BWI part3 B
From CloudPad
By Tom Munnecke (1533), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:02:15 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) Anne Marie, when I first saw your posting above, and I read it as "goosebump", I was going to suggest that you put on a down jacket. Now reading the clever flip to "boosegumps", perhaps you should put on an up jacket. Maybe someone could design one in SL. Re: Open Croquet, Danny Hillis, is a computing industry pioneer who was on this list, is supporting its development. He spoke of it being early in its development, but nevertheless a way of the future. This makes this a very fertile time for fresh ideas. How do we get our "better world" thinking embedded in this technology? Instead of ads for McDonalds appearing on our screens (if you think pop ups are bad now, imagine the creative mischief available to avatars in 3D worlds), what can we do to systematically discover and replicate patterns of uplift. Key to this micro idea is to lower the "friction" in the system, making it easier to connect, experiment with baby steps, and engage in trustraising activities. In case you haven't seen the thread, I've started one on Micro Philanthropy which mirrors Darlene's thoughts above, as well as another on Maslows hierarchy.
By Anne Marie Bellavance (CCAL30) (2223), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:23:30 PST
Edited: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:45:01 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
maybe i should just put on a life jacket :D
i see better world technology touching many people through the 3D environment while integrating personal pictures, favorite music, books on tape readings, home video streams, and real life surroundings (via keyhole). The ability to create life stories for generations to walk through and learn from is bewildering. After seeing the movie Notebook, i feel this technology making a difference in an unlimited number of ways. A way to bring all of the comforts of real life into one virtual space can only be healing and transformative.
By P (CCAL30) (1400), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 16:13:50 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) hey Darlene, What is the SL address (region, coordinates) for that mediation site? Awesome... Anyone read SnowCrash?
By Tom Munnecke (1533), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 16:24:06 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
yup, I read SnowCrash years ago... I was working on a distributed simulation system for a Virtual Reality game in Las Vegas, and the project leader had us all read it. (The system never got installed - I unsucessfully argued for an architecture very similar to Second Life's)
By Brandon CS Sanders (400), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 16:25:36 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
I loved SnowCrash. Although the sexuality between YT and Raven made me uncomfortable. I've since read every Stephenson book I could get my hands on. Cryptonomicon is still my favorite. :)
By Therese Fitzpatrick (117), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 17:34:08 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
I am reading SnowCrash yesterday/today. Almost done.
I would like to understand technology better but I am not inclined to get any more degrees. I am hoping that hanging out in SL will open me up a bit. I really want to understand the possibilities of deep collaboration in things lik Croquet. Any ideas on how I could build my understanding?
In virtually all the groups that I am involved in these days, we begin with a bit of silence. I think my favorite silences are the ones in group conference phone calls.
By Darlene Charneco (CCAL30) (595), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 20:51:49 PST Comment feedback score: 0 Hey Pam!:) It's the Temple of Buddha in 'Kasba'. I actually didn't write down the coordinates, can't log in right now to check my landmark(I'm on my computer)but if you just do a find it should come up pretty easily. Enjoy, I really loved it. I haven't read Snow Crash but know the references aBound!!:) This is it!the Metaverse...
By Tom Munnecke (1533), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 20:59:16 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Therese, my style is to "learn by doing" technology; I find SL to be a great place to play and learn... Croquet is probably a little geeky for normal people now... Government and commercial users are quite advanced when it comes to these technologies; unfortunately, humanity as a consituency doesn't have quite the clout. So, I guess wrapping as many brains and hearts around how to use this technology is a good start.
By c•a•r•l•a (white) (1330), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:01:38 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
is there any way that those of you who put graphics up could size them down a bit?
the type is being pushed off the screen....
thanks.
- )
carla
By Tom Munnecke (1533), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:13:19 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
done...sorry, i got lazy and didn't do all the formatting...
By c•a•r•l•a (white) (1330), Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:14:40 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
ahhh, much better, thanks tom. :)
By Luke Martin (1845), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:45:36 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Lately, I've been spending most of my time here:
I like two things about this image. Three I guess. First, as you can see from the perspective (taken from 16.63 miles), it's pretty remote. The last ten miles of my commute there is nothing but rock, chapparal, and crazy howling coyotes. Second, it's been raining non-stop in San Diego County and here in the mountains we get the best of it. Our dormant creek in our backyard is a raging river tonight. The hills are all green -- especially where the wildfire went through in Oct. 03. California poppies are out. Third, it's where my wife, kids, and cats are.
By Therese Fitzpatrick (117), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 01:12:42 PST
Edited: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 01:14:49 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Thanks, Carla. . . I was wondering why my type went a bit kerplooey over here. . . it was graphics formatting! Good to know.
Here is the sum total of my graphic skill: I get my friends to do it. One friend, Peggy Holman (she's registered in o.net but not around much) sent me a digital photo and Sue Braiden did something to it. For the first time, ever, I have posted a picture of me online.
