Scalable Software ().

Jaron Lanier tries to get his arms around the issue of software scalability.

The reason we're stuck on temporal protocols is probably that information systems do meet our expectations when they are small. They only start to degrade as they...

[The Bottom Line]

There was a time when I thought Lanier was just a flake with a good PR agent. Then I had the chance to listen to him speak at length about the deep challenges of technology development. He's still in the tail of the distribution on a number of dimensions, but the quality of his thinking and insight into the opportunities and challenges of technology is in the right tail.

While checking out Lanier's current thoughts on software, you might also want to look at his "One Half of a Manifesto."

4:31:01 PM •  • comment  

10,000 Ebooks.

Here's something highly cool - a new site (new enough to still be in beta) called 10,000 eBooks has collected together the Project Gutenberg text files of public domain books and converted them to Palm, HTML, PDF, Rocket eBook, iSilo, Doc, Plucker and zTXT formats. iSilo is my format of choice for everything I buy from Fictionwise, so being able to download PG that way is a big plus for me. Since King Lear is on my list of books to read anyway, I'll download it from here in iSilo format, rather than suffering through the typical ASCII formatted Gutenberg file. I had been considering an ongoing project to read Edward Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire volumes, and I can get all them formatted nicely and read them comfortably on my Handspring in my favorite format. Very nice.

Link found via TeleRead.

[Evil Genius Chronicles]

For those of you who, like me, are ever fearful of being caught with time on your hands and bereft of reading material.

3:53:07 PM •  • comment  

Arthur C. Clarke on Information Pollution. Castolari writes "Here is an interesting interview of Arthur C. Clarke and his views on regulating communications, as well as what he sees as the past, ... [Slashdot]

 Insight and perspective from one of my favorite authors. Here's my favorite comment:

We are now faced with the responsibility of discernment. Just as our ancestors quickly realised that no one was going to force them to read the entire library of a thousand books, we are now overcoming the initial alarm at the sheer weight of available information – and coming to understand that it is not the information itself that determines our future, only the use we can make of it.

It comes down to exercising judgment. Clarke has it and thinking about what he has to say is worth the time.

3:10:23 PM •  • comment  

Pssss... Have You Heard About RSS?.

Nice: Pssss... Have You Heard About RSS?

[elearnspace blog]

A very well done and thorough introduction to RSS. Here's one quote that nicely captures the payoff from using RSS as a core component of your personal knowledge management strategy:

Since I started monitoring RSS feeds from about 80 instructional technology weblogs in January 2003, I can without a doubt say I have learned of more innovations and information relevant to my field than I would have gotten from checking web sites and reading listservs.

There's been some recent noise about the bandwidth demands imposed by RSS readers that poll sites too frequently or not intelligently enough. I'm sure there are technical issues to be dealt with, but let's not forget my bandwidth as an individual. RSS increases my bandwidth for monitoring things that matter to me by an order of magnitude.

11:53:16 AM •  • comment  

Just say no to Microsoft.

Gadgetopia links to this tremendous resource: Just Say No to Microsoft

[elearnspace blog]

Just nice to be reminded that there are alternatives.

An implicit message that I want to highlight is the issue of taking control of your own work environment. It is a personal computer after all.  Even if you choose or have to stay with Microsoft products, that shouldn't preclude your taking the time to make them work the way that best suits your needs.

BTW, that's the logic behind why I shelled out my own money to add ActiveWords to my computing mix. I don't use it anywhere near to its full potential, but even the little productivity gains and friction eliminators mean that I pay for ActiveWords in about half a day.

9:48:08 AM •  • comment  

ActiveWords a Winner Again.

ActiveWords gets more good PR -- named to top 10 software packages of 2003 by WinPlanet. Congrats to my friend Buzz Bruggeman.

[The Scobleizer Weblog]

Nice going Buzz.

8:41:34 AM •  • comment