Sometimes a Dark Room is Better

I've been writing more on paper these days because of the ever present distractions on my computer. Incoming mail, instant messaging, and just plain toolbars, tabs, and links - are too distracting when I really want to concentrate on the writing.

Yesterday, a friend recommended the DarkRoom editor. DarkRoom, a Windows replication of the Mac's WriteRoom editor, literally darkens the screen - so that the only things visible are your words. You can select the display font, size, and color, as well as the page width. That's it - the rest is completely blank. No toolbars, no popping messages, no menus.

The black screen is a little intimidating at first, true, but once you get into the writing - there is nothing to stop you or hold you back. All you see are your words, and that's all you focus on.

What a joy!

The Space Security/Sanitation Dilemma

I know. I didn't think we're quite there yet also, but according to Space Security Index, a Canadian policy organization, space security and sanitation are issues that governments and businesses need to start taking very seriously.

Some interesting claims in the report:

1. Growing debris from past missions is a threat to spacecrafts. This is an issue that requires clear guidelines to regulate international space-waste management, and there are efforts underway to formulate international laws to deal with the issue.
   
   
2. Investment in civil and commercial uses of space is on the rise, including commercial space travel, but government safety regulations continue to play a major role in this emerging market.
   
   
3. Space Security efforts increased dramatically as nations around the world are investing more in pursuing military space programs. The USA and USSR are still leading the pack in military space development.

Download the Report Here [PDF]

Arrr, me hearties!

How be ye?
In this most holy Talk-Like-a-Pirate-Day, I'd like to mention this excellent instructional video, previously posted. If you haven't seen it yet - go and learn!

The eBooks are Coming!

From the NY Times:

Two new offerings this fall are set to test whether consumers really want to replace a technology that has reliably served humankind for hundreds of years: the paper book.

In October, the online retailer Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle, an electronic book reader... The Kindle will be priced at $400 to $500 and will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site.

...

Also this fall, Google plans to start charging users for full online access to the digital copies of some books in its database, according to people with knowledge of its plans. Publishers will set the prices for their own books and share the revenue with Google. So far, Google has made only limited excerpts of copyrighted books available to its users.

The Kindle, like its competitor the Sony Reader, is using E-Ink technology that closely simulates regular ink and makes reading off an electronic device much more convenient. Prepare for the first major revolution in the way books are consumed since Gutenberg!

NY Tech Meetup - #35

It's Tuesday again, and I didn't have a chance to tell you about last Tuesday's NY Tech Meetup! So let me go back to my notes, and try to give an overview of the presentations that you may have missed:

DesignMyRoom.com www.designmyroom.com	A simple idea well done. This Flash 8.0-based web site allows you to design your room with endless options of paint, accessories, and 3D models of real furniture available from Target and other suppliers. You can save your own creations, share them, or be inspired by the creations of leading internal designers. Check it out!
Collector's Quest www.collectorsquest.com	This is more for the hardcore nerd-collectors among us. Do you have the biggest collection in the world of Batman action figures? Want to tell the world about it, and perhaps find others with similar tastes? Manage your collection online with this simple application, and the promise for the passionate, slightly geekly community that will surely grow around it.
Animoto www.animoto.com	Animoto makes professional looking videoclips out of your photos and your choice of music. That's all there is to it, but if that's what you're looking for - this tool seems to be doing a great job. You can share your video clips, but guess what - no two viewings are exactly the same!
Silicon Alley Insider www.alleyinsider.com	Ah, if you're a New Yorker who's in technology, surely you've felt belittled, marginalized, and a little jealous of your Silicon Valley friends. Well, there's no reason to - according to Henry Blodget, Co-Founder, CEO, and Editor in Chief of the Silicon Alley Insider. New York has a strong presence of information technology companies, a growing startup culture, and perhaps the largest concentration of new media, old media getting into new media, and financial technologies. Makes sense. This site aspires to become your inside journalistic source for NYC tech, as well as be a voice for the NYC tech community.
JKN www.jkn.com	JKN might be a good idea, but I did not go crazy for the implementation or, for that matter, the presentation: the tool allows you to add comments to any web page, and share them with others. I've known many companies that tried to do the same thing, most of them went out of business, and virtually all of them did a better job. But hey, that's just my opinion.
Hakia ScoopBar www.hakia.com	Hakia is an intruiging technology, but this presentation missed the point completely. Hakia is a semantic search engine that offers results based on meaning and intention, more than keywords. So for example, if I'm asking "what is the capital of Spain," it might know that I am not looking for "what, capital, Spain" in a page, but that I am looking for an answer, which will probably present itself in a certain grammatical structure. (For instance: "The capital of Spain is..." or "X, the Capital of Spain, is..." The presentation, however, focused on Hakia's "ScoopBar", a toolbar that is completely uninteresting in itself, unless you already know and implicitly trust Hakia's algorithm. (Which, incidentally, I don't.)
Gawker's Publishing Platform www.gawker.com	Okay, so if you know and love Gawker, you might be excited to hear that last Friday they made their publishing platform available to all Gawker commenters. I'm sure this is very exciting to some people, I just don't know any of them.
BookSwim www.bookswim.com	Ah, BookSwim. I have a complex reaction to this service, the so called Netflix of Books. Let me explain. On the one hand: I would have killed to have a service like this 10 years ago. It's a really neat idea: for a small monthly amount you can have up to 11 books at your home at any given point. I spoke to George Burke, one of the founders, and he seems like a really nice, enthusiastic guy who loves books. On the other hand: Call me a germophobe, but I don't like the idea of getting into bed with a book that was read by hundreds of people before me. (George did say they might consider the idea of periodic fumigation of their entire store, when I suggested it). One of the greatest benefit of Netflix is the database they built around movies, with ratings, reviews, previews, and pattern recognition. This positions Netflix as a leader even in an age where movies can be downloaded directly and not shipped. For books, though, the biggest book-related database in the world already belongs to Amazon, and as eBooks become more prevalent, it will be very hard, if not impossible to compete with them. It might be just be me, but returning a book is always a heartbreaking experience. That's why I stopped using the excellent NYPL, and instead simply buy used books whenever I'm not willing to invest in a new one.
I'mInLikeWithYou www.iminlikewithyou.com	I'm In Like With You is a Flash-based social networking and dating web site. It has some cool ideas incorporated, like the idea of Games. Games, as I understand it, are user-generated challenges that allow you to test and compare others in your network. The top 5 ranked users in a Game may connect to the game creator. That, you have to admit, is quite brilliant.

