No TV, no Facebook. Much Better Life

While there, I discovered that they are implicit in the facebook tracking issues which among other things passes customer data to facebook and then posts it to your "friends" thereby potentially ruining Christmas presents and revealing other online behavior.


This screenshot shows how NoScript caught the little script in action.

There are major legal implications from using this technology inappropriately. I use NoScript , a marvelous little extension to Firefox that prevents web sites from loading scripts and actions while you aren't paying attention. I recommend NoScript this without hesitation, as it prevents predatory online practices by online vendors such as Facebook and Blockbuster from being the sneaky little brother who reads your weblogs and then goes and tells all your friends (literally). There are much better ways to make money.

This is one of the reasons why I've decided to stop using/participating in facebook.com all together. If I really want to get in touch with someone, I'll email, call, or talk to them in person.

Facebook first started as an online Rolodex and has turned into something more insidious.... and I don't want to set around and find out what they are going to do next.

Hillary Clinton's America: One Nation, Invisible...with Liberty and Justice for All

Hillary Clinton has started the country deep into an election campaign with her first ad: "Invisible"

As far as campaign ads go, I think this is one of the best emotionally. And she doesn't even say the President's name. The ad takes cues from pages of Frank Luntz's book, specifically the part about invoking imagination-- the word "invisible" is mentioned at least 7 times and hinted at more. INVISIBLE is a very powerful word for people who feel powerless and may become the new word for her campaign. We'll see if it has legs among voters though.

She's definitely her husband's wife---which means she knows how to effectively communicate to the emotional turmoil of those who feel disenfranchised. Remember the lip-biting Bill Clinton--big hit, and people felt that he cared. He knew what to say and left the White House with approval ratings of 66%--not bad for an impeached president.

One of the ads weaknesses though is that it's still a negative campaign ad. People don't like to be reminded that their life isn't all it could be or that people are keeping them down. They like to be teased with the dream that it will get better, even when it probably won't. The Kennedy's knew this "Ask not..." and "We choose to go to the moon..." The Kennedy's were great communicators---then again, it didn't hurt that they were attractive too.

I'm sure this ad has been focused-grouped to death. It's already struck a nerve with the George Bush White House: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-ushill081507,0,5475176.story

My Reading List

Among the many things that I am reading including my Google Reader, I'm reading 4 books at a time right now, and doing only an adequate job of finishing any of them. They are (in order of % complete):

-The Invisible Computer
-Words That Work
-The 9/11 Report, The Committee to Investigate Terrorist Acts Upon the United States
-Thomas Paine's Common Sense & Other Writings

Essentially all 4 books have absolutely nothing in common with each other, except for the fact that they were all written by American white men.... but other than that, nada.


The Invisible Computer is an interesting book on the future of what is to be known as information appliances---computers currently function in this role for now, but in the future (supposedly) we will encounter smart machines that perform tasks that computers currently do, only in much more specialized, more efficient ways....it's not technical a technical book, but is for very technically oriented people.


Words That Work: some of my "liberal" or (or "progressive" as the trend is moving towards) friends may hate me for reading this book, but I enjoy it. And I enjoy it for no other reason than it is a reminder to always communicate to the lowest common denominator; and for no other purpose, it forces you to make what you communicate clear to everyone (yes, everyone). Smart people are the worst at expecting that everyone else comes to the conversation with as much information as they have---intellectuals are notoriously bad at confusing people this way. And As Frank Luntz mentions in his book, once you say something, you are opening up your ideas to the world and now your statements can be manipulated by anyone. So you want to make sure that the words are right, and that its damn hard for someone to confuse what you say for something that its not. And if you can turn it into a catch-phrase---all the better.


The 9/11 Report: You guessed it---it's about the terrorst attacks on the World Trade Tower 1 and 2 on 9/11 and the actions that transpired on that day---at least as far as the government was able to witness and respond (or not repond) to them. If you want to have an idea of how 9/11 happened, what goes on when our country comes under attack, what is reccommended to keep it from happening again, be sure to read this book first.


Common Sense: It's almost surreal to read a book that begins to show the outline of the U.S. Constitution. But when you consider that Thomas Paine was the man who is reponsible for most of the content of the U.S. Constitution, it makes you appreciate his role and "revolutionary" (yes, the pun is ---as all puns really are--- intended).

MOMA Mia: An Exercise in Art Depreciation

I made my way to the Museum of Modern Art today to see the Automatic Update exhibit. I wish I had known that it consisted of only a few exhibited pieces. But it's ok since I couldn't find it at first and made my way around some of the paintings and sculpture. I find the experience of a museum much more interesting than the art itself. I think that the countless tourists in the building might agree with me.


