Eldery Airbags

What an interesting and useful idea ... Wonder if it will come to Singapore where we keep harping about our aging population ...

Google Talk - No Time to Think

Vannevar Bush's 1945 article, "As We May Think," has been much celebrated as a central inspiration for the development of hypertext and the World Wide Web. Less attention, however, has been paid to Bush's motivation for imagining a new generation of information technologies; it was his hope that more powerful tools, by automating the routine aspects of information processing, would leave researchers and other professionals more time for creative thought. But now, more than sixty years later, it seems clear that the opposite has happened, that the use of the new technologies has contributed to an accelerated mode of working and living that leaves us less to think, not more. In this talk I will explore how this state of affairs has come about and what we can do about it.

Why Things Cost $19.95

Pretty good read on the psychology behind pricing at Scientific American:

That is, if we see a $20 toaster, we might wonder whether it is worth $19 or $18 or $21; we are thinking in round numbers. But if the starting point is $19.95, the mental measuring stick would look different. We might still think it is wrongly priced, but in our minds we are thinking about nickels and dimes instead of dollars, so a fair comeback might be $19.75 or $19.50.

leading to :

they found that sellers who listed their homes more precisely—say $494,500 as opposed to $500,000—consistently got closer to their asking price.

[from : Scientific American]

Designing Data and Meaning to Become Information?

Briefly read the book Social Life of Information over the last week an one notion that stuck me was the idea of attaching meaning to data. Basically, data without meaning is not information and hence to a certain extent not useful.

What is meaning then? For most part it depends on context -- who is the subject, what conditions was the data produced in, and when that happened amongst many other things.

The contention here is that while we have gotten terribly good at the technical issues of indexing and retriving massive amounts of data at ever faster speeds, we have thus far not been as good at creating personal contexts in which the data can be interpreted at a personal level.

As a case in point, a very common example of data which can hold a wide variance of value depending on who reads it are scientific papers. Simply put, as most people thumb their way though journal articles and such, there is tremendous difficulty comprehension sometimes, much less expectation to relate to most of the concepts and ideas. In the hands of a professor of that field, little snippets of details about the paper add contextual meaning to it on top of the actual writing. Who the author(s) are, when the paper was written and other factors help a professor grapse the added level of meaning of it.

Back to the person in the street, we have to confess that the chances to pick up and read a scientific paper is extraordinarily low. But, what about common daily information that he/she has to interact with. Would added context help bring more meaning across? Would it help people better piece information together and get a better picture? Something which psychologically, humans are bad at is working with massive (or for that matter, even moderate) amounts of data and making some sense or detecting patterns in it.

Which begs the point, shouldn't we then be thinking of intelligent ways of structuring the way we work with data as well as the interfaces we rely on to help cover our cognitive blind-side?

How to block RedNano.sg Ads in Firefox

I think there may be some potential in RedNano.sg to search for ST material if not for they way they prioritize their sponsored ads on top of all search results. This may get annoying in the future when they display too many advertisements and spoil the whole idea of search. Google understood this and that's why you don't get sponsored listings in their searches.

Anyway, just need to fire up good ol' AdBlock Plus extension in Firefox and add in this Element hiding rule -- "#div(sponsoredlink)" and you're back to ad-free goodness.....

Enjoy ~

The Pirate's Dilemma

| View | Upload your own

Kinda has similiar thoughts before

[via: BoingBoing ]

11 innovation lessons from creators of World of Warcraft

Pretty interesting read on how the developers at WoW handle and make the best of various factors to boost innovation. The list reads :

1. Rely on critics
2. Use your own product
3. Make continual improvements
4. Go back to the drawing board
5. Design for different customers
6. The importance of frequent failures
7. Move quickly, in pieces
8. Statistics bolster experience
9. Demand excellence or you'll get mediocrity
10. Create a new type of product
11. Offer employees something extra

Looking at the list, one can easily tell that it is more or less applicable to any creative / innovation-driven business.

[ read it at : OC Register ]

J.F.C Fuller on Education and being Educated

Reading Gen. J.F.C Fuller's gem - Generalship, Its Diseases and their Cure and found this rather succinct point on the aim of education (staff generals in his case but conveys a telling point, nevertheless):

It does not really matter much what a certain general did at a certain date, but what is of importance is - why he did it in a certain set of circumstances. The object of education is not so much to discover 'what to think' as to learn 'how to think'. What is, or was, the governing reason of an action? What is, or was, the nature of an army's machinery; what can it, or could it, make? These are the types of questions an educated mind should ask itself.

