Looking back from the past

I've allways thought it would be great if you could physically send a movie clip, birthday present or simple letter by post - specifying the exact date on which the parcel should be delivered. (say 20 years time)

To a lot of folks this is gonna be old news, but there's a website that facilitates this process for post-dated email. The website is called "Future Me", and the idea is that you write an email to yourself, only to be delivered on a date as chosen by you.

Fascinating!

What would you write to yourself...knowing that you'll probably be a completely different person in 10 years time?

I think I'll start by listing my short and longterm goals, as well as a few of my stone-clad principles. Then I'll give a snapshot of my life at this point in time - think that'll be amusing reading. Then I'm gonna look into my crystal ball and make a couple of wild predictions (like the "Internet" changing to "GoogleNet").

If my email address survives for 5 years - I'm going to be completely gobsmacked by this unexpected email...that's if I'm not filtered out as SPAM!~[ Humour me...

Waking up with Africa...

Click here if you are using a MAC. You'll need to have realplayer installed to view this content.




It's quite nice to view this in full-screen mode (play around with your realplayer). The best time to "tune-in" would be early in the mornings, Africa time. National Geographic are the guys facilitating this wildcam.

This pond is situated in Botswana and the area looks a wee bit dry. They've hired someone to operate the camera all day long. I think this concept has a lot of potential - especially once the end-user has the option of taking full controll of the camera!

Google Earth

For those of you who haven't played around with Google Earth - brief intro:

Google Earth is software that allows you to view sattelite images of the earth. You can drag the earth around, zoom in/out, change your angle of view and measure distances. Non-free versions have added features such as GPS.

What is really cool is the different layers that you can experiment with. To illustrate: If you select the "Borders" layer, you'll see all the country borders in yellow.

What I'm raving about is the newest additions: National Geographic Layers. This basically links specific spots on earth to specific nature articles and images. You also get access to high-resolution arial images of interesting natural phenomenon, and the coolest part: Live-wildcams situated in Africa, South America etc can be easily located and viewed.

There are also "overlays" available of natural disasters such as hurricane katrina. BTW - an interesting blog on what's going on in the gulf.

It's a real pity this kinda stuff wasn't around when I was at school. This should take geography to a completely new level. Imagine using Google Earth in 20 years time...I reckon you'll be able to view the whole earth in realtime...and this will in all likelihood not be restricted to terra firma only!(footprints)

What other applications for this technology do you envisage?

Redundancy in nature?

Nature is mindblowing! Everything is so extremely complex, and yet perfect. There are no mistakes...or are there?

I have been hard-pressed to find elements in nature that are completely redundant. (just a thought that crept into my mind) My list is short, but this one has been bugging me for a long time:

Why do men have nipples?

The link takes you to a book I saw on Amazon - Looks like a worthy read. Do you know of any other perceived redundancies in nature? Feel free to enlighten me...

Wanted - Creative Genius

Pondering on my blog's success, or the lack thereof, has led me to believe that hiring a creative genius should propel my blog into the upper echelons of the blogosphere!

The equation is actually quite simple: The blogosphere can be likened to a 400 000 ha farm. This farm stretches across various vegetative regions and is inhabited by millions of sheep.

These sheep know when they've found a good piece of grass, and the herd will usually follow the initial explorers onto the lush patches - gobbling up all the grass that they so cherish.

Luckily this will ensure the survival of the "good-tasting" grass, since its seeds will be returned to the earth accompanied by oodles of growth incentive. The bad tasting grass doesn't get eaten, but it also doesn't propagate.

Creativity is the man-made "manure" that results in "sweet-as" patches...and it is exactly this that we should be rolling in like pot-belly pigs! How do pigs create this lovely environment?

By not holding back!

We have to be prepared to go out on a limb if we want to roll in our own creative efforts. Holding back - for whatsoever reason - will only result in constipation.

Let her rip!

