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My original blog - I have moved to http://shannonclark.wordpress.com so this remains only as an archive.
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Searching for the Moon
by Shannon Clark
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Thursday, August 28, 2003
Yahoo! News - Urban Sprawl Makes Americans Fat, Study Finds
Yahoo! News - Urban Sprawl Makes Americans Fat, Study Finds
Yet another reason why I love living in the city and being able to walk from (and to) work each day. I'm currently looking at different options for office space for my company as our current lease is coming up for renewal, whether I can walk home from the new space (if we move) is a very big and serious factor for me.
Sure price, appearance, etc are also factors, but all other things being equal, I would much prefer an office that I can walk to and from than one that requires me to drive (or take a taxi) to get there if I need to. Sure, most of Chicago could also be gotten to by public transit, but many places would require multiple transfers, something I try to avoid whenever possible.
8/28/2003 04:46:00 PM
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Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Chowhound's Toronto Message Board: Indonesian? Other great places?
Chowhound's Toronto Message Board: Indonesian? Other great places?
My question to Chowhound's Toronto board...
8/27/2003 12:38:00 PM
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Optimize Supplier Relationships with Contract Management
Optimize Supplier Relationships with Contract Management
And an earlier article from Aberdeen which also supports what my company does - very good stuff.
8/27/2003 11:16:00 AM
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Four Keys to Effective Supplier Contract Management
Four Keys to Effective Supplier Contract Management
Supports what my company sells - Decisa: Contract Compliance software.
8/27/2003 11:11:00 AM
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O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference -- February 9-12, 2004
O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference -- February 9-12, 2004
Sounds both like a conference I would like to attend (and would really enjoy) and one that many of my friends really should attend and present at. I will be sharing this call for submissions with a number of the groups I am active within, who knows, perhaps I can attend and present something myself.
8/27/2003 10:42:00 AM
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Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Renaissance Weekend
Renaissance Weekend
I was invited to attend this, am seriously considering going for Thanksgiving weekend - need to find the invite letter and confirm some details of the invitation, also need to decide whether I want to go this Thanksgiving.
8/26/2003 02:20:00 PM
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Calvin and Hobbes - 11 year old strip on Journals
Welcome to uComics Web Site featuring Calvin and Hobbes -- The Best Comic Site In The Universe!
Very appropriate for online blogs...
8/26/2003 01:03:00 PM
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ISSN for Weblogs (Joe Clark: fawny.org)
ISSN for Weblogs (Joe Clark: fawny.org)
Very interesting idea, not sure if I will apply for one or not. I may want to wait until I have the time (and funds) to move from blogspot to something more permanent, as well as the time to reorganize and update my base site a bit.
But still, a very cool and interesting idea - ISSN numbers for weblogs.
8/26/2003 12:51:00 PM
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Salon.com Technology | Truncat
Salon.com Technology | Truncat
A new short story by Cory Doctorow, one of my favorite current authors. Reading this will be my small gift to myself later today, probably sometime this evening as a reward for a successful day - or at least that is my plan. I highly recommend after you read this story, that you look for his other short stories at Salon.com, as well as anything else by him you can find.
8/26/2003 11:44:00 AM
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Friday, August 22, 2003
Edge 124 - Blackout and The moral sense test
Edge 124
Two really interesting articles on one page. I probably need to read "Edge" more often, looks to be very much stuff that I like by authors I admire.
The Blackout conversation starts off with a piece by the author of Linked: The New Science of Networks which is a book I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend.
As I read over his article I was struck by the following thought, he mentioned "electricity cannot be stored" as one of the reasons why the current power grid is so interconnected, with the risks so dramitically illustrated earlier this month. My thought and question is, "is this still the case? Or, with fuel cells and/or other technologies might electricity be stored?"
Probably there is no way of storing electricity without some loss other than perhaps superconducting coils (where the electricity can go around and around in circles without loss), but are there means of harnessing energy currently as electricity and converting it to stored energy of another form? One that could ideally be quickly and easily converted back to electricity when there was demand?
It would seem to me that there must be, but perhaps it is a question of scale - i.e. it would take a lot of very large "rechargable batteries" to store the output of a small power plant, let alone a large one.
Anyway, something for me to noodle on, may show up in a future novel if I think of something really cool.
8/22/2003 12:10:00 PM
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Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Travel, worldcons, and oddities
So, this morning my girlfriend (yes, read that right) emailed me that there are some really amazing rates to Toronto ($120/person $140/person taxes included (base rate was $99) for a round trip on AA), would I like to go with her over Labor Day weekend?
When we finally connected (my cell phone wasn't working for time) we weren't able to get the best dates to travel (Saturday morning, back on Labor Day) but were able to get pretty good - Saturday afternoon, back early morning Tuesday.
So, we decided to go.
I then went online and looked at hotels, lots of options but all around a few hundred for the three nights, and many that were inexpensive were somewhat questionable. So, I checked what I could get for airline miles on American. Turns out I could get a 4 star hotel for the three nights we needed and would only have to pay a $25 late booking fee.
