My recent foray into web2.0 living, when I left my power cord at home yesterday, was an interesting experience, and has left me thinking a good deal about computer usage in the future.

Before I get started lets just assume that by web 2.0 I mean, the move towards using tools like AJAX and Ruby-On-Rails to build quick and sturdy applications run server-side, and usually, centrally located as services. Google is like the web 2.0 company, but I mentioned Meebo, and 37Signals are great examples of the kinds of applications that are pushing these models.

For example, ideally what GoogleDocs has over traditional office software is that it’s platform, and even machine independent, and it uses high quality file formats. Also, there’s a whole level of stuff that Google takes care of (updating the software, maintaining the servers, and so forth,) that traditional software users have to pay attention to.

The side effect is that you have to “live” your computing life entirely in a web browser, which many of you may already be doing (I was watching theBoy do something on his computer, and I was sort of amazed at how much time he spent in a web browser and want not: I apparently live in a different world.) But I don’t think this is the way to go: web browsers aren’t very standard or consistent, and for the past 10 years, every browser I’ve ever used has consistently been the among the biggest and slowest applications I use regularly. (Clearly Photoshop wins this, no contest, and MS Office products are close, but I don’t use the former very much and the latter at all any more.)

As people start to use more than one computer, internet connectivity becomes more ubiquitous, and as large swaths of the computing (and developing) public starts to use non-Windows OSes¹ it makes sense that the smart thing to do from a development perspective is to write Web-based programs: everyone can use them regardless of platform, they work everywhere there’s a connection, and in a lot of cases they’re as easy if not easier to write than their desktop equivalents.²

Also, being Web-based is good for business: it means that you’re charging people, not for the rights to the intellectual property that is your software, but for the use of that software running on their server. I’m all in favor of business models that “use” IP rather than “sell” IP. There aren’t effective ways to sell IP, but there are lots of effective ways to generate services.

But despite this, it’s all incredibly unsatisfying. Web browsers make really bad application interfaces/layers, and writing new programs isn’t always the best way to get better and more open file formats. I don’t know, I think someday most of our computing won’t happen on the devices we’re holding in our hands, but I’m not sure that the way to acomplish this is through a web-browser.

Just saying

• If I don’t know what to name a file I name it {something}.codex.txt. All my projects have codex files that are just big markdown collections of stuff. My todo list is called codex.tasks. Also all the spheres of my life have a two character prefix that I use to identify their files. AC for school (ACademic), MR for the novel (knowing MaRs), GS for graduate school (finally one that makes sense, SK for station keeping, BR, for the new novel project (BReakout), and so forth. Lots of codex files. Sigh.
• I have, by my count, about 16 more rounds remaining in the red sweater of doom. It’s all I can do to work on other projects. It’ll be nice to get this done and be able to focus on the Joyce sweater I’m making. I think that I’m going to knit on it for a couple of weeks and then knit a sleeve, knit on the Joyce sweater for a week or two, knit another sleeve, and so forth until I’m done. At the moment, I have a slight bottle neck in the fact that I have 1 16 inch US size 5 needle. I’ve probably, at this point spent about 60 dollars buying this particular size and length of needle (it’s best when we don’t think about this.) I’ve broken 3 and cut the cord on another (steeking incident, lets not discuss.) But then, it’s probably better that I don’t divide my time too much.
• I’m having the desire to knit hats. Expect hats in my future.
• Sorry that there has been so much blathering about computer stuff and what not lately. New knitting content would be really boring, and it’s been busy.
• My computer speakers have the tendency to pick up errant radio ways which is really annoying, but I’m too cheap to buy new ones despite the fact that these were the speakers I bought for 20 dollars when I built a PC box in high school. So I’m sitting in an empty house listening to my ipod on noise isolating headphones.
• I start working a crapton lot on Thursday. I’m pretty psyched about it.
• I had the pleasure of talking to ComposerScott last night. He posted an entry on his LJ about a cute BSG cast member. And despite the fact that I’ve been reading his journal for, oh, a year, I felt that this was the perfect first time to post a note of concurrence. I discovered Scott via the wonderful “Prometheus Radio Theater,” which I must shamefully admit to being tragically behind on. I’m behind on all podcast listening, and I’m hoping to start taking up spinning again, as a way to begin to get caught up. I just don’t drive distances or do menial office work enough any more. Anyway, it’s nice to find new internet friends.
• My friend R. and I had a conversation a few months back about how most of our closest friends were people that we knew at a point about 6 years previous. It was worry some, because these people disappeared, or changed in ways that made being friends with them difficult (or we changed…) But I’m starting to realize that many of my friends are more recent acquaintances, and I think though difficult in many ways, is a move in the right direction.
• I’m really bad about commenting on people’s blogs and journals, despite the fact that I read a great number of them. I just never feel like I have the right thing to say, even though as someone who delights in every comment that gets left on my site, that you don’t have to write poetry in the comment box.
• Would it be idiotic to build a linux server that had a drive that was dedicated to my iTunes library that I could mount over the network and then synch my ipod to over the network, or is that crazy? Also, while I’m living in fantasy land, what are the state of podcasting/skype tools for linux and the GIMP (the things that I find I almost always need more computer umphf.)?