[this equation is riddled with faults, contradictions and inacuracies. The blogger and/or any related parties daren't take any responsibility for injuries, negativity, bowel-related abberations or insomnia that could be in any way construed as being attributed to the reading of this literature]

My first e-ncentive!

It's my blog's 3rd birthday today! (I count like they do with dogs)

A few interesting stats of what my 3day old blog has achieved:

• It's hauled in $0.40 through ad-revenue


• At this rate I'll be a millionaire by the time I'm 10000 years old


• Next year this time I should have about $50, which in SA terms equates to about 6 cases of beer! (Nifty)


• My 'site-counter' tells me I can expect about 1500 page views per month


• People from allmost every continent have viewed my humble blog (the internet hasn't really caught on in antartica yet)


• I've published 5 blog entries...which means that by the time I'm a millionaire I'll have published about 520000 posts! (serious carpal tunnel syndrome candidate)

I'm really enjoying this! Don't get me wrong - It's not about the money or the fame that I've become privy to recently - but rather a sense of having fun and seeing how the engine of a well-oiled machine works.

Aint life grand...

Nothing is free!

I wouldn't like to dishearten any would-be bloggers just waiting to make their fortunes through peer-production...but nothing in life is free!

David Gibbons has an interesting entry in his blog regarding the sweat equity that is needed to establish yourself in the Blogging market.

This same principle holds true for the whole of the peer-production system:
What you get out depends on what you put in!

This has sent me thinking. What happens if everyone has a blog? Don't we run a great risk of becoming completely anonymous - lost between millions and millions of blogs!!

My only answer to that is that we must establish a blogging culture whereby we try to link to as many interesting sites and blogs as possible, and continuously explore links provided by other sites. If we become content to sit in our own little sandboxes we will soon dissapear into obscurity.

Let me know what you think!

The concept of peer-production!

How can we make money by pursuing our passions?

The internet serves as a nice means for passionate people to specialize in what they love and make money doing it!

A few examples should illustrate this view:

• If I'm passionate about my blog, specialize in Artificial Intelligence, and get a lot of people to visit my site - I own a soapbox! If I now tell the people visiting my site that my favourite book is GEB - The Eternal Golden Braid, there might just be a few patrons who click on the link and buy it. Amazon will reward me with approximately $2 for every purchase!


• One of my links on the right hand side of this page points to iStockPhoto. This is a site that allows people who love photography to share their photo's with the world. If someone likes a photo, they buy it for about $3, and the photographer gets $1 for the sale. If you just happen to like photography - click on that link and sign up for free...I'll receive $5!


• Soon you'll be seeing google ads on my site! If anyone simply clicks on one of these adds I'll be earning money! (so make a habit of doing so!->)

This concept basically resolves to nodes on the internet (people) becoming stronger and stronger by being referenced by more and more sites (v.v). You become a node by starting to participate in an online community of your choice (your passion). This is called peer-production, and you'll find a nice link in my bookmark list!

Is it just me, or is this exciting stuff!!

China in all its glory

I wanna import Powerballs to South Africa!

The best price that I can get from legit manufacturers is around $7 per unit. This sounded great until I came across this trading website, Alibaba! You type in any phrase, and it produces all the possible manufacturers.

So I locate these guys in China and give them a ping. Guess what they want per unit...$1.50!!! At first I was ecstatic! This will help me become a millionaire before I'm 26.

Heck, wait a second. How can these guys make it so cheaply. I wonder if they're paying any patent royalties...

Turns out they don't! That means that if I import their products and distribute it in SA, I'm liable for IP theft.

The funniest thing was the amuzing english the Chinese contact used. I asked him how much it would cost to send me some samples. He replied with:
"you send me sample cost $40"

Man these guys are scary.

Small Beginnings

Hello World!

I don't know if I'm interesting, provocative, meaningful, extravagant, obese, idiotic, politically correct or downright silly! You be the judge.

I'm gonna be posting my thoughts on the world, my life and all that I find interesting and news-worthy.

Love me or hate me! And feel free to let me know.