I remember once attending some French maneuvers, when after an exercise, General Debeney asked a divisional commander to explain his plan to him. The officer began -- 'My machine guns, ...' whereupon he was cut short by Debeney who excitedly roared out : 'Damn your machine guns, I want your ideas."

Newsweek Thinks The Internet Ain't All It's Hyped Up To Be

Finally, some opinion from the other side of the fence:

How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book.
......
What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is tht (sic - self-proven point?) the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness. Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data.

(full article: Newsweek - The Internet? Bah!)

When I Stopped Studying and Started Learning

As a kid, there wasn't many other ways I could have gained information. It came firstly from the folks at home, then from the teachers in school. There wasn't much one could do but accept knowledge from these sources at face value and hope its worth whatever they are made out to me.

A bit later, there were libraries. Huge collections of information trapped with books enthrall which would the mind. The best part is you get to pick what you want to. And so, the choice widened but it was only as accessible as often as the folks brought me there. But still, it was a great leap.

Then the Internet happened. And boy, was it a whizz.

It was as if a surge of knowledge broke through. Never before was there so much information so readily available at the fingertips. It was a curious time as well as an empowering time. Data out there just to be collected as well as information being updated by the second.

===

So, that was the nutshell of perhaps, what most of my generation must have went through. We are a special bunch because we lived through the transition from analog to digital.

And the funny thing is, it is only now that I start to think: "Hey, I'm learning something here. compared to school, I get a choice, isn't this great?"

Then it struck me - What's happening now is the liberation of information from the few to the many. The sources of data have exponentially increased. The challenge is no longer getting the knowledge, but picking the right one to believe in.

And I learnt. Not to internalize bits of information nor to memorize dates, people and times, but to look at concepts and arguments, ideas and visions. We live in a age of ideas, not information, which merely is the vessel for ideas to propagate. The key now is working with information to get the ideas, not working the information alone.

Much Ado about Stressed Out Team Members

Its nothing short of amazing to see how certain person can crack up or freeze like a deer in the headlights when they are put under stressful situations. Not so good though when that person is on your side of the playing field.

How then, does one deal with a stress-intolerant team member? I like to try the following:

1. Slow down on purpose - We all get influenced by people around us. If there's going to be a panicky bunch of people working on something, I'm more inclined on putting my money on a bunch of monkeys randomly punching typewriters as they probably are more productive. Try influencing the others with deliberation and deep thoughtful insight instead of wasteful worrying or haste.
   
   
2. Highlight the futility of cracking up - Extending from the earlier point, sometimes one just has to show that getting all cracked or frozen up does nothing positive for the end result.
   
   
3. Chart the Baby Steps - Seeing how the perception of someone under stress is going to be different (and probably more focused on the setbacks) than otherwise, sometimes it may just be better to go manual and lay out baby steps for them to take. At the very least, you can get them to be productive in some way (coffee-making?) or just keep them out from underfoot.
   
   
4. Avoid them the third time - Life's too short to be counseling stressed-out people all the time. Probably just work with them once more to see if they stick that way and make a mental note to avoid them next time. Nothing can be worse for team morale than a panicked guy running around the room with arms flailing.

So far so good ....

Thoughts of the Day

Where's the competitive advantage in being conventional?

==

Reading less just because you're studying is like holding your breath to allow more blood to go to your brains from your lungs.

Thought of the Day

It used to be knowledge is power to the extent of how much you could stuff information in your head.

Now it seems that it is more useful to:

• Know how to and where to find information.
• Know how to synthesize/combine information.
• Learn when or how much information is enough.
• Understand what information is relevant.
• Learn to make decisions in light of (1) overwhelming information, or (2) too little information (There never seems to be just enough information anyway)
• Learn how to turnaround information in a prompt and useful fashion.

Thought of the Day

Weak ties with people around you may be more important than you think because these are the ones who help connect you to other clusters of people/resources.

Special interview Rick Falkvinge, the founder and the leader of Swedish Pirate Party

Interesting Interview from P2PConsortium which elucidates the opposite point of view we don't hear as much as the "cry thief" approach of MPA, RIAA and the rest :

In this special interview Rick Falkvinge, the founder and the leader of Swedish Pirate Party, gives his own views on the wildly heated political filesharing debate in Sweden, evaluates the political and technological prospects of P2P and talks about the dangers of citizen surveillance and Big Brother society.

Filesharing debate

Q: In last couple of months the copyright debate in Sweden seems to have got hotter than ever before, and especially the emergence of the reformist group within Moderate Party makes the situation look like the beginning of a 'final battle' before the legalization of filesharing. How do you read the situation? Is it possible that Reinfeldt government could actually end up assuming the reformist position and decriminalizing filesharing, or is it too otimistic to expect this to happen before your 2010 elections?

