Knowledge distribution center

Clickstream map of science

2009-05-10T18:22:00.007+03:00

An interesting example from academic research how our web surfing habits derived from clicksteram might facilitate another understanding or put it more fashionable another "new knowledge". I wonder if Wolfram Alpha could manage something on this scale, given we will feed it with needed data. From the "paper" itself :we investigated a methodological issue: can valid, high resolution maps of

RepRap and democratization of manufacturing.

2009-05-08T07:31:00.004+03:00

RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper - a project to create an open-source self-copying 3D printer.RepRap version 1.0 "Darwin" can reproduce 60% of its parts. The machine is manufactured from plastic and metallic rods. Next version RepRap 2.0 will be called "Mendel" it is author's incentive to commemorate famous biologists in the names of replicative machine designs. After all, they

Cyberdyne Japan makes HAL

2009-05-04T07:36:00.006+03:00

What is a common denominator between two science fiction movies: "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Terminator" ? The answer gives Tsukuba University engineering professor Yoshiyuki Sankaican whose passion for Science Fiction gave birth to Japanese startup Cyberdyne and their product - HAL. HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) is not an almighty AI computer but a cybernetic bodysuit when worn on human body your

Wolfram Alpha new blog

2009-04-30T08:03:00.011+03:00

I'm eagerly waiting to see what kind of surprise is brewing under the guise of "computational knowledge engine" called Wolfram Alpha announced by Steven Wolfram in March and settled to debut in May. Steven Wolfram was widely credited for his Mathematica software package and equally criticized for the book "A New Kind of Science” ,abbreviated NKS , explained his new creation : I had two crucial

Twittering from brain to PC.

2009-04-27T20:35:00.006+03:00

Earlier this week my attention was caught by another marketing spin for twitter. Doctoral student Adam Wilson from University of Wisconsin-Madison has successfully tested a "brain twitter interface". The story made all the way up to the CNN headlines. According to CNN article twitter is simpler than e-mail. "If I am locked in and I want to e-mail someone, the format is all wrong. You have to be

Jaunty Jackalope is out Microsoft earnings down

2009-04-24T00:23:00.006+03:00

Today was release day of venerable Jaunty Jackalope - April 2009 release of Ubuntu Linux distribution. At the same time Microsoft reported sharp 33% fall in the net income compared to the first quarter of 2008. While Open source software bussines model is still unproven concept, completely unrelated to this fact i found Facebook looming from the Time magazine internet site. Surprisingly

Maturing Web, freedom of information flow.

2009-04-22T18:43:00.008+03:00

Last time when I was writing about The Pirate Bay trial, I mentioned "dumb judges" problem briefly. Now it is more apparent, that the founding principles of the web like neutrality, governed by netiquette are displaced by govermental institutionalizations of the media. In Europe, European Parliament is going to ammend new laws about internet usage, potentially those new laws might change

The Pirate Bay trial

2009-04-19T20:10:00.008+03:00

The case of Pirate Bay trial made quite a few waves around the cyberspace. Needless to say I despise pirates for their notoriosly loud behaviour in the ports, for their chutzpah to go against a tide. But there are a number of thoughts i wish to share :1. Google and other search engines are indeed can become the next target. This was the line of defence in the trial used by the brave Vikings, "

Solar Energy. Solaren

2009-04-15T16:54:00.005+03:00

A new Californian startup Solaren has commited to deliver 200 MW power from the Space down to the Earth by 2016,In the interview CEO of Solaren Gary Spirnak revealed :This will be the world's first SSP plant. While a system of this scale and exact configuration has not been built, the underlying technology is very mature and is based on communications satellite technology. For over 45 years,

Carbon or Silicon there is one -on - onomasticon tougher than diamond.

2009-04-09T00:06:00.013+03:00

The possibility of life based on silicon fascinated writers and scientists as far back as 1894, H.G. Wells wrote,“ One is startled towards fantastic imaginings by such a suggestion: visions of silicon-aluminium organisms - why not silicon-aluminium men at once? - wandering through an atmosphere of gaseous sulphur, let us say, by the shores of a sea of liquid iron some thousand degrees or so above

Silly 2. Entrecard changing gears

2009-04-04T19:43:00.006+03:00

I couldn't stop laughing I never approved an anti-God ad, so I can't reject it. I think it is a bug. And the anti-God shows at the other sites I visited today. It is strange.This message appeared today on forum board of Entrecard community. The context where "anti-God" shows his face is utterly biblical.Reminding me the tale of innocent Adam not aware what his wife has done :) Generally it is

