Site we launched recently

I just figured I'd let everyone know what site I've been working on recently. It's a great idea and I'd love to see it be incredibly successful.

DeliverGood [1] matches Charites & Non-profits who need stuff with people who have stuff.

[1] - http://www.delivergood.org/

Dear Palm

Please release webOS in a manner that lets me put it on any device I own. Please open up the application specifications so that any application developed for webOS can be run on any OS that supports this specification.

If you do, I promise that I'll pay you double the cost of the Apple tablet for the first tablet that runs webOS and conforms to this specification.

You see, I want an open platform like the web, not a closed ecosystem like the app store. I want IDEs that run on any platform and operate on the cloud. I want all of my applications to blur the line between being "webapps" and being applet/mobile apps. And I want to develop these apps in the same languages that run in any browser.

Yours,

Lakin

[1] - http://developer.palm.com/
[2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS
[3] - http://www.htc.com/www/product/dream/overview.html
[4] - http://ares.palm.com/Ares/login.html

Facebook & OpenId

So, one can login to facebook using an OpenID http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=246 which at the surface level feels like a great step in the right direction. I feel that it's actually a step that furthers Facebook's Goal of wanting _everyone_ to have a facebook account. Now, I don't fault them for having this goal, but unless they do a bunch more things to open up their walled garden I don't want this to happen.

One large step that facebook could do towards opening up their systems is to allow their users to use http://www.facebook.com/lakin.wecker as an OpenID login for other sites. I really doubt Facebook will ever do this themselves as having this feature would be in direct competition with Facebook Connect. Althought, to be honest, I never understood why Facebook Connect _wasn't_ just an OpenID implementation?

As a developer - if you could support a single authentication system, Say google's Friend connect that includes OpenID, Twitter, Gmail - and it also includes all Facebook users - that would be an obvious choice. It would make Facebook Connect mostly obsolete except for those people who want to support _only_ facebook users.

My best guess is that Facebook is trying to do the opposite - that is, they want to convince developers to _only_ use facebook connect, and convince users to sign up for a facebook account via openid in order to use these facebook only services.

Awesome Graffito

Found on reddit's funny section today:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Saucy+illicit+sign+points+Constance+charms/1776726/story.html

That's brilliant.

Twitter Spam

The other day I replied to a twitter user that is following a few of my friends. I didn't even think twice about it, a few days later they replied. It was kinda neat.

I was thinking about what had happened and then it hit me! I had just sent an unsolicited message to someone on twitter - and they received it. Uh-oh, I wondered when the spam would start.

Well today, I got my first spam message in a reply form. From these guys:

Theconcreteboyz

I'm not making that a link above cause that would somewhat defeat the purpose. If you know how twitter works and want to check it out go for it. I wonder how long until I can't use twitter for all the spam.

Makerbots and Printcrime

http://blog.makerbot.com/2009/04/20/cory-doctorows-future-is-full-of-3d-printers/

Great read.

World of Goo - Linux

World of Goo is a GREAT GAME. And it's coming to linux now [1]. I highly recommend it. It's available for the Wii and for Windows/Mac/Linux. I've already bought it for my Wii so I'm not sure if I'll buy it for linux or not. I mean, I want to - and probably will, but I'm broke right now so it's unlikely to happen for a few months. In the mean time I highly recommend the game. Did I mention that already?

[1] - http://2dboy.com/2009/02/12/world-of-goo-linux-version-is-ready/

Projects Update

So we finally got around to updating our projects page [1]. I'm proud that our projects list contains so many local arts, journalism and education partners. Let me know what you think, both of that page, and the projects!

[1] - http://www.structuredabstraction.com/projects

Greatest Tennis Players Ever?

I'm sitting here, bleary eyed and somewhat surprised at myself for managing to get up at 2am and then managing to stay up until the tennis match was over, but I'm glad I did. It may not have been as good as the Wimbledon final - but it was great to watch, and I'm glad Nadal beat Federer.