Rick Falkvinge: Gandhi once said something that has become a famous quote:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

I interpret the current situation as a definite shift to phase three. That mainstream existing MPs for the largest party in government pick up and fight for our ideas is a huge legitimizer. Our ideas are not out on the fringe, we were just a little bit ahead of time.

What was remarkable was that this was the point where the enemy - forces that want to lock down culture and knowledge at the cost of total surveillance - realized they were under a serious attack, and mounted every piece of defense they could muster. For the first time, we saw everything they could bring to the battle.

And it was... nothing. Not even a fizzle. All they can say is "thief, we have our rights, we want our rights, nothing must change, we want more money, thief, thief, thief". And shove some poor artists in front of them to deliver the message. Whereas we are talking about scarcity vs. abundance, monopolies, the nature of property, 500-year historical perspectives on culture and knowledge, incentive structures, economic theory, disruptive technologies, etc. The difference in intellectual levels between the sides is astounding.

So now we know what the enemy has, and that they have absolutely nothing in terms of intellectual capital to bring to the battle. They do, however, have their bedside connections with the current establishment. That's the major threat to us at this point.

However, I don't see the established parties picking up understanding at the necessary level just yet. Some parties advocate legalized downloading with uploading still being criminal, which is a clear sign they have not understood the current structural changes to society in the slightest, but just have a hunch that something needs to be done. Of course, that is good in itself, but not enough.

Karl Sigfrid's own party, the Moderates, are technophobically luddite to the brink of the Stone Age as the official party line. Even though MPs in this party were the first to understand the issue thoroughly, I don't see their party line changing before the next election.

What Karl Sigfrid et consortes have accomplished, though, is to make sure that this is going to be a major issue in the 2010 parliamentary elections, possibly even the 2009 European elections. That's exactly what we want. We want as many as possible to reflect over the issue, discuss it, and try to understand what is happening, and realize it's important - more important than petty squabbles over, say, day care benefits. The more that do, the more we win.

And the more we win - both in terms of the idea and support for the Pirate Party - the more pressure on established politicians.

Global IPR revolution

Q: During your US speech tour last summer you came up with the idea of global IPR revolution starting in Sweden, then spreading to other European countries and from there to the whole world. Things seem to be so far on the track for your plan. How do you see the global situation yourself? Which countries and forces do you consider as biggest threats to this positive development you have envisioned? Any encouraging developments outside Sweden that you would like to mention?

Rick Falkvinge: What politicians at all levels have not understood is that the enemy is working internationally. If they get a victory in one country, their forces in every other country points there as a positive example and whine that they don't have the same advantages where they live.

For instance, France recently introduced a bill which would cut off Internet access for file sharers. This is one example of a draconian Orwellian measure that makes IFPI's and MPA's mouths water. The European Commission, frequently courted by the enemy, has not been given the time or opportunity to reflect on the situation as a whole - and so keep pushing for more draconian measures too, with European-wide DRM as the latest profound stupidity.

Sweden was a little bit ahead of its neighbors in terms of high-speed broadband penetration; I had 10/10 Mbit in 1998 and 100/100 today, neither of which is remarkable. When you give technology to the people, they discover what it can be used for. Whether this is the cause of Sweden's being ahead or not can be discussed, but I honestly see Sweden as leading the fight for free file sharing. When I speak to reporters abroad, I always get the question "with your proposal, how will the artists get paid?". I almost never get that at home anymore.

So in my experience, positive developments originate in Sweden and radiate outward, mostly underground at first. There is some significant intellecta in Silicon Valley about the situation, but they are not able to pressure politicians under the US' political system like we are.

I'll also quite selfishly take the opportunity to ask people to help us out financially. We have a program where you can donate a small amount every month through PayPal; every penny of steady income helps us spread the ideas, educate more politicians, and dropkick the existing establishment. See our donation page.

Remember, all of us do this in our spare time.

Privacy, integrity and P2P technology

Q: Lately you have started increasingly to pay attention to the issues of privacy and personal integrity. In the filesharing debate it seems that the personal integrity issue alone is a strong enough argument to justify the legalization of filesharing. If we assume that mainstream anonymizing p2p is just a few years away, nothing apart from a totalitarian control state and intrusive surveillance of home computers would make it possible to enforce copyrights in online communications. Do you share this view?

Rick Falkvinge: I do. The people who have been led to believe that file sharing can be stopped with minimal intrusion are basically smoking crack.

Early on in the debate, we dropped the economic arguments altogether and focused entirely on civil liberties and the right to privacy. This has proven to be a winning strategy, with my keynote "Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties" being praised as groundbreaking.

