Nobel Peace Prize goes to Obama

Author: Duane Johnson

9 Oct

Announced today. I definitely support Obama’s direction (see his remarkable Cairo speech from last June). I’d like to see faster resolution in Iraq and Afghanistan but I know it’s a difficult situation. He didn’t start the wars, so I give him credibility there.

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I’m back, after two weeks of silence online

Author: Duane Johnson

30 Sep

I’ve been less verbose than usual over the past two weeks: in fact, I didn’t even email anyone except while at work. I’ve been on a two-week “computer fast” while at home after business hours, and it’s been a neat experience.

My first benefit was quite unexpected, although it’s probably obvious from many perspectives. After two or three days of spending time being a little more social in the hallways and with people (especially my wife) after work, I started to become more verbally capable than my usual geeky self. It’s not that I can’t usually speak, it’s just that I consider myself “slow of speech” to use a biblical term, due to my frequent computer activity and infrequent human activity. It was pleasant to feel more comfortable around people after an initial bumpy few days.

Second, I noticed that I was quite bored. Almost immediately after returning home from work, I would have intentions that, more often than not, centered around computer use. In fact, even when I wanted to do something offline I would try to plan through the computer! For example, I had wanted to purchase a northpaw kit and build it myself–something that was obviously a more hobby-ish thing to do, and did not require a computer. But the ordering and the build instructions are all online! So I made a compromise with Kelty: she would order it for me and print the instructions and then I could have the benefit without breaking the pledge.

Third, I got a lot of stuff done! It turns out that boredom is a fantastic motivator to get things done that I would normally have placed far below high priorities like surfing the web for news items, scanning programmer websites for “cool tricks”, or watching funny youtube clips. I was able to organize our (physical book) library, make dinner on several occasions, read from several books I’ve been meaning to read, and complete several projects that had been on the back burner (including the northpaw).

All in all, it was a fun challenge that was right on the mark for me–not too challenging, but just challenging enough. If you’d like to take the two-week torch and make this a relay race, let me know!

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What if technology gave us an incentive to tell the truth?

Author: Duane Johnson

14 Sep

This is a fascinating new way to help groups make an honest valuation of something they will share: check if their brains say “that’s fair” when they assign a price for their portion.

Scientists Develop Novel Use Of Neurotechnology To Solve Classic Social Problem

It seems to me this could really be a legitimate use of neurotechnology on the social scale–although I never thought I’d say that. New power comes with new responsibility, as always.

My slightly cautious attitude comes from Isaac Asimov’s short story Franchise (1955) in which the 2008 election is determined entirely by a computer with the aid of a single man, randomly chosen, to help add stochastic inputs (presumably incalculable elements of the human will) to the results of the election algorithm.

Having read that story, it feels really weird to me to accept that it is now technologically feasible to determine the value of a public good given neurological data from a sample of the population. If it’s now feasible, will we eventually accept it?

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Nanosolar has turned its factory on

Author: Duane Johnson

14 Sep

I think this may be the first in a series of exciting milestones over the next 5 years: Nanosolar has opened its robotic manufacturing facility in Germany for mass-production of thin-film solar panels.

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I’m in Boston, Experiencing AJAX!

Author: Duane Johnson

13 Sep

Tomorrow is the AJAX conference in Boston where I and my colleagues from Getco will be learning about ways to improve our javascript and web interface style. If you’re in the area, give me a tweet or an email!

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PHP Regression

Author: Duane Johnson

21 Aug

Goto added to php 5.3. Is it a bug? Apparently not.

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Eyes Like Lightning Ubiquity Script

Author: Duane Johnson

18 Aug

I rolled the experimental javascript “speed reading” code (that I wrote a couple of days ago) into a more polished Ubiquity command this evening. It’s called “Eyes Like Lightning”.

The command can be subscribed to at this gist on github.com. Note that this is a 0.5.3 command and is not compatible with Ubiquity 0.1.9 or lower. Ubiquity is a FireFox extension that turns your browser into a powerful command-line for the web. It can be installed from this page.

Eyes Like Lightning uses jQuery heavily and dynamically includes the jQuery-UI library. The source code might be useful for other Ubiquity developers who want to create pop-up windows or sliders, etc. on top of a web page.

Here’s a little screenshot:

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Speed reading app

Author: Duane Johnson

16 Aug

I recently learned that the primary inhibitor for speeding up our reading is the mechanical movement of our eyes (saccades), so I had this idea to make the text move past your eyes rather than your eyes move past the text. The result is this little speed reading app I made in html/javascript. It’s probably not original (I was influenced by other things I’ve seen, but can’t recall where). Nevertheless, I thought you might like it too.

Just load up the text you want to read into the “source.txt” file. Save it and then open “speed.html” in a browser (I tested it in Firefox). Adjust the slider to the reading speed you’re comfortable with.

Click here to download:

Speed_Reading.zip (60 KB)

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Peter Schiff for Senate

Author: Duane Johnson

7 Aug

I’ve blogged about Peter Schiff before, and as many of you know, I’ve commented on his prescient 2007 statements when he predicted the current recession.

Now, he is beginning the process of running for office as a Senator from Connecticut. I think he would provide a formidable ballast to the free-floating government. I donated $10 tonight–perhaps you will too?

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Algorithmic Learning

Author: Duane Johnson

24 Jul

I’m learning about learning right now. I’ve become fascinated with SuperMemo, an algorithmic learning assistant. Unfortunately, it’s only for windows and so I keep searching for alternatives. Here are a few that I’m looking at… each of these look like possibilities for both the iPhone and the Mac (the first because it is cross-platform and the other two because they are web-based). Has anyone found other apps that meet these qualifications (iPhone & Mac compatible)?

Anki

Surusu

Spicy Elephant

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