Most of the talk around the greatest tennis players ever surround Roger Federer. Nadal isn't even included. Now, that's fair at this point because Federer has 13 titles to his name, and nadal only has 6. But let's plays "What if" for a few.

What if there were 2 clay court majors in tennis instead of two hard court majors? Let's say the US Open was a clay court tournament. Now let's assume that Rafa won the past 4 years there as well as in the French Open.

That would put Rafael at 10 major titles (including this one). Federer would have 3 less, putting him at 10 as well.

WOW, that would make for an even greater rivalry between these two - they'd be tied for titles and competing for the 1-2 ranking as well.

Man, Rafa has solidified himself as my favorite player. But despite that I will be cheering roger on at the French Open. I think Roger probably deserves the moniker of the greatest ever, and I think that winning at the French open would really help his claim to that title.

Can't wait

I can't wait for the first games that come out which combine a more precise controller [2] (for playing more realistic sports games or shooters, combined with perspective based on where my heads is pointing. [1]

It would mean I could play a reasonable game of tennis and get some real exercise without having to coordinate being in the same physical location as my opponent.

[1] - http://wiihacks.blogspot.com/2007/12/head-tracking-vr-using-wiimote.html
[2] - http://technologizer.com/2009/01/10/truemotions-way-better-than-wii-game-controller/

Calgary Hackerspace

I've frequently called myself a Hacker [1]. This may immediately disqualify me from ever deserving the title, as one of the rules is that other people must refer to you as a Hacker, not yourself.

However, if there is one group of people that I identify with more than any others - it would be the hacker community. Recently a friend of mine, Paul Brodeur [2] wrote up a compelling request to the people in Calgary to help him setup a Calgary based Hackerspace [3].

I'm doing what he asked, and I'm sending this out to everyone I know. If you're interested, join the google group [4] or the facebook group [5] and figure a way to help out.

Now that I've made the pitch, I feel I need to explain why I haven't joined either group, nor am I likely to attend the meetings or make use of the space. Please don't construe this as an argument against the Hackerspace. I think it's a brilliant idea, and I support them in their effort to make it happen.

I'm a fairly specialized hacker - I deal almost completely in the intangible. I'm not a hardware hacker, I'm not an electronics hacker - I prefer to stay in the realm of math, software and computer graphics. Now, I'm not saying that other specialized hackers like me won't be able to make use of, or enjoy the space. In fact, I feel that it's likely that many (maybe even most?) will find it a welcoming and nurturing environment in which to learn, share, and create.

I already have a Hackerspace - the internet. I spend my days in IRC chat rooms surrounded by people of a like mind who like to learn, share and create. I am very frequently learning from them, helping them, working with them and growing because of the experience. This isn't for everyone - but for me it's where I feel at home, it's where I find myself the most creative.

In addition, I'm not a people person. If you get more than 3-5 other people in the same room as me - and I shut down [6]. I don't say much, I get extremely self-conscious and my mind immediately begins to think of excuses as to why I should be elsewhere. I avoid movie-theatres, shopping malls, food courts, meetings, and coffee shops for this very reason. The hackerspace, if successful, and I believe it will be, is likely to be filled with more people than I'll be comfortable being around.

In closing I should also mention that I'm willing to be convinced or shown how I'll benefit from the hackerspace. I'm also willing to help out to ensure that those who will benefit may realize their dream. However (unless convinced otherwise) I won't be an active participant.

[1] - http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
[2] - http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbrodeur
[3] - http://ultramegaman.com/blog/?p=25
[4] - http://groups.google.com/group/calgary-hackspace?hl=en
[5] - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=43079798204&ref=nf
[6] - the number is variable and also depends on how well I know them. But if everyone I know came over for my birthday party, even tho I know them well I'd be very uncomfortable in that situation.

Yet another concept to covet

http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/11/19/scarab-is-small-scarab-is-fast-scarab-is-hot/

I want one. :)

Cherrypy 3.1.1 released!

Congratulations are due to the CherryPy Team. CherryPy 3.1.1 was released [1] this past weekend. I missed the release sprint but fumanchu [2], visteya and tabo [3] all pitched in to pull off the release.

