Guesses At Nothing

Gord Hotchkiss from a post on his blog:

At Xerox's PARC in the late 90's, Peter Pirolli was exploring how humans navigated hypertext linked information environments. The invention of hyperlinking introduced a new challenge in information retrieval. Throughout history, information was structured into an imposed taxonomy or hierarchy. We sorted it alphabetically or by the Dewey decimal system. And, because information was static, it stayed within the boundaries we built for it. But the creation of the hyperlink meant that information suddenly became unstructured and organic. Topical links from source to source meant that imposed editorial restrictions no longer worked. Links kept leaping above the boundaries we tried to impose on information.

Given this new challenge, Pirolli wanted to explore the subconscious strategies we used to navigate this unstructured information environment. He wanted to reduce it to a predictable algorithm. Time after time, he was frustrated. Humans would start down a predictable path, only to suddenly take an expected turn. The patterns didn't seem logical. But, as chance would have it, he had recently read some work on biological foraging patterns and decided to overlay that on the behaviors he was observing. It was Pirolli's "A Ha" moment. Suddenly, the patterns made sense. Humans, Pirolli (along with Stuart Card and others) discovered, foraged for information. We used the same strategies to navigate the web that we use to look for food. And, just as is the case with calories, laziness (or efficiency) is a pretty good strategy for finding information.

And from another post on his blog:

So, I've gone fairly far down the path of this analogy to make a point. According to Pirolli, we use exactly the same mechanisms to find online information. We go first to the fridge, or, in this case, Google, because nine times out of ten, or even 99 times out of a hundred, we find what we're looking for there. And, if we don't, we start to get frustrated because our brain is suddenly called into service and it isn't at all happy about it. There's no conscious conspiracy to screw Rupert Murdoch, there's just us following our own mental grooves. And these grooves dictate a huge percentage of our online activity. There's been little neuro-scanning research done on how our brains work during online activity, but the little that's been done seems to indicate a regular shifting of activity from the "reasoning" to the "autopilot" sections of the brain. I suspect strongly that this is especially true when we use search engines. If we can navigate on autopilot, we will. 

And another:

So, back to Intel's brain chip. What if our thoughts, in their entirety, could instantly be communicated to Google, or Bing, or what ever flavor of search assistant you want to imagine? What if refining all the  information that was presented was a split second closing of a synapse, rather than a laborious application of filters that sit on the interface?  Faster and far more efficiently than talking to another human, we could quickly sift through all the information and functionality available to mankind to tailor it specifically to what we needed at that time. That starts to boggle the imagination. But, is it feasible?

And one last one:

I think the Internet has jammed far too many numbered and bulleted lists down our gullet. I think someone has to provide content that a few people are willing to spend some time over and ponder. I want people to think a little. I don't want a grocery list of simple to implement ideas that you can tack to your fridge. That's what everyone does. I want to do something different. I think more people should do the same. I suspect the internet is carving our brain into tiny little pieces that are incapable of grappling with anything that requires an attention span longer than that of a gnat.

And if you've read this far I'll assume you don't have the attention span of a gnat, but I'll admit a dirty little secret, my attention span is very gnat like.   I barely read actual books any more.  I find myself skimming articles or using ctrl+f to find the exact morsel of information I need online -- often the same information I've searched for before.  Sometimes a two minute youtube video is asking for too much of my time.  I'll claim that the internet made me this way.  Perhaps is started with too much TV.  Likely it is my adaptation to the new "just in time" information economy that Gord talks about.  I applaud Gord for bucking the trend and publishing blog posts that are interesting and substantive (and may cause me to read his book when it is published).  But let me bulletize a synopsis of the four snippets above:

1. Humans forage for information in the same way that they once foraged for food
2. We search for information online on auto-pilot, that is to say, habitually.
3. Future technology will let our brains interface directly with the web
4. The internet has shortened our attentions spans

This all seems to lead to a bigger question, not of psychology, but of philosophy. If our brains can interface directly with the web, does so on autopilot, has no need to store information locally, can do so in a way that removes the act of foraging (by removing the external computer as an interface, this is likely) then the definition of what it is to be human has changed.  And at what point do we simply cease to be human?

I do not actually walk around the neighborhood in broad daylight with reflective clothing.  I was volunteering to be a sign post for a 5K.

1. Make money
2. Sex
3. Gardening
4. Beer

1. Don't eat fatty foods.
2. Listen to music.
3. Enjoy art.
4. Zone out.

Even Obama. And he's already pretty cool.

[via kottke]

One awesome webpage

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.

The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery.

[from news.bbc.co.uk]

This is patently un-American, and I love it.