That’s all I’m observing at the moment…

The red sweater of doom is almost done, I have about 35ish rows of knitting to do before the ribbing (which itself will take about two hours.) I think my goal of having it done by Saturday, is doable. I’m not sure that I have enough time to wet block it by then, but I’m going for steam here.

I’m also going to have enough yarn left over to do something else with. I’m thinking that I’ll buy a cone of black yarn to start with, and do something with the dark red and the black as a sort of subtle background for something. Another sweater. This seasons grey coat, and the blue and black grey coat are both queued up before this though. It’ll be nice to have a sweater that’s mostly made out of leftovers. “Woot! efficiency,” I say.

The yarn store I’m going to be working at starts employing me on Thursday (dry run, and a last minute sort of thing; grand opening on Saturday). I hear there are going to be people camping out in the morning. Hence wanting to get the sweater done before then. I also have a crap ton of things to get done before then. Egad. It’s weird, most of the mundane things in my life are pretty under control, and I’m not “behind” on any projects, it’s the big existential things that are dragging on me: getting into graduate schools, a web design project, some larger aspects of the writing projects, numerous emails, and so forth.

Also, I left my power-cord at home today, which meant that I had to spend some time using a public computer. A public PC computer. It didn’t even have Firefox! I was sort of at a loss of how to make things work (meebo was a lifesaver.) Also, while I would still consider myself proficient with office, it’s a weird experience, and my recent move to IMAP was helpful in keeping things all sorted out, but I have to say that I really hate living inside of a browser, and I can’t quite figure out how so many people do that…

Anyway, be well, and I’ll be in touch.

I’ve been blogging for a really long time. I figure, since 1999 or so in one form or another. My archives, due to a server shut down at the end of 2002 only go back that far, but there was about two years of blogging before that.

The thing about this is that, at this point blogging wasn’t hip and new media the way it is now, blogs weren’t the kind of things that people set up every time they thought they had a new project, few if any college professors had their classes blog, and small businesses weren’t told that having an active blog was the key to success. Hell, commenting systems weren’t quite ubiquitous, and contemporary features like trackbacks and RSS were very new if they existed at all. Hell, niche blogging--like KnitBlogs, or TechBlogs and so forth--didn’t really exist. In fact most blogging platforms didn’t even use dynamic page generation systems…

It was a different world.

I occasionally talk with my friend dave about this period of blogging. We were both online and had sites back then, but never quite made it as bloggers in the way that many other people that were blogging back then did. I was… 13 years old, and my spelling was even worse then; but I think we both had a lot of growing up to do. Also, neither of us were located in a place the real world that would have made it easier to “make it:” you’ll see when I get to the list that most of the original core of bloggers were located in L.A., New York, or San Francisco. But my goal isn’t to dwell on what could have been, but rather to try to make a list of the old timers.

So here’s the list, in no particular order:

1. Anil Dash
2. Jish
3. `Mathowie <http://www.metafilter.com>`_ (MeFi)
4. Kottke
5. Meg Hourihan
6. Heather Armstrong (Dooce)
7. Cam Barret
8. Brad Grahm
9. Jerwin
10. Derek Powazek
11. Heather Champ
12. John Halycon Styn
13. Matt Kingston
14. Amy/Domesticat
15. Ev Williams
16. UltraSparky
17. Chris/Uffish Thoughts
18. Choire Sicha
19. Jonno
20. Ernie/Little Yellow Different
21. Rebecca Blood
22. Noah Grey
23. Rachel James

What this list leaves out are sites like Slashdot and Boing Boing, the former should certainly count, the later is damn close if it doesn’t count. It also leaves out the Journaling tradition, which has been around for a lot longer than the ‘blog, and uses the same basic form. Indeed, many of the people listed above would probably be considered journal rather than blog types, but it doesn’t really matter.

So this leaves me with two questions for you, wise readers, who where the other 7-10 “original” bloggers? I can’t think of them, really. I think one would have had to start blogging before Janurary 2001, and preferably have started in the first half of 2000 at the latest.

Secondly--family, and dave are exempt from this contest--not that there are good prizes, but I’ve met one of these people in real life out of the blogging context, I’ll figure out something something for the first person to figure out which one it is….