The economic arguments are strong, but debatable. There are as many reports as there are interests in copyright, and every report arrives at a new conclusion. If you just shout and throw reports over the volleyball net at the other team, it becomes a matter of credibility of the reports. When you switch to arguing civil liberties, you dropkick that entire discussion.

Anyway, anonymous encrypted P2P is just a few years off (and encrypted BitTorrent is already becoming ubiquitous). More interestingly, our cellphones are increasing in capacity dramatically. When P2P debuted with Napster in 2000, the average hard drive was the same size as my cell phone memory is today. Using technology already available, BlueTooth 2, I can share content from my cellphone anonymously - say, in a café or so. This will probably just accelerate, with cellphones being more and more capable, holding more and more data, and opening up to customized applications. I'm betting that a P2P app operating on Bluetooth is not far off for the iPhone, for example. Imagine the anonymous sharing that will happen in the background just on the average subway train! The possibilities are very, very encouraging.

File sharing will find new ways - any measure to stop it will be ineffective the instant it is in place.

In short, you cannot stop file sharing with any less than undoing digital communications and/or monitoring all of it. The Internet was created as the world's largest copying machine, as the makers of Steal This Film II put it so succinctly. File sharing happens simply because it is possible, as sharing knowledge and culture has always been, although with different media.

What really upsets me, though, is how politicians are humming along with the copyright industry's every demand. The industry lobby is just doing their job, basically: demanding better conditions for their industry, at the expense of other parts of society. It is the politicians which have failed abysmally at understanding the big picture of their demands.

Big Brother society

Q: Apart from filesharing, there seems to be a strong worldwide political pressure to implement various surveillance state infrastructures pushed forward with the antiterrorism arguments. The Swedish parliament seems to be no exception to this. Why do you think the politicians around Europe are accepting this dangerous development so easily, despite the historically recent experiences from East Germany's Stasi etc.? What makes them so blind to the risks of Big Brother state? Is Europe still suffering from terrorism hysteria or is there something else going on here? For example in Sweden, Piratpartiet seems to be the lone political force even worried about the hasty establishment of an Orwellian society. What could be done to counteract this development?

Rick Falkvinge: This is true, and it has me seriously worried. Not only are politicians implementing a big brother state, they are also confusing and joining the government interests with those of large corporations.

Now, remember the lexical definition of fascism: fascism n. a merging of corporate and government interests, typically adjoined with a drastic curtailment of civil liberties.

We know exactly where this road leads, for we have seen many walk it before us. And while each step can seem convincing, we know what the endpoint is.

Each step is usually justified by "efficient law enforcement". This is deceptive - for who would stand against a bill and demand INEFFICIENT law enforcement? In reality, it is a shift of power from citizens and civil liberties to law enforcement. There have been plenty of governments, historical and contemporary, where efficient law enforcement has been a priority: East Germany, Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, Pinochet's Chile, etc. The question that needs to be asked is if it's worth having that efficient a law enforcement, or if something else is lost on the way?

When the Iron Curtain fell, all of the West rejoiced that the East would become just as free as the West. It was never supposed to be the other way around.

What we can do is talk to one another about what is happening. The Swedish administration has been purposely deceptive and secretive about all new orwellian measures. There even exists a law proposal for the Police to take over people's home computers, allowing them to monitor nonsuspects using their own web cameras.

In the 1960's, there were dystopic movies about a big brother future where the government had installed cameras in every home. Now we're almost there. The only difference is that we bought the cameras ourselves.

A mass surveillance proposal for wiretapping every communication crossing the country's border was introduced in 2005, then retracted because - get this - it had received too much attention. It was reintroduced by the new administration and is pending a new vote this summer.

In summary, secrecy, fear and deception is the administration's friend in introducing the Big Brother state. What we can do about it is counteract that - which is as simple, and hard, as talking about it. Being vigilant about finding out new bills, new proposals, and talking about them with our friends, our colleagues, and in forums. Break the secrecy and tear down the veil. After all, politicians desire to get re-elected.

And nothing works better to get their attention than threatening that power base, as I discovered when I founded the Pirate Party.

[props to : P2PConsortium ]

Research shows Delicious Sights and Smells Sells

In one of the most interesting research I've seen in some time, NUS researcher Xiuping Li has found that "exposure to something that whets the appetite, such as a picture of a mouthwatering dessert, can make a person more impulsive with unrelated purchases". Research experiments performed included "one experiment that the aroma of chocolate chip cookies can prompt women on a tight budget to splurge on a new item of clothing"

So what does this mean that for retailers:

• Site shops next to Famous Amos and other such food outlets?
  
