--------------------
Story:Mutant Algae Is Hydrogen Factory
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70273-0.html?tw=wn_story_mailer
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Can Sony Make E-Books Succeed?
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051229_155542.htm
I've been interested in Ontologies for a time now and thrilled to have witnessed the maturation of XML parsing technologies into the mainstream.
Since integration is a key to bringing legacy systems together with web-based content management and business rules systems, ontologies will play a special role in defining each mature node in the evolution of content frameworks. Eventually the relationship of requisties and pre-requistes along virtual paths between related and unrelated content types will be easier to map. The roots and branches of many disciplines will become more apparent along with the weighting of each branch before a node in terms of its overall contribution to its twigs. To carry the natural analogy of the tree, then, grafting will be possible, with the above mentioned features where relationships not formerly apparent will become apparent.
Meaning in the metaphysical sense may become easier to define but may not necessarily be yielded to a greater degree as the mapping of a discipline is not necessarily the means to understanding it nor of contributing to it. Necessarily the framework holding this meaning together will teach underlying relationships, but it will not impart more than an entrenchment of meaning in systems in much the same way a traffic signal imparts meaning in the logical flow of traffic. Everyone who participates understands and because the light is obeyed its meaning is the influence by which the pattern changes whether its meaning is understood. The difference between the ontological approach to organizing content and the traffic light scenario is that ontological approaches integrate the relationship as part of their structure and therefore influence the understanding of meaning toward a metaphysical understanding of meaning. Still, and to reiterate, this does not mean that the meaning of thing is apparent, just that metaphysical meaning is brought closer to more people, and as a result will have a greater number of adherents -- no necessarily people who obey the traffic signs. Instead these are people attuned to meaning but not necessarily its proponents or those who contribute.
This is the master's lesson. If in seeking meaning it takes rules to get there then some may not pass. However, in learning the rules any flaw in the system may make a master of those who understand enough of the rules to obey them, but with the ability to break them without getting caught. The master must know this and be on guard to close the "gotchas" where the system of requistes leading to mastery can lead to harm generated to the discipline and the function it serves.
Without requisites the paths through the content of interrelated disciplines can not be navigated in a way that builds understanding.
In the game of meaning in the metaphysical sense this may eventually lead to breakaway disciplines of meaning that are themselves outside the system in order that they may not only learn to police interrelationships, but to trim and fertilize the ones that do and seek to exist.
http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/ecology/A%20Framework%20for%20the%20Epublishing%20Ecology.pdf
-- tim
I've been interested in Ontologies for a time now and thrilled to have witnessed the maturation of XML parsing technologies into the mainstream.
Since integration is a key to bringing legacy systems together with web-based content management and business rules systems, ontologies will play a special role in defining each mature node in the evolution of content frameworks. Eventually the relationship of requisties and pre-requistes along virtual paths between related and unrelated content types will be easier to map. The roots and branches of many disciplines will become more apparent along with the weighting of each branch before a node in terms of its overall contribution to its twigs. To carry the natural analogy of the tree, then, grafting will be possible, with the above mentioned features where relationships not formerly apparent will become apparent.
Meaning in the metaphysical sense may become easier to define but may not necessarily be yielded to a greater degree as the mapping of a discipline is not necessarily the means to understanding it nor of contributing to it. Necessarily the framework holding this meaning together will teach underlying relationships, but it will not impart more than an entrenchment of meaning in systems in much the same way a traffic signal imparts meaning in the logical flow of traffic. Everyone who participates understands and because the light is obeyed its meaning is the influence by which the pattern changes whether its meaning is understood. The difference between the ontological approach to organizing content and the traffic light scenario is that ontological approaches integrate the relationship as part of their structure and therefore influence the understanding of meaning toward a metaphysical understanding of meaning. Still, and to reiterate, this does not mean that the meaning of thing is apparent, just that metaphysical meaning is brought closer to more people, and as a result will have a greater number of adherents -- no necessarily people who obey the traffic signs. Instead these are people attuned to meaning but not necessarily its proponents or those who contribute.
This is the master's lesson. If in seeking meaning it takes rules to get there then some may not pass. However, in learning the rules any flaw in the system may make a master of those who understand enough of the rules to obey them, but with the ability to break them without getting caught. The master must know this and be on guard to close the "gotchas" where the system of requistes leading to mastery can lead to harm generated to the discipline and the function it serves.
