Moved some things around

I had to move some things around because Blogger discontinued FTP publishing support. My blog, which was previously at http://www.jeremyparnell.com/blog can now be found at http://blog.jeremyparnell.com/.

I guess it's better this way.

Multiple-state existence found in ordinary plants

Photosynthesis (plants turning light into food) turns out to be evidence of multiple-state existence, according to a recent article in Wired.

From the article:

The analogy I like is if you have three ways of driving home through rush hour traffic. On any given day, you take only one. You don’t know if the other routes would be quicker or slower. But in quantum mechanics, you can take all three of these routes simultaneously. You don’t specify where you are until you arrive, so you always choose the quickest route...

In 2010, the first signs of artificial intelligence were discovered growing in a closet of discarded electronics. Somehow the inorganic material had self-organized into a living body with a mind of its own.

Thought challenge for my friends

Aristotle drew a distinction between 'essential' and 'accidental' properties. Essential properties are qualities that something must have to be what it is, and accidental properties are attributes that a thing happens to have but that it could lack.

One's rationality, according to Aristotle, is an essential property of being human. One's hair color, by contrast, is merely accidental. Hair color is how they are; it's not essential to who they are. A chair is essentially something you can sit on, be it accidentally made of wood, metal, or plastic.

So, my friends, what are essential properties that make you who you are? What are qualities others consider to be essential in you, but you feel are merely accidental?

Apple iPad's calendar is broken

So the reason Apple's iPhone and iPad refuses to include Flash is (according to Jobs) "The world is moving to HTML5". Absolutely, but WTF year do you think you're selling your product in?

Crazily, a not-so-insignificant portion of the population is still using IE6 (around 15 to 25%). IE8 supports some HTML5, but is missing many of the key features that would make programming an app in HTML5 a viable proposition. Who knows when IE9 will be released. Did I mention that people are still using IE6? Even large web services such as YouTube are just now experimenting with HTML5 versions of their web applications. Their video player is broke in my (updated) version of IE8. Even if all the browsers supported HTML5, these applications would need to be rebuilt to use it.

Where's the rush? Over 99% of computers have Flash Player installed. Over 80% have the latest version. There's no real incentive for application developers to invest the resources needed to rebuild applications in a virtually non-existant HTML5. It's not like there's a Y2K bug that demands it be done now. Indeed, "the world is moving to HTML5", but if in 2020 there's the full adoption that Flash enjoys today, like right now, that would be very surprising. Don't underestimate the laziness of the average web user in upgrading. IE6 was released in 2001 after all. Nine years later it still has (conservatively) 15% of the market.

Refusing to include Flash leaves huge holes in the web. Most videos, games, and rich media on the web are delivered through Flash. That's why Apple's iPhone user's have been complaining for years. They've been missing a huge part of the web on the device. Many were somewhat resigned to the lack of Flash, because, well, it's just a phone. It's not their main web tool. However, Apple's attack on Flash with the new iPad is just perplexing. The iPad is supposed to be a fully functioning web use tool, not a scaled down accessory like the iPhone.

Again, Mr. Jobs, WTF year do you think it is? In 2010, the year you are releasing the iPad, most of what's cool on the web is delivered through Flash.

Micro-blogging killed my blog

Looking over my sporadic posting habits of the last year and I realized that almost all of my linking to news articles, photos, and videos has moved to micro-blogging sites like Twitter and Facebook stream posts. I post pretty regularly on both of those sites, but only post to my actual blog when there's too much to cover in 140 characters or less, or when I feel guilty that I haven't posted to my blog in awhile. Sure, less time these days is a factor, but overall convenience is a greater factor. I wonder if this is a growing trend among personal bloggers -- have more people who blog for fun abandoned the long blog format?

