...more recent posts
I really like routines. At least when they are of my own devising. I like being a regular. I have my bar where I'm known. I have my favorite restaurants where I usually order the same things to eat. It's nothing extreme. I don't get nervous when outside of these habits. But I tend to find what I like and stick with it.
The coffee shop on avenue A is an example. I go there most days around noon for a coffee and a toasted sesame bagel with avocado and tomato. They start making it before I sit down. This makes me extremely happy. Most days I cross paths with my friend N. who seems to be in the same routine. She gets an avocado bagel too, but with no tomato.
N. just opened a clothing store on avenue B. It's a small operation, and she spends most of her time minding the store. She confessed to passing the time doing jigsaw puzzles. I suggested she should get an internet connection instead, and she replied, in the most natural way possible, "What would I do on the internet?"
I had no answer. I hadn't even considered the question before, although I have heard variants of this thought. Just never so clearly. I was really struck. What exactly do you do on the internet? Just why is it so great? I mean for someone who doesn't already think so. It's a hard question to answer.
I struggled for a second and then shrugged my shoulders, like, "I guess you're right, that's a stupid idea." Still, I'd definitely want internet access. I want it everywhere, all the time. But not so I can do things, in the sense that you "do" a jigsaw puzzle. I don't play on-line games. I'm not compiling my family geneology. I don't even download music. But it would be very difficult for me to be without the net. I'm trying to figure out exactly why this is so. Here's my first try:
It's not so much that I want the net in order to accomplish some particular activity. Instead, having net access is a way of being. A way of doing things in the real world. And it boils down to this: I used to put off learning. I'd come to some problem and think, "you know, I really should figure this out some day." But I usually wouldn't do it. And once I put off learning something, I usually have to wait for it to come back up as a problem before I think to figure it out again. But with net access the answer is always just a google away. And I really do it. All my "I wonder...." moments are now swiftly met by a "hold on...." click, click, google, click, "...right, here it is."
And the benefit is not so much in finding all this information. It's more in my changing expectations. I expect to be able to find the answer to almost anything, right away, by myself. This is tremendously empowering. Just knowing that I have access to almost all knowledge changes everything about me. It makes me better. More curious. More independent.
But I still have no answer to my friend's question. I don't so much "do" stuff on the net (well, not counting my programming time.) I do things in the real world, and the net is there to back me up. The net is there to let me be my own expert. Even at things I don't know much about. I can't wait until I'm wirelessly connected all the time. My guess is that as this happens the question of "what do you do on the internet?" will make less and less sense. Like asking "what do you do in your long term memory?" Well, nothing, but you use it all the time. And you certainly couldn't get along without it.
I've been writing a little about the new system over here [update: I moved that page to here]. Not very interesting stuff. More like notes to myself. But I think I will continue this trend and write anything pertaining to the software I'm writing over there, and try to get this page back on a slightly more personal track. Still, it will remain largely about computers and the internet I'd guess.
The Artist-in-Residence Program at Sanitary Fill Company, a 44 acre solid waste transfer and recycling center in San Francisco. Why do I want to nominate Bill for this position? (via caterina.net)
Here are some links to posts on the other site explaining what I've been up to. Here is a description of the new feature I'm most excited about [note: I updated this link on 3/14/02] . I'm calling it "reference logging." It's sort of like back links in a wiki, except they can extend out to any other site on the web. And here's a much too long general explanation of the new site. It's just a place for me to experiment with the next generation of the software that runs this site. I'm looking for people who would be interested in using it so that I can get more feedback. Here's a page that is already using the new system. Comments are very much appreciated.
David Weinberger (JOHO) on the web as utopia. Thought provoking as always.
Some guys have all the luck. I dropped my camera in the toilet and was out one camera. This guy dropped his in the river, and now it's magic (from mefi.)
Well, yes, if you're really keeping track, I did say that I would link to something explaining the work I've been doing on the new system either yesterday or today. And while it's still technically possible for this to happen, we're not giving it a very good chance of actually happening. Like no way. So I thought I'd just pass that along in case anyone is sitting in front of their computer frantically reloading this page, wondering when, oh when, will I post that link. (What? You weren't doing that? Nevermid.)
Probably I'll do it sometime this weekend when you're not looking.
Brilliant. Here's a very clever way to get ie toolbar like functionality out of the location field in Mozilla. The result? Now if I type 'gg jimslog' into the location field in Mozilla (where I would normally type the URL) I'm taken to the results of a google search for 'jimslog'. If I type 'dd mantic' I'm taken to the results of a dictionary.com lookup of 'mantic'. The article shows you how to make keywords (the 'gg' and 'dd') for any site.
The Bruce Sterling Online Index. A guide to every Bruce Sterling work on the web (or so they claim.)
Julie pointed out the first Alias review