Without requisites the paths through the content of interrelated disciplines can not be navigated in a way that builds understanding.
In the game of meaning in the metaphysical sense this may eventually lead to breakaway disciplines of meaning that are themselves outside the system in order that they may not only learn to police interrelationships, but to trim and fertilize the ones that do and seek to exist.
http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/ecology/A%20Framework%20for%20the%20Epublishing%20Ecology.pdf
-- tim
Saturday, February 25, 2006
One-Tonne Challenge
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It's time Canada gets serious about energy
Despite the hype about the US not entering Kyoto there appear to be significant barriers to adapting Canadian environmental consciousness into meaningful action at home; the US market dominates.
Entreprenuers with products and ideas that solve energy conservation problems or offer clean energy alternatives are finding it tough to get the support they need to leverage change.
Entreprenuers with products and ideas that solve energy conservation problems or offer clean energy alternatives are finding it tough to get the support they need to leverage change.
Re: [Renewable_Energy_Ontario] Re: Ethanol is suddenly all the rage in D.C. and Detroit
************
Please join the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association
************
Canada is actually doing very well with regard to ethanol distribution.
Add to your station 1,100 others across Canada that already offer ethanol. That beats the US hands down right now. They only have 600 stations out of ~180,000 across the country.
Canada and the US are in parity with respect to ethanol production and its future importance. Right now the US is on track to increase its annual production by 12 B litres anually, while Canada expects to increase by 7 B litres. This represents a huge leap forward.
The Feds in Canada have undergone a couple of rounds of ethanol expansion funding through Natural Resources Canada and new plants making use of corn are already underway. Because of the work of Iogen Corporation of Ottawa you'll see that Bush's 5 year timeline is actually the time it will take to commercialize the technology and roll out the infrastructure to take care of switchgrass along with wheat and barley straw where they are abundantly available.
After reviewing Iogen's technology the United States elected to invest its considerable R&D clout in a European consortium that had similar products in development. This is probably a political decision to alert Europe with respect to the North American-led charge into ethanol as the fuel of choice for the automotive industry.
When you think about how an industrialized economy works you get the idea that to devalue the one product on top of which all others rest and on which governments make or break their budgets because of the lucrative tax haul that mobility fuel tax represents then, to me, it seems natural that nothing can change at the pumps without some form of fiscal instability. This is what government and industry have acted upon.
Efficient solar, then, becomes a disruptive technology, especially in light of little or no regulatory injunction against the production of hydrogen at the local level. That is to say, utilizing the solar/hydrogen cycle to producing hydrogen through electrolisys can't happen if the economy is to remain stable. Governments and industry view efficient and inexpensive solar as a disruptive force that could destroy cash flow. Imagine a fuel without a tax associated with it. Who will pay for roads? How will the GMs of the world be able to saturate the automotive market -- making profit on the number of vehicles sold into the market -- if people can't afford to pay for a vehicle because the lifetime cost of fuel is associated with the purchase of the vehicle?
What would happen if an automobile becomes both the producer of its fuel, its storage location and the place where energy is generated and also distributed. The car as a rechargable battery is NOT far fetched. It is feared.
My biggest secret is knowing that fuel reform technology is readily available to convert portable ethanol directly to hydrogen.
My biggest fear is that the early focus on wheat and barley straw will irreversibly bind food and fuel.
With any successful ethanol production it is necessary to have a certain percentage of biomass with a high carbohydrate (sugar) content. Iogen's reverse stomach process carried out by the genetically modified Jungle Rot enzyme requires a 60% carbohydrate content. We have arable land that produces our food out there on the prairies. China is a huge importer of our wheat.
Imagine a world in which the oil consumptiveness of a mobility dependent economy projects itself onto the framework of Canada's agricultural heritage and its current-day infrastructure.
Yield is everything. Yield is pressed on by profitability harder than it is pressed on by hungry mouths that can't afford to feed themselves. We can't forget that it takes less energy and less cost to farm 10 acres by one machine that it does to farm each of those acres in 1 acre lots by 10 machines.