[via geekstir.com]

They really do. They really, really do.

We all know that the internet has won as the transport medium for all data — but the universal interface for interacting with the web? — well, that battle is just now getting underway.

As a user experience designer, it’s on my discipline and peers to provide the right kind of ideas and leadership. If we get the design right, we can empower while clarifying; we can reduce complexity while enhancing functionality; we can expand freedom while not overwhelming with choice. Surely these are the things that good, thoughtful user experience design can achieve!

Well, friends, I’ve said my piece. Whether this threat is real or imagined, it’s one that I believe bears inspection.

[via factoryjoe.com]

This article details subtle ways that user interfaces can shape how we interact with the web. In short, corporations have nothing to lose and everything to gain by influencing where you go on the internet.

The end of privacy in parts of the world is near. It will be traumatic for some, and a comfort for others — for to relinquish one’s privacy is to become a part of the hive and the herd, and there is a certain reassurance there. How our corporate culture and its twin, the government, make use of this process and this massive change in society leads one to imagine something closer to a paranoid Phillip K. Dick scenario than a return to the nurturing tribe (or the Global Village) that it will be for some. I suspect it will be both — liberating and restrictive. Conflicting and opposite tendencies, operating simultaneously.

[via journal.davidbyrne.com]

David Byrne's ever insightful take on the end of privacy in the internat age. Longish, but well worth the read. The internet has changed our society in ways we don't fully understand.

Apple has filed for patent on a technology they call an "enforcement routine," that’ll display ads on pretty much any device with a screen and demand that you view them — or else you don’t get your device back:

Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn’t simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.

[via warrenellis.com]

Vaguely reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange

Mike Ciaccio: Master web marketer -- this guy is a genius.

and that's a wrap.

1/4 pounders.

Inside This Body - Remix!!! (2 KB)

Preach on! -- Audio of a Radio Preacher

INSIDE THIS BODY!!! (7.72 KB)

Google announced its new operating system, Chrome OS, today and it is a radically different take on what constitutes an OS.  In a way, you can think of Chrome OS as a computer with nothing on it accept a browser, no applications to install, no built in utilities.  In fact, it most likely won't even run on your current laptop as it is only compatible with solid state drives which to my understanding is a hard drive with no moving parts.  All the "applications" you need will run through the browser from "the cloud". 

This is a bold move on Google's part in predicting the future of computing as being interaction with the cloud.  But Chrome OS isn't really an operating device for a computer, it is more like the most sophisticated OS for a communication device.  Granted, most interactions with a computer involve communication but I think Google may be making a fundamental miscalculation about the way an enormous contingent of the computing population feels comfortable about interacting with the cloud -- businesses.  

Cloud computing is the defacto buzz word that a few very large corporations want small and medium sized businesses to buy into. Microsoft, Google, IBM and even Amazon offer cloud based services, but there are a few fundamental problems that businesses may have with moving their operations to the cloud.  First, data security.  Most corporations don't feel comfortable having their data housed in a place outside of their control.  Some types of businesses might not even be able to utilize cloud computing from a legal standpoint.  Do lawyer's offices have the right to house confidential client information in the cloud?  Do hospitals?  If they do, they shouldn't.  Does HIPAA come into play?

Secondly, cost.  To build your own infrastructure requires an upfront cost but then you own your own equipment.  There are no monthly fees, no terms and conditions that can change at any time.  For as much as software companies try to push "Software as a Service", really in most cases it isn't, or shouldn't be.  When you pay for a license to operate software, it is yours to use, again, no monthly fees.

 And finally, reliability.  Gmail outages have been a recurring event. On any given day you'd have no guarantee that what you need in the cloud will be available.  And this is where I think Chrome OS really fails.  If it doesn't run applications locally, what happens when your mission critical application isn't there when you  need it? What happens when your cloud based accounting software *disappears* permanently?

Take all this with a grain of salt.  I am not a tech pundit and the irony of this essay is that I am writing in on gmail, and will be posting it using posterous.¹ So maybe that's Chrome OS's strength, end users.  If my email is down for an hour I am not losing money.  If posterous vanishes, the world doesn't stop, people don't get fired.  So if Chrome OS is aimed at netbooks, maybe netbooks should be reconsidered as communication devices primarily, and computing devices secondarily. But if Google expects businesses to switch their operations to the cloud they've got their head in it. 

