Disqus - Latest Comments for bentrem

Re: The First 400 Pages of the HC Monstrosity

fleckman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:35:22 -0000

Well Congress hasn't read the Health Care Bill and I havent heard Obama or any other group I mentioned tell Congress or us to read the health care bill.

So thanks for showing everyone how YOU like to twist, distort, and exaggerate.

Now go read the entire HC bill and then maybe you can have an intelligent discussion. Until you do, you can't possibly discuss ANYTHING about this HC monstrosity.

Re: The First 400 Pages of the HC Monstrosity

bentrem — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:55:22 -0000

You begin with "Since Congress doesn’t want to read the Health Care Bill and Obama, ACORN, Unions, Lawyers, & Special Interest Groups don’t want you to know whats in this monstrosity" ...
... so I guess I have to thank you for showing right off the bat that you're willing to twist, distort, and exaggerate.

Re: Google Wave is Coming: 100,000 Invites Go Out on September 30th

bentrem — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:42:12 -0000

I will not suck up. I do not suck up. I don't do "suck up".
*blink*
*WTF, this form doesn't allow ^V for paste?! C'mon ...*

Ok, I was gonna suck up w/http://bentrem.sycks.net/gw_review.html (dusty) but instead I'm gonna go back to Hell's Kitchen. Web2.0 not ready for *pfffffft* "prime time"?

Re: Zemanta

bentrem — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:33:50 -0000

"we are eager to see them open up this contextual recommendation engine to other web apps and services that content creators might like to add into their posts at the time of creation."

I think I keep returning to my own design for a "discourse-based document portal" because I always fail to understand that sort of thing. (I did MIL-SPEC nav_aid tech-docs, so I know I'm not completely out to lunch. But I still only rarely talk about "dialogical" and "dialectical" and "orthogonal" ... /that/ sort of thing seems verboten.)

If I may: strategy without tactic is the slowest road to success; tactic without strategy is the fastest path to calamity.

Re: Twitter’s Response to #fixreplies: We Can’t

Ben Tremblay — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:26:22 -0000

Wait a minute ... technically difficult hunh.
Now mebbe I've got something backwards here, but just in case, let me try to clarify.

A simple question: here's 2 ways to handle Tweets from folk I follow; which of these alternatives do you think is most technically difficult:
A) give me the river ... if someone sends a tweet starting with @username, just show it to me.
B) process the stream ... if someone's tweet begins with @username then take that, hold it, find my userlist, check to see if that username is on my list, and let it flow to me iff it is.

I must have something backwards because A seems far simpler.

Or another way: don't yank content cuz /you/ don't think I want to see it.

Re: Seesmic Launches the First Facebook Desktop Client Available Today

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:16:26 -0000

Good to see you've a realistic appraisal of your abilities, Loic ... and so nice of MacNasty to keep you in touch with your many, many, many failings.
*grin*

Restez bon-vivant!

Re: Twitter Landing

Ben Tremblay — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:54:43 -0000

Some great light in the 60s Sanfrancisco scene had this to say about LSD, speaking in terms of "doors of perception": it opened a door that we could go through to explore what lay beyond. The point wasn't to come back, go through the door, come back, go through the door, come back ... again and again and again.
I feel somewhat like that about Twitter. "It's wonderful" is fatuous. "It can be wonderful" a bit more meaningful. "It has been wonderful and I am reasonably certain it will be wonderful again" is where I'm at.

Superficial people use things superficially. To expect otherwise is huh huh just plain silly.

Re: Twhirl step by step features screencast

Ben Tremblay — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:02:55 -0000

When I saw the colour scheme you were using I was reminded that I'd created one I call "BlueDay".
A couple of screen-grabs, one marked up for those who might want to hack their own:

http://bentrem.sycks.net/twhirl/

Re: Twhirl step by step features screencast

loiclemeur — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:07:17 -0000

Thanks Ben you just gave me the idea of a team seesmic cool idea: show
off your themes!

Re: The New Twhirl (preview release) for Team Seesmic-Twhirl

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:29:15 -0000

*joined*

BTW I've been using my own custom skin for weeks / months; see http://bentrem.sycks.net/twhirl

Re: Friendship Test / Checker

bentrem — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:30:02 -0000

HiYa - Just heard about you.

