August 2009

28 Aug 09
in

Twittering, and wondering if friends will see the post in time: do all communication systems trade off between providing availability signals and plausible deniability? Also, personality simulations + good natural language systems + high-res facial modeling + augmented reality = communicative delirium

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5 Aug 09

A widget is a tool that can provision items to client systems. For example, a widget can be used to install and update a stand-alone or third-party feature by calling a feature update site to either initially deploy, or later provision updates to, a client plug-in. an IBM employee describing new features of Lotus Symphony

yeah right, and a tailor is a service provider who constructs corporeal containers & coverings from woven textiles or other highly flexible materials designed to fit a client's individual dimensions, self-image, and biomechanics

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3 Aug 09
in

The next time you see someone driving a ferrari, don't think this is somebody greedy, think this is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love. Alain de Botton, speaking at TED 2009

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the persistence of names

2 Aug 09
in

The persistence of namesThe persistence of names originally uploaded by steelmonkey

A sign warning about the premises being video recorded. Note the use of 'video tape': it's unlikely that the security system still relies on loads of video tape instead of digital storage, but the language still reflects the old concepts.

When do concepts fade away? Compare with intentionally retaining language/structure/imagery for familiarity's sake: this is not such a case - there are no functional advantages to using 'tape', since just the word 'video' suffices to convey the general nature of the surveillance. Unless the word 'tape' is still a good synonym for 'record'.

Where is the graveyard of dead words?

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