Something is lost in micro-blogging. Before, I would usually post a link and then describe why I thought the link was interesting, or maybe combine several links in a post and describe a connection that may have been overlooked. Now, it's just a link. I may offer some commentary if someone responds, but that's rare. A typical post is usually just the link, a snippet, a thumbnail maybe (or not), but nothing about what I find interesting about the link. If this is a growing trend among all personal bloggers, blogging itself has lost a certain unique quality that made it special.

The long personal blog format, at least for me, will probably end up being personal internal stories not found 'out there' in the world, where you can simply link it off, because these are things that can't be covered in a short status update. Unfortunately, they are harder to write, require more thought, and as a result come with less frequency.

Frequency and the vitality of blogs are intrinsically related. People simply don't read blogs that are updated a few times a year. I could post my stats to demonstrate this fact, but my point is that statistically you're not likely to see that post anyway ; ) And without readers, of course, the blog is dead.

Well c'est la vie. As Kerouac said, "scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy." Like a spirit board spelling out nonsensical messages from the beyond, my dead blog will probably continue to be updated now and then. I'm just not going to deny that it is, in fact, dead.

Hey, that's a cool title for a blog! "My Dead Blog". Feel free to steal it.

Competitive tip cups at Starbucks

I dropped a buck on Star Trek. Which would you choose?

Kicking off a new year...

... with a little perspective.

This incredible video from the American Museum of Natural History reminds us that all the grand schemes of mankind play out on a very, very tiny stage. Assuming that we shouldn't sweat the small stuff, it's hard to imagine anything significant to sweat here.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Looking for red weather balloons!

Help. If you see an eight foot red weather balloon anywhere in the continental United States on December 5th, I need you to contact me, now.

More info: https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/default.aspx

They'll look like this: https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/gallery.aspx

Update:

Final locations were posted. They are...

Balloon 1: Union Square, San Francisco, California
N 37° 47' 16" W 122° 24' 26"

Balloon 2: Chaparral Park, Scottsdale, Arizona
N 33° 30' 36" W 111° 54' 29"

Balloon 3: Tonsler Park, Charlottesville, Virginia
N 38° 1' 34" W 78° 29' 28"

Balloon 4: Chase Palm Park, Santa Barbara, California
N 34° 24' 51" W 119° 41' 5"

Balloon 5: Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee
N 35° 8' 17" W 90° 3' 43"

Balloon 6: Collins Avenue, Miami, Florida
N 25° 54' 14" W 80° 7' 31"

Balloon 7: Glasgow Park, Christiana, Delaware
N 39° 36' 30" W 75° 43' 51"

Balloon 8: Katy Park, Katy, Texas
N 29° 48' 56" W 95° 48' 15"

Balloon 9: Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon
N 45° 30' 44" W 122° 40' 28"

Balloon 10: Centennial Park, Atlanta, Georgia
N 33° 45' 33" W 84° 23' 33"

I had the Delaware and Portland ones, but submitted them too late to MIT to win any cash.

For my birthday

As I looked upon his face I saw his years.

These years were not in the thin lines beginning to form on his still smooth forehead, nor were they revealed in the random speck of white that crept into his stubbled chin. He was still a young man. The years were not in the scar on his cheek, nor his crooked nose. His face was slightly asymmetrical, heavier, it seemed, on the left. You wouldn't notice these things unless you looked at him long and still, as I do now. The sometimes tired eyes, perhaps, showed the weight of responsibility and the fixed point of his age, but not the years.

No, the years shown brightly in the corners of his smile, now beaming back at me. His half-smile contained whole truths. Years of tiny moments that only seem meaningful when taken together, and only to him, these personal but epic tales of tragedy and triumph, of loves lost and gained, of friendships and wonder, of secret memories only shared through that wordless smile. It was a quiet place in the curve and crease where his lips met his cheek that I saw years and years and years.

In the lines and scars of his face it showed a man that, if not by luck or providence, would have died years short by some stupid and hilarious accident. The years, though, lay in the smile that seemed to quietly scream, "I am still alive!"

As I looked upon this man I saw myself, smiling.