03/22/2010

Google: Uncensored search results to China via Hong Kong servers

Ok, for the details,  I’ll direct you to Tom Krazit’s CNET article.  The sugar-packet history goes something like this:

  • January, 2006 – Google agrees to censor search results in China, thus violating its “Don’t Be Evil” mission statement.
  • January, 2010 – Google announces that it has been the victim of a cyberattack, allegedly carried out by hackers working for the Chinese government. China denies this, but a brief survey of the entire universe determines that no one believes them.
  • January, 2010 – Google announces that it will no longer censor search results in China
  • March, 2010 – Google announces that it will shut down Google.cn and redirect searches from within China to its uncensored servers in Hong Kong.

Google’s put both a moral and financial stake in the ground, and intends to continue serving Chinese users. Does Google have the will , or in fact the ability to succeed where the international community has proven impotent?

What happens when one of the world’s richest, most powerful and most liberal companies goes head-to-head with one of the world’s richest,  most powerful, and most restrictive nations?

Here’s your chance for predictions, kids.  As you might expect, I’m rooting for Google, but it will be an interesting fight to watch.

01/12/2010

Natural Intelligence and System Complexity, Part I

Lately I’ve been thinking about the expression a racehorse chained to a plow. It’s a vivid picture of a gifted actor performing inauthentic work. From the farmer’s perspective, he’s got a misused or underutilized resource. From the horse’s perspective, it’s got unrealized potential. These are fair metaphoric interpretations, answering a fair what? question.

A more interesting question may be why this should matter. If a farmer needs a plowhorse, then any horse with the capacity to pull a plow suffices. Pulling a plow is no easy job, and should offer a strong animal a fair challenge and a long life. But from the perspective matrix of natural intelligence and system complexity, it’s an utter failure.

To establish the vocabulary, I’ll state that Natural Intelligence defines one’s capacity to internalize operational information — information that one may hold and act on. It’s a static resource, not dependent on education, or specific application.

Some people have more natural intelligence than others.

System Complexity measures how much information or action is required to keep a system running. A button that’s pressed whenever it lights up is a simple system. A household is a complex system.

Again, why does this matter? If this perspective holds water, then higher natural intelligence requires one to be in control of a more complex system in order to operate authentically. This is not to be confused with capability — it’s not that actors with high natural intelligence are capable of managing more complex systems, it’s that they must manage more complex systems in order to operate authentically at all.

Unpredictable elements, like people, or other racehorses, are complexity-dense and use a high degree of natural intelligence. Same with rigid systems, like formal languages, mathematics or music. Predictable or fluid elements, like washing dishes, add effort but not complexity to systems, use no natural intelligence, and are therefore less satisfying (but still need to get done).

This interests me because when I turn this perspective matrix on myself, I see a great many of my actions motivated not by laziness or obstinacy (as originally suspected) but by a sub- or semi-conscious effort to make the systems I manage more complex. Linux instead of Windows or Mac, pushing deadlines to their limit, taking on new or additional responsibilities, learning new things, are all about adding system complexity to make use of as much natural intelligence as possible.

Some framing questions for the comments: How complex is your system? How actively do you manage it? What’s your ratio of unpredictable to predictable elements? What do you do to make your system more or less complex? What’s your natural reaction to complex vs. simple challenges? How much natural intelligence are you using? How much are you not using? How often are you bored? Thoughts?

Coming up, Part II: Downsides

10/15/2009

Google VVave: The sound of one hand clapping

Google VVave  is a brilliant concept, with a simple summary; “Suppose email had been invented today.”

In short, Google VVave extends GMail’s concept of email as a threaded conversation rather than a string of discrete documents. VVave makes every email a collaborative conversation, that blends

  • traditional asynchronous discussion (I send you an e-mail, you read it whenever and respond at your convenience)
  • real-time chat (we’re both on line, and we talk back and forth, within our email thread)
  • social media (where we can embed images, videos, links, etc.)

It feels kinda like Facebook for introverts, where you might want to have a multi-media, multi-threaded conversation that evolves over time with one or a small group of users, but not leave it open to all 138 of your friends (or more, if you’re less of an introvert).

