1. Parasitoid larvae in caterpillars affect the behaviour of moths: Found this as a result of my looking into ecosystem equilibrium. I am fascinated by how pests, parasites and plants live in fragile harmony: there is beauty in that fragility and in that harmony. I also like three-cornered hats and regulatory systems. Parasite hides in caterpillar, gets to plant as caterpillar goes munch munch, proceeds to protect said plant from said caterpillar’s future state. Something poetic and wonderful and almost psychedelic about that.
2. World in 2000 as predicted in 1910: Found at the delightfully-named sadanduseless.com site, a collection of drawings by a French artist on how he perceived life would be at the turn of the next century. Very instructive. I’m very tempted to see if we can’t start an opensource competition, Answers On a Postcard, asking people to submit their visions for 2100. Tim O’Reilly?
3. Learn to code|codeacademy : Interesting cloud-based selfserve approach to teaching someone to code. I’ve only looked at the first few exercises, classic scripting language stuff around javascript, but I do like the interface and the flow. I can imagine a time when the knowledge of a scripting language becomes a universal need, so anything that lowers barriers to entry is worth it.
4. SpaceChem: Been researching design-based games suitable for entry into the world of work. Minecraft seemed an early possibility. SpaceChem holds fascinating promise. But I haven’t really tried it out yet, need to move over to a linux machine for that. Like what I’ve seen so far.
5. Information is cheap, meaning is expensive: A George Dyson article in the European. Always interested in what he has to say.
Incidentally, I will only continue to do this if you guys find it useful. So feedback is important.
SpaceChem is available for Windows through Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/92800
WIndows? We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969. I use Macs and Linux. Yes I have mono on the Mac, but I thought I might as well install it under Ubuntu.
Keep it going JP, though it does make me feel a little bit like I’m looking over your shoulder at your private screen ;-)
– Joe
Joe, nerds do it, herds do it, educated feebs do it. even your phones do it…..
Wonder has JP opened a Tab for GraphDB. Perfect for the chattering classes… Neo4j: NoSQL for the Enterprise.
RT @emtitus Palantir, “making downtown Palo Alto feel, at times, a bit like Langley.” http://buswk.co/tDHnmd
HI JP… please continue with the sweep… everytime i read your post i get to know umpteen number of new things… your sweep shall only support the cause
I greatly appreciate your smorgasbord and learn a lot from it…I hope you’ll continue!
I hope you wil continue JP! Stumbled across your site after a link from Om’s http://gigaom.com/ newsletter a couple of weeks ago; & it has been a great experience so far.
Apropos of your post “World in 2000 as predicted in 1910”
Here’s an interesting article from Businessweek ca. 1975 predicting how the “office” will look in 1995 – “The Office of the Future”.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080526_547942.htm
It predicts the paperless office. My favorite quote comes from the head of the (then) newly formed think-tank in Palo Alto known as PARC, George E. Pake, who says “… that in 1995 his office will be completely different; there will be a TV-display terminal with keyboard sitting on his desk. “I’ll be able to call up documents from my files on the screen, or by pressing a button,” he says. “I can get my mail or any messages. I don’t know how much hard copy [printed paper] I’ll want in this world.”
Full of quotes like this, the article may seem comical in retrospect – however, it’s worth a read.
thanks Jayaharsha, Jim, Neil. Will continue
Deepak, thanks for that. Appreciate the feedback and the link