my wordI had a dream about a dream about a dream this afternoon. I try to always take a nap in the afternoon, just like they taught me in kindergarten. I recommend it to everyone.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you that God spoke to me in my dream. This dream was inspired by the movie Inception, which I watched yesterday.
John Dory & Co.
On Saturday my friend Harry took me out fishing on his little 20-foot sloop.
It’s winter time here in New Zealand — not the best time for fishing the Hauraki Gulf. The weather can be foul, the water is cold, which means the fish are not that hungry, and most of them have moved away from the sheltered waters around Auckland.
Today was scheduled to be different, at least in terms of the weather. For a change, we’d be sitting under one of those big fat high’s that come swirling off the hot-plate they call Australia. At least until late afternoon, when the high would say goodbye, we’d have a cloudless, calm day.
About six years ago (around 2004) I talked about one day having a machine that, given a recipe, could produce any kind of meal, and that the food markets would morph into markets in raw materials and in software recipes.
Well now there’s a serious proposal for version 1.0 of such a device. Not yet my complete vision but definitely the next step towards it.
In later versions, the raw materials will be simple molecules, like water and amino acids. Perhaps later, individual atoms, mainly carbon. The device will extract some raw materials, like hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, from the atmosphere.
It will be like a microwave, except you insert an empty plate, select a recipe (for which you pay per use, if the marketers get their way), and in a few minutes you have your meal. Optionally produce the plate as well.
It will also be like a printer, in that you will have to replace the cartridge(s) from time to time. So the device itself will be sold for almost nothing, as a loss leader. The money will come from the raw materials and from the software recipes.
And the next next step?
Clothing.
Why wash, when you can reprint?
In my earlier post, I speculated on the iPhone software change that Apple would make in response to “antennagate”.
I suggested that, with the new formula, bars would be assigned linearly across the full range of signal strength, from what I called zero, where a connection could not be established and maintained, up to some maximum.
With the new software now released, and after independent analysis, we are able to check my prediction.
The underlying engineering issues have been well covered, for example here, here and here.
At first Apple said “Don’t hold it that way”. That didn’t go down too well.
Now Apple have released a carefully worded statement, which you can read here.
We dismantle Apple’s statement to see what we might read between the lines.
Reception on every phone gets worse when you hold it.
Reception on iPhone 4 gets much worse when you hold it the “wrong” way.
Unheld, iPhone 4′s antenna performance is exquisite, perhaps the current best-in-class.
We also know that the number of bars shown on any iPhone is generally a bit more optimistic than on other phones — but that is not the issue here. The differences are tiny. This, as we will see, is a distraction.
as I write this
the tears flow
ok
the sobbing has subsided
Yes, there is a movement afoot
A movement to build up and to engage with our youth
began a particular important
24-hour event, the
At precisely 9:00 pm (NZ time),
synchronously (all at the same time),
over the Internet
direct from bali, indonesia
100′s of 16/17-year-old high school students,
from 14 different countries,
in teams of 8 plus a mentor/sponsor,
received this mission:
I’ve been asked to write about
how life in NZ compares
with life in the USA.
Why?
Because I claim the differences are hugely important!
They explain
at least in part
WARNING: here comes that darn conceptual leap again
much of your (usans) suffering
What suffering?!
Ok, next question …
In NZ:
(to be continued)
ok, i won’t give up
i’m not going to sit in the corner and not not not make a noise
not hide
make sure no-one sees me us we
us you we me the it not
lay low, stay cool, don’t hurt anybody
ok?
please?
pretty please?
(not fishing)
I’ve been writing, experimenting with blogs.
This is the latest of several quite unsatisfactory attempts.
why so miserable?
i’ll have to blog about that, i suppose.
maybe i should go play my guitar
what potus said, but hopes you missed:
what potus did not say:
