It's a beautiful thing...
(Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a little surprised at the lack of imagination I'm seeing in this article's comments. Imagination is not something usually lacking at
29 septiembre 2005
It's a beautiful thing
Lean esto (está en inglés) y luego lean el comentario a continuación. O lean el comentario y luego la noticia. Pero vayan pensando en las consecuencias...
I'm a little surprised at the lack of imagination I'm seeing in this article's comments. Imagination is not something usually lacking at
I'm a little surprised at the lack of imagination I'm seeing in this article's comments. Imagination is not something usually lacking at
Labels:
vox populi
25 septiembre 2005
Incredible but true
Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina
by Mark Townsend Houston
Sunday September 25, 2005
The Observer
by Mark Townsend Houston
Sunday September 25, 2005
The Observer
It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.
Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.
Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.
'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'
Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.
The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.
Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.
The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.
Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.
24 septiembre 2005
50 most cited works of 1976-1983
| 1) | T.S. Kuhn | The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 1962 |
| 2) | J. Joyce | Ulysses. 1922 |
| 3) | N. Frye | Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. 1957 |
| 4) | L. Wittgenstein | Philosophical Investigations |
| 5) | N. Chomsky | Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. 1965 |
| 6) | M. Foucault | The Order of Things. 1966 |
| 7) | J. Derrida | Of Grammatology |
| 8) | R. Barthes | S/Z. 1970 |
| 9) | M. Heidegger | Being and Time. 1927 |
| 10) | E.R. Curtius | European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. 1948 |
| 11) | H-G Gardmer | Truth and Method. 1960 |
| 12) | J. Rawls | A Theory of Justice. 1971 |
| 13) | J. Joyce | Finnegan's Wake. 1939 |
| 14) | J.R. Searle | Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. 1969 |
| 15) | J. Culler | Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of Literature. 1975 |
| 16) | G. Genette | Figures. 1966 |
| 17) | N. Chomsky & M. Halle | The Sound Pattern of English. 1968 |
| 18) | T.S. Eliot | The Waste Land. 1922 |
| 19) | J.L. Austin | How to Do Things with Words. 1962 |
| 20) | W.V.O. Quine | Word and Object. 1960 |
| 21) | M. Proust | Remembrance of Things Past. 1914 |
| 22) | L. Wittgenstein | Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. 1922 |
| 23) | J. Joyce | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916 |
| 24) | W.C. Booth | The Rhetoric of Fiction. 1961 |
| 25) | C. Levi-Strauss | Structural Anthropology. 1958 |
| 26) | S. Freud | The Interpretation of Dreams. 1900 |
| 27) | V.Y. Propp | Morphology of the Folktale. 1928 |
| 28) | F.D. Saussure | Course in General Linguistics. 1915 |
| 29) | J-P, Sartre | Being and Nothingness. 1943 |
| 30) | S.A. Kripke | "Naming and Necessity" 1972 |
| 31) | E. Benveniste | Problems in General Linguistics. 1966 |
| 32) | K.R. Popper | Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. 1963 |
| 33) | J. Lacan | Lacan Ecrits |
| 34) | J. Derrida | Writing and Difference. 1967 |
| 35) | N. Chomsky | Chomsky Syntactic Structures. 1957 |
| 36) | R. Jacobson | "Linguistics and Poetics" 1960 |
| 37) | E.D. Hirsch | Validity in Interpretation. 1967 |
| 38) | C. Levi-Strauss | The Savage Mind. 1962 |
| 39) | E. Pound | The Cantos of Ezra Pound. 1925 |
| 40) | P.L. Berger & T. Luckmann | The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. 1966 |
| 41) | M.M. Bakhtin | Rabelais and His World. 1965 |
| 42) | M. Merleau-Ponty | Phenomenology of Perception. 1945 |
| 43) | W. Iser | The Act of Reading. 1976 |
| 44) | K.R. Popper | Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach. 1972 |
| 45) | U.A. Eco | Theory of Semiotics. 1976 |
| 46) | E. Auerbach | Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. 1946 |
| 47) | E.H. Gombrich | Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. 1960 |
| 48) | E.P. Thompson | The Making of the English Working Class. 1964 |
| 49) | J. Habermas | Knowledge and Human Interest. 1968 |
| 50) | K.R. Popper | The Logic of Scientific Discovery. 1935 |
Labels:
vox populi
21 septiembre 2005
Cómo ayudar alguien usar una computadora por primera vez (inglés)
Computer people are fine human beings, but they do a lot of harm in the ways they "help" other people with their computer problems. Now that we're trying to get everyone online, I thought it might be helpful to write down everything I've been taught about helping people use computers.
First you have to tell yourself some things:
Nobody is born knowing this stuff.
