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13 Jan 2003 @ 03:36, by ming. Internet
If you have a website and your browser does Java, you can go to the TouchGraph GoogleBrowser and see what sites are linked with yours, or with any other site you want to look at. Above is what I saw when I put in ming.tv. Very cool. I'm not entirely sure what it means. I suppose it shows the most highly linked, or most recently linked sites most prominently, but I really don't know. Now, I'd love to actually navigate around cyberspace in a more spatial sense like that. I just haven't seen any technology yet that makes it truly useful. This is cool, and I might see some things I hadn't noticed, but I wouldn't think of treversing the net this way if I actually were looking for something. Showing websites as blobs with lines between them still doesn't add up to visualizing the actual information stored on the net.
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4 Dec 2002 @ 16:38, by ming. Internet
Several of my good friends are trying to get around to starting their weblog, but have a hard time finding the time and courage to get going. Here is some good advice from Ross Mayfield from the Ryze Blog & Bloggers tribe:"They say you play soccer the way you are. I think blogging is similar to this self-organizing sport. You blog the way you are.
When confronted with the chronological format of a blog, the pressure to post is at first extreme. How do I start? What if I don't keep it up? Does this go on my permanent record? But the reality is there is no shame in an empty calendar. Post daily, weekly, monthly or occassionally. You blog when you can.
The question that is most personal is what to blog. As one blogger said, "Find a topic and own it." Finding focus is a sure time saver, but it also contributes to the medium, as its one of specialized voices. The more you post on your domain the better. You blog what you are.
The other part, indeed what this tribe is about, is community. When you have others reading, others you know, their feedback and their own posts spark your own. You don't blog alone.
Make a little plan on how you will start, just begin and you will find your rhythm." I guess what mostly can be intimidating is if one feels the pressure to produce posts very regularly, like every day, or one feels a pressure to share parts of oneself that one maybe isn't ready for. And, as he says, you can really post whenever it fits your rhythm. And you can post whatever makes sense for you. It doesn't have to be super-smart or super-personal or anything. And in the NewsLogs in NCN it should be even more gentle for you than in most other places, as you don't have to reveal it for the whole world right away, and you have a supportive community around you.
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21 Jun 2002 @ 16:30, by ming. Internet
Long and technical but very interesting article from The Economist about emerging wireless technologies. In brief, it covers these technologies:
1. Smart Antennas for improved cellphone base-station capacity
2. Mesh Networks to make each wireless receiver also be a relay. I.e. each device connects to the device next to it, and the network gets extended to wherever there are people with antennas.
3. Ad hoc networking, which allows a network to form even where there's no centralized infrastructure. Existing devices just start talking with each other, and routing traffic between each other.
4. Ultra wideband, which currently can transmit 100 mbs wirelessly, but is only allowed to do it for a distance of 10ft.
In brief, it is becoming possible to have a very high speed wireless Internet, which is not dependent on any Internet Providers, but which will form itself wherever there are people with access points.
MeshNetworks is one of the companies working on this stuff. They have a nice presentation showing it. More >
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 19 Mar 2002 @ 01:13, by ming. Internet
It is interesting how different environments inspire different kinds of things to go on in them. Now, I'm particularly thinking about that in terms of online programs. Like, this News Log program is structured so that when one posts something it is a bit of an event. That is, one has an article or a poem or something, or at least a link to it somewhere else. And one posts it and everybody notices it, and a bunch of people comment on it, etc.
You know, that is contrasted to an environment where it makes more sense to post many little items. I'm comparing with some of the other programs in the class that the News Log program is in: Web Log programs. Logs made with tools by Userland or Blogger are more suited to mentioning many little tidbits that one might be interested in during the day, without any of them having to be any very big item. More >
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 17 Mar 2002 @ 17:06, by ming. Internet
I'm excited about the possibilities in syndication of web content through open web standards. In part because I have a vision of creating better wiring for the global brain, and this stuff fits right in there.
In short, there are simple wide-spread protocols that make it possible for different websites to pick up content from each other, and to contribute to news feeds of various kinds.
In part what is cool is that the most workable schemes have been developed by small groups of creative people and have been adopted on a grassroots basis. More >
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 11 Mar 2002 @ 15:13, by ming. Internet
Another Internet technology that mysteriously didn't quite happen when it was expected to is video conferencing. 5 years ago I was frequently hanging out in video chat rooms with groups of other people, all of whom I could see live video of. And that was when I had a dial-up connection and a computer that had about 20 times less capacity than what I use today. And yet, today, I don't really know anybody who's using their cameras for anything. At the time I was using CU-SeeMe for the software. And when I now research it a little bit, it turns out that nothing much better has replaced it, and it still appears to be the most easily available video conferencing program that will work on different platforms. Even though no new versions have been developed for quite some time. More >
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 6 Mar 2002 @ 23:03, by ming. Internet
This is technical, so probably not for everybody.
I was looking around for whatever happened to the rush towards 3D virtual reality on the web 5 years ago. At that time it looked like all sorts of things would end up in VRML pretty quickly. Virtual Reality Modeling Language was a standard for representing and exchanging 3D objects or worlds, which you could access with a plugin in your browser.
The action seems to now be in X3D - Extensible 3D Graphics, which is a standard being developed by the Web3D Consortium, which is superseeding VRML. More >
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 5 Mar 2002 @ 20:02, by ming. Internet
Another type of place to meet in is virtual reality. My favorite place so far is a place called AlphaWorld. About 3-4 years ago I had a lot of fun there and built an NCN Information Center and various other buildings there. And a few other NCN people, like Roan Carratu were hanging out there too, and building buildings next to it. And my kids and all the kids on my street were busy building there. Anyway, all of that still exists, and it could very well be an environment for exploring new civilizations. So, come by and visit if you have a chance. The software unfortunately only works on Windows, but you get it at Active Worlds. It doesn't cost anything if you're only a "tourist" there, but you can't build. The coordinates of our little village is in AlphaWorld at 895N 814W. Let me know if you succeed in going there and I'll meet you. More >
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2 Feb 2002 @ 07:19, by fleer. Internet
I found some 80 different spyware files on my computer and I am usually very restrictive in installing files on my computer! More >
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 19 Jan 2002 @ 02:22, by ming. Internet
Below is an article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on January 4, 2002. Kevin Kelly is a former editor of Wired. He talks about the state of the Internet today, and points out the no amount of money can obscure that the majority of the web is a gift economy, built of love and passion. More >
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