Uglydolls

Meet Icebat.

He's my new Uglydoll. He's 14" tall, he's soft and plushy.

He's pretty ugly, like the rest of his friends. Yet he's also undeniably adorable, which challenged my assumptions about cuteness and ugliness.

I don't fully understand why I bought Icebat on a whim the other day. I suspect most people who fall in love with an Uglydoll can't exactly explain either.

Icebat's card reads:

Ice Bat lives in an ice cave inside an icebox. Anything he touches turns to ice... yet he warms your heart!

Here you have very simple plush dolls, with nothing to them but a design concept that evokes a complex emotional response. Perhaps making us think about cuteness, ugliness, or even about the difference between outside appearance and inner character.

And because of that, they become a hit!

An inside source at the Manhattan F.A.O. Schwarz told me they will soon open an entire Uglydoll store on the top floor.

The HSBC Facebook Revolt

From FT:

HSBC on Thursday reversed its decision to take away students’ interest-free overdrafts as soon as they leave university after it suffered a consumer revolt by graduates on the pages of Facebook, the cult social-networking site.

The bank said it was not “too big” to listen to customers and that it would freeze interest charges on overdrafts up to £1,500 for students who graduated this summer, repaying any interest charged in August.

As a Facebook user, I'm feeling drunk with power right now. Facebook has made starting a mass consumer protest as easy as starting a new protest group on Facebook and inviting your friends to join. Unlike some commentators, I see this as a huge benefit for businesses as well as consumers.

On the Virtual, Non-Huggable Dictionary

Leading Lexicographer Erin McKean delivers this interesting talk about the future of the dictionary.

"Is the beloved paper dictionary doomed to extinction? When does a made-up word become real? And could you use "synecdochical" in a sentence, please? In this infectiously exuberant talk, leading lexicographer Erin McKean looks at the many ways in which today's print dictionary is poised for transformation in this internet era."

SEE BELOW:


How WOULD the new dictionary look like? I don't know, but I can think of some ways Web 2.0 technologies can make it come alive:

1. Everyone would be able to add words or definitions, but they will be sorted by an algorithm according to popularity, acceptance, and usefulness ratings from users.
   
   
2. Conflicting interpretations would be flagged by the community and spark a debate on usage, definitions, and contexts.
   
   
3. Word-crawlers would scour the web for undictionaried words, and add them to a sort-list with their context and source, allowing lexicography enthusiasts to try and define them.
   
   
4. Controversial terms and definitions would float up, attracting media attention and making ideological and metaphysical disagreements more explicit, and therefore more solvable.
   
   
5. Interlinking between words will reveal the hidden hierarchy of language and concepts, allowing drill-through down to the most fundamental concepts.
   
   
6. Geographic information saved in relation to terms and usage would form a basis for research on the viral distribution patterns of new words and phrases, and help us gauge the influence of mass media and the Internet on those patterns.

Now, wouldn't that be different from your old OED?