If you want the specifics of what it does and how it does it, I recommend watching the videos Google’s posted. They are fun and watchable and neither technical nor dumbed down.

I just have one problem with Google VVave, and that’s how stingy they’ve been with invites. I got my invite in the second round, and I’ve since “nominated” a few other people, none of whom have received their invites yet.

I understand that it’s beta, I understand that the kinks haven’t been worked out, and it was fun to be one of the first people I knew with a GMail account. But I could email anyone with my GMail account, not just other GMail users. I now have a ingenious collaborative tool, and no collaborators. Huh?

So yeah, Google VVave is brilliant, just not so’s you’d notice.

PS — If any readers already have VVave accounts, let me know. I’m dying to try it.

10/13/2009

Got my GoogleWave invite

I have 7 invitations. Interesting trades accepted.

Talk to me.

09/20/2009

Pipe Evangelism, Part I

Cigar
Maybe I’m your boss, or your rich uncle. If you’re talking to me, it’s because you have no other choice, and I know it. Therefore, I’m going to stink on purpose.

Cigarette
Fair enough, I looked cool in high school. But I’ve been out of high school for twenty-some years, and now it’s too hard to quit. I don’t even taste that good, and I cost way too much.

Pipe
Come, sit. Let us scent the air with loveliness and talk for a while. And should the conversation ebb, we’ll tamp, relight, and talk some more.

09/18/2009

My First Gay Wedding

It seems hard to believe it hasn’t happened already, given my circle of friends, but I’m attending my first gay wedding this weekend. I’m looking forward to it for so many reasons. Cory, the groom, will always hold a special place in my heart, and Sean, the groom, is his perfect complement. So many friends will be there, and we’ll celebrate and drink, and laugh and dance.

The reason I’m most excited though, is that it will be the second wedding ever attended by my daughter. From her empirical perspective, sometimes girls marry boys, and sometimes boys marry boys. She has yet to witness a girl marrying a girl, but it’s only a matter of time.

When I attend my first gay wedding, I will be 39 years old. Grace will be 4. Should this trend continue, Grace’s potential child should attend her first gay wedding when she’s 146 days old.

Here’s to the grooms, and continuing trends.

UPDATE: Good friends, good food, good music, surprise guests. Best wedding ever. Best party ever.

09/15/2009

Excerpts from Thelonius Monk’s Notebook

Miles & Monk at Newport is one of my all-time favorite jazz records. I’m not nearly as well-versed in jazz as I would like to be, but this is really an incredible record, and I would encourage anyone reading this blog to give it a listen if you have the means.

Because I love this record so much, my interest was piqued when I ran across the scanned pages from a notebook belonging to Monk on the Internets a year or so ago. After reading the notes, I immediately printed them and tacked them up on the wall in my office. I’m transcribing them here, because although they’re written to musicians, there’s some profound wisdom here for everyone. Forgive a couple of edits made — concessions to the format that don’t change the meaning — I hope.  I recommend reading them slowly, one at a time.

Note: I’m normally quite critical of long blog posts, and this is longer than my usual.  I thought that in this case, since most of the words are not mine, that it was worth it.

Just because you’re not a drummer doesn’t mean that you don’t have to keep time.

Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play. Stop playing all that bullshit, those weird notes, play the melody!

Make the drummer sound good.

Discrimination is important
You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?

All reet!

Always know…(Monk→)

It must always be night, otherwise they wouldn’t need the lights.

Let’s LIFT THE BANDSTAND!!

I want to AVOID the HECKLERS.

Don’t play the piano part. I’m playing that. Don’t listen to me, I’m supposed to be accompanying you!

The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.

Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music is just imagined. What you don’t play can be more important than what you do.

Always leave them wanting more.

A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.

Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig, & when it comes he’s out of shape & can’t make it.

What should we wear tonight? Sharp as possible!

Don’t sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene.

Those pieces were written so as to have something to play & to get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal.

You’ve got it!  If you don’t want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn’t want to solo.)

Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it.  A genius is the one most like himself.

They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it.