Here’s a status report for you all:

• I’ve gone through the first four chapters of the novella incorporating the most of the changes that my first readers suggested. Woohoo! I also, fixed a recurring misspelling of a character’s name, and a couple of unclear moments. I think the ending is going to need a little clarifying perhaps for draft 3, but I don’t want to tinker with it too much for draft 2.
• I am almost half way done with the sleeve of this sweater. Blasted thing. That’s why I’ve not been posting much about knitting recently, it’s more of the same, and this is a loose end of an old project. I realize that most of you all who are reading this site are probably most interested in my knitting (welcome folks from ravelry!) but the truth is that most of the time, my knitting progress amounts to, “look here, I knit another inch on the same sweater!” and is as a result not nearly as sexy as it could be. I hope you don’t mind the musings about trends in science fiction or whatever else happens to be on my mind. Like….
• I think my taste buds are becoming habituated to the burn of horseradish. I put what I would have thought was an obscene amount of the stuff on a can of tuna-fish with mayo, and I could barely taste it. I fear that this might affect my overall quality of life. Sigh
• I’m slowly easing into work on the new novel project, and it’s starting to feel more like home. I always worry about using planning and the “marinating” process as a sort of “productive procrastination,” but the truth is that sometimes you just have to sit on ideas for a while, and I’m feeling better about the project now.
• Though I’m a long way away from actually starting a new project, I’ve been looking at the Celtic Charted Designs book for ideas, and not being compleatly successful. I have time, but I don’t want to accidentally finish all my projects and then be without a new project again. That’s an ugly state to be in.
• I think I have a sweater that I’m going to lengthen the sleeves a bit, so then it will fit, but still be to warm to wear below the Arctic Circle.
• I’m about to head out to a new knitting group, and I’ve packed my tote bag from knitting camp full of projects, that I’m sure I won’t get a chance to knit on, but it’s worth a start. I guess it’s time to put on pants for the day….

One of the ideas that I’m playing around with in the new project is an “exodus from Earth,” where our people will be through the course of the long¹ story, will be leaving earth and our solar system for more hospitable places.

This ties in with some of the ideas that I was playing with in the last post, in that I think this presents an interesting perspective to talk about some cool issues, even if I don’t think it’s particularly likely that there’s going to be a human exodus from our solar system in the next 500 years.

Also, I think it creates a space where I can take a couple of core cyberpunk ideas and get away writing a lot of very cyberpunk-ish things that if I were writing them straight on, I don’t think I could get away with. If I was writing a story set in the present/near future that had the sort of bleak settings and hypertechnologized environments, I don’t think it would fly, but in the context of an exodus from this solar system? It makes more sense. At least to me, and I’m the one who matters at this point.

That’s all for now. I should point out that I’ve finally made the transition to life as an IMAP mail user, and will hopefully now be less tethered to my specific instance of computer. We shall see…

Cheers, sam

I had a scene in the novella set in Casablanca a hundred years after they built a dome over the city.

I have to admit that the decision to put a scene there, was mostly random, mostly because I didn’t want to put it in Paris or Oslo, or some other European city. But as I’ve been thinking about it, it’s an interesting idea, to suggest that Northern Africa, might be the home of the next wave of cosmopolitan meccas. I particularly like the way that, particularly in a cyberpunk context, it creates a parallel with the “middle ages.”

I read a forum post somewhere on the internet (that I can’t find anymore) that attacked the people who say “cyberpunk is dead,” by saying that “cyberpunk represented for them what could have been, and what might yet be,” which frankly I think is a load of nostalgic hooey. We can’t write stories today that are cyberpunk in the way that people could write stories 20 years ago that were cyberpunk. The cyberpunk “moment” if you will, has passed.

But it’s not dead. There are to my mind two distinct flavors of cyberpunk that live on. The sort of theoretical decedents that say that there’s an underbelly to technological progress, that explores the possibility of subculture in the bright and shiny future. And then there’s the aesthetic side that thinks that DNIs are freekin' amazing and psychedelic virtual realities are cool and so forth.

And before you say, “but tycho, who in their right mind would take as the starting point of a sub-genre, all of the fluff and none of the meat of a preceding field?” And it’s not as absurd as you’d think. Steampunk is basically all aesthetic and no real meat from anywhere else, and frankly it’s pretty damn awesome. The lesson is that we make our (theoretical) meat pretty much regardless of the setting, so if you have cyberpunks in North Africa, working on an internet that doesn’t exist and will never exist, it works (or can), if you play your cards right. Which is always the case, no matter how failed (or not) your premise is.

What I think is more interesting from my own persecutive, is that despite how ardently theoretical I tend to be, I think I fall into the aesthetic camp, rather than the theoretical one. Contemporary theoretical cyberpunk tends to be much more moment specific, more grounded in current existence, current theoretical issues, and less involved in the issues that surround technological development and the culture-technology relationship.

The other factor in my own work is that I see science fiction, even futuristic science fiction as being a historical project. I’m interested in North Africa as a cosmopolitan center in my futuristic stories, because of its history as such, not particularly because I think that it’s likely to come to pass.

I think it’s incredible that Cory Doctorow and I can agree that futurism has virtually no place in science fiction for such completely different reasons.

Tomorrow is a writing day.

Note to self: I’m taking the GRE on 12 November 2007 at noon in west county.

Feh.