This means only big business can play. Look at what kind of demand there will be. And the expense, too. Right now, projections on the cost of hydrogen to propel a car at an equivalent distance to gasoline come in at roughly 25% higher than gasoline in a stabilized infrastructure. At-the-pump pricing is higher. I'm a little fudgy on the exactness of these figures as it has been a while since I read those documents and I can't source them at the moment. Suffice it to say that one of the caveats here is that the hydrogen is sourced from existing fossil fuel supply and not from biomass as the model favored by North American governments is. The complications of using this supply are enormous, not to mention that the carbon cycle doesn't really change. Petroleum producers would have us believe that they can manage any scenario with respect to keeping their product on the shelf and be environmentally responsible. This includes the huge task of reinjecting acid gases such as carbon dioxide into the substrate to sequester the gas, presumably forever.
Keeping in mind, despite a robust infrastructure for diesel fuel distribution in North America, that the family-owned fleet running on this more efficient engine design comprises only 3% of vehicles in this class on the road. In Europe the scene is much different. Diesel is actually more popular. But without expensive and filters diesel is a higher cancer risk than the emissions from gasoline combustion engines.
Many pundits so far have criticized hydrogen economy enthusiasts as being far too optimistic about the supposed 50% penetration of hydrogen powered vehicles by 2027. My view is that the use of ethanol without moving directly to reform is the prolongation of an oil scenario well past this US and Canadian endorsed 2027 time frame.
Considering that corn based ethanol is presumed to working on an energy in to energy out ratio of 1:1.2 and switchgrass could be expected to perform at 1:6 and that these figures are based on internal combustion engine use, then a more efficient vehicle that uses ethanol to hydrogen reform should realize roughly a 1:2.4 ratio using corn and a 1:12 ratio using switchgrass as the feedstock. Sure, the numbers are simplified, but once the connection to reform is more generally recognized you'll probably see more accurate studies based on real-world designs.
-- tim
Dan wrote:
Please join the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association
************
Canada is actually doing very well with regard to ethanol distribution.
Add to your station 1,100 others across Canada that already offer ethanol. That beats the US hands down right now. They only have 600 stations out of ~180,000 across the country.
Canada and the US are in parity with respect to ethanol production and its future importance. Right now the US is on track to increase its annual production by 12 B litres anually, while Canada expects to increase by 7 B litres. This represents a huge leap forward.
The Feds in Canada have undergone a couple of rounds of ethanol expansion funding through Natural Resources Canada and new plants making use of corn are already underway. Because of the work of Iogen Corporation of Ottawa you'll see that Bush's 5 year timeline is actually the time it will take to commercialize the technology and roll out the infrastructure to take care of switchgrass along with wheat and barley straw where they are abundantly available.
After reviewing Iogen's technology the United States elected to invest its considerable R&D clout in a European consortium that had similar products in development. This is probably a political decision to alert Europe with respect to the North American-led charge into ethanol as the fuel of choice for the automotive industry.
When you think about how an industrialized economy works you get the idea that to devalue the one product on top of which all others rest and on which governments make or break their budgets because of the lucrative tax haul that mobility fuel tax represents then, to me, it seems natural that nothing can change at the pumps without some form of fiscal instability. This is what government and industry have acted upon.
Efficient solar, then, becomes a disruptive technology, especially in light of little or no regulatory injunction against the production of hydrogen at the local level. That is to say, utilizing the solar/hydrogen cycle to producing hydrogen through electrolisys can't happen if the economy is to remain stable. Governments and industry view efficient and inexpensive solar as a disruptive force that could destroy cash flow. Imagine a fuel without a tax associated with it. Who will pay for roads? How will the GMs of the world be able to saturate the automotive market -- making profit on the number of vehicles sold into the market -- if people can't afford to pay for a vehicle because the lifetime cost of fuel is associated with the purchase of the vehicle?
What would happen if an automobile becomes both the producer of its fuel, its storage location and the place where energy is generated and also distributed. The car as a rechargable battery is NOT far fetched. It is feared.
My biggest secret is knowing that fuel reform technology is readily available to convert portable ethanol directly to hydrogen.
My biggest fear is that the early focus on wheat and barley straw will irreversibly bind food and fuel.
With any successful ethanol production it is necessary to have a certain percentage of biomass with a high carbohydrate (sugar) content. Iogen's reverse stomach process carried out by the genetically modified Jungle Rot enzyme requires a 60% carbohydrate content. We have arable land that produces our food out there on the prairies. China is a huge importer of our wheat.
Imagine a world in which the oil consumptiveness of a mobility dependent economy projects itself onto the framework of Canada's agricultural heritage and its current-day infrastructure.