I'm excited to say that some of my contributions made it into this release [4], [5], [6].

[1] - http://groups.google.com/group/cherrypy-users/browse_frm/thread/5e5b85c407356818
[2] - http://www.aminus.org/blogs/index.php/
[3] - http://gpicon.blogspot.com/
[4] - http://cherrypy.org/changeset/2030
[5] - http://cherrypy.org/changeset/2049
[6] - http://cherrypy.org/changeset/2051

"Yes We Can" -> "Yes I will"

In case you were in a hole last night, Barack Obama is now the president elect of the United States of America.

While watching the election coverage last night, Anita (my wife) pointed out a stark difference in the venues chosen by the candidates to accept or concede the election results and the people in attendance.

Barack Obama accepted the election results in front of 100 000 of the general public [3] in a public park in Chicago [2].

John McCain conceded the election in front of an (at the start) invite-only crowd [4] at the luxury Arizona Biltmore Hotel [1]. Apparently, as the election results came in they opened it up to everyone at the rally [4]. Maybe they began to see the difference in their outlooks that resulted in such an overwhelming win for their competition. Let's hope.

The crowd in Chicago was chanting "Yes we did" most of the evening starting from the announcement that the election had been called. However, Obamas speech centered around the phrase "Yes we can". As we move into the next four years I hope that the general public of the USA and even the world holds on to the phrase in the present tense. Electing Obama was only the start of the change that is needed. Obama cannot enforce this change on his own. He needs our support in small actions, just like we supported him with small donations.

Will we as individuals unite and effect the small changes? Will we change from prejudice to respect? Will we change from exclusivity to acceptance? Will we change from fear to hope?

Yes I will.

[1] - http://www.arizonabiltmore.com/
[2] - http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/parks.detail/object_id/83AA6305-ADBE-4D8A-B333-004449057EA9
[3] - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9B3dL99xtF_ib-_cmTXadhAZ3NAD948JOSO0
[4] - http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1598611/20081105/story.jhtml

Why I haven't seen one hockey game this season

I haven't had any interest in hockey this season. In fact, I think I've watched a combined total of 10 minutes of hockey so far, and that includes the 7.5 minutes of highlights I sat through in order to see the Baseball highlights. I definitely think that the rule changes over the past few years in the NHL have decreased my enjoyment of watching NHL games.

An example of the types of changes that really annoy me has something to do with their relentless pursuit of increased offence [1]. Is the North-American public so enamored with goals that they could care less about anything else? If so, why don't we play 3 on 3 with no goalies and make the nets huge?

I hate power play goals. I always have. I hate them just like I hate penalty shots in Soccer. They're cheap and are too-often the direct result of a bad referees decision. In most sports this isn't so bad because the best referees get to make judgement calls and can thus avoid goals which are within the letter of the rule but violate the spirit of the rule. In the NHL, however, they've made a concerted effort over the past few years to take judgement calls out of it. I for one am sick of it, and won't give them any more of my already precious time.

I'll keep watching football where a hold is only a penalty when the referee thinks it affected the play.

[1] - http://www.tsn.ca/columnists/darren_dreger/?id=252833

More idiots

I typically put my head in the sand when it comes to elections, and then I vote for whichever party I think has a chance of winning that has the most socially liberal policies. This past few months however, I've been trying to read up more often on what's going on, who's supporting what and who I agree with.

Mostly, I've just come to realize how dumb most people really are. I mean, people are suggesting that same sex marriages aren't good for society and then they have the audacity to suggest that this is a biological claim not at all rooted in religious bigotry [3]. Then I find out that the average republican, when presented with evidence that proves their viewpoint is wrong, tends to more strongly believe in the viewpoint [2]! And governments are taught that to stay in power they need to pander to these same idiots because they're the ones who are voting [1].