One of the first pieces that I passes was the blank canvas, which I think is interesting enough....free open space.


Not to be outdone, there is a negative space work, completely black which sits on the other side of the exhibit wall. I don't pay attention to the art: its a failure, I know, but I pay a lot of attention to the people viewing it. Maybe it's because I find living interaction preferable to immobile objects.


As I made my way out of the exhibit block, there is an open viewing space (which I think makes MOMA one of the most beautiful arthouses in the city) and I found one of the guards who usually watches and protects the artwork at almost arms length turned to watch the tourists below giggle and awe.


To the other side of the walkway was this chair in the sculpture garden. I just enjoyed the lines.


What happened next was both ironic and almost silly. "No Photographs" was the sign in front of the exhibit labeled MOMA Photography. I understand that artists want to protect their work; it's ok. I didn't remember much of it, and in some respects agreed with the sign.


I finally found the Automatic Update exhibit, which I mentioned before consisted of roughly 5 pieces. The most interesting was how the exhibit made the participants the piece themselves. The piece is simple: two users type communications and the computer encodes the words into pictographs.


Male's POV.


Female's POV.



As I left the building, I noticed probably my favorite exhibit, mostly because of its clarity and simplicity. It's a series of cartoons which asks the question "What has happened to America?" This piece reminds me of cave paintings, notebook sketches, and philosophical arguments all at the same time.

I did appreciate my visit.

Just a few YouTube Videos

I don't really have anything to write about today. I found myself watching some very interesting rotoscope videos (this is the same technique they used in a Scanner Darkly---it was also wasted on a bunch of Charles Schwabb commericals.... for those who care, it's what they used in STAR WARS to make the light saber effect.

But the highlights are below.... my favorites from today:

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WOODS


WE WILL BECOME SILHOUETTES...


WINNER TAKE STEVE


EDS SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL... does anyone remember this company?


...and one of the best Dear Sister Spoofs I've seen in a while.


If you're not familiar with the Dear Sister spoof, it comes from the season finale of the OC (below). The video is not really funny (well it is because of the ridiculous use of the music), but it gives context. :)

The Lorena Stove

My father passed on an interesting website BioEnergy Lists that, among other things, deals with the Lorena Stove, a device that can save thousands of lives in Lima, Peru.

They also have a lot of interesting articles that talk about energy sources in the world and untapped resources that are predominantly clean burning.

There is even an energy consuming power meter that I've added to this blog just for kicks. Pretty intense stuff. Enjoy:

Karaoke in KTown, NYC

So I went out with some friends to karaoke in K-Town (otherwise known as a predominantly Korean section of Manhattan); the album can be seen at www.steveguyer.com/ktown. It was a lot of fun, and we all had our turns with the microphone.

And of course... there have to be videos:

Winston: In Memoriam

Winston, our family Labrador, passed away last Monday. I'm glad that he was a part of our family and our life. He will be greatly missed.

I've created a small remembrance of him at www.steveguyer.com/forwinston

Hoboken in Morning

I often do not pay attention to the park in Hoboken that overlooks Manhattan unless it is a Saturday and I'm getting ready to read a good book. But this morning was little different. I was walking back to Hoboken, NJ at 5:35am after a long night. I was celebrating my friend's birthday in Manhattan. I realized then how beautifully quiet the city was. No one was out, but the violet-toned sun was up and made the city feel very serene.

The video has some sound noise, but helps illustrate the quietness of the city and singing of the birds. This moment with nature only lasts only for only a few minutes.

What's missing from these photos are those homeless persons who take their sleep on the benches in this park. I left them to their sleeping, knowing that they were missing a beautiful sunrise.

The sun rises and paints water purple; this park was originally a pier that was renovated into a public space.

As I walked past the oversized LED clock at the North Fork bank which displays the time and temperature, I couldn't help but notice that the only sounds I was hearing was the sounds of my feet hitting the pavement and the beautiful singing of birds (rather than the sickening prrrrdrrr of pigeons).

Another interesting phenomonon was the variety of empty parking spaces throughout the city such as the ones in front of this Washington Mutual bank. For anyone who has lived or drived in Hoboken looking for a parking space, you'll know what I mean.

There is a certain freedom you might say, about a city in the morning just before everyone gets up. You can stand in the middle of the street for several minutes.

Even the silhouetted cranes, representing the continuous and large-scale real estate development, sit quietly.

