Netomat - personal web annotations thingy. Not sure what it is yet, but it looks cool enough to post here… It appears to be a sharable webspace with annotations… more as I learn about it. [CogWorks News]

Looks like it could be a funkalicious tool. It reminds me (though alas, not enough) of those old uTok like tools, the collaborative annotation systems. I don’t understand why they all disappeared. they were so nice.

There’s support for both OS X and win32, so I’m downloading both clients now. More when I’ve played with them a while.

UPDATE: My first (and last) netomat. Verdict? I give them full marks for trying. But this is so far from being useful that I’m going to uninstall and wait until it comes back on my radar after they cook it a bit. My other browser is locked up so tight that “Force Quit” is bitching.

A new site is coming.

I’ve mentioned this to many people over the last few weeks, and so I thought I’d mention it here as well. I’m working on a new website aimed at the serious business of weblogging. In a sense, I am going to eat my own dog food, in a big way. Can I establish a new business and successfully use the web to market it? Can I achieve the discipline to maintain a weblog while focusing primarily on my service customers? Can I reap the benefits of aggregating hundreds of sites while maintaining productivity and balance in my life? These questions, and more, I hope to answer over the coming months.

[deeje.com]

Excellent. I’m glad you mention it. I will be looking forward to seeing it. Got a url? feed?

Saddam’s Two Sons Killed in U.S. Raid [AP World News]

UPDATE: A major symbolic victory [USS Clueless]

Rock of Ages.

Rock of Ages

I had this conversation with Joi Ito about S-L-O-W-I-N-G D-O-W-N. I threw out a challenge — spend 24 hours not talking, not emailing, not IM’ing, not IRC’ing, not communicating in anyway. Just a silent sunday — this coming sunday actually — for 24 hours.

You do get to use one hand-held device. A rock. Just keep it in the palm of your hand. Get the urge to IM someone — just tell the rock. Get the need to email someone else — just think the message through your rock. Get the temptation to talk — no talking — just look at your rock.

So far the toughest thing is explaining to people that you will will be incommunicato — really not available, really out of reach, really out of pocket — at least in the traditional ways of communicating.

[Keep your eyes peeled for a picture of my rock -- I'll post it soon.] [Halley's Comment]

A long long time ago, in a galaxy…err… that was this one, I did something similar.

I used to run with the “ecclectic western spirituality” crowd (i.e. neo-pagans, witches, and rainbow crystal feely types.) Me and 3 friends of mine (all of us remarkably talkative people) decided to stretch some personal boundries, etc. So we took 4 days between 2 other campout/gathering type events and went to a site in the berkshears (?) east of Albany with our tents and enough food for the trip.

The idea was simple: No talking. 4 days. Not to each other, not to ourselves, nothing.

I suppose I’ve bit off more than I could chew in mentioning this, because a full explanation of what happened, and the insights into ourselves we gained would be quite impossible in the “let me do a quicky post about that” that I have alloted.

Perhaps it will suffice to say do this. Take a day. 2 is preferred. More than one person is preferred. Don’t talk or write. Not to each other or anyone else. If you can sequester yourself from incoming communications (and words spoken or written) all the better. It takes about a day to recalibrate, but all time after that is wonderous and strange. I guarantee you’ll learn things about yourself that you didn’t know.

Enemies of learning.

Charles Feltman’s Enemies of Learning (2-page .pdf) is a quick survey of personal factors that make it harder for us to approach the unknown. A few of the “enemies” that George picked out:

• Our inability to admit that we don’t know
  
• The desire for clarity all the time
  
• Inability to unlearn
  
• Lack of trust

(via elearnspace blog via thought?horizon)

[Seb's Open Research]

A really nice (if sparse) pdf on the enemies of learning.

Unfortunately, when I try to print it my very helpful mac says “unable to print” (of course, printing everything else including other pdfs works fine.)

Everybody cross your fingers for Pascale this afternoon between about 2:00 and 5:00 EDT. She’s got a funkalicious job interview. I’m gonna catch all kinds of goodhearted hell for posting this, so help me lessen the blow by holding good thoughts and “get the job” vibes.

UPDATE: Heh. I didn’t realize she posted about it.

Perceptions: When Ads Work Too Well.

Teenagers who have drinking problems have stronger brain responses to images from alcohol advertisements than other teenagers do, a new study reports. [New York Times: Health]

The exact mechanism is unclear. The research could not determine whether people with drinking problems were predisposed to be more responsive to advertising or whether advertising encouraged problem drinking.

[atmaspheric | endeavors]

It’s some pretty damn weak research to base a conclusion on.