Yield is everything. Yield is pressed on by profitability harder than it is pressed on by hungry mouths that can't afford to feed themselves. We can't forget that it takes less energy and less cost to farm 10 acres by one machine that it does to farm each of those acres in 1 acre lots by 10 machines.
This means only big business can play. Look at what kind of demand there will be. And the expense, too. Right now, projections on the cost of hydrogen to propel a car at an equivalent distance to gasoline come in at roughly 25% higher than gasoline in a stabilized infrastructure. At-the-pump pricing is higher. I'm a little fudgy on the exactness of these figures as it has been a while since I read those documents and I can't source them at the moment. Suffice it to say that one of the caveats here is that the hydrogen is sourced from existing fossil fuel supply and not from biomass as the model favored by North American governments is. The complications of using this supply are enormous, not to mention that the carbon cycle doesn't really change. Petroleum producers would have us believe that they can manage any scenario with respect to keeping their product on the shelf and be environmentally responsible. This includes the huge task of reinjecting acid gases such as carbon dioxide into the substrate to sequester the gas, presumably forever.
Keeping in mind, despite a robust infrastructure for diesel fuel distribution in North America, that the family-owned fleet running on this more efficient engine design comprises only 3% of vehicles in this class on the road. In Europe the scene is much different. Diesel is actually more popular. But without expensive and filters diesel is a higher cancer risk than the emissions from gasoline combustion engines.
Many pundits so far have criticized hydrogen economy enthusiasts as being far too optimistic about the supposed 50% penetration of hydrogen powered vehicles by 2027. My view is that the use of ethanol without moving directly to reform is the prolongation of an oil scenario well past this US and Canadian endorsed 2027 time frame.
Considering that corn based ethanol is presumed to working on an energy in to energy out ratio of 1:1.2 and switchgrass could be expected to perform at 1:6 and that these figures are based on internal combustion engine use, then a more efficient vehicle that uses ethanol to hydrogen reform should realize roughly a 1:2.4 ratio using corn and a 1:12 ratio using switchgrass as the feedstock. Sure, the numbers are simplified, but once the connection to reform is more generally recognized you'll probably see more accurate studies based on real-world designs.
-- tim
Dan wrote:
--- In Renewable_Energy_Ontario@yahoogroups.ca, Tim Pozza
<tim.pozza@s...> wrote:
>
> http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2006/02/24/griscom-little/index.html?
source=daily
>
We have an ethol gas station in Northern Ontario. It has been there
for over 20 years. It was built for a farming community as a COOP
station and store It's a clean burning fuel however residents have had
compliants that it is hard on the vehicles' motors unless they are
built to burn ethanol gas. GMC has trucks that are built to be
ethanol friendly which is specified in the vehicles' manual.
Here in Ontario, since the Liberal party have taken over the
government, the big push is on Nuclear energy. They even have paid
advertisement on the radio and television about nuclear energy and its
so called positive sides. This, in my opinion scares me. It seems
like our politicians are being pushed by mining lobbists and that they
have all forgetten about the history of nuclear plants. I for myself
remember Chernobyl. Ontario is rich in natural resources and uranium
is one of them...you do the math. Once again it seems the government
is pushing issues related to the mighty dollar.
Why can't Canada focus on the future like Sweden's annoucement this
week that they want to become fossil fuel and nuclear independent? I
am wondering how this would effect Canada's economy? Anyhow that is a
whole new type of discussion.
Ethanol is suddenly all the rage in D.C. and Detroit
http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2006/02/24/griscom-little/index.html?source=daily
MC Hammer Blog - The Maturation of Hip Hop
I worked at McDonalds back in the day. As an aspiring burger-flipper I had a taste for one of the swing shift supervisors. Her name was Lisa. And we went out. I goofed it up in front of her on stage with a musical comic one night singing a Lionel Ritchie song, the name of which now escapes me. And I tried to get us in to see RunDMC during a packed concert where the people there were spilling out the door and onto the street. We couldn't get into the press of people. Way too thick to get in. But I remember the air of excitement and the music throbbing and pounding.
12 years later in 1993 I took a friend to see Ice Cube so that we could cover the event for a college newspaper. I ended up losing a car that night to a blown head gasket I couldn't afford to repair, but my friend Jeff and I did get a ride into Toronto with the tow truck driver, who we smuggled into the show with our press passes. It was a wild ride of circumstance and cameraderie that lasts in my mind today.
I have more stories about Hip Hop and Rap concerts than I do about the classical music, jazz and classic rock that I have always listened to.
