Jim Myershttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/en-US2010-03-10T08:11:48ZSquarespace Site Server v5.9.2 (http://www.squarespace.com/)The Known Universehttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/12/20/the-known-universe.htmlJim Myers2009-12-20T22:43:58ZScienceA wonderful animation from the American Museum of Natural History illustrating what we’ve seen of our universe… and what we haven’t.

]]>The Real Health Care Situationhttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/11/9/the-real-health-care-situation.htmlJim Myers2009-11-09T04:48:00ZGeneralNPR’s This American Life provided a excellent 60 minutes on the real issues of Health Care in America.  It is worth your time: http://is.gd/4Qbjk.

]]>Like Watching Someone Else Be There…http://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/7/19/like-watching-someone-else-be-therehellip.htmlJim Myers2009-07-19T06:41:00ZTechnologyThis strikes me as something really neat to see someone else do, but not very useful or practical to build tools.  A stepping stone, I know, for innovation yet to come; I just can’t help feeling we’ll have to endure several years of lame “Your Face as a Duck” web applet games before anything really interesting emerges—in reality or virtual reality.

]]>Digital Dividehttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/7/4/digital-divide.htmlJim Myers2009-07-04T22:12:00ZPolitics TechnologyArs Technica has an interesting piece on the overall broadband penetration across the world.  How Wide is the World’s Digital Divide, Anyway? probably won’t shock too many people in the IT world, but it is a worthwhile reminder of how far we have left to go to provide an important technology, and means of communication and empowerment, to everyone.

]]>Baloney Detection Kithttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/6/26/baloney-detection-kit.htmlJim Myers2009-06-26T07:44:00ZPopular Culture The MindThis video should be played on a gargantuan screen in front of the Fox News home office…  And CNN, for that matter.

]]>Many Voices to Many Earshttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/6/20/many-voices-to-many-ears.htmlJim Myers2009-06-20T10:57:00ZPolitics TechnologyA May 2009 TED Talk by Clay Shirky on the power that technology, such as cell phones and Twitter, can now exert on the shape of history—thanks to the evolutional birth of Many-to-Many Communication.

]]>Douglas Rushkoff on Lifehttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/5/3/douglas-rushkoff-on-life.htmlJim Myers2009-05-03T00:19:00ZGeneral Politics Popular Culture TechnologyDouglas Rushkoff popped on my radar in the mid-nineties, and I found his book Media Virus to be extremely fascinating.  His later book, Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace I count as one of the most intriguing explorations of the exotic fringe of computer culture.  His books, lectures, and columns on culture, technology, media, and corporate influence rarely disappoint.  His newest book, Life Incorporated: How the World Became a Corporation and How To Take It Back also looks destined for my To Read pile.  Rushkoff did a five-part YouTube interview about the book and our current economic conundrum.  Part 1 is below:

Part 2 can be found here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, and Part 5 here.  All five parts are worth a viewing.

]]>Do We Know Our Innermost Mind?http://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/3/23/do-we-know-our-innermost-mind.htmlJim Myers2009-03-23T01:50:00ZThe MindPhilosopher Dan Dennett gives an illuminating TED talk about what we really might, and might not, know about our own consciousness.

]]>Read to Me, HALhttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/2/17/read-to-me-hal.htmlJim Myers2009-02-17T03:19:00ZWritingSometimes people (and most especially interest groups) make it hard to stay on their side.  Too often positions get so entrenched that even those on the side of the angels become so hypersensitive that they turbojet well beyond the airspace of reason when defending their positions.  The RIAA in their rightful and legal defense of the intellectual property of the Labels they represent recklessly going on a litigation rampage, suing grandmothers and family dogs for downloading Britney Spears, the MPAA trying to nuke the VCR, DVD, and Digital Downloads because they’re sure it is the death knell of Hollywood, and of course a long history of crackball  politicians and religious hoo-hahs  with their Zippos at the ready for any book that threatens their own views.

And now we have a group near and dear to my own aspirations that have let their rights slip into their wrongs.  The Authors Guild have felt it necessary to decry Amazon’s Kindle 2 e-book reader for its text-to-speech function, claiming that it is a violation of the author’s copyright.  The advocacy group warned its members last week that this function would undermine possible audio book sales.

Anyone who has ever used any sort of Text-to-Speech functions know that recently the technology has gotten a little better than the early days of computers.  Though we’ve evolved from the days of Wargames’ WOPR synthesizer voice, we don’t have HAL9000 yet either.  We can’t even get computers to clearly speak our various languages, let alone perform the dramatics of a story.  Would it be cool for HAL 9000 to read to me?  Maybe, as long as I haven’t given him the code to the airlock.  But will his emotionless tone replace audio book performances?  Not a chance.  And that is part of what I am buying with audio books, the performance.  The storytelling.  And as heaven-sent as Amazon’s marketing portrays the Kindle 2, Robbie the Robot can’t do campfire ghost stories.

What the Author’s Guild betrays by this overreaction (“They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Guild) is both an alarming insecurity and a distressing ludditism that signals sudden veer into the wrong lane of a group that should be focused on legitimate issues still facing the authors of the world, like censorship.  And the Author’s Guild needs to embrace new technology in all its forms to help further writers and readers, instead of asserting baseless, apocalyptic  claims of a Cylon poetry reading as Armageddon for audio books.

Battle for what is right, and defend what is your’s -- what is the result of your hard work.  Don’t let your honorable crusade be reduced to absurdity.  Don’t let the soldier within you overcome the saint.  Remember what you are fighting for, and do not let the story end this way.

]]>Nurturing Creativityhttp://www.jim-myers.com/blog/2009/1/31/nurturing-creativity.htmlJim Myers2009-02-01T03:28:00ZThe MindSir Ken Robinson discusses how we (and our Education system) view intelligence and how creativity is, tragically, continually minimized.

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