Archive for March, 2009
Earthquake Measurement Online
by sky on Mar.30, 2009, under Entertainment and Places, The Quantified Self
This is more fun than any sporting event. The US Geological Survey long ago automated their earthquake reporting instruments and it has become somewhat of a sport to see how fast we can report the shaking intensity and other details following even the smallest seismic event. There was a small quake near AlumRock/San Jose/Morgan Hill about an hour ago and a couple thousand people went to a USGS web site to report the intensity – as they felt it – with many reports coming in within 10 minutes of the actual event (and 14,000 reports in an hour for this particular one).
Read more about what the USGS has available online for earthquake reporting. (continue reading…)
It’s the User, Stupid (It’s the Stupid User?)
by sky on Mar.29, 2009, under Organizations and Sociology, Security, Technology and geeky stuff
In The Curious Case of the Invulnerable Browser, Roger Grimes of Infoworld writes about the recent CanSecWest 2009 PWN2OWN contest where hackers pitted their skills against web browsers to see how quickly they could break into a computer. The prize was the computer itself. Roger says that the state of browser security is actually pretty good, but even if browsers were inpenetrable, the major source of computer breakins is users browsing to a web site that then infects their computer. (continue reading…)
Google ruled by engineers, Apple ruled by designers
by sky on Mar.27, 2009, under Communicating, Making organizations work, People
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Fundamentally different approaches to problem-solving, nope design, nope creating products, nope life! |
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. — Doug Bowman, Goodbye Google
I love this farewell post by Google’s visual design lead because it confirms a theory I’ve long held: that Google is a company where engineers are the ruling class, while at Apple it’s designers. – Buzz Andersen, Sci-fi Hi-fi
This just blew me away because of my experiences with people from both Apple and Google.
IFTF Social Impact Technology Futures
by sky on Mar.25, 2009, under Organizations and Sociology, Social Entrepreneurs, Social tools
The Institute for the Future is planning a conference on technologies and social change. My feeling is that since around 2000 people have become increasingly aware of how technologies can be used to foster social change. Obviously technologies change our societies, and everyone has their favorite negative impact story, but we’ve really begun to try to leverage the prevalent technologies (and newer ones) to create positive change. (continue reading…)
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Welcome!
I hope you’ll enjoy this mix of topics stemming from my ongoing experiences in the world of online communication. Oh, and sometimes the inspiration comes from face-to-face communications too. Many were sparked by my work as Chief Technology Officer of The Dalai Lama Foundation from 2003 through 2010. See also the Foundation’s Study Circles site, where we keep an ongoing conversation going about ethics in the world. Current Features—
CyberSpark.net — Cyber-defense for free speech and human rights onlineMany Paths to Peace — Explore the many ways compassionate peacemakers are working to make this a better world. (Video interviews)