Somehow, though, I know how important Hip Hop and Rap are. I am a fringe dweller in this world, but I know its impact is in my house, on my radio and on my T.V. My kids light up around it like moths to the flame when the hear a beat or pick up a lyric with the joy only children can as they prance around singing movie songs with the words "I like big butts and I can not lie..."
So on it goes. The music is in my blood and it swirls all around us. Maybe its out of control. Maybe it is out of control because it embodies the life in each person it touches. I can't imagine how it could reach out and harm someone.
I met a Reggae artist named Errol Blackwood years ago and he told me that a person who makes music knows what the music serves; a musician knows if his music is good.
I admit to having listened to Metal that tended to eclipse the sun with a large serving of darkness. And I guess I should probably admit to being square as well.
Its hard to hold an opinion that doesn't start to sound derogatory. The Hammer seems like he can stand up and speak. He has a voice here. I wish him the best in his journey.
Maybe one day our children will meet.
12 years later in 1993 I took a friend to see Ice Cube so that we could cover the event for a college newspaper. I ended up losing a car that night to a blown head gasket I couldn't afford to repair, but my friend Jeff and I did get a ride into Toronto with the tow truck driver, who we smuggled into the show with our press passes. It was a wild ride of circumstance and cameraderie that lasts in my mind today.
I have more stories about Hip Hop and Rap concerts than I do about the classical music, jazz and classic rock that I have always listened to.
Somehow, though, I know how important Hip Hop and Rap are. I am a fringe dweller in this world, but I know its impact is in my house, on my radio and on my T.V. My kids light up around it like moths to the flame when the hear a beat or pick up a lyric with the joy only children can as they prance around singing movie songs with the words "I like big butts and I can not lie..."
So on it goes. The music is in my blood and it swirls all around us. Maybe its out of control. Maybe it is out of control because it embodies the life in each person it touches. I can't imagine how it could reach out and harm someone.
I met a Reggae artist named Errol Blackwood years ago and he told me that a person who makes music knows what the music serves; a musician knows if his music is good.
I admit to having listened to Metal that tended to eclipse the sun with a large serving of darkness. And I guess I should probably admit to being square as well.
Its hard to hold an opinion that doesn't start to sound derogatory. The Hammer seems like he can stand up and speak. He has a voice here. I wish him the best in his journey.
Maybe one day our children will meet.
OpenPolitics.ca : limits to growth
Sometimes growth just isn't enough. Sometimes its what you don't do that makes all the difference. Watching isn't everything, though. Imagine all the people who wait for things to happen that have no stories to tell? How do you justify the unconsumable human being? How is the human being satisfied and resolved against the competitive demands the human being places on the resources of the planet; demands that are born out of the desire to win, to eat, to simply have a place to sleep?
Yahoo! 360° - My Page
Yahoo! 360° - My Page
The self reference is an anti-economic "Hello World" first step into the world of exchange suggesting the mind is not ready for consumption.
The self reference is an anti-economic "Hello World" first step into the world of exchange suggesting the mind is not ready for consumption.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
The Corporatization of the Person
I don't think we need to be talking about the personhood of the corporation. I think we should be talking about the corporatization of the person. Let's face it. The bureaucratic processes that uphold the sanctity of corporate governance and the oligarcic power structure will never be wiped away with the personhood of the corporation, and always, it is the individual who must interface with the corporate structure by its rules rather than the other way around.
The bureaucratic interface of the individual exists within the services offered by the corporate entities which, presumably, were brought into existence to serve the individual. The corporation serves the individuals who inhabit it by facilitating long term survival goals based on serving the useful function of providing some value to another group of individuals external to the workings of the corporation. The corporation is corrupt only if in serving value it sacrifices values to remain profitably in its business.
How many clothes lines manufacturers would there be if clothes lines were perfect? If they didn't stretch. If they didn't get dirty. If the poles didn't sink, or lean or rot. If they didn't eventually fall out of the track on the wheels at each end. If they never needed to be replaced then once the market became saturated clothes lines would only keep pace with housing starts, eventually dwindling in each market served and ultimately forcing mergers for economic survival as markets became dependent on the ability to be financially secure in maximizing profit with performance.
Transporation, being what it is, and in the Western World the cheaper alternative to decentralized production, performs a vital...
... you know what? Don't even bother. This is an omniblather moment brought to you by the people of omniblather for the betterment of people everywhere. Have an omniblather. It's better.