• Artificially create cookie (or other food?) scents / Start eating them in the shop?
  
• Design advertising with delicious items in them?
• Plaster designed advertising posters all over shop?
• Design Products with such delicious-looking elements?
  

Interestingly, only females seem affected in the study... So guys, you know which shops to avoid!


[from : ScienceDaily ]

Retail Price Search System?

Seems like a popular technological trend of late is the shift of power (in the form of information) from the few to the many.

Sure, Google helps us find the online information we need in general terms but perhaps more can be done in the niche areas/markets where we want certain special information/details returned in a particular and predictable fashion. In some segments, like that for job, real estate and airfares, there have been lots of movement already but it seems that's about it. Overall, a lot of attention has been placed on industries where consumer behavior is characterized by high-involvement purchases (which are also, unfortunately, once-off or infrequent mostly.)

Maybe its time to look into some mass market search which targets at lower-involvement searches, but adds value in other ways like ease of use and accuracy of information? Perhaps, something like a service which allows you to check the lowest price of certain items when you SMS the UPS of the product you want to the service?

When such a system is operational, retailers will be shaking in fear. Which is a good thing.

Why someone should bring a long tube into Underwater World

The picture:


The news:
Underwater World's MAGIC Tank

The dastardly idea:



(PS: Don't do it.... )

(PPS: No really, don't ....)

Let loose the waves of knowledge

There has been a lot of talk going on constantly about the importance of education as a fundamental developmental catalyst for third world countries. The premise lies in the notion that if we were effectively able to propagate basic education and hence promote the pickup of basic life skills for the people (especially the young) of these said nations, there would be a much greater potential for these better educated youths to grow up to bring their country out of poverty.

But to further expand on this notion - that the bringing of an increased level of awareness and knowledge to people spurs development. Does it not also apply generally to all peoples of all nations that a further level of understanding of how various things work works in the long haul to improve humanity's condition? Key difference being that we need to stretch beyond what we take for sufficient and push the boundaries of what we want to know.

For most it seems, the quest for knowledge ceases at their penultimate educational milestone of a university degree (which has seen it value plummet somewhat due to educational inflation, but that's another story). Do we therefore only educate ourselves to the mere extent which is necessary to enable us to be identified as having successfully overcome this gauntlet we call the education system?

I believe that educational curiosity does still exist. But somehow, it exists predominantly within a very small population of intelligentsia made up mostly of professors who swap knowledge amongst themselves through journals, conferences and whatnot. Academic style and complexity being a massive hurdle for most mere mortals who wish to read these and comprehend them in a useful fashion. These knowledge then become trapped within ivory towers of the academic elite.

So here's the idea -- what if we could have a system of propagating these new found ideas and intellectual exchanges to a more massive audience, in a simpler fashion. My belief is that the infrastructure already exists in the form of the internet so why are we not making more use of it to push more information outwards?

Hopefully, with the freer flow of ideas and information, a widespread education curiosity can be re-sparked once more.

(To be continued ... ?)

How to get the essense of a book in a few hours without even reading it

For those who can't seem to find the time/energy/ insert excuse to read that latest book that everyone else is talking about, here is an alternative on how to grab its essence in a few hours. Of course, it wouldn't be like you actually read it but you should be able to grab most of the ideas pretty quickly.

1. Go find an online video where the author speaks about his book. I've found that folks at big companies like Microsoft and Google and even some universities love to put up free online videos of their speakers. (eg: You can find Tom Friedman talking about his book "The world is flat" on a NUS Public Webcast here)
   
   
2. After you are done with the video, you should be halfway there in terms of content for around an hour's investment. After this, go chat with someone whom you know has read the book. I've always found discussing about a book with someone the best way to learn about ideas (must have been influenced by Socrates and his dialogues). Bonus points if someone helps you apply the knowledge to local contexts, giving you a better understanding of it.
   
   
3. If you don't know anyone who had read it, find a friend whose birthday is coming up and buy the book as a present for him/her. Ask politely about the gift, say, 6 months later and you should get a quick summary out of them.
   
   
4. Alternative ways -- read blogs or articles online on the topic. If you can find the audio books/podcasts for title, try listening to it when you are on the move, say on a bus or walking around. I've found listening to books sometime superior to reading unless you tend to fall alseep listening to stuff.
   

Voila, if done right, it shouldn't take over 3-4 hours to get most ideas out of the book without even having to touch it.

And the best part is that you in the end you do get interested enough to pick up a copy to read, you'll find that you can read much fastest as you have already heard and understand the ideas in it, allowing you to use the reading process to crystallize the ideas in your head better.

:)