Thought you might like to peek a classic in the LiveJournal community. (I don't remember exactly when I started using it ... prolly 2003.)
http://joule.marnanel.org/chart/lj/hfx_ben by way of example

cheers!
--bentrem

Re: What’s In a Checkbox: Part 2?

changeforge — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:34:11 -0000

I love it!

Re: What’s In a Checkbox: Part 2?

Ben Tremblay — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:26:27 -0000

Everybody should know the story I'm about to relate, if for no other reason than to save me typing it out.

Scenario: on the day a flag-ship high-rise is to be unveiled, the AC conks out.
Go through your scenario compacted into a 6 hour period.
A grizzled grumpy ace is called in.
He scours the blue-prints, plans, crawl spaces, and eventually asks for access to one closet (let's say).
Eye-balling the contents he draws up to one assembly and locks onto one module.
Going into his kit he pulls out a silver hammer and *whack!* everything purrs into action.

He submits a bill for $25K.
They balk, and ask that it be itemized.

* Hitting with hammer: $9
* Knowing where to hit: $24,991

I was solo on Pin 3 responsible for NORAD/SAC comms south to Cheyenne Mountain.
If comms failed nearest more expert was ?what? at least 12 hrs away.
When things went wrong I was expected to fix it in less than 3 minutes.
Almost as fun as tennis!
*grin*

Insight isn't to be confused with knowledge. The difference is like training contra education.

cheers

Re: 2008/12/13/twitblogs/

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:12:47 -0000

There's something about twittericiousness that's just plain appealing. A while back I was working with a concept I call "42 words" (Any Douglas Adams fans out there? Yaa, /that/ 42.) ... like writing headlines improves one's basic writing ability, writing to 140 has a good effect on getting to the point.
So this is something worth checking.

p.s.1: http://tweetworks.com/
p.s.2 @technosailor's TwitPitch plugin isn't working just now, but again it's in the same functional family
p.s.3 I went to "Upload Image"; mebbe you can indicate that it's Gravatar.

Re: Wear Your Rockstar Status With Pride

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:18:41 -0000

Just curious, Chris, you write "DIY just as the web should be" but ... no transparency? I mean, you more than anyone else knows the power of such social gestures / trops ... but who's doing the selecting?

I was one of the early crowd who pointed out how digg distorts the field even when it isn't gamed; those who get attention are given attention which brings attention which justifies more attention. You know what I mean.

Re: What I Told the Higher Ed Conference People

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:21:08 -0000

Rahm Emanual will serve Obama well; the new President can maintain his equanimity as Rahm wields his sharp elbows.
My point? Not everybody can hold the same position.

In an age of 24/7 marketing, what can we possibly understand about education?
IIRC it was in Phaedrus that Plato portrays Socrates using his method to bring a slave boy to an understanding of basic geometry. No lecture ... no pointed instructions ... edu.care (if I recall my etymology).

I encouraged my kidz to explore their interests ... to learn by doing ... to learn from failure. 4 of 5 are professionals (#2 is MD!!) and all are pursuing fields they find rewarding.

To be brutally frank, "Return On Influence" means always being mercenary ... always playing ulterior motives ... always manoevering for gain.
The harm? It comes to seem normal.
Ramifications? Civility becomes cost benefit analysis ... not justice. Perhaps generosity. Most likely pity.

There's a world of difference between education and training.

Re: Twine wants to collect your sh*t

bentrem — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:19:34 -0000

It wasn't perfect. It ended with a gunshot.
+5

I'll repeat my comment: Can haz more Candice?!

Re: Twitter does have track (Scripting News)

bentrem — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:21:48 -0000

Most/all I find on the topic relates to Comet e.g. "Amazon EC2 virtual servers; a single virtual machine was used as the Cometd server". Out of my depth here so wondering how FF deployed this.

Long shot: Orbited.org - "Orbited is a comet daemon that works on many platforms for many languages. It supports comet style long-polling as well as Iframe streaming. It also has a clear scaling path." Comment by Michael Carter (August 8, 2007) in Ajaxian.com

Addendum: My spidering has run out of steam on this: "FriendFeed become the latest site to enable real-time updates using the long-polling variant of Comet. The real-time Web was something of a theme at this year’s FOWA, with talks on message queues, XMPP and scaling Comet at Meebo." - SimonWillison . net 16th October 2008

Re: Twitter does have track (Scripting News)

dave — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:32:57 -0000

As soon as they come out with the API for that I'm going to be trying to code against it.

