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Shape Shifter 1.0Shape Shifter 1.0Shape Shifter 1.0 05/18/2004 09:03 PM Drag shapes into matching shape cutouts. Clear the screen before time runs out. This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)Shape Shifter 1.0Grok Headline matches for Shape Shifter 1.0The Shape of InformationThe Shape of Information 07/23/2002 05:54 AM The shape of the InternetThe shape of the Internet 09/16/2004 08:40 PM Hanan Cohen points us to DIMES (Distributed IUnternet Measurements and Simulations), a distributed project similar to SETI@home that runs on your machine during slow times, pinging sites and reporting what it finds back to a central server: "What we ask is not so much your CPU or bandwidth (which we hardly consume), but rather, your location." It's a project of Evergrow, a consortium of 20 universities. The management is not responsible for any problems you may encounter... — The Management... What shape will the next iMac take?What shape will the next iMac take? 07/30/2004 10:30 AM reader feedback Apple's mum on what its next-generation desktop will look like, but News.com readers offer their suggestions. The Shape of SongThe Shape of Song 07/15/2004 08:29 AM The Shape of Song from Turbulence. Google Gets in ShapeGoogle Gets in Shape 07/02/2004 09:52 AM Search Engine Lowdown Jul 2 2004 2:28PM GMT Taking shapeTaking shape 06/08/2004 07:29 AM USA Today Jun 8 2004 11:53AM GMT The shape of the two-man raceThe shape of the two-man race 02/18/2004 04:08 PM Easy Shape 0.1Easy Shape 0.1 05/30/2004 09:12 AM A Web-based bandwidth manager and traffic grapher. 3G to take shape in 2005, says GSA3G to take shape in 2005, says GSA 01/02/2005 11:12 AM INQ7.net Jan 2 2005 3:35PM GMT Shape Up Your Data!Shape Up Your Data! 03/08/2004 11:20 PM Offerings make finding content for compliance easier. The Shape of Pharrots to ComeThe Shape of Pharrots to Come 10/28/2003 11:08 PM John Coggeshall mentions that the PHP on Parrot project has been named "Pharrot" by the php-con conference attendees. Here's my take on things. Now I don't have any inside info, so the following is entirely guesswork, and any resemblence to reality is entirely your imagination: Although Sterling and Thies are very modest, given the fact that they were given the closing keynote and the amazing performance improvements - Pharrot will probably be PHP 6. The speed of the JIT means that PHP will become a general programming language. A high performance application server written 100% in PHP becomes practical. A high performance anything becomes practical in PHP. The tribes using Parrot will probably include Python, PHP and Perl. Code sharing between different programming tribes will become a reality. This does not mean that there will be full interoperatability between all languages, because (a) there is no common runtime library (yet), (b) and no consensus on what will be the default PMC's (Parrot's language extensions) installed. There will be battles fought over the run-time. In PHP4/5, after execution, we throw away the opcodes together with the bath water, or store them in shared memory. Parrot gives you more choices. See the end of Dan Sugalski's Parrot internals presentation (ppt). The Zend API is dead - big deal. Parrot is a big opportunity for companies with skill and resolve. The tools market for open source programming languages suddenly becomes much larger because you are able to support so many more languages effectively. My prediction: the first beta of Pharrot will be out in 2006. PS: Selkirk was prescient about parrot. Smart chap. The Ship ShapeThe Ship Shape 10/29/2003 01:15 AM Up on The New Yorker site, you can find Our Perfect Summer, a new story by David Sedaris. We actually heard Sedaris read this story back in April when he made a stop at the San Francisco Opera House during his last book tour. Then, the story was called "The Ship Shape," (I think this is a better name) and immediately after hearing it, it rose to the very top of my Sedaris personal favorites lists. I, of course, have been anxiously awaited the print version since then. It was especially great to hear him read this story live since it's so terribly bittersweet and he does an incredible job delivering it. It's moving without being over-the-top sentimentality (this is still Sedaris, after all) and the amount of humor in the piece is just right. No one plays the fool; instead it's a story about hope and disappointment amidst the sort experiences we all have as a kids. It's a great piece and definitely worth the read. We also met Sedaris at the signing he was doing before the event. He was