The bureaucratic interface of the individual exists within the services offered by the corporate entities which, presumably, were brought into existence to serve the individual. The corporation serves the individuals who inhabit it by facilitating long term survival goals based on serving the useful function of providing some value to another group of individuals external to the workings of the corporation. The corporation is corrupt only if in serving value it sacrifices values to remain profitably in its business.
How many clothes lines manufacturers would there be if clothes lines were perfect? If they didn't stretch. If they didn't get dirty. If the poles didn't sink, or lean or rot. If they didn't eventually fall out of the track on the wheels at each end. If they never needed to be replaced then once the market became saturated clothes lines would only keep pace with housing starts, eventually dwindling in each market served and ultimately forcing mergers for economic survival as markets became dependent on the ability to be financially secure in maximizing profit with performance.
Transporation, being what it is, and in the Western World the cheaper alternative to decentralized production, performs a vital...
... you know what? Don't even bother. This is an omniblather moment brought to you by the people of omniblather for the betterment of people everywhere. Have an omniblather. It's better.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Go Ask Hollywood - Popular Science
Go Ask Hollywood - Popular Science
Canadian Cory Doctorow has been on the forefront of the intellectual property rights battle in which he, as an author and speaker who now uses the Creative Commons licensing, advocates open standards and licensing. Cory's criticisms of technology and culture within the digital realm have earned him accolades from every camp -- from artists to executives. -- tim
Canadian Cory Doctorow has been on the forefront of the intellectual property rights battle in which he, as an author and speaker who now uses the Creative Commons licensing, advocates open standards and licensing. Cory's criticisms of technology and culture within the digital realm have earned him accolades from every camp -- from artists to executives. -- tim
Sunday, January 09, 2005
the viscous film of science fiction reality
In no other time in history has there been such a rush to proceed with
high-flying visions of nano-scale architecture manufacture, but say just
once that you're going to put a stop to buckeyballs (fullerenes) and
build a 120 metre tall wind turbine out in the middle of the ocean and
people faint with fear that something they can see and that they know to
be benign (especially in comparison to current energy production
realities) will always be on the skyline where they never look except
for weekends and holidays and they have a flippin' bird!
Better to never visit the installation of the local nuclear power plant
or to live close by it for that matter. And to IGNORE that it even
exists. Better to make chemicals or electrical power in sprawling plants
where acreage is swallowed up and contaminated forever by toxic residue
than to admit there is another and a better way...
But you know? It never hurts to question, does it?
-- tim
high-flying visions of nano-scale architecture manufacture, but say just
once that you're going to put a stop to buckeyballs (fullerenes) and
build a 120 metre tall wind turbine out in the middle of the ocean and
people faint with fear that something they can see and that they know to
be benign (especially in comparison to current energy production
realities) will always be on the skyline where they never look except
for weekends and holidays and they have a flippin' bird!
Better to never visit the installation of the local nuclear power plant
or to live close by it for that matter. And to IGNORE that it even
exists. Better to make chemicals or electrical power in sprawling plants
where acreage is swallowed up and contaminated forever by toxic residue
than to admit there is another and a better way...
But you know? It never hurts to question, does it?
-- tim
Thursday, January 06, 2005
... is software is infrastructure is culture is ...
Dammit, dammit, dammit!!!! I didn't say you could charge me for that water heater until the thermostat needed to be cranked all the way to 400 degrees farenheit with a reserve capacity of a half gallon and pin holes to spare!
This is the autocracy of the infrastructure. Gas, electric... dare I say Hydrogen with a Capital and hegemonic 'H' accompanied by a rambunctious desire to afford the same technology that includes a warranty which won't expire before I actually get a return on my capital investment... including tax.
This is the way of culture today. The wired culture carved before us from the remanants of the cyber world between the ears and between the handsets. The electric space of some modulated pulse that pounds our ears and pins the ears back with the squelch of ownership.
But somebody's got to do it. The ownership of the infrastructure has to exist. Co-exist within the ephemera of the culture that got the guy down the street with the interest and the time on his hands to do for the bunch that wanted it and group them all together with the neat stuff he'd introduced to them.