You've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner.
If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious.
A computer is a means to an end. The person you're helping probably cares mostly about the end. This is reasonable.
Their knowledge of the computer is grounded in what they can see and do -- "when I do this, it does that". They need to develop a deeper understanding, but this can only happen slowly -- and not through abstract theory but through the real, concrete situations they encounter in their work.
Beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions.
You are the voice of authority. Your words can wound.
Computers often present their users with textual messages, but the users often don't read them.
By the time they ask you for help, they've probably tried several things. As a result, their computer might be in a strange state. This is natural.
They might be afraid that you're going to blame them for the problem.
The best way to learn is through apprenticeship -- that is, by doing some real task together with someone who has a different set of skills.
Your primary goal is not to solve their problem. Your primary goal is to help them become one notch more capable of solving their problem on their own. So it's okay if they take notes.
Most user interfaces are terrible. When people make mistakes it's usually the fault of the interface. You've forgotten how many ways you've learned to adapt to bad interfaces.
Knowledge lives in communities, not individuals. A computer user who's part of a community of computer users will have an easier time than one who isn't.
Having convinced yourself of these things, you are more likely to follow some important rules:
Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction.
Find out what they're really trying to do. Is there another way to go about it?
Maybe they can't tell you what they've done or what happened. In this case you can ask them what they are trying to do and say, "Show me how you do that".
Attend to the symbolism of the interaction. Try to squat down so your eyes are just below the level of theirs. When they're looking at the computer, look at the computer. When they're looking at you, look back at them.
When they do something wrong, don't say "no" or "that's wrong". They'll often respond by doing something else that's wrong. Instead, just tell them what to do and why.
Try not to ask yes-or-no questions. Nobody wants to look foolish, so their answer is likely to be a guess. "Did you attach to the file server?" will get you less information than "What did you do after you turned the computer on?".
Explain your thinking. Don't make it mysterious. If something is true, show them how they can see it's true. When you don't know, say "I don't know". When you're guessing, say "let's try ... because ...". Resist the temptation to appear all-knowing. Help them learn to think the problem through.
Be aware of how abstract your language is. "Get into the editor" is abstract and "press this key" is concrete. Don't say anything unless you intend for them to understand it. Keep adjusting your language downward towards concrete units until they start to get it, then slowly adjust back up towards greater abstraction so long as they're following you. When formulating a take-home lesson ("when it does this and that, you should try such-and-such"), check once again that you're using language of the right degree of abstraction for this user right now.
Tell them to really read the messages, such as errors, that the computer generates.
Whenever they start to blame themselves, respond by blaming the computer. Then keep on blaming the computer, no matter how many times it takes, in a calm, authoritative tone of voice. If you need to show off, show off your ability to criticize bad design. When they get nailed by a false assumption about the computer's behavior, tell them their assumption was reasonable. Tell *yourself* that it was reasonable.
Take a long-term view. Who do users in this community get help from? If you focus on building that person's skills, the skills will diffuse to everyone else.
Never do something for someone that they are capable of doing for themselves.
Don't say "it's in the manual". (You knew that.)
First you have to tell yourself some things:
Nobody is born knowing this stuff.
You've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner.
If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious.
A computer is a means to an end. The person you're helping probably cares mostly about the end. This is reasonable.
Their knowledge of the computer is grounded in what they can see and do -- "when I do this, it does that". They need to develop a deeper understanding, but this can only happen slowly -- and not through abstract theory but through the real, concrete situations they encounter in their work.
Beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions.
You are the voice of authority. Your words can wound.
Computers often present their users with textual messages, but the users often don't read them.
By the time they ask you for help, they've probably tried several things. As a result, their computer might be in a strange state. This is natural.
They might be afraid that you're going to blame them for the problem.
The best way to learn is through apprenticeship -- that is, by doing some real task together with someone who has a different set of skills.
Your primary goal is not to solve their problem. Your primary goal is to help them become one notch more capable of solving their problem on their own. So it's okay if they take notes.
Most user interfaces are terrible. When people make mistakes it's usually the fault of the interface. You've forgotten how many ways you've learned to adapt to bad interfaces.
Knowledge lives in communities, not individuals. A computer user who's part of a community of computer users will have an easier time than one who isn't.
Having convinced yourself of these things, you are more likely to follow some important rules:
Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction.
Find out what they're really trying to do. Is there another way to go about it?
Maybe they can't tell you what they've done or what happened. In this case you can ask them what they are trying to do and say, "Show me how you do that".
Attend to the symbolism of the interaction. Try to squat down so your eyes are just below the level of theirs. When they're looking at the computer, look at the computer. When they're looking at you, look back at them.
