Seems to me the key to Steampunk is going to be cheap desktop laser cutters. Once these things are cheap enough that a $500 unit can do 0.5mm thick brass, then it becomes possible to laser cut gears meaning that you can fab machines of arbitrary complexity relatively easily. Could be fun.
Read more →One thing about Feynman is that he went to some trouble to arrange his life so that he wasn’t particularly busy–and so he could just work on what he felt like. Usually he had a good supply of problems. Though sometimes his long-time assistant would say: “You should go and talk to him. Or he’s [...]
Read more →At PARC we had a slogan: “Point of view is worth 80 IQ points.” It was based on a few things from the past like how smart you had to be in Roman times to multiply two numbers together; only geniuses did it. We haven’t gotten any smarter, we’ve just changed our representation system. We [...]
Read more →Libertarians are often called Libertopians. The Icelanders (Smari and Herbert) call Libertarians “Propertarians” because, well, a lot of ‘em confuse property rights with liberty. Seems to me the comboword is Propertopians. Dunno if it’s a good word or not, but there it is.
Read more →http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday. “We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,” [...]
Read more →but if you want to know what’s wrong with WC3 etc it’s that XML-based vision it’s like the very plague. it’s *elegant* but it’s also *wrong* because it’s *functional* and not procedural people think in procedures and can be trained to think in objects but the idea of applying an XPATH query, which is actually [...]
Read more →(a summary of my thinking on more general pandemic flu issues, prior to me producing a simple introductory guide, to be dropped into the public domain in an editable format for better heads than mine, with more domain knowledge, to hack on.) http://www.retrotogo.com/2006/06/keep_calm_warti.html Start with this link. So, I’m aiming for a five or a [...]
Read more →“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” —Steve Jobs (click for picture) Goddamnit, I knew he was a monk.
Read more →“MY NAME is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab. Dear Sir, there is an alarming issue here. People are given too few kilograms of food. You must help.” A crumpled note, delivered to a passing rock star-turned-philanthropist? No, Mr Sokor is a much sharper communicator than that. He texted this [...]
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