Further reading:

• Cory Doctorow on cloud computing
• Wikipedia Entry - Cloud Computing
• Chrome OS - Mashable
• What is Google Chrome - YouTube

¹The REAL irony here is that while I write this sentence (8/20/2010) I am in the process of weeding through my posts to get rid of all the mumbojumbo markup that posterous (and/or gmail via posterous) injected into my blog. I am also removing the images hosted by posterous and hosting them myself so that if posterous *disappears* then all the images on my site don't disappear as well. So much for the cloud as a viable solution for end users.

I was just thinking that you can also get a great glimpse inside someone's psyche by checking out their Twitter follow list - published there for everyone to see. For example: I just started following Marissa Mayer. I don't know Marissa very well and the extent of our acquaintance stretches to a few telephone interviews, but I do know what makes it to the popular press, and we share a passion for user experience. But I found it interesting to find in her list fairly slim list of Twitter follows a rather eclectic collection including Ivanka Trump, Ballet Russe, SF MOMA and Al Gore. Of course, there's a fairly healthy dose of Google and tech based follows as well, but these others may provide some bearing points for Marissa's personality.

[from outofmygord.com]

No wonder Twitter is crawling with marketers.

Is there a singularity theory but for communication?  A moment in time when all events will be known the instant they happen? Or the moment before they happen?

#End

[from consumerist.com]

It may be clever marketing, but it works.

99 classical mp3s for $8

Whoa, 99 "essential" classical music songs on mp3 for only $7.99 at Amazon. "Album Savings: $80.12 compared to buying all songs." (thx, martin)

Update: Here's another good deal: all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies for $7.99. (thx, egghat)

Update: And another: 48 classical guitar mp3s for $0.99. (thx, mona)

Update: And still more good deals: 99 songs by Mozart for $8, 99 relaxing songs for $8, and 99 Beethoven pieces for $8.

Update: Five Hours of Classical Favorites for $4.

Update: Five Hours of Classical Adagios for $8 and 50 Essential Classical Film Moments for $8. If you bought everything in this post, you'd have more than two days of music for less than $60.

[from kottke.org]

Some prices have changed since original post, but still good deals.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank 'Rainbow Ryan' for being an incredibly good sport about this. Oh, and Ryan, WE DID IT BUDDY!!! HOORAY!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!

He's drinking a martini made of bathtub gin.

And the lizards they have died.

Next, consider this nod to our cultural heritage: an average of the flags of the 200-plus countries of the Old World (2009), weighted by population, levels-adjusted to improve contrast and reduce the preponderance of red:

The world's flags, averaged by population.

Verdict: An effective, emotionally-agnostic portrayal of the ancestral origins of Shemar-Longoriana.

[from weathersealed.com]

Days later, during a magazine interview with Inês de Medeiros, the senator for culture in Portugal, I put my foot in it. I suggested that it was more important that children, and everyone really, be imbued with a sense that they themselves might make things — that the things they might make have value — as opposed to learning mainly to appreciate the great masters, whether they be Bach, Picasso or the literary canon. I proposed that the value of art might be of more use to society in that regard, rather than focusing on supporting, well, museums and symphony halls. Naturally, to a senator who has made it her noble mission to argue for more support for the arts, this is slightly heretical and, as she said, “very American.” America’s lack of state support for the arts and skepticism of the value of fine art is legendary.

[from journal.davidbyrne.com]

You may have noticed my incessant posting of random non-sense in the last few days. These words from David Byrne sum up my reasoning precisely.

Glamourous.

And she's mine.

Radio Rising (13.67 KB)

Washing Machine (3.49 KB)

30 Seconds of stillness and a dog sleeping

30 Seconds of a Dog Sleeping (3.44 KB)

And a new sport was born.

[via tumblr.austinkleon.com]

This about sums it up. [from WeHeartIt]

WANTAGE, NJ — Acting on anonymous tips from within the Hispanic-American community, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials deported Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez, who for the last 48 years had been living illegally in the United States under the name Lou Dobbs.

[from The Onion]

Update 08/20/2010: Redacted! -- Posterous kind of stinks. They host all images on their servers despite being able to upload image to mine via MetaWebLog API. And then recently they were down for 6 days after a DOS attack. They also have no feature in place for getting your data (namely images) back.

They also filled my blog with their crumby markup like multiple nested divs each with their own inline styles. To be fair, this may be Google's fault as I used Gmail to update the Posterous account so that could have been the source of the icky markup.

The other thing that is not so good about posterous is the effect that it has on the ranking of your site. All of your content gets posted to Posterous first and then to your blog, so they are seen (in the eyes of those who matter... Google, I am looking in your general direction) as the author of the content so they get all the link juice and your own personal blog can even get a 'duplicate content' penalty. A high price to pay for the ease of posting by email.

I've just now started the ardous process of manually getting all my data back and rebuilding the posterous posts.