When they do something wrong, don't say "no" or "that's wrong". They'll often respond by doing something else that's wrong. Instead, just tell them what to do and why.
Try not to ask yes-or-no questions. Nobody wants to look foolish, so their answer is likely to be a guess. "Did you attach to the file server?" will get you less information than "What did you do after you turned the computer on?".
Explain your thinking. Don't make it mysterious. If something is true, show them how they can see it's true. When you don't know, say "I don't know". When you're guessing, say "let's try ... because ...". Resist the temptation to appear all-knowing. Help them learn to think the problem through.
Be aware of how abstract your language is. "Get into the editor" is abstract and "press this key" is concrete. Don't say anything unless you intend for them to understand it. Keep adjusting your language downward towards concrete units until they start to get it, then slowly adjust back up towards greater abstraction so long as they're following you. When formulating a take-home lesson ("when it does this and that, you should try such-and-such"), check once again that you're using language of the right degree of abstraction for this user right now.
Tell them to really read the messages, such as errors, that the computer generates.
Whenever they start to blame themselves, respond by blaming the computer. Then keep on blaming the computer, no matter how many times it takes, in a calm, authoritative tone of voice. If you need to show off, show off your ability to criticize bad design. When they get nailed by a false assumption about the computer's behavior, tell them their assumption was reasonable. Tell *yourself* that it was reasonable.
Take a long-term view. Who do users in this community get help from? If you focus on building that person's skills, the skills will diffuse to everyone else.
Never do something for someone that they are capable of doing for themselves.
Don't say "it's in the manual". (You knew that.)
14 septiembre 2005
Green Day - Sassafras roots
Roaming 'round your house wasting your time.
No obligation, just wasting your time.
So why are you alone wasting your time?
When you could be with me wasting your time.
Well,I'm a waste like you, with nothing else to do -- may I waste your time too?
Warding off regrets, wasting your time.
Smoking cigarettes, wasting your time.
I'm just a parasite wasting your time, applying myself to wasting your time.
Well,I'm a waste like you, with nothing else to do -- may I waste your time too?
No obligation, just wasting your time.
So why are you alone wasting your time?
When you could be with me wasting your time.
Well,I'm a waste like you, with nothing else to do -- may I waste your time too?
Warding off regrets, wasting your time.
Smoking cigarettes, wasting your time.
I'm just a parasite wasting your time, applying myself to wasting your time.
Well,I'm a waste like you, with nothing else to do -- may I waste your time too?
(dedicado a Rafa)
Labels:
FLOR Y CANTO
12 septiembre 2005
The Beatles - Cry baby cry
Cry baby cry.
Make your mother sigh.
She's old enough to know better, so cry baby cry.
The king of Marigold was in the kitchen cooking breakfast for the queen.
The queen was in the parlour playing piano for the children of the king.
The king was in the garden picking flowers for a friend who came to play.
The queen was in the playroom painting pictures for the childrens holiday.
The duchess of Kircaldy always smiling and arriving late for tea.
The duke was having problems with a message at the local bird and bee.
At twelve o'clock a meeting round the table for a seance in the dark,
with voices out of nowhere put on specially by the children for a lark.
Can you take me back where I came from?
Can you take me back?
Can you take me back where I came from?
Brother can you take me back?
Can you take me back?
Make your mother sigh.
She's old enough to know better, so cry baby cry.
The king of Marigold was in the kitchen cooking breakfast for the queen.
The queen was in the parlour playing piano for the children of the king.
The king was in the garden picking flowers for a friend who came to play.
The queen was in the playroom painting pictures for the childrens holiday.
The duchess of Kircaldy always smiling and arriving late for tea.
The duke was having problems with a message at the local bird and bee.
At twelve o'clock a meeting round the table for a seance in the dark,
with voices out of nowhere put on specially by the children for a lark.
Can you take me back where I came from?
Can you take me back?
Can you take me back where I came from?
Brother can you take me back?
Can you take me back?
Labels:
FLOR Y CANTO
06 septiembre 2005
Maná - Donde jugarán los niños
Cuenta el abuelo que de niño él jugó
entre árboles y risas y alcatraces de color
Recuerda un río transparente sin olor,
donde abundaban peces, no sufrían ni un dolor
Cuenta el abuelo de un cielo muy azul,
en donde voló papalotes que él mismo construyó
El tiempo pasó
y nuestro viejo ya murió
y hoy me pregunté
después de tanta destrucción:
¿Dónde diablos jugarán
los pobres niños?
¿En dónde jugarán?
Se esta pudriendo el mundo -- ya no hay lugar.
La tierra está a punto de partirse en dos.