Like all good things the buts and wherefores and howevers crop up eventually and the group, seeing that someone else could get newer, cheaper and better 'stuff', ultimately decides that to hire their man's nephew at a reduced price to do the same job is better. They form the competition that is intended to put their well meaning friend to task on price and service or push him over the edge in an attempt to get something better out of the deal from someone who cares. Of course, in there as well is the actual reduction in price of the equipment the nephew works on. Eventually, unless the infrastructure is special enough to remain costly or forced by regulation into some form of uniqueness serving the public good, the profitability of fixing is outweighed by the price of just chucking it all and replacing it. Perhaps the reason brownfields are now undergoing economic renewal is not because our decision makers are environmentalists, but because the practical financial reality is that the intrinsic value of land is its proximity to infrastructure. The fact that industrial users did not salt enough money away to afford reclamation and that now the public trust must pay for or seek long term partnerships with business for win win solutions in reclamation shows the shortsightedness of the profit motive. As lands became marginalized by pollution and less attractive to use their monetary value diminishes and, in wind swept trailer park fashion, business moves on leaving the mess behind for someone else. This is where infill economics must eventually come into play and why it takes so long for reclamation to take hold. It's the same reason homeowners don't often renovate an entire household all at once but, instead, move from room to room over the course of a lifetime. Cash flow is everything.
In there somewhere there is a lot of talk about the cycle of technology and its long-term usability and then someone who notices sees that a regulatory environment would protect culture, ownership and language (language being a cultural phenomenon, apparently) along with lesser issues such as public access and in the final stages, buy in at all levels to ensure cultural equilibrium.
The technology and its infrastructure become key to culture. Shifts within the original technical infrastructure become the deepening hooks of entrenchment and de facto indicators of infrastructure value.
Culture today is both broadened by technology and saved from upsetting influence largely by those infrastructures that are corporately owned and which receive broad-based market share.
Today's ISP game has moved from ISP supplied web portals to specialized content managers whose role in connectivity is to provide the user experience context. One of those contexts is entertainment and another is access to information.
But wait. A portal and its content co-exist as software programming and content programming, the two being unbreakably linked together. This inseparable relationship in the wireless era makes software, infrastrature and culture all one in the same. The key to it all seems to be who pays for it, who steals it and who just sits there and soaks it all up.
-- tim
This is the autocracy of the infrastructure. Gas, electric... dare I say Hydrogen with a Capital and hegemonic 'H' accompanied by a rambunctious desire to afford the same technology that includes a warranty which won't expire before I actually get a return on my capital investment... including tax.
This is the way of culture today. The wired culture carved before us from the remanants of the cyber world between the ears and between the handsets. The electric space of some modulated pulse that pounds our ears and pins the ears back with the squelch of ownership.
But somebody's got to do it. The ownership of the infrastructure has to exist. Co-exist within the ephemera of the culture that got the guy down the street with the interest and the time on his hands to do for the bunch that wanted it and group them all together with the neat stuff he'd introduced to them.
Like all good things the buts and wherefores and howevers crop up eventually and the group, seeing that someone else could get newer, cheaper and better 'stuff', ultimately decides that to hire their man's nephew at a reduced price to do the same job is better. They form the competition that is intended to put their well meaning friend to task on price and service or push him over the edge in an attempt to get something better out of the deal from someone who cares. Of course, in there as well is the actual reduction in price of the equipment the nephew works on. Eventually, unless the infrastructure is special enough to remain costly or forced by regulation into some form of uniqueness serving the public good, the profitability of fixing is outweighed by the price of just chucking it all and replacing it. Perhaps the reason brownfields are now undergoing economic renewal is not because our decision makers are environmentalists, but because the practical financial reality is that the intrinsic value of land is its proximity to infrastructure. The fact that industrial users did not salt enough money away to afford reclamation and that now the public trust must pay for or seek long term partnerships with business for win win solutions in reclamation shows the shortsightedness of the profit motive. As lands became marginalized by pollution and less attractive to use their monetary value diminishes and, in wind swept trailer park fashion, business moves on leaving the mess behind for someone else. This is where infill economics must eventually come into play and why it takes so long for reclamation to take hold. It's the same reason homeowners don't often renovate an entire household all at once but, instead, move from room to room over the course of a lifetime. Cash flow is everything.
In there somewhere there is a lot of talk about the cycle of technology and its long-term usability and then someone who notices sees that a regulatory environment would protect culture, ownership and language (language being a cultural phenomenon, apparently) along with lesser issues such as public access and in the final stages, buy in at all levels to ensure cultural equilibrium.
The technology and its infrastructure become key to culture. Shifts within the original technical infrastructure become the deepening hooks of entrenchment and de facto indicators of infrastructure value.
