Holiday Techno Toys

I'm sure a lot of people got some cool gear for the holidays. My personal experience over the past couple days has consisted of updating network configurations to allow these boxes out onto the Net. So I thought I'd publish a quick series of articles giving little pointers on how to speed things along. Enjoy!

Business Plan

I'm waiting at home for an installation and the questions occurs to me: how do service industries get away with only doing installations during normal business hours? Normal business hours are when everybody is doing business! If you're a service company that requires installations then you need to offer that service when its convenient to your customers. How hard would it be to require you installers to work second shift instead of first?

The Future of Libraries

I've become a big fan of my local public library despite its lack of selection. But whenever I walk in there I see all the dozen or so computers occupied and few people browsing the books. This brings up a conversation that I don't claim to be the originator of: What will the mission of libraries be in a world of changing media?

Libraries are no stranger to changing media. The only constant has been the printed book. But even that is starting to slip. The last twenty years has introduced changes in media that can only be described as revolutionary. Who now can remember micrographs?

Its not the mission of a library to keep printed books in vogue. Certainly they're aesthetically pleasing. But a library is there to disseminate knowledge. But they also can't be glorified, free Internet cafes. So the challenge of the modern library is how to balance these various factors while remaining flexible and open to new developments.

Calling All Nerds

I've picked up a recent fascination with name spaces, specifically constrained name spaces like country codes, language codes, XML and other programming languages. But I always wondered why all four-letter TV and radio station identifiers started with either a "W" or a "K" like WKRP or KQED. Turns out that broadcast stations could begin with any letter of the alphabet but certain ranges were allocated to certain countries. For instance, the U.S. gets all sequences starting with "W" but only a subset of all sequences beginning with "K".

Trailerpark Training

Last night at a BW3's I saw a couple of kids playing one of this touch screen video consoles at their table. This wouldn't be remarkable but the game they were playing was beer pong against cartoon pirates. I mean, really? Is this something that 7 year-olds need to be practicing?

До свидания, Америка

Apparently a learned Russian scholar was quoted as saying that the current financial turmoil will cause the United States to split into several pieces. I can't say I'm terribly worried. This is after all coming from someone who has a degree in political science in a country that can't let its people actually vote. Russia seems to excel in the area of the Potemkin vote.

Art Deco-Inspired

Recently I've develop a strong interest in art deco architecture and style. Specifically I dig the streamline moderne style. One weekend I spent in New York I hoofed dozens of blocks to see some of the classic architecture.

• Road to Perdition - Depression-era gangster flick set in the Midwest around the Chicago area.
  
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - An alternate history direct from a pulp magazine full of 1940s style.
  
• The Thirteenth Floor - Half the movie is set in "modern" times and half of it in a simulation of 1930s Los Angeles.
  
• Indiana Jones - Set in the 30s and 40s it features a lot of iconic objects like the Boeing 314 Clipper.
• Gattaca - Actually set in the future but with a retro styling completely reminiscent of art deco.
  
• Bioshock - Not really a movie but this video game is almost one in its own right. Set in a 1960s submarine city that was straight out of the 1940s.
  
• Crimson Skies - Also not a movie, but this game exists in a dystopian alternate history where rigid airships ply the skies with other 1940s aircraft.