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I often wait a couple of weeks when Software Update pops up with something new from Apple, to see if any bad news filters out over the first few days. But with MacOS 10.3.2, I didn’t wait on my 12″ PowerBook G4. Reports are coming in that this was a bad idea, in a minor way. Apparently, the fan will run continuously when the laptop is plugged in. Well, mine isn’t doing it (yet?). Here’s another report, from the Apple forums, which also has a link to a fix, which is too risky for my blood — especially since I’m not having the problem. There was also a separate update which is supposed to recalibrate the battery and give you additional time. That would be nice.

I don’t know much about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), but I know enough to support them strongly, both at work (where it matters) and here (where I just grabbed a default theme, but made sure it employed CSS). Maybe after I get through all the lessons (great stuff, with solid, interactive examples) and start coding myself, the idea of making my CSS more efficient will be useful. I’ll save the link until then. In the meantime, here’s a post about fixed vs. liquid designs, in CSS and otherwise, by a design/interface expert (Doug Bowman), with interesting comments.

It’s still barely past research project, but here’s a ‘monitor’ made of air, in a NYTimes article. Technology like this will become important because of the growth of ‘gestural computing’ from the game status that got me so excited earlier this week.

I read this blog from time to time, via its RSS feed. I’ve worked with a really strong project manager a few times in my career, and it’s a blessing. Hard to tell for sure, but I like the way this person thinks, at least. Here’s a grid which boils down hard-earned experience into realistic choices for project lifecycles based on priorities. One size does not fit all. Acknowledge that up front, and life is much less grim (if not easier).

I’ve posted about metadata before. Here’s Jason Kottke’s already bemoaning the overabundance of metadata. His illustrations nicely, well, illustrate his point. What’s he really poking fun at is the high visibility of metadata, and the thought necessary to create it. Got to make it seamless to the process, or it’s another hurdle to jump.

I recently finished Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson’s latest novel. I’m not the only one.

Skimming Doc Searls’ bio, and I smiled when I read this at the bottom:

Since I’m always working on too many things, and will probably never stop, I want my epitaph to read, “He was almost finished.”

Bravo.

You have looked silly before. You will again. However, there are few things that can make you look as silly as playing Toysight, a new collection of games, MacOS X only, where your motions (real, physical motions) control the games. Developed with the iSight in mind, Toysight is, I think, revolutionary.

A free demo has just been released. There is only one game in the demo, Free Fall. It’s not the most compelling game I can imagine, but the sheer novelty of standing in front of your computer and motioning (OK, waving your arms about) to manuever your on-screen skydiver is tremendous. It works… that’s incredible enough. I can imagine other games that will work better, and the demo promotes several other items that will be in the collection. But for now, if you have an iSight, you owe it yourself to at least try the demo.

Warning: you will look silly. VERY silly. I think my wife can’t believe what she just saw. She knows I’m a geek, and I hope that most of the time she accepts that in the best way possible. But the vision of me ‘skydiving’ in our study startled even her. Even typing these words is silly, but I’m willing to share my silliness in public because this is the first time I’ve seen real physical manipulation of a computer program. The mouse opened up many doors, but this is much, much more dramatic. Not now, but not too far off, either.

Yes, Toysight is a demo, and first generation, and the controls are awkward (might work better in a room that was better lit), but the seeds of the future are here. I don’t usually come across things where I believe I can see the next technological step forward, but I have to believe that this game will open the eyes of developers everywhere to the possibilities which, to date, have remained only in research labs (try looking at some of these papers on ‘gestural computing’).

The iSight is a consumer gadget, ~$150. My wife gave it to me as an early Christmas present (is she sorry now?) so I could videochat with my siblings in Brooklyn. In many ways, it’s a toy (especially when playing games!). But it’s enough to open the door to enough people to make a video camera as common a computer accessory as the mouse, eventually.

In three years, I think, an iSight-level camera will be standard equipment on all desktop computers, perhaps built in to the monitor. The expense of miniaturizing the device enough for a laptop will make it less common there, at first, but it will be available as a regular option. I would expect Apple to push this into their high-end monitors first. Maybe Microsoft (perhaps with Longhorn) will have Windows fully ready for this kind of input no later than 2006 (and probably earlier, for early adopters)? I’m not pretending that gestural input works for most things people use computers for now, but with the spark of games like Toysight, some developer(s) will find an application compelling enough to pull this functionality from gaming into normal, everyday navigational usage.

Remember: you will look silly now. But in three years, you won’t. I promise. 😉

A few days ago, I finished A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash, a biography by Sylvia Nasar. Like many readers, probably, I had never heard of Nash or this book until seeing the movie with Russell Crowe as Nash. While I’m not sure I would like to meet Nash, I certainly enjoyed reading about his life and work, even if his true mathematical contributions were way over my head. His Nobel-winning work was in game theory, and at least in broad terms, makes sense, although Nasar is smart enough not to get bogged down in the mathematics or the papers themselves, although she seems to understand quite a bit more than she decided to put in print. The biography never talks down to the reader, but it also stays with the human story. What startling hubris Nash had as a young man, all the way through until his schizophrenia (per the after-the-fact diagnosis) robbed him of his productive, effective mind during much of his middle age. The startling thing, by all accounts, was that he recovered in later life, even proceeding to do some further thinking and publishing, if not at the incredible level of his youth. This personal renaissance, an event that Nasar documents as rare, but not unheard of, helps redeem Nash the person somewhat, as he was hell on his family for many years.

The movie spent a lot of time on the fantasies he was living through, visualizing an imaginary friend and various shadowy agencies for conspiracies only Nash could unveil. The book spells out various examples of where Nash was off-kilter, but doesn’t wallow in them, as the movie did. But I guess the director needed something to hang the story on, visually.

As an aside, I still remember realizing that I was truly a parent when one scene in the movie took my breath away. The scene is when Nash is giving his son a bath, and forgets him because of the distraction of his internal voices. Made me cringe, although it all turns out fine. Before having a kid, I’m not sure I would have blinked at that scene. I had a similar response to a scene in the movie Trainspotting.

I enjoy biographies, but only in moderation, mixed with a brain-dead thriller (haven’t read one of those in a while… got any suggestions?) or any other compelling fiction (got one of those going now… give me some time to finish it and write a few notes).

I had to try at least three Google searches to find my own post about the panopticon on my own website. Ouch!