Culture today is both broadened by technology and saved from upsetting influence largely by those infrastructures that are corporately owned and which receive broad-based market share.
Today's ISP game has moved from ISP supplied web portals to specialized content managers whose role in connectivity is to provide the user experience context. One of those contexts is entertainment and another is access to information.
But wait. A portal and its content co-exist as software programming and content programming, the two being unbreakably linked together. This inseparable relationship in the wireless era makes software, infrastrature and culture all one in the same. The key to it all seems to be who pays for it, who steals it and who just sits there and soaks it all up.
-- tim
the future is realtime ontologies
The not so distant future holds many wonderous changes and interesting surprises. And none of this news is particularly new or insightful. For anyone with a positive outlook the future is always going to be bright and interesting.
So much for preamble.
I am particularly interested in seeing the future forget the past. I know that sounds strange, but there are some real problems with the benchmark performance objectives inherent in any kind of tracking mechanism that might arise under the single identity future.
Sounds like the backdrop for a science fiction novel, doesn't it?
Well, indeed, with the continued maturation of Tim Berners-Lee's Semantic Web focusing on life sciences there can be no doubt that both human performance objectives and the wide availability of curriculum will see the standardization of an ontological framework that births new disciplines in real time.
As the "knee of the curve" is rounded with advanced materials science and rapid discovery of uses for new science (to name but two areas) language must also evolve to embrace new relationships.
Imagine, as the time between new discoveries and their useful inclusion into daily life gets shorter, how the relationship to the parent discipline that raised it matures. Competition demands that you know how your own node is evolving and whether it is safe to venture out on its tender branches in the hope that its usefulness demands the care and feeding required to make a trunk of its life.
So, to quote the oft quoted... from Bartleby.com
So much for preamble.
I am particularly interested in seeing the future forget the past. I know that sounds strange, but there are some real problems with the benchmark performance objectives inherent in any kind of tracking mechanism that might arise under the single identity future.
Sounds like the backdrop for a science fiction novel, doesn't it?
Well, indeed, with the continued maturation of Tim Berners-Lee's Semantic Web focusing on life sciences there can be no doubt that both human performance objectives and the wide availability of curriculum will see the standardization of an ontological framework that births new disciplines in real time.
As the "knee of the curve" is rounded with advanced materials science and rapid discovery of uses for new science (to name but two areas) language must also evolve to embrace new relationships.
Imagine, as the time between new discoveries and their useful inclusion into daily life gets shorter, how the relationship to the parent discipline that raised it matures. Competition demands that you know how your own node is evolving and whether it is safe to venture out on its tender branches in the hope that its usefulness demands the care and feeding required to make a trunk of its life.
So, to quote the oft quoted... from Bartleby.com
| Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920. |
| 1. The Road Not Taken |
| TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, | |
| And sorry I could not travel both | |
| And be one traveler, long I stood | |
| And looked down one as far as I could | |
| To where it bent in the undergrowth; | 5 |
| Then took the other, as just as fair, | |
| And having perhaps the better claim, | |
| Because it was grassy and wanted wear; | |
| Though as for that the passing there | |
| Had worn them really about the same, | 10 |
| And both that morning equally lay | |
| In leaves no step had trodden black. | |
| Oh, I kept the first for another day! | |
| Yet knowing how way leads on to way, | |
| I doubted if I should ever come back. | 15 |
| I shall be telling this with a sigh | |
| Somewhere ages and ages hence: | |
| Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— | |
| I took the one less traveled by, | |
| And that has made all the difference. | 20 |
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Christmas in Capital Gains
Have a wonderful Christmas full of good cheer and merriment.
... and may charity reap the gain most capital to your heart...
Sincerely,
Tim
... and may charity reap the gain most capital to your heart...
Sincerely,
Tim
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
clean air is dependent on the value you expect to get so you'll part with your money
The worldwide conservation ethic can only be had through the market
penetration of products that promote value to consumers. In order that
the market be ready so that companies can profit by a situation in which
there is real or perceived consumer need for conservation energy pricing
must increase. Pricing will be influenced in one of two ways. Either a
real shortage of energy supply will exist resulting in price
fluctuations outside even the most tumultuous historical averages or
government will be forced to reduce subsidies to force pricing to scale
higher against a ready and "cheap" supply so that conservation becomes a
consumer and corporate target.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
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