OPENSOURCE LONDON

Media-defender hacking teenager...interesting story

Click here if you want learn about the company getting hacked by a teenager during his summer...

Does Facebook addiction make you "feel" lonelier?

Having survived the natural dangers of hunter/gather, the intellectual difficulties of tribal, the exploitation and world wars of hierarchical. We find ourselves amidst the the network society. Could the connectivity of the 21st century actually harbor a hidden social danger? could it actually be a paradise lost?

On reading Talebs "fooled by randomness" page 65, I may have found a connnection between his ideas on exposure to the volatility of markets, noise and information and the emotional effects exposure to a social networks such as facebook might have on individual psychology. Taleb argues that the closer you get to perfect information, noise increases more than proportionately then signal. He outlines the idea that the narrower the time scale of observation the lower the probability of success.

Talebs optimistic example also emphasises the idea that negative feelings are amplified(more-so than the positive) when there is a loss. If we now flip this optimistic example over to Facebook replacing the "payoff" with attention and "loss" with (no activity or lower attention to the user) an interesting picture of perceived loneliness emerges. Could it be that the send/receive button email addiction has evolved into a monster that encompass our entire social sphere? by constantly pressing the "pay me some attention" button we are digging an emotional hole for ourselves, diluting our social "Ribena" more than we need too? Just as a watched pot never boils, does a watched social network creates anxiety, attention deficit and emotional longing. This raises some interesting questions. Firstly, How does this affect our outer social activity? does it enhance it or reduce it? Secondly, do we become more confident or less confident as individuals in actual social interaction from prolonged exposure to Social networks? If anyone knows of any thinking around this it would be great hear what you think/know/disagree with. I don't really check my Facebook that often....I think I'll keep it that way or even less from now on.

If you are addicted to clicking the email/facebook button - Here's some understanding from the guys at mind hacks http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2006/09/why_email_is_addicti.html

I guess loneliness is relative to the opportunity you have to prove how popular or unpopular you are. thus like the concept of ignorance being learned. Can it be that we also learn to be lonely?

Cymatics and the generation of hydrogen!!

Once again I think I am mad as a hatter: I have a crux with the generation of hydrogen and the use of hydrogen in vehicles. I know what you are going to say..."your bonkers! Why do you care about this stuff?". For some reason as a younger man I was obsessed and I mean obsessed with using hydrogen as a means of fuel. This was about 7 or 8 years ago and the shelves of bookstores carried probably about two titles on the subject of "peak oil" and "hydrogen energy". So fast forwards to the present day and the dream of hydrogen as a clean fuel is being marred by many issues, two in particular. Firstly is the extracting hydrogen from gas and the second is using hydrogen in a car the same way you would use petrol. Which to me is very dumb indeed.

Firstly, I was reading an article about a top bio-chemist. obviously on the payroll of some energy company talking about the fact that the most efficient way to extract hydrogen is from gas. I don't mean to point this out to the guy. But isn't that like the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. What's the point of taking hydrogen from natural gas? I mean its smacks of cronyism to me. BIG TIME. So this brings me onto my second crux which is a direct result of the first point. Creating hydrogen en masse makes it a danger to society, hard to move, store, dangerous in cars, ect ect. But we all know many probelms require many solutions and thats the reason companies stay in business. THE USE OF A FUEL TANK seems to be very very combustion engine and shows a lack of innovation.

This idea is in no way developed, it is an idea. Thats all. So I was watching a video on youtube about the effects of sound on matter, Cymatics. You can watch some great movies about it here. Resonance it seems is a wonderful way to effect the state of matter. Different frequencies can excite the state of sand, water. So I got to thinking....If resonance can break a wine glass, why can it break a water molecule. A google search later and it turns out that John Kanzius has invented a way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen with a radio frequency.

Hmmm....I mean how much energy does a radio frequency use? I will hazard a guess that it is a lot less than the extraction natural gas. Assuming this information is true(it could be false). Doesn't the concept of a fuel tank seem a little wierd? Why not just have a tank of water and split it out when neccesary, burn it and then re-use the water again? I don' know maybe I am being an idealist again! Problems are created so that they can be solved. I mean surely we have the technology to do this...I mean surely!

KICK PUSH

Touch interfaces taking over....Just released - preview pics of a game in development on the IPhone. No doubt gonna push the sakting game to the next level....Personally I think this song already does this.