Pretty good so far, so I did it.
Then, I decided to check out TorCon's website and see where it was and how far away it was from our hotel etc. Turns out I managed to book two rooms in the party hotel for TorCon. This does mean I want to make sure we're not on the first or second floors...
But, in a sign of just how cool my girlfriend is, she's not unhappy that we're going to be staying there, though I want to spend most of my vacation with her relaxing and exploring Toronto, I might try to get to some of the convention. One friend has mentioned that he might have to memberships, if he can't find a buyer for them, perhaps I'll buy them from him (or if my karma's really good he won't charge me much...). In any case, if you are reading this, planning on being in Toronto for TorCon, and might want to meet up for Lunch or Dinner Sat, Sun, or Monday (dinner only Sat) I'll be around.
In any case, even if I don't make it to the convention itself, which I suspect I might not, I will be there, in a different city for a real vacation - something I haven't had for quite a while, Wiscon over Memorial Day only somewhat counting as a vacation - though it was and is a great time.
8/19/2003 01:39:00 PM
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Monday, August 18, 2003
MathWorld News: There Are No Magic Knight's Tours on the Chessboard
MathWorld News: There Are No Magic Knight's Tours on the Chessboard
More interesting perhaps than just the math article here cited, it the site it is on - one which I suspect could occupy me for a very long time...
8/18/2003 04:03:00 PM
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Friday, August 15, 2003
The Blackout
The Blackout
Pretty cool - I figured something like this had to be out there, thanks to Doc Searls here is the link. A collection of phonecam photos (mostly) of the blackout.
A few things, more in a later longer post most likely. I think how the US has dealt with this current blackout is pretty amazing and reflects my personal overall general feeling about people and society - that is, if you expect people to behave themselves and help each other they generally will (i.e. people are generally good as opposed to generally bad).
It is quite notable, I think, that while Detroit and NYC were peaceful, with people safely sleeping on the streets and/or out and about with an almost party atmosphere (according to one report I heard this morning on the radio describing Chelsea in Manhattan), there was "serious looting" in Ottowa and a state of national emergency was declared there. Not, perhaps, what most people would expect given the general perception of Americans vs. Canadians.
Just last night I attended a monthly political Science Fiction discussion group, our book for this month was Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" which depicts a post-apocolyptic vision of California in the 2020's.
Looking at what just happened, I am struck by how far the country has come in just the decade since she wrote that book. She wrote it in the wake of the LA riots, when a vision of escalating lawlessness and chaos did not seem so far fetched. But think about things now, it certainly appears that everyday ordinary Americans as well as our government officials can conduct themselves extremely well in crisises and that lawlessness and violence is not the result.
For me, it is the small little things that I particularly note, the fact that tolls on bridges out of New York were lifted - not the reaction of stupid beaucrats but rather the reaction of sensible people. The stories of individual small acts of kindness are also impressive, as are the relatively small numbers of people hurt or even needing rescue from elevators (800 calls in NYC seems amazingly, almost unbelievably low).
In short, I am quite proud today to be an American and I am very pleased with how we have conducted ourselves in the face of seeming disaster and crisis.
8/15/2003 11:52:00 AM
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Thursday, August 14, 2003
The myth of discoverability - UIWEB.COM
The myth of discoverability - UIWEB.COM
Interesting discussion about user design - mostly stuff that we already do at JigZaw but useful to read a well written discussion of it. I will be sharing this with my development team.
8/14/2003 12:15:00 PM
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Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Ming the Mechanic: Net Work
Ming the Mechanic: Net Work
Flemming Funch posted an interesting thought exercise, I posted a response - this is so I don't lose the thread.
8/13/2003 06:22:00 PM
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Salon.com Books | Two isn't company
Salon.com Books | Two isn't company
Interesting review of a new book - by a Marxist academic, but according the review "laugh out loud funny" (in a good way).
It strikes me that in a book about relationships and marriage, that ignoring, the admittedly small, polyamory movement is somewhat surprising, but not unexpected.
Myself, I'm pretty in tune with the cultural norm of a single monagamous relationship, but given how many of my friends are both very intelligent and also in complex polyamorous relationships, I do think it is a subject worth some attention in a book about love and marriage... since adultery is somewhat different in a polyamorous relationship (though, I think if I understand things correctly not impossible - it would be a relationship that is kept from the other person or persons in the relationship).
In any case it sounds like a book worth a look, though with the dual caveats of being written by a Marxist and seemingly ignoring the option of polygamy (i.e. a relationship with multiple consenting parties, often long term).
[note - I edited this a day after posting to correct a mispelling of polyamory/polyamorous - which is the term I meant though not what I typed]
8/13/2003 02:06:00 PM
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Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Degrees of Separation Are Likely More Than 6, Especially in E-Mail Age
Degrees of Separation Are Likely More Than 6, Especially in E-Mail Age(note registration required)
Interesting article on updated study of the "Six Degrees" phenomenon.