Reflections 19. G-20 summit and Microsoft collapse

2009-04-04T01:34:00.005+03:00

The greatest vanity fair of the last week is over. G-20 summit in London was called a "turning point" by US president B. Obama, more meaningless papers more "crucial" decisions, but in the end the main success touted both by Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the simple fact of the meeting itself. It was agreed for more financial guarantees for poor countries largely through the

Reflections 18. Conficker , flickr and other malaises

2009-03-28T13:39:00.005+03:00

The Conficker worm is awaiting new orders from the "masters" on the Fool's day this year. The worm was first identified in the "wild" back in October 2008, since then he was propagating in the Internet, occasionally updating himself with the new versions. Close to 10 mln computers around the world are suspect to be infected by the worm. Most of the infected computers are part of the bigger

Reflections 17. In the eye of bee holder

2009-03-26T17:15:00.005+02:00

In the meantime our societies becoming more and more like swarming insects. Instant buzzing over the last fads of fashion brings us the satisfaction of life fullness. The question is what kind of insects we are prone to become, more like a locusts or a bees ?If our way is the locust like behaviour we need to find new planets to encroach as soon as possible, otherwise this field of Gaea will be

Reflections 16. Death of ads - no.

2009-03-24T14:37:00.006+02:00

I was reading this controversial article.Interesting quotes : There are three problems with advertising in any form, whether broadcast or online: * Consumers do not trust advertising. * Consumers do not want to view advertising. * And mostly consumers do not need advertising.Note the use of "advertising in any form"If the word "consumers" doesn't strikes you as something odd, you are

Reflections 15. Obama marxist mole - no.

2009-03-19T18:20:00.007+02:00

Some say that Barack Obama is a Marxist mole.George Plechanoff, once called the father of Russian communism, knew how to theoretically explain the link between Descartes mind-body philosophy with the Huguenot wars in line with the principles of historical materialism. - "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that

Reflections 15. Desperate times calls for desperate scams

2009-03-18T17:23:00.003+02:00

We are experiencing the first global recession and according to capitalistic wisdom, desperation is the stepmother of invention.You know, like the one in the folk tale Cinderella, poor girl runs away to the ball and suddenly finds her Prince.On the net, in web terms, the tale of Cinderella may acquire new overtones. Let's see what is about me2everyone scam.According to the advertising clip of

Reflections 14. Twittering pigs

2009-03-16T17:05:00.004+02:00

Where did dinosaurs disappeared ? They become birds. Where did Homo Sapiens disappeared ? They become birds too. This was my first emotional reaction after reading this article in Time. Human beings are bipedal social twittering pigs. Such definition in reminiscence of Plato's critics would be also appropriate. But as pigs doesn't fly , so humans will not fly either.In all other aspects i don't

Silly 1

2009-03-14T21:34:00.002+02:00

The most enjoying thing about Entrecard is playing on the dashboard with rss images. This dropping feed resembles me a psychedelic xylophone. I like to see all those colorful pics popping in and out, each time making a new mosaic of unimaginable in the real life alliances. Especially good looking is the 2-d ladder of ads waiting to appear on some other sites. I'm playing a melody of clicking ads

Reflections 13

2009-03-13T12:13:00.004+02:00

Today is special. You may reveal it if you add the number of years (in zero notation :)) with the number of months, the sum is equal to number of days. Statistically inclined minds may even like to find how often this coincidence occurs. Isn't it wonderful ?But what is so special about year 2009 ? Wasn't this date chosen rather deliberately during the declining phase of so hated by the followers

Reflections 12

2009-03-10T17:56:00.004+02:00

I was going to write about a mystical meaning of knowledge in Kabbala, but once again i was overturned by immense stupidity of go-green-bubble. This time we are talking about recycling jewelery. You need rings and here comes a green green alert for all the gold bugs out there. Gold, gold, buy gold. Not so fast, take it easy, in recycling manner. You can "donate" your old gold and receive newly

Reflections 11

2009-03-10T01:07:00.005+02:00

One of the traits which clearly distinguishes human race from most animals is the ability to play games. Some may even say that this fact also shows our close relations to monkeys. But we like playing games more than apes. There are whole philosophies based on the axiom that all our life is just a game, a fluid dream. We are playing games most of our time. And more interestingly, we know how to

