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Collective Intelligence 101? – Thank you my favourite muse :-*

Henrietteblogheader

Jaiku can be very (understatement) inspirational, and this time I managed to inspire my favourite muse, Henriette, to write a great blog-post, despite her being sick.

Web avant-garde » Blog Archive » the pulsefrequency of the brain (and it’s effect on creativity and incubation)

I wrote this on Jaiku to thank her:

Thanks, very nice!!! It was sort of a “thank you”. Remember some months ago you asked about ideas on how to be creative, and I just started blogging like a madman… I’ll think of a worthy comment, but I do need to catch some alpha-waves – surfs up – ahem down…

First Henriette asks this question:

so what do YOU love to do ? and are you doing it when you are taking time off ?

Henriette loved this:

This weekend I took my favorite man and went on a mental training workshop by Susan Ekberg. It was a real mental kick and I got so much out of it. Among other things she talked about the pulsefrequency of the brain which I want to share with ya’ll.

So I promised her a “worthy” answer:

This is (one thing) that I love – when not catching Alpha Waves (which I try to practice Yoga Nidra to achieve), or walking and/or biking in nature.

I love to ponder the future, technology, and how it can finally help humanity evolve. Today it has mostly made us slaves – the production lines has never run faster than today, despite talk about a “spare-time society” – where you aren’t a slave.

So here goes “nothing“:

Henriette mentions “Collective Intelligence”, this is a subject I’ve been trying to brew up a blog-post on, since July. It’s, tentatively, titled “Building a framework for (online) knowledge sharing“.

Continue reading “Collective Intelligence 101? – Thank you my favourite muse :-*”
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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English) Technology

Mobile Monday Denmark

Mobile Monday LogoMobile Monday Denmark
I just rediscovered Mobile Monday – I’ll be lurking for a while (Jaiku is a great lurking tool ;-))

MobileMonday is a community of mobile professionals. The open community promotes the mobile industry and fosters cooperation and networking among industry people and their companies by providing opportunities for personal and virtual contacts.

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Blogs Bookmarks Computerspil Kim Blog (English) Music Technology

Warning: Thanks to the DS, I might pick up the “guitar” – AGAIN

Ubisoft Jam Sessions ScreenshotNintendo.com News : Transform your DS into a guitar with Jam Sessions

After having been on the Japanese market for quite a while, Ubisoft is about to launch Jam Sessions to the rest of the world.

Jam Sessions is a Guitar Simulator, and unlike Guitar Hero, it’s focusing on reality, as this (Hidari Mae: Logical Conclusion) great sounding sample demonstrates – it was made without real guitars!

The concept is that you strum the guitar using the touch screen, and use the navigation keys to create chords.

So I might pick up the “guitar” again, it’s been more than 25 years since I tried to learn how to play the guitar – I sort of managed to get the technical details right, and it’s still in “my fingers” – but it never really amounted to anything – you know music is about feelings and “letting go” – when I was 18 I was a serious uptight old fart, with no concept of feelings, I think I might fare better today, and I’ve actually been jamming with my oldest niece using her acoustic guitar, and it actually sounded much better after she coached me – I was amazed or maybe I’m just tone-deaf ;-).

I’m NEVER going to master a traditional game controller, but the new generation of gaming concepts that Nintendo is pioneering strikes a SERIOUS chord (pun intended ;-)) with me.

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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English) Music Technology

Last.fm – insanely great – should I apply?

Last.fm Red LogoLast.fm – the online music community – is probably the KEWLest web-site on the planet – and now it’s even KEWLer, since they have a Jaiku channel.

In case you don’t know Jaiku, it’s a web application that makes it easy to follow your friends, and stay updated on your favourite topics and/or sites (if they have a channel that is). Services like Jaiku are often refereed to as “microblogging services”, and it’s somewhat similar to another web-application: Twitter.

In case you don’t know Last.fm – you’re not from this planet, but it’s a service that, based on your musical preference, helps you discover new music, events and friends. Last.fm also operates unlimited streaming “radio stations”, where the users determine the content, for instance based on the similarity of artists, you can for instance ask Last.fm to stream a radio-station similar to a specific artist.

Since I joined the #LastFM channel, I remembered that I one year ago added “Send job-application to Last.fm” to my to-do list – I feel that Last.fm thinks like I do, and they’re looking for lots of people, and it looks like a great place to work.

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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English) Macintosh Mactopia Open Source Technology

Moonlighting: Microsoft Delivers Silverlight 1.0, Extends Support to Linux

Microsoft Silverlight LogoMicrosoft Delivers Silverlight 1.0, Extends Support to Linux: “Entertainment Tonight” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment showcase new online experiences; more than 35 partners commit to Silverlight Partner Initiative.

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 4, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today released to the Web (RTW) Silverlight™ 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering richer user experiences on the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell Inc. to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com.

