Author: John Roberts

The largest item on our walls here at home is a map of North America, probably 6 feet square. The fun part? It’s in Cyrillic. My sister Laura brought it back as a gift (in 4 paper rolls) from her six months in Russia several years ago. It was expensive to get mounted, even without a cover, but it was worth it. I was thinking about maps because earlier this week I downloaded and installed EarthDesk, a MacOS X program which replaces your desktop picture with an updating map of the world, with various settings and projections. Very nifty program. If you’re in the market for some wall maps, try Raven Maps, which offers relatively inexpensive large maps, including the option of lamination (worth the slight extra $). Most are for the United States (state by state), but some more global options. For trail maps, I’m more of a neophyte, as I don’t do much hiking, but I like the Tom Harrison Maps, at least for California. I don’t have many older maps, but I’m always on the lookout for interesting maps. A long time ago, I worked at a Library of Geological Sciences… now there’s a home for maps!

I live with a huge Tetris fan, and it’s not Ben. Just downloaded
Trisection… we’ll see if it passes muster.

…this article (Shareware Amateurs vs. Shareware Professionals)would be more interesting. But it’s not bad even though I’m not a developer.

Why is everything a “vs.” issue? Meaning, party A vs. party B? The whole “journalists vs. bloggers” schtick is getting older by the minute. But if you want traffic to your news site, write an article either praising or condemning bloggers, and all the bloggers will link to you. See? 😉

Elvis Costello’s newest CD, courtesy of Peter, delivered by Daniel. Thanks to them both.

In Middlebury, Vermont last weekend, I picked up The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge. I’d read Marooned in Realtime already, so his stellar reputation was corroborated by personal experience. I like short fiction when it’s more story than mood. These are. I’ll also have to follow up sometime about the Singularity. Vinge referred to it several times in short intro notes written for this collection, and I have to admit I didn’t know what he meant. From the first bit of this 1993 essay, I have the basic idea: we will soon have non-human intelligence(s) greater than human. Pretty old concept in science fiction. I’ll have to read the essay sometime in its entirety. The neat part about Vinge is that he is a computer scientist, recently retired from teaching at San Diego State.
About my previous book… I enjoyed Personal History, which I finished in the airport last weekend. The only thing lacking, really, was more detail on why Katharine Graham’s efforts with the Washington Post were successful. Her book was certaintly insightful, and I’d recommend it to others… I just finished the Personal History wanting a bit more of the Corporate History, too. Halberstam’s The Powers That Be covered some of this ground, but not enough of the 1960s onwards from a business angle.

[via Lawrence Lessig] One big picture, with few players

This NYTimes.com article will disappear in seven days, but the key facts are as follows. Harvard heavyweights won their first IRA national championship ever, capping an undefeated season to date (including Sprints). Most years, the crew cannot attend because of the Harvard-Yale race. Also, Charlie Butt’s crew came through to win the lightweight race, getting faster since Eastern Sprints. Every odd year since 1991, Charlie’s crew has won the national championship. I was part of two of those crews. It was 10 years ago in Camden, New Jersey (where today’s races were held) that our crew came back from getting surprised by Dartmouth at Sprints to win by open water at the IRAs. I just remember that we practiced starts incessantly in the intervening weeks, knowing that as long as no one got away from us early, the race was ours. We blistered everyone in the first 500 meters, and the result was foregone — but it was as exhausting as most any race I ever rowed, even knowing halfway through that we were going to win. Hate to live in the past, but that team sport surge of energy and emotion is behind me now. Congrats to this year’s crews… and Harry Parker and Charlie Butt.

Not the same thing as being there, of course, but I’m pleased to have some/any insight into the D: All Things Digital conference. At least Denise Howell’s transcript of Walt Mossberg talking with Steve Jobs gives some feel for the event, if not any new insights.

If I ever want to plan a round-the-world trip, this tidbit about a useful consolidator’s website will be useful.