Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Oh great... the comment spammers have found LJ.

...but we might yet build.

Apple's famous Knowledge Navigator video can be found online (needs QuickTime), and there's also a piece by Jon Udell on it and where we are today. For a 1988 look at an information-centric future it's surprisingly accurate, and we could acually build most of the elements in the video with current web technologies on a - though we're still a long way from its natural language interface!

This is one of the clearest examples of the visionary thinking from so many different people and companies that inspired me to work in IT. Others included reading Ted Nelson's Dream Machines at an early age, and Scientific American's 1992 special edition on the future of computing. I still come across ideas that inspire me, like Microsoft's Forum 2000 scenario videos - especially the "Steve Masters" distributed computing piece.

Perhaps we do still have it in us to change the world.

There's a confirmed date for the Firefly DVD set. And if you can't wait till December, here are some lovely hi-res pictures of the Serenity.

...the Native Hipsters classic "There Goes Concorde Again".

(I see it has also been appropriately re-released this week!)

...or in this case, heard.

Last week in an otherwise excellent greek restaurant on 7th Avenue in New York, a few blocks up from Times Square, the background music playing was Vangelis' excellent Bladerunner soundtrack...

...on traditional greek instruments.

...or at least a paper version. Just click to download and fold...