Silverlight significantly reduces development and deployment costs and provides enhanced Web audio and video streaming and playback using industry-leading Windows Media® Technologies. Microsoft unveiled new Silverlight customer experiences on “Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment, and also launched the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program designed to foster collaboration among solution providers, content delivery networks, tools vendors and design agencies.

“Our expectations for compelling, immersive experiences on the Web are increasing daily,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect. “With today’s release of Silverlight 1.0, we’re making it possible for developers and designers to deliver to individuals the kind of high-def experiences they crave by integrating data and services in rich and unique ways. Silverlight will further accelerate the growth in rich interactive applications by giving developers and designers new options for delivering great experiences that span the Web, PC, phone and other devices.”

I think my jaw just hit the floor, this exceeds my wildest dreams – let’s hope that it’s not just that – and that it will materialise.

This is the validation that the Mono Project needed! Flash will now – finally – get serious competition – or rather a run for it’s money – from a company that understands, and listens to, developers (no “monkey dance” here – they just do!).

It’s WONDERFUL news. GO RAY OZZIE, Microsoft will be “insanely great” – unlike “another” company – that no longer has ANY interest in computers!!!

And guess what: I just started as a Microsoft developer again – seems that I got the timing right.

Get Silverlight 1.0 here (yes: it’s ALSO for the Mac)…

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Blogs Bookmarks Kim Blog (English) Rumforskning Technology Videnskab

NASA Space Telescopes Find ‘Lego-Block’ Galaxies in Early Universe

Hubble-20070906-BrowseJPL.NASA.GOV: News Releases

NASA has just issued a press release regarding a new discovery. What the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have discovered are small, dense galaxies in the distant universe (meaning we’re looking WAY back in time), that are considered to be building blocks of the Universe, and it contributes to, and confirms, our understanding of the evolution of the Universe.

This press release caught my interest, in part, due to the mentioning of ‘Lego’ the BEST toy EVER, but behind the headline lies yet another important discovery, that, to me, really demonstrates why we need to invest in Space Telescopes, there’s so much to learn.

“OH MY GOD! IT’S FULL OF STARS!”.

This is a quote from the NASA press release:

A NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have joined forces to discover nine of the smallest, faintest, most compact galaxies ever observed in the distant universe. Blazing with the brilliance of millions of stars, each of the newly discovered galaxies is 100 to 1,000 times smaller than our Milky Way galaxy.

“These are among the lowest mass galaxies ever directly observed in the early universe,” said Nor Pirzkal of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md.

The conventional model for galaxy evolution predicts that small galaxies in the early universe evolved into the massive galaxies of today by coalescing. These nine Lego-like “building block” galaxies initially detected by Hubble likely contributed to the construction of the universe as we know it.

JPL is the NASA body that manages the majority of the robotic missions to the planets and the solar system, this includes the highly successful Mars Rovers, Voyager, Cassini. You can subscribe to the NASA JPL newsletter by visiting this link

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Blogs Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English) Open Source Technology

Format Wars – Return of the Jedi – RELOADED – Come to your senses Microsoft

OH HAPPY DAY!!! I’m very happy, relieved and surprised: Microsoft Office Open XML (MSOOXML) has FAILED – yes that is F-A-I-L-E-D – to win approval at the vote in the International Organisation for Standardisation – ISO.

Microsoft is in “Neverland”, and sort of claims victory, and their official press release is titled “Strong Global Support for Open XML as It Enters Final Phase of ISO Standards Process” and the comment from the OOXML community site, OpenXML Community reads:

Results of this ballot:

* 87 countries participated in the process: 69 voted Yes or No (51 countries voted in favor*, 18 voted against) and 18 Abstained.
* 41 of 41 P members took part in the vote, meeting the 50% participation requirement for those members.
* Open XML received 53% (17 of 32) of the required two-thirds voting Yes or No, falling 5 short of this requirement (22 Yes votes out of 32 Yes or No votes would have met the requirement).
* Overall, 26% (18 of 69) of countries voted No, one vote over the threshold of no more than 25% of No votes (17 or fewer No votes out of 69 Yes or No votes would have met this requirement).

Microsoft remains optimistic that Open XML will meet the above ISO/IEC requirements after the comments submitted by the National Bodies have been addressed during the upcoming ballot resolution period.

Notice the asterix (*), yes they snapped out of it, and realised what had actually happened:

* Note: 32 ISO members voted in favor of Open Document Format (ODF) 1.0 at the end of its process and 15 ISO members supported PDF/A-1 at the end of its process.

Groklaw helped doing the math for Microsoft:

Microsoft is, of course, counting P and O members in one bunch. The actual percentages go like this:

  • P-Members voting: 17 in favor out of 32 = 53.12% (requirement >= 66.66%)
  • Member bodies voting: 18 negative votes out of 69 = 26.08%
  • Disapproved

“Return of the Jedi – RELOADED”: The Empire is under pressure, there’s going to be a sequel, stay tuned, we do indeed live in interesting times.