sitting at a table, alone, sort of behind a pillar. Us being us, we made some horrible small talk and I embarrassed myself fully. As we were leaving, I put my hand out to offer a handshake and then quickly pulled it back, not knowing if he even likes to be touched. (Based on his books, who'd think he'd like strangers touching him?) After I asked if it was alright to shake, he laughed and probably thought I was a nutcase. This is why you should never meet the people you admire. Link via Kottke. Web of Ideas: The Shape of KnowledgeWeb of Ideas: The Shape of Knowledge 02/01/2005 09:09 PM On Wednesday I'm going to lead the postponed session in the semi-regular series at the Berkman Center. This time, I'm going to try out a presentation I'm giving in a couple of weeks at a conference. The topic has something to do with taxonomies and tagging. (Yes, it will repeat some material in the dinner talk I gave last week, and a bunch of stuff from the Library of Congress speech. But it will have new stuff on tagging.) It's 6-7:30pm at the Baker House (map). It's open to the public and pizza will be served.... Plastic that changes shape with lightPlastic that changes shape with light 04/14/2005 03:48 PM David Pescovitz: Shape memory alloy, materials that change shape based on a temperature increase, are old news for roboticists. But MIT scientists have developed a new plastic that shapeshifts in response to light. From the MIT News Office: Link New Robot Shifts ShapeNew Robot Shifts Shape 04/13/2005 01:43 AM Space.com Apr 13 2005 5:53AM GMT Plastic That Changes Shape In LightPlastic That Changes Shape In Light 04/15/2005 06:16 PM Hobbit bones in bad shapeHobbit bones in bad shape 03/23/2005 01:19 PM David Pescovitz: Sadly, the bones of BB mascot Homo floresiensis were apparently terribly damaged by Indonesian scientist Teuku Jacob who "borrowed" the bones for quite some time and was extremely reluctant to return them. Jacob was not convinced that Homo floresiensis is a new species of "little people" at all, but rather a deformed pygmy. The scientists who discovered the bones claim that the remains were trashed when Jacob's team tried to make rubber molds of the delicate bones. From USA Today: Link The Shape of Things to Come: 5 CentsThe Shape of Things to Come: 5 Cents 03/22/2005 04:43 PM This last Saturday, I was on a panel at the SXSW Music Festival entitled The Shape of Things to Come. On the panel were some industry legends including Sandy Pearlman and Peter Jenner (former manager of Pink Floyd). The panel somehow converged around the idea of a 5 cent download, and how it would be a better model both economically, and socially. I wonder if anyone has drawn the demand curves to see where there's more money. If marginal cost is close to zero, then you could have 1 million people buying songs for 1 dollar, versus 25 million people buying songs for 5 cents - maybe the lower price wins? It did get me thinking that maybe we (or someone) should build a Creative Commons 5 cent download site. It could be a good test case, and it would also help artists get compensated. Of course, since all the works would be CC licensed, tracks could probably be legally traded noncommercially. However, if there was one central place with a good recommendation engine and user interface (not to mention good musicians), I bet people would go for it. Any takers? Animating with Shape TweensAnimating with Shape Tweens 03/14/2005 06:17 PM Morph the shape or color of one graphic into another with this fun-to-use Flash feature. Next Xbox Starts to Take ShapeNext Xbox Starts to Take Shape 03/14/2005 06:17 PM Microsoft gives scant details on its next-gen console, but alpha development kits hint at more. Soon, robots will be able to change
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These programmed materials change shape when struck by light at
certain wavelengths and return to their original shapes when exposed
to light of specific different wavelengths.
"The equivalent in the world of art would be somebody slashing the
Mona Lisa and then trying to fix it with chewing gum," says
paleontologist Tim White of the University of California-Berkeley, who
was not on the discovery team.... (Pesco's profile of White 
"The rolling
robots perform well on flat surfaces and can even scale 20-degree
slopes. By flattening itself as much as possible and then pinging back
to a circular shape - driven by the elasticity of the outer rim - a
robot can leap 8 centimetres into the air. The engineers say that by
combining three wheels in a mutually perpendicular arrangement, it
should be possible to build a ball-shaped, steerable
robot."