apsies: Johnny Weir meets Stephen Colbert

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:22:43 -0500

soupsoup:

apsies:

Johnny Weir meets Stephen Colbert

Lifehacker Gina Trapani to Aid White House in Goal Setting

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:49:57 -0500

Lifehacker Gina Trapani to Aid White House in Goal Setting:

soupsoup:

Lifehacker’s founding editor Gina Trapani has just announced that she’s joining Expert Labs, the government-oriented independent think tank led by Anil Dash and funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her first project: deploying her Twitter-based decision making software called ThinkTank for the White House.

The Obama administration announced the joint project with Expert Labs in a blog post earlier this month. As Trapani described it today: “The President has identified a series of scientific and technical challenges that are as important to the future as the moon landing was. And we want to help drive feedback on that list, and even suggest what other items should be on there that haven’t been included.”

This is huge! Everyone should be doing their part to help Anil help America.

"If Apple is the gatekeeper to a device’s uses, the governments of the world need knock on the door..."

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:02:51 -0500

“If Apple is the gatekeeper to a device’s uses, the governments of the world need knock on the door of only one office in Cupertino, California - Apple’s headquarters - to demand changes to code or content. Users no longer own or control the apps they run - they merely rent them minute by minute. Hope lies in more balanced combinations of open and closed systems, such as that embodied by the traditional Apple Mac - or phones based on the Android operating system from the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of hardware, software and telecoms companies. Android Market is the approved counterpart to Apple’s App Store but, in this case, users are also free to go off-roading, installing any code they like. Android is a canary in the digital coal mine: will its more open model survive should people load suspect apps and find they cannot make calls any more? Mr Jobs ushered in the personal computer era and now he is trying to usher it out. We should focus on preserving our freedoms, even as the devices we acquire become more attractive and easier to use.”

- Jonathan Zittrain (via azspot)

The world needs more JZ

Video: Derek Sivers’ 3-minute TED talk. Have the guts to...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:19:47 -0500

Video: Derek Sivers’ 3-minute TED talk.

Have the guts to be the first person to join in. That’s what leadership is about.

Rachel Maddow Interviews Scientist Bill Nye On Climate...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:14:54 -0500

Rachel Maddow Interviews Scientist Bill Nye On Climate Change

Bill Nye takes Inhoffe, Beck, and co. to task on rejecting climate change.

Bill Nye is the coolest television personality in a bowtie. Ever.

People Share News Online That Inspires Awe, Researchers Find - NYTimes.com

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:35:11 -0500

People Share News Online That Inspires Awe, Researchers Find - NYTimes.com:

Call it the Gladwell Effect.

soupsoup: Foursquare Lands Deal with Zagat Now, when users...

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:27:42 -0500

soupsoup:

Foursquare Lands Deal with Zagat

Now, when users check-in to Zagat-rated restaurants, users will earn a special “Foodie” badge.

Additionally, Foursquare recommendations will be supplemented by suggestions and tips from Zagat’s own system. Even more interestingly, Zagat plans to initiate an interview series on its Web site called “Meet the Mayor,” spotlighting the users who earn the “mayor” title for some particular place in Foursquare.

Zagat and Foursquare will both benefit from this cross-promotion.

Lets see Yelp try to yoink this.

vruz: if he can trivialise and choreograph the images of Dr...

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:33:59 -0500

vruz:

if he can trivialise and choreograph the images of Dr King and Gandhi in a fucking commercial to sell computers, I can détour and hijack his fake zen too.

take that, steve.

"I want to interact with my computer in a fundamentally different way. The desktop metaphor is dead;..."

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:08:37 -0500

“

I want to interact with my computer in a fundamentally different way. The desktop metaphor is dead; a generation of children have grown up never working with the physical objects that the virtual desktop represents. What I really want is a modernized Plan 9, a software platform that’s designed from the ground up for our networked, distributed world. If you try to placate me with the assertion that the Web is this new operating system I will become violent.

I want better software: more usable, more accessible, more open, more secure, more integrated, more seamless. I want a better software development experience. I want better programming languages with better development toolkits. Fundamentally, I want better abstractions for the same computation I can do today with all that lovely hardware.

”

- Alex Payne on The Setup

Sometimes I feel like software innovation stopped in the 80’s. Alex articulates this thought better than I.

(via thegongshow)

I completely echo Alex’ sentiment, but I add one further point, and one we didn’t openly acknowledge until two weeks ago: We know that platform has to be networked, but it also has to be generative: tinkerable, hackable, open to innovation directly from the platform. Steve Jobs has laid out his vision of what software can be, and while it certainly improves on many of the metaphors of computing, it’s a huge step back to the completely managed, completely vendor/operator reliant computing of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Plan 9 vision was one of an open, networked, generative computing that made sense in a modern context. Lets not agree we need to start over and find that our new environment is an innovation prison.

Video

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:09:43 -0500

Fedex’s latest product: Panda shipping (via MeFi)

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:54:00 -0500

Fedex’s latest product: Panda shipping

(via MeFi)

“Many online video sites have been experimenting with a...

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:08:00 -0500

“Many online video sites have been experimenting with a new video format, called HTML5. Unlike Flash, which is a downloaded piece of software that can interact with a computer’s operating system, HTML5 works directly in a Web browser.”

“In addition, the patents surrounding HTML5 are owned by a group of companies; Apple is a part of that group.”

-The New York Times

NO, NEW YORK TIMES. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THOSE STATEMENTS ARE CORRECT.

Yes, it’s hard to explain that Firefox only supports Ogg Theora (I know you gave it that awful name to expose more people to Terry Pratchet scifantasy) because H.264 is protected by various patents, however, I’m not sure that the tag means HTML5 is a video format, nor protected by patent.

How does this sound?

“Only recently did the HTML standard, used for making web sites, include a way to use video natively, without a plugin like Flash. However, that new standard of HTML, called HTML5, has sparked a debate among browser manufacturers because one version of the standard uses a video technology that is protected by patents, held by several companies, including Apple.”

soupsoup:

tedroden:

“Flash AND HTML5”

I was just reading quotes from this guy in the actual newspaper while on the subway. I’m pretty sure this picture was taken during the interview.

The virtual newspaper article is here.

azspot: Lost Generation This is fantastic, but did AARP just...

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:40:16 -0500

azspot:

Lost Generation

This is fantastic, but did AARP just use a Creative Commons-licensed soundtrack?!

I’m thoroughly impressed.