zenpundit.com

A  surprise Valentine’s Day Gift from Mrs. Zenpundit to better suport my humble blogging efforts ( along with facilitating several graphics-rich gaming platforms that were stressing out my aging 1 gig PC). Currently transferring a multitude of files and reloading programs. Will return to normal blogging on Friday.

Two demographics that  I’m certain have a degree of congruency, as it stands.

Blogfriend Gunnar Peterson, the cybersecurity guru at 1 Raindrop sent me this.

John Boyd used to preach that “Machines don’t fight wars, people do and they use their minds!”. Which is of course true but sometimes they use their minds to make new machines or use old ones in a novel way. So, as a counterbalance to the frequent discussions here of 4GW, COIN and the mental and moral levels of war, how about some computer wizardry as a change of pace? LOL!

About the Technology in Wartime Conference

“This conference will explore how computer technology is used during war — both for the purposes of combat/defense, as well as for human rights interventions into war-torn regions. Topics will include high tech weapons systems, cyberwarfare, autonomous aircraft, mobile robots, internet surveillance, anonymous communication, and privacy-enhancing technologies that aid human rights workers documenting conditions in war-torn countries and help soldiers communicate their experiences in blogs and e-mail.

Our goal will be to consider the ethical implications of wartime technologies and how these technologies are likely to affect civilization in years to come. Ultimately we want to engage a pressing question of our time: What should socially-responsible computer professionals do in a time of high tech warfare?

The proceedings will be broadcast live on the Web, and the presentations collected in book form online, released under a CC license, and made available to the public and policy makers looking for expert opinions on wartime technology issues during the election year”

Joi Ito is one of the sponsors and the list of confirmed speakers includes Noah Schachtman of WIRED and Bruce Schneier . They could use a few more warriors in their geek and academic heavy mix but it looks like it’s shaping up to be an excellent conference.

Hat tip to Charles Cameron.

Mrs. Zen gave me one of these nifty iPod Nano devices for Christmas. 

I am not a huge music fan which is why I paid little attention to the iPod when it first came out.  However, the advent of podcasting and intellectual opportunities like Stanford on iTunes have made me reconsider the utility of owning one.

My drive to work is fairly long and Chicago talk radio is, with the exception of the excellent Steve Dahl and Dr. Milt Rosenberg ( who is on later at night), quite mediocre these days. Secondly, I expect to spend more time the next few months on the treadmill to lean out after this holiday’s  celebratory prime rib dinner and excessive consumption of adult beverages. I have time to fill with something substantive when reading is either dangerous or simply inconvenient.

After playing around with the Nano today for the first time, I think I’ll be using more of the functions than people who primarily want it for music related applications. After I load perhaps fifty or at most, a hundred, songs, I would gravitate to podcasts, audiobooks and videos stored on a short term basis. Perhaps a few photos though the idea of whipping out your iPod to show ppl pics of the kids strikes me as too much work.

This being a tech subject and with my being a non-geek, I welcome comments from those who are.

Dave Davison of Thoughts Illustrated sent me this multimedia map from Mapping the Edges – very interesting prototype. A format that I could easily see myself using for teaching or presentations if a “Blogger” type platform is developed to speed the creative process.

While I can draw well enough to create something to scan and I could, with some help, do the simple html coding and podcasting, the amount of hours invested in creating such a product would not be worth it to me unless I was running a seminar or workshop and needed something jazzy to help justify my consultancy fee. I want a tool that lets me create something like this in about an hour – then I’d use it.