And a lamppost keeps a vigilent light even as the sun comes up from the east.

The Power of the Chimpanzee

While there are many natural and manmade elements that endanger the survival of the chimpanzee, a threatened species on our planet. There is one man, Carmen Presti, who is training his chimpanzee self=defense training. The chimpanzee is named Charlie, and has his own website. Charlie does have a resume, nicely chronicled, I might add which probably makes him not only the first chimpanzee to master the English language, but also typing and HTML code---take that Koko (although to be fair, Koko was a gorilla).

There are really few other life lessons that a chimpanzee requires, except maybe learning how to navigate through all 50+ Google utilities and balancing his/her checkbook.

But on a slightly more serious note, there is a wonderful presentation by Jane Goodall on TED.com, or you can view it below, where she elegantly talks about world issues, the environment, and the startling similarities between humans and primates. Many times we forget that we are indeed, and among other things, animals.

Be the ball... or in this case, the paddle.

So I found a link today to a few of the innovative things that are going on in the world, and I think that you will agree with me that there are some very interesting things going on in the world of interactivity, where we engage more than just our two-dimensional screens and interface with slightly more tangible things.... like other people in a movie theater?

That's what happened when Microsoft's news site went to an ad agency with an idea for an interactive experience... the agency decided to make the audience the joystick that moves the little Pong around...Newsbreaker, with the help of the audience, breaks the wall, and drops breaking news as part of the experience... just brilliant:



I found this as part of an article in Business Week: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_28/c4042077.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

DesignLife + the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum

So I went with a friend of mine to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum today. If you've never been, it's a very rich experience into what has been part of the innovative history of design and what is on the forefront of design. Most particularly interesting to me was the work that is being done by designers trying to help out third world countries . Interestingly enough, on TED.com, I had seen Amy Smith, a professor at MIT, who was spearheading some work that will help save roughly 1,000,000 children a year. I've posted a YouTube video from the conference:

Curious about what she's doing? Well according to her research, the leading cause of death in children in developing countries is respiratory problems from breathing in hazardous smoke from cooking oils: it kills 2,000,000 children under 5 every year. So her team of MIT students worked to help locals develop sustainable clean-burning cooking fuels from waste products like corn cob briquettes. This is absolutely incredible and deserves attention.

The Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum had some other interesting designs that helped solve globally relevant issues.

These projects are of particular interest to me as my dad who was working on his master's degree in technology education at UGA actually worked on these same types of projects.


What looks like a satellite dish from the 1990s is actually a solar reflecting stove. Using the most accessible energy source on the planet, you can heat pans enough to fry eggs and bring meats to safe temperatures. The best part: it's completely clean and you can use it every day the sun comes up.




In the top image (on the right), you'll notice a very important innovation: a rolling water container used to help transport water for people living in areas where this is a daily and essential part of their life. The other is the importance of being able to connect some of these people to the most important resource in the history of the world: the internet via broadband connections. I was previously of the opinion of "Why would you ever want to give laptops to people in underprivelidged countries? They need food, shelter, and water, not computers." But the answer to their problems is not the quick fix solution of just food and shelter, but giving them tools to access information is one of the few methods we have to help them innovate and find solutions to their own problems rather than having to send technological mercenaries and enormous quantites of food aid to solve those problems.

Contrary to popular belief, educated, developed nations don't always have a monopoly on scalable technology solutions. These people will probably use the internet to its best potential.

Another great part of this movement to eradicate the world of poverty is the use of KIVA microloans. You can do a search for this on Google and Wikipedia and find others who are doing this as well. This is real business ventures that save the livelihood and lives of people around the world. Makes you feel good about being a venture capitalist. :)

Bombs burstin' in dah Air

Well I hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July---what's strange this year is that although New York City is the first capitol of the U.S. they didn't do as much to celebrate the 2007-1776=231st anniversary of the nation. But I guess it's better when the numbers are even---I'm looking forward to the next centennial.

But regardless, I had a great time standing in the rain in New Jersey with my new tripod....I'm still giddy about it, and the pictures turned out ok. While I was there, I had 3 people come and ask me if you could see the fireworks from where I was standing. Part of me wanted to say, "Not sure, really... I'm here for the solar eclipse." but I didn't. I figured I should be nice on America's birthday---though America's still in her awkward teenage stage where she racks up a lot of debt and then builds up an incredibly large military....So I was nice and told them everywhere the fireworks where going to be going off and concluded by saying "You should really go to New York if you want to see them." Because we all know that when you watch the fireworks from New Jersey, you're like the little kid who can't afford to see the game so he stands on his tip-toes and peeks over the fence.