Mac book air makes me remember way back about when I was a kid...

And I got this when it was 2nd hand and totally out of date.....Crazy ass prices for anyone who remembers the problems syntax error or boot error after putting in a tape and playing it into the computer...Wow, imagine what our generation could have done if we had mac book air for a toy.....Next generation will probably be the most creative, destructive or passive ever.......Funny ad! reminds me of tha quote " run from the old, religiously embrace the new and then run from the old again"

What ever happened to Commodore?

This is sick, awesome!

I always wondered what would happen if I placed a magnet onto a battery!!!

Have we seen this face before?

When I was growing up I was obsessed with anything that would enable me to live in the near future. Looking back the future looked amazing. Now we are the future I realise that it is amazing and I am pretty much psyched to wake up everyday safe in the knowledge I am in the future. We may not have the classic promise of nikey power laces - Another part of my future past is here tho and I would like to first point out the movie that made this product the "in demand" imagination item for about a year of my life. So the movie was the first thing that caught my imagination, The wizard, Starring Fred savage of the wonder years. It was sadly very dated - However at the time it was possibly the ultimate.

So the movie helped to raise our youthful awareness to the "POWER GLOVE", Yes far from being a simple control the power glove enabled anyone with a love of gaming to take control - This is summed up here in this advert - I can remember being in awe of the glove, like a gauntlet, only digitized.

Well, my point being that the Wii, is exactly the same concept, only this time around they actually created games you could use the power glove for.... A CALL TO NINTENDO..... PLEASE RE-RELEASE A Wii compatible version of the power glove. Obviously, without the hundred or so buttons that totally confused even the smartest of people.......I could imagine lots of interesting games for this application... Just an idea.

Oh I wasn't blogging because I was conducting an anti Debit card experiment - which provided me with an interesing insight into post 1980's banking. Which I will also blog about here. SO for the near future - I am back again!!!!

I twitter therefore I am! Comfirm my existence please!

Twittering it seems is the new en vogue tech thing to be doing. Microblogging in a nutshell is very addictive. I think it is great. I have had a couple of conversations with other uses and it seems to me that twittr has more than just social blogging applications. The title of this post I think is quite indicative of the twitters appeal. It lets people know that they, themselves, exist! It also has a deeper voyueristic meaning akin to the Austers Anti - detective perspective - i.e in the continuous prose of life we are able to digitally connect without connecting! Perhaps someone is watching over you, perhaps not. But the fact someone could be is enough. I feel twitter enables anonomous people in anonomous cities to feel connected to loose ties at a distance. It is non commitive communication. A badge on a mobile sleeve! Either way I like it and think about Twittr as a  way to track my own progress thorugh life, I mean in a couple of years of constant twittering I will be able to take a look at the details of my life, not just through blogging but through biography of the mundane self. I don't know if this is how other people feel about it. I have noticed that people either approach it as a 1st person external or internal dialogue and others use it to post information about things they want to promote. I think the internal dialogue of twittr is amazing.Short term projection self is great. The longer you do it the more transparent your thought processes, weakness. Which is perfect for the individual looking at the long term developement of self! Hence It would be ideal for tracking individual behaviour - i.e mentall illness, Eating disorders ect ect. It could enable us to identify patterns in our own lives that we would like to enhance or reduce. Obviously this information wouldn't be public, but conceptually it could work. Also Twittr could be used as a individual broadcast scheduling service perhaps for times of medication - most specifically diabetes shots or tablet schedules.

Facebook - The movie of my life!

I have noticed that all of a sudden alot of people have been adding me to their facebook account. I have been intrigued to find people I never thought I would ever see again living out their happy lifestyles. I think the attraction of Facebook for me is that it feels like it I am able to write and watch the movie of my own life via triggering suprise or forgetten memories. I have read loads of blogs pontificating about the social implications and psychology of loose ties some of which I agree with with some of which I don't. I am a great believer in the theory behind social networks. So I like this side of it. Is it killing of Myspace? Only time will tell. I like the apple/microsoft debate although I think the analogy is an easily repeated archetype. the semantics

I am really bad at keeping in contact and I never thought I would say it but I am really happy to be on face book. I have never been the "keep in touch" buddy. I was and still am the worst pen friend around. I just have an aversion to buying stamps, I don't understand it either.

