Listening to: The Go Team

Wired have got a basic
Q&A about whether or not it’s worth buying the Intel Macs yet.

Listening to: Wishlist - Pearl Jam

If you’re a NZ based reader you need to repeat the title of this post three times
each morning. This article by
a friend of mine, Nick Gerritsen, spells it out:

The reality is that the world is changing more rapidly than we have
experienced in a long time, and the impending reality that we face is proof that we
have failed to really rise up and take our stuff to the world.

We
have failed, and continue to fail, to cash in on the special value that the New Zealand
story is able to leverage, whether it be in the best wine (and I can buy it cheaper
in San Francisco than I can in my home province of Marlborough – which suggests
a highly inefficient market), world beating innovation, or one of the top foreign
inbound tourism travel experiences.

New Zealand continues
to focus on bulk, not brand and added value. We turn so much into commodities –
timber, deer, apples, butter, wine; now, even our property has become a commodity.

Listening to: East At Easter - Simple Minds

I went to see The
Jacket this evening. All in all it was enjoyable… But I have come to the conclusion
that AI researchers are going to be horribly disappointed when they finally reach
their goal. I have the feeling that they are not going to be greeted by the booming
voice of god, but rather a vaguely neurotic tone.

My argument is based on the observation that any sufficiently bright mind that is
given unlimited free time (ie. it doesn’t have to hunt and gather) will a) turn to
religion b) have children or try and create something like a child (a company for
instance) or c) collapse in on itself. Now we all hope that “b” is the goal but I
have sneaky suspicion that at least for the first 4 versions we’re going to have versions
of “c” on our hands.

UPDATE: “a” is not an option as it requires (largely) a God shaped hole that is made
of the “who made me?” and “what am i doing here?” type questions. If you know
your creator is Larry then
most of the religion itches should go away.

Listening to: Book Of Brilliant Things - Simple Minds

More for my own notes… but this looks like a fantastic
intro to using Python on the Series 60 Nokia devices (a magic experience btw).

Listening to: Believe Me - Fort Minor

A couple of snippets (as usual it’s all speculation, but it makes for a great read
):

• Mac OS X Updates
  and Next Generation Finder Development
• Mac
  OS 10.5 UI, Finally Resolution Independent?

Listening to: Random bleepy music on BBC Radio 1

This has that perfect combination of software,
hardware and art to really get me frothing:

MOTION control –

–term used to describe a variety of techniques for orchestrating the movement
of machinery and objects. The fields of “Robotics,” “CNC,” and “automation” all fall
under its umbrella.

The purpose of this site is to suggest that motion control is also an emerging
medium for artistic expression.

Despite the universal
use of motion control in industrial settings, its use by artists has been hampered
by the enormous cost of commercial equipment. Because access to the tools of this
medium is crucial for its exploration, one strategy open to motivated artists is building
their own equipment from scrapped components flowing out of industrial sources. I
have spent the past 12 years pursuing this goal. In so doing, I find myself on an
unpredictable path winding through three landscapes: science, art, and education.

Check out the galleries:

• Steel
• Aluminum
• Sand
• Eggs
• Bubbles
• Miscellany

src: MAKE:Blog

Listening to: BBC Radio 1

… No, sorry, you won’t be able to visit them.

Aibo and Qiro (amongst others) are being taken out the back and shot:

Sony reported some of its strongest quarterly earnings in several years on Thursday
and upgraded its forecast for the full year. Both sales and net profits jumped to
all-time highs, helped by good news from product sectors that had been problematic.

In a continuation of its cost-cutting efforts, however, Sony also said that it
would discontinue several more products including its Aibo robot.

Ten months after a major management reshuffle that saw Howard Stringer appointed
chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), the company reported sales and operating
revenue of ¥2.4 trillion ($20 billion as of the last day of the period being reported)
for the three months to December, up 10% from a year earlier. Net income was ¥168.9
billion, up 18%.

Personally I think that’s a huge shame… I think that Sony was placing itself in
a really strong position to be a real player in the domestic robotics area.

UPDATE: BBC World has an article about
the progress towards the Age of Robots. I can’t help but feel that personal robots
are waiting for a disruption point similar to that experienced with the PC.

Listening to: Forest Hymn - Deep Forest

Pablo has given
me a heads up on Nintendos latest. The DS Lite:

Slimmer with a brighter screen.

UPDATE: The Nintendo page
on the DS Lite (Japanese).

UPDATE: A few more English details.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1

It was the very
first thought that passed through my mind when I heard about the Pixar acquisition.

UPDATE: May be it’s not going to take
all that long.

Listening to: Office burble

There is a good chance that this might
not suck. As long as it features guns, cars and explosions Mr Mann is all good.