Reflections 10

2009-03-07T08:08:00.007+02:00

Microsoft "going modular". I can't believe to my own eyes, after so many years you might find this freaking hiding little checkbox. It will be hidden somewhere in the guts of upcoming new MS OS. You, dear customer, would be able to "disable" upcoming IE8.Frankly, I'm not knowledgeable enough in the technical issues of this particular change. It is possible that you just won't see those push/start

Reflections 9

2009-03-03T11:26:00.005+02:00

The news today are about further deteriorating stock exchange indexes. Dow Jones fell below 7000 points, breaking tech bubble low of 2002 sinking to the lowest level since something like 1996. But, honestly it is not scientifically right way to compare, when you looking that far away.First, as we all know there is an inherent inflation, which cumulates to quite a large percentage share along the

Rather long 1

2009-02-26T18:10:00.006+02:00

I've been listening to this interview by Jason Begne on behalf of his involvement with Scientology. Never heard about this man before. Must be he ain't such a big celebrity compared to Tom Cruise :). Very long and uneven interview, sometimes boring, sometimes entertaining, could be much better if not cursing that much. Notably his whole vocabulary was infected with scientology specific lexems

Reflections 8

2009-02-24T17:14:00.003+02:00

Ubuntu, one of the best-known Linux distributions,announced her nextrelease name - Karmic Koala.A good Koala knows how to see the wood for the trees, even when her head is in the clouds. Ubuntu aims to keep free software at the forefront of cloud computing by embracing the API's of Amazon EC2, and making it easy for anybody to setup their own cloud using entirely open tools. - Mark

Reflections 7

2009-02-22T10:29:00.004+02:00

Social history imprinted on personal conscience the stereotype of government’s monopoly on power. Free peoples perished under the onslaught of conquerors; as Machiavelli noted, it is impossible to conquer the people who are not used to submission – so they were exterminated. In the human world of incessant wars, submissiveness proved a beneficial evolutionary trait. - Samson BlindedYes, Obadia,

Reflections 6

2009-02-20T19:40:00.005+02:00

No more variety in Asia. The site is closedShui says story of "3D sex and Zen" would be a tale of how excess can lead to tragedy.In other last news from dying variety - another zen, this time from Japan.Both movies are cheap "remastering" of the past.Oswald Spengler wrote tremendously influential book at the beginingof the 20-th century - "Der Untergang des Abendlandes".Altough he never touched

Reflections 5

2009-02-20T07:20:00.004+02:00

I knew that this world is going crazy lately, but some things are going beyond even my wildest imagination.Consider this :1. Some folks in Iran are claiming that Darwin is the cause of Terrorism ! The origins of species, humans, apes, bla-bla-bla. Those are subjects I would expect hearing about that beardy Victorian lad, but the reality bites harshly. Everything today must be said in an

Reflections 4

2009-02-18T21:24:00.006+02:00

I like green ...But this is not just 130% stupid, this can easily be an exampleof 220 % stupidity !

Reflections 3

2009-02-18T03:15:00.001+02:00

Grokking a bit more about the current economical crisis i came to rather odd conclusions1.There is an overproduction of people not capable to produce anything valuable.The whole generation or two plagued by this disease. Not sure there was such situation anywhere in the past.2.Slightly off topic, but if you see this as a chain of "non-actions" you will see my point. In the best scenario the first

Reflections 2

2009-02-17T11:27:00.005+02:00

Something to learn about US dollars and who is hooked and by how much.From the data published on January 16 year 2009 about the holdings ofUS securities by foreign governments. Once again just two little tidbits to mention here. 1. We all know about China, Japan, Oil countries e.t.c. But did you know that Caribbean banking system is on the 4-th placeand holds as much as Brazil and Russia together

Reflections 1

2009-02-15T19:05:00.003+02:00

Recently i read the story about the ping.Two things amazed me :1. How far have we come just in 25 years:from mere several bytes to hundred of gigabytes running across the huge network of interconnected "modern abacus" all around the globe and not just restricted US army closed computers.2. The fact that such a humorous comment made on amazon.com 10 years ago still is there and is hosted on the

2009-02-15T16:44:00.004+02:00

This blog was suspended due to some sobering predictions on the natureof the coming bear :)Now it is official the second great depression has come.And we must live with it.

Blog Poll

2006-05-11T13:07:00.003+03:00

Share your experience.Quite interesting results on such a cardinal question : What to do with blog?Almost 50% want to do personal diaryAnd just 0.5% want to be famousMore results here Blog Poll Technorati : blog poll Some American blogs which i found interesting in some way :)Phily