France has an interesting proposal: Simply merge ODF and MSOOXML

My take on this is:

Microsoft: Come to your senses! Admit defeat! Spare the world, and your shareholders the agony of this stupid format war and MOVE ON.

It’s really very simple Microsoft: Just document ALL your formats, including the old binary Office formats, and we can declare victory for humanity in this STUPID war.

More on format wars and “the Jedi of the Internet” from yours truly.

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Blogs Bookmarks Kim Blog (English) Mactopia Music Technology

Apple – QuickTime – September 2007 Keynote Address

Ipods Special Event 20070905Apple – QuickTime – September 2007 Keynote Address

Apple Special Event from today is now available for streaming, Steve is looking sharp, great seeing him playing with iTunes Ringtone Maker: “All we are saying is give peace a chance” – “that’s for when NBC calls” LOL.

And the iPod Touch – should be called the iPod Ouch – Ouch there goes my recent resolution: “No more gadgets!” AGAIN! I am however going to wait until I can try it, before buying. I have some questions…

  1. Can I update my calendar and address book and have it synced back to iCal and Address Book? My guess is no.
  2. Does the Danish localisation include a Danish touch screen keyboard, including æ, ø and å, Steve only showed the US version?
  3. It doesn’t look like it works with Nike+.
  4. It doesn’t look like it supports Bluetooth, so no wireless headsets or integration with phones and cameras
  5. When will there be a Starbucks in Copenhagen (hey isn’t there one in CPH Airport? Guess I just have to travel some more!)

As a spin off from the Special Event today, I’ve created a Jaiku channel for the Danish Apple community called #appletalkdk, join the fun here.

The picture is Copyright (c) 2007 Apple Inc., I consider my use here to be fair use.

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Blogs Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English) Mactopia Music Technology

And the beat goes on…

I got hold of a copy of Steve’s manuscript earlier today…

*Cue the music
*His Steveness enters
*iTunes growth has been OUT OF THIS WORLD, WE’RE “BEAT”ING THEM ALL
Everyone is on iChat these days, let’s see, hmm…Hi Sir Paul!
Do you have an iPod? Yes, yes I have SEVERAL, you keep making new ones. Well I might have a surprise for you later, and tell us about the merger of Apple Inc. and Apple Corp…
*BOOM!!!
*Do you remember what the BIG jeans pocket was for? Now you can put it to use again, with the brand-new iPod Video, if you can get it to fit next to the iPhone you’ll need as well to get it online.
*Phil can you show us how that works? (Phil is in the audience with his Power…ahem MacBook – oh there you are! – Phil is on iChat with the new Leopard default theme).

*And now back to you Sir Paul.

*Oh one more thing…NAH! That’s so last year:

*Thank you and goodnight!

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Blogs Bookmarks Design Kim Blog (English) Mactopia Music Technology

Heyerdahl.no – iDiamond – the ultimate BlingShuffle

iDiamond iPod shuffleHeyerdahl.no – iDiamond

I knew that there would be a market for “gadget jewellery”, but this bling-iPod shuffle from the Norwegian Jeweller Thomas Heyerdahl in Oslo is just a bit over the top, being priced at €31.000/US $41.000. The shuffle is adorned by a total of 430 diamonds, with 312 used for the player and 118 used for the earbuds.

Looking at the “diggs” this gadget is getting, it’s a great marketing stunt by Heyerdahl. The iPod is “iconic”, but I think that it would have been much more interesting if they had made an exclusive design, instead of relying on a $79 industrial design. OTOH, linking up with the hyped Apple brand is probably a smart move, and it’s unlikely that I’d heard about it, if they had done an exclusive design.

Personally I find the details about how the gadget was manufactured, much more interesting than the gadget itself.

It was manufactured by a Dutch company called Diaro Digital Design, using the 3D-modelling software Rhinoceros.

Kopiavidiamond2Details about the iDiamond from the Heyerdahl website:

  • 1 pcs. / Special edition / Not for commercial sale.
  • Produced for Heyerdahl by: Diaro Digital Design – Robert de Brueijs / The Netherlands / www.diaro.nl
  • 3D production: CAD / CAM 3D design / Rhinoceros
  • Wax model made by: Solidcape T66Bt2 Wax printer.
  • Casting method: Vacuumcasting
  • Diamond setting: Handcrafted micro Pavè setting.
  • Details engraved: Laser engraved details

Details about iDiamond aren’t available on the Diaro Digital Design website, but I suppose that they’ll update their site soon.

The pictures that accompanies this article were copied from the Heyerdahl website, and are most likely copyright Gullsmed Heyerdahl A.S., I consider my use of the pictures to be fair use.