I met a lot of interesting people on the pier tonight. One romantic dude standing next to me was having fun critiquing the fireworks, then spent the rest of the time trying trying to give his girl a Wet Willy. The Founding Fathers would be proud.

B&H Bliss + exploding Heavy Metal

So it just so happens that B&H on 34th and 9th is open on July 4th, so I figured I would open up my wallet and take home a nice set of Bogen legs and head .

I'll be trying it out tonight at the largest peacetime bombardment of explosives in the U.S. Ahh... the sweet smell of munitions and heavy metals in the air tonight.

American Gladiroids & Insomnia

I made the mistake of stopping on a commercial and leaving the TV on the channel--- then it came on...American Gladiators...which I hadn't watched since my parents were using checks with 19__ on them. For some reason (maybe it was the fact that I was 7), I thought this was much more impressive than I do now. It's a sad commentary on the 90s that someone came to a TV producer and said... "How about we have a game where we have people on steroids compete in gaudy leotards with NERF weapons against people who work in menial office jobs."...and someone else said "Yes. I think that would be a great idea."

Now ESPN Classic is the guilty offender--and should be forced to air 10 hours of children's programming for each airing.


The show went so far as to name the men after industrial equipment (Laser, Tower) and the women after natural phenomena (Storm, Ice). It was 25 minutes that I will never get back, but yes, I watched the entire thing, even the corny credits and paid particularly close attention to how the arena looks like a bizarre carnie gymnasium. What a distorted message to children: no one should let children think it's ok to have a mullet and an American flag leotard.

Peeling skin, peeling concrete...in McCarren Park, Brooklyn

So I'm recovering from a horrible sunburn (no peeling yet, thankfully) from yesterday at the park in Hoboken, so I decided to take it easy and go to the McCarren Park Poolside Party sponsored by HELIO today and saw some interesting rock bands.


One thing that I noticed was that aside from a few pieces of emerald poolness on the ground (image above) is that there was very little that would make you think this was a pool. But according to a few places online. The park is supposed to be renovated in the next year or so in a $50 million dollar renovation project or roughly the price of 5 two-bedroom apartments in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But before they do that, they should fill it with water, gelatin, and vodka and make the largest JELLO shooter In NYC history...just a thought.





But on another slightly different note (if you care about infrastructure/landscape design): I was taking the subway home and noticed the bumps on the warning track at the edge of the subway. I remember a friend of mine telling me about why these bumps exist on the edge of sidewalks. I originally thought they were on the sidewalk to give traction to people in wheelchairs when it snows. In fact, they exist to give tactile feedback to people in wheelchairs... in other words, it lets you know that you're about to fall into the tracks or the street by causing your wheelchair to vibrate on the bumbs. That's nice of the engineers to give people some vibes on the way down.

The Gapminder

So I was viewing some videos on YouTube, which is still a remarkably better viewing experience than whatever is on cable TV. I still haven't changed the channel from MTV from 8 days ago---part of me can't find the remote and another part doesn't care that I can't find it, but this isn't that I don't care to watch television, I just watch it on a computer screen. (Programmed TV to me is background noise so that I don't really hear the keyboard when I type.)


But anyway... the point of this post is The Gapminder http://www.gapminder.org/downloads/applications/. I saw it being exhibited on another site (www.TED.com ---another brilliant site with excellent commentary on the world's leading innovations in Technology, Entertainment, and Design). But back to the Gapminder; it is software that catalogues international data like never before and shows us visual representations of the success of other countries around the world based on details such as infant-mortality rates and CO2 emissions per capita.

Blogging without sunscreen

It's been a while since I've blogged about anything, but here goes. I'll tell about what I observed today at the park in Hoboken overlooking Manhattan. I went to the park today to cook my friendly white skin cells into darker, cancer-prone ones (we'll see if any of them commit suicide and flake off). It was nice to see the families out with their children and everyone else enjoying themselves. The internal family disputes and domestic issues were less obvious on the pretty green mall. The trashy tattoos, however, become much more obvious.

On another note: a large number of overweight and pasty pseudo-travelers began their voyage in a series of large floating buffets (pictured above). After making rude and culturally insensitive comments to the Bahamanian people, they'll come back two shades and 30 lbs heavier. Bon Voyage!

On my way back to the apartment I saw a couple having their wedding photos taken. It was beautiful...especially the little flower girl who didn't like her dress and wouldn't stand still. Precious moments...
I'll have more to come, but until then, ciao.