Tales from the Singularity

Tales from the Singularity An era of surprises. Future shock therapy. tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894 2006-08-17T13:24:59Z Blogger

This is an Atom formatted XML site feed. It is intended to be viewed in a Newsreader or syndicated to another site. Please visit the Blogger Help for more info.

true Phil Wolff 2005-03-07T11:26:00-08:00 2005-03-07T19:29:52Z 2005-03-07T19:29:52Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-111022379289805704 Google Buys Segway Motors

In a surprise move, Google acquired the privately held Segway Motors Corporation. "We want to search everywhere, and the Segway family of scooters, bicycles, motorcycles, and cars can take us there." Now that they're built in with cameras, microphones, GPS, and Internet connections, we have really thorough mappings of the urban landscape. And lots of garages."

false Phil Wolff 2005-02-23T21:53:00-08:00 2005-02-24T05:57:36Z 2005-02-24T05:57:36Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-110922465666940928 2028: Ginger Surprise

Bill Gates is still with us despite his untimely demise. Somewhere in the 900 million lines of code that make up Microsoft Windows was the buried "Happy Birthday, Ginger" greeting card. Presumably left for his grandaughter, Ginger, it popped up a greeting on every copy of Windows this year on April 28th.

false Phil Wolff 2004-12-26T17:38:07-08:00 2004-12-27T03:23:07Z 2004-12-27T03:23:07Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-110411778777080631 Tsunami wipes out the Oscars

Last week's tsunami took out everything within two miles of the coast from Long Beach to Vancouver. There's nothing like a 10.5 Richter to send that Godzilla sized wave crashing through the homes of 5 million Left Coasters. We all thought an earthquake would push California into the sea, but instead the Pacific rose to cover us. Some of the aftermath: 950,000 dead. The missing persons count is

false Phil Wolff 2004-10-18T15:25:05-07:00 2004-11-20T10:27:05Z 2004-10-18T22:30:38Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109813863866696369 Dinosaur hangover?

Drunken brontosauri are a spectacle to behold. Cecil and Daphne at the San Diego Zoo got into some fermented grain last night. Disoriented but seemed to have fun after a while. Nobody hurt.

false Phil Wolff 2004-10-07T13:21:08-07:00 2004-10-07T20:32:08Z 2004-10-07T20:32:08Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109718112809224625 2020 Presidential Debate Rules

Can you believe the new presidential debate rules? How can they expect anyone to argue for 30 minutes without using their Google implants? Without access to the Presidential Wiki on Elections? Arm wrestling or a paintball duel would be more informative.

false Phil Wolff 2004-09-28T09:01:01-07:00 2004-09-28T16:27:01Z 2004-09-28T16:22:14Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109638853403531328 Not your father's Digital Hollywood

Moving my atoms up the 405 to Santa Monica to the Fractal Hollywood conference. There's something about putting my favorite virtual actors together in a buddy movie that reminds me of online gaming when I was a kid. My team vs. your team. Real time. Over distance. Yelling into headsets. It's a team thing. The talent behind the vactors is the new discipline, the choreographers making sure the

false Phil Wolff 2004-09-15T14:03:28-07:00 2004-09-15T21:06:28Z 2004-09-15T21:03:20Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109528220063241521 The GOP Pill puts me in a Red State

Thank you, peer pressure. I took Bayer Xamplax™ for the first time last night. The "Republican Pill." I woke up with a slight headache, cured by coffee. I don't feel much different but I can listen to Rush on the radio without the urgent need to change the channel or gag. I don't understand all the code words, yet. I seem to be making many small changes in my media consumption, my shopping,

false Phil Wolff 2004-09-14T18:25:13-07:00 2004-09-15T03:31:13Z 2004-09-15T03:31:13Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109521907313680853 My liver's weblog

It's astonishing to me the traffic going to my liver's weblog. Post-op, I left the NanoMed™ sensors turned on. I routed the feed through my Blogger account, so my blog is automatically updated every ten minutes. Now this is sorta useful to my doctor and my KaiserWebMD™ monitor. But the blog is drawing all sorts of attention. 20 thousand visitors last month. And comments. And betting. I am a

false Phil Wolff 2004-09-09T09:22:31-07:00 2004-09-09T16:44:31Z 2004-09-09T16:44:31Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109474827130205925 Microsoft Full Body 4, Service Pack 3

I downloaded the latest service pack from Microsoft. Automatically. First day. I shoulda known better. I'm supposed to have better immunity from Capistrano Wren Flu, but I came down with a cold and I'm sore all over. No fever, though. My moods are running hot and cold, although when I'm calm I'm rock solid. After this download I'm running spell checkers constantly. Why? Because I'm now mildly

false Phil Wolff 2004-09-07T23:45:00-07:00 2004-09-08T07:00:00Z 2004-09-08T07:00:00Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109462680077866483 Music, music, music.