My girlfriend likes Face book because it is less pretentious than Myspace and also the fact that it feels like she is communicating in a social sphere. Everything and everyone is close to hand and in reach. I am sure other people will agree and then disagree and then probably agree again.

But the trick is in the details. My favourite part is the how you know each other. Cracks me up when someone says I was their elf bitch or we studied glow worms together. I prefer Facebook, the GUI is cleaner and more intuitive than Myspace. Myspace is good for music and adding personality. Ultimately It doesn't have the transparency that Facebook does. I would say that myspace had better sort its act out other wise it could be hitting the bricks! Here to the stalkbook!!!

Flickr vision - addictive world in action

http://flickrvision.com/

Need I say more! nope! Doh! opps!

Found and shared from www.V-ir-us.com

Psychometric shopping(psyopping) and the end of the world!

Its stands as a natural development in the world of online shopping and gifting. I have been looking at a couple of applications of Psychometric based decision making has been applied and it appears that it is currently being used by the Ministry of defense army recruitment website www.armyjobs.mod.uk and the Gift buying website Imagini.net.

I think this type of shopping/decision making is really powerful. Not really for the individual buying for themself, but for the individual buying for someone else. I am the typical user of this type of thing. I am rubbish when it comes to buying gifts. I either think of the perfect present to late or I buy a present I would want for the person. Either way is not a good thing. I have been on the site and to be fair it wasn't that accurate. However I am sure that if the "engine" is dynamic, these sytems can refine themselves through "experience". I guess my sci fi brain imagines and Artifical Intelligence" you know HAL from 2001. Choosing gifts for young and old. It typifies the direction of our planet when in 2050, the history of AI will report that True AI was confirmed when The shopping bot was able to tell which type of vase someones mother in-law would prefer. But these systems are probably going to become a lot more pervasive, primarily because most people are indecisive and/or lazy. I know which one I am. I really liked this technology. Not only because at the end they also offer a deeper look in the sould of the shopper. Shallow as it may be!!!Materialism rules and shopping is the religion of capitalism. The "bargain" responsible for the birth of the death of Humanity! here. The image in the picture is linked to emergence. Psychological test if you didn't see the axe murderer then you are okay!!!! : )

I also made a gift page.....so check it out.....no seriously check it out here

I would also check out the army jobs website. Spookily correct here

Interaction Design -

I recently attended a show at the design museum that I found extraordinary. It was for the Italian designer Luigi Colani. I was amazed first and foremost by the two motor bikes in a glass case outside the show. They looked liked something straight out of Neo TOKYO and Akira. The whole show was amazing - I highly recommed it if you get the chance - I picked up a book whilst I was in the museum bookshop called Designing interactions, which at first glance was a heavy hitting manual of interactive design strategy, which we all love. This book has enabled me to look at a fundamental modern device, the "QWERTY" keyboard, in a different way. Startlingly, the design basis for the keyboard, which us billions use in our everyday communication was designed in order to enable "salesmen" to rapidly type out "TYPEWRITER" . Essentially the fundamental communication device for the digital age was conceived not to help us, but to help them! We'll I could argue it worked - what a great idea, sales went throught the roof! - but the fact is, the humble keyboard has not been changed for over 100 years - we need a rethink. I mean there must be a better/funner/more excitinger way to get written info from brain to net. I have discovered an strong contender for the future - the first is this bad boy, the optimus maximus - admittedly it doesn't reinvent the whell, just adds another three, but it makes the keyboard more dynamic and exciting. I The internet and computers are not going away, so perhaps someone/somewhere should rethink the Qwerty keyboard - I mean its proven that 1 hand works 20x's harder than the other. I am sure that in a few years the keyboard will be a distant memory - I mean why would you type when you can use brain waves - Now the below would be awesome.    

Easy Correlation

Just been messing around with a great site called Nation master. Similar in style to the CIA Factbook. This site lets you look at the statistics on an amazing array of subjects over pretty much any nation. But the sick thing about this site is that it lets you perfrom correlations on pretty much anything. It lets you go past the basic to really get to the things in a society. Plastic surgery against gun crime anything you can think off you can correllate it here. A good one is plastic surgery against size of the media?

Heres oil consumption against hapiness

If you are into understand charts and like to draw unique insight. I would probably say this is the site for you. Hours and hours of fun making random connections some are funny some sad and some just plain ugly.

Enjoy coming to you own conculsions