Speaking personally, I am very convinced that I am connected to anyone else in the world by a very small chain. In part, however, this is because I am already directly connected to thousands of people, truly more like tens of thousands. And through them, I know that just "one degree" away from me are a great deal of people and at two degrees I can reach a very large portion of the world.
This is because in many ways I am a bit of a nexus, my interests, social circles and other networks cross many non-overlapping groups. Furthermore, I have been online a very very long time, and thus know a lot of people who have also been online for quite a while. In addition, my network (just talking about people who I know and are likely to remember me) is very diverse - in terms of ages, geographies, races, educational levels and many other factors. While large portions of it do skew towards the technology sector, I also know many artists, writers, financial people, business people, lawyers, doctors, CTA workers, machinists, horse carriage drivers and many other people.
Have I kept in contact with everyone I "know" - not at all, but I do have quite an active and vibrant network, one which is is growing every day.
To take a few quick examples:
- one of the professors cited in the article wrote a book that very close family friend was a reader of (and fellow professor at Notre Dame)
- Multiple people I know very well are only one degree of connection away from members of Bush's cabinet or staff (one friend of mine was a classmate of John Ashcroft for example)
- A family member has been to a new year's eve party with Madonna (at Madonna's house, also been out for sushi with her while she was filming "A league of one's own")
i.e. just off the top of my head I have a short connection to some of the more difficult to reach people in the world. (I have communicated personally with senior people at Microsoft, another member of a group I am active in used to report to Bill Gates directly - so again a few degree connection to a fairly hard to reach person).
My point is that while I know my own network is unusual, I don't think that I am radically atypical, though I know I have a larger network than most. If you consider the number of people that an average person knows (or is known by) - counting from elementary school, junior high, high school, family, college, and the typical 3 to 5 different jobs, as well as religious groups, summer camps, neighbors, and others, it is not hard to see that most people if really pressed have a network of weak links that is in the thousands of individuals.
From that, consider how many of those are circular networks - i.e. networks that are just a tight bunch of connections with few "outsiders" (consider a commune as an extreme example - the groups of families living there would all be tightly connected, with possibly few if any other currently active connections - however each family member (other than children perhaps) would still have a large network of family and friends from pre-commune days...)
This points to a factor that I am not sure any of the studies have considered tracking - a timeline of connection.
i.e. there is a difference between those members of my network with whom I have communicated in the past week from those in the past month, the past year, and those I have not spoken to in over 2 years (or in extreme cases a decade or more). While all may be part of my network, I would have a harder time communicating with and just locating those with whom I hae ceased being in highly active communication - in many cases I would have to ask for help from either third party resources (the phone book) or from other more active members of my network who may have been in contact with them more recently.
(to illustrate this point, say I wanted to reach Bill and Hillary Clinton. I know that my old next door neighbor is a fellow Rhodes Scholar and at one point in time dated Hillary (before she met Bill), and that he has and is still very active in Democratic politics. However, I also know that they recently moved. So to contact them I would either have to look up their contact info in a phonebook or I might ask my parents who are closer to them for their current contact information.)
8/12/2003 05:49:00 PM
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US Government Graphics - collection of links
US Government graphics link page
A large collection of links to pages of US Government agencies collections of images and graphics, most are in the public domain (though some may be bound by other licenses so as the site says, read each page's disclaimers carefully).
May be a useful resource when I am working on websites and applications for myself and for others.
8/12/2003 02:01:00 PM
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Friday, August 08, 2003
Salon.com Technology | IBM countersues in Linux battle
Salon.com Technology | IBM countersues in Linux battle
Round Two (or three if you add Red Hat's countersuit as well) will be interesting and important to watch this unfold.
8/08/2003 11:56:00 AM
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Thursday, August 07, 2003
Shirky: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy
Shirky: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy
Looks really interesting - when (and if) my printer is back working, hopefully tomorrow I plan on printing this out and read it in greater detail.
8/07/2003 05:35:00 PM
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jish.nu/about/booklist
jish.nu/about/booklist
I need to sit down and do this type of list...
though mine would be about 7x as large.
At the moment I have about 10 books which are duplicates in search of a new home. About 100 books waiting to be read. And about 700+ books at home, with another 100 or so at my office, and another 400 or so still on shelves or boxes at my parent's home.
Okay so perhaps about 10x his list.
I must say, however, his list is a very good one, a lot on there I have read or want to.
8/07/2003 03:09:00 PM
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Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Google Search: Shannon
Google Search: Shannon
Over the past year I have moved from being somewhere buried in the deep masses of Google, to being the 40th search result in Google for "Shannon" - which I think is pretty cool.
8/06/2003 01:50:00 PM
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Monday, August 04, 2003
The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory: Welcome
The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory: Welcome
My novel has a section set during the Great Fire in Chicago, so when I have time I really need to read over this website and draw from it what I can.
8/04/2003 01:17:00 PM
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Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - Why I Buy Internet Phone Calling
Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - Why I Buy Internet Phone Calling
A friend of mine is working on a similar business so I should look over these comments when I have time.
8/04/2003 12:55:00 PM
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