Month: August 2006

The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It’s Bogus

Tim O’Reilly is always a worthy read. Here are some quotes.

On the future of storage:

I remember Bob Morris, head of IBM’s Storage Division and the Almaden Research Labs, telling me a couple of years ago, that before too long, storage would be cheap enough and small enough that someone who wanted to do so could film every moment of his life, and carry the record around in a pocket. Scary? Maybe. But the future is always scary to those who cling to the past. It is enormously exciting if you focus on the possibilities. Just think how much value Google and other online information providers have already brought to all of our lives — the ability to find facts, in moments, from a library larger than any of us could have imagined a decade ago.

On the future of computers:

At my conference on peer-to-peer networking, web services, and distributed computation back in 2001, Clay Shirky, reflecting on “Lessons from Napster”, retold the old story about Thomas J. Watson, founder of the modern IBM. “I see no reason for more than five of these machines in the world,” Watson is reputed to have said. “We now know that he was wrong,” Clay went on. The audience laughed knowingly, thinking of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of computers deployed worldwide. But then Clay delivered his punch line: “We now know that he overstated the number by four.”

On Google:

Pioneers like Google are remaking the computing industry before our eyes. Google of course isn’t one computer — it’s a hundred thousand computers, by report — but to the user, it appears as one.

Visit to a Russian shop

Ice cream

There are plenty of Russians living in Cyprus. And, as usual in such situations, there are plenty of Russian shops around. Those shops sell all sorts of stuff “from Russia with love” – books, drinks, food…

For a totally unknown reason, both Olga and I never went to any of these shops. One time or the other we’d imagine that we did, to buy something that we miss, but we never actually went there.

Until today.

I don’t know about Olga, but for me – I’m glad that I went there AFTER my recent trip to Russia. Most of the stuff looked familiar and I was navigating around pretty good. If I came before the trip, I’d be totally disoriented by the brands around. I wouldn’t know what is what and how to use it. Gladly, it didn’t happen.

I needed less than five minutes to buy some sunflower seeds for Olga, and some ice cream for myself. Done and out. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We’ll probably go back some time soon…

No P.O. Box for me

For the last couple of weeks I felt this terrible urge of having my own P.O.Box. I don’t have much use for it, but I want one anyway.

Today I decided that it’s time to do something about it. So I went to the closest post office and told them what I want. I was prepared for all sorts of replies – from “Fill in this form” to “It’s August – the time of vacations. Please come back in September.” After living for so many years in this country such preparations happen automatically.

But I wasn’t ready for the response that I received. I bet I had a really stupid face there for a couple of seconds. The woman behind the desk said: “We currently don’t have any available boxes for rent. And we won’t have any this year. Please come back in March. Or in April.” That sounded like a lot even for Cyprus.

I’ll be checking other nearby post offices. If nothing else, I’ll share the P.O.Box with a friend of mine, who already has on.

On new skillsets

After reading this:

Instead of only teaching journalism as a profession, they should think of journalism as a basic requirement for a good education. It’s a skill they should be teaching everyone who gets a bachelor’s degree, from now on.

I remembered my own thinking about new skillset. While I haven’t gone as far as microjournalism (they did microeconomics too, remember?), I have a couple of my own suggestions.

Touch-typing. Seriously, are there any good careers left these days that don’t require a few hours per day in front of the computer? How far can kids go in life without this skill? I know that many of them teach themselves. But they do so with reading and counting too…
Introduction to databases. I’m not talking about a full-blown database course, but rather something very simple based on it. Introduction to databases was probably the most important course in my college curriculum. It taught me so much about data and ways of organizing it (tables, keys, normalization). Way too many people learn this things through trial and error method during their whole lifespan. It should be given to them before all the data.
Introduction to photography. This one is less important then the above too, but I’d make it the among the first candidates for the first available slot of time. Digital cameras are everyone these days. And most people have absolutely no clue about color theory, composition, etc. Again, I am not talking about something advanced here. Simple things. A bit of colors. The Rule of Thirds. Maybe a Golden Mean. That would improve the content on the web and everwhere else (where else?) as much, if not more, as that microjournalism course.

Which other courses – from the Computer Science department or any other – as an absolute requirement these days?

10 ways NOT to get burried in your digital photos

Via shershnev.net I came across the “10 Ways to Make Your Digital Photos Last Forever“. This is again, one of those lists, that tells you everything you already now, but in slightly different words. I’ve a read a lot of lists like this in my time (a year or two ago). And I still occasionally check them out.

I’ve also gained some experience of my own. Because of that I don’t always agree to what is said in those lists. Also, times change and some things that were true five years ago, are not true any more.

So, below is the list of original items with my comments, for what it’s worth. Click on the link to read the full post – I’m trying not to annoy the hell out of people who scroll through the main page…

Continue reading 10 ways NOT to get burried in your digital photos