Teddy Bloggie Blog Blogging

I use AOL's Instant Messenger program pretty frequently. I started using it about six years ago and it was the first program of its kind, as far as I know. Yesterday, the thing flashed something like, "New Version, Click to Upgrade." Looking back on it, I was naive. I clicked "ok" or its equivalent (I think computers train your mind not to remember more so than even TV) and off it went... downloading automatically, installing, shutting down my computer and rebooting. All was fine and still is. Except this: I've been seeing AOL's links everywhere. It was on my shortcut bar, on the desktop, on the start menu and it even inserted itself as a new link in my internet explorer. I feel as though AOL walked into my computer and flyered it like some cheap dorm. AOL must be getting desperate for business since parent company AOL/TimeWarner's been noticing the ad revenue drying up and subscriptions falling...

I guess the target audience of people who fear the internet is dwindling. Maybe people dislike accessing the internet from behind the cosy yellow, blue and white fascade of AOL. I'm sure the youth aren't impressed by the lumbering service provider nor by the veil of userfriendliness that AOL markets. I don't know of any improvements that AIM has made since its introduction six years ago. They've probably added a zillion new features to it, at least the new version is larger with more ad space, but I still only use it for casual messaging. Some software require updates but not a single function piece of software like instant messaging. Please, give me the stripped down 'net... hold the cheese.

That's what I'd say to Amazon if I were on Springer. I'll explain. I just bought two books on Amazon based on the reviews given by Brad DeLong. They are:

Toward Clarity and Grace (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
by Joseph M. Williams

and

The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
by Charles Petzold

The first book might come in handy for the writing section of the GRE class I'm teaching, plus I'm always second guessing myself when I'm writing - unsure of how to phrase sentences and engaging in awkward, sloppy composition. The computer book is something I've been looking for (DeLong too) for a long, long time. I've always wanted to know how computers work. I get a piece of the answer everytime I ask, but I still don't get IT. I want to know how copper and silicon with a little electricity is able understand information, process information and display it back to me. Hopefully, I'll know after I read this book.

BUT Here's the reason for the post... after my purchase, Amazon recommends these titles for me:

Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right by Ann H. Coulter (Hardcover)

Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists Criminals & Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores by Michelle Malkin (Hardcover)

When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country by G. Gordon Liddy (Hardcover)

The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization by Patrick J. Buchanan (Hardcover)

Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson by Kenneth R. Timmerman (Hardcover)

Does this mean that people who write and want to learn about the innards of computers are crazy right wing folks? I always thought they'd more likely be Bohemian Bourgeoisie but I'm neither. Maybe for having an interest in these two books I'm more likely to get stock dividends? I don't know, but it's a little scary that not only are these books written with their "Dem colored peoples are taking over the whole god damn country" themes but that these books were recommended to ME! Maybe I should check these out just to understand the dark side.

Check out Steven Weber's The Success of Open Source . It's pretty interesting reading on the abundance economy that's been created by internet techologies. It's about a 7 minute read though and at times heavy on the econ jargon - you've been forewarned.

I like open source. In fact, Movable Type, which we use to do these blogs, has a sort of open source community that'll help you out if you're in a jam. For example, I was trying to think of a way to rank blogs based on newest entry but I didn't know how to get started. Well, Kristine "kadyellebee" or other knowledgeable bloggers at Movable Type's support forum will usually help you out with these sort of problems. Try that with Microsoft or any other big vendor and all you'll get is the answer machine. Open source allows you to build your code using the freely available code that's been developed elsewhere. People are willing to share and sharing lowers the "cost" of accomplishing your piece of code. What do they get in return? Your gratitude AND the further dissemination of Movable Type, a positive externality. As more people use Movable Type and more people contribute to its code and broaden its features set, it'll increase the "value" of the software for each and every user - including the people who are making contributions. Free riding in this case is even a good thing because there's zero cost to copying a file and having a larger user base adds value to the product. Imagine being the sole user of any software product - what a nightmare that would be! Who would you turn to for questions? Who would upgrade it when it becomes obsolete? Open source can also work in other realms. MIT has started an open source site dedicated to publishing open source academic materials. I need to start an open source media site where people can add text, video, and music and have it freely distributed. That'd be great. Anyone know if that's already available?

By the way, here is the site if it were listed by most recent entry.

NY Times has an article today about how Frankel of Nullsoft, now a division of AOL Time Warner, has released a software that allows private encrypted file sharing among small groups. AOL is trying to scare people away from using the software and has already removed it from NullSoft's website, but it's the internet, and like a dam you can try putting your finger in the crack, but...

You can download it here: waste

Who wants to share stuff?