Thanks, Tom, for your gracious reassurance that I might improve my tech skills. Most people won't really get this but I sometimes think my legal training is actually a pretty good foundation for understanding how software works. I extrapolate what I know about how a system created by a legal code works. When I took code courses in law school like the Uniform Commercial code or Federal Tax courses I would plod through really dense material and then all of a sudden the banking system become a zing-a-ding-ding reality within me: I saw money and checks and numbers racing through the world like an infinite array of neon light rays. If something went wrong, I could picture where those light rays got clogged and then somehow I would know what the relevant statute said. It was like I had stored the relevant statute and I could download it as needed. Same with tax codes. On a normal level, I didn't understand the dense material and I couldn't debate it the way so many law students liked to debate endlessly in the student lounges. . . but I got it and I did my best work in law school in code classes. I recently told this to someone out loud for the first time and the guy I told it to said he didn't think everyone's mind works like this?! But there was another guy in the room, a tax accountant, and he said tax codes worked like that for him, too. Having fun with one's mind is so much fun.
Someday, I'd like to take a shot at digesting a complex software system like the U.C.C.
By P (CCAL30) (1400), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 08:18:25 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Hey Darlene, I bought a meditation mat for 4 people. Nice green flame in the center. IM when you are inworld and we will try it out. Right now it is portable, but I hope to put it in my new house (as soon as I figure out how to take it out of the box and assemble it).
Thanks for the Buddha info...
Re-reading Snowcrash after 10+ years has been a trip. I read everything, all the time, but this is really the densest book. Love the richness of the writing.
Tom, wow, didn't realize you were in Vegas! I think that game would do better now! Can you imagine SL kiosks next to the slot machines? The game could even be limited to elements of gambling so you'd have to spend money, but you could still walk and fly to the next SL gaming machine, or better yet, TRINGO! ....
By Tom Munnecke (1533), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 11:50:41 PST
Comment feedback score: 1 (*) +|- (net 0 from me)
Now that you mention it, Pam, I see some similarities between Vegas and SL... One afternoon in Vegas, I was waiting at a light to cross the street and a woman came up to me and mentioned that she wasn't wearing any underwear. I stuttered something unintelligible, and a car came by and picked her up; the whole thing took about 10 seconds.
Kitto and I had an interesting chat last night about space... I mentioned that on sailboats, its important for everyone to have their own space, no matter how small. SL gives folks that space - I am quite attached to my home space in SL, even though I don't visit it much now.
This also spills over into the real world - Hernando de Soto's book Mystery of Capital talks about how valuable it would be for the world's poor to have title to the property that shacks sit on, and to have a mailable street address. So, just giving folks an address can be an act of uplift.
Therese, I've probably hired 100 programmers in my career, but none of them were ever trained in the law. (By the way, I made my hiring decision within 5 minutes into the interview; only regretted my choice once). The most outstanding ones were music majors. Only a few computer science majors. The best formula was folks who had another major interest, but computers were a self-taught passion.
And finally, there is an interesting new technology called tagging which allows folks to mark objects with their categories which has a lot of potential here... to tag things in SL as well as real life, building associations, etc. I also am thinking of this for Uplift Magnets as a way of attracting attention to better world opportunities... which could translate to landmarks in SL, PlaceMarkers in Keyhole, categories in blogs or wikis in Technorati, or web sites in deli.ico.us - or any combination.
The basic idea is to have an "associative layer" over all these information spaces allowing folks to zoom around in various contexts. (I've been noodling this idea for decades - it comes from a desire to have "sticky notes" on the medical record, so a doc could post a note on an X-ray, order a lab test, get the results, discuss treatment, and then trigger a treatment protocol, all within the sticky note itself, rather than burying this information in the hospital information system)
By P (CCAL30) (1400), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 12:55:49 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Ack, Tom, sorry about your LV experience. We live in the suburbs... everyone wears underwear I think. Or, if not, they don't share.
Interesting comment about property. Anything more on that in a real world sense? Any movements on that? Probably should take that discussion to the where the poverty discussions are located.
By Tom Munnecke (1533), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 13:02:33 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Pam Omidyar said:
Interesting comment about property. Anything more on that in a real world sense? Any movements on that? Probably should take that discussion to the where the poverty discussions are located.
Please recommend a group and I'll post my follow up on de Soto's work.
I'm not sure where the real world and second life split anymore, but one idea I had was to use Keyhole-like photography and overlays to give folks addresses for their shacks, with or without their local government's approval. At least, they could get mailing addresses and identities.
By Anne Marie Bellavance (CCAL30) (2223), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 13:07:04 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
i just played tringo yesterday for the first time - I was a big tetris fan decades ago - fun!
meditation mat? another way to learn to breathe in SL - i love the idea of meditating in a group but still in the privacy of RL - the few group sessions in RL i have experienced for some reason, all the breathing sounds sometimes send me into a giggle fit. Practice, Practice, Practice
By c•a•r•l•a (white) (1330), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:22:11 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
ok, i loved tetris, have to look up tringo...
tom, interesting about your best programmers being music majors...
there are a lot of studies that people who learn an instrument do better in school, socially, etc...
didn't know they made good computer programmers though! i'll have to add that nugget to my work on musicland band.
thanks for sharing it!