Re: Twitter does have track (Scripting News)

bentrem — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:31:23 -0000

Long-polling came up in context of FriendFeed's "Real-time". That seems to me a very elegant technique.

Re: Mistakes Were Made And How To Handle Whatever Comes Up

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:16:40 -0000

Interesting that psychopaths succeed (It's actually an adaptive "pathology". They are with us generation after generation.) with precisely that sort of (cold-blooded) pragmatism.

But yes, what might seem framed a certain way to be spiritual virtues are actually foundational to good craft.
I'll suggest that 90% of Sun Tzu is nothing more than that. (What came to mind just now was the warning on hair-dryers, "Do not use in bath or shower." heh)

Re: Mistakes Were Made And How To Handle Whatever Comes Up

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:49:33 -0000

In a funny sorta way "The Knack: How Street Smart Entrepreneurs learn to Handle Whatever Comes up" kinda sums up what I took from Sun Tzu. It occurred to me at some point that pret'near everything he talked about was just to set the stage so you can cope when the wheels fall off, when things go pear-shaped, when the existential shit hits the paradigmatic fan.

Agility ... lithe development ... actual responsiveness rather than spin and sophistry. I mean, really, what separates the sheep from the fish better than the attitude that lets us plunge into what ever happens to be in front of us?

cheers!
--bentrem

Re: When More - Equals Less Usable Information

changeforge — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:35:27 -0000

Ben, all I can say is wow. I would love to start a conversation with you on "participatory deliberation", but alas I would be guessing. Ken Allan, where are you?

However, on your comment about information within the nooks and crannies being strange attractors, you might just be on to something.

I was watching a news/ op-ed piece on ABC last night, basically talking about how bloated and unnecessary our government regulations have become - really a roadblock to the common person.

However, one illustration used was how there was a natural and instinctual movement of things without having the need of rules or a leader - something along the lines of 'mutual benefit'.

As an example, think of skaters on an ice skating rink, a flock of birds, or a school of fish. All move in similar directions because it benefits them. There is no need for spoken rules, or leadership; all have a common interest in perpetuating the event. Now liken this to the theory of free markets.

Back to your comment, I cannot help but wonder if certain information types indeed 'find there way together".

I used to be of the opinion that information was much like a key to a door; once unlocked, the secret revealed. However, now I subscribe more to a belief that information is all around us, but it is our lack of perception that prohibits us from seeing it.

In listening to Chuck Missler, he indicated science has found that infinite regress is not possible; there is a state in which we have found things are as finite as they may become. However, I am no expert in this area, but I think I at least understand some of your assertion in this area ;-)

Welcome to ChangeForge... Ben

Re: When More - Equals Less Usable Information

Ben Tremblay — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:37:52 -0000

"usable information remains tucked away in small nooks and crannies" ... I have to wonder if you realize how right you are!

After untold years beavering away at every aspect of ontology/taxonomy/cognition I threw my hands up. But reading a text on AI allowed me ?what? a notion: what if the thingies that reside in those nooks and crannies behave as, well, as "strange attractors". If we keep fractals in mind, we realize that zooming in on any thingie won't yield clarity ... it's an infinite regress ... at best we'll find something like a constellation, at worst a mass of fuzz. (Like Julia sets, yes? *grin*)

That's what allowed me to couple Jurgen Habermas' "discourse ethics" and John Willinsky's work on OpenAccess to derive a design for "participatory deliberation" ... dialectical analysis on utterances, verbal gestures. *beam*

--bentrem

Re: The Beauty of Pirate Ships

Ben Tremblay — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:00:29 -0000

Just a little refinement ... mebbe just a quibble. Non-linear dynamics, yaa? When a dynamically balanced system is perturbed beyond it limits it goes through changes that are unpredictable. I mean literally so ... how it's going to reconfigure itself can't be gauged by the initial conditions. Yaa, I mean fractals. So: "This isn’t about chaos. It’s not about throwing everything away. It’s about knowing which parts are vital to moving through the waters, versus the pieces we keep around because that’s what we always did." To be strict, that's precisely about chaos. The situation is information rich, not entropic ... so there are chunks and bits and pieces that are very much worth grappling on to in order to "move through the water". Thing that makes it tricky is that big slabs may be relatively worthless while small pieces may play key roles as out-liers.
It's all about feed-back/feed-forward! *grin*

--bentrem