Where is my mind?

I think I might have left it back at the Hammerstein Ballroom last night when the Pixies took the stage. There is nothing better than listening to hardcore Pixies fans from the early days rant about how they used to walk barefoot eating the gravel beneath their feet to go mosh at a concert. Now moshing is an ugly, dangerous thing that irritates and exasperates people, even when they are standing front and center in the prime moshing ground. Thank god for the faithful who told me to just let loose and enjoy myself.

“Don't get offended by it. It's just pushing against other people”.

Right on.

Groupies

I was tooling around the new version of Google groups today and I found this freakishly good article by Edward Berard, “Comments on Balancing Agility and Discipline -- Middle Ground?“. I am not sure if I agreed with all of his insights, but most of the time that is a good sign that he is right on track and I will wind up espousing his virtues by the end of the week.

Moreover, while we are on the topic of not agreeing with people, I have a pet peeve for people who answer questions on newsgroups with lectures and pedantic rhetoric, and I saw that all over comp.lang.javascript today. If you know any of these people, please hurt them.

OK, you don't HAVE to hurt them, but do let them know that part of sitting cross-legged on the mountaintop handing out nuggets of wisdom like gold is compassion and understanding.

Thank you.

Mmm... del.icio.us

I strongly urge everyone to check out del.icio.us. Even in it's pre alpha state it's far more intriguing than Friendster ever was. Not only does it allow users to treat bookmarking as a service (complete with meta-tagging), but it also allows them to surf other users' bookmarks. After using the site for ten minutes my mind started to hurt from the semantic onslaught of a cross referenced universe of bookmarks, all defined in unique vocabularies. If there will ever be a method of collapsing the web into a well maintained directory format, this is definitely the route to take.

...via youngpup

posted on Friday, December 10, 2004 11:59 PM

That's some goooood bedtime readin'

I Googled myself today and found a couple of summary papers that I worked on for a Cognitive Science course at the University of Delaware back in 1997. Traditionally, whenever I have looked back on my undergraduate career, I have thought of it purely in terms of what I was trying to accomplish at the time, which was a career in filmmaking. These papers, however, have forced me to rethink a lot of assumptions I have held about my life.

I always thought that I was filmmaker who dabbled in computer science and grew to realize the beauty and power of the craft. Now I realize I was always interested in computers and information processing. It just took being an unemployed post graduate with an English degree in the most expensive city ever to nudge me in the right direction. For anyone interested, check out Constraints on the Processor and Breakdowns: Amnesia, Agnosia, Aphasia.