El cielo ya se ha roto, ya se ha roto el llanto gris
La mar vomita rios de aceite sin cesar
y hoy me pregunté
después de tanta destrucción:
¿Dónde diablos jugarán
los pobres niños?
¿En dónde jugarán?
entre árboles y risas y alcatraces de color
Recuerda un río transparente sin olor,
donde abundaban peces, no sufrían ni un dolor
Cuenta el abuelo de un cielo muy azul,
en donde voló papalotes que él mismo construyó
El tiempo pasó
y nuestro viejo ya murió
y hoy me pregunté
después de tanta destrucción:
¿Dónde diablos jugarán
los pobres niños?
¿En dónde jugarán?
Se esta pudriendo el mundo -- ya no hay lugar.
La tierra está a punto de partirse en dos.
El cielo ya se ha roto, ya se ha roto el llanto gris
La mar vomita rios de aceite sin cesar
y hoy me pregunté
después de tanta destrucción:
¿Dónde diablos jugarán
los pobres niños?
¿En dónde jugarán?
03 septiembre 2005
02 septiembre 2005
El huracán
Es mi responsabilidad como persona hablar de este huracán.
Les dire qué pedo.
El presidente Bush, tras dos días del desastre aparece y dice que no está bien las medidas que ha tomado el gobierno federal.
El alcalde de Nuevo Orleans le ha pedido a todo mundo asistencia. Y la ironía, sí chavos, la ironía está en que varios países como suecia, noruega, los países bajos, canadá, cuba, y hasta honduras han ofrecido ayuda y estados unidos, la única superpotencia, las ha rehusado.
Chavos, me da coraje esta situación. Una amiga me dijo que nadie hace nada porque o son pobres los damnificados o son morenos. Realmente es una pena la situación, olvídense del desastre por un momento... es una vergüenza el tipo de apoyo que mi propio país natal le ha dado a su propia gente.
Les dire qué pedo.
El presidente Bush, tras dos días del desastre aparece y dice que no está bien las medidas que ha tomado el gobierno federal.
El alcalde de Nuevo Orleans le ha pedido a todo mundo asistencia. Y la ironía, sí chavos, la ironía está en que varios países como suecia, noruega, los países bajos, canadá, cuba, y hasta honduras han ofrecido ayuda y estados unidos, la única superpotencia, las ha rehusado.
Chavos, me da coraje esta situación. Una amiga me dijo que nadie hace nada porque o son pobres los damnificados o son morenos. Realmente es una pena la situación, olvídense del desastre por un momento... es una vergüenza el tipo de apoyo que mi propio país natal le ha dado a su propia gente.
01 septiembre 2005
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Personal interactions will flourish. Imagine that each person has a personal presence on the net in the form of a journal, blog, etc. Innermost thoughts, musings, ideas would be posted. Access may be restricted to groups of friends, open to all, available only in a reciprocal trade - who knows? Social interactions may form that are based on more formal public personae while the unspoken web content acts as an underlying frame. Like minds will find each other. Ideas will feed on ideas. It will be an exponential extension of today's net.
Specialties would develop. Mod kits would certainly turn up. This kid might make movies, or songs, or create one page descriptive biographies of everyone he meets. That kid might develop applications, this one tweaks assembler, another is a com whiz, and that one over there...she's special, she can go ANYWHERE in cyberspace, and if it's on the net, she can find it. She's the one they ask when they REALLY need to know the truth. It could be that some strange stuff starts to happen. Stuff about how the world is perceived and how humans relate to it and each other. Stuff we can't imagine or maybe even understand. Really, really cool Stuff.
We old folks can participate. Everyone seems to crave one of these laptops. What if they didn't sell even one outside their programs? What if to get one of these babies you had to earn it? You could help develop software. Write apps, ports, translate, tutor, teach, write textbooks, moderate groups, protect the children and their net. You could EARN the laptop. How cool would that be?
Who will pay? There will be new markets, development deals, service contracts, infrastructure to build. The companies that want to play will be the ones who pay. Governments could link contracts with obligations. You want to build out our backbone? It must include wifi for the kidtops at your expense. You want to build some buildings? We need housing for a server farm here and some schools here, here, and here. You want the support contract for the government IT infrastructure. You also must support Kidnet. At least till the kids take over,which won't be long. Access? Well how much is access to a 10 million node kidtop beowolf cluster worth? Wanna trade?
C'mon guys! This is the fucking DREAM! No more secrets. No more lies. No more disinformation and manipulation from 'those who would be kings'. Maybe even 200 million proud parents of the Earth's first planetary consciousness. Hey, who knows? Not us. We can't even BEGIN to imagine.
billy - I for one will sit back and watch 'em go