Written by No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Anonymous
Monthly archives for May, 2010
Synthetic organisms: are we going a step too far?
As reported by many information sources (and among them please see the Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559004575256470152341984.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLETopStories and the Unwanted blog at http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=6143 , Jimmy Rogers -http://twitter.com/loyaleagle- at Geeks are sexy http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2010/05/23/science-is-sexy-whats-the-big-deal-about-synthetic-life/ and at Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com/5543774/immaculate-creation-birth-of-the-first-synthetic-cell), scientists createted the first synthetic organism through DNA recomposition.
Is not a modification of an existing DNA; is a brand new one.
While on one side is really a breakthrough and an opportunity, I fear that we are going a step beyond what nature intended to have.
There are so many variables and factors to consider, that I wonder how we can manage them.
This post also as a comment at http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=6143#comment-10800 , at http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2010/05/23/science-is-sexy-whats-the-big-deal-about-synthetic-life/#comment-253221 and at http://gizmodo.com/5543774/immaculate-creation-birth-of-the-first-synthetic-cell
Gauss
Ninety percent of everything is bullshit.
Anonymous
Facebook simple privacy
Ryan Singel at Wired reports that “[...]
Reacting to the latest privacy backlash, Facebook will be rolling out new “simplistic” privacy options for its users in the coming weeks, according to Facebook head of public policy Tim Sparapani. “Now we’ve heard from our users that we have gotten a little bit complex,” Sparapani said in a radio interview Tuesday. “I think we are going to work on that. We are going to be providing options for users who want simplistic bands of privacy that they can choose from and I think we will see that in the next couple of weeks.” [...]” (full article at http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/facebook-simple-privacy-choices/; same topic covered at Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy at http://lifehacker.com/5542373/facebook-to-offer-more-simple-privacy-settings-soon and Brian Barrett at Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com/5542616/facebook-promises-simplistic-privacy-choices).
The same old motto of keeping simple for me is always the best solution.
I wonder the method that will be used to restore a reasonable situation, because simplifying a hundred of privacy options is not easy.
And doing it without changing the qualifying elements (including the look and feel), is a more complex challenge.
This post as a comment also at http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/facebook-simple-privacy-choices/comment-page-1/#comment-47491 , at http://lifehacker.com/5542373/facebook-to-offer-more-simple-privacy-settings-soon and at http://gizmodo.com/5542616/facebook-promises-simplistic-privacy-choices
Eating the elephant spoon by spoon
Chris Guillebeau at Zenhabits and at chrisguillebeau.com writes an article on the importance of an incremental approach in doing things (http://zenhabits.net/empire-building/).
Chris says that
“[...]For a long time, I focused on starting big projects. And for a long time, I had a hard time finishing any of them. Sometimes I got overwhelmed, other times I just looked at the faraway goal and thought: what comes next? How do I know which step is the right one?
Only when I studied the art of breaking down big projects into very small steps was I able to make progress.[...]“.
Chris also reports some advices and discoveries he found (e.g. Reach out to existing customers, Bring traffic or prospects in,…)
I think that is really true what Chris discovered, because going big is based on a mix of intuition, patience and building solid basis.
In my mind is very similar to build a skyscraper or a house: you have to know the final shape, but what is really important is consolidating as building goes on.
Unfortunately, men desire to shorten times and the fast pace of our times, bring most people to the conclusion of living and doing business as fast as they can.
Without thinking that going as fast as desired, without using an incremental approach, is as risky as russian roulette, because for one that is so lucky to win the game, many other failed.
My little advice on this could be “start small, and scale as fast as you can, while consolidating each significant step undertaken.
And remember, as Guinness beer commercial said one time, “good things come to those who wait”. 
The power of stupidity
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Anonymous
Pigs and songs
Never try and teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Anonymous
Polaroid museum
Priya Ganapati at Wired (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/author/pganapati/), reports that “[...] Last month, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based MIT Museum announced that PLR Holdings has donated a massive collection from Polaroid’s archives. The archive has some fascinating objects. There are boxes of rare Polarized glasses dating from the 1939 World’s Fair, original newsprint sketches by Polaroid founder Edwin Land, a historic bellows camera the size of a filing cabinet and the SX-70 cameras that defined the instant-photography era. Overall, the collection has more than 1,800 boxes containing 10,000 items [...]” (full article at http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/05/gallery-polaroid-archives/).
Either if you are in the 40′s or not, Polaroid has been at least once part of our lives.
I think is like an old granny being always there, and I find very interesting seing a little of the evolution that shaped it.
As I said many times (for example when Kodak stopped producing film), I think that “old styled” photography has many good points I’m missing (immediatness, warmth,…) if compared to digital one. And Polaroid has a great part of this, including the soft colors I really liked.
This post as a comment also at http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/05/gallery-polaroid-archives/#comments
A lot of geekiness
I found this post of Abstruse Goose that is very beautiful (original article at http://abstrusegoose.com/268 , licensed under CC US licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/), because it reminds me how often we make things complicated in our daily life.
Good strip and good work.
geekiness
Trust and authority
Never trust anyone that volunteers to assume authority.
Anonymous
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