Raph’s Website Embed virtual worlds anywhere

Raph’s Website Embed virtual worlds anywhere: "We’ve released a feature that I personally think is highly significant for both Metaplace and for virtual worlds in general. As of now, you can embed a virtual world on pretty much any webpage, just like any other widget."

I had the craziest thought, or may just a little bit crazier then normal. While reading this I remembered one of my sister's in law is currently addicted to FarmTown, but that sounds so much like work I am not sure why anyone would do it for fun.

Then I remembered the there are lots of other of these kinds of games that people are making the same complaints about.

Then 1984 and Brave New World popped up into the mix as well.

So are we actually playing out these warnings? It sure looks like it though they missed on some of the minor specifics.

The quality of abundance

It looks like the Toaster project is done and not everyone likes it which is kind of sad to think that they don't get the fact that modern life is only possible by the interactions of millions of people.
This is not the first time something like this was attempted either, Wired has a good article on the 100 mile suit. Again tough but possible.

But you have to combine it with Free! reviewed by Wired.

As much as we complain about how expensive things are getting, we're surrounded by forces that are making them cheaper. Forty years ago, the principal nutritional problem in America was hunger; now it's obesity, for which we have the Green Revolution to thank. Forty years ago, charity was dominated by clothing drives for the poor. Now you can get a T-shirt for less than the price of a cup of coffee, thanks to China and global sourcing. So too for toys, gadgets, and commodities of every sort.

Doing anything the first time is very, very hard and very, very expensive. But if it is worth doing once, it might be worth doing again, and again and again. And if you focus on refining the process of doing it again making it cheaper, faster and better.

Nowadays I don't really recommend a specific computer to people, if it has a processor faster then 1GHz and 1GHz of RAM it will be fine for most uses, unless you are doing high-end photo, graphics or video work.

It comes down to when you have an abundance of something you have the freedom to get creative with it and not feel bad when it doesn't work out. Quantity has a quality of it own, If we are working with something we don't have a lot of like a steak we'll be far more careful and less tolerant of mistakes. We have given our daughter some things in plenty: Legos, construction paper, tape, crayons, Al foil and the like. She comes up with great things. Then again she occasionally does something completely wacky, like give herself a makeover using a green marker (washable markers FTW)

Driving through Kansas we saw a sign that said that 1 Kansas farmer feeds 120 people. For the longest time farmers could just feed themselves, but once crop yields improved all kinds of things got better. Leaving time for philosophy, science and the arts. Which make a different difference in our lives.

ht Marginal Revolution
ht Daring Fireball

Obama Tells American Businesses to Drop Dead: Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg.com

Obama Tells American Businesses to Drop Dead: Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg.com: "I’ve finally figured out the Obama economic strategy. President Barack Obama and his team have been having so much fun wielding dictatorial power while rescuing “failed” firms, that they have developed a scheme to gain the same power over every business. The plan is to enact policies that are so anticompetitive that every firm needs a bailout."

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.

I GAVE UP FOR A DAY: 19 Unintentional Discoveries That Changed The World

I GAVE UP FOR A DAY: 19 Unintentional Discoveries That Changed The World

Very useful.

Books are the ultimate shortcut

A Manifesto for Scholarly Publishing - ChronicleReview.com: "In 1948, the University of Illinois Press published Claude Shannon's brief and profoundly influential book The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Shannon's work, which explained how words, sounds, and images could be converted into blips and sent electronically, presaged the digital revolution in communications."


Books are the ultimate shortcut. A book no matter how it is printed will contain a years or a decades or a lifetimes of someone else's learning and mistakes. And you can absorb all that in a matter of hours.

It's not about the media you print books on that is important but the ideas that are set down. Printing on paper in the traditional manner is pretty wasteful. Printing on Demand is way better about waste, but electronic books are the best with respect to waste you keep one copy on the server and you can make an infinite number of perfect copies. The only problem with ebooks is the memory hole problem: electronic copies can be altered without your knowledge, fixing spelling errors are one thing altering the past is something else.

NYC 7TH GRADERS RECEIVE CASH REWARDS FOR HIGH GRADES ON STANDARDIZED TESTS - New York Post

NYC 7TH GRADERS RECEIVE CASH REWARDS FOR HIGH GRADES ON STANDARDIZED TESTS - New York Post: "About two-thirds of the 59 high-poverty schools in the Sparks program -- which pays seventh-graders up to $500 and fourth-graders as much as $250 for their performance on a total of 10 assessments -- improved their scores since last year's state tests by margins above the citywide average."

Why is the only solution to school problems more money?

via slashdot

Unreasonable Rocket: Business ethics and cuts by a thousand lawyers.

Unreasonable Rocket: Business ethics and cuts by a thousand lawyers.: "Others have “friend companies” buy it for them etc.. My personal business ethics don’t feel comfortable with that. As a result of being honest and upfront about what I’m doing the door is closed."

It is good to see that people are still trying to get into space. But do the lawyers/politicians have to make it this hard. Too much nanny statism.