Any more touchy, and these mice could turn into French chefs!

It's no secret that Microsoft hires the best tech researchers out there by the truckloads, and quite possibly, has a research lab with an intellectual and creative heft that could compare with the legends of yore -- IBM's Watson, AT&T's Bell Labs, and Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. Of course, it still continues to dish out stinkware such as Windows Vista, but that despite the efforts of its brains trust, much of whose work likely never sees the light of day. Perhaps in response to Apple's recent leak of a touch sensitive mouse, Microsoft has released a video of five different types of touch-oriented mice. The demo is really, really neat. I'd love to own one or more of those toys, just to play around.

In the grand scheme of things, mice-like tools really belong to a paradigm that's showing it's age; after all, the great St. Doug Engelbart (may his tribe increase) invented the first mouse in the 1960's. Maybe this is the mouse's dying gasp, its last hurrah. If so, what a wonderful hurrah it is. I hope Microsoft sees it fit to release some of their touchy rodents into the wild; who knows what genetic transformations could emerge from such an experiment?

The Innovative Indian

Can your CEO do this?

John Chambers, Cisco CEO

Technorati

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When Disney Met Dali

From the text at Monsters And Rockets:

In 1946 legendary surrealist Salvador Dali formed an unlikely friendship with Walt Disney, and they spent some time collaborating on a short film called Destino. Dali and Disney artist John Hench worked on a lot of storyboards, but only 18 seconds of test footage were shot before the project was abandoned.

In 1999, Disney's nephew Roy Edward Disney was working on Fantasia 2000 and he decided to complete the Destino project, over 50 years after production began. 25 Disney artists worked from the original storyboards (with some input from Hench himself, and notes from the journals of Dali's widow) and finally completed Destino using a mix of hand-drawn and computer animation. The 18 seconds of test footage were included, in the shots of the two weird, turtle-like creatures seen above.

Destino didn't end up as part of Fantasia 2000 and hasn't been widely screened. It was seen in theaters with the films Calendar Girls and Triplets of Belleville, but so far it hasn't been released on DVD. It's amazing to look at, but I have the feeling that the imagery in Dali's own version would have been a bit more disturbing. (Notice how those turtle monsters kind of stand out from everything around them?) It's also a little funny how the Disney artists just can't resist making the dancing girl into a Disney princess. There are a few shots in here that look a bit like Belle in Dali Land.

Who's on foist?

A timeless classic that entered the popular lexicon ...

The State is NOT The Community

Over and over again, I see writers -- who ought to know better -- being unable to distinguish between Communism and Community. Communism is where the State arrogates all power to itself and in fact, does everything to destroy community. The Communist State would like to make like to make every citizen completely dependent on it for providing everything. The State decides what your duties and responsibilities are and also provides for all your needs. In theory. Community, on the other, is a phenomenon that emerges through natural processes from the grassroots, when a group of people find themselves in a situation where they are faced with a common fate. Community is not imposed from on high, unlike a Communist State.

Open Source and Social Media represent and encourage community-oriented phenomena, not Communism, as their detractors often allege. Both the Totalitarian State and the Powerful Corporation are inimical to the welfare of the Community. Communities should strive to make the State and the Corporation subserve, rather than rule over them.

THIS, is the REAL first iPhone 3GS music video

... or so they say ...

Manipulative? Yes! Cute? Sure! Creative? Certainly!

Evian Rollerbabies

The thrill is gone, baby ...

Is it over, already? Man, I don't believe it ... maybe I'm just burned out a little, need to take a break from Twitter. Yeah, there've been a few good links to look up, and some nice, pithy sayings that have been keepers. I've linked up with some interesting people, and had a few Twitterversations. Still, I feel a bit jaded. Not sure why.

Though I'm 'following' nearly 190 persons, it feels as though most of the posts come from a handful; almost certainly, not all 190 are posting, and even among those who are, it feels (that's my impression) as though no more than about 20 are doing so frequently.

I guess it feels like I'm meeting the same ol' folks saying the same ol' kinda things that I expect them to say, given that I'm beginning to discern a pattern for each. It's interesting that one unconsciously begins to construct a certain unique persona for each individual, as a gestalt of all their tweets. The tone, the content, the syntactic structure, the tweeting frequency, and the pattern of tweeting (quick bursts of many tweets, periodic tweeting at fairly regular intervals, or random intervals) as well as the avatar image used, all contribute to the complexion of the persona that emerges from the tweetstream.

Guess I need to follow some more people, although I wonder if I can handle that.

It is a cocktail party. Or maybe it is like one of the long train journeys we used to have when I was a child, which often took up to three days to complete. Along the way, we would befriend fellow passengers, have interesting conversations, share food, assist one another (especially in keeping an eye on kids and belongings) and in general have a great time. And then we'd get off the train and never see or hear from them again. Kinda sad, but one's life was enriched anyway, and it made for a memorable journey, making one eager to embark on another one ere too long.

Yes, Twitter feels a bit like that. You overhear scattered fragments of conversations among strangers and a fair bit of it is fun. There is bustle and noise, and a sense of movement. People stream in and out. Passengers get on and off. There are moments of quietude, and then bursts of activity and sound. Some stuff is funny, other stuff is dreary, a bit of it is boring, and then there is some pretty interesting stuff.

You'll likely never come to know people completely, just the side of them they choose to reveal during the journey.

The thing is, the train keeps going on forever, even if you have to get off at some place. And you know that the train didn't start at the place you got on, it's come from a long way off, been running for a long time, and it's final destination is way beyond where you will disembark. There are a lot of people on board, and you will never get to meet them all; and some you'll never want to meet.

Maybe I need to visit some other compartments (carriages) and wander around in previously unexplored parts of the train.

Yeah, that's what I'll do. Next time. Maybe. My brain's tired from all the listening and tweeting and trying to make sense of it all. Good night.