Apple - iTunes

Wow, this is one spiffy piece of software. The geeky side of my wants to continue using Exact Audio Copy to extract CD audio with LAME as my MP3 encoder, but iTunes is much easier and slicker...

update (11/15/03)

Unfortunately, iTunes doesn't work on win98, which is what I'm using on the good ol' laptop. Might as well, since winamp seems to do a good job with no loss of nostalgia.

This is a useful toy - Audiovox smt5600 running MS Smartphone and Mapopolis connected to GPS via bluetooth.

I bought a dell 700m notebook recently and went shopping for ram. Kingston Technology sells two types: one that's verified to work with my laptop, and one that's generic. The two are price accordingly with 1gb price being 206.99 (buy.com) and 109 (outpost.com after rebate), respectively. This seems to be a clear case of price discrimination since computer components are sold with such exacting standards.

I went with the cheaper ram and it works ok in my laptop. I can get it to work if I remove the original 256mb that it came with and install it in the slot underneath the keyboard. It won't work in tandem with the 256mb oem stick. I'm not sure why that is, but the memory diagnostic I ran (Memtest86+) seem to find everything fine with the 1gb of generic memory. If I could afford to order the "verified to work with" stick I'd do some comparisons. Now it could be that the 700m doesn't like the different memory sizes in each bank when installed together or there is some slight incompatibilities. I'll leave that to anyone's guess... Anyway, price discrimination in this case may be working through our own fears of installing some "generic" piece of component into our shiny new laptop. When I called Kingston before making my purchase, they told me that, "no, the KVR333 model won't work with your computer. You should get the KTD-INSP5150." But it does work (under the conditions stated above).

Ok, just thought I'd share this in case anyone wondered about this. I'm sure someone will google this topic. If you have any additional information about how the memory components are different, I'd like to know...

Now -- to sell that ol' 256mb stick on ebay.

What are the chances that a new Dell commits hara-kiri in two weeks? Today, typing away on it, the screen goes white, a small dark spot develops and grows. I touch that part of the screen and it nearly burns me. Two days of installing all different sorts of programs go wasted. Time to call Dell to return or replace this one before it self destructs and set off the sprinklers.

Video of the cursed screen

To be fair, in a house with 4 Dells, this is the first to have any sort of major problem. It's remarkable that we don't expect something to go wrong more often. There are billions of circuits in RAM, CPU, video card, and all the rest. One short circuit in a few billion connections will cause major problems for our computers, yet it rarely happens. Although, it's more likely that something outside the printed circuit broke down; probably just a short in the LCD screen. Too bad.

update (5-11-2005):
A new 700m arrived yesterday to replace the old one. I swapped the harddrives and everything is running fine. It's easier to swap components in this laptop than most desktops. Dell called yesterday and emailed to make sure everything was acceptable. Now all I have to do is re-register the MAC address for the campus wireless network and everything will be back to before. Also, sticking the Kingston KVR333 1GB SODIMM in this computer was less of a headache. It works fine with the 256mb that it shipped with unlike the last 700m so I didn't have to poke around underneath the keyboard this time. The build quality is definitely variable. For example, the Fujitsu 80gb hard drive is super silent, a bit quieter than the 80gb Hitachi one that came in the first one, although both are good. Also, the touchpad keys don't rattle as you type like the last one.

I'm staying at a hotel called "Orange Hotel" in Beijing. Sign next to the ethernet plug in my room reads, "Reminder from Orange Man. Please don't view any website includes information of gambling or eroticism. Please don't spread any information against the society."

How long will these signs be seen in China? How long will awkward grammar be seen? 10years? 5 years?

I'd guess 7.5 years, after which they will seem quaint.

I'm not a habitual gamer (so this is new to me), but I just played the most innovative video game since Super Mario Bros. and it wasn't on the Wii or playstation... it was on the iPhone.

For me, the best games are not due to graphics or technical sophistication but how it interacts with the player. Most games get boring really quickly because you're constrained by how much you can manipulate the virtual environment. Here, your goal is to make a ball hit a star by drawing shapes such as rocks to hit it or catapults to sling it or buckets and ropes or seesaws to manipulate the ball toward the star. This game and others, with the same idea, have been available for other platforms prior to me discovering it.

Here's a video of Crayon Physics Deluxe a few days ago on Gizmodo:

The magic is the way it makes you feel like you can control every part of the game and change the way you want to solve each puzzle. There's also a level builder so you can build your own puzzle. Rare is a game that allows you to feel there are endless possibilities. You can spend hours build seesaws, swinging clubs, bucket and rope, etc. $5 on the iphone and $20 on the pc I believe.

The only hiccup is that you have to have firmware 2.2 to download the game and you have to restart the iphone after downloading; otherwise, it keeps telling you that you have to erase something before drawing more shapes. After the reset, it worked flawlessly.

Thanks to Petri Purho and Hudson for making it available. Petri was also trying to make a game a week and there are a lot of interesting ideas and small game downloads on his site.

I expected the answer to be: "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."