By P (CCAL30) (1400), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 23:08:55 PST
Edited: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 23:13:46 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Hi, quick add... there is a strong correlation between musical talent and mathmatical talent... music is very mathmatical... they say listening to Bach as a baby helps brain development (Mozart effect). With my kids, I traded between Bach and girl band hip hop during pregnancy... they seem fine.... :-)
Dr. James Watson tonight told me that cases of autism are higher if both parents are advanced mathemeticians. (yah, it was way cool to meet him) - not sure what the implication of this is... genes might be linked somehow?? Autism, from what I understand, is an early and rapid development of part of the brain before the rest... so talented mathematicians might have a very mild form of this???
Going to jack in to Second Life... only for 10 minutes.... promise....
By c•a•r•l•a (white) (1330), Tue, 22 Feb 2005 23:35:04 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
about musical talent and mathmatical talent.... true for "learned" musicians who learned to read music, etc.
i'm not so sure about musicians who are more intuitive, creative, like a paul mccartney or John lennon or others who wrote beautiful melodies, but can't read music.
the first is like learning to speak another language... (music theory, reading music, etc) often great musicians in that sense can read other people's music and play what they read, but can not compose, nor improvise. They can only read what's written. More in the "head".
the latter is more creative, more feeling oriented, more instinctual, but still there are rules to being a "good" composer, but they are not mathematical per se.
anyway, i bet you can't guess which category i fall into??? LOL.
bach and hip hop hun??? bach-hop?
oh yeah, cool on meeting dr. james... wow.
i can't remember which composer it was, one of the most famous, he couldn't read music at all and only played piano in one key, he had a custom piano made where he could always play positionally in the key of "c" but would slide the stings on the piano left or right to get the sound of other keys.... i forgot who that was...
By P (CCAL30) (1400), Wed, 23 Feb 2005 08:45:24 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
Wild! I think both aspects to music creation are really fascinating; being completely untalented in this area (for a while my kids would say, "Mama, don't sing")
Oh, and i think you can only play tringo in SL...
By c•a•r•l•a (white) (1330), Wed, 23 Feb 2005 09:39:16 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
now that's sad... are you tone deaf?
that's really funny though... maybe you can sing, but you just sang too much :)
By Tom Munnecke (1533), Wed, 23 Feb 2005 10:09:22 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) I used to sing the alphbet song to my daughter before she could talk. When she finally learned the word, "No!" one of her first uses of it was to stop my singing it. Seems she was trapped inside this shell having to listen to this insufferable song, and finally got the language to stop it. Re: music and math: they are certainly related, but I would put patterns on the list of things to think about. Music to me is patterns nested in patterns... the melody, phrasing, choruses, rhythm, rhyming, and their tension/release mechanisms, even down to frequencies of the notes and their harmonics. So, folks who are able compose music (or write good programs) are able to appreciate these patterns and express them somehow (via programs, musical scores, intstruments, or singing). These patterns relate to our sense of beauty, and expressing or appreciating them is a health-inducing, vital part of life. An artist who is able to draw our attention to some mystery to draw out our own patterns is a gift to all of us... see Darlene's work, for example. So, i wonder if some of the richness of the Live2Give island folks is due to the pattern and meaning of joining together to log on, discover their own mobility or voice, and see things grow, for example. The other part of music is its immersive qualities. Think of the emotional power of the wedding march to start a wedding, the commuter bouncing along listening to his iPod, or a night club, or the number of times John Lennon's "Imagine" gets quoted. I think we are just beginning to understand this immersion process - for better and for worse - with the 3D immersion technologies. Sure hope we figure out how to do this for the better - and sooner rather than later.
By c•a•r•l•a (white) (1330), Wed, 23 Feb 2005 10:17:58 PST
Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me)
funny story tom...
yes, the power of music blows my mind... in every culture it's central to almost every major activity.
i know that musical tones are completely mathmatical, my hubby knows the why of all that, like the note a certain "A" vibrates at 440. the higher the note, the faster the vibration, the lower the note the slower, hence they travel slower as well, there's a whole science behind all that.
Sir George Martin (the producer of all the beatles records) did 3 documentaries for the BBC on music. TheY were FASCINATING one was on Melody, one on Harmony and one on Rhythm....
Tom, I think you would be fascinated by these.
In the one on rhythm, he is played by one of the men he interviews a complicated and perfectly in time rhythm. George really likes it. He asks what it is.
The man takes him out into the forest and shows him a tree. He had recorded the sound of the tree absorbing water and slowed it down...
and that was the sound he played George. It was wild!
I need to go look if i can buy those on dvd or something.