I wanted to be musical. I saw all these other people who could rock at the drop of a hat. Or play a blues riff in a baroque style. It was like they could think in this language I couldn't follow or see in colors I couldn't see. First, a little gene therapy to amp my music cognitive capacity. Bonus: I'm now better in math and spacial visualization. I follow up with the Juilliard Open Source

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-30T04:13:42-07:00 2004-08-28T17:02:42Z 2004-08-28T16:42:47Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109371136770125134 Burning Books

I'm sitting by the fireplace drinking a little Ten Buck Chuck, tossing another book on the flames. Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen. I've been putting it off but, between the heating bills and and my Google implant, I just don't need them any more. UNIX in a Nutshell. That and it frees up space for the living wallpaper from Home Depot. Adam Roberts' Salt. I did the usual, hiring a scrawny

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-27T21:00:06-07:00 2004-08-28T04:09:06Z 2004-08-28T04:09:06Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109366614636505436 2012 Olympics: Augmented Athletes in Exhibition Sports

Did you see weight lifter do three tons? The 60 meter long jump? I still love the "natural" categories but the tweaked atheletes are pretty amazing. The new Nike implants are clearly an edge in basketball, and the Amlin reaction time boosters have changed fencing and the other martial arts.

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-23T04:11:27-07:00 2004-08-22T23:15:27Z 2004-08-22T23:15:27Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109321652798418830 New flute on eBay

Woh, built for 12 fingers (4 thumbs). Downloaded the upgrade yesterday and they're coming in nicely, just mild itchiness. Time for some glove shopping.

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-22T15:48:40-07:00 2004-08-22T23:00:40Z 2004-08-22T23:00:40Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109321564085619785 Another Internet found, connected.

A spokesman said "On Tuesday we discovered a whole other Internet with 298 million users. It's been running for 18 years. It works the same as far as users are concerned. But the specs for everything from IP addresses to the ways browsers work to domain name systems evolved independently from the main Internet." It apparently originated in Cuba to support biotech researchers, and spread worldwide,

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-17T04:59:28-07:00 2004-08-17T12:05:28Z 2004-08-17T12:05:28Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109274432821312507 I took the Handsome pill today.

"Aargh! What did you do? Now you have a face only a mother could love." I'm fine with that.

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-17T04:48:55-07:00 2004-08-17T11:55:55Z 2004-08-17T11:55:55Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109274375507745810 My last date.

"Why won't you open up to me? I need to know how you feel. About me. About us." So I showed her my source code. "I can't believe you're so shallow and so in need of refactoring at the same time. Look, get back to me when you've cleaned up all this stuff from previous relationships. And haven't you ever heard of an abstraction? Let me give you the private IM of a CMM7 developer in Cairo." Somehow

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-17T04:39:39-07:00 2004-08-17T12:06:39Z 2004-08-17T11:47:45Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109274326557050235 Self Improvement, Open Source Style

When I upload my mind, what's my licence? Am I covered under a Creative Commons license? Versions of myself may wind up enslaved, part of someone's machine. Others may be changed so much as to be unrecognizable. The scariest part is being exposed to ongoing tweaks to my senses, my awareness, my cognition, my dreams. By strangers. Without notice. After all, one man's flair is another's flaw. Is all

false Phil Wolff 2004-08-17T04:32:45-07:00 2004-08-17T11:39:45Z 2004-08-17T11:39:45Z tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980894.post-109274278556425137 Has anyone seen my backup?

There must be a fresher version of me floating around somewhere. I can't be the latest release of Phil; too many bugs, design defects, and scope drift for any one person. Searching for my name shows lots of my exhaust. Posts, cites, sites. Also breadcrumbs to a dozen other people named Phil Wolff. None of them me.

false