planet metadata: creating an “infosphere”

This week at TheFeature.com, Howard Rheingold writes about Microsoft’s A.U.R.A. research project: “Smith pointed me toward another example in his kitchen that he had discovered himself when he first started clicking around – Kellogg’s Cracklin’ Oat Bran. One of the top links for that breakfast cereal revealed that a mislabeled early batch had failed to disclose dairy and egg content, which could have been fatal to anyone with severe allergies.”

My fourth Casey Cruise

A couple of weeks ago, I went sailing with Mike Casey for the fourth time. We had a nice steady, strong breeze that never reached anything like the gales we experienced on previous trips. This time we had a few skippers and, like every other trip, multiple Mikes. See the pics in the extended entry.

conscious investing

Remember when you were a kid and you’d overhear grownups talking about insurance and taxes, IRAs, mortgages and interest rates? Remember thinking to yourself, do they really understand that stuff? Remember how boring it all sounded and how frightening it was to imagine that someday you might have to know about it too, that someday you might actually find yourself talking about it…voluntarily? Anyway, since I left my last job, I’ve been forced to think […] Read More

recent reads

I’ve been re-reading bits of Mishima’s Sea of Fertility tetralogy: book 1 – Spring Snow book 2 – Runaway Horses book 3 – The Temple of Dawn book 4 – The Decay of the Angel. Basically in a Japanese phase, I guess. I’ve been devouring Murakami. Of his books, the only ones I haven’t read are his two collections of short stories (The Elephant Vanishes and After the Quake) and Underground, his nonfiction account of […] Read More

operation “sharks with laser beams”…

I’m intrigued by the names the U.S. attaches to its military operations (most recently “Enduring Freedom” nee “Infinite Justice”). I just discovered several good lists (including this list) of such operations. I’d comment on some of the names – some of them real head-scratchers – but I think they really need to speak for themselves. Incidentally, several of the sites listing U.S. military operations included this very creepy poem: Then conquer we must, when our […] Read More

burned out on cool

A friend (who shall remain nameless) has lately become too cool to be tolerated… Dave Eggers wrote a pretty eloquent rant on the notion of selling out (vs. being authentic or cool), which was reprinted by Harpers a couple of summers ago, but what Eggers misses (and which he is somewhat guilty of himself) is the pleasure we get out of being “in the know”. This person is the name dropper. This person is the […] Read More