Social Singularity Scrapbook

“The work presents a system for automatically producing a...

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:23:43 -0400

“The work presents a system for automatically producing a wide variety of video enhancements and visual effects. Unlike traditional visual effects software (e.g., After Effects, Shake, Boujou, etc), the system is completely automatic and no manual labor is required from the user. The major limitation of the work is that it can currently handle only videos of static scenes (i.e., videos shot with a moving camera but containing no moving objects in the scene). Efforts are being made to lift this restriction in future work.”

Fascinating stuff, more at grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/videoenhancement/videoEnhancement.htm

"In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy...."

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:53:52 -0400

“In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don’t have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.”

- Warren Buffet, via John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity blog

” Sci-fi author Vernor Vinge talks about the run-up to a...

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:19:06 -0400

” Sci-fi author Vernor Vinge talks about the run-up to a technological singularity and what we can do to engineer the best outcome for humans. The interview is part of IEEE Spectrum’s Singularity Special Report: http://spectrum.ieee.org/singularity “

“Aurora is a concept video exploring one possible future...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:38:06 -0400

“Aurora is a concept video exploring one possible future user experience for the Web, created by Adaptive Path as part of the Mozilla Labs concept series. For more, visit adaptivepath.com/aurora”

"Systems dump excess energy in the form of structure."

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:36:00 -0400

“Systems dump excess energy in the form of structure.”

- James Burke, via Tim Oren. I’m thinking that for code, this is refactoring. Yet it also applies to gardening, home repair, visiting old friends, life itself.

"Understanding beats code. Communication beats process. Coordination beats planning."

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:49:00 -0400

“Understanding beats code. Communication beats process. Coordination beats planning.”

- Me (assembled and filtered from numerous others. The nutshell mantra of my management philosophy.)

"It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best’. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:15:14 -0400

“It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best’. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

- Winston Churchill

"…in any given society the Remnant are always so largely an unknown quantity. You do not know,..."

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:34:00 -0400

“…in any given society the Remnant are always so largely an unknown quantity. You do not know, and will never know, more than two things about them. You can be sure of those…but you will never be able to make even a respectable guess at anything else. You do not know, and will never know, who the Remnant are, nor what they are doing or will do. Two things you do know, and no more: First, that they exist; second, that they will find you. …this…is just the condition calculated most effectively to pique the interest of any prophet who is properly gifted with the imagination, insight and intellectual curiosity necessary to a successful pursuit of his trade.”

- Isaiah’s Job by Albert Jay Noc, 1936

“Made with Processing. Audio by Flashbulb…This is a...

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:41:53 -0400

“Made with Processing. Audio by Flashbulb…This is a time-based documentation of how the Magnetic Ink prints are created. The orbital vector is quite noticeable in this video.” — flight404

The Cloud

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:26:57 -0400

The Cloud

“Visualizing the commit history of the Python scripting...

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:58:02 -0400

“Visualizing the commit history of the Python scripting language project.” lots more at http://vis.cs.ucdavis.edu/~ogawa/codeswarm/

“Legendary journalist Bill Moyers address the National...

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:01:25 -0400

“Legendary journalist Bill Moyers address the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008. Presented by FreePress.net. For more speakers, press coverage, and info, visit: http://www.freepress.net/conference”

Mark Pesce ‘Only Connect’

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:38:39 -0400

Mark Pesce ‘Only Connect’

“Displacements is an immersive film installation. An...

Wed, 28 May 2008 20:44:50 -0400

“Displacements is an immersive film installation. An archetypal Americana living room was installed in an exhibition space. Then two performers were filmed in the space using a 16mm motion picture camera on a slowly rotating turntable in the room’s center. After filming, the camera was replaced with a film loop projector and the entire contents of the room were spray-painted white. The reason was to make a projection screen the right shape for projecting everything back onto itself. The result was that everything appears strikingly 3D, except for the people, who of course weren’t spray-paint white, and consequently appeared very ghostlike and unreal.”

— Michael Naimark

Clay Shirky on his new book “Here Comes Everybody”.

Tue, 27 May 2008 09:49:00 -0400

Clay Shirky on his new book “Here Comes Everybody”.

"Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration."

Sat, 24 May 2008 12:07:45 -0400

“Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.”

- Jeffrey Zeldman

"We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents."

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:11:48 -0400

“We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Multi-tasking is dead. It never worked and it never will. Intelligent people love to sing its..."

Tue, 20 May 2008 09:05:29 -0400

“Multi-tasking is dead. It never worked and it never will. Intelligent people love to sing its praises because it gives them permission to avoid the much more challenging alternative: focusing on one thing.”

- Timothy Ferriss

Awesome graffiti animation, by BLU

Tue, 13 May 2008 09:20:42 -0400

Awesome graffiti animation, by BLU

Net Neutrality documentary, via Melanie McBride

Mon, 12 May 2008 20:35:09 -0400

Net Neutrality documentary, via Melanie McBride