It's a depressing situation to me. The average person can't be bothered to actually inform themselves on a subject. More importantly, many of the ones who are against progressive, effective policies are prone to more strongly fight against them when scientific research is shown which proves them wrong! How can we be expected to fight this? In Canada they ask for stronger criminal penalties, because in their uninformed opinions this will reduce crime, even though there is ample evidence that it doesn't work [1]. We tried it out in the 19th and 20th Century and it didn't work, so we explicitly avoided it in future laws because we knew it doesn't work. And what happens now? Our government suggests it again because they know that it will win them votes and that's all that matters in today's democracy.

Personally, I'm beginning to more and more believe that the average person is not born with enough brain power or common sense to deserve the right to vote and that democracy is generally busted in its current form. There. I really said it. I know that will be a contentious statement but think about it. If people can't be bothered to inform themselves of what the experts say, and if they can't be bothered to understand that these experts are _actually_ smarter than them and if they can't be bothered to understand that these experts aren't just spouting off opinion but rather that there is truth in what the experts claim, then how can I trust that these same people to vote intelligently.

There are enough issues that aren't actually clear cut, don't have a history of proof, nor a wealth of experts backing it to make elections interesting. We don't need pandering politicians catering to the uninformed voters to further muddy the water.

So what do we do? How do we fix it? What can I do? Voting in the past 2 elections hasn't helped, I live in a riding that always (in a landslide) supports the politicians who are suggesting these backwards, uninformed policies.

[1] - http://ffwdweekly.com/article/news-views/news/harper-youth-justice-policy-not-grounded-in-eviden/
[2] - http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/09/the_backfire_effect.html
[3] - http://www.abetterkindofangry.com/2008/10/gah-are-people-really-this-stupid.html

Gah! Are people really this stupid?

From (1)
“How can you be a bigot when you’re looking out for society as a whole?”

ummmm? Does he really not see the parallels between him saying this and other groups that have promoted bigotry under the "society will be better" banner?

(1) - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/nyregion/12marriage.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Busy Busy Busy ... and then Vacation

It's been a busy few weeks. On August 15th, I switched jobs and started working with some friends of mine at a local company focused on the art scene. During the next 4 weeks, we launched 4 websites and 1 major feature. Unfortunately I can't yet talk about all of them, but I am excited about the ones that I can talk about.

Artcity Festival is a yearly festival of visual arts. Great people, fun time and launching the start of their new online home was a pleasure.

Free and Easy Travel is a Canadian based travel company that provides guided trips to South-east Asia. They have been doing so for a number of years and as such have tons of content, phenomenal photographs and are all around great guys. This site is on of my favorite designs from Ian Russell.

Structured Abstraction is the company that I now work for, and recently the guy who now does business development, Jay MacGillivray, was voted to be the Top 40 Under 40 in Calgary. Congratulations Jay! He was recognized for his phenomenal work in the arts community of Calgary. It will be a pleasure and a joy to work with him again. Because of his award there would be an increased awareness of what he has been doing and we wanted to ensure that we had a reasonable website up and going, so in one day we wrote the content, (harder than it sounds), launched the website and designed and implemented the graphical pieces surrounding the content.

Unfortunately I can't say much more about the other two, but suffice it to say that I was BUSY BUSY BUSY. Now, if you consider that just before I left Etsy Inc. we wrapped up a year long port of an older busted middle layer and replaced it with something that scaled horizontally. That puts the count up to 6 releases in 4 weeks!

So now I'm on some welcome vacation. It starts with a Week in Florida with my Family. Then, we spend less than a week in Portland, Oregon with my Sister and Brother in Law and their 1-year old DeLuca. Then we travel to Greece for 8 days and Beirut, Lebanon for 6 days to visit with my Wife's Family.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure how relaxing it will be. :P

Ummm ... huh?

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/09/12/second-gates-seinfeld-ad-shows-ad-campaign-has-potential

Does anyone else get these? They feel like a bad version of The Office to me.

Lighting

I want one: http://gizmodo.com/5045555/stimuli-30-lamp-is-perfect-for-home-work-spaceship

By shifting around the panels with an internal 3 axis gearbox, light output can fill the light gap left by a waning sun, maintaining a constant light level through the day.